Question 1

What is Peony, and is it a good fit for construction bid and tender management?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Peony is a virtual data room that general contractors, developers and owners use to issue bid packages behind an NDA, give each trade its own folder and keep drawings and addenda current at one link. Data Room, the most popular plan, is $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly), with unlimited rooms and storage; inviting bidders and subcontractors is free and unlimited.

Question 2

Can I try Peony before I pay?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Peony's Data Room plan has a 7-day free trial you start yourself, with no credit card, and it never converts to paid on its own. Rooms, files, links, analytics and NDA settings carry over when you upgrade. AI features, such as AI document Q&A and AI room generation, switch on once you're on a paid plan. Book a demo to see them first.

Question 3

How does Peony handle construction bid and tender management?

Accepted Answer

Peony runs the document side of a construction tender: bid packages behind an NDA and access questions, a folder and upload slot per bidder, page analytics on every addendum, and bidder questions inside the room. Owners and general contractors create one room per project or tender, gate it with a signed NDA and access questions that collect license, insurance and bonding details, and give each bidder or trade its own group with folder permissions (Data Room, $52 per admin per month billed yearly). Each bidder returns its bid into its own Upload folder, which no other bidder can see, and Visitor Q&A keeps each bidder's RFIs in its own question team. Upload new version swaps in a revised sheet at the same link, page analytics show which bidders opened the addendum, and link expiry closes access after award. Bidders and subcontractors view free with no Peony account, and Peony support runs 24/7. Peony is the controlled sharing layer for documents that leave your project or estimating system, so that system stays your record; see Peony vs Procore.

Question 4

What is a secure way to share sensitive specs and drawings with a customer or bidder during a custom build?

Accepted Answer

Share them from a Peony data room rather than as attachments: an NDA gate before the first page, downloads off, screenshot protection, and a dynamic watermark with the viewer's email on every sheet. The NDA gate, download prevention and desktop screenshot protection start on Business ($30 per admin per month billed yearly); a signed NDA with audit record, dynamic watermarks, Screenshield for iPhone, iPad and Android, and folder-level permissions are on Data Room ($52). A downloaded PDF keeps the viewer's watermark, so a drawing that leaks traces back to one person. Page analytics show which sheets your customer opened and for how long, and Upload new version replaces a revised drawing at the same link, so nobody builds from a superseded sheet. Specs and drawing sets open in the browser as PDF, Word, image or AutoCAD DXF files, with no download. See CAD data rooms.

Question 5

What are the best virtual data rooms for project-based work like construction bids and RFPs?

Accepted Answer

For construction bids and RFPs, pick a data room with a group per bidder, an NDA gate, page analytics, unlimited storage for drawing sets and free bidder access; Peony's Data Room plan has all five. Project-based work runs many short processes at once, so price per admin, not per project: Data Room is $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly) with unlimited rooms, so a team running six live tenders pays the same as one running a single bid. Per-project VDRs quote each deal separately, so concurrent tenders multiply the bill. Also check that bidders can return files into their own folder (Peony's Upload permission), that each bidder's questions stay private (Visitor Q&A question teams), and that the room holds large drawing, BIM and video files without splitting (no per-file size cap on any plan). For platforms built for multi-party processes, see our best data room for multiple bidders guide.

Question 6

I'm running a construction tender for a residential project and need 3 contractors to bid — how do I use a data room instead of emailing documents around?

Accepted Answer

Put the drawings, specifications, bill of quantities and scope documents in one Peony data room, gate it behind an NDA and access questions, and send each of the 3 contractors its own tracked link. Before any contractor sees your project details, they provide their company name, licensing number, insurance status, and estimated timeline through Peony's custom access questions — so you qualify bidders before they access sensitive project documents. A separate tracked link for each of the 3 contractors shows exactly who reviewed the full scope versus who skimmed the cover page. Peony's Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month includes custom access questions, granular permissions, page-level analytics, and dynamic watermarks on every page; NDA gating and analytics start on the Business plan at $30 per admin per month. DocuSign charges hundreds per month for basic document signing alone with no analytics, no gating, and no per-page engagement tracking.

Question 7

I'm a GC managing 5 active projects with 15 subcontractors across different trades — how do I control who sees what without creating chaos?

Accepted Answer

Create one Peony data room per project, then give each subcontractor a group whose folder permissions open only its own trade documents. Your electrical sub sees electrical specs and single-line diagrams but not HVAC pricing. Your plumbing contractor sees mechanical drawings but not the structural engineering reports you share with your owner. For a GC running 5 projects with 15 subs, Peony's Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month gives you unlimited data rooms, granular per-trade permissions, unlimited tracked links per sub, and page-level analytics showing which subs actually reviewed the latest addendum versus which ones missed critical updates. Duplicate a data room to start the next project from the same folder tree, with groups, links and analytics starting clean. Google Drive shared folders have no per-trade permission controls and no visibility into whether a sub actually read the change order you sent last Tuesday.

Question 8

Our owner wants to review bid submissions from 4 contractors but we need to keep each contractor's pricing confidential from the others — how do we manage this?

Accepted Answer

Put each contractor's bid in its own folder in one Peony data room: the owner's group sees all 4 side by side, and each contractor's group sees only its own submission and the shared specifications. Give each contractor Upload on its own folder so it lodges its bid directly, and No access on the others; a folder at No access is hidden from that group, not greyed out. For a competitive bid review where pricing confidentiality is critical, Peony dynamic watermarks print the owner's name on every page they view, and screenshot protection blocks screenshot shortcuts and screen recording on supported desktop browsers. If the owner forwards a screenshot of Contractor A's pricing to Contractor B, you will know exactly who leaked it. Peony's Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month handles all of these granular permission tiers in one workspace. Dropbox and Google Drive have no folder-level permission controls granular enough for confidential bid management — you would need 4 entirely separate accounts.

Question 9

I'm a property developer about to start a EUR 2M renovation and tried building my own document sharing tool before finding Peony — how fast can I get set up?

Accepted Answer

You can go live in under 5 minutes, and Peony's median from sign-up to first uploaded document is 4 min 19 s, so NDA-gated links can reach your shortlisted contractors the same afternoon. Upload your architectural drawings, structural reports, contractor briefs, and budget documents, add your project branding, configure NDA-gated access, and share tracked links with your shortlisted contractors. AI room generation drafts a folder structure from a one-line description of the project, and Index documents numbers every file, so there's no manual numbering (Data Room plan, once you've upgraded). For a EUR 2M renovation where you need 3 contractors to review and bid on the same scope, you will have a complete data room with analytics, gating, and watermarks running faster than it would take to set up a shared Google Drive folder with the right permissions. DocuSign and legacy platforms require sales calls and days of onboarding — by which time your tender deadline has passed. The median comes from Peony's State of M&A Data Rooms report (Q3 2026 edition).

Question 10

We're a mid-size construction firm bidding on a EUR 8M commercial build — how do we protect our proprietary cost estimates and methodology from being shared with competitors?

Accepted Answer

Put your cost breakdown and methodology behind Peony's NDA gate, dynamic watermarks and screenshot protection, in the owner's Peony room or a bid-submission room of your own, and set link expiry to the evaluation period. When you submit your bid through the owner's data room, your cost breakdowns and construction methodology are your most sensitive IP. If the owner is using Peony, your documents are protected by dynamic watermarks with the viewer's identity on every page, screenshot protection that blocks capture attempts, and audit trails showing exactly who accessed which documents and when. If the owner is not using Peony, create your own Peony data room for the bid submission — gate it behind an NDA so the owner and their consultants sign before viewing your pricing, and set link expiry so access revokes automatically after the bid evaluation period. An Excel estimate on View shows calculated values with no formula bar, so your build-up stays private. Peony Business at $30 per admin per month gives you NDA gating and screenshot protection, and the Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month adds dynamic watermarks. Email attachments and basic file sharing like WeTransfer offer zero protection once the file leaves your outbox.

Question 11

How do I track which contractors are actually reading the full specification versus just downloading the cover page?

Accepted Answer

Peony's page-level analytics show which pages of the specification each contractor opened and how long they spent on each, on every plan. If Contractor A spent 45 minutes reading the structural specifications and MEP scope but Contractor B only opened the first 2 pages and closed the room, that tells you who is preparing a serious bid and who is wasting your time. For a tender with 5 bidders reviewing a 200-page specification package, this intelligence lets you follow up with engaged contractors and push for revised timelines from those who have not reviewed the full scope. With email verification on (Business and above), every view is tied to a verified email, and drop-off reports show where each reader stopped. Google Drive shows you whether a file was downloaded — it cannot tell you whether anyone actually read page 47 of the structural report.

Question 12

Can I collect custom information from contractors before they access my project documents — like their insurance certificate and license number?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Peony's access questions make each contractor answer your prequalification fields, such as license number, insurance expiry and bonding capacity, before the room opens (Data Room plan). Peony's additional-info collection lets you require any custom fields before a contractor accesses the data room — company name, ABN or license number, insurance certificate expiry, bonding capacity, years of experience, or any other prequalification criteria your project requires. For a residential build requiring 3 qualified contractors, this turns anonymous document requests into a prequalified shortlist before anyone sees your drawings or budget. To collect the certificate itself, give each contractor Upload on its own prequalification folder. No other file-sharing tool — not Google Drive, not Dropbox, not WeTransfer — combines gated prequalification with per-page engagement tracking in a single workflow.

Question 13

Our project has 8 months of RFIs, change orders, and addenda — how does AI help us find specific information across hundreds of documents?

Accepted Answer

Peony's AI document Q&A answers plain-English questions across every document in the project room and cites the source document and page, so you find an RFI or change order without opening every folder. Instead of searching through 8 months of folders, ask questions like 'What was the approved change order for the HVAC rerouting in Building B?' or 'Show me all RFIs related to waterproofing' and get cited answers with exact page numbers. Peony's Advanced Q&A module also supports a structured workflow where subcontractors submit questions in the room, an expert on your team drafts each answer, and an approver signs it off before it's released — creating an auditable Q&A trail that eliminates the back-and-forth email chains that slow construction projects. AI document Q&A is included on the Business plan at $30 per admin per month, with 5x usage on the Data Room plan and the full Advanced Q&A module on the Deal Team plan. Traditional construction document management systems have no AI search capability at all. AI features, such as AI document Q&A and AI room generation, switch on once you're on a paid plan. Your documents aren't used to train AI: Peony's LLM providers work under data-handling agreements that prohibit training on customer content.

Question 14

How do I set up a construction bid data room in Peony?

Accepted Answer

In Peony, create a room per tender, drag in the drawing set, and give each bidder a group with an NDA, access questions and its own folder permissions. The median from sign-up to first uploaded document is 4 min 19 s. 1. Create a data room from a template, or have AI room generation draft folders by discipline and trade from a one-line description of the project (Data Room plan, once you've upgraded). 2. Drag in the issued-for-bid drawings and specifications: folder upload keeps the folder structure, and Index documents numbers every file, so a bidder's RFI can cite a sheet by number as well as name. 3. Create a group for each bidder or trade with a signed NDA, access questions, a dynamic watermark and email verification (Data Room plan, or the 7-day Data Room trial). 4. Set folder permissions: View on the shared drawings and specs, View or Download on that trade's package, Upload on its own bid-return folder, and No access on everything else. 5. Send each group its link, set an expiry for after award, and watch page analytics to see who opened the latest addendum.

Question 15

Is there a file-size limit for drawing sets, BIM models and site video in a data room?

Accepted Answer

No. Peony has no per-file size cap on any plan, uploads are resumable if a connection drops, and storage is unlimited on Data Room, so full drawing sets, BIM models and site video upload without splitting. Business includes 3 data rooms per admin, 1,000 documents per admin and 100 GB of storage, with no per-file size cap. Peony charges no storage, page or per-GB fees on paid plans. Drawing sets and specs (PDF, Word), schedules and bills of quantities (Excel, CSV), renderings and site photos (JPG, PNG, TIFF) and AutoCAD DXF drawings open in the browser; native Revit, IFC, Navisworks and DWG models upload as ZIP or RAR archives, with no size cap on any plan, and you give Download on that folder only to the parties who need the native model. Video (MP4, MOV and other formats) uploads on Business and above and streams in place with the player's download control removed. See BIM data rooms, CAD data rooms and our large-file data room page.

Question 16

How much does a construction data room cost?

Accepted Answer

On Peony, a construction data room costs $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly) on Data Room, with unlimited rooms, storage and file sizes, and bidders and subcontractors join free. Business ($30 billed yearly, $44 monthly) covers 3 rooms per admin with 100 GB of storage and no per-file size limit. Deal Team ($64, minimum 4 admins) adds advanced redaction, Advanced Q&A routing, daily new-file notifications to invitees, priority support and a standard DPA with SCCs on request. Free ($0) covers 50 documents and 500 MB as tracked single-file links but not data rooms. A precon team with two admins running every tender on Data Room pays $1,248 a year, however many projects, bidders and drawing sets it handles. Per-project VDRs quote each deal separately, so concurrent tenders multiply the bill; Peony's flat plan has no per-viewer, per-page, per-link or per-GB fees. The per-provider math is in our virtual data room cost guide.

Question 17

What support does Peony give construction teams during a live tender?

Accepted Answer

Peony support runs 24/7, handled directly by the Peony team across Europe, US and Asia hours, with no outsourced tier. Everyone you speak to on Peony support has M&A experience at elite boutiques or bulge-bracket banks, VC experience, or has raised $1M+ themselves. Mark a bid-day blocker as urgent, such as a bidder who can't open the drawing set the night before bids close, and the team typically answers within a few hours; email is answered within 24 hours on Data Room and within 12 hours on Deal Team. Deal Team adds priority support and a dedicated account manager. Peony staff can't open the documents in your room, so you can get help without granting anyone access to your files.

Construction files	Formats	What bidders see
Drawing sets, specifications, AIA contracts and scope documents	PDF, Word	In the browser, with the viewer's watermark on every page (Data Room); a downloaded PDF keeps its watermark.
Bills of quantities, schedules of values, bid forms and estimates	Excel (.xlsx, .xls), CSV	Every sheet in the browser, showing values without formulas; the viewer's watermark sits over the grid (Data Room).
Renderings, site photos, scanned markups and plans	JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, SVG, Photoshop, Illustrator	In the browser, page by page or image by image.
CAD drawings	AutoCAD DXF, PDF	PDF drawing sets in Peony's own viewer; DXF in the document viewer.
Site walks, drone progress footage and time-lapses	MP4, MOV and other video (upload on Business and above)	Streams in place with the download control removed; the watermark plays over the video on Data Room.
Native Revit, IFC, Navisworks and DWG models, point clouds and laser scans	ZIP or RAR archive	Upload with no per-file size cap on any plan; give Download on that folder only to the parties who need the native model.
Bid-leveling and cost calculators built in Claude or ChatGPT	HTML (.html, .htm)	Runs live with JavaScript, so reviewers change inputs and outputs recalculate, behind your NDA gate, permissions and analytics.

Construction data rooms for bids and tenders: win more bids, leak none of them

What is Peony's construction data room, and who is it for?

Peony at a glance

Which construction teams use a data room, and for what?

General contractors and construction managers

Owners and developers

Specialty subcontractors

Architects and engineers

Lenders, owner's reps and project finance

Handover and closeout

Construction company M&A and claims

What do construction teams use Peony's data room for?

Issue the bid package to prequalified bidders only

Give each trade only its own scope

Keep every sheet and addendum current at one link

Search across specs, RFIs and change orders instantly

Built for how construction teams actually work

Screenshot protection

Dynamic watermarks

NDA-gated access

Per-trade access control

Page-by-page tracking

Auto-expire access

Chat with project files

Natural language search

RFI and change order lookup

In-room bidder Q&A

Numbered index

Redaction

Which construction files can bidders open in Peony?

How does a construction tender run in Peony, from bid package to award?

Build the room

Prequalify and gate

Issue the bid packages

Answer RFIs and issue addenda

Receive the bids

Award, then run the project

Who supports a construction team on Peony?

Can competing bidders see each other's pricing or questions in a Peony room?

Is Peony secure enough for bid pricing and project drawings?

Does Peony work alongside Procore or Autodesk Construction Cloud?

What documents go in a construction bid package or tender data room?

Invitation and instructions

Drawings

Specifications

Quantities and pricing

Contract documents

Site and existing conditions

Addenda and RFIs

Bid returns

What does a construction data room cost on Peony?

Which Peony guides cover construction files and projects?

Frequently asked questions