The six criteria
Each provider is scored from 0 to 10 on six criteria. The overall score is the weighted average, rounded to one decimal place. The weights reflect what tends to decide a real transaction: the deal workflow and security count most, then whether outside parties can use the room without help, then cost and service.
Deal workflow (24%). How the platform behaves during a live process. We look at the Q&A module (routing, approval, publishing answers to all parties), permission groups, indexing and numbering, bulk upload of folder trees, and the reports an administrator gets on bidder activity.
Security posture (22%). Independent certifications such as a SOC 2 report or ISO 27001, enforced two-factor login, dynamic watermarking, document rights control after a file is opened, and how much detail the audit trail records and exports.
Everyday usability (18%). Whether a room can be set up self-serve or only through the vendor, whether a free trial lets a buyer judge the interface before signing, how much configuration the documentation describes before the first guest is invited, whether a native mobile app exists, and how much onboarding the vendor expects administrators to need.
Pricing clarity (14%). Whether a price is published, whether the bill is predictable when a deal runs long, what each tier includes, and whether overage charges or archive fees are explained upfront.
Service quality (12%). Published support hours and channels, the onboarding included in the offer, and the service model the vendor describes for live deals. We rely on published support terms and the vendor’s own descriptions of its service, not on anecdotes.
Feature coverage (10%). How many of the twelve items on our checklist the platform ships natively. This is calculated directly from the checklist below.
The twelve-feature checklist
Every review marks each item as native or not native. Add-ons, partner integrations and features only available on request are not counted as native.
- Q&A workflow
- Audit trail
- Dynamic watermarks
- Redaction
- E-signature
- Mobile app
- Public API
- Single sign-on
- Two-factor login
- Bulk upload
- Document rights control
- AI features
How a review is put together
Our reviews are desk research, and we want to be plain about that. We do not run timed lab tests, mock auctions with real bidders or performance benchmarks, and no score on this site claims to be a measurement of that kind. Each review follows the same steps:
- Vendor documentation. We read the provider’s product pages, help centre and feature documentation to understand what the room does natively and what needs an add-on or partner tool.
- Published pricing. We record the entry price where one is published, the pricing model (flat, per user or quoted per project) and whether a free trial is offered. Quote-only providers are marked as such; we do not estimate their private pricing.
- Security attestations. We note the certifications and reports a provider lists, such as a SOC 2 report or an ISO 27001 certificate, along with stated controls like two-factor login, single sign-on and deployment options.
- Feature check. Each of the twelve checklist items is marked native or not native against the facts file we keep for every provider, which every review, table and comparison on the site draws from, so one provider never appears with two different feature sets.
- Editorial scoring. The editorial team scores the six criteria out of 10 from that evidence, applying the same standards to every provider, and the weighted total becomes the overall score.
Where a feature or behaviour can only be confirmed in a live trial or a sales demo, the review says so and turns it into a check for the reader: providers with a free trial get a list of things to try in it, and demo-only providers get a list of questions to put to the presenter. Your own deal, files and counterparties are the final test, and we would rather equip you for it than claim to have done it for you.
Where the facts come from
Prices, certifications, deployment options, founding year, headquarters and feature lists come from vendor websites, documentation and security pages, and from corrections vendors send us with supporting evidence. We recheck these facts on a regular cycle and whenever a vendor tells us something has changed. Prices are shown in US dollars as published and labelled indicative; confirm the current price with the provider before you rely on it.
How often scores change
We review every score monthly. A score moves when the underlying facts change (a new certification, a new feature, a pricing change) or when new documentation changes our reading of a criterion. Each review shows the date it was last updated.
Score bands
| Score | Band |
|---|---|
| 9.0 and above | Outstanding |
| 8.5 to 8.9 | Excellent |
| 8.0 to 8.4 | Very good |
| 7.5 to 7.9 | Good |
| 7.0 to 7.4 | Fair |
| Below 7.0 | Limited |
The star display next to a score is the same number divided by two. It is our editorial score, not an average of user ratings.
What scores do not reflect
Affiliate relationships do not change scores. The method above is applied the same way to every provider, whether or not we earn anything from it. Our affiliate disclosure explains how the site is funded, and our editorial policy covers corrections and updates.
A score is also not a recommendation for every deal. A platform scoring 7.5 can be the right choice for a specific need, such as tracking who opened a pitch deck, while a 9.0 platform may be more than a two-document exchange requires. Our rankings by deal type and our quiz exist for that reason.