Virtual data rooms have extended to all parts and almost every business sector in the world. Governments, companies, enterprises, firms, service providers, agencies, private equities, professionals, and managerial-level officials use data room software for various objectives.
The growing demand for the data room in the business world has also drawn new vendors and pushed big players to target industries specifically. That’s why there are different types of virtual data rooms in the market serving different industries, such as fundraisers, private equities, real estate, healthcare, and mergers and acquisitions.
Despite fierce competition in the virtual data room market, the quality of services varies among vendors. The next is a basic introduction to electronic data room technology and a detailed review of some of the best virtual data rooms in the world.
What Is An Electronic Data Room? Data Room Software-Defined And Explained
Virtual data room service, in basic terms, is a cloud-based, online database for managing your corporate or private data.
In broader terms, it is a digital platform for data management, virtual business communication, and deal management.
Virtual data rooms allow you to virtually store, share, edit, annotate, distribute, change, archive, organize, and manage your files. The best thing about virtual data rooms is they have built-in document management tools — no external apps are needed.
The uniqueness of data room software lies in its combination of data management and online communication tools. That means not only can you share and manage your business files in the VDR, but you can also invite others to keep your communications in one platform.
This perfect blend makes the data room software one of the most desirable deal management tools.
You can see them intermediating local and international business deals like M&As, fundraising, real estate deals, IPOs, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and due diligence.
- Tip: M&As is the most common use case of virtual data rooms. Read here about the most common ways of financing them for the benefit of your business.
Top Virtual Data Rooms In 2022
1. iDeals data rooms
iDeals is a tech company offering document and meeting management solutions for almost two decades. Apart from being the pioneer in data room technology, iDeals stands as the industry leader in the modern-day VDR market.
iDeals VDR is labeled as “best overall” above because the company has been successfully offering its services to all business types. Still, these VDRs are most common in healthcare, life sciences, the litigation/law industry, board communications, M&As, and real estate.
In addition to all the basic and many advanced features for data management, communication, and project management, the following things differentiate iDeals from its competitors:
- Customer support service (run by industry experts)
- Security features
- Availability in 16 major languages
- Ease of accessibility — from Windows, Android, iOS, and most popular browsers
2. Intralinks
Intralinks data rooms target small, medium, and large businesses and are well-known in the field of deal-making. Intralinks is one of the few companies with AI-backed virtual data rooms for data management and analysis. The ease of use, user intuitiveness, digital watermarks, and auto file indexing are some worth mentioning features of these VDRs.
What’s more, the company equips its customers with 24/7 customer support, optional training, and consultancy services for dealmaking. Intralinks also supports multiple languages, including French, German, and English. However, customization is not a strong point of Intralinks, as reported by users.
3. DealRoom
DealRoom stands on agile principles set by its founders; the company wanted to revolutionize the M&A sector and project management.
DealRoom has successfully combined the necessary tools for creating, executing, and monitoring bigger business transactions.
What’s more, DealRoom VDRs are suitable for M&A transactions in any business sector.
In comparison to its benefits and features for project management, its prices are more economical than its competitors. However, DealRoom is a bit expensive for regular or long-term use but is very well suited for due diligence and M&As.
4. Merrill Datasite
Merrill Datasite is another premium and globally accepted virtual data room mostly employed in investment banking, law firms, corporate development, and private equities. Merrill Datasite is more favorable for medium and large businesses, and its visual analytics for document activities is a rare feature.
Merrill Datasite is also available in multiple languages, allowing you to upload files up to 50GB in size. You can employ Merrill Datasite on Windows, Mac, and the web.
5. FirmRoom data rooms
FirmRoom is another rising star that has taken the virtual data room industry by storm. The company offers highly sophisticated solutions, and due to its imperial services, they already have a clientele like J.P. Morgan, Baird, and Pfizer.
Security is another strong factor in FirmRoom, as the company holds ISO 27001 certification. FirmRoom data rooms are easily integrable with Office 365, Salesforce, and Slack. A clean design and great user interface make FirmRoom an even more desirable asset.
Final words
The virtual data room market is fast-growing and saturated. Due to this, it might be difficult to choose a compelling solution that will meet both your budget and business needs.
However, in our opinion, virtual data rooms like iDeals, Intralinks, DealRoom, Merrill Data site, and FirmRoom are worth investing in. They have a decent reputation on the market, a rich feature set, and positive customer feedback.
Best of all, they are universal solutions suitable for a range of different uses — from M&A and due diligence to real estate, IPOs, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and more.
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