Making the work
Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover legal & contracts. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Open source signing you can host yourself
E-signatures with three free documents a month
Documenso | SignWell | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $25 | From $10 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on (they differ) |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
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.
E-signatures with three free documents a month
SignWell does the one job an independent business needs from an e-signature tool: send a contract, get it signed, keep an audit trail that stands up. Templates and reminders cut the chasing. The free plan allows three documents a month from one sender, which covers an occasional client contract and nothing busier.
Our note
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.
| Web, Linux |
| Web |
| Covers | Legal & Contracts | Legal & Contracts |
|---|
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
|---|
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
|---|
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
|---|
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
|---|
Against Dropbox Sign and Docusign this is the cheaper answer to the same question, and the free tier is the differentiator. Three documents a month covers a freelancer who signs a contract per client rather than per project.