Alternative
Alternative to DocuSign
DocuSign's pricing is a relic of enterprise SaaS. Personal is $10/month for 5 sends; Standard is $25/user/month; Business Pro is $40/user/month. If you're a solo professional sending 2-3 contracts a month, you're paying $300/year for functionality that costs less than $20 at pay-per-use prices.
PennyPDF's /sign tool produces signed PDFs that satisfy E-SIGN Act (US), eIDAS SES tier (EU), IT Act (India), and UECA (Canada) — the same legal regimes DocuSign relies on. Each signer is 3 coins (~12¢). A certificate-of-completion page is appended with timestamps, IP addresses, user agents, and a SHA-256 hash of the signed document.
Where DocuSign genuinely earns the premium: Salesforce / NetSuite integrations, bulk-send to 500+ recipients, advanced authentication (SMS OTP, KBA), and qualified eIDAS certificates. If you need those, stay with DocuSign. If you need to send contracts to a handful of counterparties and get them signed, PennyPDF covers the workflow end-to-end for a fraction of the cost.
How it works
- 1Upload the contract PDF to /sign.
- 2Add signer email addresses and drag signature fields onto the pages.
- 3Send — each signer gets a link, completes their portion in-browser.
- 4Get the signed PDF with audit trail certificate automatically.
- 5Optional: download the hash-chain verification file for court admissibility.
Frequently asked
Will my contracts hold up in court?+
Yes for the jurisdictions listed. Every signature is timestamped, IP-logged, and hashed. The audit trail certificate is generated automatically. Case law under E-SIGN and eIDAS has consistently upheld this class of signature since 2000.
Can I send one document to 5 signers in sequence?+
Yes — the signing order is configurable per workflow. Signer 1 receives the link first; after their signature, Signer 2 gets notified, and so on. Parallel signing is also supported.
What about SMS authentication for signers?+
Email-link authentication is default (same as DocuSign standard). SMS OTP is on the roadmap for Phase 6.
Bulk send (100+ recipients)?+
Supported via the API. Programmatic bulk-send is 3 coins per recipient, same as individual. No enterprise tier needed.
Can I migrate my DocuSign templates?+
No direct importer, but the template concept is the same — upload a master PDF, define field positions, save as template. A 10-field contract takes 2-3 minutes to set up.
Why PennyPDF
- No subscription. Ever.
- Coins never expire — use them in 5 years.
- Client-side processing for 14 of 22 tools.
- No watermarks at any tier.
- Per-operation pricing, shown before you click.
- Same coins for web + public API.