Choosing Among Top E-Signature Solutions: SignNow vs. DocuSign

Choosing Among Top E-Signature Solutions: SignNow vs. DocuSign

The e-sign software market has been developing at a fast clip even before COVID-19. It was predicted to reach 5.5 bln by 2023, but the pandemic might even boost it. With the current remote-work trend, more and more enterprises are joining the club of those using e-signature solutions for managing their workflow. If you are not among them, it’s time to opt in.

Well, but which solution to choose? G2 covers over 170 e-signature software providers, with DocuSign and SignNow topping the list. So, let’s compare the two and reveal the winner.

Getting Started

As a newbie to the world of electronic signatures, you want everything to be as simple as possible. And surely, you’ll like to get it for free. No worries here since both websites have nice Free Trial buttons right where you expect them to be – in the upper right corner of the screen. However, SignNow offers much faster signing in via Facebook or Google accounts as well as by usual entering an email. DocuSign is more demanding and time-consuming with the need to fill in a couple of forms:

On the other hand, you may not demur at struggling through DocuSign’s registration process since you get a 30-days trial as opposed to a week given by SignNow. But hold your horses; sometimes, more is less, and we’ll dig into it later when discussing the prices as the trial versions are predictably limited in their features.

As to learning the ropes, both platforms are intuitive, and they can be easily embraced, especially with the help of starter guides, screenshots, videos, and FAQs provided in abundance by DocuSign and SignNow. Right upon registration, you can:

• Upload files;

• Sign them yourself by uploading, drawing, or adopting your signature;

• Add necessary fields to the documents;

• Send them to assigned recipients for getting their signatures;

• Monitor the paper flow via your account and more.

However, you won’t be able to edit an uploaded file before sending it to recipients in DocuSign, and you may also find it a bit tricky to switch between menus there. Generally, it seems like SignNow did the job nicer to keep its new users well-oriented instead of making them jumping back and forth in the process of working with documents.

Besides, you may find yourself kicked out of DocuSign when your session ends with the need to log in again, which is not the case with SignNow.

Plans and Pricing

Actually, both platforms are more than just e-signing tools, also offering team collaboration, branding, integration with third-party business applications, and other helpful features. Yet, the functionality you will get in a paid version is not created equal for the two platforms. Although DocuSign offers the same number of plans as SignNow, its entry-level subscription is more expensive and limited:

DocuSign cannot challenge this offer as other features listed (fillable fields, mobile apps attached, reusable templates, and a few more) are already covered by SignNow.

As you can see, the comparison speaks in favor of the latter, and it is true for not only basic plans. You can continue comparing to find out that SignNow beats the competitor in every niche by offering more features for less money:

While signing on your device in-person is available in SignNow’s basic plan, it is included only in Business Pro by DocuSign. It is also the case with bulk sending, which comes with Business Premium in SignNow. But maybe it is all down to some unique features that DocuSign has and SignNow doesn’t?

The Range of Tools Offered

Though most features are rather similar for both platforms, you can spot some unique opportunities with each of them.

SignNow

• Live Chat is available in any plan of your choice in addition to tutorials and email support.

• Document groups allow creating different folders for various types of papers to conveniently save them and send in bundles.

• Signing link invites speeds up the signing process by saving you from the need to enter every recipient’s contact info.

• Redirect links help in guiding your signers to a web page at your option right upon signing a document.

• Advanced fields can be added to a document for making the workflow even more convenient. They include calculated fields to automatically perform mathematical operations, conditional fields that become visible only under certain conditions, and smart fields uploading info from your databases to multiple documents.

DocuSign

• Collaborative fields serve to facilitate negotiations as they allow changing info by multiple users while transferring the document between them.

• DocuSign integrates with zipForm Plus, making it the best option for real estate offices that use this dedicated solution.

• The platform allows providing documents with comments when working on them as well as granting selective access to the comments.

Well, while DocuSign’s unique features can seem more attractive to certain businesses or projects (in real estate, for example), SignNow delivers the most balanced set of tools for a wide audience.

Bottom Line

One may say that both platforms are neck and neck in this competition. Still, SignNow gives access to the best value for money, taking into account its simpler registration, higher user-friendliness, and more impressive functionality wrapped in affordability. Add predominantly praiseful customer reviews, and you’ll get the message.