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If you’re looking for HelloSign, don’t be confused. One of the best eSign software solutions is now known as Dropbox Sign. But aside from the new name, drawing it closer to the popular cloud storage provider’s branding, it’s still the same online digital signature service, so let’s take a look at what HelloSi… sorry, Dropbox Sign has to offer.
Dropbox Sign: Pricing & plans
- All bases covered, from free to premium subscription tiers for individuals and teams – there’s even a decent free trial
As this is an online service, expect to pay on a monthly or yearly basis to access its features. Dropbox Sign offers four main tiers.
Essentials is the base package, costing $20 a month or $180 a year. It’s designed to be used by a single user, and offers you unlimited signing, and unlimited signature requests. You’ll also get an audit trail to keep track of your docs’ progress, along with reminders and notifications. You’re able to edit documents to include fields, checkboxes, and dates. You can turn your five most frequently used files into templates, and get a URL for them to make it easy to share them. You’ll gain access to Dropbox Sign’s mobile app for iOS and Android, letting you keep track of your documents on the go. There’s integration with other online services such as Google Drive and HubSpot+. Of course, you can also take advantage of all the modern online protections such as two-factor authorisation, and AES 256-bit encryption for all documents stored on Dropbox Sign’s servers.
‘Dropbox One with eSign’ is the second tier, costing $32 a month or $300 a year. This offers everything in the Essentials plan, but also includes 3TB of Dropbox storage.
The Standard plan is priced at $30 per user per month or $300 per user per year. However, there’s a minimum of two users per subscription. It builds on the Essentials tier by adding the ability for 2 or more people to collaborate through the service. In addition to this, additional features include increasing the number of templates you can set to 15, any signer can add attachments to a document, you get an admin console and team features, are able to add your company’s branding on the documents you send, as well as use custom messaging, get SMS authentication, and capture handwritten electronic signatures in person via Dropbox Sign’s mobile app. You’ll also find integration with Salesforce and Microsoft SharePoint. If you’re not sure if it’s the right choice, learn more in our guide OneDrive vs Sharepoint: Which is best?
Premium is the final tier – this level of service is only available if you have five or more users and such a bespoke package sports a bespoke price – you’ll need to contact Dropbox Sign directly for more information and a quote. The plan adds more advanced features like unlimited templates, SSO protocol, advanced reporting, and advanced fields including conditional logic, drop down menus and masked fields.
If you’re interested in any of this, there’s a generous free 30-day trial on offer, but if this all sounds like way beyond your needs, you’ll find a limited free plan is also available for the occasional user: with it, you get to send up to three signature requests per month, and have unlimited self-signs.
Dropbox Sign: Setting up
- You’ll need to give your card details to get started – but on the plus side, the customer service is excellent
Unlike most other competing services, you need to actually give Dropbox Sign your credit card details in order to evaluate their offering. Making you set up payment is not a good look, as it then forces you to have to take the extra step to cancel the order before the trial period ends. The onus is entirely on you, and what happens if you forget to do this should you decide Dropbox Sign isn’t for you?
Thankfully, it’s incredibly easy to cancel: just go to your account’s Billing section, and click on ‘Cancel plan’. Doing this immediately still grants you those free 30 days, making us wonder why this process is needed in the first place.
It’s worth noting that their tech support team is top notch and second to none – you get to them via a little blue chat bubble, lower right of the interface, and are instantly put through to a human who is only too happy to help answer questions and sort issues you might be having. In a world increasingly dominated by frustrating bots, this was an absolutely wonderful experience.
You’ll find the interface very clean, and actually pretty bare. You’ll see at a glance how many documents need your attention, there’s a big Upload button in the middle of the page, and to the left, a sidebar where you can see how many templates and documents you have, as well as a section called Integration devoted to linking up to other online services such as Dropbox, Gmail, SharePoint, and Slack.
Dropbox Sign: Using the service
- Easy to add and edit fields, sign docs, send files to others and keep track of a document’s progress
As one of the best Adobe Sign alternatives, we found using Dropbox Sign pretty straightforward and self-explanatory. You select a document you wish to upload, either from your computer or via one of the online storage services Dropbox Sign supports, then add a list of signatories with their email addresses. If this file is solely for your own use, just click on ‘I’m the only signer’.
Dropbox Sign will notice if some fields already exist in the uploaded doc, meaning it’ll set them up for you, saving you from having to do it manually – when it works.
When it doesn’t – as happened to us during testing – that’s where this section’s left sidebar comes in handy. Here you can add any manner of pre-filled fields, such as a signature or initials, your name, email, company, job title, or the current date. You also have editable text fields and checkboxes at your disposal.
The way they work is very simple: just drag the one you wish to use onto the document, reposition it, and you’re done. The only field that is resizable is the checkbox, although all the others will increase in size the more you write into them.
If you haven’t done it before you’ll be asked to set up your own signature or initials as you drag the relevant fields onto your doc. If you’re familiar with such services, you’ll find the usual options are available: upload a photo of your signature, draw it using your mouse or trackpad, or use one of seven available handwriting-like fonts. It’s a bit of a shame you can’t see these fonts all in one go, and can only cycle through them using the ‘change font’ button.
Once you’ve finished formatting your file, you can then download a copy, or send it via email. You’re even given an option to turn it into a template for future regular use.
We did notice that when you need to send documents to be signed, adding a signature field will not automatically fill it in. Instead, you’ll find a sidebar to the right which allows you to choose from a list of recipients, who gets to fill in that particular field. This also applies to any other field you’ll drag onto your document. Unlike when working on a document solely for your own use, you can easily resize any field you’ve added, and a right sidebar grants you access to various changeable parameters, including font type and size, and whether that field is required to be filled in or not. Your options are limited, but the main ones are there.
Dropbox sign makes it easy to create documents, sign them yourself, have others add their signature to them, track the progress of these files from the dashboard in your Home section, and even send reminders for those who need a little prodding… The people you send documents to don’t need to have a Dropbox Sign account in order to access, fill in, and sign what you send them.
DocuSign: Scorecard
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Row 0 – Cell 1 | Row 0 – Cell 2 |
| Pricing & plans | Multiple subscriptions for personal and commercial use, and even a free trial | 4 |
| Setting up | Credit card details required to set up service – but support is excellent | 3.5 |
| Using the service | Easy to accomplish almost any task | 4.5 |
Should I buy…?
Buy it if…
If you need to sign digital documents often, or send files to be digitally signed by others. Also a good option when you need to perform simple edits to a file.
Don’t buy it if…
You only need to occasionally sign the odd digital document.
Dropbox Sign: Alternatives
We’ve tested all the best eSign software solutions – so if you’re looking for some great alternatives to Dropbox Sign, see our DocuSign review, PandaDoc review, and Sign.Plus review.
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