Many founders meet DocSend before they ever meet a data room. A tracked deck link that tells you which fund lingered on the competition page is handy during the first outreach. The trouble starts when that same tool is asked to hold the full diligence pack. This comparison is less a fair fight than a map of where one tool’s job ends and the other’s starts.
What each tool is for
DocSend dates from 2013 and is American. Its model is the link: upload a file, share a link, track who viewed it. It includes an audit trail, watermarks and e-signature. Ellty belongs with iDeals and Datasite as a transaction room, offering structured Q&A, group permissions, document rights control, two-factor login, bulk upload, e-signature and built-in AI features.
Security posture
Ellty 9.4, DocSend 6.8. Both list SOC 2, Ellty’s as SOC 2 (infrastructure), and neither lists ISO 27001. The gap is in controls. DocSend does not list two-factor login or document rights control, so once a file leaves the viewer there is little to stop it being forwarded. Ellty can block printing and saving and supports a second login factor for guests.
A common mistake
Founders sometimes put the cap table, employment contracts and customer agreements into the same tracking tool they used for the deck. Those documents carry personal and commercial data that deserves rights control and a full audit trail, not just view tracking.
Deal workflow
Ellty 9.5, DocSend 6.0. The gap is structural. DocSend has no Q&A module, so investor questions arrive by email and get lost. It has no bulk upload, which makes a folder of several hundred files tedious to build. Ellty routes questions inside the room, lets you give each investor or bidder group its own view, and handles a full index upload in one pass. Its AI features help the team find and summarize material when the questions start arriving.
Everyday usability
DocSend 9.0, Ellty 9.8. DocSend is easy because it does one thing. Ellty manages to be easier still while doing much more, which is the reason its usability score is the highest on our roster.
Pricing
DocSend lists from $45 per user per month. Ellty lists a flat $149 a month. One sender on DocSend costs less; three paying users cost $135 a month, and four cost $180, which is above Ellty’s flat rate for a full deal room. Ellty also has a 14-day free trial, and DocSend lists a free trial too. See the pricing guide for how per-user and flat pricing diverge as a team grows.
Service and support
Ellty 9.2, DocSend 6.5. DocSend’s support suits a self-serve sharing product. Diligence deadlines are less forgiving, and a deal room vendor that answers mid-process matters more.
The moment to switch
The handover from tracking tool to data room usually happens at a recognizable moment: an investor or buyer asks for “the data room.” From then on, the requests change in kind. Instead of one deck, they want a folder of financial statements, contracts, IP assignments, board minutes and employment records, and they want to ask questions about them.
At that point three things matter that DocSend was not designed for. First, the volume: hundreds of files need to be uploaded and organized quickly, which is what bulk upload is for. Second, the questions: a structured Q&A module keeps each investor’s questions and your answers in one place, with approvals before anything is released. Third, control: rights control means a sensitive contract can be read but not printed or saved, and two-factor login means a forwarded invitation does not open the room for someone else.
Ellty covers all three and adds AI features that help a founder or CFO find the right document when an investor’s question is vague.
Setting up the room without losing momentum
A common worry is that moving to a data room slows a raise down. It does not need to. Prepare the folder structure in advance, upload it in one pass, create a group for each investor so you can see who is active, and keep the deck tracking running in parallel if you like it. Ellty’s 14-day free trial is long enough to build the room and run the first round of questions before paying.
Four stages of a company’s life
At pre-seed, a founder emails a deck to forty angels and wants to know who read past the team slide. DocSend is built for that, and nothing in a full data room improves on it. Paying for a transaction room at this stage buys features nobody will use.
At seed, a lead investor asks for financials, the cap table and key contracts before issuing a term sheet. The document count jumps from one to a few dozen, and the documents now include personal salary data and customer pricing. This is the point where rights control and two-factor login start to matter, and where Ellty’s 14-day free trial covers most of a short diligence window.
At Series A and beyond, several funds run diligence in parallel, each with its own lawyers and accountants. Questions multiply, and each fund should see only what it has been cleared to see. Group permissions and a Q&A log stop being nice to have, and DocSend’s link model has no answer for either.
When an acquirer approaches, the folder grows into the hundreds or thousands of files, and signatures on the purchase agreement and disclosure letter follow. Ellty’s bulk upload, AI features and native e-signature fit that stage; DocSend lists e-signature too, but none of the rest.
Security questions to put to each vendor
Both list SOC 2, Ellty’s as SOC 2 (infrastructure). As with any vendor, ask each for the current report under NDA and confirm which entity, systems and period it covers. Neither lists ISO 27001, so if an institutional investor’s questionnaire asks for it, neither answers directly. For DocSend, ask what stops a forwarded link from opening a document for someone you never invited, since two-factor login is not in the facts we track, and ask what happens to a file once a viewer downloads it. For Ellty, confirm that two-factor login is enforced for every guest by default and that the audit export shows views, downloads and prints per user.
Pricing and contract questions
Per-seat billing looks cheap until the team grows. Before signing with DocSend, count everyone who will send or manage documents: founder, CFO, a fractional finance lead, perhaps a banker. For Ellty, check whether the plan is billed monthly so it can be stopped once the round or sale closes, and how long read-only access to the archive remains after that. Both list a free trial, so test before committing to either.
What carries over when you switch
Nothing moves automatically. Neither product lists a public API, and DocSend does not list bulk upload, so the practical route is to download the files you already shared, rebuild them into a numbered folder structure and upload that structure to Ellty in one pass. View analytics stay in DocSend; export or screenshot anything you want to keep for the record. Then invite each investor into their own group and send a single note explaining that diligence has moved to the data room.
Which one for which job
| Job | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Track who opened a pitch deck | DocSend |
| Seed round with a full diligence folder | Ellty |
| Series A or later with several funds asking questions | Ellty |
| Sale of a company | Ellty |
| Share a one-off brochure with a prospect | DocSend |
A sensible pattern: track the deck with whatever tool you like, then open a proper room when an investor asks for the data pack. The startup fundraising shortlist covers that step.