Migration guide
Most teams switch from DocuSign or PandaDoc in an afternoon.
Keep your audit trail, lose the per-envelope fees, and get a tamper-evident audit log on the free plan. Most SMB teams move their templates, contacts, and CRM wiring in under three hours.
No credit card. Bring your old tool with you — run both side-by-side until everything in-flight is done.
Why teams switch
Predictable per-user pricing
DocuSign Personal: $10/user/mo (billed annually) for just 5 envelopes a month. DocuSign Business Pro: $40/user/mo. PandaDoc Starter: $19/user/mo with no payments or CRM. ZSign Starter: $12/user/mo (annual) with unlimited e-signatures and no per-envelope fees, ever.
A real free plan, not a 14-day trial
5 documents/month with unlimited e-signatures, audit trail, and shareable tracked links — forever, on the free plan. DocuSign has no free plan (Personal starts at $10/user/mo billed annually for 5 envelopes a month). PandaDoc's free plan caps you at 5 e-signatures a month; ours are unlimited.
Stronger audit trail, included free
Tamper-evident SHA-256 hash chain across every audit event, signed-PDF hash re-verification to catch silent corruption, and 7-year retention for signed documents — all included on the free plan. Elsewhere, that level of audit integrity is typically gated behind a higher-tier plan.
Built-in editor instead of “upload PDF”
Write contracts in the browser like Google Docs — headings, tables, variables, conditional blocks, pricing tables. Or upload your existing PDFs. Most e-sign tools force you to create the document elsewhere first.
AI lives in the editor, not a side panel
Hit ⌘K to draft a clause, type / to insert and rewrite, accept inline suggestions as you write — without leaving the document or buying a separate “AI add-on.” Most e-sign tools bolt AI on as a side panel; in ZSign it’s how you write the contract.
Mobile signing built for the signer
Most of your customers will sign on a phone. Large touch targets, fullscreen signature pad with undo, iPhone safe-area-aware layout, the right soft keyboard for every field. The signer experience is the conversion gate; we sweat it.
Same integrations on a smaller bill
HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Google Drive, Zapier. Webhooks for every event. Embed signing inside your own app via API.
On the free plan, side-by-side
What you get without paying. DocuSign has no free plan; PandaDoc's free plan caps e-signatures at 5/month and gates the rest behind a $19–$49 / user / mo tier.
| Feature | ZSign | DocuSign | PandaDoc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan that sends real documents (5 docs/mo) | — | ||
| Unlimited e-signatures — no monthly cap | — | Paid | |
| Built-in editor: variables + conditional blocks | — | Paid | |
| Tamper-evident hash-chain audit log | Paid | Paid | |
| Tracked share links (open + view tracking) | — | Paid | |
| AI drafting + smart suggestions in the editor | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| No per-envelope fees or overage charges | — | ||
| CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce) | Paid | Paid | Paid |
How the migration works
Five concrete steps. No data export tool you have to install, no “migration consultant.” If you get stuck on anything, email support and we'll walk you through it.
- 1
Export your DocuSign / PandaDoc templates
Both tools let you download templates as PDF or Word. From DocuSign: Templates → Download. From PandaDoc: Documents → Export. (Or paste the source from Google Docs / Word — our paste fidelity preserves headings, lists, and nested numbering.)
- 2
Recreate them in ZSign
Drop the PDF in for upload-and-overlay-fields, or paste / type the content into our editor and add e-signature fields. We have 120 starter templates if you want to skip the recreation step.
- 3
Import your contacts (CSV)
Settings → Contacts → Import from CSV. Most teams' contact lists are 10–500 rows; the import is a one-click affair.
- 4
Wire up your CRM
Connect HubSpot or Salesforce in Settings. Bind ZSign variables to CRM fields so a sales rep clicking “send proposal” auto-fills client name, amount, dates.
- 5
Forward your existing signed PDFs (optional)
Already-signed contracts from your old tool are unchanged — they remain valid evidence under ESIGN/UETA. We don't need to ingest them, but you can drop them in the Documents tab as archived references if you want one source of truth.
