SignNow vs Docusign vs SignHouse: Direct Comparison & Review

Not sure what to choose between SignNow and DocuSign, and SignHouse? These tools offer businesses the ability to send documents for digital signatures and sign contracts within a few clicks.

With so many companies moving into the digital realm, you're bound to come across a digital contract at some point. As more businesses look to ditch slow paper contracts, the humble eSignature is powering a digital contract revolution.

With an annual growth rate of 31%, eSignatures are becoming widely adopted by companies around the world.

What is the best eSignature software? How do SignNow and DocuSign compare with each other? Is there a better alternative available for those who want a no-frills, simple eSignature tool? 

In this round-up, SignHouse will look at three different eSignature services: DocuSign, SignNow, and SignHouse - and help you determine which to use.

SignNow vs Docusign vs SignHouse: Differences

Integrations

All three handwritten signature generators have great in-built integrations to work with the apps you already use. 

DocuSign integrates with Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Dropbox - and offers more integrations with CRM platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. 

SignHouse and SignNow offer standard integration with Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox, as well as the ability to send documents to multiple recipients simultaneously.

It’s important to note that SignNow locks its CRM integrations behind its most expensive plan. 

Analytics

Similarly, all three options on this list have some analytics tools.‍

With SignNow, you can find key metrics of your workflows and even track changes to your documents with an Audit Trail. 

DocuSign also has a useful analytics tool - DocuSign Insight. It uses AI and machine learning to find, filter and analyze agreements across your businesses. 

However, if you’re after simple but effective document analytics, SignHouse offers the most user-friendly analytics tool in this roundup. With this tool, you can keep track of documents and signees - all through a simple dashboard. 

Pricing

SignNow does offer a free plan, and aside, customers can choose from a few paid plans: Business, Business Premium, Enterprise, and Business Cloud.

These pricing plans start at around $8 a month per month, but this cost can climb quickly if you’re after features like multiple signatures and CRM integration. 

With DocuSign, users can choose from a limited free version or one of four paid tiers: Personal, Standard, Business, and Advanced.

Each comes with increasing levels of functionality and additional features. 

SignHouse is completely free to use.

What is SignNow?

SignNow is a cloud-based e-signature platform designed primarily for small and midsize businesses. 

With this tool, customers can sign documents online, generate agreements, negotiate contracts, and accept payments with legally-binding eSignatures. 

SignNow has built this tool to be a complete package for digital agreements - and has built some great features & integrations into the platform to bring its functionality further than just eSignatures. 

Key Features

Feature 1: Standard eSignature tools

Firstly, SignNow does everything you’d expect an eSignature tool to do. You can: 

• Send documents for signing using a custom invitation template
• Use bulk send to request multiple signatures at once and for more than one agreement. 
• Allow recipients to forward your documents to others for them to provide an eSignature too. 
• Send reminders and notifications for documents that haven’t been signed yet.
• Configure an expiration date for time-sensitive contracts. 

You can request a legally-binding signature from your customers, partners and employees within a few short clicks. 

Feature 2: Documents and templates

Businesses can speed up their document creation and signing process with in-built templates and share documents.

This helps you organize and manage your documents all through your SignNow cloud account. 

With this tool, you can: 

• Import Microsoft Word documents.
• Create and configure reusable templates that can be shared with your team.
• Prepare your master document, removing the need to edit documents individually before sending them out.

SignNow allows you to manage and edit your documents all in one place. By configuring team documents and folders, you can easily share your work with co-workers and collaborate within the SignNow app. 

Feature 3: Security and authentication

SignNow’s suite of security features help you protect your documents and verify the integrity of your eSignatures. 

You can: 

• Configure multi-factor authentication to ensure the right people access your documents and contracts. 
• Highly sensitive documents can require phone call authentication to confirm a signer’s identity. 
• Enforce a session inactivity timeout to keep snoopers away from contracts if devices are left unattended. 

Pricing

As previously mentioned, SignNow doesn’t offer a free tier. Their plans start at $8 a month per user with the Business plan. 

We find this plan to be quite limiting - as you can’t set reminders or notifications or send in bulk with this plan. The most popular plan is the Business Premium tier - which also unlocks custom logos and link invites. 

The highest tier is the Business Cloud option, which offers enterprise-grade CRM & ERP integration. You’ll also need to opt for this higher plan if you need HIPAA or 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. 

SignNow Pros and Cons

Pros: 

• Good selection of document signing features
• Document management tools are useful for team collaboration
• Strong security tools & authentication to verify the identity of signers. 

Cons: 

• No free tier
• Base tier lacks essential features provided by similar tools 

What Is DocuSign?

DocuSign is the most popular eSignature tool in the world.

The company has been around for over a decade and has developed a robust collection of document management tools into its suite. 

Today, DocuSign offers a complete package for enterprises and mid-level organizations looking to add digital signatures to their document authorization workflows. 

DocuSign Key Features

Feature 1: Electronic Signature

First up, the flagship feature of any eSignature solution for any industry: the ability to send documents for an electronic signature. The process is simple: upload a document, add your company branding and hit send. 

Their software supportx a wide range of devices, and your recipients can sign documents using their finger, stylus, or mouse.

If your signers have a DocuSign membership, they can save their signature for a one-click signing option! 

Feature 2: Electronic Notarization

For when a simple signature isn’t enough to confirm an agreement, DocuSign's remote notary services allow you to complete the signatures you need without losing any extra time in the closing process. 

Witnessed signings can be complicated to set up, and without a trusted eNotary platform, you can’t verify the identity of a signee safely. 

A notary is a member of the public that can personally attest to the identity of a signee. DocuSign’s notary services come with all the identity verification of a physical notary and includes a complete audit trail to ensure complete user confidence. 

‍Feature 3: Identity Verification

For important agreements, ensuring the right people sign your contract is paramount. With DocuSign Identify, you can easily verify the identity of your signer. 

There are a few methods to choose from. This includes: 

• Document ID and eID Verification
• Knowledge-Based Authentication
• Two-factor Authentication using SMS

This platform’s identity proofing and authentication help you can protect your important agreements and ensures partners have faith in the authenticity of your contracts.

Pricing

DocuSign offers a wide range of features - and its price reflects this. To get started, users can access a very limited free plan, where users can sign documents but can’t send out documents for signing. 

Paid plans start with the Personal tier for $10 per user monthly. This allows you to send out 5 documents monthly for signing, whilst unlocking automated reminders and templates.

You’ll need to upgrade to the Standard tier to unlock unlimited document sending. The Standard tier unlocks shared documents, comments, shared templates, team reports and more. 

Pros and Cons

Pros 

• Packed with useful features, especially with authentication and security
• A popular platform, so recipients are likely to have a DocuSign account already
• Some free features.

Cons

• Expensive, as the base tier is quite limited.
• Free users can’t send out documents.

Signnow vs Docusign Alternative: SignHouse

SignHouse is an eSignature tool designed around simplicity. We want to make eSigning as simple as possible, and we offer businesses of any size the ability to create an eSignature, sign documents, and add signatures to PDFs. 

The main goal of SignHouse is to make document editing intuitive so that even the least tech-savvy user can take advantage of every feature available.

Key Features

‍

Sign documents online

Signing documents online and creating digital signatures is easy with SignHouse. All you’ll need to do is upload your document, specify where in the agreement needs signing, and hit send.

It only takes a few seconds and a couple of clicks. We’ve built this process to be as seamless as possible. 

Edit PDFs to add fields required for signing

Is your PDF document missing some important fields or information? There’s no need to download third-party software to attempt to edit it, as you can edit PDFs directly through SignHouse. 

You can add signature boxes, text fields, checkboxes and more! This ability to edit PDFs is missing from DocuSign, as is more intuitive than SignNow’s document management tools. 

Pricing

If you’re using SignHouse to send documents easily, SignHouse is completely free to use. Our generous free tier offers you 10 signatures a month. 

If you need to upgrade to our Paid plan, you can benefit from unlimited signatures, multi-user support, and unlimited users.

As we don’t price our plans per user, you’ll pay far less for SignHouse’s paid plans than both SignNow and DocuSign. 

Read more about SignHouse's pricing here.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy-to-use User Interface
• Lots of available templates
• Great analytics feature
• Unlimited Free Plan
• Supports Multiple Formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG, etc.

Cons

• Relatively new platform

DocuSign vs SignHouse: Feature Comparison

SignNow vs SignHouse: Feature Comparison

Simple but effective eSignature Sending with SignHouse

Both SignNow and DocuSign are massive players in the eSignature space. They target larger businesses and attract customers with a wide range of features.

However, while these tools can be useful, we’ve found that most businesses looking for an eSignature solution want a platform that works. 

That’s why we’ve developed a no-frills eSignature tool built around simplicity. Want to get started signing documents electronically?

SignHouse’s free tier brings you a powerful eSignature tool for no monthly fee. Just register, and begin signing your documents online with no stress or hassle!

There are many apps too choose from in the eSignature industry, but it's important to pick the right one for you. 

Thank you for reading our signNow vs DocuSign vs SignHouse comparison!