Attest vs PandaDoc

Attest and PandaDoc at a glance

PandaDoc combines a document editor, templates and e-signature, with plans from Free eSign to Enterprise. Attest is built around a different promise: proof anyone can check, on documents only the parties can read. PandaDoc's prices below are as published in its help center on October 12, 2026; its other details are as published on its own pages on October 11, 2026.

	Attest	PandaDoc (as published October 12, 2026)
Who can read your documents	Only you and the people you send them to. Every document is end-to-end encrypted in your browser	PandaDoc: "Data is encrypted when traveling and at rest". No end-to-end encryption described
How a signer signs	Approves with a passkey only they control (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or the device PIN), with no account or password	Opens a link with no account. Passcode, SMS and email codes on Business and Enterprise; paid ID checks
What ties the signature to the document	Each signer's own cryptographic signature over the document's fingerprint and their entries	PandaDoc's digital signature on the completed PDF, with an Entrust certificate
Checking a signed document	Anyone, free, with no account: the open-source verifier inside every signed copy checks it against a public blockchain	Adobe Acrobat shows whether the PDF changed since PandaDoc signed it
A signer's access after completion	Every signer gets the same sealed copy, which keeps verifying on its own	"A completed document is public (available for a recipient/signer) for 6 months after completion"
Prove a fact without the document	Yes: a zero-knowledge proof that you signed, and the date it was completed	Not offered
Free plan	2 documents, in total	Free eSign: 5 documents a month, 2 recipients each
Entry paid plan	Signing: $5 a month for 20 documents	Starter: $35 per user a month, or $19 per user a month billed annually, with unlimited documents

Privacy: who can read your proposals and contracts

PandaDoc says "Data is encrypted when traveling and at rest", and that once a document is sent "we seal and encrypt it to ensure the legality of the document". It keeps the keys it signs completed documents with in a hardware security module (FIPS-validated AWS CloudHSM), and customers can choose US or EU data residency (an Enterprise feature in its pricing table). Those are real controls, but PandaDoc describes no end-to-end encryption, so its systems can decrypt the documents they store.

Attest encrypts every document in your browser before upload, with AES-256-GCM under a fresh key for that document, and locks that key separately to each person you send it to. Even what signers type into the document, such as their signature and text, is encrypted in their own browser. Attest stores your document only as ciphertext it can't read. What it does see is the information around a document, such as the title, the file name, the signers' names and email addresses and when each step happened.

We compared 21 e-signature services in October 2026, Attest and 20 others, and Attest was the only one that end-to-end encrypts every document, for every signer, by default.

How signers sign, and what the signature is

On PandaDoc, "Recipients don't need a PandaDoc account to view or sign PandaDoc documents." On Business and Enterprise, the sender can require a passcode, an SMS code or an email code. Stronger checks are paid features: Business and Enterprise include up to 12 knowledge-based authentication and ID verifications a year, and the help center lists $2 per KBA attempt (for signers with a US Social Security number) and $2 per ID check, as published on October 11, 2026. Completed PDFs are digitally signed by PandaDoc with an Entrust certificate, and the downloaded PDF ends with a Signature Certificate page listing the signers, their verified emails, IP addresses, locations and timestamps.

On Attest, every signer approves with a passkey: a cryptographic key only the signer controls, unlocked with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or the device PIN. The passkey signs a statement that names the exact document, by its fingerprint, and everything the signer entered, and Attest checks that signature against the passkey's public key before recording it. PandaDoc's certificate shows the PDF hasn't changed since PandaDoc signed it; an Attest signature shows that this signer approved this exact document. Signers still create no account and no password, and they never pay.

Proof after the account ends

PandaDoc says "Signed documents are retained within PandaDoc for the duration of the customer relationship. Documents can be downloaded and exported at any time, including upon account termination." Signers, who usually have no account, can open a completed document for 6 months after completion, so the copy they downloaded is their record.

On Attest, every party downloads the same sealed PDF: the signed pages, with a "Signed with Attest" stamp on each signature and a seal line at the foot of every page, a certificate of completion, the audit trail up to completion and a "Verify it yourself, without us" page, with the full evidence, the original document and a standalone verifier attached inside. Every completed agreement is anchored on the Horizen public blockchain.

Open that verifier in any browser and drop the PDF on it, with no account, even if Attest no longer exists. It checks the original document inside the signed copy against what every signer signed, each signer's passkey signature and entries, Attest's anchored record of the agreement on Horizen, and that nothing was added to the PDF after it was sealed. It also re-makes every page you see from what was signed and compares the result with the copy byte for byte, so pages drawn with anything else fail. The verifier is open source under the MIT license, and apart from reading a public blockchain node, it works offline.

Proving an agreement without sharing it

Sometimes a bank, a landlord or a new partner only needs to know that an agreement exists. Attest's Share proof creates a zero-knowledge proof that you, or you and a named co-signer, signed an agreement, and the date it was completed. The recipient sees the email addresses, the completion date, and that the proof is valid and where its record is anchored; never the document, its title or its terms. Each proof is verified on zkVerify, and anyone can check it free. PandaDoc does not offer this.

Price at small volume

What you send	Attest	PandaDoc (as published October 12, 2026)
A few documents	2 documents free, in total	Free eSign: 5 documents a month, 2 recipients each
Up to 20 a month, one sender	$5 a month	Starter: $35 a month, or $19 a month billed annually
Per document, at 20 a month	25 cents	95 cents on Starter billed annually for one user, $1.75 month to month
Many more than 20 a month	Pro: $49 a month, with 10,000 records a month	Starter: listed as unlimited documents

Attest's plans are month to month, and you can cancel any time. A document you void before anyone signs, or a draft you discard, is given back to your allowance.

When PandaDoc is the better fit

PandaDoc does a lot that Attest doesn't try to do, and some teams need exactly that:

• Proposals and quotes built in the tool. Business and Enterprise add a quote builder, pricing tables and a product catalog, and connect to CRMs (Salesforce as a paid add-on).
• Templates. Every plan has templates (up to 5 on Free eSign and Starter, unlimited on Business), plus a library of more than 400 public templates.
• Getting paid at signing. Stripe payments from Starter; PayPal and QuickBooks Payments on Business and Enterprise.
• Identity checks and qualified signatures. Knowledge-based authentication (for signers with a US Social Security number), ID checks, and qualified electronic signatures at $5 per signer on Business and Enterprise, as published on October 11, 2026.
• High volume on one seat. If you send far more than 20 documents a month and privacy isn't the deciding factor, Starter, which PandaDoc lists with unlimited documents, costs less than Attest Pro.

Who should choose Attest

• Small businesses and professionals signing contracts, NDAs, statements of work and offer letters that should stay readable only by the parties: every Attest document is end-to-end encrypted in the browser.
• Anyone who needs proof that lasts, without a vendor account or a 6-month access window.
• Small senders who want 20 documents a month for $5, with no annual commitment.
• People who receive signed documents and want to check them independently, for free.

Using Attest for the final signature

Many teams draft wherever they like and sign the final PDF on Attest. Sign in with your email, set up your signing key with a passkey and a recovery phrase, then upload the PDF (up to 8 MB), add your signers and place their fields: signature, initials, date signed, full name or text. Your first 2 documents are free, in total.