Why You Should Trust Our Recommendations
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.
How We Selected the Best Electronic Signature Software
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:
- Templates: Electronic signature tools let you create templates of documents that need to be signed. Some platforms offer their own standardized templates. Templates improve document workflow by saving you time and keeping your content consistent.
- Document Editing: E-signature solutions offer document editors that let you add fields that signers need to fill out. You should look into the range of the field types you can add to your document and features that make editing easier – including zooming capabilities, and document navigation by page.
- Document Sending: E-signature tools let you deliver your documents through several methods – including by email, in-person, and mass signature. You should consider solutions that let you deliver your documents through all of these methods.
- Document Signing: When it comes to document signing, you should look for features that make the signing process easier. This includes having a “Next” button that navigates users to the next field they need to fill out, zooming capabilities, comment making, document navigation by page, and document signature reassignment.
- Document Storage: It is important that your solution offers organized and efficient document storage. Solutions offer organizational features like a search bar and the ability to organize documents by status, sender, and date. Advanced solutions will also offer the ability to create custom folders to organize your documents.
How We Evaluated Electronic Signature Software
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:
- Nicole Caba: Nicole Caba is the founder and CEO of Avvinue. Her company currently uses HelloSign.
- Andrew Cao: Andrew Cao is a managing partner at Motoza. The company currently uses DocuSign.
- David Gail: David Gail is a Business Operations & Compliance Manager at Anura. The company currently uses PandaDoc.
- Alan Reeves: Alan Reeves is the founder of MouseCalls Technology Solutions. The company currently uses Docsketch.
- Chris Post: Chris Post is the president and co-founder of 2M Locating. The company currently uses PandaDoc.
- Andy Kolodgie: Andy Kolodgie is the co-owner of The House Guys. The company currently uses PandaDoc.