A free alternative
A free DocuSign alternative, with the evidence trail intact
FreeDocuSignature sends unlimited documents for electronic signature at no cost. Signers open a single-use link in any browser with no account and no app, and the executed PDF comes back with a SHA-256 hash stamped on every page and a certificate of completion recording the time, IP address, and device behind each signature. It is built around the ESIGN Act and UETA, and run by FreeDocuSignature in North Carolina.
The short answer
Use FreeDocuSignature if you want to send agreements for signature without paying for it, and you care about being able to prove later how a document was signed. It is free to send an unlimited number of documents, there is no card and no per-signature charge, and every executed page carries the document's SHA-256 hash so any copy can be checked against the record.
In detail
What FreeDocuSignature does, line by line
Every claim below is something the product does today, and the rows where the answer is “no” are here too. Nothing on this page is a number we cannot substantiate.
| Price to send a document | Free. No card, no per-document or per-signature charge, and no trial that expires. |
|---|---|
| Documents you can send | Unlimited, on every account. |
| Does the other party need an account | No. They open a single-use link in any browser and sign. Nothing to install and no password. |
| Legal basis in the United States | The ESIGN Act and UETA, with an electronic signature disclosure shown before signing and consent recorded in the audit trail. |
| Certificate of completion | Attached to every executed document, recording each signature with its time, IP address, device, and timezone. |
| Tamper evidence on the file itself | The document's SHA-256 hash is stamped into the footer of every executed page, so a printed or forwarded copy can be checked against the record. |
| Audit trail | Append-only, enforced by a database trigger rather than by application code. Records cannot be edited or deleted after the fact, including by us. |
| Signer identity checks | Access to a single-use emailed link, with the IP address, device, and timezone recorded. There is no photo ID or one-time code step, so this suits counterparties whose address you already have reason to trust. |
| Third-party security certification | None. We have not been through a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit, and if your procurement team requires one we will not pass it. |
| Integrations with other systems | None today. Documents go in and out as PDFs. |
| Support | Email, answered by the people who build it. |
| Paper documents | Photograph a signed page with your phone and it is flattened, enhanced, and recognised into a searchable PDF in the browser. Handwriting and signatures are kept as they are. |
| Editing a PDF before sending | Built in. Retype a line, white out a block, or add a page without leaving the app. |
| Languages in the signing interface | English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Chinese. |
| Where your documents are rendered | In the signer's browser. The server never rasterises a page, so the file you uploaded is the file that gets signed. |
What you get here
Where FreeDocuSignature is the better choice
It is actually free, not free to start
Unlimited documents, unlimited templates, no card, and no charge per signature or per envelope. Nothing meters you into a paid plan halfway through a contract.
The hash is on the page
Every page of an executed document carries the envelope id and the document's SHA-256 hash in its footer. A copy that was printed, emailed, or filed somewhere else can still be checked against the original record.
An audit log that cannot be rewritten
Events are append-only, enforced by a database trigger rather than by a policy in the application. Nothing in the product can edit or delete an audit record, including us.
Paper comes back in
Agreements signed on paper do not have to stay outside the system. Photograph the pages with your phone — a QR code hands the session over from your desktop — and they are flattened, enhanced, and read into a searchable, editable PDF, with the handwriting and signatures left exactly as they are.
Built for the phone the email arrived on
Most people sign on their phone, so the signing page is designed for one first, in six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Links that work once
A signing link is a single-use bearer token, stored only as a SHA-256 hash and compared in constant time. Forwarded links stop working, and neither a signing link nor the client portal will tell a stranger whether a document exists.
Legality
A signature collected here is legally binding
Two laws govern this in the United States. The federal ESIGN Act of 2000 and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act say that a signature, contract, or record may not be denied legal effect merely because it is electronic. Neither law prescribes a technology. What they require is that four things be true, and each one is something the software has to do rather than claim.
- 01
Intent to sign
The signer draws or types their signature into a field that says what it is, on a document they are looking at, and presses a button that completes it.
- 02
Consent to sign electronically
Every signer is shown the Electronic Signature Disclosure before signing, and their agreement to it is recorded in the audit trail with a timestamp.
- 03
Association with the record
Each signature is bound to a specific field on a specific page of a specific document, and the executed PDF carries that document's SHA-256 hash on every page.
- 04
Retention and reproduction
Both parties keep a copy. You can download the executed document at any time, and your counterparty can fetch theirs from the client portal.
Some categories of document are excluded from the ESIGN Act by statute, including wills and testamentary trusts, adoption and divorce papers, and court orders. This is a description of the law, not legal advice.
Questions
Common questions
- Is FreeDocuSignature really free?
- Yes. You can send an unlimited number of documents for signature without paying anything, without entering a card, and without a per-signature or per-envelope charge. There is no trial that expires. If paid plans are ever introduced, they will be announced on this site before anything changes.
- Are signatures collected here legally binding?
- In the United States, yes, for the great majority of business agreements. The federal ESIGN Act of 2000 and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act give an electronic signature the same legal effect as a handwritten one, provided the signer intended to sign, agreed to do business electronically, the signature is attached to the record it belongs to, and the record can be retained and reproduced. FreeDocuSignature is built around those four conditions: signers are shown an Electronic Signature Disclosure and record their consent, each signature is bound to the specific document and field it was drawn in, and both parties keep a downloadable executed copy. Some documents are excluded from ESIGN by statute, including wills, adoption and divorce papers, and court orders. This is a description of the law, not legal advice.
- Do the people I send documents to need an account?
- No. Each signer receives their own single-use link by email and opens it in any browser on any device. There is nothing to install, nothing to register, and no password.
- What stops someone altering a document after it has been signed?
- When the last party signs, the executed PDF is fingerprinted with SHA-256 and that hash is stamped into the footer of every page alongside the envelope id. Anyone holding a copy can hash it and compare. Separately, a certificate of completion is attached recording each signature with its time, IP address, device, and timezone, drawn from an append-only audit log that a database trigger prevents anything from editing or deleting.
- What makes FreeDocuSignature a good alternative for signing documents?
- It is free to send an unlimited number of documents, and the evidence behind each signature is treated as the point rather than as an add-on. Every executed page carries the document's SHA-256 hash in its footer, so any copy can be checked against the record. The audit log is append-only, enforced by a database trigger, which means nothing in the product can edit or delete a record after the fact. There is a built-in PDF editor, phone-camera paper import with optical character recognition, and a signing interface in six languages. What it does not do is verify identity beyond access to the emailed link, connect to other systems, or carry a third-party security certification.
- Can I sign on a phone?
- Yes. The signing page is built mobile-first, because most people sign on the device the email arrived on. It works in any modern mobile browser, and the interface is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Chinese.
- Can I bring documents that were signed on paper into the system?
- Yes. Photograph the signed pages with your phone — scanning a QR code hands the session over from your desktop — and each page is automatically flattened, enhanced, and put through optical character recognition in the browser, producing a searchable and editable PDF. The handwriting and the signatures themselves are preserved as images rather than converted to text.
- Who runs FreeDocuSignature, and where is my data?
- It is built and self-hosted by FreeDocuSignature, a software company in North Carolina, United States. It began as the tool we built to get our own client agreements signed. Executed documents are yours to download at any time, and your counterparties can request a secure link from the client portal to fetch copies of anything they signed. You can reach us at e-sign@freedocusignature.com.
Try it with a real agreement
Upload a PDF, place the fields, and have it out for signature in a few minutes. No card required.