HelloSign vs DocuSign: The Ultimate Comparison for 2022

Electronic signatures have long been a staple of conducting business with international clients, partners and remote workers. During the pandemic and the biggest shift to remote working ever, the feature became essential for all industries.

We at Better Proposals were ahead of the curve and have been offering a reliable digital signature option in all of our proposal and document templates since day one.

Since it’s such an important service for so many people, we decided to compare two platforms most known for their electronic signatures – HelloSign vs DocuSign. 

Find out which one of these platforms is the better choice for your company and which features should you consider when choosing your electronic signature software.

We’ll start with a product overview before transitioning into comparison tables and a list of integrations and special features. 

DocuSign overview

DocuSign promises to help you save time and money while managing your paperwork. Their electronic signature solution lets you enable signing at any time, on any device.

You can easily upload and send documents for signing, as well as check their signing status and send reminders. 

DocuSign makes sure your signed documents are legally binding by including a court-admissable audit trail which is an important feature. The platform comes with more than 350 integrations and the pricing starts at $10 per month for a single user. 

The second tier is the Standard package which is $25 per user per month and allows up to 5 users. This package also provides reminders and notifications, personalized branding and comments. 

The Business Pro package is $40 per user per month. It offers a feature to collect payments, advanced fields, signer attachments, bulk sending, power forms (which allow you to send your client a link to a document), collaborative fields, in-person signatures (allowing your clients to sign documents on your devices) and advanced authentication. 

The free trial lasts 30 days and doesn’t require credit card information, which we love to hear. 

In conclusion, DocuSign is a user-friendly product with a large number of users that is legally accepted in more than 180 countries worldwide. 

HelloSign overview

HelloSign allows you to electronically request and add legally binding signatures to any document.

It is owned by Dropbox and promises to help customers close deals faster, onboard new hires with ease, complete documents without errors and more.

It’s a great solution for freelancers since it offers a free version that lets you use HelloSign’s basic features with some monthly limitations.

The Essential package costs $15 per month and allows one user, an unlimited number of signature requests per month, 5 templates, an audit trail, reminders and notifications and more.

The Standard package starts at $25 per user per month and allows you 2 to 4 users. It also comes with all of the features the Essential package includes, as well as branding, bulk sending, team features and Salesforce integration.

Whichever package you choose, you get a free 30-day trial period. 

In conclusion, HelloSign is a cloud-based program available on Android and iOS devices,  that lets you upload 14 document types and is compliant with HIPPA standards. 

Comparison tables

Let’s see who wins the fight – HelloSign vs DocuSign.

	DocuSign	HelloSign
Pricing	Starts at $10 per user per month	Starts at $0 per user per month
Free trial	30 days	30 days
Legally binding	Yes	Yes
Templates	Yes	5
Content Library	No	No
Multiple languages	11	21
Integrations	+350	The exact number isn’t specified
API	Yes	Yes
Audit trail	Yes	Yes
Mass signatures	Yes	Yes
Business Proposal templates	No	No
Business Proposal AI	No	No
Auto reminders	Yes	Yes
In-Person signing	Yes	Yes
Custom branding	Yes	Yes
24/7 customer service	You have to pay additionally for this feature	No
Mobile apps	Yes	No
Integrated payment options	Yes	No

As you can see from the comparison table, HelloSign is the cheaper option and better suitable for freelancers and small businesses.

DocuSign on the other hand allows you to save and use more document templates, integrations and features, making it the better option for larger companies. 

Templates are an interesting topic since none of these platforms offer their own standardized ones. Both let you upload an unlimited amount of documents.

However, this only works for companies that have outside help in creating those documents and would only use DocuSign or HelloSign for the digital signature component. 

Even if this seems to be the case for you, you’re surely aware of all the times your clients and partners send document drafts back, wanting you to change a thing or 12.

That leads you to rewrites, which can be harrowing, especially if you’re creating documents from scratch, without a content library. 

That is why these platforms are not the best option for companies that are looking for an end product that can be easily customized.

If you’re looking for a large number of templates that are easily personalized, with the option to save text, images, videos or pricing tables in your content library, look no further than Better Proposals.

For this roundup, we’ll stick with:

HelloSign vs DocuSign 0:1 for larger companies

HelloSign vs DocuSign 1:0 for smaller companies

Integrations and branding

It could be said that when it comes to integrations, DocuSign is the obvious winner. All of their plans let you integrate with Dropbox. Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive.

However, if you want to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce, you’ll have to upgrade to the Enterprise plan. 

HelloSign’s Essentials plan allows you to integrate Google Docs, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and more. The platform’s strongest connector is Zapier, which lets you seamlessly integrate any application you choose. 

Roundup: HelloSign vs DocuSign 0:1

Branding and white labeling

When it comes to the issue of branding and white labeling, HelloSign takes the crown. Both platforms allow you to put custom branding on documents, which is industry standard. You want your clients and partners to know whose document they’re looking at, at all times.

Your branding should be at the header or footer of every page and it’s great these platforms allow you to do just that with your logo and company tagline.

DocuSign even took it a step further, allowing you to customize your document’s colours and buttons. 

On the other hand, HelloSign is allowing white labeling. That means that you can create documents that are entirely your company’s property, without HelloSign’s logo or watermark, making them look professional and unique.

For this reason, we have to give this round to HelloSign.

Better Proposals also allow white labeling in the sense that you can remove our logo from the email and you can even set up a custom domain to which you can upload all of your proposals.

That way your clients will receive proposals that are entirely yours and contain only your branding.

Roundup: HelloSign vs DocuSign 1:0

Special features

The first thing we would like to mention is how streamlined the entire process is. When you first log in to DocuSign, you are asked to upload a file. If you are a signee, you will be guided on your next steps, i.e. document processing. 

After that, you’ll be asked the number of signees, you’ll get to organize the signature fields and type a message for other signees.

Once you’re done with all of those steps, DocuSign takes over and informs other signees via email. 

HelloSign has a much more streamlined process.

Once you log in, you need to type in the name of the signee and if you are the signee, you can let the program automatically use your information to sign the document. 

If you’re not the signee, the software will not include you on the list and you can move to the next step, which is uploading a file and adding the signature fields. You can choose the signing order and send out requests. 

It’s clear that HelloSign is quicker and easier to use, which is why it wins this round.

Roundup: HelloSign vs DocuSign 1:0

Customer support

A lot of companies nowadays offer round-the-clock support in multiple languages and through a variety of channels. Both platforms offer email and web form support, as well as an online body of knowledge. 

The problems start when it comes to phone support, which HelloSign doesn’t offer. DocuSign, on the other hand, has a paywall in front of their “additional” support which includes communicating with real customer support agents and a shorter waiting time. 

There isn’t a clear winner of this round, but we do have to mention that HelloSign offers customer support in 21 languages, which isn’t too shabby. 

Better Proposals’ customer service is a feature we’re especially proud of. We offer customer support to all of our customers, no matter the package.

Our customer support agents are available 18+ hours a day and our average response time is less than 15 minutes, which is one of the fastest response times in the SaaS world.

An interesting feature that DocuSign offers (that is not included in the cheaper packages) is DocuSign Analyzer.

It works with AI-based insights which give you a better understanding of what you’re being asked to agree to and can efficiently negotiate a better agreement.

It’s a great tool for the pre-execution stage of your agreement process, which could help you reduce risk. 

What to use instead

Better Proposals is more than just a tool that helps you sign documents.

We’re here to help you win more deals faster by being able to create sales documents in minutes by utilizing more than 200 free document templates.

Once you pick the right template, you can customize it to your needs, while making sure you’re utilizing custom branding. That means that every business proposal, quote and contract you make will look great, while also speeding up your sales process.

We made sure that every template comes with a digital signature option, allowing your clients to agree to your terms and conditions in a legally binding and secure way.

All your clients have to do is type in their name and click “Accept”. After that their typed-in signature will get turned into a digital signature.

Furthermore, you can collect payments through PayPal, Stripe or GoCardless. Integrated payment options eliminate the need for multiple documents since a single proposal can serve as a proposal, contract, estimate and invoice.

We also help you in the follow-up process. Since our documents are web-based, it means that you have access to advanced features, like proposal tracking.

You will be notified every time your proposal is opened, forwarded and signed using electronic signatures.

Furthermore, you can track what the reader is doing. The proposal analytics will show you how much time the reader spent on each of the proposal sections, giving you a better understanding of how to approach the follow-up process.

We’re here to make your signing process quick and easy, while not sacrificing the quality of your documents. With legally binding signatures, key integrations and live agent support, it’s clear to see why Better Proposals is the tool for you.

Conclusion

As we’ve previously stated, HelloSign is a better fit for smaller companies. It’s cheaper while maintaining a level of professionalism and making sure all of your documents are secure, legally binding and temper free. 

DocuSign is a better choice for bigger companies that want to use more integrations, save more templates and have a better document workflow.

Our overall score in the HelloSign vs DocuSign fight is – it depends.

If you’re still on the fence and want software that will help you get your documents signed, as well as help you in other aspects of your business, sign up for a free trial at Better Proposals.

That way you can say goodbye to in-person signing and speed up your agreement process.