Member Avatar for Finman101

I'm developing an online advice site and want my clients to read documents (word, excel, dfp etc) then if happy with what they see and read to actually sign the documents via an online visable electronic signature.

The only one that seems to do the job is Docusign but they seems very expensive as they want to charge on a per page basis!! Some of my documents can be very long and the signature only needs to be at the end.

Does anyone know of any other alternatives?????

Edited by happygeek because: link snipped
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Short practical guide that expands on the thread and gives a safe, implementable path.

Convert Word/Excel to a flattened PDF for display so every signer sees the same thing. Electronic signatures are generally enforceable in the U.S.: the federal ESIGN Act preserves the validity of electronic signatures in interstate commerce, and most states have adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA); parties still need to consent to transact electronically and some document types may be excluded. ESIGN Act (15 U.S.C. §7001) — Uniform Law Commission: UETA resources. (govinfo.gov)

On cost and providers: many vendors use an "envelope" model (one send that can contain many pages) rather than charging per page, so bundling long documents into a single send can avoid per‑page charges. If price is the driver, choose between (A) a commercial provider with built‑in audit trails and ID checks for higher‑risk work, or (B) a minimal self‑hosted flow that captures a signature image, logs IP/timestamp/user, and merges it into the PDF. See the envelope concept explained by a large provider and a simple client signature library you can use. (docusign.com)

Minimal implementation sketch: convert source files server‑side to PDF, render in‑page with a JS PDF viewer, show a canvas at the end for signing, POST the resulting data URL to your server, then stamp/merge that image into the final PDF and save an audit record. Example capture (client):

const dataUrl = signaturePad.toDataURL();
fetch('/api/sign', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({ docId, userEmail, sig: dataUrl })
});

Render/view PDFs with a library such as PDF.js. (github.com)

Notes and cautions: — this gives a practical low‑cost route. is right that paper or fax is simpler for some cases, but proper electronic flows save time. and show small vendors exist; when comparing, prioritize audit trail, identity verification, tamper‑evidence, storage, and API access over raw price. For high‑value or regulated documents, get legal advice and preserve the full audit trail and originals.

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Member Avatar for DavidRyan

I'm developing an online advice site and want my clients to read documents (word, excel, dfp etc) then if happy with what they see and read to actually sign the documents via an online visable electronic signature.

The only one that seems to do the job is Docusign but they seems very expensive as they want to charge on a per page basis!! Some of my documents can be very long and the signature only needs to be at the end.

Does anyone know of any other alternatives?????

Must it be online? Faxing or mailing seems much simpler.
I assume that the documents in question will be a legally binding (the signature requirement seems to indicate such). If so, you would need the hard copy signatures anyway.

Edited by happygeek because: link snipped
Member Avatar for Finman101

No not necessarily, elecronic is ok.

Member Avatar for JSmith1080

Whilst this post is quite old, it came up worryingly high when I was googling signing agreements online! Thought I would share my findings in case anyone else stumbles across this thread too…

Looks like quite a few companies have started offering this service from what I have seen. If you are a big corp Echosign seems to be the most established SNIP however I have opted for Signaturesense SNIP as much more straightforward and affordable for a small business like mine. Really simple and intuitive…definitely won’t be going back to paper and snail mail.

JS

Edited by happygeek because: links snipped
Member Avatar for badgerT

I trawled a few sites, echosign.com and rightsignature.com were ok and better for bigger companies, everyone seemed quite expensive for a relatively simple task for what i wanted, so I ended up with docshaker.com who seemed to be the best value.

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