Documenso vs signNow Comparison 2026
Documenso gives away five documents a month for free, described as free forever, and its code is open source enough to self-host. signNow has no free tier at all, but charges by the plan rather than the seat: $8 a month billed annually, or $20 paid monthly, with unlimited users on every tier. A solo sender is better served by Documenso's free allowance. A growing team is better served by signNow's flat, seat-free pricing once volume passes what either free plan covers.
Open source signing you can host yourself
E-signatures with unlimited users on every plan
At a glance
- signNow starts cheaper, at $8.
- Only Documenso has a free tier.
Side by side
Documenso | signNow | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $25 | From $8 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Documenso
Open source signing you can host yourself
Documenso is an electronic signature service whose code is public, so a business that cannot send contracts to somebody else's server can run the whole thing on its own. The hosted version behaves like the incumbents: fields, signing order, audit trail and a completed PDF. Five documents a month cost nothing. Self-hosting means the signing infrastructure becomes yours to keep running, which is a real commitment and the reason most people take the hosted plan.
Our note
Take the hosted plan unless there is a specific reason the documents cannot leave your infrastructure, because self-hosting a signing service means you now own its uptime and its backups. Five documents a month is a real free tier for somebody sending the occasional contract.
signNow
E-signatures with unlimited users on every plan
signNow sends documents for signature and charges by the plan rather than by the seat, so adding a collaborator does not change the bill. That is the whole reason a small team picks it over the incumbent. Templates, bulk sending and an API that will fire signature requests from your own software are all there; the interface is plainer than the market leader's and costs a quarter as much.
Why people weigh these two
- signNow instead of Documenso
- signNow prices unlimited users on every plan from $8 with a free trial, suited to teams sending at volume rather than five free documents a month.
- Documenso instead of signNow
- Documenso is open source and can be self-hosted, with a free tier before a $25 plan, for a team that wants to own the infrastructure rather than rent it.
Which one should you pick
Buy Documenso if five documents a month covers the volume, or if self-hosting the open source code is a real requirement rather than a nice idea. Individual is $25 a month billed yearly for unlimited signing once the free cap is not enough.
Buy signNow if a team is already past what a free plan would cover and the priority is not paying more as people are added. Business is $8 a month billed annually, or $20 paid monthly, with unlimited users at every tier, and there is no free plan to fall back on first. Documenso is the one with a real no-cost option; signNow asks for a plan from the start.
Common questions
- Which has a free plan?
- Documenso, genuinely: five documents a month for free, described as free forever. signNow has no free tier, only a free trial of unstated length, so a plan is needed to use it at all.
- Which is cheaper for a team of several people?
- signNow, because it charges by the plan rather than the seat: $8 a month billed annually covers unlimited users. Documenso's Teams plan is $40 a month billed yearly for five users, with additional seats at $8 each.
- Can Documenso be self-hosted?
- Yes, its code is open source, so the signing stack can run on infrastructure you control instead of Documenso's servers. signNow has no self-hosted option; it is a hosted service only.
- Does either charge extra for API access?
- signNow does: its API is priced separately at $1.50 per signature invite, with a free developer account to build against first. Documenso's API is included with its hosted plans rather than billed per use.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.