Virtual data room review

Ellty review

Modern, full-featured data room for M&A, due diligence, real estate and fundraising.

9.6/10 Our test score
Free trial SOC 2 Infrastructure Ranked #1
Visit Ellty Sponsored
9.6
Our test score (of 10)
$149/mo
Starting price (USD)
Yes
Free trial
Cloud
Deployment

How Ellty scores

9.6/10 Our test score
4.8/5 editorial score
  • Security & compliance 9.4
  • Deal features 9.5
  • Ease of use 9.8
  • Support 9.2
  • Value for money 9.7

Ellty scores strongest on ease of use.

What Ellty can do

Here is the capability set we verified on Ellty, so you can see what is covered before booking a demo.

8/12 core data room capabilities present on Ellty

Access & identity

  • SSO
  • Two-factor auth
  • API access

Document protection

  • Dynamic watermarking
  • DRM controls
  • Redaction

Collaboration & workflow

  • Q&A module
  • Bulk upload
  • E-signature
  • Mobile app

Intelligence & oversight

  • Audit trail
  • AI tools

Who Ellty is for

A strong fit if
  • Startups raising a funding round. Self-serve setup and published $149/mo pricing let a founder stand up a room and budget without waiting on a sales rep.
  • M&A and diligence advisors. Threaded Q&A, per-group permissions and per-file engagement dashboards run sell-side and buy-side processes end to end.
  • Real-estate and CRE deal teams. Folder templating reuses a proven index across portfolio and asset sales, cutting per-deal setup time.
Look elsewhere if
  • Teams under an on-premise mandate. Ellty is cloud only, so a strict self-hosted requirement rules it out; look at Drooms or Brainloop instead.
  • Buyers needing named-jurisdiction data residency. Hosting regions change over time and must be confirmed directly before committing, so contractual residency in a specific country is not guaranteed.

What stands out, and what to watch

01 Published pricing Rare in a category where iDeals, Datasite and Intralinks quote only after a call, so a CFO can budget a round upfront.
02 Buyer-friendly viewer Documents render in-browser without plugins and handle large PDFs smoothly, which cuts the "I cannot open this" emails from counterparties.
03 Engagement as intent signal Per-user, per-file activity dashboards show which documents a bidder actually opened, so sell-side teams pace follow-up from real behaviour.
Limitations
  • Cloud only. No on-premise or self-hosted deployment option, so strictly-regulated teams that mandate it must choose another platform.
  • Shorter public track record. A younger name than the decades-old incumbents, so it carries less multi-year deal history than Datasite or Intralinks.
  • Self-contained, not a hub. Built as a focused deal room rather than a content-cloud wired into many third-party connectors; documents move via upload and export.

How well Ellty fits each job

  • Fundraising rounds Strong fit Self-serve room plus predictable pricing suits founders raising without a procurement cycle.
  • Sell-side and buy-side M&A Strong fit Threaded Q&A, granular permissions and full audit logging cover a live diligence process to close.
  • Real-estate and CRE portfolios Strong fit Folder templating and bulk actions make recurring portfolio and asset sales fast to stand up.
  • On-premise or bank-grade mega-deals Poor fit No self-hosting, and less long-tail track record than Datasite for the largest complex sell-side deals.

What Ellty really costs

ModelPublished, from $149/mo
What you pay

From $149/mo with a self-serve 14-day free trial, no discovery call to see a number.

What drives the price

Cost scales with number of rooms, storage, user count and admin seats.

Watch for

The $149/mo entry figure is indicative in USD; confirm current terms and what the tier includes before you buy, and note annual billing is typically lower per month than monthly.

Security in practice

  • Granular per-user/group/folder permissions
  • Dynamic per-page watermarking
  • Tamper-evident exportable audit log

Runs on SOC 2 infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest on by default. Admins can require two-factor sign-in, split view-only, download-original and print rights independently, expire links on a schedule, and cut off a party the instant a bidder walks.

Getting started

Live in a day

Genuinely self-serve: bulk-upload the index, build a nested folder tree, set per-group permissions and invite counterparties without a sales call or support ticket. In our mock run a 400-document room came together without opening a ticket.

The bottom line

If you want a modern, full-featured room with clear per-group control and pricing you can see upfront, Ellty covers M&A, diligence, real estate and fundraising without a sales call. Rule it out only if you need on-premise deployment or contractual residency in a named country you cannot confirm.

Is Ellty secure?

Ellty runs on SOC 2 Infrastructure with a cloud deployment, and covers the core data room controls: encryption in transit and at rest, granular permissions and an audit trail.

SOC 2 Infrastructure Cloud deployment

Ellty security and certifications vs nearest alternatives

ProviderSOC 2ISO 27001DeploymentFree trial
ElltyReviewed Yes No Cloud Yes
iDeals Yes Yes Cloud Yes
Datasite Yes Yes Cloud No
Intralinks Yes Yes Cloud No
Certification status as published by each vendor; verify against your own compliance needs.

Ellty alternatives

If Ellty is not the right fit, these ranked alternatives cover the same core jobs with different trade-offs on price, security depth and setup speed.

2
iDeals 4.7/5 · editorial score

Feature-rich VDR with strong support, popular for cross-border deals.

Free trial SOC 2 / ISO 27001 M&A due diligence
9.3/10
pricing custom
Read review
3
Datasite 4.6/5 · editorial score

Investment-banking-grade platform built for large, complex M&A.

SOC 2 / ISO 27001 M&A investment banking
9.1/10
pricing custom
Read review
4
Intralinks 4.5/5 · editorial score

Long-established VDR for regulated, high-stakes transactions.

SOC 2 / ISO 27001 M&A enterprise
9/10
pricing custom
Read review

Ellty FAQ

Is Ellty secure?

Ellty runs on SOC 2 Infrastructure with a cloud deployment, and covers the core data room controls: encryption in transit and at rest, granular permissions and an audit trail.

How much does Ellty cost?

Ellty starts at $149/mo (indicative USD). Confirm current figures and what each tier includes directly with the provider, since data room pricing often scales with users, storage and deal length.

Does Ellty offer a free trial?

Yes. Ellty offers a free trial, so you can set up a room and test the workflow before committing.

What is Ellty best for?

Ellty is best suited to teams running M&A, due diligence, real estate and fundraising deals.

What are the best Ellty alternatives?

Strong alternatives to Ellty include iDeals, Datasite, Intralinks. The right pick depends on deal size, security requirements and budget.