Anyone choosing a provider
20 questions to ask any data room provider before you sign
Useful even if you end up choosing someone else. That is the point.
Ask every shortlisted provider the same twenty questions and record the answers in writing. Most bad data room outcomes come from three places: a pricing unit that made the quote look small, a residency claim that covered storage but not processing, and an audit trail that could not be exported after completion.
20 items, 5 sectionsUpdated
Pricing and commercial
- What is the pricing unit: pages, users, storage capacity, project or term?
- What is the total cost for our expected volume, in writing, including GST treatment?
- Are users charged separately, and is there any cap on user numbers?
- What does it cost to prepare the room before anyone is invited?
- Exactly how is overage calculated and billed, and can you show a worked example for a deal running three months longer than planned?
- What happens at renewal, and what notice is required to end the contract?
Data location
- In which country and region is our data stored?
- In which countries is our data processed, including support access and any AI features?
- Can you name every sub-processor and its location?
- Is data residency standard on our plan, or an enterprise-only option?
Security and control
- Which certifications do you hold, and where can we verify them on the certifying body's register?
- Can permissions be set per party, per folder and per document?
- Can you demonstrate that one bidder cannot detect another bidder?
- Can access be revoked immediately, including active sessions?
Evidence and workflow
- Is the audit trail exportable, and in what format?
- How long are logs retained, and can we get a permission report per party?
- How does Q&A work, and can questions be routed to different subject matter experts?
AI and exit
- If AI features are offered, is every answer cited to a source document and page?
- Is AI processing optional, and is our content used to train any model?
- At the end of the deal, how do we export everything, how long do we have, and when is our data deleted?
Frequently asked
- Why is the pricing unit the first question?
- Because it decides whether the final invoice is knowable. Per-page and per-user pricing produces a low quote and an unpredictable bill, and it changes behaviour: teams disclose less and invite fewer reviewers to control cost.
- Should I ask every provider the same questions?
- Yes, including us. Consistent answers in writing are the only way to compare providers, and the differences in what they will put in writing are usually more informative than the answers themselves.
- What if a provider will not answer one of these in writing?
- Treat that as the answer. Every question here concerns something the provider already knows about their own product, so a refusal to state it in writing is a commercial position, not a technical limitation.
Want this as a PDF?
Use the print button above and choose save as PDF, or ask us and we will send a formatted copy. Either way the full checklist stays on this page.
What's next
Ready to experience the future of dealmaking?
One AI-native platform. Enterprise security by default. Turn on intelligence when you're ready.