In today’s e-signature market, both DocuSign and Foxit eSign stand out as digital signature software solutions.
They each have their pros and cons, but those differences might not be obvious at first glance.
That’s why, at PandaDoc, we put each eSignature solution to the test to see which tool is the best for your needs.
Here’s a closer look at how these two e-signing solutions measure up.
Key takeaways
- DocuSign is the most popular e-signing solution in the world, with dozens of integrations and advanced CRM and CPQ modules that allow the platform to expand far beyond e-signing.
- Foxit eSign offers a formidable and adaptable e-signing solution with API access and top-notch integrations available at an affordable price.
- Both solutions limit the number of transactions you can generate using envelope limits.
1. DocuSign
Pricing: Personal ($10); Standard ($25); Business Pro ($40). All plans per user/month. Pricing based on annual commitment. Enterprise pricing available.
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 one of the most widely known e-signature solutions on the market today.
In fact, Deloitte estimates that the platform dominates the market with a (roughly) 75% market share, due to its position as one of the first e-signature solutions on the market.
To its credit, the platform offers some of the most comprehensive capabilities to administer and sign digital documents from just about anywhere. (Trust us, we’ve checked.)
Its impressive workflow streamlines your signing process, making it simple for any business to request secure, legally-binding eSignatures, speeding up the velocity of transactions and allowing businesses to close deals in record time.
The e-signing approach to signing documents pioneered by DocuSign has been so successful that many DocuSign alternatives have folded this approach into their workflow.
The flow also synchronizes well with real estate transactions and similar buyer flows.
However, DocuSign doesn’t stop there. At the enterprise level, this e-signing tool allows you to integrate with 350+ platform integrations.
This allows you to connect CRM customer data, document generate, communications channels, and more to your e-signing process.
With an easy-to-navigate platform and robust customer support, it’s no wonder DocuSign is trusted by thousands of businesses and millions of customers from all over the globe.
2. Foxit eSign (formerly eSign Genie)
Pricing: eSign ($96); eSign Pro ($300). All plans assume a single user. Pricing based on annual commitment. Enterprise / volume-based pricing available.
Ease of use: 9.2/10
Free trial: Yes; 14 days.
Support: Knowledge base, support tickets, community forums.
Foxit eSign (formerly eSign Genie) is a leading and top-rated eSignature software used by worldwide organizations to streamline the e-signing process.
While the company doesn’t have a resume as long as DocuSign, Foxit Software has been around for a while, originally starting in 2001 as a real-time editing platform for PDF documents growing through multiple acquisitions to become the multifunctional e-signing/PDF editor that it is today.
Foxit eSign aims to provide customers with versatile, adaptable, and intuitive solutions that meet their e-signing needs.
This includes reusable templates, audit trails, custom branding solutions, regulatory complaint forms, multi-language support, and much more.
Today, it’s a formidable contender in the e-signing space, with a long list of customers across a variety of industries who prefer Foxit to other document signing solutions.
One of its more impressive features is REST APIs, which can integrate seamlessly with your website or application on its Enterprise Plan.
You can also increase your productivity by using one of many integrations available with Foxit eSign, like Google Drive, WordPress, and Box.
With Zapier, Foxit eSign can integrate with 2,000+ applications, but by itself, it can only integrate with around 12 tools.
DocuSign vs Foxit eSign at a glance
| Features | DocuSign | Foxit eSign |
|---|---|---|
| Envelope allowance (annual) | 100 (per user) | 250 (eSign) 500 (eSign Pro) |
| Digitally certified e-signatures | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reminders & notifications | ✓ | ✓ |
| E-signing workflow | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payment gateway | ✓ | X |
| Mobile app | ✓ (Android, iOS) | X |
| Audit trails | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit trail & history | ✓ | ✓ |
| HIPAA Compliance | ✓ (Enterprise) | ✓ (eSign Pro) |
| Document preparation tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Templates | ✓ | 10 (eSign) 50 (eSign Pro) |
| Custom branding | ✓ (Standard) | ✓ (eSign pro) |
| Form Creation | ✓ (Business Pro) | ✓ (eSign Pro) |
| Bulk Send | ✓ (Business Pro) | ✓ (Enterprise) |
| API integration | ✓ (Enterprise) | ✓ (Enterprise) |
A quick word about the mobile apps: DocuSign and Foxit offer mobile-optimized websites for e-signing — great for signing on iPhone and Android smartphones — but they also provide apps for a variety of platforms.
However, many of the apps on offer are for other services that the company provides.
For example, Foxit Software offers Foxit PDF Editor, which allows for e-signing but isn’t connected to the Foxit eSign plan.
Similarly, while DocuSign provides apps for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac, these are designed to connect your desktop editing software to your DocuSign CLM account.
If you’re using apps for mobile, take a minute to read through the description and make sure that the app is compatible with your paid plan.
Workflows and basic features
From a high level, it might seem like both DocuSign and Foxit offer a selection of similar features.
For the most part, that’s true.
Both platforms offer a four-step signing process:
- Upload. Send your document from your computer or word processor directly to the e-signing platform.
- Prepare. Use the onboard drag-and-drop tools to prepare your document for signing. Add date, text, radio buttons, signature fields, and more.
- Send. Send your document to one or multiple recipients. Signing orders may also be used to dictate the order in which signature capture must occur.
- Sign. Provide authentication for recipients by using custom links to secure identity and allow signers to securely sign the document. (In-person signing also available.)
In addition to offering legally binding e-signatures, both DocuSign and Foxit eSign allow you to create templates from pre-existing documents, but the platform isn’t set up for comprehensive, from-scratch document creation like you’ll find in PandaDoc.
Because the templates you create are built from previous documents, it makes the most sense to use these for documents in your library that are constantly in use — things like hiring forms, NDAs, and other boilerplate documentation that, once formatted, can be sent to a wide variety of users.
Using this approach will speed up your document automation process in specific areas.
At the same time, both platforms are focused primarily on the prep-to-send stage, which limits their flexibility in template creation.
To have the flexibility required to generate and modify a huge selection of customizable templates, you’ll either need to rely on your existing desktop publishing suite or a software that provides robust, real-time document editing.
Our suggestion
In terms of functionality, both DocuSign and Foxit are evenly matched.
The signing process is similar, as are the features on offer when it comes to preparing documents and initiating the signing process.
DocuSign has slightly more flexibility in that the company provides four plan options rather than three, but the end result is largely the same.
Final verdict:
- DocuSign and Foxit are a great fit if you’re primarily looking for platforms that only facilitate e-signing preparation and signature capture. For everything else, you’ll need to rely on other software tools.
- PandaDoc is an ideal solution for organizations who need end-to-end document creation, including support for editable templates, e-signature capture, long-term document storage, and more.
Price and transaction limits
Many e-signing solutions (but not all) place a hard cap on the number of documents that you can send on a given plan. These are called envelope limits.
Unfortunately, both DocuSign and Foxit fall into this category:
- Docusign limits all plans above the Personal plan at 100 envelopes per seat/year.
- Foxit provides caps at various tiers.
- eSign offers 250 envelopes per year.
- eSign Pro offers 500 envelopes per year.
- eSign Enterprise is flexible based on volume.
However, there are a few key differences in how this will impact your bank account.
Both platforms treat envelopes as a container for your documents.
An envelope can hold several documents at once, as long as they are sent at the same time to the same individual.
For example, if you needed to send a hiring package to a new employee, you might add a basic information form, an NDA, a confidentiality agreement, and a few other forms before you send the entire package to the signer.
All of those documents, bundled together at the time of send, would count as one envelope.
At the same time, let’s assume that you needed to send a single invoice to a partner, and that it requires a signature. You prepare that document, add a recipient, and send it.
That single document, by itself at the time of send, will also count as one envelope.
On the surface, Foxit seems like the better option.
The entry-level plan costs $96/year, or $8/month, and provides 150% more envelopes than DocuSign.
For comparison, the entry-level DocuSign plan is $120/year ($10/month) and caps the number of envelopes at five envelopes per month.
For plans beyond that, you’re paying substantially more per envelope.
DocuSign claims they will adjust the pricing for users who exceed the transaction limit.
Meanwhile, Foxit addresses this issue by forcing you to renew your license when you reach your transaction limit.
Our suggestion
As frustrating as it can be, envelope and transaction limits are common on many e-signing platforms.
Before you commit to either Foxit or DocuSign, take some time to read up on these limits and make sure you understand them.
If you’re only planning to send a select number of documents each year, these limits may not matter.
At the same time, if you exceed the provided limit, you could rack up additional charges that cause the cost of your e-signing solution to skyrocket.
Final verdict:
- Foxit is the better solution purely on cost-to-envelope ratio when compared to DocuSign. The plans are more cost effective, and you get more sends for your money.
- PandaDoc, Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign), and a few other platforms allow you to avoid transaction limits entirely. These platforms may be a better fit if you’re worried about this limitation.
Support options
Both DocuSign and Foxit offer similar support options, including a knowledge base, ticket submissions, FAQs and more.
DocuSign and Foxit eSign have similar support options, including 24/7 support, an email/help desk queue, FAQ/forums, live chat, and a knowledge base.
However, there are a few key differences:
- Foxit offers 24/7 support by phone, which you won’t find as part of the standard support options from DocuSign.
- DocuSign offers standard support but gives the user an option to purchase premium/separate support plans.
Though DocuSign only starts offering phone support within the Plus Support Plan, other options are still available to you if you’re willing to wait for a while.
The target response time for the standard plan is within 24 hours, however DocuSign prioritizes Enterprise or Plus Support customers.
These plans allow you to lower your response time down to as little as two hours, if you’re willing to pay extra.
By contrast, Foxit’s around-the-clock support means that you can resolve issues more quickly without having to pay out of pocket.
All you need to do is pick up the phone or interact with the live chat system to get help.
Our suggestion
While there is a time and place for paid support options, we’ve always felt that providing product support with minimal wait times is the best solution.
It’s one reason that PandaDoc offers 24/7 chat support.
Perhaps due to its vast size and market share, DocuSign isn’t in a position to offer more than a delayed response and self-help or tutorial resources for its users.
It’s impossible to say for certain, but that delay also gives organizations like Foxit a chance to shine.
Final verdict:
- Foxit offers more robust support options for most users without the extra price tag. The support provided here will be more than sufficient without the need for any extra paid features.
- If you’re running a large organization and feel that you need priority support, DocuSign provides a solution for that — but it’s entirely possible that you could get similar support from a DocuSign alternative without shelling out for extra support packages.
Other alternatives to Foxit or DocuSign
No platform will be the perfect fit for everyone.
If you don’t feel like Foxit or DocuSign is a good fit for your needs, be sure to check out some of the alternative solutions below:
Keep in mind that some solutions will be a better fit, depending on what you might need to do.
For example, DropBox Sign offers a DropBox plan that would be great for small businesses who need both an e-signing solution and cloud storage.
PandaDoc is fantastic for contract management and works especially well for Salesforce teams who want to integrate sales proposals and contract generation with their CRM records.
Take the time to browse other options before you make a final decision!
How PandaDoc conducts comparison reviews
With over 250 eSignature tools available on the Internet, we understand that there’s no feasible way a single freelancer or business owner could spare enough time to find the best option.
Choosing the wrong software has its consequences.
From lost productivity to time wasted on training, an unsuited eSignature tool will do more harm than good.
At PandaDoc, we do our best to equip you with what you need to make a choice.
We’ll make sure the document management systems or solo tools discussed in this article are thoroughly researched and backed by facts, so you can make an informed decision.
How we found our data
To ensure our research is spot on, we follow these steps to a T:
- Analysis and personal testing of both platforms.
- Comparison and analysis of support packages, prices, and features.
- An in-depth overview of customer reviews.
- Continuous updates to our comparison articles (once posted).
To accurately access the tools covered in this article, we visited over 25 websites to calculate the aggregated value of both DocuSign and Foxit eSign.
We include user-review websites, SaaS tool websites, and software review websites within our dataset.
Then, we grouped our findings into five cohorts based on monthly visitors:
- >1.000,000 visitors;
- 500,000 – 1,000,000 visitors;
- 250,000 – 500,000 visitors;
- 50,000 – 250,000 visitors;
- <50,000 visitors
Websites that contained monthly visitors in the top 2 cohorts were ranked as “high priority” in our content analysis.
Websites that took sponsorships from Foxit eSign or DocuSign were either vetted thoroughly for the accuracy or weren’t used at all.
Here are a few examples of sources we used in this article:
- G2 comparison review of Foxit eSign and DocuSign
- Capterra review for Foxit eSign
- DocuSign review from TrustRadius
- Best eSign software solutions of 2021
We included the websites of the respected tools in our research, but they were only used to obtain factual data such as features, free trials, or pricing.
To keep our research objective, we didn’t include the companies’ perceptions of their own tools in any way.
Want to try another electronic signature instead?
Although DocuSign offers a free trial, you can only send five documents for signing a month.
But, there’s a way you can do more for less.
PandaDoc’s free electronic signature software allows you to upload and send as many documents as you want!
You can also integrate your own payment gateway, so you can populate payment details after your document is signed.
But, that’s not all! PandaDoc is a document automated workflow product that operates under several use cases, like document tracking and price quoting, just to name a few.
Sign up for a free 14-day trial to take PandaDoc for a test drive or request a demo for a product walkthrough.
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 May 11, 2022, updated December 11, 2023
