You Don't Need Docusign (or Adobe Sign, or ....)

Every so often a client says "we need to add Docusign to our online forms." Usually it's really, "Our lawyer told us we need to get signatures from our participants."

I'm the son of a lawyer, so I'm totally on board with having clear documents and contracts signed by both sides. But we've been living in the new millenium for a quarter century now, "getting signatures" doesn't literally mean putting pen to paper. I don't start a project until I have a literal contract signed and countersigned. But there are no pens nor paper involved.

Fortunately, to date I've never actually touched the Docusign platform, nor Adobe Sign, nor any of the other competitor offerings. Naturally I've signed things using Docusign, when someone else sent one to me. But I haven't yet found a case where I or one of my clients needed to be on the paying end of that deal. It's a relatively rare circumstance to need to pay for an e-signature solution. Save your money.

We're all about saving money on this blog, so let's talk about ways you and/or your nonprofit might "do Docusign" without actually paying for it. Because those services are not cheap! The last time I checked, there was both a substantial monthly fee and then a cost per "envelope" you send out for signature using Docusign. I'm sure the competitors figure out their pricing in myriad other ways. But I have no interest in considering whether one service is less expensive than another. I always start with, "Can we do this for free?"

What is actually necessary? Get your lawyer and your boss to agree.

My first step, every time a client brings it up, is to push back. Most nonprofits don't have a full-time lawyer on staff. They've usually got pro-bono help that's episodic, at best. So when someone comes to me with the requirement that they "get electronic signatures," the first thing I do is ask what that means and where the mandate came from. If it was the organization's attorney that mentioned it, we're going to need her to get a lot more specific. If it was leadership in the org that just realized they want to cover their butts, then let's figure out what kind of butt-coverage is modest enough.

It's my understanding, from talking to attorney family and friends, that there are plenty of non-signature options that can be considered legally binding. Pen-on-paper (a so-called "wet signature") is not the only option.

Included among the options is filling out an online form that says something like "by entering my name into this box I agree that this is like my electronic signature." We all know there's plenty of precedent for companies including legal requirements that one tacitly accepts just by clicking a checkbox or even as little as continuing to work with the company. This isn't a legal blog, so I'm not going to go further into this. My point is that in 2025 there are many ways to "sign things" that don't involve any particular technology or service.

Of course, I am not a lawyer. (I don't even play one on TV.) So I can't give you legal advice. Even lawyers give advice only, they rarely have a definitive answer, only their best advice given the history of court decisions, history, etc. Famously, two lawyers also may disagree on even the simplest question. So in the end, you have to figure out what advice your orgnization is going to put into place as policy. 

This is why the first thing I do is push back to get clarification. Whoever said you "need signatures" should be asked what is an acceptable proxy, since they almost certainly do not mean a wet signature. This is ultimately the decision of the organization leadership, in communication with the organization's legal counsel. So make sure leadership understands that there are costs for tools and their implementation. In the end, they have to either "sign off" [pun intended] that the cost is worth it, or that an alternative (cheaper or free) solution is legally sufficient.

Perhaps Any Webform Will Do

If you have any tool for online forms, including Google Forms, then you already have one option for getting e-signatures totally free. As I noted above, taking action to fill in a form, such as adding your name, email, or the like, can be considered legally binding. So consider adding some legalese to the form that makes it official.

Of course, make sure that your organization's legal counsel is comfortable with the wording. But this might be all you ever need to do. Most of my clients have gone this route. No extra work beyond getting the language written.

Built-in Features

If you're using something a little more sophisticated than [free] Google Forms, you might have some kind of e-sign capability already available to you. My go-to webform tool is FormAssembly, and they have an e-signature feature. If you're already paying for FormAssembly, you can decide to enable e-signature on one or more forms without paying any extra.

Enabling this feature is going to give you a little more formality compared to what I outlined above. You'll want to put some time into understanding exactly how the feature works in your tool. FormAssembly's feature, for example, is pretty simple:

1. The user enters an email address.

2. When they click Submit, they are sent an email.

3. They have to click a link in the email before the form is finally processed. (There is no "signature" box with a script version of your name.)

Of course, this requires that the form user have access to email as part of the signing process. If you were hoping to use FormAssembly's e-sign on a tablet at the check-in for an event, you might not love how that works.

From a technical point of view I think FormAssembly's version is about equally secure and verified as Docusign. But since it works differently from the platform people might be most familiar with, be sure to show your leadership and your lawyer the functionality.

Tangent: A True "Wet Signature" Alternative ✍️

Since we're talking about signatures, I want to take a bit of a tangent to tell you about one of my favorite life hacks. This has nothing to do with Salesforce, but it's relevant to the day's discussion.

Did you know that it's easy to add a "real signature" without going to the trouble of printing and scanning? If you work on a Mac this is an absolute slam dunk that has been available to you for decades: The native Preview app can save a signature and easily insert it into a PDF. I've been signing contracts, government forms, and the like using this tool for as long as I can remember. Even when a bank "requires" that I print, wet-sign, and scan, I manage to use this trick. I also use the Annotation feature of Preview to fill in other parts of PDF forms, not just the signature.

(It's years since I looked for a similar method to this on Windows. At the time, I couldn't find anything convenient and free. Maybe things are better now? 🤷🏻)

When I generate a proposal and contract, I save it as a PDF, insert my signature using Preview, and then email it off to the client. My side's all done. I just need the counter signature. (Clients accomplish their side in various ways, of course, depending on what tools they have available. If they ask me, I direct them to digitally inserting a signature.)

Of course, I'm a solo consultant, so I'm not doing a lot of contracts. But if your organization has a very small number of cases in which you truly need (or want) something like a wet signature, you might consider whether marking up a PDF with Preview or a Windows equivalent would get the job done.

Your solution could be "Free Like a Puppy"

I just want to reiterate that your mileage may vary. Depending on your circumstances, a "free" solution might not really be free.

A simple "By filling this box I agree to sign" section on a Google form may be plenty sufficient most of the time. But if you had to take someone to court, the evidence you present that they "signed" that form might not convince a judge or jury. (Not that a wet signature or a Docusign might be a slam dunk either.)

Using the included e-sign feature of, say, FormAssembly, assumes that you're paying for FormAssembly every year in the first place.

And don't forget that convincing your executive director or your legal counsel to accept one solution or the other will take up some of your time, even if you avoid adding an expensive e-sign platform to your tech stack...