Getting a document signed is rarely the problem. The problem is finding, eight months later, which version was signed and by whom.
Electronic signature is a mature building block: several tools do it well. The difference plays out around the act rather than on the act itself. A quote goes out for signature, the client signs, and the signed file lands in an inbox — from which someone must download, rename and file it in the right folder. Six months later you try to establish whether that was indeed the version signed, and you trace back a chain of emails. When the signature request starts from the record and the signed file files itself there, that chain disappears.
The questions to ask any tool, ours included. The answer given here is Thingsform's.
From the record itself, in Documents. The signed file comes back and files itself there, beside the quote, the intervention report and the contract, removing the manual filing step where most misplaced documents are lost.
Automatic reminders go back out on their own to pending signatories. It looks like a detail and weighs heavily on cash flow: a quote unsigned after three weeks is rarely a refusal, more often a forgotten message.
No: a secure public link is enough, which is decisive when the signatory is a client or an occasional subcontractor. Each signature is timestamped and stays attached to the document, with the record it belongs to.
Documents offers AI-assisted search across the whole store. That is the moment that truly counts: a signed document serves on the day of a dispute, and its value rests as much on how fast you find it as on the signature itself.
The Signature module is included from the Pro plan, reminders included. It builds on Documents, available from the Essential plan, where signed files are stored: that dependency is what makes the whole worthwhile.
Often, no. Here are both cases, in the honest order.
It depends on what is being committed and sometimes on a sector obligation: a delivery note and a notarial deed do not require the same thing. Check that requirement before comparing tools — it drives the choice, well ahead of usability or price.
No, they receive a secure public link and sign from their browser, on a computer or a phone. This drives the return rate: every extra step asked of a client loses a share of the expected signatures.
They are uploaded into Documents like any file and benefit from search. Nothing requires re-signing anything: a past signature's value rests on its preservation, and filing it in the right record is enough to protect that.
We describe neither the features nor the pricing of another vendor, which change without notice to us. This page sets out the criteria to examine and Thingsform's answers. For the other tool, its current terms are authoritative.
DocuSign is a trademark of its publisher, cited here for reference. This page does not describe its features or pricing, which change over time: refer to its current terms.
The right way to decide
Rebuild your hardest form on the free plan, and have it filled in the field. Half a day is enough, and the answer stops being a matter of opinion.