Host DocuSeal without installing anything
Electronic signatures on your own documents: drop in the PDF, place the fields, send the link — and the bill does not depend on how many signatures you collect.
Starting at €8.99/month
Introduction
DocuSeal installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. Get your documents signed electronically: prepare a PDF, place the fields, send the link. A sovereign alternative to DocuSign, with no per-signature subscription. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Confort at €8.99/month incl. VAT — 4 GB of memory, against a theoretical minimum of 1 GB. DocuSeal is a Ruby on Rails application whose expensive moment is building the final document: on each signature the PDF is recomposed, the fields are flattened, the digital signature is applied and the audit trail is generated. Three sendouts at once on a Friday evening, and the theoretical minimum shows immediately.
There is no migration to plan, only templates to prepare: you upload the PDF or Word document you already use — quote, contract, consent form — and drag the fields into place. The template is reusable, the API lets you create a signature request from your own tool, and a webhook tells your system the moment the document is signed.
What managed hosting changes
It starts from your document, not an imposed template
You upload a PDF or a Word file and place fields by drag and drop where they belong. The signed document keeps your letterhead, your layout and your terms — it looks like yours because it is yours.
Signature, initials, date, checkbox, attachment
A dozen field types: handwritten or typed signature, initials, text, number, auto-filled date, checkbox, dropdown, image, stamp, and even a file the signer is asked to upload.
Several signers, in the order you decide
Each gets their own link by email. The order can be enforced — client first, director second — or left free, reminders are automatic, and the dashboard shows who opened, who signed and who is keeping everyone waiting.
Digital signature and audit trail
The final PDF is digitally signed, with your own certificate if you have one, and comes with a log detailing timestamps, IP addresses and each signer's actions. That file, more than the picture of a squiggle, is what constitutes the evidence.
Why hand it over rather than install it
A tradesperson getting quotes signed
The quote goes out by email with a link; the customer signs from their phone, with no account to create and no app to install. The signed document comes straight back, and the job can be scheduled.
A landlord signing a lease remotely
The lease and its annexes go out in one send, the tenant initials each page and signs at the end. The audit trail travels with the file, which beats a scan of a scan.
An HR department
Offer letters, contract amendments, IT policies and internal notes are signed in batches, with one template per document type and a clear view of what is still missing.
An association and its parental consent forms
Outings, image rights, waivers: the same template goes to every family, and the dashboard shows the three who have not replied yet — without going through a folder by hand.
A software vendor embedding signing in its product
The API creates the request, the signing form is embedded in your interface, the webhook tells your application when it is done. The user never leaves your software.
Contracts signed and kept in France
The instance runs in our own infrastructure in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and the automatic backup kept for 14 days restores from the client area.
Frequently asked questions
Let us put it properly, without promising more than is true. The European eIDAS regulation distinguishes simple, advanced and qualified signatures, and provides that a signature cannot be dismissed merely for being electronic. What matters then is the quality of the evidence: DocuSeal produces a digitally signed PDF and a log detailing who opened the document, when, from which address and what they filled in. For a quote, an ordinary commercial contract, a consent form or an internal policy, that is in practice more than enough. A qualified signature, however, requires a certificate issued by a trust service provider on the EU trusted list after identity verification: a self-hosted instance does not provide that by itself. For a deed that demands that level, take legal advice.
Going in, a PDF or a Word document on which you place the fields. Coming out, a flattened PDF — the filled fields are now part of the document and can no longer be edited — digitally signed and accompanied by its audit trail. Templates are reusable, the API lets you start a request from your own software, and a webhook notifies your system on completion.
The DocuSeal core is open source, and that is what we install: templates, fields, multiple and ordered signers, email invitations, reminders, signed PDF, audit trail, API and webhooks. The publisher sells a professional edition separately, adding organisational features — roles and permissions, single sign-on, conditional fields, bulk send, SMS verification. The dividing line moves between versions: if one of those features is decisive for you, check it with the publisher before choosing.
Nothing, and neither do your signers: they receive a link and sign in their browser, with no account and no app. The recommended plan for DocuSeal is App Confort, at €8.99/month incl. VAT with 4 GB of memory, and it can be changed later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. A self-hosted application left un-updated is a security risk, not a saving — and an application holding your signed contracts deserves close attention. Version upgrades are applied and checked by us, with a backup kept for 14 days.