Guides and insights

Data room vs client portal: which one an advisory firm needs

A client portal handles ongoing two-way exchange with clients; a data room handles time-boxed disclosure to counterparties. How law, accounting and advisory firms choose.

Oct 27, 2026

De-SPAC due diligence: what changes when a SPAC is the buyer

De-SPAC due diligence runs on a deadline with registration statement liability. What the 2024 SEC rules changed, who needs access and how to structure the data room.

Oct 26, 2026

Datasite alternatives for sell-side processes

Datasite alternatives for running a sell-side auction: Ellty, iDeals, Intralinks, Ansarada and Firmex compared on Q&A, bidder controls, AI features, trials and pricing.

Oct 26, 2026

Privacy laws that touch deal data: GDPR, CCPA, PDPA and more

How GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, PDPA, India's DPDP Act, Australia's Privacy Act and the UAE PDPL apply to due diligence, and how to minimize data before upload.

Oct 23, 2026

What to test during a data room free trial: a 14-point script

A 14-point script for a data room free trial: upload, permissions, watermarks, 2FA, Q&A, reports, export and support. Plus which of 16 providers offer a trial.

Oct 23, 2026

Box vs a virtual data room: can a content cloud run a deal?

Box has strong security, SSO and AI, but no Q&A module, redaction or document rights control in our records. Where Box works for deals and where a VDR is needed.

Oct 22, 2026

Choosing a data room for a cross-border deal

What a cross-border data room needs beyond a domestic one: support across time zones, languages, privacy and transfer rules, hosting location and local deal process.

Data room RFP template: the requirements to send providers

A copyable data room RFP template: 24 requirements weighted must, should and could, the sections to include, the pricing schedule to request and how to score replies.

Intralinks alternatives: other enterprise-grade rooms worth pricing

Six Intralinks alternatives compared like for like on Q&A, redaction, SSO, ISO 27001, AI features, free trials and pricing transparency, with who each one suits.

Two-factor authentication in data rooms: which providers support it

12 of the 16 data room providers we track list two-factor login. See which ones, how 2FA differs from SSO, which methods resist phishing and what to enforce.

pricing

Data room total cost of ownership: the full bill beyond the license

The license is often the smallest line in a data room budget. A worked example of total cost of ownership: staff hours, overruns, scanning, archive and exit fees.

Post-merger integration checklist: the first 100 days after closing

A practical post-merger integration checklist for Day 1, the first 30 days and the first 100, plus how to reuse the diligence data room as the integration record.

Click-through NDAs in a data room: how access terms protect the seller

How click-through NDAs and access terms work in a data room, when they are enough, when a signed NDA is better, and what the audit trail must record.

AI in virtual data rooms: what the tools do today and what to check

What AI in a virtual data room actually does: auto-indexing, search, summaries and Q&A drafting, which providers list AI features, and the data-use questions to ask first.

Vendor due diligence reports: when sellers commission their own review

What a vendor due diligence report covers, when it pays off, how reliance letters work and how to stage the report in the data room during a sale.

pricing

What a fundraising data room costs, from pre-seed to Series B

Fundraising data room costs by stage: indicative budgets from pre-seed to Series B, per-user vs flat monthly maths, and the line items that inflate a round's bill.

How to shortlist data room providers in five working days

A day-by-day plan to shortlist data room providers in one working week: set must-haves, filter the market, run a three-vendor test and sign with confidence.

Oct 16, 2026

DocSend alternatives for when a deal outgrows tracked links

Six DocSend alternatives sorted by the gap that forces the move: Q&A, bulk upload, two-factor login or control after download. Prices, features and fit.

Oct 16, 2026

Carve-out due diligence: separating a business and its documents

How carve-out due diligence differs from a whole-company sale: standalone financials, shared contracts, TSAs, people and how to permission the data room.

Oct 15, 2026

pricing

Data room prices by provider: published rates vs quote-only vendors

Data room prices for 16 providers: who publishes an entry rate, who quotes per project, what each model costs on a real deal and how to read 'on request'.

Oct 14, 2026

25 questions to ask a data room provider before you sign

The 25 questions to ask a data room provider on security, deal workflow, price, support and exit, with what a good answer looks like and when to ask each.

Oct 13, 2026

Data room encryption explained: at rest, in transit and who holds the keys

How data room encryption works: TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest, key management and customer-managed keys, plus the questions that reveal what a provider really does.

Oct 13, 2026

Data rooms as secure online storage for your digital documents

When is ordinary cloud storage enough, and when do sensitive documents need a data room? The five protection layers, compared control by control.

DocSend data room review: where it shines and where it stops

An independent DocSend review: link tracking, pricing per user, security facts and the due diligence features it lacks, such as Q&A and bulk upload.

How long does a data room stay open? Durations by deal type

Most data rooms stay open one to six months, but auctions and IPOs run longer. Typical durations by deal type, what extends them, and how time drives cost.

Investing in an IPO: pros and cons, and what sits behind the prospectus

The real pros and cons of investing in an IPO: allocation, pricing, lock-ups and volatility, plus how due diligence and the data room shape the prospectus.

Types of virtual data rooms: four categories of provider and who each suits

Virtual data rooms fall into four provider categories, plus splits by deployment and by deal. See which type fits your transaction, with facts on 16 vendors.

Virtual data room vs document management system: different jobs, different rules

A document management system organizes files for your own staff; a virtual data room discloses them to outsiders. Compare features, costs and use cases.

What is a bolt-on acquisition? Strategy, diligence and the data room

A bolt-on acquisition adds a smaller company to an existing platform. How the strategy works, where it goes wrong, and how a data room speeds diligence.

What is a data room provider, and what are you actually paying for?

A data room provider supplies the software, hosting, security assurance and support behind a virtual data room. Here is what each layer means for a deal.