When it comes to real estate, a strong e-signature and transaction management platform are key tools for success. Digital signatures need to be traceable and secure, while the entire contract negotiation process should remain smooth and transparent.
When operating manually, this trying to keep all of the required paperwork in order can become an administrative nightmare. Realtors end up passing documents back and forth, gathering the required paperwork, and keeping track of everything until a deal materializes.
Enter Dotloop and PandaDoc, two document management solutions with the tools that real estate agents need to streamline their entire transaction workflow.
Let’s compare the two and see which might be a better fit.
Key similarities
First things first: If you’re a realtor looking for a robust digital signing solution, both Dotloop and PandaDoc go far beyond DocuSign, the NAR’s preferred signing solution.
Not only do both companies we’re talking about today offer secure digital signing; they bring even better tools to bear in order to help you manage complex real estate transactions, sign documents, and create user-friendly workflows.
As you might expect, you can find some overlaps in the product offering from both companies. Here are the highlights.
Unlimited transactions
This is a key element for both PandaDoc and Dotloop, and it’s one thing that sets companies apart from leading electronic signature solutions on the market.
Many e-signature options on the market today, including DocuSign and Adobe Sign, limit the number of documents that a user can request for signature on an annual basis. In the past, this has forced users to be strategic about how they send documents in order to avoid paying to raise transaction limits.
But that’s not a worry for users with PandaDoc and Dotloop. Using either software, you can send as many documents as you need whenever you want and gather signatures when you need them.
Audit trails & notifications
The ability to track the activity on your documents and receive real-time notifications is something that both PandaDoc and Dotloop provide to users.
While these features can critical when it comes to customer support, they also help you gather key insights regarding when and how other users interact with your documents. For example, with PandaDoc, you’ll know when someone created a document, when a client viewed it, and when they signed it.
With this information in mind, you can respond quickly to customer objections and help customers better understand what happens next in the transaction process. This is also a useful feature if you’ve set up document or compliance workflows internally since audit trails provide additional visibility through the full process.
Document templates
Looking to save time and strike action items off your task list? With document templates, you can do just that!
While PandaDoc offers a more robust document editor (more below) and a template library stocked with 450+ premade templates, both tools allow you to save formatted documents for easy retrieval and reuse.
These features are most useful for real estate teams who reuse the same documents with minor variations, like boilerplate contracts, purchase agreements, disclosure documents, etc. Many of these documents may require very slight changes (names, dates, addresses), but the overall document stays the same.
With document templates, it’s easy to swap out the necessary particulars and dispatch those documents to clients without a hassle.
Clause & content library
While Dotloop and PandaDoc call this feature by different names, it’s essentially the same thing. With Dotloop, users can use the “Clause Manager” to save time by capturing and storing commonly used clauses within a real estate contract.
PandaDoc does the same thing but on a more general level. Using the content library, PandaDoc users can save snippets of text and content blocks from their documents for easy reuse in other documents.
This added flexibility makes it easier than ever for service providers to quickly modify contracts and stay efficient as contracts evolve.
Key differences
Just because PandaDoc and Dotloop share a few similar features doesn’t mean they’re exactly the same. Far from it.
Dotloop comes with some amazing tools for realtors that jump out at us, but PandaDoc is no slouch! Take a closer look at some of the differentiating factors from each software solution.
Document editor
Though PandaDoc and Dotloop both offer a document editor, both platforms operate in very different ways when it comes to document creation.
As with many legal e-signature providers, Dotloop only provides ways to format and modify PDFs. Unfortunately, Dotloop users won’t be able to change or modify the content of the PDF or any other uploaded document.
On the other hand, PandaDoc users do have access to these enhanced features. Users can upload a .docx file directly to PandaDoc and continue editing it as though they were still in their word processor. Files can be uploaded from Microsoft Word or imported from Google Drive and other cloud services for fast and easy editing.
MLS feeds
This is an area where Dotloop shines. Dotloop has spent a ton of time working with local and state associations to provide users with the necessary forms and feeds that are essential for real estate professionals to succeed.
This is something exclusive for realtors who use Dotloop, and PandaDoc doesn’t have a product feature to match it. If you’re looking for an end solution that integrates with MLS, Dotloop is a great option here.
But it’s worth noting that millions of agents access these feeds separately every day. If it’s not essential for everything to be integrated, you may benefit from a more generalized e-signature solution like what PandaDoc brings to the table.
In-person signing
Strictly speaking, both PandaDoc and Dotloop offer in-person signing. However, the implementation of this feature is different for both companies.
For Dotloop users, in-person signing is included as part of every standard package. Meanwhile, PandaDoc doesn’t offer in-person signing until users reach an enterprise-level package.
At some level, this makes sense because many real estate transactions take place in person. On the other hand, this isn’t a strict requirement.
Documents are emailed all the time. It’s possible to sign using a mobile device or via a specialized mobile app — which both companies offer for Android and iOS — to complete documents without passing hardware devices around the table.
Integrations
Depending on your needs, the integrations offered by Dotloop and PandaDoc may be deciding factors in how these software solutions fit into your workflow.
Broadly speaking, PandaDoc offers native integrations and greater cross-platform compatibility for popular CRMs, payment gateways, and general productivity tools.
But Dotloop offers real estate-specific integrations that may bring greater value to your organization. This includes CRM connections with systems like Zillow, Zurple, Contactually, and others.
Both companies also offer connections through Zapier, which helps users integrate with thousands of additional apps, as well as options for SSO and API integrations.
While we feel that PandaDoc is more versatile in this area, it’s hard to ignore the excellent integrations that Dotloop offers from real estate agents who are looking to integrate their entire workflow for complete, real-time visibility.
Plans & pricing
Now that we’ve discussed how PandaDoc and Dotloop are both alike and different, let’s take a closer look at some of the plans and pricing options for each platform.
Free Plans
Both PandaDoc and Dotloop offer free versions and free trials of the platform so that you can take a closer look and see which software works best for you.
Dotloop bills itself as a full-scope, real estate transaction management software. Comparatively, PandaDoc is focused on handling all document and contract management while ensuring that legal e-signatures are a key part of your arsenal.
You can check out the free version for either company by creating an account.
Individual Plans
The first Dotloop Premium plan is the Agent plan ($29/month), which includes everything that a single operator needs to provide full visibility to clients and partners.
Agents on the individual plan can still add team members and loop everyone in on a per-transaction basis. However, many of the more team-oriented features like charts and reporting or compliance workflows are unavailable.
With PandaDoc, individuals can take advantage of the Essential plan, which provides access to the robust document editor, the template library, and essential integrations. It’s everything a user needs to send contracts, e-sign documents, and close deals.
Team Plans
PandaDoc users can choose between the Business and Enterprise plans, depending on the size of their team. The Business Plan delivers features like custom branding and approval workflows and is a great fit for small businesses, as well as corporate teams.
At the Enterprise level, corporate functionality comes into play. Features like bulk send, SSO, and custom user roles are present on the feature list, making it easy for companies to create team workspaces and user-friendly workflows.
For Dotloop users, the Dotloop for Teams plan provides branding options, as well as some basic automation around compliance workflows. Most importantly, team leaders and supervisors gain full visibility into transactions so that they can support agents throughout the entire sales process.
The Brokers (Dotloop Business) plan takes this a step further by adding Dotloop API access and providing a dedicated success manager for the entire team.
Dotloop: Bottom Line
Overall, Dotloop is a powerful tool for real estate agents and teams alike. It’s got great user reviews and is trusted by industry professionals to manage complex real estate transactions.
If you’re a realtor looking for a software platform focused on ease of use and transaction management, you can’t go wrong with Dotloop.
On the other hand, PandaDoc isn’t as specialized when it comes to real estate. If you’re not using real estate specific software, or if you want a solution that offers greater overall flexibility rather than being restricted to a single industry, PandaDoc may be the better fit.
The best way to know is to give it a try.
Sign up for a free 14-day trial of PandaDoc Business and change the way you send and sign documents online.
