--- title: "What if your e-signature company shuts down? · Attest" description: "What happens to signed documents and their proof when an e-signature vendor shuts down or deletes data, what vendors' terms say, and how to protect yours." url: https://attest.datahubz.com/guides/what-happens-if-e-signature-company-shuts-down updated: 2026-10-12 --- [Attest](https://attest.datahubz.com/)/[Guides](https://attest.datahubz.com/guides) # What if your e-signature company shuts down? A vendor shutting down doesn't change what the parties agreed, but the copies and records it holds can go with it, and the terms of services such as DocuSign and Adobe Acrobat Sign (as published on October 11, 2026) don't oblige them to keep your documents indefinitely after your subscription ends, so the files you download are your evidence. An Attest signed copy proves itself: it carries the original document, the evidence and an open-source verifier inside the file, checked against a public blockchain, so it verifies even if Attest is gone. By DataHubz · Updated October 12, 2026 · 7 min read ## Two things you can lose When an e-signature vendor shuts down, discontinues a product or ends your access, two different things are at risk: 1. **The documents.** The completed files and audit records the vendor stores for you. 2. **The way to check them.** A lookup in the vendor's database, a seal tied to the vendor's certificate, or a validator the vendor runs. A downloaded PDF protects you against the first. Whether it protects you against the second depends on what is inside the file. Products do end. When Dropbox discontinued Dropbox Forms, it put the product in read-only mode on September 2, 2025, and its help center told customers to "export your data before September 30, 2025. You won't be able to access any forms after this date." ## What vendors' own terms say As published on October 11, 2026: | Service | What it says happens to your documents | | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | DocuSign (eSignature terms, version September 15, 2025) | By default it stores completed eDocuments "for the duration of the Term, or until Customer deletes the eDocument, whichever occurs first". For up to two years after the Term, you can ask DocuSign for Professional Services to help retrieve completed eDocuments that remain stored. If you don't ask within those two years, then after them DocuSign "shall have no obligation to retain or provide any eDocuments" and "shall have the right to delete" your account and its eDocuments | | Adobe Acrobat Sign (help page last updated August 6, 2023) | "Upon expiration or termination of a Customer's license to Acrobat Sign, Adobe is under no obligation to retain the Customer's agreements, audit reports, or other Customer data" | | Dropbox Sign | After you cancel, the account becomes a free account and "You can still log in to access your signed documents". If you delete the account, "your account and all documents related to it will be permanently deleted" | | PandaDoc | "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" | | SignNow | After a plan expires, the account becomes read-only, and "there's no time limit on how long you can keep accessing them". If you delete the account, your "documents, templates, and personal data stored in SignNow are permanently removed in line with our retention policies" | Dropbox Sign and SignNow let you reach signed documents after a paid plan ends, and PandaDoc says you can export them at any time, including upon account termination. All of these terms depend on the company still running the service. ## Proof that depends on the vendor Keeping the files is half of it. Some vendors also describe checks that need them later, as published on their own pages on October 11, 2026: - **Dropbox Sign:** "If you ever need to prove there was no tampering between the pre and post-signed documents, Dropbox Sign can provide you with the two unique document records." Its audit trail identifier "can be used to look up a record in our database, which shows who signed a document and when they signed it." - **Signaturit**, in a help article of April 12, 2021, says downloaded documents' "validity won't last forever, as certificates must be updated", and recommends downloading them again from Signaturit for lawsuits. - **Clicksign** (Brazil): to validate a document signed more than 12 months ago, Clicksign's own certificate must first be renewed through Clicksign's validator. Some checks do work without the signing service. Adobe Acrobat Sign certifies final signed PDFs with a digital signature, and a paper Adobe publishes says the certification is compliant with the Adobe Approved Trust List program, so Acrobat and Acrobat Reader display a blue banner on the downloaded file. ## How an Attest signed copy proves itself Every party to an Attest agreement downloads the same sealed PDF. It holds 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, and three files attached inside it: - **attest-evidence.json:** the full evidence, including each signer's passkey signature - **original-document.pdf:** the document exactly as signed - **attest-verifier.html:** a standalone verifier The evidence is anchored on Horizen, a **public blockchain**: a public ledger anyone can read. Only fingerprints go on chain (a fingerprint, or SHA-256 hash, is a short code calculated from a file's contents), never the document, its title or anyone's email. Each signature is anchored from the signer's own wallet (a blockchain account Attest creates and runs for each user), the completed agreement from the sender's, and the sealed copy's pages in their own transaction. To check it, open the verifier in any browser and drop the PDF on it. It runs with no Attest service and reads only a public blockchain node, any node of that chain, for its on-chain checks: Attest's anchored records of the agreement and of its pages, and that the verifier attached to the copy is a build Attest published. Every other check runs offline. 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. Change one byte of the document, of any signer's entries or of the signed pages, and verification fails. You don't have to take the verifier on trust either. It is open source under the MIT license (GitHub: DataHubz/attest-verifier), and each release there lists the SHA-256 of its file. The current version is published at [attest.datahubz.com/attest-verifier.html](https://attest.datahubz.com/attest-verifier.html). It pins its trust root (the chain, Attest's registry and the keys it checks against are built into the verifier, never read from the file being checked), accepts only anchors from Attest's registered wallets, and checks that the verifier attached to a signed copy is a build Attest published, by its fingerprint anchored on Horizen. The evidence uses only open standards, such as WebAuthn, SHA-256 and Merkle trees, and each cryptographic check can be run with standard tools: any SHA-256 tool, any WebAuthn library and any Ethereum JSON-RPC node. The evidence file lists every check. Attest has done this with a real agreement. An agreement signed on attest.datahubz.com and anchored on Horizen was verified with Attest blocked, by the verifier inside its signed copy, reading only a public blockchain node; changing the pages made it fail. The film, "We blocked Attest. The agreement still verified.", is on [the signing page](https://attest.datahubz.com/sign). As with any record, this works when you keep the file: the proof travels with your copy, so download it. ## What to do today, whatever service you use 1. **Download every completed document while your account is active.** DocuSign's terms say that during the Term you can "retrieve electronic copies of its stored eDocuments at no additional cost". 2. **Download the evidence with it:** the certificate of completion or audit report, not only the signed pages. 3. **Keep the files exactly as downloaded.** A printout or a re-saved copy is not the same evidence. 4. **Store them in two places you control,** such as your own drive and a separate backup. 5. **Note how each file is checked:** whether it validates in a PDF reader, or whether proving it needs the vendor's records. 6. **For new agreements, choose a signed copy that verifies on its own.** On Attest, download the signed copy when the agreement completes. There is also a "Signed pages only" version for filings that must keep the page count, and a certificate of completion PDF that carries the evidence and the verifier without the document. Keeping copies also matters legally. Under the US ESIGN Act, a contract that must be in writing can be denied effect if it isn't in a form that can be "retained and accurately reproduced" by the people entitled to it. This page is general information, not legal advice. ## Questions people ask Can I still prove a DocuSign document if DocuSign is gone? Keep the downloaded PDF and its certificate of completion, which DocuSign says provides "proof of the signing process to all parties". Download them while your account is active: after the subscription ends, DocuSign's eSignature terms (version September 15, 2025, as published on October 11, 2026) give you up to two years to ask its Professional Services to help retrieve completed documents that remain stored. What happens to Attest signed copies if Attest shuts down? They keep verifying. Each signed copy carries the original document, the evidence and an open-source verifier that checks it against a public blockchain on your own device, with no Attest service. A real agreement was verified this way with Attest blocked. What does the Attest verifier need from the outside world? Only a public blockchain node, any node of that chain, for its on-chain checks: Attest's anchored records of the agreement and of its pages, and that the verifier attached to the copy is a build Attest published. Every other check runs offline in your browser. Is a printed copy of a signed document enough? Keep the file as well. On an Attest document, the stamp's code and QR code lead to the record, but they don't prove that a printed page is unaltered. To check a page, compare it with the signed copy or drop the file on the verifier. Do I need an account to verify an Attest document? No. Verification is free and needs no account, at attest.datahubz.com/verify or with the verifier inside the PDF. ## Sources 1. [Docusign eSignature Service Schedule (version September 15, 2025)](https://www.docusign.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/schedule-docusign-signature), Docusign, read October 11, 2026 2. [Docusign eSignature features](https://www.docusign.com/products/electronic-signature/features), Docusign, read October 11, 2026 3. [Acrobat Sign data and document retention (help page, last updated August 6, 2023; Internet Archive copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20250622023200/https://helpx.adobe.com/sign/using/data-document-retention.html), Adobe, read October 11, 2026 4. [Adobe Acrobat Sign Security Overview (June 2026)](https://www.adobe.com/cc-shared/assets/pdf/trust-center/ungated/whitepapers/doc-cloud/adobe-acrobat-sign-security-overview.pdf), Adobe, read October 11, 2026 5. [Adobe Acrobat Sign: Compliance with European and UK electronic signature legislation (DLA Piper, July 2024)](https://www.adobe.com/cc-shared/assets/pdf/trust/acrobat-sign-eidas-wp.pdf), Adobe, read October 11, 2026 6. [Cancel or delete a Dropbox Sign account](https://help.dropbox.com/plans/cancel-or-delete-dropbox-sign-account), Dropbox, read October 11, 2026 7. [Dropbox Sign legal](https://www.dropboxsign.com/about/legal), Dropbox, read October 11, 2026 8. [Dropbox Forms end of support FAQs](https://help.dropbox.com/integrations/dropbox-forms-discontinuation-faq), Dropbox, read October 11, 2026 9. [PandaDoc eSignature compliance](https://support.pandadoc.com/en/articles/16640382-pandadoc-esignature-compliance), PandaDoc, read October 11, 2026 10. [Keeping your documents after your plan expires](https://helpcenter.signnow.com/en/articles/15850883-keeping-your-documents-after-your-plan-expires), airSlate SignNow, read October 11, 2026 11. [Delete your account](https://helpcenter.signnow.com/en/articles/13186479-easily-delete-your-account), airSlate SignNow, read October 11, 2026 12. [Are audit trails and signed documents valid forever? (help article of April 12, 2021, still published; read through Signaturit's help-center API, as the page blocks automated reads)](https://help.signaturit.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003523757), Signaturit, read October 12, 2026 13. [Validade jurídica](https://www.clicksign.com/validade-juridica), Clicksign, read October 11, 2026 14. [15 U.S.C. Chapter 96, Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (United States Code, 2023 edition)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap96.htm), U.S. Government Publishing Office, read October 11, 2026 ## Read next - [Closed your account? Proving what you signed](https://attest.datahubz.com/guides/closed-account-prove-signed-documents) Your plan lapsed or you closed your e-signature account: what vendors keep, how to still prove what you signed, and why Attest copies need no account. - [How to verify a signed PDF without Adobe Acrobat](https://attest.datahubz.com/guides/verify-signed-pdf-without-adobe) What Acrobat's signature panel checks, the free ways to check a signed PDF without buying it, and how an Attest PDF carries its own open-source verifier. - [Attest vs DocuSign](https://attest.datahubz.com/compare/attest-vs-docusign) Attest vs DocuSign on privacy, how signers sign, proof that outlives the vendor and price: $5 a month for 20 documents, with prices as published. - [Verify](https://attest.datahubz.com/verify) Check a signed document, receipt, certificate or proof for free, with no account. Drop the file, or enter its ID or fingerprint: it is checked in your browser. --- Source: https://attest.datahubz.com/guides/what-happens-if-e-signature-company-shuts-down