Looking for a DocuSign alternative? Compare these seven things

Most comparison pages are feature checklists that all look the same. Here are the seven questions that actually separate e-signature tools once you are past the first week.

Comparisons · 2026-10-20 · 7 min read

Every e-signature product uploads a PDF, puts boxes on it and emails a link. That part is solved, and it is why comparison pages all read the same. The differences show up later — at renewal, at the first delivery failure, and on the day somebody asks you to prove what was signed.

These are the questions worth asking a vendor, including us. We have answered each one for this product, and said plainly where the answer is "no".

1. What happens to your agreements if you stop paying?

This is the question with the widest range of answers and the least prominent placement. Some tools keep your completed documents available read-only. Some put them behind a reactivation. Some give you an export window and then delete. Find the retention and post-cancellation clauses before you sign up, not after.

Ours: cancelling stops new sends and nothing else — you keep authenticated access to retrieve and export completed agreements, and the export verifies on its own without us. Our retention terms are in the Terms of Service. Ask every vendor on your list the same question, and read the answer rather than the headline.

2. Is the pricing per user, per envelope, or both?

Per-user pricing punishes you for adding a colleague who sends two contracts a year. Envelope limits punish a busy month. Many plans have both, and the envelope limit is often the one in the footnote. Work out your real monthly volume and check what happens when you exceed it: blocked, auto-upgraded, or billed for overage.

Ours: no per-user pricing. Either an annual plan with a monthly allowance, or prepaid credits at 50 for $5 with each send costing 10 — five sends a pack, and the credits do not expire. Reaching a limit blocks new sends only; agreements already out for signature can still be completed.

3. What exactly is in the audit trail?

"Audit trail" is used for everything from a real append-only event log to a PDF page listing four timestamps. Ask what is recorded, whether the record can be edited after the fact, and whether you can verify it without the vendor. A log you can only read inside the vendor’s own dashboard is evidence of nothing in a dispute with that vendor.

4. Can anyone check a document without an account?

The person who most needs to verify a signed agreement — a counterparty, an insurer, an auditor — is usually not your customer. If verification requires a login to your account, it is not really verification. Look for a public check and an evidence export that stands on its own.

5. Is anything actually sealed?

This is the most oversold area in the category. A signature image is a picture. A hash proves bytes are unchanged. A cryptographic PDF seal — a signature made with a certificate from a public authority, bound to an independent timestamp — is a third thing, and it is the only one a PDF reader can check by itself. Marketing pages blur all three. Ask which one you are getting.

6. What does the person signing have to do?

Your signers judge you, not the vendor. Check whether they need an account, an app or a download; whether the full document is on screen before they commit; and whether it works properly on a phone rather than being a desktop page that technically loads.

7. What is missing?

Ask every vendor what their product does not do. The answer tells you more than the feature list. Here is ours: no bulk send, no SSO, no conditional fields, no approval routing, no custom domains, no mobile app, no in-app template editor yet (templates work through the API), no SMS codes, and no applied seal. If two of those are dealbreakers, a larger product is the right answer and we would rather you found that out now.

A table you can take to any vendor

All writing · Prepare an agreement