How many contracts can you get signed on a free plan?
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The Short Answer
- Dropbox Sign — Dropbox Sign's free plan "lets you send 3 free signature requests per month", and on completion "you'll receive a PDF of the signed document(s) plus an audit trail".
- SignWell — SignWell gives "3 Documents a Month" with "Audit Trail & Tamper-Proof" listed as a free feature, and states that "unless you upgrade, you won't be billed".
- Documenso — Documenso allows "5 documents per month" hosted and "Free Forever" self-hosted, and its docs state that at completion "You can download the signed PDF or view the audit trail".
- DocuSign — DocuSign lists no free tier: its entry Personal plan "includes five (5) Envelopes every month", and the page geo-routed us to Korean won on every attempt, so no USD price could be read.
| Product | Best for | From | Free plan | Free-plan documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dropbox Sign | Three a month, PDF and audit trail included | $10.05/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped documents |
| SignWell | Three a month, on a plan that will not convert | $10/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped documents |
| Documenso | Five hosted, unlimited self-hosted, PDF confirmed | $25/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped documents |
| DocuSign | No free plan at all | — | No | Payment to send |
What we checked, and what we did not test
A signed contract is not the signature. It is the file afterwards — the PDF with the audit trail attached, showing who signed, when, and from where. That artefact is what makes the signature worth anything in a dispute, and it is the thing a free plan can quietly withhold while still letting you collect a signature.
So we read four pricing pages and, where they were silent, the help centres, on 6 August 2026. Each verdict quotes the wording. We did not send documents for signature.
One vendor’s price we deliberately left blank
DocuSign’s pricing page geo-routes. From this network it served Korean won on every attempt, including with US language headers and its own /en-us/ path, so we could not read a USD figure today. There is an archived capture of the same page from March 2025 with the USD numbers in it, and we have not used it.
The reason is narrow: this site’s promise is that a number carries the date it was read. A price read from a 2025 archive and stamped with today’s date is not a stale fact, it is a false one. Both things are true at once — DocuSign publishes its prices, and we could not read them — so the column is empty and this paragraph explains why.
What we could read is more useful anyway: DocuSign has no free plan, and its entry tier counts an envelope the moment it is sent, “whether or not the Envelope is signed or completed.”
Three a month, PDF and audit trail included
1. Dropbox Sign — Three a month, PDF and audit trail included
Dropbox Sign is the only vendor here that states, in one place, both how many free documents you get and exactly what arrives when they complete.
Best for Three signed contracts a month, audit trail included
From $10.05/mo (annual). Free plan: The pricing page only links out — "Just need to sign a document? Try our free plan". Dropbox's help centre gives the number: the free plan "lets you send 3 free signature requests per month", renewing "every 30 days from the day you sign up", plus "unlimited self-signing".
- Essentials — $15/mo, or $10.05/mo billed annually · 1 seat ($120.60 a year)
- Standard — $25/mo, or $17.50/mo billed annually · 2 seats (Per user, starting at $420 a year; the page notes "For 5+ users, contact us")
- Premium — price not shown on the page we opened ("Get a custom quote")
Dropbox's help centre answers both halves. The cap: the free plan "lets you send 3 free signature requests per month". The artefact: on completion "you'll receive a PDF of the signed document(s) plus an audit trail". The exception is worth knowing — unlimited self-signing does not consume the quota, and self-signed documents "don't include an audit trail since you're the only signer".
Pros
- The free tier produces a real artefact — a signed PDF with an audit trail — rather than a preview.
- Self-signing is unlimited and does not count against the three monthly requests.
- The quota renews on a 30-day rolling basis rather than being a lifetime allotment.
Skip it if
- Three signature requests a month.
- Self-signed documents carry no audit trail, which is the part that makes a signature defensible.
- The pricing page never states the free plan's limits; the number lives in a help-centre article.
Three a month, on a plan that will not convert
2. SignWell — Three a month, on a plan that will not convert
SignWell is the only one that explicitly promises its free plan will not start billing you.
Best for A free plan the vendor says will not convert
From $10/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "3 Documents a Month" with "1 Template" and one sender, listing "Audit Trail & Tamper-Proof" as included. The page states it is permanent: "unless you upgrade, you won't be billed. When you create a SignWell account you're starting off with a free plan".
- Light — $12/mo, or $10/mo billed annually · 1 seat (Unlimited documents and 5 templates per sender; extra senders cost $10 a month annually or $12 monthly)
- Business — $36/mo, or $30/mo billed annually · 3 seats (Unlimited documents and templates; extra senders cost $12 a month annually or $15 monthly)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened (Custom pricing with unlimited documents and templates)
The pricing page caps the free tier at "3 Documents a Month" and lists "Audit Trail & Tamper-Proof" among its features. The download itself is confirmed on a different page — "After you've signed your document, you'll be able to download the completed document", and "Every completed document includes a court-admissible audit trail with timestamps, IP addresses, and signer records" — but the pricing page never restates that for the free tier specifically.
Pros
- The free plan is stated to be permanent rather than a converting trial.
- Audit trail is listed as a free-plan feature rather than an upgrade.
- Paid tiers move straight to unlimited documents rather than a bigger quota.
Skip it if
- Three documents a month and a single template.
- The download and audit-trail promise appears on a marketing page rather than in the plan table, so it is not scoped to the free tier in writing.
- Extra senders are billed the moment you pass the one or three included.
Five hosted, unlimited self-hosted, PDF confirmed
3. Documenso — Five hosted, unlimited self-hosted, PDF confirmed
Documenso is the open-source option, and its answer was published all along — in the developer docs rather than on the pricing page.
Best for Five hosted documents a month, or unlimited on your own server
From $25/mo (annual). Free plan: Hosted free plan — "5 documents per month", "Up to 10 recipients per document", "No credit card required". Self-hosting is separate: the Community Edition is "Free Forever" with usage limits listed as "None", and "You operate everything on your own infrastructure, keep ownership of your data and workflows, and avoid per signature pricing entirely".
- Individual — $25/mo, or $25/mo billed annually · 1 seat ($300 billed yearly, which is the same $25 a month — the page quotes no annual discount)
- Teams — $40/mo, or $40/mo billed annually · 5 seats ($480 billed yearly for 5 users; additional users $8 a month)
- Platform — $250/mo, or $250/mo billed annually ($3,000 billed yearly, unlimited documents and users)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened (Custom offer, also available as a self-hosted licence)
Documenso's docs answer it in the document-lifecycle page, with no plan attached: at completion "All parties receive a copy of the signed document", "The document is sealed with a digital certificate", "An audit log is attached showing all actions taken", and "You can download the signed PDF or view the audit trail." The cap is the condition: five documents a month on the hosted free plan, against a self-hosted Community Edition that is "Free Forever" with usage limits listed as "None".
Pros
- The signed PDF and its audit trail download with no plan condition stated anywhere in the docs.
- The self-hosted Community Edition is "Free Forever" with usage limits stated as "None".
- The hosted free plan needs no card and allows 10 recipients per document.
Skip it if
- The hosted free plan stops at five documents a month.
- Annual billing costs the same per month as monthly on every tier, so prepaying saves nothing.
- The download rule lives in the developer docs rather than on the pricing page a buyer reads.
No free plan at all
4. DocuSign — No free plan at all
DocuSign is the category’s default choice and the only one where a single signature requires a subscription.
Best for Nobody who needs one signature without a subscription
From —. No free plan.
- Personal — price not shown on the page we opened · 1 seat (The page geo-routed us to Korean won on every attempt, including with US language headers and the /en-us/ path, so no USD figure could be read today. It includes "five (5) Envelopes every month")
- Standard — price not shown on the page we opened (Per user up to 50 users; KRW-only on the page served to us)
- Business Pro — price not shown on the page we opened (Per user up to 50 users; KRW-only on the page served to us)
- Enhanced — price not shown on the page we opened ("Customize your envelope limits to fit your exact business needs" for 50+ users, contact sales)
There is no free plan to cap. Every listed tier is paid, and the entry Personal plan "includes five (5) Envelopes every month. Once an Envelope is sent, it will count toward this allowance whether or not the Envelope is signed or completed." A certificate of completion is included on every plan — but no plan costs nothing, so a single signed document requires a subscription. The developer sandbox is not a route around it: documents there are watermarked.
Pros
- The certificate of completion and audit trail are included on every plan, including the cheapest.
- Envelope allowances are quantified per plan rather than described as "limited".
- An envelope counts when sent, which the page states plainly instead of leaving you to discover it.
Skip it if
- There is no free plan and no self-serve free trial — one signed document requires a subscription.
- The pricing page geo-routes to local currency and we could not read a USD figure at all, so every price here is blank.
- The free developer sandbox watermarks its documents, so it cannot produce a usable signed file.
What this means if you are choosing today
For a freelancer signing a handful of contracts a year, Dropbox Sign’s three requests a month with a PDF and audit trail is the most complete free offer here, and the self-signing exemption means NDAs you sign yourself do not eat the quota — though those come without an audit trail, which is exactly the case where you might want one.
Documenso is the one to look at if the volume is real. Self-hosting removes per-signature pricing entirely, which no other vendor here offers at any price, and its docs confirm the completed PDF and audit trail download without naming a plan. The catch is where that sentence lives: in the developer documentation, three clicks from a pricing page that never mentions it. We recorded Documenso as unconfirmed on first pass for exactly that reason, which was our miss rather than theirs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get a document legally signed without paying?
On three of these four. Dropbox Sign allows three signature requests a month and delivers "a PDF of the signed document(s) plus an audit trail" on completion. SignWell allows three documents a month with an audit trail listed as a free feature. Documenso's hosted free plan allows five. DocuSign has no free plan at all.
Does a free signed document come with an audit trail?
Dropbox Sign says yes for signature requests and no for self-signing: unlimited self-signed documents "don't include an audit trail since you're the only signer." SignWell lists "Audit Trail & Tamper-Proof" among its free-plan features. Documenso does not state either way on the pages we could read, which is why its verdict is blank.
Why is DocuSign's price column empty?
Because its pricing page routed us to Korean won on every attempt, including with US language headers and its /en-us/ path. We do not convert currencies and we do not publish an archived figure as a current one, so every DocuSign price here is blank with the reason attached. What we could read is the structure: five envelopes a month on the entry plan, counted "whether or not the Envelope is signed or completed."
Does Documenso give you the signed PDF?
Yes, with no plan condition stated. Its document-lifecycle documentation says that at completion "All parties receive a copy of the signed document", "The document is sealed with a digital certificate", "An audit log is attached showing all actions taken", and "You can download the signed PDF or view the audit trail." This page first recorded that as unconfirmed because neither the pricing page nor the self-hosting page mentions it; the developer docs do.
Did you send documents for signature?
No. Every verdict here was read on the vendor's own pricing page or help centre on 6 August 2026 and is labelled as read, not run. Documenso's blank is the clearest candidate for a hands-on test on this page: sending one document through the hosted free tier and clicking download would settle it in minutes.
How We Keep This Updated
Prices move and vendors rewrite their plan tables, so every value on this page carries the date we read it. When a page changes, the change lands here rather than being edited away quietly. The procedure is on the methodology page. tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-06 — Corrected. Documenso was first recorded as unconfirmed because neither its pricing page nor its self-hosting page says whether the signed file downloads. Its document-lifecycle documentation does — "You can download the signed PDF or view the audit trail" — so its verdict is now recorded.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Document caps and audit-trail rules read on each vendor's own pricing page or help centre. DocuSign's USD prices are recorded as unavailable: the live page geo-routed to Korean won, and we declined to publish figures from an archived 2025 capture as though they were current.