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Make working with documents something easy with these DocuSign Alternatives: Free and Paid

At the core of any growing business should always be properly managed processes that bring positive outcomes along with friendly and professional experiences for both clients and employees. One of the best ways to achieve such a thing is to shift business operations online, make it one step closer to an automated workflow, and adopt a trusted eSignature solution.

The popularity of the latter has not boomed until recently. Individuals and businesses can use an eSignature instead of a handwritten one. It has the same legal weight as a wet signature and is equally admissible in court. However, some people still prefer paper-and-ink solutions to manage paperwork over electronic ones. There are several myths some people still hold on to:

Lack of information security in the eyes of the law
Differences in legal and compliance policies in different states and countries
Stricter requirements for data protection
Identification risks: wet signatures appear more personalized

However, as the shock waves of COVID-19 and the global climate changes shocked our societies, businesses, and individuals have started migrating their document management online and adopting eSignatures. The recent IRS statistics are just another example of proof. In 2020, over 90% of tax filers submitted their tax reports electronically - and this number is expected to grow. If you or your business haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, now is the time to do so. Digital transformation is just one step away.

Where do wet signatures fall short?

The typical scenario of getting papers signed and routed is a somewhat convoluted process. We send documents as PDFs or in any other formats to our clients and employees. Most of them print the documents, sign them by hand, scan them, and email the signed copies back and forth. If the content needs some editing, you edit them using third-party websites, often exposing your sensitive data online. These routinely performed tasks often result in:

missed deadlines and opportunities;
erroneous situations;
lost time and prospective customers;
high costs associated with shipping and storing the files.

Does it pay off to switch to electronic signature?

According to the World Counts, paper waste occupies 26% of the world’s total landfill waste; it also accounts for 1-3% of companies’ expenditures, according to Gartner Inc.

Amidst COVID-19, having a paperless and online solution for managing paperwork is imperative for businesses that want to keep pace with changes.

There is no shortage of affordable and easy-to-use tools in the market that allow for the editing and eSigning of documents. If you’re actively searching for ways to test out, adapt, or improve your eSignature workflow, the first software that you might think about is DocuSign.

What is DocuSign?

DocuSign is, undoubtedly, one of the most popular services for eSigning, managing, and automating document flows online. It’s been around since 2003 and gained a reputation as a trustworthy and full-fledged platform for working with eDocuments. DocuSign is a great tool for signing papers electronically, collecting eSignatures, and facilitating any type of paper-based workflow.

DocuSign’s subscription plans

DocuSign offers four pricing plans — Personal, Standard, Business Pro, and Premium. Each plan caters to the needs of individuals and businesses of any size. Pricing is based on every plan’s features and capabilities, the number of users, the number of envelopes (containers with documents) sent, support level, etc.

Personal (1 user): Get the basic set of tools for signing your documents electronically and send up to 5 eSignature requests a month. With this plan, you can also integrate your workflow with major cloud platforms and track progress.
Standard (up to 5 users): The Standard plan includes everything from the Personal plan. It also allows for the sending of an unlimited number of requests and provides customization and productivity tools to add personal branding, notifications, and comments.
Business Pro (up to 5 users): With this plan, you can get everything from the Standard plan. On top of that, you unlock more collaborative tools and features that will let you accelerate the negotiation process and close deals faster: payment collection, negotiation fields, bulk-send features, etc.
Advanced solutions (quote-based): They feature everything from the Business Pro plan and provide more customization, integration, and API capabilities such as industry-specific compliances and a higher level of identification & authentication. You also get access to expert support.

DocuSign also offers a Freemium option with a limited toolset for those who don’t have regular needs in eSignature solutions.

What do users like the most about DocuSign?

An audit trail that allows for the tracking of document-related activities
A bulk-send feature for handling multiple recipients with just a few clicks
Integration with all popular cloud and storage platforms
A variety of collaborative tools
Role-based access to the documents

What do users dislike about DocuSign?

Even though DocuSign was the first to set a quality benchmark in the eSignature and document management industry, it still has a few significant drawbacks:

Higher prices compared to other software on the market for adding extra features and switching to more advanced plans.
Pay-per-envelope limits in the Standard and Business plans, only allowing the sending of up to 100 envelopes per user per year.
Additional costs for unlocking more support and assistance options (chat, phone, priority support, etc.).
Complicated setup and onboarding when it comes to automating the document flow and integrating with other platforms.

Is DocuSign a Holy Grail for eSignature and document management?

The whole point of taking documents digital and swapping the traditional wet signature for the modern eSignature is to reduce the costs that come from paperwork and file storage. By alleviating the burdens of a physical connection to negotiation and document management, companies should be able to save time and gain a more professional look in their clients’ eyes.

Considering the pricing of DocuSign plans and the features they provide at higher-than-market prices, DocuSign might not seem like the best choice for individuals or businesses looking for a budget-friendly option. It seems only reasonable to consider a more efficient DocuSign equivalent, price- and functionality-wise. We’ll go over other similar programs and examine what the best eSignature solution is for you.

Sign or request to sign PDFs: Paid DocuSign alternatives

As the eDocument market evolves, new cheaper alternatives to DocuSign emerge and provide even more competitive and less pricey features. With various tools, the full document management and signing process might seem simple on the surface. However, it is a highly complex process that requires all records to be properly managed to keep up with a range of compliances and industry standards.

Criteria to consider when looking for paid DocuSign alternatives
01
Security and compliance: ensure that documents hold up to government-specific standards and policies are handled with multiple levels of protection.
02
Budget: spend on the features you or your company needs for success.
03
Frequency of use: make sure the option you opt for meets your monthly or yearly needs to sign or send documents for eSignature.
04
E-signature workflow: collaborate on documents, set signing orders, and collect eSignatures and other information using interactive fillable forms.
05
Editing capabilities: type and remove text from a PDF; add sticky notes, watermarks, and logos; highlight, blackout, and draw shapes.
06
Integrations and APIs: link with the applications, CRMs, or cloud storage your company already uses without paying extra for tech setup.
07
Ease of use: ensure the document workflow runs smoothly and professionally for both you and your clients.

DocuSign vs. pdfFiller

pdfFiller is probably the best alternative to Docusign, and here’s why. An online PDF editor lets users effortlessly edit and create PDF files and handle business transactions electronically. With pdfFiller, you can get unlimited eSignature capabilities, collaborate on documents, modify PDF content, create and share interactive fillable forms, and collect payments.

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pdfFiller’s subscription plans

pdfFiller offers three pricing options:

Basic - $20/month
Plus (up to 3 users)- $30/month + $10/user
Premium - $40/month + $8/user
Free trial:

You get 30 days to test out the software before committing to an annual or monthly plan.

Product offering:

The lower plan provides you with a range of features to work with PDF files and eSign them. The multi-seat Plus plan gives more options in terms of customization. You get a whole spectrum of tools for editing PDF files (rearranging, editing, converting to other formats) and interactive features such as signing links, data collection forms and fillable fields, and integrations with major platforms. The Premium plan provides you with even more solutions automation-wise: payment collection, role-based workflows, access to the most extensive library of legal forms. On top of that, while DocuSign charges $60/month + $60/user, while pdfFiller offers even more features for $40/month + $8/user.

With pdfFiller, you can password-protect your PDF documents. With DocuSign, you can do so with the envelope (file with documents). Also, if you don’t want someone to access company documents, you can take advantage of the Encrypted Folder feature and protect sensitive information.

The best part about pdfFiller is that you can access it on any device of your choosing. It has a desktop app for both Windows and Mac and a mobile one for Android and iOS. If you, by chance, are already using it in a web browser, you will find that the editor doesn’t differ significantly across other versions. So it won’t take a lot of time or effort to get the solution up and running, no matter the platform you are on.

In addition to everything your business needs for your document workflow, pdfFiller lets anyone create professional forms (CVs, agreements, invoices, e-books, etc.), add them to the platform, and get paid every time another user downloads the form from the library.
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Security:

SHA-256 encryption ( sensitive data protection standard, used in the medical and banking industries), real-time audit log, two-factor recipient authentication, and password-protected documents.

Compliance:

ESIGN, UETA, HIPAA, FERPA, SOC II Type 2, PCI DSS, CCPA, and GDPR

Support:

assistance from support within a day (Basic plan), within 30 minutes (Plus plan), instant priority support in a live chat (Premium plan).

Verdict:

pdfFiller is well-suited for businesses of any size looking for the best price/quality value. It offers more valuable and competitive tools at considerably lower prices.

To discover all pricing options or sign up for a free trial, click here.

DocuSign vs. SignEasy

SignEasy is one option among eSignature services. Like DocuSign, it’s a cloud-based eSignature software that allows you to sign and send eSignature requests from a web or mobile application in a specified order or simultaneously from anywhere. It started as a mobile app; the mobile-first approach makes using the software very easy and intuitive. SignEasy lets you integrate and sync information with major solutions: Microsoft Outlook, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

SignEasy’s subscription plans

SignEasy offers three pricing options:

Plus (for Individuals) - $20/month
Professional (for Individuals) - $25/month
Premium (for Teams) $25/month

If you subscribe to annual billing, you save up to 50% in the long run. The first two plans are single-seated, meaning that only one user will have access to the account. The service charges $20 for every new user you add to the team within the Premium plan. The price is much more competitive than the per-user rate that Docusign offers ($25 additionally for each user in the Standard plan and $60 in the Business plan).

Free trial:

Unlike DocuSign that offers a 30-day free trial, SignEasy only grants users 14 days to try their software.

Product offering:

The SignEasy and DocuSign workflows for signing documents are quite similar. You can add, drag and drop, or upload documents to sign yourself or send for signature with both services. The recipients receive an email asking them to sign the document. SignEasy is well-suited for individuals or small and medium-sized businesses that need multi-seat accounts and essential collaborative options to work with documents.

One of the main SignEasy highlights is the in-person signing feature that comes with the basic Plus plan. With DocuSign, to get this feature, you need to opt for the Business Pro plan.

SignEasy lacks some of DocuSign’s essential capabilities, such as sending documents in bulk to multiple users and creating a link for easier document sharing. Unlike DocuSign, the service doesn’t offer the ability to set up a payment method for collecting customers’ payments. Also, the Plus and Professional plans only come with three reusable templates, which doesn’t make SignEasy a great replacement to DocuSign. This might be time-consuming, considering that you need to add fillable fields every time you send a document for signing.

Support:

SignEasy offers real-time assistance through live chat or phone calls with the Professional and Premium plans.

Security:

industry-standard SSL encryption, information is stored on AWS service.

Compliance:

ESIGN, UETA, European Directive, eIDAS, PCI-DSS, EU Regulation No. 910/2014, IRS, CFR 11 (coming soon), and GDPR.

Verdict:

In terms of features and enhanced capabilities, DocuSign trumps SignEasy. However, SignEasy is more competitive price-wise. It’s more suitable for individuals or small businesses looking to cover the most basic needs.

To check out all the service capabilities and find out more details, click here.

Docusign vs. eSign Genie

eSign Genie is a full-featured eSignature DocuSign alternative for signing and getting documents signed by multiple recipients in just a few clicks. It also allows for API integration, has an audit trail, and reusable templates.

eSign Fenie’s subscription plans

eSign Genie offers four pricing options:

Pay as you go - $2 per document
Professional - $10/month
Business Premium - $25/month
Enterprise - Quote-based
Free trial:

eSign Genie gives users 14 days to take their software for a test drive. The trial includes two reusable templates and five documents.

Product offering:

With most other cheap DocuSign alternative services offering only subscriptions, a pay-as-you-go option sets eSign Genie apart from DocuSign and other services. You can buy a minimum of 5 documents on demand at $2 each that never expire. If you need more documents to sign or send for signature, you can simply top up your account.

eSign Genie’s interface is similar to DocuSign’s, except you can drag and drop fillable fields onto the document from the left toolbar instead of clicking on them. A point that might make customers choose in favor of eSign Genie is the limited number of reusable templates available with DocuSign. As you upgrade to Business Premium, you get up to 20 reusable templates.

eSign Genie also offers custom branding options at a lower price. It allows users to add custom colors, logos, email domains, and remove favicons from the signature frame. Besides, eSign Genie allows third parties to sign in person without providing an email address.

Security:

256-bit document encryption, audit trail, eSignature certificate, role-based activities, email authentication.

Compliance:

UETA, ESIGN, HIPAA, FINRA, CFR Part 11.

Support:

eSign genie provides a wide range of materials that facilitates onboarding for new users. It also offers live chat and phone support, starting with a Professional plan.

Verdict:

eSign Genie is the solution that is well-suited for small and mid-sized businesses that handle documents regularly and freelancers that prefer to pay as they need.

To read more about the service’s capabilities or sign up for a 14-day free trial, click here.

DocuSign vs. eversign

eversign is an intuitive and secure solution for individuals and companies of any size to sign and collaborate on electronic documents and manage teams. eversign offers multiple integration opportunities with Salesforce, Google Docs, OneDrive, Zoho, and others.

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Free trial:

eversign doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can sign up for a single-seat free plan to send up to five documents to be signed per month.

eversign’s subscription plans

eversign offers three pricing options apart from the Free plan:

Basic - $9.99/month
Professional - $39.99/month
Professional Plus - $79.99/month
Enterprise plans - quote-based

Signing up for an annual plan saves up to 50% in the long run.

Product offering:

The company’s core product offerings are in-person signing options, contract negotiation tools, an audit trail, and an extensive library of templates. eversign integrates with major platforms such as Google Docs, Salesforce, and others. The platform offers robust and all-in-one solutions at a lower price point compared to DocuSign. However, it does lack the features that might be critical for some businesses, such as bulk-sending of documents to multiple users at once and collecting payments using interactive fields.

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Support:

If you get stuck while using eversign, you can visit the eversign’s Help Center or contact the support team with the option available under your plan: phone, email, contact form, or live chat.

Security:

maintained by apilayer, audit trail, all data connected to accounts and documents information is stored on servers that are hosted by IBM.

Compliance:

ESIGN, UETA, eIDAS, HIPAA, and GDPR.

Verdict:

Even though DocuSign offers more capabilities, eversign would be a good fit for businesses that want to get off the ground with professional eSignature tools and API solutions at a lower cost.

DocuSign vs. HelloSign

If you’re looking for DocuSign competitors that provide a smooth and frictionless eSigning experience, look no further than HelloSign. It’s a user-friendly tool that allows companies and individuals to create and route electronic documents for signatures. The platform makes it easy to fill out documents and manage entire document workflows from anywhere from the web or mobile application.

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HelloSign’s subscription plans

HelloSign offers five pricing options:

Free - $0
Essential - $15/month
Business - $40/month
Enterprise - Quote-based
HelloSign API - from $124/month
Free trial:

The service offers a 30-day free trial. Unlike other services, it requires you to provide a credit card to sign up for the trial.

Product offering:

The Free plan comes with a single-user account and routes up to three signature requests per month. Other options have no limitation on the number of eSignature requests but allow up to 5 senders (with the Business plan) to join the account.

HelloSign integrates with Salesforce, Slack, HubSpot CRM, and others and cloud platforms such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, etc. One of the most competitive features, that make HelloSign stand out from the crowd of lookalike solutions, is a highly intuitive interface and user flow. However, HelloSign falls short in providing an unlimited number of reusable templates that save users a great deal of time.

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Security:

AES 256-bit encryption, transparent document encryption with DEK and the master key, TLS-encrypted communication.

Compliance:

SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, ESIGN, EUTA, eIDAS, Privacy Shield, and GDPR.

Support:

One of the ways to get in touch with support representatives is by filling out an online form or sending an email, which, as indicated on the website, is a primary source of assistance. You may also find the answers to your questions by visiting the Help Center.

Verdict:

Despite offering good pricing options, HelloSign’s main disadvantage is the limited number of reusable templates that come with the best-value plans.

To discover all pricing options or sign up for a free trial, click here.

DocuSign vs. Open eSignForms

Open-source software is a type of software program that makes its source code publicly available. It means that anyone can take it, make any tweaks and use it without any legal problems in the future. If you’re looking for a Docusign open source alternative, Open eSignForms by Yozons might be your best option. They were pioneers in web-based eSignature solutions and, since 2001, offered their open-source code for businesses, non-profit organizations, and medical institutions and helped them shift document management processes online.

To learn more about this open-source substitute for DocuSign, visit this page.

Free DocuSign alternatives for eSigning PDFs

Suppose you need to sign a simple vacation rental agreement and email it to your landlord. The only option you find is to sign up for eSignature services, but that is not something you feel like doing. Besides, you might not want to go too deep into the technicalities of using the advanced eSignature software and only need basic features: writing on a PDF document, adding some essential graphic elements, and inserting your digital signature. Believe it or not, there are plenty of free apps like DocuSign available right at your fingertips. Let's take a look at a few of them.

01
Mac’s Preview (for Mac users only)
Preview on Mac is a default program for Mac users. It provides an excellent DocuSign alternative signing method. You just need to open a PDF file, click on the Annotation Toolbar button, and hit the scribble icon on the toolbar’s left. Preview on Mac lets you add an eSignature by holding the paper with your actual wet signature up to the camera and capturing it. Another way is to sign a PDF with your trackpad. Besides, with Preview on Mac, you can fill out your document using the same toolbar: add text, shapes, colors, etc.
02
Sejda (no account needed)
Sejda is a very straightforward and self-explanatory software for editing and signing documents electronically, making it the most intuitive alternative for DocuSign. A free online version of the product offers a pretty decent yet limited set of editing tools. One of the best perks of using the Sejda software is the opportunity to edit and add an electronic signature to a PDF file without setting up an account. A free online version lets you perform three tasks per hour and work on documents with up to 200 pages.
03
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is the oldest application for viewing, editing, and managing PDF files. It has everything you need to get out of PDF management. However, the reader’s free version comes with minimal capabilities. Simply install the desktop application, open your PDF file, click on the sign icon in the toolbar, and add a signature. In addition to that, you can add or highlight text, insert images, etc.

Sign or request to sign PDFs: free DocuSign alternatives

One of the biggest challenges of eDocuments is the ability to eSign it and get it eSigned by another party(-ies) whose signature(s) is vital on the document. In most cases, this is required for agreements, business contracts, transaction certificates, etc.

Suppose your needs are limited to self-signing and editing. In that case, you need to consider checking programs similar to DocuSign that offers more possibilities for professional document workflows to meet your needs.

Let’s go over some alternatives that will not cost you an arm and a leg.

DocuSign offers a Free plan, and it comes with a pretty basic but useful set of features. Under this plan, you can add basic and custom fields to documents (text, initials, signature, date, name, etc.), self-sign an unlimited number of files, send up to three documents for signing per month, and keep track of your document workflow via an audit trail.

If you’re still looking for other free solutions to test out, you might want to check Dochub and PandaDoc.

DocuSign vs. Dochub

Dochub is among the apps similar to DocuSign. It provides editing and eSigning services. It offers a Free plan with minimal editing and signing capabilities, catering to the most basic needs. You are allowed to edit up to 2,000 documents, create up to five self-signed documents and three signature requests. In addition to that, it has a useful Google Chrome extension that helps edit documents right from your browser.

Verdict: DocuSign and DocHub free plans come with limited capabilities. However, Dochub limits the features that DocuSign users take advantage of without any limitations or additional costs.

DocuSign vs. Pandadoc

PandaDoc, with its free plan, is probably the best alternative to DocuSign. You’re allowed to upload as many files for signing and sending as you or your business need. PandaDoc is the only eSignature platform that offers the ability to collect payments at no extra cost. In addition to that, you may invite up to three users to collaborate on documents free of charge.

Verdict: PandaDoc sounds like the best option for freelancers or small-scale businesses that are just starting out or those on a limited budget.

Now over to you

Despite being packed with great features, Docusign is not the best choice to go with if the DocuSign pricing options do not really fit into your growth strategy. The price for the most basic Personal plan starts from $15/month. As your business scales, you might want to add more capabilities, and will need to pay for the features that are probably already included in other programs like DocuSign that offer plans at a better price. In addition to that, you might end up overspending on features that you don’t really need.

Have you tried pdfFiller yet? You won’t find any other PDF editor like pdfFiller that features a top-notch eSignature solution and document management tools for streamlining your daily document-based workflows. Take the guesswork out of choosing the right eSignature and data routing solution for your business. pdfFiller is well-suited for individuals as well as organizations of different sizes and from various industries.

Take pdfFiller for a test drive for 30 days free of charge and see for yourself.

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Fernando Miranda
2019-10-22
Great Product! So far, my experience with this product has been great! I have only used the PDF editing features and not played with the APIs. The navigation is friendly and quick, and tools are simple and easy enough to figure out. The page loading time was a little slow in my case- editing a 10 page PDF document, but it was sufficient.
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2019-02-15
This is a great product and it… This is a great product and it definitely has my approval and recommendation
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