Ellty vs iDeals: two deal rooms, two priorities

This is the closest matchup on the site. Ellty and iDeals were both built for transactions, both tick every core item on our deal-room checklist, and both earn a 9.5 for deal workflow. What separates them is philosophy. iDeals, founded in 2008 and based in the United Kingdom, leans into the enterprise procurement playbook: certificates by name, identity integration, a quote shaped around your project. Ellty, founded in 2020 and based in Australia, keeps the same transaction toolkit and layers modern features on top, with a price anyone can read on its website.

Security posture

iDeals scores 9.6 here and Ellty 9.4. The difference comes almost entirely from paperwork and identity. iDeals holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and supports single sign-on, which matters when a corporate buyer routes every outside tool through its own identity provider. Ellty lists SOC 2 (infrastructure) and does not list ISO 27001.

Inside the room the protections look alike. Both apply dynamic watermarks with the viewer’s identity, both let an admin block printing or downloading through document rights control, both enforce two-factor login, and both keep a full audit trail of who opened what and when. If your counterparty’s security questionnaire asks about controls rather than certificates, the two will answer it in much the same way. If it asks for ISO 27001 by name, iDeals ticks that box and Ellty needs a conversation.

Deal workflow

A tie at 9.5. Both rooms route buyer questions through a structured Q&A module, assign permissions per group and per document, and accept large folder uploads in one pass. Where they diverge is in the extras. Ellty has built-in AI features and native e-signature, so a deal team can work through room content and get documents signed without leaving the platform. iDeals has native redaction and a public API, the second being useful if documents flow in from a document management system automatically.

Think about the last week of your process. If you expect to sign NDAs and side letters from inside the room, Ellty saves a tool. If you expect to redact hundreds of employee files, iDeals saves a step.

Everyday usability

Ellty’s clearest lead: 9.8 against 8.5. The difference comes from how each product is built and sold. Ellty’s interface is designed to be uncluttered, setup is self-serve from a free trial, and the guest view is kept simple so an outside reviewer can find a file without a walkthrough. iDeals is not hard to use, but it carries more settings and assumes an admin who has been onboarded. Neither room ships a native mobile app; both work in a phone browser.

Pricing

This is where the buying experience differs most. Ellty publishes a flat entry price of $149/mo and offers a 14-day free trial, so a six-month room comes to about $894 at that entry rate before any higher tier or extras. iDeals quotes on request. A quote can be good value for a large project, and iDeals scores a respectable 8.8 for pricing clarity, but you cannot model the number before a sales call. Ellty scores 9.7.

Flat monthly pricing is easy to forecast when a deal runs long. Project quotes often bundle users, storage and term, so ask iDeals to quote the same scope and duration you test in Ellty, then compare totals. Our pricing guide explains the three billing models in more depth.

Service and support

iDeals leads, 9.7 against 9.2, the highest service score on our roster, and support is central to how iDeals positions itself. Ellty’s service score is also high, and a simpler setup tends to mean fewer tickets in the first place. For a cross-border auction where an adviser in another time zone may get locked out at midnight, ask both vendors to confirm in writing how out-of-hours support is reached; iDeals has the longer operating history, dating from 2008.

A one-day test plan for both rooms

Because both vendors let you in before you pay, the fairest way to decide is a structured trial rather than a demo. Pick twenty real files that represent the deal: a cap table, two customer contracts, a lease, an employee census and a set of management accounts. Then run the same five steps in each room.

1. Build the index. Time how long it takes to upload the folder tree and get numbering right. Ellty’s bulk upload and self-serve setup are its strongest card here.
2. Create two bidder groups. Give one group access to everything except the employee census, the other to financials only. Check that each guest sees exactly what you intended.
3. Send three questions as a buyer. Route one to legal, one to finance and one to the CEO. Note how answers are approved and released.
4. Lock a document. Block printing and saving on the customer contracts, then open them as a guest and try.
5. Pull the activity report. See whether you can tell, at a glance, which bidder spent the most time in the financials.

On iDeals, add a sixth step: redact a name in the employee census and confirm the original is protected. On Ellty, add a different sixth step: use the AI features to summarize one of the customer contracts and check whether the summary would save an associate time.

Feature coverage and the procurement checklist

Count the features on our twelve-item checklist and iDeals lists nine to Ellty’s eight, but the totals hide how different the extras are. The shared core of six covers Q&A, audit trail, dynamic watermarks, document rights control, two-factor login and bulk upload. Ellty’s other two are AI features and e-signature; iDeals’ other three are redaction, a public API and single sign-on.

That split maps neatly onto two kinds of buyer. A deal team that will do most of its own analysis and paperwork inside the room gets more from Ellty’s pair, because summaries and signatures stay in one access-controlled workspace. An organization whose IT and compliance teams sign off on every outside tool gets more from iDeals’ set, because ISO 27001, SSO and an API are the items those reviews usually ask about. If your process has both kinds of stakeholder, list the requirements each one will actually enforce and see which room clears more of them.

Questions to put to each vendor

Ask iDeals how its quote changes if the process runs three months longer than planned, and whether archive export at closing is included. Ask Ellty which plan tier covers the number of guests you expect and how long the archive stays available after the room closes. Ask both where data is hosted and whether that location can be chosen, because cross-border buyers and their counsel increasingly raise it before the first upload.

Which one for which team

Neither choice is a compromise on deal fundamentals. Run both trials on the same twenty files, invite one outside adviser to each, and the right answer usually becomes obvious within a day.