Virtual data room providers are exactly that, companies that provide access to a secure virtual data room. These “rooms” are secure spaces on the internet where those attempting to broker a deal, such as in mergers and acquisitions, can share key documents with potential buyers.

While the concept of a data room has been around for years, it wasn’t until the digital age that virtual data rooms started to spring up. Physical data rooms were highly secure, monitored rooms where both parties would meet so one could read and review important documents like financial transactions, company background, legal papers, etc. Trusted Data Room will have the best service providers of the business people. The information about the documents is gathered with the checking of the reviews. The problems in the financial transactions are solved with the intelligence of the people. The potential buyers will get the correct information from the software.

Everything was tracked, including what was read. Virtual data rooms work much the same way only on a secure website. Everyone accessing the “room” is logged and everything they review is tracked and recorded. Functions like screen grabs, printing, copying, saving, etc. are disabled in the virtual data room.

If you’re in the market for a virtual data room provider you might want to consider one of the following.

Box is a lot like Dropbox, more than just in name. It provides cloud storage for your files. But where it differs from Dropbox is that it is intended for business use. It allows for stricter sharing settings and tracking that you would expect from a virtual data room.

One thing that makes Box stand out is its ease of use. Setting up and getting up to the point of sharing documents is a snap. You’ll receive up-to-the-minute notifications whenever something occurs in the “room.” Like when someone accesses it and whether they make any edits or leave comments.

Its simplicity is both a pro and a con. Box is not as secure as some other VDRs out there and works more as a souped-up Dropbox which is not always what you want, especially if you’re talking about multi-million dollar deals.

If you want something more reliable and sturdy than Box, then you should take a look at Intralinks Dealspace. This is one of the more popular VDRs on the market. They claim to have over 2.7 million users with north of 5,000 deals each year using their system.

Dealspace offers numerous features when setting up and using a virtual data room. There’s a high level of security surrounding your documents that you can set up before launching the room. And the easy-to-use UI makes that easy to get going.

Mobile access is a huge deal when it comes to using a VDR and Dealspace allows that so you can add or remove users whenever you need to or change any other settings. You can also upload files right from the app.

Firmex is aimed at small-to-medium size businesses and not really large enterprises. Intralinks is more high-end so if you’re looking at something for a smaller operation then Firmex might be a good fit.

They can set you up in a virtual data room in just a few hours. Some larger, more complex VDR providers take days to set you up.

It has a simple UI and is designed with simple drag and drop features. Security is pretty on-point despite its simplicity. You can rest assured that your PDFs and Microsoft Office documents will be protected. You can set user settings that include expiring access, blocking of saving, copying, printing or screen grabs.

They also offer 24/7 live customer support which is a huge plus.

Firmex may not work well with large companies with complex deals but it fits beautifully with smaller to medium size enterprises.

This is another very straightforward provider that can be set up fairly quick. It only takes around 15 minutes and costs about $200 per month for a basic plan.

It includes features like “drag and drop” of files, automatic indexing, a convenient folder tree and integrated search function.

For customer ease they have 24/7 customer support by e-mail or phone as well as online training videos.

CapLinked is another robust VDR provider. Though it doesn’t differ too much from others on this list it’s worth mentioning because it holds up against the others.

You can expect multiple security features including watermarks, digital rights management (DRM) that protects your documents and digital “shredding” of a document remotely.

You can even edit documents right within the workspace instead of having to download the document.

Pricing is a lot simpler with CapLinked as there is no pricing done per page.

So, that’s a list of the top virtual data room providers on the market today. Hopefully one of those works out for you. Good luck!