SharePoint runs your tenant.Peony runs your external diligence.
Pick SharePoint if you need inside-tenant Microsoft 365 collaboration on document libraries. Pick Peony if you need NDA-gated external diligence with page-level analytics, dynamic watermarks, screenshot protection, and per-viewer audit trails — without provisioning Entra B2B guests or paying $36/user/month for counterparties to read your IRM-protected files.Set up in under 5 minutes.
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Side-by-side comparison
SharePoint is a Microsoft 365 document-library and team-collaboration platform built for inside-tenant work. Peony is a purpose-built virtual data room for external NDA-gated diligence — designed for fundraising, M&A, due diligence, and regulated client handovers.
PeonyWhy deal teams add Peony alongside SharePoint
Most M&A and fundraising teams keep SharePoint for inside-tenant collaboration and add Peony for external diligence. The two platforms solve different problems — and using SharePoint as a data room creates structural friction at every step of an external process.
No guest provisioning
SharePoint requires Entra B2B guest accounts for every external counterparty — a multi-day IT ticket per deal. Peony issues NDA-gated links in 5 minutes, no Microsoft 365 license required for counterparties.
Page-by-page analytics
SharePoint logs file opens — Peony shows you which page each buyer or investor read for how long. Prioritize follow-up with the bidder deepest into your financial model.
Dynamic watermarks at view time
SharePoint IRM watermarks are static labels applied at upload. Peony renders viewer name, email, IP, and timestamp on every page at view time — a leak traces back to the specific viewer.
NDA-gated access with e-sign
SharePoint has no NDA gate at any tier. Peony requires every counterparty to sign your NDA via integrated e-signatures before any folder loads. No third-party signing tool needed.
Pricing comparison
SharePoint pricing is bundled inside Microsoft 365 plans — counterparties typically need an E3 ($36/user/month) or E5 ($57/user/month) license to fully read IRM-protected files. Peony charges flat per admin and zero per counterparty.
Peony
Free
$0
2 GB storage, per-page analytics
Pro
$20/admin/mo
200 GB storage
Business
$40/admin/mo
Unlimited storage, NDA gates, watermarks, AI Q&A
Counterparties pay zero. No license cost spillover.
SharePoint (via Microsoft 365)
Business Standard
$12.50/user/mo
1 TB OneDrive, basic SharePoint, Teams
M365 E3
$36/user/mo
Sensitivity labels, basic IRM, Information Protection
M365 E5
$57/user/mo
Full Purview, advanced IRM, Compliance Manager
External counterparties typically need licensed access too — or lose IRM enforcement.
When to use each platform
SharePoint is excellent for inside-tenant collaboration on document libraries, intranets, and Microsoft 365 ecosystem workflows. Peony is the better choice when you need NDA-gated external diligence with page-level tracking and dynamic identity-stamped watermarks.
Choose SharePoint when you need
Inside-tenant Microsoft 365 collaboration on document libraries
Corporate intranets and team sites
Tight Power Platform / Power Automate workflow integrations
Co-authoring on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents with your inside-tenant team
Records-management retention policies inside your Microsoft 365 tenant
Choose Peony when you need
NDA-gated external diligence for fundraising, M&A, or LP reporting
Counterparties to access in 5 minutes without Microsoft 365 guest provisioning
Page-by-page analytics showing which buyer, investor, or partner read which slide
Dynamic viewer-identity watermarks burned into every page at view time
Screenshot protection across desktop and mobile
AI-powered Smart Q&A so counterparties get instant document answers
What Peony gives you that SharePoint cannot
External counterparties access in 5 minutes, not 5 days
SharePoint external sharing requires Entra B2B guest accounts per counterparty — a multi-day IT process per deal. For IRM-protected files, the counterparty also needs a Microsoft 365 E3 ($36/user/month) or E5 ($57/user/month) license to fully read the file with watermarks rendered. Peony issues an NDA-gated link in 5 minutes; the counterparty signs your NDA via integrated e-signatures and accesses immediately. No Microsoft 365 license cost. No tenant guest accounts. No IT ticket.
Screenshot protection
Block screen captures of sensitive deal documents across desktop and mobile. SharePoint has no screenshot blocking at any Microsoft 365 tier.
Dynamic watermarks at view time
Every page stamped with the viewer's name, email, IP, and timestamp at the moment of viewing. SharePoint IRM watermarks are static labels added at upload — not identity-traceable per viewer.
NDA-gated access
Require counterparties to sign an NDA before they see a single page. Built-in e-signatures. SharePoint has no NDA gating at any tier.
Know exactly which slides each counterparty cares about
SharePoint logs file opens but tells you nothing about how long a counterparty read which page. Peony shows you which pages each viewer read, time per page, and total engagement across the data room. Prioritize follow-up calls with the buyer or investor deepest into your financial model — not guessing from a generic file-open log.
Counterparties get instant answers without waiting on email
Microsoft 365 Copilot is licensed for inside-tenant team use — your external counterparties cannot use it on your data room. Peony Smart Q&A lets investors, buyers, and partners ask questions of your data room and receive instant, citation-grounded answers from your documents — 24/7. Close deals faster by removing information bottlenecks. Every question and answer is logged in the per-viewer audit trail.
"Peony has been great for sharing documents with investors, employees, and customers. It's easy to use, good value, and new features are constantly being added. Definitely recommend!"
Ed Harris
Founder & CEO, Ligo Bio (YC S24)
Frequently asked questions
I'm CFO at a 60-person manufacturing company in M&A diligence — buyers want SharePoint guest access to our diligence files. IT says guest provisioning will take a week. Is there a faster way?
Yes. For your 60-person manufacturing M&A, Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives counterparties access in under 5 minutes via NDA-gated link — no Entra/AD guest provisioning, no IT ticket, no Microsoft 365 license-cost spillover. Each prospective buyer signs your NDA via integrated e-signatures before any folder loads. Dynamic watermarks stamp every page with the buyer-side identity. Page-level analytics show which buyer streams are deepest into which subset. SharePoint is built for inside-tenant collaboration; Peony is built for external diligence. Most M&A advisors stop trying to make SharePoint work after the first guest-account onboarding hits the IT helpdesk queue. You also avoid the $36/user/month Microsoft 365 E3 license cost for counterparties who only need 30-day diligence access.
We're a 25-person law firm and our standard practice is to share diligence on SharePoint with sensitivity labels. Why would we use Peony instead?
SharePoint sensitivity labels enforce static metadata-driven restrictions inside your Microsoft 365 tenant; they break the moment the file leaves the tenant boundary. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives your 25-person firm dynamic watermarks burned into every page (rendered at view time with the viewer's name, email, and timestamp), screenshot protection across desktop and mobile, NDA gates before any folder loads, and per-viewer audit trails exportable for litigation work-product. SharePoint guest accounts also force counterparties to authenticate via Microsoft 365 — pain when opposing counsel uses Google Workspace or has friction with Microsoft authentication. Peony works for any counterparty with an email address, no Microsoft 365 license required.
I'm head of corp dev at a $1.2B holding company with 8 portfolio operating units, all on Microsoft 365 — we run 3-5 deals per year. Should we standardize on SharePoint or use a separate VDR?
For your $1.2B holding company running 3-5 concurrent deals, Peony Business at $40/admin/month is structurally easier than SharePoint. SharePoint requires guest-account provisioning, sensitivity-label policy management, and Microsoft 365 license accounting for each external counterparty — manageable for 1 deal a year, painful for 3-5 concurrent. Peony's flat $40/admin/month covers your 4-person corp-dev team at $160/month — $1,920/year flat — across unlimited concurrent deals, unlimited counterparties, unlimited storage. Your portfolio companies can run their own diligence rooms on the same plan without IT involvement. SharePoint stays the right choice for inside-tenant collaboration and document libraries; Peony handles external M&A diligence. Use both for the right purpose.
Our 12-person PE fund is on Microsoft 365 E5 — we already pay for IRM/Purview. Why pay for a separate data room?
Because your $57/user/month E5 license covers your fund team's internal collaboration, not your external counterparties. Microsoft 365 IRM and Purview Information Protection rely on the recipient also being inside a compliant tenant, or on the recipient installing the Azure Information Protection viewer — friction that scales poorly across 4-8 LP-side and lender-side counterparties per deal. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives counterparties zero-install access in 5 minutes via NDA-gated link, with dynamic watermarks rendered at view time, screenshot protection across desktop and mobile, and full audit trails exportable for LPA-required reporting. E5 stays the right tool for fund-internal sensitive document handling; Peony handles the external-counterparty layer. For 12 people, you pay $480-$960/year for Peony — under 1% of your E5 spend.
I'm IT director at a 400-person engineering firm — we're against introducing another SaaS for security and compliance reasons. Why is Peony different than SharePoint here?
SharePoint inside your Microsoft 365 tenant is governed by your existing tenant policies — that's an asset for inside-tenant collaboration. The compliance burden flips when you share externally: SharePoint guest sharing requires per-counterparty Entra B2B identity provisioning, sensitivity-label DLP policy authoring, and Microsoft 365 license accounting per external user. Peony adds zero counterparty identity provisioning to your tenant, encrypts at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.3, supports SSO/SAML for your team, and generates a per-viewer audit trail exportable in CSV or PDF. SOC 2 Type II in progress. The compliance posture is cleaner for external diligence than retrofitting SharePoint guest sharing for the same purpose.
I'm a partner at a 35-person investment bank running M&A buy-side and sell-side mandates — we already have SharePoint in our Microsoft 365 tenant. What does Peony give us that SharePoint cannot?
For your 35-person investment bank running 6-10 concurrent mandates, Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives you what SharePoint cannot: page-level analytics on every diligence document (which buyer team read which page for how long — useful for prioritizing follow-up across 4-8 bidders), dynamic watermarks burned into every page (traceable to specific viewer identity), NDA gates with integrated e-signatures (no Microsoft 365 license required for counterparty), per-deal visitor groups segregating bidders, and AI-powered Smart Q&A that lets the buy-side team ask questions of the data room and get instant answers from the documents. SharePoint stays useful for inside-tenant collaboration on your working files; Peony is the layer your 4-8 concurrent bidder rooms run on. 4-admin team pays $1,920/year flat across all concurrent mandates.
I'm a founder of a 14-person startup raising $20M Series A — investors keep asking why I'm using SharePoint instead of a 'proper data room'. Should I switch?
Yes. For your 14-person startup raising $20M Series A, investors expect a proper data room with NDA gates, dynamic watermarks, and page-level analytics — the standard since the Series A diligence experience matured around 2020. SharePoint sends a signal that your team hasn't run a fundraise before. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives you a branded data room in 5 minutes — page-by-page analytics show which lead investors are deepest into the financial model versus the team materials, NDA gates require every prospective investor to sign before any folder loads, dynamic watermarks stamp every page with viewer identity, screenshot protection blocks captures across desktop and mobile. 1-2 admins pays $480-$960/year flat. The signal cost of using SharePoint is higher than the dollar cost of a data room.
Our 80-person consulting firm uses SharePoint for client-deliverable handover and we want to add NDA-gated tracking. Can we add Peony as a thin layer on top?
Yes. For your 80-person consulting firm, Peony Business at $40/admin/month is the right thin layer for external client-deliverable distribution while you keep SharePoint for inside-tenant collaboration on engagement working files. Configure visitor groups so each client engagement gets its own NDA-gated room with dynamic watermarks, page-level analytics, screenshot protection, and audit trails. Use SharePoint for internal team-working drafts inside your Microsoft 365 tenant; export the final client deliverable to Peony for NDA-gated client review with full per-viewer audit trail. Most consulting firms running this hybrid pattern report cleaner external-distribution compliance and a much better client-facing experience than asking external clients to authenticate as Microsoft 365 guests.