The best DocuSign alternatives in 2026

How we compared

We compared 21 e-signature services in October 2026, Attest and 20 others, from each vendor's own pricing, security and help pages, read on October 11, 2026. See what each one says about encryption. Prices are in US dollars as shown to a US visitor, and can differ by region.

What to compare when you leave DocuSign

1. Who can read your documents. Most services describe encryption in transit and at rest, with no end-to-end mechanism, so their systems can decrypt your documents.
2. How each signer signs. An emailed link, or a key the signer controls.
3. Whether the proof outlives the vendor. Can anyone check a signed document without the vendor's service or records?
4. Price per document at your volume. As published on October 11, 2026, DocuSign Personal is $15 a month, or $11 a month with an annual commitment, for 5 envelopes a month, and an envelope counts once it is sent, whether or not anyone signs it. On Attest, a document you void before anyone signs, or a draft you discard, is given back to your allowance.

Attest: privacy and proof that outlive the vendor

• Private by design. Every document is encrypted in your browser before upload and opened only by the parties, in their own browsers. Attest stores your document only as ciphertext it can't read.
• Each signer signs with their own key. 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, with no account or password. The passkey signs a statement naming the document's fingerprint and everything the signer entered.
• Proof that outlives the vendor. Every party gets the same sealed PDF, carrying the original document, the evidence and an open-source verifier, and every completed agreement is anchored on the Horizen public blockchain. It verifies even if Attest no longer exists.
• Anyone can verify, free. Anyone can check a signed document in their own browser, with no account.
• Prove a fact, reveal nothing else. Share a zero-knowledge proof that you signed an agreement, and the date it was completed, without sharing the document. Each proof is verified on zkVerify.
• Fair price. $5 a month for 20 documents, month to month, and your first 2 documents are free, in total. Signers never pay.

Adobe Acrobat Sign: e-signatures inside Acrobat

Adobe includes e-signature sending in Acrobat Standard, Pro and Studio. Its certified PDFs show a blue banner in Acrobat Reader, and senders can add signer checks from phone codes to government ID, some of them metered. As published on October 11, 2026, Acrobat Standard is $24.99 a month, or $14.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, and a free Acrobat account allows two signature requests every 30 days. Adobe encrypts stored data with AES 256-bit encryption, and its service decrypts files to process them.

Dropbox Sign: from Dropbox, formerly HelloSign

Dropbox Sign has a free plan with 3 signature requests a month. Essentials, for 1 user, adds unlimited signature requests and 5 templates for $20 a month, or $15 a month billed yearly, as published on October 11, 2026. Documents are encrypted at rest with AES 256-bit encryption. Completed documents can carry a digital tamper-proof seal, and to prove a document wasn't changed, its legal and compliance page says Dropbox Sign "can provide you with the two unique document records".

PandaDoc: quotes, templates and signing

PandaDoc pairs e-signature with document building: its Business and Enterprise plans add a quote builder, pricing tables and a product catalog, and every plan includes templates (up to 5 on Free eSign and Starter). The Free eSign plan allows 5 documents a month with 2 recipients each. Starter is $35 per user a month, or $19 per user a month billed annually, as listed in PandaDoc's help center on October 11, 2026. PandaDoc says data "is encrypted when traveling and at rest", and completed PDFs are signed with an Entrust certificate that Adobe Acrobat can check.

Zoho Sign: per-user plans and a pay-per-envelope API

Zoho Sign's free plan allows 5 envelopes a month for a single user. As published on October 11, 2026, Standard is $12 per user a month, or $10 billed annually, for 25 envelopes per user a month, and its API costs $0.50 per envelope with no commitment. Zoho Sign offers RFC 3161 and qualified timestamps, and its Enterprise plan adds timestamping of document fingerprints on the Bitcoin blockchain through OpenTimestamps.

SignNow: plans with invite allowances

SignNow, from airSlate, offers a 7-day free trial. SignNow's Business plan is $20 a month, or $8 a month billed annually, as published on October 11, 2026. Plans include 100 signature invites per user a year, or 10 per user a month, and extra invites cost $0.96 each on Business, as published on October 11, 2026. SignNow's pricing app tests other prices, so some visitors see different figures. Documents are encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS, and each signed document carries an airSlate certificate that Adobe Reader can check.

Open-source options: Documenso, DocuSeal and OpenSign

• Documenso (AGPL-3.0): a cloud free plan with 5 documents a month, Individual at $25 a month billed yearly ($300, as published on October 11, 2026), and a free self-hosted Community Edition.
• DocuSeal (AGPL-3.0 with an attribution term): a cloud free plan with 10 request emails a month, Pro at $20 per user a month or $200 per user a year (as published on October 11, 2026), and a free self-hosted edition that signs with a self-signed certificate.
• OpenSign (AGPL-3.0, per its README): a cloud free plan that advertises unlimited e-signatures, Professional at $29.99 a month or $9.99 a month on the yearly plan (as published on October 11, 2026), and a free self-hosted version.

Self-hosting puts the server, the data and its encryption keys in your hands, along with the work of running and securing them. None of the three describes a mechanism for end-to-end encryption of documents; DocuSeal's qualified signature page uses the words "end-to-end encryption" without describing one.

Compared: privacy, independent proof and entry price

As published on October 11, 2026:

Service	End-to-end encrypted, so the vendor can't read documents	What anyone can check without the vendor's service	Entry paid plan (monthly billing / annual billing)
Attest	Yes, every document, for every signer, by default	Each signer's passkey signature, the original document, the pages you see and Attest's anchored record on Horizen, checked by the open-source verifier inside the signed copy	$5 a month for 20 documents, month to month
DocuSign	No. AES-256 in transit and at rest; customer-managed keys are a premium add-on	DocuSign's PKI tamper seal	Personal: $15 / $11 a month, 5 envelopes a month
Adobe Acrobat Sign	No. AES 256-bit at rest; its service decrypts files to process them	Adobe's certification seal, shown in Acrobat Reader	Acrobat Standard: $24.99 / $14.99 a month
Dropbox Sign	No. AES 256-bit at rest	A digital tamper-proof seal; to prove no tampering, Dropbox Sign "can provide you with the two unique document records"	Essentials: $20 / $15 a month
PandaDoc	No. "Encrypted when traveling and at rest"	An Entrust certificate that Adobe Acrobat checks	Starter: $35 / $19 per user a month
Zoho Sign	No mechanism described; AES-256 at rest and TLS	A GlobalSign certificate in the US (QuoVadis in the EU) checked in a PDF reader; Bitcoin anchoring on Enterprise	Standard: $12 / $10 per user a month, 25 envelopes
SignNow	No. AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit	An airSlate certificate checked in Adobe Reader	Business: $20 / $8 a month, 100 invites per user a year
Documenso	No. Encrypted at rest and in transit; no end-to-end mechanism described	A platform-level PDF signature	Individual: $25 a month, billed yearly
DocuSeal	No mechanism described; encrypted in transit and at rest	A PDF signature, self-signed on the free self-hosted edition	Pro: $20 per user a month, or $200 per user a year
OpenSign	No encryption mechanism described	A certificate seal checked in Adobe Acrobat	Professional: $29.99 / $9.99 a month

Attest isn't the only e-signature service that uses a blockchain. As published on October 11, 2026, Zoho Sign's Enterprise plan timestamps document fingerprints on the Bitcoin blockchain through OpenTimestamps, Cincel in Mexico offers Bitcoin timestamps with its Certificado Smart, and Mifiel uses Blockstream's Liquid sidechain for electronic promissory notes. Attest anchors every completed agreement on a public blockchain, Horizen, on every plan, including the free documents, and adds zero-knowledge proofs, verified on zkVerify, that let a party prove an agreement was signed without showing it.

Price per document at small volume

At 20 documents a month, Attest costs 25 cents a document. On annual billing, at the prices published on October 11, 2026, Adobe Acrobat Standard ($14.99) and Dropbox Sign Essentials ($15) work out to about 75 cents a document at that volume, PandaDoc Starter ($19 per user) to 95 cents, and Zoho Sign Standard ($10 per user) to 50 cents. DocuSign Personal is $11 a month on annual billing for 5 envelopes (as published on October 11, 2026), or $2.20 an envelope. On paid plans at 20 documents a month, Attest costs less per document than DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Dropbox Sign, PandaDoc and Zoho Sign, and it needs no annual commitment.

Switching from DocuSign to Attest

1. Download your completed DocuSign documents and certificates of completion before your subscription ends.
2. Sign in to Attest with your email and set up your signing key with a passkey and a recovery phrase.
3. Upload the PDF you would have sent with DocuSign (up to 8 MB), add your signers and place their fields.
4. Send it. Each signer opens their link and approves with their passkey, and everyone receives the same sealed, verifiable copy. Your first 2 documents are free, in total.