What Is Intralinks Used For: Top Features and Use Cases in 2025
Curious about what Intralinks is and how SS&C Intralinks can streamline your next M&A, fundraising, or board reporting project?
What are its standout features, and are there drawbacks you should know before committing budget to it?
In this guide we answer those questions in detail and explore an alternative VDR provider if you want similar security with transparent, lower pricing.
Let's dive in.
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What is Intralinks?
Intralinks—officially SS&C Intralinks after its 2018 acquisition—is an enterprise-grade virtual data room (VDR) and secure collaboration platform trusted by dealmakers worldwide. With over 25 years of experience, SS&C Intralinks has established itself as the industry leader, facilitating 10,000+ M&A deals annually and managing over $35+ trillion in financial transactions on their platform, serving 6.6+ million registered users worldwide.
Core Product Lineup
Intralinks offers a comprehensive suite of solutions including:
- VDRPro - Their flagship virtual data room for M&A and due diligence
- Elite - Secure file sharing and collaboration platform
- DealCentre AI - AI-powered deal management and analytics platform
- FundCentre - Specialized solution for fund management and investor relations
- Deal Services - Professional services and consulting for complex transactions
Key Features and Capabilities
Simple.
- Frictionless setup - Use Advanced Deal Prep to organize deal documents before going live, with no contract or upfront costs
- Optimized processes - Enhanced drag-and-drop capability lets you rename and upload files and folders in bulk
- Intuitive UI - Switch between data rooms, manage users, access reports simply and smoothly
- Streamlined access - Add users to your data room quickly and easily
Smart.
- Integrated AI Redaction - Leverage artificial intelligence to easily redact PII and other sensitive content from documents inside the data room, saving time and reducing risk
- Detailed reporting - Share key VDR metrics with deal team members to keep everyone informed and aligned
- Real-time insights - Easily track and share group, user and document level activity in your VDR through a customizable dashboard to help measure engagement
Seamless.
- Automated index - Dynamically organize your VDR without the need to constantly update the index
- Powerful Q&A - Simple, easy-to-use Q&A helps move your deal toward the finish line; bulk import of questions, priority level and access level are all easy to control
- Video support - Tell your story using video with Zoom Integration
- Mobile flexibility - Anytime, anywhere access to key data room capabilities and insights – even when you're on the go
- Fully integrated - VDRPro is a key component of DealCentre™, a powerful platform designed to speed and simplify every aspect of the deal lifecycle
Secure.
- Platinum certification - The industry's first VDR to earn ISO 27701 certification – the standard in data privacy
- Easily share...and UNshare® - One-click to enable and one-click to retract a document with advanced information rights management
- Robust watermarking - Flexible and customizable, saving you time and effort
- Turnkey permissions - Granular and easy to control to ensure the right users have access to the right documents
- Holistic security - GDPR-compliant, encrypted archives, in-region data storage and processing
Unmatched Security Features
Security is at the heart of what Intralinks does. Their platform is fully validated and the first VDR to earn ISO 27701 certification – the highest possible standard.
Key security capabilities include:
- Access and retract documents in a single click with advanced information rights management (IRM) — even after the document is downloaded
- Ensure the right users have access to the right documents with granular permission controls
- GDPR compliance and encrypted archives
- In-region data storage and processing
Works the Way You Do
Completely configurable to your deal team's processes and preferences for easy adoption by clients, counterparties and teams:
- Get started right away with easy set-up on our intuitive, user-friendly interface
- Switch between data rooms, manage users and access reports simply and smoothly
- Customizable workflows and automation
- Integrated Q&A and document management
Pricing and Cost Structure
While Intralinks offers robust features, their pricing model lacks transparency. Key points about their pricing:
- Custom quotes only - no published pricing
- Enterprise implementations start at $10,000+ annually
- Pricing varies based on:
- Data volume and storage requirements
- Number of users and access levels
- Project duration and complexity
- Required features and security levels
- Geographic deployment needs
- Support tier requirements
For detailed pricing information and cost comparisons with alternatives, see our complete Intralinks pricing guide.
Ready to explore a modern alternative?
While Intralinks offers comprehensive enterprise features, teams looking for a more agile, transparent solution should consider Papermark. We offer:
- Transparent pricing at €99/month
- Instant 3-minute setup
- Unlimited data rooms and storage
- Page-level analytics and engagement tracking
- Modern, intuitive interface
- Enterprise-grade security
Why look for an Intralinks alternative?
While Intralinks VDRPro and Elite are powerful enterprise platforms with a proven 25-year track record, many modern teams are seeking alternatives due to several key limitations:
1. Custom pricing complexity and high costs
Intralinks requires lengthy sales negotiations to get pricing, with no transparent cost structure available upfront. Their enterprise-focused pricing often exceeds budget constraints for smaller teams, startups, and mid-market companies. The customized pricing model can include storage restrictions and unexpected overages that inflate final costs.
2. Enterprise complexity vs. modern simplicity
The platform's extensive feature set comes with a steep learning curve compared to modern, simplified VDR solutions. Some UI components feel dated compared to newer platforms, and the complex workflow can require extensive training for first-time users.
3. Limited granular analytics
While Intralinks offers detailed reporting and real-time insights, it lacks the granular page-by-page engagement analytics that modern teams need to identify specific investor interest patterns and understand exactly where stakeholders pause and engage with documents.
4. Implementation and setup barriers
Enterprise-level implementation timelines can slow down urgent deals, and the platform's complexity may not suit teams that need quick setup and immediate deployment for time-sensitive transactions.
5. Transparency and auditability concerns
Unlike open-source solutions, teams cannot verify encryption and compliance controls themselves, which some security-conscious organizations require for enhanced transparency and compliance verification.
You might specifically look for an alternative when you need:
- Transparent, predictable pricing without lengthy sales negotiations
- Unlimited data rooms & storage without per-deal pricing constraints
- Page-level engagement insights to understand document interaction patterns
- Modern, intuitive UX that doesn't require extensive training
- Quick deployment without enterprise-level implementation timelines
- Open-source auditability for enhanced security transparency
Papermark vs. Intralinks: A comprehensive comparison
Papermark represents a new generation of data room solutions that combines enterprise-grade security with modern simplicity and transparent pricing. Here's how it compares to Intralinks across key areas:
| Feature | Intralinks | Papermark |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Custom pricing, sales required | €99/month transparent pricing |
| Setup Time | Enterprise implementation | Instant signup, 3 minutes |
| Analytics | High-level reporting | Page-by-page heatmaps |
| Storage | Custom limits, overages | Unlimited included |
| Data Rooms | Per-deal pricing constraints | Unlimited rooms included |
When Papermark is the better choice:
Key advantages:
- Unlimited data rooms & storage — no per-deal or per-GB surprises
- Page-by-page analytics & heatmaps — know exactly where investors pause and engage
- Open-source auditability — verify encryption and compliance controls yourself
- Self-host option — maintain complete data sovereignty behind your firewall
- Full white-label capabilities — custom domain, colors, and logo for brand consistency
- No plugins required — everything works seamlessly in the browser
- Transparent pricing model — know exactly what you'll pay before you start
Best suited for:
- Growing companies that need enterprise-grade security without enterprise complexity and costs
- Teams requiring detailed engagement insights to understand investor behavior and document interaction patterns
- Security-conscious organizations that value open-source transparency and self-hosting capabilities
- Fast-moving deals that need immediate deployment without lengthy implementation processes
- Budget-conscious teams that prefer predictable, transparent pricing over custom enterprise contracts
Papermark's core capabilities:
Unlimited rooms and collaborators: Create as many projects as you like — fundraising, board portals, due diligence — all on the same transparent subscription.
Advanced link-level security: Email verification, watermarks, screenshot protection, NDA acceptance, and time-based access controls on a per-link basis.
Granular engagement analytics: Detailed page-by-page insights showing user behavior, time spent on each section, and engagement patterns.
Papermark pricing transparency:
Conclusion
Intralinks VDRPro and Elite remain powerful platforms for high-stakes deals, particularly for large enterprises that value proven track record, comprehensive security certifications, and dedicated support infrastructure. With over 25 years of experience and $35+ trillion in transactions facilitated, Intralinks has undeniably established itself as the industry leader.
However, their custom pricing model, enterprise complexity, and limited granular analytics are driving many modern teams to seek alternatives that offer greater transparency, flexibility, and detailed insights.
Papermark provides an excellent alternative for teams that need enterprise-grade security combined with modern UX, transparent pricing, and detailed page-level analytics. It's particularly well-suited for growing companies, security-conscious organizations requiring open-source auditability, and teams that value predictable costs and quick deployment.
The choice between Intralinks and Papermark ultimately depends on your specific needs: enterprise-level support and proven track record versus modern simplicity, transparent pricing, and granular insights.
Ready to experience a next-generation data room with transparent pricing and detailed analytics?