While the demand for e-signing software has skyrocketed in recent years, it’s easy to forget that some e-signing providers have been around in the marketplace for decades.

DocuSign and Authentisign are two such solutions.

Both companies started over twenty years ago as a way to help organizations create legally binding electronic signatures, so they each have decades of experience in streamlining this process.

But which one is better fit for your company?

Without a doubt, both companies offer a ton of great features and will be especially valuable to the right organization.

In this article, we’ll compare and contrast these two e-signing solutions so that you know exactly what’s in store for you before you sign up.

Let’s get started.

Key takeaways

  • Authentisign is primarily a real estate signing software and is one of many software tools created by Lone Wolf Technologies specifically for realtors and brokers.
  • DocuSign is industry agnostic, meaning that it works with practically any business, but the company also offers plans for realtors.
  • Both companies offer signatures that are considered legally binding by international law.

Authentisign

Authentisign

Pricing: $129/year.

Ease of Use: 9.3/10

Free Trial: Yes; 30 days.

Support Options: Email, knowledgebase. Other options may be available if you have additional Lone Wolf Technologies products.

Owned and operated by Lone Wolf Technologies, Authentisign is billed primarily as an e-signing solution for realtors.

Featuring a strong emphasis on security and speed for high-dollar real estate transactions, the software aims to streamline the signing process, automate tedious document preparation, and ensure a smooth experience for both agents and buyers.

The software also integrates with other Lone Wolf Technologies products as part of the company’s Cloud Agent Suite.

It can be used independently or as part of a more robust software solution, depending on an agent’s existing tech stack.

DocuSign

Docusign

Pricing: Starter ($10); DocuSign for Realtors ($20, NAR Membership required); Real Estate ($25). Enterprise pricing available. All pricing based on annual commitment.

Ease of use: 9.0/10

Free trial: Yes; 30 days.

Support: Knowledge base, support tickets; additional support plans sold as separate packages.

DocuSign is a premier signing solution for industries big and small and, as such, it has no small number of competitors.

The company has carved out a unique niche for real estate transactions by providing a variation on its standard signing solution in partnership with the National Realtors Association.

This partnership provides most of the standard DocuSign features, in addition to a zipForm Plus integration, REALTOR®-logo branding, and forms specifically designed to streamline real estate transactions.

They also offer brokerage plans at the enterprise level, allowing brokerages to handle multiple users on one account, create virtual deal rooms, and more.

Outside of real estate, DocuSign also offers standardized and scalable solutions for businesses in other industries at a variety of price points.

Features on those plans (not available on real estate plans) include ways to capture payments, bulk send documents, delegate signing authority between team members, and more.

Authentisign vs DocuSign at a glance

With the basics out of the way, here’s a closer look at how Authentisign and Docusign compare to one another.

Plan Details DocuSign Authentisign
Plan Name DocuSign for Realtors Standard
Annual Pricing $240/year $129/year
Maximum Number of Users 1 1
Number of Documents Sent Unlimited* Unlimited
Basic Drag and Drop Fields ✓ ✓
Mobile App ✓ ✓
Reusable Templates ✓ ✓
Signing Order ✓ ✓
Multiple Recipients ✓ ✓
Bulk Send X X
Real-Time Audit Trail ✓ ✓
Integrations: Import & Storage ✓ ✓
Integrations: CRM X X
Integrations: Productivity & Other Limited X
Language Support ✓ Limited
Document Editor X X
Pre-built Template Library X X
Notifications ✓ ✓
Payment Gateway X X
Custom Branding Options ✓ X
In-person Signatures ✓ ✓
Commenting & Collaborative Fields ✓ Limited
Signer Attachments ✓ X
Support Options (At level)
Email / ticketing support ✓ ✓
Chat support X X
Knowledgebase ✓ ✓
Phone X X

From our comparison, you’ll notice that both software tools share similar features, especially throughout the document signing process.

We’ll cover the key differences in a deeper analysis throughout the next few sections.

Plans and basic features

Let’s start by taking a look at the plans and the basic features that both solutions offer.

DocuSign offers three separate plans for realtors (outside of enterprise-level brokerage plans), meaning that independent agents could feasibly purchase their own plan out of pocket.

However, it’s possible to do that with Authentisign, as well, for roughly $100 less than what you’d pay for the DocuSign standard plan.

Of course, saving that money comes with a few tradeoffs.

We found that Authentisign doesn’t offer zipForm integration even though zipForm is owned by Lone Wolf Technologies.

That’s likely because the platform is meant to be used in conjunction with other Lone Wolf Technologies software tools.

With the rest of the Agent Cloud Suite enabled, it’s likely that those technologies will hand off to Authentisign to create a complete realtor workflow.

On the other hand, DocuSign doesn’t connect to anything without some kind of integration.

Unfortunately, the DocuSign Real Estate plans don’t offer integrations as an option (with the exception of zipForm and storage tools like Google Drive or Dropbox).

If you partner with DocuSign, be prepared to handle document preparation outside of the signing software and only upload your documents when it’s time to sign.

DocuSign also offers a handful of features that weren’t available in Authentisign.

This includes the ability for signers to add attachments and for agents to use custom branding options.

You’ll also find some team reporting tools and form generation options that Authentisign doesn’t offer, likely because those services are part of the Agent Cloud Suite.

Neither solution offered features like payment gateways, but that’s largely expected when you consider that real estate transactions are likely to go through escrow services.

Our suggestion

For the right user, both DocuSign and Authentisign are great options for getting documents signed.

The biggest determining factor between software choices, based solely on features, is a mix of both price and long-term planning.

If you want to integrate with other tools from the Lone Wolf Technologies suite, Authentisign likely makes perfect sense. It’s also a cost-saving option, if you’re looking to save a little money.

However, DocuSign offers a better signing experience, more robust branding tools, and some functionality that you won’t see in AuthentiSign.

It’s also worth noting that both platforms are largely focused on document preparation, which is wholly different from tools like PandaDoc, which offers from-scratch document creation through our in-house document editor.

If you’re looking for the ability to edit your contracts during negotiation without having to upload multiple revisions, neither DocuSign or Authentisign will have much to offer.

Final verdict:

  • Authentisign if you want to save some money or if you’re planning to use other Lone Wolf Technologies tools.
  • DocuSign if you want a better signing experience and a more robust document preparation toolkit.
  • PandaDoc if you need from-scratch document creation and on-the-fly editing functionality during contract negotiations.

Document creation and layout

We took a close look at the document preparation process for both DocuSign and Authentisign when creating this article.

From our testing, we found that both platforms offer a similar signing experience.

Overall, the DocuSign workflow feels more structured and logical, but there are more steps to the process and it takes a little longer to set everything up.

There are a few more screens to navigate and a bit more handholding to make sure that users don’t miss steps or get lost in the process.

Authentisign felt faster to use, but there were more hiccups along the way.

Without tutorials or guides, there is a bit of a learning curve.

Some of the tools were hidden within panels or dropdowns, and they weren’t immediately obvious at first glance.

However, most of those problems would disappear with some use and basic product familiarity.

Part of the issue is that Authentisign bills itself as a three-step document preparation process:

  • The first step is uploading the document.
  • The second is document preparation.
  • The third is sending the document for signature.

While that looks great on paper, and the company seems to have largely stuck to their advertised approach, it leaves almost no room to tweak the process into something that would help users make more sense of everything that needs to happen in that second step.

All that said, both software tools help users accomplish the same goal in roughly the same way.

Users upload a document, then use drag-and-drop fields to add signatures, dates, and make minor adjustments.

Once everything is set, the document is dispatched via email for signature.

Looking past the minor differences in this process, the outcome is largely the same.

Our suggestion

If you’re looking solely at the end result, the document creation process won’t have much of a bearing on your final decision.

That being said, the DocuSign workflow feels like a more measured and thought-out experience.

Veteran users may feel like the extra screens are unnecessary, but we found them useful to ensure that we didn’t miss any important steps along the way.

Plus, handling issues like adding signers and setting a signing order prior to formatting the document allowed the setup wizard to better anticipate what we needed in order to fully prepare the document.

In fact, PandaDoc also utilizes a similar document setup process.

When you create a new document, a popup will ask who should sign the document, giving you an option to input all the essential details early.

You can add this information after you’ve setup the document, if you prefer, but the workflow is there to help.

Unfortunately, Authentisign doesn’t really offer much to ease the document workflow. You’ll add the signers as part of the setup process, along with the fields.

If your document doesn’t meet the minimum requirements (at least one signer), the system will notify you. Otherwise, you’ll be largely on your own.

Final verdict:

  • DocuSign or PandaDoc if you’re looking for a more structured workflow.
  • Authentisign if you’d prefer fewer guardrails.

Features for realtors

Despite the fact that both Authentisign and Docusign are targeted toward realtors, we found that most of the features and workflows in the software don’t feel unique to the industry.

Both platforms offer adequate document preparation, but there is only a limited amount of overlap between this process and information specific to real estate documentation.

In fact, there are other solutions out there that do it better.

However, the environment surrounding these document preparation tools is something worth noting.

AuthentiSign is part of the Lone Wolf Technologies Cloud Agent Suite, which is an end-to-end product suite for realtors.

While the Authentisign signing tool isn’t much on its own, how it integrates with the rest of the product suite means that it can play a major role in how realtors using the suite operate.

The lack of integration also sets DocuSign apart from the competition, in many ways.

DocuSign has an integration with zipForm (also owned by Lone Wolf Technologies), which allows it to bridge the gap into real estate e-signing.

Even so, DocuSign will never be as integrated as Authentisign can be when paired with the Cloud Agent Suite.

Our suggestion

In our testing, we found that both DocuSign and Authentisign were largely industry-agnostic when used as standalone products.

Despite its branding and Lone Wolf Technologies’ clear market position, it would be entirely possible to use Authentisign on its own as a signing solution for practically any industry.

DocuSign is similar.

The platform offers e-signing plans that are wholly separate from real estate.

If not for the integrations, few branding options, and real estate forms, the real estate plans would be indistinguishable from the regular product options.

If you’re looking for signing solutions that are heavily integrated with industry specifics, Authentisign is likely the better bet — but not as a standalone software tool.

Final verdict:

  • As a standalone software option, both tools only offer limited features exclusive to realtors.
  • Authentisign likely has better overall integration with unique real estate features if you buy into the rest of Lone Wolf Technologies’ Cloud Agent Suite.

Other Authentisign and DocuSign alternatives

As standalone options, neither Authentisign or DocuSign bring much to the table that sets them apart from other signing solutions.

Both are adequate on their own, but there isn’t anything unique about either of them that makes them must-have solutions for realtors.

With that in mind, it’s worth remembering that there are other e-signing solutions on the market that can do a great job.

Here’s a quick list:

Each of the software options listed here will bring something unique to the table.

PandaDoc offers from-scratch document creation while dotloop has been a big hit with realtors over the years for its approach to real estate transaction management.

Final word

The world of e-signing solutions is vast and varied.

Both Authentisign and Docusign bill themselves as solutions specifically for the real estate industry.

Both companies also use this marketing approach to differentiate themselves from other competitors in the field.

However, from our testing and research, we haven’t found any reason that other e-signing options can’t serve a similar purpose — especially when operating as standalone solutions.

While we’d recommend that you test both software options for your business needs, don’t be afraid to consider a wide range of platforms that can comprehensively perform all the functions you might need.

The shortfall with many e-signing solutions is that they offer functionality that is limited in scope.

That’s especially true when compared to platforms like PandaDoc, which offers e-signing as part of a complete and holistic document solution.

But you don’t have to take our word for that.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial and see how thousands of businesses work smarter by consolidating their document process into a single, streamlined workflow.

We know you’ll love it!

Frequently asked questions

  • Yes, many! Some of the most renowned ones would be Dropbox Sign, SignRequest, dotloop, and what we’re doing at PandaDoc.

  • Both DocuSign and Authentisign take document security very seriously.

    Because of how signing authentication works, it’s unlikely that bad actors would be able to access your contracted documents even when using a public connection, provided that they don’t have account passwords to your signing platform or your email address.

    As always, you should always follow standard security procedures:

      • Beware of sending information over public Wi-Fi without an encrypted connection.

      • Sign out of the documents and accounts every time when using public machines.

      • Use secure email servers.

      • Don’t share account details with anyone.

    However, most of these suggestions are standard safety practices and have no direct bearing on e-signing.

  • You can buy both companies’ software through their respective websites, and both offer a free trial period for testing.

Disclaimer

PandDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDocs services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Originally published March 21, 2022, updated June 21, 2023