by Docusign, Inc.Electronic signatures
Docusign’s e-signature app, sold per user with an envelope allowance on each seat, with an audit trail and tamper seal on every plan.
A signing workflow with the audit trail, tamper seal and company-wide certifications that many legal and security reviews already expect.
Every DocuSign eSignature plan, Personal included, adds an audit trail, a certificate of completion and a tamper seal to each signed document. Behind it sit Docusign’s own SOC 2 Type II reports, ISO 27001:2022, five storage regions and an EU qualified trust service provider for QES. Recipients sign for free, and developers get a REST API with SDKs, Connect webhooks and a free developer account. You pay for this per seat, with an envelope allowance on each one.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Electronic signatures: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | DocuSign eSignature | BoldSign | DocuSeal | Dropbox Sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Compliance includedA signing workflow with the audit trail, tamper seal and company-wide certifications that many legal and security reviews already expect. | Worth the priceUnlimited sending with SSO, HIPAA and a storage region choice at $15 per user a month billed yearly, with QES, ID checks, SMS and bulk send priced per use. | Worth the priceA full signing app with unlimited web sending, SSO and an API for a $20 seat, with open-source code you can also run yourself. | Worth the priceUnlimited signature requests at a fixed price per sender, with an audit trail and a digital seal on every signed document. |
| Overall score | 6.6 | 9.2Best | 8.8 | 6.7 |
| Free option | 14-day free trial | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed | No card needed | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $10/mo | $5/user/mo | $20/user/mo | $15/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Seat + usage | Seat + usage | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per user per month, with an envelope allowance per seat | Per user per month (Growth, Business); flat for unlimited users (Premium); per envelope (API and add-ons) | Per web-app user (sender seat), plus per-use fees for API, SMS, bulk send and ID checks | Per sender (user) per month; signers pay nothing |
| Envelope allowance | Personal 5 a month; Standard and Business Pro 100 per user per year, shared; IAM Standard unlimited from the web app | Essential 25 a month; Growth 50 a month per user (plan table: 50 for the account); Business unlimited; Premium 250 a month, then $0.50 each | Basic 10 request emails a month; Pro unlimited signature requests from the web app | Unlimited signature requests on paid web plans; Free 3 a month; API plans have a monthly quota |
| Free option | Free signing of documents you receive; trial of about 14 days, no card | Free plan: 25 envelopes a month (5 with a personal email domain); 30-day trial, no card | Free Basic plan, 10 request emails a month, no card; free self-hosted open-source edition | Free plan with 3 signature requests a month; 30-day trial of paid plans |
| Reference scenario (3 senders, 90 envelopes/mo) | $135 on IAM Standard (3 × $45); $270 on Standard with extra envelopes, computed | $15 on Growth (3 × $5) if the 50 envelopes are per user; $45 on Business otherwise, computed | $50 on Pro annual (3 × $200 a year), computed | $75 on Standard (3 × $25 billed yearly), computed |
| API entry price | $50/mo billed annually for 40 envelopes a month; free developer account | $30/mo with 40 envelopes, then $0.75 each; free sandbox | $20/mo for one Pro seat, plus $0.20 per completed document; free sandbox, no card | $75/mo billed yearly ($900) for 50 requests a month; free test mode |
| EU signature levels (eIDAS) | SES on self-serve plans; AES and QES on Enhanced (sales) | eIDAS on every plan; QES add-on at $3 per signature on Business and up | SES included; AES $2 and QES from $0.20 per signature on the EU cloud (docuseal.eu) | eIDAS stated for simple signatures; AES and QES through the eID add-on on API Premium (sales) |
| Signer ID checks | ID verification from $2.40 per attempt; SMS/phone authentication and KBA by sales | SMS authentication $0.20, ID verification $2, KBA $1.50 per use, Business and up | SMS and phone 2FA (20 a month, then $0.20 each); ID check $2 and KBA $2, both enabled by support | SMS authentication on Standard and up; eID on API Premium (add-on, sales) |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Own SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001:2022 | Own SOC 2 Type II (Syncfusion, report on request); ISO 27001 not stated | Own SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 stated; documents on request in the Trust Center | Own SOC 2 Type 2; ISO 27001 naming Dropbox Sign |
| HIPAA BAA | Enhanced plans, by sales | Business and up on an annual plan; BAA signed in the app settings (plan card) or requested by form (HIPAA overview) | Pro Annual, by emailing support | Annual Standard or Premium, with a BAA and a minimum contract value, through sales |
| SSO | IAM Professional (3-user minimum); otherwise by sales | Business ($15/user/mo billed yearly) and up | SAML SSO on Pro ($20/user/mo) | SAML SSO on Premium (quote); no SCIM |
| Storage regions | US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan; choice through a Docusign representative | US, EU, Canada, Australia on every plan; fixed at sign-up | US (AWS Virginia) or EU (AWS Dublin), by signing up on docuseal.com or docuseal.eu | US, Australia, EU, Japan, Canada, UK on Premium; US by default |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, DocuSign eSignature has the longest certification list of the five and evidence features on every plan. It is priced per seat with an envelope allowance, so steady volume costs more than with the flat-rate rivals, and SSO and HIPAA sit on higher or sales-led plans. | From its public pages, BoldSign has the lowest price of the five for our 3-sender scenario and puts SSO, HIPAA, four storage regions and per-use QES on a self-serve plan. Check how Growth counts envelopes; no ISO 27001 certificate is named. | From its public pages, DocuSeal pairs a low per-seat price for unlimited web sending with an API billed per completed document, its own SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and an open-source edition. Usage fees and support-enabled add-ons need planning. | From its public pages, Dropbox Sign is a per-sender service with unlimited signature requests, evidence on every document and compliance reports in its own name. SSO, data residency, HIPAA and QES go through sales, and the API is priced by monthly quota. |
Evidence: DocuSign eSignature: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; BoldSign: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; DocuSeal: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Dropbox Sign: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from DocuSign eSignature's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Docusign's US eSignature and API pricing pages (in all three billing options), the IAM plans tab, the help-center articles on envelope allowances, overage prices, plan limits and account types, the trust, certifications and data-residency pages, the eSignature service schedule, the US legality guide, and the developer docs on SDKs, webhooks, rate limits and Go-Live on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up, start a trial or call the API for this review. The default pricing URL showed another currency for our location, so every price here comes from the vendor's own /en-US/ storefront, which lists US dollars.
The pages make the structure clear. Each plan has three prices: billed upfront for a year (Standard $25 per user a month), annual billed monthly ($30, the default view) and monthly ($45). Standard and Business Pro include 100 envelopes per user per year, and the service schedule says the allowance is shared across the account rather than set per sender. A help-center article linked from the pricing FAQ lists the price of each extra envelope. The audit trail, certificate of completion and tamper seal are on every plan.
A few things need a question. The price of API envelopes beyond a plan's starting amount is not published. The IAM tab says to call sales above 5 users while its plans list up to 50, and the API page promises up to 44% off for annual billing while its plans show 33%. The trial length appears only in a help article ("usually lasts about 14 days"), and unlimited web-app sending on IAM plans is subject to a Reasonable Use Policy that the pages do not quantify.
The audit trail and the certificate of completion with electronic record disclosure are listed from Personal ($10/mo billed upfront) up, and the API pricing FAQ says all plans include tamper-sealed documents.
The certifications page lists ISO 27001:2022, 27017 and 27018, SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS 4.0, C5, IRAP, FedRAMP for Docusign Federal, and Docusign France as a qualified trust service provider.
vs BoldSign: BoldSign and SignWell state their own SOC 2 Type II but no ISO 27001 certificate in their own name.
A REST API with SDKs in six server languages plus iOS and Android, Connect webhooks with HMAC and mutual TLS options, and a developer account that does not expire.
vs Dropbox Sign: API Starter is $50/mo for 40 envelopes a month; Dropbox Sign’s API starts at $75/mo for 50 requests, both billed yearly.
A help-center article lists each extra envelope: $3.00 pre-bought or $3.60 pay-as-you-go on Standard annual, $4.80 or $5.80 on Business Pro annual, with higher rates on monthly billing.
The data residency page lists the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, with eSignature in all five. Web accounts are placed by location; a Docusign representative can set the region.
vs BoldSign: BoldSign offers four regions (US, EU, Canada, Australia); SignWell offers no choice of storage region.
Standard and Business Pro include 100 envelopes per user per year (10 per user per month on monthly billing), shared across the account. Three senders at 30 a month need 1,080 a year, so 780 would be extra.
Workaround: Pre-buy envelopes ($3.00 each on Standard annual), or use IAM Standard, which has unlimited web-app sending with a 3-user minimum.
On the eSignature plans, SSO, the HIPAA BAA, a choice of storage region, SMS/phone authentication and AES/QES signatures are on Enhanced plans, sold through sales.
Workaround: IAM Professional ($75/user/mo billed upfront, 3-user minimum) includes SSO and can be bought online.
The Free account is for signing and returning documents; the help center says it can commonly send up to 3 envelopes in total, not per month. A help article says the trial "usually lasts about 14 days", and the trial page says no credit card is needed.
Workaround: The free developer account does not expire, but its envelopes are watermarked demos, not valid contracts, and are removed after 30 days.
The default price view (Standard $30) is an annual commitment; the pricing FAQ says cancelling after 30 days means paying the rest of the year. Monthly billing is $45 per user on Standard.
Workaround: Paying the year upfront gives the lowest price ($25 per user on Standard).
Billing is per user per month with an envelope allowance, at three price levels per plan. Personal is $10/mo billed upfront for one user and 5 envelopes a month. Standard ($25/user billed upfront, $30 annual billed monthly, $45 monthly) and Business Pro ($40/$45/$65) include 100 envelopes per user per year, shared across the account; extra envelopes cost $3.00 pre-bought or $3.60 pay-as-you-go on Standard annual. For 3 senders at 30 envelopes a month (1,080 a year), Standard plus 780 pre-bought envelopes comes to $270/mo (our arithmetic), while IAM Standard is $135/mo (3 × $45, unlimited web-app sending). Among the eSignature plans, bulk send and API access start at Business Pro; SSO, HIPAA and QES are by sales. API plans start at $50/mo for 40 envelopes a month. Tax may apply.
Completed documents can be retrieved during the subscription at no extra cost (service schedule §3.2), from the web app or through the API. Download before closing: the help center says closing can remove access to account documents, and that a Free downgrade and closure are not the same. After the term, retrieval for up to two years is a paid professional service. Annual plans renew automatically.
From its public pages, DocuSign eSignature has the longest certification list of the five and evidence features on every plan. It is priced per seat with an envelope allowance, so steady volume costs more than with the flat-rate rivals, and SSO and HIPAA sit on higher or sales-led plans.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per user per month, with an envelope allowance per seat |
| Envelope allowance | Personal 5 a month; Standard and Business Pro 100 per user per year, shared; IAM Standard unlimited from the web app |
| Free option | Free signing of documents you receive; trial of about 14 days, no card |
| Reference scenario (3 senders, 90 envelopes/mo) | $135 on IAM Standard (3 × $45); $270 on Standard with extra envelopes, computed |
| API entry price | $50/mo billed annually for 40 envelopes a month; free developer account |
| EU signature levels (eIDAS) | SES on self-serve plans; AES and QES on Enhanced (sales) |
| Signer ID checks | ID verification from $2.40 per attempt; SMS/phone authentication and KBA by sales |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Own SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Enhanced plans, by sales |
| SSO | IAM Professional (3-user minimum); otherwise by sales |
| Storage regions | US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan; choice through a Docusign representative |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for DocuSign eSignature yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for DocuSign eSignature yet.
DocuSign eSignature lists 8 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Personal, costs $10/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: ecom.docusign.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, API pricing, security, legal and docs pages of three e-signature services on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. How each one bills, what 3 senders cost, and who should pick which.
