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A data room for private capital raises and sales. It has the most points on the three investor checks together and is the only one of the twelve with a 2 on the investor pipeline. It is third overall, as its pricing is not final, so no price is shown here, and it holds no security certificate yet.
Valicon's pages are written around one job: showing a raise or a sale from the investor side.
Upload a deck and financials and Valicon drafts the room. Access is gated per tab, file or block, and the NDA gate and watermark are on by default.
Its feature list describes page-flips, dwell and re-opens per investor, and it lists a commit and intent score. The investor CRM works by stage.
A cohort benchmark is among the signals it lists, and it lists roll-up analytics across your deals. No provider shows a room against other customers' rooms.
Ansarada comes first on the checks. The other eleven follow in the order the checks give, equal points alphabetically.
10 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
| Provider | Best for | Pricing | Security | Prices | Free start | Engagement | Pipeline | Benchmarks | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01AnsaradaBest pick | Teams that want to prepare a room first and see how engaged each bidder is | Online quote by data size; free to prepare, payment at go-live or after 90 days | 8/12 | ||||||
| 02Peony | Small deal teams that want printed prices, a free first room and an engagement score | From $0 (50 documents) to $64 per admin per month billed annually; Enterprise on quote | 8/12 | ||||||
| 03Valicon | Raises and sales where you want to see which investors are reading and who is close | Not final, so no price is shown here; a first data room with no card | 7/12 | ||||||
| 04Datasite | Large M&A processes with many bidders, where AI tools and round-the-clock support matter | No price published; set for each transaction, 90 days free to start a project | 6/12 | ||||||
| 05Box | Companies that already run on Box and want a room without a second supplier | From €13.50 per user per month on the annual toggle (€18 otherwise), minimum three users | 5/12 | ||||||
| 06Ellty | Teams that want page-level analytics and a printed price for a short process | From €35 per month on the yearly toggle; 14-day trial of Data Room Plus | 5/12 | ||||||
| 07iDeals | Deals that need a long certificate list and AI redaction, with price on request | Core, Premier and Enterprise plans priced on data used; no figures printed | 5/12 | ||||||
| 08Intralinks | Large processes and fund work that run inside the wider SS&C group | No price published; contact sales | 5/12 | ||||||
| 09ShareVault | Deals that want scheduled activity reports and a choice of hosting region | Express, Pro and Enterprise tiers by GB and project length; no figures printed | 5/12 | ||||||
| 10DealRoom | Buy-side teams that manage the whole deal pipeline and the room in one place | Priced by deal volume with unlimited users and an annual commitment; no figure printed | 4/12 | ||||||
| 11DocullyVDR | Deals that need a particular hosting country and want no AI near the documents | Storage times months with unlimited users; flat-fee and per-page options; no figures | 4/12 | ||||||
| 12Firmex | Teams that want to choose between a one-time project fee and an annual subscription | Single Project fee or annual Subscription by storage; no figures printed | 4/12 |
Meets the checkHalf of a two-point checkNot found on its pagesScore: points of 12, from each provider's own pages, as of 2 November 2026
Equal on 8 points. The higher verified review score decides (Clutch, Trustpilot or G2, five or more reviews; the score, then the count): Ansarada has no profile with five or more reviews; Peony has no profile with five or more reviews.
Every provider was checked on the same six checks; equal points are ordered alphabetically.
The order is the points the six checks give, from each provider's own pages. Every figure on a card is the provider's own.
Teams that want to prepare a room first and see how engaged each bidder is
Run the quote for your data size and ask when the Type II report is due.
Small deal teams that want printed prices, a free first room and an engagement score
Get the audit dates for SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 in writing.
Raises and sales where you want to see which investors are reading and who is close
Open the first room for the reading data and the investor CRM, ask what it will cost, and ask for its security review before a buyer's security team does.
Large M&A processes with many bidders, where AI tools and round-the-clock support matter
The 90 free days may not cover a live room, so get the price for a transaction of your size.
Companies that already run on Box and want a room without a second supplier
Check whether the question-and-answer step of your process fits a folder-based room.
Teams that want page-level analytics and a printed price for a short process
Treat Q&A and security as questions to put to the vendor in writing.
Deals that need a long certificate list and AI redaction, with price on request
The SOC 2 report type and the trial length are not printed, so get both with the first quote.
Large processes and fund work that run inside the wider SS&C group
Ask which SOC 2 report type and period the badge covers.
Deals that want scheduled activity reports and a choice of hosting region
Ask for the SOC 2 report and the exact ISO 27001 version before you sign.
Buy-side teams that manage the whole deal pipeline and the room in one place
Compare the platform price with a stand-alone room before you commit to the workflow.
Deals that need a particular hosting country and want no AI near the documents
Its own audit report, not the host's certificate list, is what a buyer's security team will want.
Teams that want to choose between a one-time project fee and an annual subscription
The project fee or the subscription will be cheaper depending on how long your process runs, so get both quoted.
This page compares twelve virtual data room providers on six checks a buyer can make before a first call, from each provider's own pages read on 2 November 2026. Three checks are about the room (security, prices, starting without a sales call) and three about what it shows you on investors. Ansarada and Peony score highest overall, and Valicon is third and scores highest on the three investor checks.
A data room holds the documents of a sell-side M&A process, a raise or a due diligence review behind permissions, and most providers are built to do that for every kind of deal. If you are a CEO, CFO or owner raising capital or selling a company, the room is also your best view of how investors behave.
Each provider gets 0, 1 or 2 on each of six checks, twelve points at most, and the six checks weigh the same. Valicon scores highest on the three investor checks taken together and is the only one with a 2 on the investor pipeline. On the three room checks alone it scores 2 of 6, as its pricing is not final, so this page shows no price, and its SOC 2 Type II report is still in progress.
The six checks, in the order of the table below:
The order is what these six checks give from each provider's own pages. It does not test how well a product works, and a large auction may be better served by a provider that scores lower here, as the table at the end shows.
Four of the twelve are designed around M&A deals (Ansarada, Datasite, DealRoom and Intralinks) and four are general data rooms (DocullyVDR, Firmex, iDeals and ShareVault). Two are self-serve rooms that lean on analytics and fundraising (Ellty and Peony), and Box is a content platform that also describes a data room. Valicon is described on its own pages as a data room for private capital raises and sales.
Every fact about a provider comes from its own website, read on 2 November 2026, and each one is recorded with the page it comes from. Nothing on this page comes from using the products.
A provider gets 0, 1 or 2 on each check by the published rule below, so 12 points is the most. Equal points are ordered alphabetically, and no review score is used. Each mark refers to what a provider's pages describe for any of its plans.
4 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
Check | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
Security attestations held | Both are held | One of the two is held | Neither is held (in progress, 'ready' or inherited from a host do not count) |
Publishes prices | Plan prices are printed as numbers | Says how the price is set (data size, deal volume, project length) or offers an online quote, with no figures | Contact sales or a custom quote only, or the provider's pricing is not final and none is shown here |
Starts without a sales call | A free plan, or a free trial or preparation stage with its terms printed | A free trial is offered, but only on request or without terms | Demo only |
Investor engagement analytics | Per-person pages and time, plus a score or ranking of who is engaged | Per-person activity: who opened what, with or without pages or time per document, and no score | No per-person reading data is described |
Investor pipeline in the room | A CRM or pipeline with stages for investors or bidders, inside the product | Investors or bidders are listed and followed up from their activity, with no stages | No investor or bidder list is described |
Benchmarks against other deals | Shows a customer's own room against behaviour recorded across other rooms | Publishes aggregate benchmarks, or compares only deals of the same customer | None is described |
The checks measure what a customer can confirm without talking to the provider, so a provider that sells only by quote loses points on prices and on starting without a call, and can still be the right choice for a large process.
Valicon scores highest on the investor side because three of the six checks are about it, and third on points because it scores 0 on security and on prices, where its pricing is not final and none is shown here. Security is one of six equal checks, so it is worth 2 of the 12 points. If a certified security programme matters most to you today, weigh the first column more heavily: Ansarada, Box, Datasite, Intralinks, ShareVault and iDeals score 2 there, and Valicon scores 0.
Ansarada is one of the longer-running virtual data room providers. It has sold data rooms for M&A and capital raising since 2005, by its own account, and says they have been used in 60,000+ transactions.
You can set a room up and prepare it for free. Payment falls due at go-live or 90 days after creation, whichever comes first. Pricing follows data size, and the figures sit behind an online quote.
It is one of three providers here that put a score on the reading data. An AI bidder engagement score is built on behavioural signals, and activity reports show what each bidder accessed. The pages read show no pipeline with stages and no benchmark against other deals.
It holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022, UK Cyber Essentials and a SOC 2 Type I attestation, with a Type II audit under way.
Under the published Valicon terms, room contents can be viewed read-only for product support, abuse reports, improving the service and legal requests.
Peony is self-serve virtual data room software with AI help, founded in 2021 and based in San Francisco. By its own count it has 8,000+ teams in 60+ countries.
Prices are printed per admin per month, billed annually: Free at $0 for up to 50 documents, Business at $30, Data Room at $52 and Deal Team at $64 with a minimum of four admins.
It scores each viewer on time spent, pages viewed and return visits, and ranks LPs by engagement, so a team can decide whom to call first. It publishes benchmarks from 733 M&A transactions on its platform, such as a median of 12.6 days from first opening to first outside viewer. No tool compares your own room with them.
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are described as ready, with audits under way, so neither is held yet. Data is processed in the US. EU residency is an Enterprise option.
Valicon is a data room for private capital deals: raises, LP raises and sales. Its pages say it turns a deal room into a live feed of who is reading, what they skip and who is close.
You upload a deck and financials and it drafts the room layout, and its pages say a room is live in five minutes. Access can be gated per tab, file or block, and an NDA gate and a watermark are on by default.
Its analytics are where it differs most from the other eleven. Its feature list describes every page-flip, dwell and re-open per investor. It also lists a commit and intent score, a slide heatmap, funnel and cohort analytics and forward detection.
The investor CRM has stages and notes. It lists roll-up analytics across deals, and a cohort benchmark is among its signals. Its pricing is not final, so this page shows no price; ask what it will cost.
On security it holds no certificate yet: SOC 2 Type II is in progress with a Q4 2026 target, and no ISO certificate is named. Its pages cite feedback from 12 partners in a Q4 2025 beta.
Datasite builds its data room around M&A and says it began in 1968 as Merrill Corporation. By its own count its rooms serve 626,000+ users across 16,000+ new transactions a year, in 180+ countries.
A new project is free for 90 days and Datasite Prepare starts at no cost. Beyond that no price is printed.
It names ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701 and SOC 2 Type II. Its AI tools draft answers to Q&A questions, redact 120+ types of personal data and translate whole documents. Support runs 24/7/365 in 20+ languages.
On the investor side it shows buyer activity and interest, and on its fundraising page readership and downloads per investor, with investor and LP contact information. There is no engagement score and no comparison with other deals.
| Scenario | Providers that print no plan prices (8) | Providers that print plan prices (3) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security attestations held | 75% | 33% | 42% |
| Publishes prices | 38% | 100% | 62% |
| Starts without a sales call | 56% | 83% | 27% |
| Investor engagement analytics | 56% | 50% | 6% |
| Investor pipeline in the room | 19% | 17% | 2% |
| Benchmarks against other deals | 13% | 17% | 4% |
Box is a cloud content platform that describes a virtual data room on its own page, made from standard Box folders, permissions and plans. It says it started in 2005 and has 97,000 companies as customers, including 68% of the Fortune 500, by its own count.
Prices are printed per user per month with a minimum of three users, from €18 for Business (€13.50 on the annual toggle) to €45 for Enterprise Plus on the UK page.
It lists seven permission levels, a tamper-evident audit trail and FedRAMP High. Its trust page lists ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701 and SOC 1 and 2 Type II, with the SOC reports under NDA.
The pages read describe no per-investor reading analytics, no bidder Q&A module and no pipeline.
Ellty is one of the self-serve virtual data room providers aimed at fundraising, investor relations and deal making. It sells data room software and document sharing, and says it started in 2020.
On the yearly toggle the plans show in euro per month, and other countries may see another currency. Standard is €35 for one user, Data Room €69 and Data Room Plus €169, with a 14-day trial and no card.
Analytics are its centre: seconds spent per page, and who opened what and when, without a score or ranking. It holds no certification of its own. Its security page says it relies on its AWS host.
Its plans page lists Q&A while its own blog says it has none, so ask before you rely on it.
| Whole | Part | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Scores 2 | 6 |
| Security | Scores 1 | 2 |
| Security | Scores 0 | 4 |
| Prices | Scores 2 | 3 |
| Prices | Scores 1 | 6 |
| Prices | Scores 0 | 3 |
| Free start | Scores 2 | 6 |
| Free start | Scores 1 | 4 |
| Free start | Scores 0 | 2 |
| Engagement | Scores 2 | 3 |
| Engagement | Scores 1 | 8 |
| Engagement | Scores 0 | 1 |
| Pipeline | Scores 2 | 1 |
| Pipeline | Scores 1 | 4 |
| Pipeline | Scores 0 | 7 |
| Benchmarks | Scores 1 | 4 |
| Benchmarks | Scores 0 | 8 |
iDeals sells a data room for M&A, fundraising, life sciences and real estate. It began in 2008 and has 2M+ users in 28+ countries, by its own count.
Plans are Core, Premier and Enterprise, each with a get-price button and no figure. A free trial room with full functionality is offered, and its length is not printed.
It names ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701, plus SOC 2 and SOC 3, without saying which SOC 2 report type. It shows time spent per document and which users engage most, with no engagement score. AI redaction is on every plan.
Intralinks now trades as SS&C Intralinks, part of SS&C Technologies, and its AI platform is DealCentre AI, alongside its VDRPro data room. Its site lists Boston as its headquarters. By its own count it facilitates 10,000+ M&A deals a year.
It describes a 30-year history. No price is published, and the route in is a demo request.
It tracks investor engagement and document interaction in dashboards, offers an integrated CRM for fundraising prospects and a pipeline view in DealCentre, and ranks a client's own deals by activity. Its AI engine summarises documents, answers questions, extracts data and redacts in 50+ languages.
Its security page names ISO 27701, which it calls a first for a data room provider, and shows badges labelled ISO 27001 and AICPA SOC 1, 2 and 3. It does not say which SOC 2 report type, and it names the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
A certificate or SOC 2 report that is in progress does not count; only what a provider says it holds is scored.
ShareVault sells a data room for M&A, fundraising, life sciences and legal work. It says it began in 2003 as Pandesa Corporation and introduced the data room in 2006.
Express, Pro and Enterprise tiers are priced on data usage in GB and project length, with no figure printed. A free trial is offered. Rooms can be hosted in the US, the EU or Asia-Pacific.
It tracks page-level viewing and time per user, with on-demand and scheduled reports. It names ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 42001, and its FAQ names SOC 1, 2 and 3 without a report type. Its own pages disagree on the ISO 27001 year and on the number of countries (110 and 48+).
DealRoom sells an M&A deal-management platform, and the data room comes inside it. Its about page also lists FirmRoom, a separate data room by DealRoom, which this page does not assess. It says the idea began in downtown Chicago in 2012.
Its own pages give customer counts from 160+ to 2,000+. Pricing is by deal volume with unlimited users and an annual commitment, and no figure is printed. A free walkthrough call is the way to try it.
It holds SOC 2 Type II and describes ISO 27001 as in progress. Its analytics show which parties spend time on which requests. Its benchmark tool compares your deal team, process and tools with 150+ M&A teams, which measures how you run a deal and not how a single room performs.
| Layer | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Start free, terms printed | 6 | 50% |
| Quote or terms not printed | 6 | 50% |
DocullyVDR is the enterprise virtual data room software of Docully SaaS Technologies, based in Dubai; docully.com now forwards to docullyvdr.com. By its own count it has deployed 1,000+ data rooms. It offers 60+ Azure hosting regions and an optional single-tenant deployment.
Standard pricing is storage times months, with unlimited administrators and users included, and no figure is printed. A free trial runs 3 days with 250 MB.
Its engagement reports show which buyers are active. The certifications it lists, among them ISO 27001 and SOC 1, 2 and 3, are those of Microsoft Azure, and the only audit of its own that it names is a vulnerability test against OWASP. Its pages state a policy of no AI features.
No provider of the twelve describes a view of your own room against the rooms of other customers. Peony publishes benchmarks from 733 transactions, and Valicon lists a cohort benchmark.
Firmex sells a data room for M&A, fundraising and compliance work and says it was founded in Toronto in 2006. By its own count it serves 223,000+ companies in 180+ countries, though its pricing page shows different user figures.
It offers two pricing models: Single Project, a one-time fee set by data size and project length, and Subscription, an annual fee set by storage volume. No figure is printed, and a free trial is available on contact.
It holds SOC 2 Type 2 and names ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified data centres. It lists Q&A and a user activity dashboard that shows who is active and what they are viewing, with no score. Support runs 24/7/365 by phone, chat and email.
A SOC 2 report comes in two types: Type I covers the design of controls at one date, and Type II covers how they worked over a period. SOC 2 is one of the reports in the AICPA's SOC suite of services.
Under Article 28 of the GDPR, a controller may use only a processor that gives sufficient guarantees about technical and organisational measures, so ask where a provider hosts the documents and who processes them.
2 columns. Drag the table sideways; the first column stays put.
The deal | Providers to check first |
|---|---|
A raise where you want to see which investors are reading and who is close | Valicon, then Ansarada and Peony, which put an engagement score on top of the reading data |
A large auction with many bidders | Ansarada, Datasite, iDeals and Intralinks |
A first room on a small budget | Peony and Ellty, which print plan prices and offer a free plan or trial, and Valicon, which offers a free first room and whose pricing is not final |
A buyer's security team wants a SOC 2 report this month | Ansarada, Datasite, Box, iDeals, Intralinks and ShareVault name both a certificate and a SOC 2 report; Valicon's SOC 2 Type II is in progress |
A choice of hosting country, or no AI near the documents | ShareVault, DocullyVDR and Firmex offer a hosting choice; DocullyVDR states a policy of no AI |
One supplier for content and room | Box |
5 questions on virtual data room providers, answered by Edwin Mik, Partner & Head of IR.
Three of the twelve print plan prices, each in its own currency and billing basis. Valicon's pricing is not final, so no price is shown here. Peony prints $0 for up to 50 documents and $30 per admin per month on Business, billed annually. Ellty prints €35 per month on the yearly toggle. Box prints €13.50 per user per month on the annual toggle, minimum three users. Eight more set a price by quote, by data size, project length, storage or deal volume, so ask each for the figure for your own process.
Look for an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and a SOC 2 report held by the provider itself. Six of the twelve name both on their own pages: Ansarada, Box, Datasite, Intralinks, ShareVault and iDeals. SOC 2 comes in Type I, which looks at the design of controls at one date, and Type II, which looks at how they worked over a period, so ask which one a provider holds.
Some providers offer a free first step. Valicon offers a free first room and Peony a free plan for up to 50 documents. Ansarada is free to set up and prepare until go-live or 90 days, and Datasite advertises a free 90 days to start a new project. Ellty has a 14-day trial and DocullyVDR a 3-day trial with 250 MB. Check whether the free step covers a live room with outside investors or bidders.
Valicon, Ansarada and Peony put a score or ranking on top of the reading data: Valicon with a commit and intent score and a who's-closest view, Ansarada with an AI bidder engagement score and Peony with an engagement score per viewer. Datasite, Ellty, iDeals, Intralinks, ShareVault, DealRoom, DocullyVDR and Firmex show per-person activity at most, without a score, and Box describes none on the pages read.
Most of the twelve say so on their own pages: Ansarada, Datasite, DocullyVDR, Ellty, Firmex, iDeals, Intralinks, Peony, ShareVault and Valicon name fundraising, capital raising, LP raises or fund work. DealRoom is built around M&A deal management, so check the use case with the provider.
