Datasite vs Intralinks: two enterprise data rooms compared

Put two veterans side by side and you expect a clear winner. There is not one here. Datasite and Intralinks have both run data rooms on large deals for more than twenty-five years, both clear a demanding security review, and both cost what an enterprise room costs. The differences are real but specific, and they map neatly onto two kinds of deal.

This comparison uses only our own fact sheet and scores, and the detail in our full Datasite review and Intralinks review.

How do Datasite and Intralinks compare feature by feature?

Most of the table is a draw. The rows that separate them are AI tools, the mobile app and the way each describes its document control, and those differences reflect each platform’s centre of gravity: Datasite towards the sell-side banker managing a crowded auction, Intralinks towards regulated, high-stakes transactions where control and the record afterwards come first.

How do they score on each of our five checks?

We score every provider on five weighted checks (see how we rate). Here are the two rooms side by side.

Two points stand out. Security, the check most buyers worry about first, is a dead heat at 9.6, joint top of our ranking. And the largest gap, pricing clarity, is a gap between two quote-only providers, not between a cheap room and an expensive one. Neither publishes a rate card.

Where does Datasite pull ahead?

Bidder analytics. Datasite’s main strength is reading a competitive process. Activity by bidder, folder and document lets a sell-side adviser see which of twenty or more parties are working through the financials and which have stalled. That is the core reason it scores 9.5 on deal features. Our guide to reading data room analytics explains how advisers use those signals.

AI tools. AI-assisted redaction can strip personal data across a large document set, and AI also helps organise big uploads. On a room with thousands of employee or customer files, that is a real saving in review time.

A mobile app. Few specialist rooms in our ranking have one. Deal partners who approve Q&A answers on the move tend to use it.

A slightly easier start. Datasite’s setup mark of 7.8 is still well below the self-serve leaders, and a sell-side room with its permission groups takes the better part of an afternoon to provision. But it is a little faster to get going than Intralinks.

Where does Intralinks pull ahead?

Control after download. Intralinks highlights information rights control that keeps a downloaded file tied to the room, so access can be withdrawn after a bidder drops out. Datasite also has document rights control in our fact sheet; the difference is how central post-download control is to the Intralinks proposition. If your documents include pricing models, source code or customer lists you cannot afford to have circulating, ask both vendors to demonstrate revocation of a downloaded file.

Track record on regulated deals. Founded in 1996, Intralinks is the oldest provider in our ranking. For capital-markets work and transactions that may later be examined by regulators such as the SEC, a long-established vendor with a well-understood audit trail settles questions quickly.

Flexible commercial structure. According to our research, Intralinks prices either per project or as an annual platform commitment, which can suit a bank or law firm with steady deal flow. Our guide to monthly versus per-project billing explains how to compare those two shapes.

Datasite helps you read the other side. Intralinks helps you control what the other side takes away.

How do Q&A and multi-deal workflows compare?

On a large process, the Q&A queue is where deal teams spend their days, so it deserves a closer look than a yes in a feature table.

Both rooms run structured Q&A inside the platform. In Datasite, bidder questions route to the right subject-matter expert, with prioritisation, escalation and a full history, and answers pass through internal approval before release. Intralinks follows the same pattern: questions are routed, assigned, escalated and resolved inside the room, with every step kept in the trail. For a seller with lawyers, accountants and management all answering different categories, either keeps the process off email.

The difference shows up when you run several deals at once. Datasite offers project and pipeline tooling that keeps multiple rooms, tasks and status in one place, which suits advisers juggling concurrent mandates. Intralinks leans on folder templating that can be reused across concurrent processes, so a bank running similar transactions can stand up each new room from a familiar structure.

Neither approach is better in the abstract. If your pain is coordination across a pipeline, Datasite’s tooling is the closer fit. If your pain is consistency, repeating a proven structure deal after deal, Intralinks’ templating does the job. Either way, set up the user roles for Q&A experts and approvers before the first bidder logs in.

How do security and compliance compare?

Closely enough that security should rarely decide between them on its own.

Both hold SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification in our fact sheet, both support single sign-on and two-factor login, both offer watermarking, redaction, document rights control and a full audit trail, and both encrypt data in transit and at rest. Datasite also lists GDPR in its certifications in our data; for EU personal data under the GDPR, what matters in practice is the hosting region and the data processing agreement, so confirm both with either vendor during scoping.

Both offer regional hosting options. If you need a contractual guarantee that data stays in a named country, ask for it in writing; neither should be assumed to provide it by default.

What will each cost?

Neither publishes a price. Both quote per engagement, and the quote depends on document volume, users, number of rooms and duration. Treat anything you hear second-hand as indicative and confirm it with the provider.

What you can do is make the quotes comparable. Ask both for the same three numbers: the fee for the initial term, the monthly extension rate if the deal slips, and the cost of an archive at closing. Datasite’s slightly higher pricing clarity mark is a small editorial difference; it does not mean Datasite is cheaper. For typical market ranges by deal size, see our data room pricing page.

How should you run the evaluation?

Neither vendor offers a free trial, so a structured evaluation matters more than usual.

1. Book both scoping calls in the same week

   Give each vendor the same brief: expected document count, number of bidders, users per bidder, timetable and any data residency requirement.

2. Ask for a live demo on your use case

   Have each vendor show a bidder group being created, a Q&A question routed and approved, and a bidder's access being revoked, including a downloaded file.

3. Request comparable quotes

   Ask for the initial term fee, monthly extension rate, overage terms and archive cost in the same format from both.

4. Check the security pack

   Request the SOC 2 report and ISO 27001 certificate from each, and the hosting region and sub-processor list.

5. Decide on the deal, not the demo

   Weigh the one or two differences that matter for this transaction, such as bidder analytics, mobile access or post-download control, and choose on those.

Which should you choose?

Pick Datasite if:

• You are running a competitive sale with many bidders and want to manage the shortlist from activity data.
• Your team will review or approve on phones.
• AI-assisted redaction will save meaningful time on a large set of personal data.

Pick Intralinks if:

• The counterparty’s compliance or security team will scrutinise the vendor closely.
• Control over documents after they are downloaded is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
• You are a bank or law firm that would rather buy a platform commitment than quote deal by deal.

Look beyond both if:

• You need a room open today at a known price, with a free trial to test it first. Several providers in our ranking publish prices; Ellty, for example, publishes pricing from 149 USD a month with a 14-day free trial alongside a full diligence toolkit.
• You need an API or built-in e-signature; neither room has them in our fact sheet.
• The deal is a single-buyer sale or a fundraise, where much of what you pay for here goes unused.