Electronic signature software is built to help individuals and organizations create, execute, and store electronic documents. Electronic signature software is used by organizations of all types, and is one of the most widely adopted types of software. The primary benefits of electronic signature software are streamlined operations, legal compliance, and saved time.
Electronic signature software includes features such as document templates, a document editor, document sharing, digital signatures, and document storage. There are general electronic signature tools such as DocuSign and specialized solutions. PandaDoc and Proposify are built specifically for sales teams, for example.
Electronic signature software is used by individuals and all types of organizations to move legal documents and document management online. Electronic signature software can be used for proposals, quotes, human resource documents, leases, tax forms and many other types of documents. Different software vendors focus on building solutions for individuals, SMBs, enterprises and specific business functions.
DocuSign is the most popular electronic signature tool used by over 500,000 customers to automate their document agreement processes. It is the most robust software solution in the market, but remains very easy to use. Overall, it is an ideal solution for companies of all sizes that should definitely be on your short list.
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PandaDoc is an electronic signature tool used by over 20,000 companies. While PandaDoc can be used for any type of legal agreement, it does have a specific focus on supporting the deal process for sales professionals. This solution is best for sales professionals, and any organization that has a more complex document workflow.
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signNow is one of the most popular electronic signature tools with over 45,000 customers. The application is robust – it includes many nice-to-have features and options not found in most other solutions. signNow is also reasonably priced compared to its competitors. It is an ideal solution for companies that need an advanced electronic signature solution, and prefer to save money by not purchasing DocuSign.
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HelloSign is one of the most popular electronic signature tools in the market with over 80,000 customers. HelloSign’s main features include reusable templates, flexible signing, and integrations with software like Salesforce and Zapier. Overall, we found that HelloSign is ideal for those who need a more advanced electronic signature solution, but do not need all of the bells and whistles offered in high-end solutions like DocuSign.
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DocHub is an electronic signature solution with over 5,000 customers. DocHub’s main features include templates, a robust document editor, flexible signing, and audit reports. Overall, we found that DocHub is incredibly feature rich for a low price, but does offer little customer support.
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Signwell is a simple, easy-to-use electronic signature tool with over 10,000 customers. It has all the basic features smaller companies need, and comes at a more affordable price point than its competitors. Signwell is best for smaller companies with straightforward document signing processes.
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Proposify is an electronic signature tool with over 15,000 customers. It has a specific focus on helping sales teams with proposals. Proposify includes advanced features like client metrics, which helps its customers understand how clients are engaging with their proposals. We recommend that sales professionals consider Proposify and PandaDoc.
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Signable is an electronic signature tool with over 6,000 customers. Signable’s main features include templates, custom branding and flexible signing. Overall, we found Signable to be ideal for those who need a simpler electronic signature solution, with a few nice-to-have features like document navigation and a messaging system that can be used while signing a document.
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Formstack Sign is a basic electronic signature tool used by over 10,000 businesses for faster, more versatile document signing. It includes key features like flexible signing, audit reports and templates. It’s best for smaller companies, and should be evaluated next to Docsketch and DocuSign.
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Electronic signature software prices range from free to $60 per month. Most small businesses pay around $50 to $60 per month for electronic signature software. The details below will help you compare prices for the most popular all-in-one electronic signature software platforms.
| Software Vendor | Starting Monthly Price | Free Trial | Subscription Add-Ons |
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| DocuSign | $15 | Yes |
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| PandaDoc | $25 | Yes |
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| signNow | $20 | Yes |
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| HelloSign | $20 | Yes |
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| Docsketch | $10 | Yes |
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| Proposify | $19 | Yes |
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| Formstack Sign | $20 | Yes |
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Electronic signature software is built for individuals and organizations that want to electronically collect signatures for their legal documents. It is most commonly a cloud-based solution that hosts executed documents in the cloud.
There are numerous benefits that electronic signature software offers. This includes:
The cost of electronic signature software depends on the features you need. Plans with advanced features are typically more expensive. In general, here's the price you can expect to spend per user per month for electronic signature software:
The best electronic signature software for you depends on the features you need, and your function. The best software for companies that want an advanced system is DocuSign. Docsketch is an ideal tool for companies who prefer a more basic solution. Finally, companies that need a solution to support the sales function should consider PandaDoc.
The most popular electronic signature software is DocuSign. DocuSign currently has over 500,000 customers.
The most common electronic signature software features are:
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The team at SoftwarePundit has been testing software since 2017. We’ve hand-tested over 250 software products in that time, including nine in the electronic signature category. We applied the same rigorous process to each piece of electronic signature software that we analyzed. The specifics of our electronic signature category research process are outlined below.
Amy led our analysis of electronic signature software. She has spent more than 400 hours evaluating leading electronic signature software systems.
In addition, all research and content was overseen by Bruce Hogan, SoftwarePundit’s Co-founder & CEO. Bruce has more than a decade of experience researching, building, and reviewing the world’s best software products. His technology advice has been featured on a wide range of media sites such as AngelList, CMSWire, Dental Economics, iPhone Life, Reader’s Digest, Thrive Global, U.S. News, and the Zapier Blog.
We selected the best electronic signature software based upon a number of criteria. The most important criteria were each software tool’s features, usability, price, and customer support. The details of our analyses are captured in the in-depth reviews we publish about each software tool.
There are a handful of critical features that you should look for in electronic signature software. We prioritized the following features in our analysis:
We used the same rigorous process to evaluate electronic signature software as all other software categories. For the electronic signature category, Amy invested several weeks researching the market, testing out key e-signature features, and publishing her insights about the tools.
We interviewed the teams at the nine software companies listed above. Our conversations with the companies included questions about each company's product, the size of business each product works best for, pricing, customer support, and business strength. After a general interview, Amy spent additional time participating in a product demo led by each company. This provided Amy with the opportunity to ask detailed questions about the features and functionality of the electronic signature software.
Amy signed up for free trials of each solution listed above to gain a deeper understanding of each electronic signature tool. This allowed her to authenticate the features offered by each solution. She created sample documents and spent several hours testing the document editing, sending, signing, and storage features of each tool. She also downloaded the mobile app version of e-signature solutions to understand the mobile experience for document creators and signers.
In addition to conducting conversations with the software companies and hand-testing every piece of software, Amy also spent dozens of hours interviewing real customers of the software tools listed above. E-signature software customers that provided insights that were included in our analysis and reviews were: