How it plays out on a deal
Some vendors include setup in the price; others charge separately for room creation, folder building, bulk loading or administrator training. These lines often appear only on the formal quote, not on the pricing page.
If the vendor's own team will build the room, a setup charge can be fair. If the room is self-serve and the work falls on the buyer anyway, it is worth asking for the fee to be waived.
What to check in a review or demo
- 1Whether setup, onboarding and training are included or charged separately.
- 2What exactly the vendor's team does for the fee.
- 3Whether the fee is charged again for each new room.
Read alongside
- Room administratorThe person, usually on the sell side or at the adviser, who builds the room, invites users, sets permissions and publishes documents.
- Total cost of ownership (TCO)The full cost of a data room over the life of a deal, combining the base price with extensions, overage, extra seats, setup, archive and the internal time spent running it.
- Quote-based pricingPricing that is not published and is set per project after a scoping call, usually bundling size, users, term, features and service level into one figure.