Companies spend significant money on software. According to Gartner, businesses worldwide spend over $1 trillion on software solutions — the highest in recent years. Remarkably, IT spending can reach 19% of the company budget, making selecting a software pricing model a decisive factor in IT strategies.
This is particularly true for M&A virtual data rooms (VDRs), where data room pricing can substantially impact customer experience and deal outcomes. Among these, per-page pricing models often result in cost traps.
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| General information | |||
| Free trial | Free trial: 30 days with no obligation to buy a data room subscription | Free trial: 14 days with no obligation to buy a subscription | Free trial: Unlimited until an external user is invited |
| Services | Unlimited services: No limitations on the number of projects and users | Unlimited services: Unlimited storage, projects, and users | Unlimited services: Unlimited users, projects, and features |
| Pricing | Tiered pricing: Flexible pricing plans with predictable monthly fees and prorated overages reflecting actual usage | User-based pricing: Charges per additional user are prorated and based on the base fee under the selected subscription tier. Data Room Edition and Unlimited Edition are custom pricing plans that include advanced features, billed at a flat fee. | Predictable overages: While Ansarada’s ove |
| Details | Check price | Learn more | Learn more |
While manageable at first glance, per-page VDR prices result in unexpectedly high bills. So let’s explore how per-page virtual data room pricing works and why potential VDR customers should avoid it.
Per-page virtual data room pricing strategy explained
The per-page pricing structure is fundamentally different from conventional storage-based charges. It calculates fees based on the number of pages derived from various digital documents uploaded to the virtual data room. When a user uploads a 10-page PDF document, the cost is calculated for 10 pages rather than the file size.
Per-page data room providers often claim that their prices range between $0.40 and $0.80 per page, with an average of $0.60 per page, and that one GB is typically 10,000 pages. Given these assumptions, it’s easy to calculate VDR bills from the perspective of potential customers:
- 10 pages at $0.60 per page = $6.0 per 10 pages.
- 10,000 pages per GB at $0.60 per page = $6,000 per GB.
With per-page virtual data rooms, customers usually benefit from unlimited storage, projects, users, industry-leading features, and premium support. With progressive volume-based discounts, such data room bills may sound reasonable, particularly in the long term. That’s what potential customers are usually advertised.
| Page volume | Progressive discount | Cost per 10,000 pages | Data volume | Total cost |
| 10,000 | 0% | $6,000 | 1 GB | $6,000 |
| 30,000 | -10% | $5,400 | 3 GB | $16,200 |
| 40,000 | -15% | $5,100 | 4 GB | $20,400 |
| 50,000 | -25% | $4,500 | 5 GB | $22,500 |
What is considered a page? Non-standardized conversions explained
In per-page virtual data rooms, potential customers are led to believe that charges are based on the actual number of pages within digital documents, regardless of file format. At first glance, it may seem that 10 pages of plain text, 10 images, 10 PDF pages, or 10 spreadsheets are all equally charged at $0.60 per page.
This assumption, however, can be misleading. The per-page virtual data room pricing often relies on undisclosed, proprietary page-to-volume conversions that customers may only discover through first-hand experience. Additionally, per-page virtual data room providers usually charge “special media” (S-media), including images, videos, 3D files, and other non-text files, at higher rates.
These peculiarities can quickly result in inflated virtual data room costs that exceed initial expectations several times. Let’s explore how easily customers can get overcharged for various file formats.
| Per-page rate | File format | Conversion rate | Page/GB | Cost per GB |
| $0.60/page | 1 GB = 1,000,000 KB | |||
| 100 KB/page | 10,000 | $6,000 | ||
| PPTX | 35 KB/page | 28,571 | $17,142 | |
| TXT | 25 KB/page | 40,000 | $24,000 | |
| DOCX | 15 KB/page | 66,666 | $40,000 | |
| XLSX | 10 KB/page | 100,000 | $60,000 | |
| S-media rate | ||||
| ~$15 per MB | JPEG MP4PNGRAROther | – | – | ~$15,000 |
Customers should consider that file distributions vary across projects. For instance, in M&A transactions, 1 GB (1,000 MB) of data tends to be distributed as follows:
- 45% PDF
- 30% S-media
- 10% MS Word (DOCX)
- 10% MS Excel (XLSX)
- 5% MS PowerPoint (PPTX)
These distributions can impact total per-page VDR costs in ways that are not initially clear, often exceeding the initial $6,000/GB expectations many times.
| Per-page rate | Total volume | File type | KB/page | % of total volume | Pages | Volume | Cost |
| $0.60/page | 1,000 MB | 100 | 45% | 4,500 | 450 MB | $2,700 | |
| DOCX | 15 | 10% | 6,666 | 100 MB | $4,000 | ||
| XLSX | 10 | 10% | 10,000 | 100 MB | $6,000 | ||
| PPTX | 35 | 5% | 1,428 | 50 MB | $857 | ||
| S-media rate | |||||||
| $15/MB | S-media | – | 30% | – | 300 MB | $4,500 | |
| Expected pages | Total pages | Expected cost | Total cost | ||||
| 10,000 | 22,594 + S-media | $6,000 | $18,057 |
Three financial risks of working with a per-page virtual data room provider
Per-page virtual data rooms carry financial risks beyond non-disclosed page-to-volume conversions. Customers usually face additional costs due to overages and upload-based billing, particularly when managing multiple deals simultaneously and facing delays beyond their control.
Time overages and billing Impact
Transactional projects commonly exceed initial time expectations. Studies show that 30%–50% of large M&A transactions are delayed due to external factors, including regulatory challenges and integration complexity. These circumstances put additional pressure on VDR customers who face non-prorated time extension fees in per-page virtual data rooms. Let’s first explore the difference between prorated and non-prorated overages:
- Prorated overage fee. Users simply renew subscriptions at a regular monthly rate. If a project fee is $6,000 for three months, every additional month is $2,000.
- Non-prorated overage fee. When the project exceeds the initial time allocation, a customer may be charged twice the prorated fee. If a project is $6,000 for three months, every additional month is $4,000 — twice the prorated fee.
With per-page VDR providers, time overages are non-prorated and usually charged twice the prorated fee. Let’s see how time overages further inflate the costs of non-standardized page-to-volume conversions. We take three months and 1000 MB at $18,057 as the base project fee (accounting for actual data splits in transactional projects).
| Base project fee | Expected time overage (prorated) | Actual time overage(twice the prorated fee) | Total duration with overage | Expected cost (prorated) | Actual cost |
| 3 months at $18,057 | $6,019/month | $12,038/month | 3 months (no overage) | $18,057 | $18,057 |
| 4 months | $24,076 | $30,095 | |||
| 5 months | $30,095 | $42,133 | |||
| 6 months | $36,114 | $54,171 | |||
| 7 months | $42,133 | $66,209 | |||
| 8 months | $48,152 | $78,248 |
Combined data and time overages: A costly surprise
In per-page virtual data rooms, data overages are usually prorated. However, there is no traditional storage limit to prevent customers from accidentally exceeding the allocated capacity. Unlike conventional virtual data rooms with storage limits, per-page VDRs incur charges as long as customers upload pages.
This peculiarity leaves customers with less control over data usage. With data and time overages combined, the final bill can exceed initial expectations many times over. Let’s compare data and time overage fees under various scenarios, including combined overages.
| Base project terms | Base project fee | Data overage | Time overage | Data overage fee (base fee) | Time overage fee (x2 the base fee) | Actual cost |
| 1000 MB and 3 months | $18,057 | +1,000 MB | – | +$18,057 | – | $36,114 |
| +3 months | – | –+$36,114 | $54,171 | |||
| +1,000 MB | +3 months | +$18,057 | +$36,114 | $72,228 |
Total uploads vs. data amount billed
With conventional data rooms, customers can upload, delete, download, and re-upload files without incurring additional fees. However, with per-page VDRs, users are charged for each upload without considering actual storage usage or page capacity.
Imagine a customer has uploaded 1,000 MB. That’s a $18,057 charge. A minute later the customer removed (accidentally) and reuploaded the very same 1000 MB. That’s another $18,057 charge.
Effectively, every upload is charged regardless of whether it’s new content or updated versions of previously uploaded content. That’s a significant document management obstacle, particularly version control during the due diligence process.
This approach is fundamentally different from how modern data rooms operate. It is inherently detrimental to customers, limits collaboration, and results in unexpectedly inflated bills.
Let’s illustrate the cost difference between a per-page virtual data room solution with upload-based billing and a usage-based VDR with data storage billing assuming both charge $18,057 per 1,000 MB.
| Scenario | Number of uploads | Total data uploaded | Total data storage | Data storage billing | Total upload billing |
| Initial upload | One upload | 1,000 MB | 1,000 MB | $18,057 | $18,057 |
| 1,000 MB deleted and reuploaded | Two uploads | 2,000 MB | 1,000 MB | $18,057 | $36,114 |
| Heavy 200-MB file versioning and editing | 20 uploads, old versions are removed every time | 4,000 MB | 200 MB | $3,611 | $72,228 |
| Moderate 50-MB file versioning | 10 uploads, old versions are removed every time | 500 MB | 50 MB | $902 | $9,028 |
How to avoid per-page pricing pitfalls?
Let’s summarize the risks of using per-page virtual data room solutions:
- Inconsistent conversions. Per-page virtual data rooms rely on proprietary page-to-volume conversions that are neither standardized nor openly disclosed. This approach leaves customers with limited insight into how data usage is calculated and billed.
- Special media charges. Per-page VDRs apply an exclusive pricing logic and undisclosed pricing criteria to multimedia files, making it challenging for customers to predict upload costs, particularly when simultaneously uploading text-based files and multimedia.
- High charges for non-PDF documents. Per-page VDRs apply exclusive page conversions to MS Office files, often at higher rates, leaving customers with unexpectedly inflated bills.
- High time overages. Per-page VDRs apply non-prorated fees for project extensions, effectively charging twice the expected prorated fee. This makes long-term project management financially unsustainable.
- Upload-based billing. Per-page virtual data rooms charge for each upload rather than total storage, making collaboration unreasonably expensive.
Since these pitfalls are embedded in the core operating model of per-page virtual data room software, the best way to avoid them is to migrate to common VDR pricing structures that are more transparent.
What data rooms provide transparent pricing?
Usage-based, user-based, and tiered data room pricing structures offer a more transparent virtual data room cost:
- Usage-based pricing charges for actual data storage with predictable monthly billing and prorated overages. Users can manage files however they want at no additional cost.
- User-based pricing charges for the number of user licenses, with predictable monthly bills and prorated overages based on the actual number of users. Customers have access to unlimited storage without additional costs.
- Tiered pricing is based on predefined data storage capacity and feature tiers with fixed monthly bills and prorated overages. Users can choose tiers that match their project requirements.
- The flat-rate pricing model charges a flat monthly fee for a universal set of features. The flat-rate pricing structure includes all services and functionalities and usually offers prorated overages.
Key takeaways
- Per-page virtual data rooms use outdated, non-standardized, and non-competitive pricing policies that result in unreasonably inflated bills.
- Per-page VDR customers get charged several times higher than advertised due to hidden costs of page-to-volume conversions, non-porated overages, and upload-based billing.
- The best way for potential VDR customers to avoid per-page pricing pitfalls is to opt for data rooms with more predictable pricing models.
- Usage-based, user-based, and tiered pricing models offer greater value for money, prorated overages, and predictable monthly billing without hidden fees.