How we review data rooms.
Five measures built around how a startup raises, sells and reports, each scored out of 10 from documented facts.
Updated Oct 17, 2026
22%
Setup speed
The question: Can a founder with no IT help open a working room on the afternoon an investor asks for it?
Formula: 0.7 times the ease-of-use rating plus 0.3 times the support rating, then 0.3 when whole folders upload in one go. Capped at 10.
18%
Investor experience
The question: Does a partner at a fund open your deck on a phone without friction, and can you see what they read?
Formula: 0.6 times the ease-of-use rating, then 1.4 for per-viewer activity tracking, 0.8 for view and download control, 0.5 for a mobile app and 0.5 for built-in signing of NDAs. Capped at 10.
22%
Access control
The question: Can you show the cap table to the lead fund only, keep the source code folder closed and prove who saw what?
Formula: 0.5 times the security rating, then 0.9 for dynamic watermarks, 0.9 for view and download control, 0.8 for two-step login, 0.8 for an access log and 0.4 for redaction. Capped at 10.
18%
Diligence tools
The question: When a Series A lead or an acquirer sends 200 questions, can the whole exchange run inside the room?
Formula: 0.55 times the feature rating, then 2.2 for a question-and-answer module, 0.7 for bulk upload and 1.1 for vendor-listed AI help. Capped at 10.
20%
Startup pricing
The question: Can a seed-stage company see the cost before a sales call, start on a trial and stop paying after the round closes?
Formula: 1.8 plus 0.5 times the value rating, then 2.3 when a price is published and 1.2 when a free trial is offered. Capped at 10.
The model in one paragraph
Every provider gets a score out of 10 on five measures: setup speed, investor experience, access control, diligence tools and startup pricing. The weighted total, rounded to one decimal, is the overall score. The cards above show each measure’s weight, the question it answers and the exact formula.
Where the inputs come from
Inputs come from a shared facts file that records, for each provider, its published price or quote model, free trial, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 status, deployment, founding year, headquarters, twelve feature flags and five editorial ratings (security, features, ease of use, support and value). The flags follow the vendor’s own documentation: a feature counts when the vendor lists it. We recheck the file monthly and when a vendor or reader tells us something changed.
We do not publish review-platform ratings or review counts, and our scores are not an average of user reviews.
Use-case rankings
Each use case multiplies the five weights by its own factors. A pre-seed round leans on setup speed and price; a sale leans on diligence tools and access control. Providers whose documented focus matches the use case (for example fundraising, M&A or life sciences) get a small bonus of up to 0.3. The weights for each use case are shown on its page.
Ordering
Editors may adjust the final order within a ranking. Scores and formulas are otherwise applied the same way to every provider, and partners cannot buy a position.
What we do not claim
We do not run timed setups or private test rooms and we do not present vendor documentation as our own testing. Where a page suggests checks, they are checks for you to run during a trial or demo.
Prices
Published prices are entry plans in US dollars as listed by the vendor. For quote-only providers we show our own market bands, clearly labelled, never an invented vendor price. All prices are indicative; confirm them with the vendor.