What Canadian buyers should know
Ellty bills in US dollars: US$149 a month converts to about C$211 at the Bank of Canada rate of 1.4154, before GST or HST. Ask where rooms are hosted and whether a Canadian region is available if a buyer, pension fund or public body requires it. For deals with personal information, confirm the vendor will sign terms that support the PIPEDA s. 7.2 business-transaction conditions and a Law 25 privacy impact assessment. If Quebec guests need a French interface, check with the vendor.
| Starting price | about C$211 a month (US$149/mo) |
| Six months, before tax | C$1,266 |
| With Ontario HST (13%) | C$1,431 |
| Canadian hosting | Ask the vendor |
| 8 of 12 features | Q&A module, Activity log, Dynamic watermarks, E-signature |
What it does well
- Published price of US$149 a month (about C$211) and a 14-day free trial
- Full deal controls: Q&A module, dynamic watermarks, view and download rights, activity log and 2-step login
- AI help listed in the product
- Built-in e-signature for NDAs and closing documents
- Clean interface that guests learn quickly, with bulk upload that keeps folder structure
Not in the product
- No public API listed at the time of writing
- No single sign-on listed
- No native mobile app; guests use the mobile browser
- No in-room redaction tool listed
Cost in Canadian dollars
Ellty publishes US$149/mo. At the Bank of Canada rate of October 16, 2026 that is about C$211 a month. Sales tax depends on your province: from 5% GST in Alberta to 15% HST in Atlantic Canada.
Ellty cost estimate in Canadian dollars
Choose the deal type, how many people on your side need access, the number of months and where your company is.
| Data room | Pricing | Total with tax |
|---|---|---|
 Onehub | Flat | C$95 |
 Citrix ShareFile | Flat | C$353 |
 Box | Per user | C$759 |
 Digify | Flat | C$768 |
 Ellty | Flat | C$954 |
 SecureDocs | Flat | C$1,600 |
 CapLinked | Flat | C$1,912 |
 DocSend | Per user | C$2,314 |
 iDeals | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Datasite | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Ansarada | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Firmex | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Drooms | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Intralinks | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 SmartRoom | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 DealRoom | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 ShareVault | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
 Venue by DFIN | Estimate | ~C$11,300 to C$33,900 |
Rows marked Flat or Per user start from the price each vendor lists in US dollars, turned into Canadian dollars at the Bank of Canada rate for October 16, 2026 (US$1 = C$1.4154) and taxed at your province's rate. Rows marked Estimate belong to vendors that keep prices private; for them we show the range we see for the kind of project you chose, which is not that vendor's own figure. For planning only.
The product in brief
Ellty dates from 2020, with its head office in Australia. It sits in the same class as the long-standing deal rooms: per-folder and per-file permissions, view and download rights you can withdraw, watermarks stamped with each viewer's details, and a log of who opened what and for how long. A built-in Q&A module lets buyers or investors ask questions inside the room, and your team routes and answers them with a record.
Where it differs is in how the product is presented and sold. The price is on the website rather than behind a quote form, and the 14-day free trial gives a deal team a working room to build an index in before anyone signs. AI help is listed, and e-signature is built in, so an NDA can be signed without a second product. The interface is clean and quick to learn for guests who open a data room once a year.
For security, Ellty lists a SOC 2 report covering its hosting infrastructure and 2-step login for admins and guests. Bulk upload keeps folder trees and numbering intact, which matters when a Canadian seller arrives with a vendor due diligence pack built in Windows folders. Analytics show which bidders are reading which folders, a common question from sell-side advisers in Toronto and Calgary during a second round.
Feature check
| Feature | Ellty | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Q&A module | Yes | Bidders post questions inside the room; counsel or the CFO drafts the reply, someone approves it, and every exchange stays on file. |
| Activity log | Yes | Per-user history of opens, prints and downloads with timestamps, which you can export for the closing binder. |
| Dynamic watermarks | Yes | The reader's identity and the date are printed across every page, which discourages screenshots and identifies the source of a leak. |
| In-room redaction | Not listed | Hide social insurance numbers, pay figures or client names on the platform itself, without keeping two versions of the file. |
| E-signature | Yes | Confidentiality agreements and closing papers can be executed on the platform. |
| Mobile app | Not listed | An installable phone or tablet app, beyond the responsive web view. |
| Public API | Not listed | Programmatic access for creating rooms, adding users or exporting activity to other systems. |
| Single sign-on | Not listed | Staff log in with the company directory (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and similar) instead of a separate password. |
| 2-step login | Yes | Logins need a one-time code or authenticator approval on top of the password. |
| Bulk upload | Yes | Upload an entire set of nested folders at once, with the index numbers kept as they were. |
| View and download rights | Yes | Choose, document by document, whether a guest may only read, may print or may download, and change it later. |
| AI help | Yes | Vendor-listed automation such as sorting uploads into the index, summarizing long agreements, searching the room or proposing answers. |
Rating breakdown
How the Ellty rating breaks down
Each bar is out of 10; the dark tick is the mean across the 18 rooms we rate.
Canada Data Rooms
Deals it fits in Canada
Q&A, watermarks, view rights and bidder analytics cover a full sell-side process, and the published price makes the room cost easy to put in an engagement letter.
#1 for startup fundraisingInvestors see a tidy room, founders see who read the deck and the cap table, and the 14-day free trial lets a round start before a contract is signed.
#1 for private equityFund teams can reuse the same room format across portfolio exits and add-ons, with AI help to work through large contract sets.
Security and compliance
Ellty lists SOC 2 (hosting), 2-step login. For a Canadian deal, ask for the latest SOC 2 report or ISO certificate, a data processing agreement that covers PIPEDA, and for Quebec personal information, the details you need for a Law 25 privacy impact assessment.
Getting started and help
Sign-up opens a 14-day free trial, so a team can build the index, drag in folder trees with bulk upload and invite a few test guests before paying. Permissions, watermarks and Q&A are set inside the room by the admin. Support is rated 9.2 in our ratings; ask the vendor which hours it covers for Eastern and Pacific time.
What to check before you sign
- Upload a real folder tree (minute books, financials, contracts) and check the numbering survives.
- Create two bidder groups and confirm neither can see the other's files, questions or activity.
- Open a watermarked PDF as a guest and print it: is the name, email and time on every page?
- Ask the vendor in writing where data is hosted and who the sub-processors are.
- Check whether invoices can be in Canadian dollars and how GST/HST is charged.
- Run one question through the Q&A workflow from a bidder to an expert and back.
- Export the activity log and check it is complete enough for a closing file.
Other rooms to look at
Head-to-head: Ellty vs iDeals, Ellty vs Datasite, Ellty vs Firmex.
FAQ
How much does Ellty cost in Canadian dollars?
Ellty lists US$149/mo, which is about C$211 a month at the Bank of Canada rate of October 16, 2026, before GST, HST or provincial sales tax.
Does Ellty host data in Canada?
Ellty does not publish a Canadian hosting region that we could find. If your deal needs Canadian residency, ask the vendor in writing before you sign.
Does Ellty have a free trial?
Yes, a 14-day free trial with the full product, so you can build the index before you pay.
What is Ellty's score?
Ellty scores 9.2 out of 10 in our Canadian rating, rank 1 of 18. The score combines privacy and security, deal workflow, access control, ease of use and cost in Canadian dollars.