Comparisons › Proposal and e-signature tools
Better Proposals vs PandaDoc vs DocuSeal: what getting work signed actually costs (2026 pricing)
A signature on an existing PDF, a proposal that sells the job, and a document that needs a manager's sign-off before it leaves the building are three different purchases. Two of the three can be free. Price your own workflow below, then read why.
Disclosure: We earn a commission if you subscribe through links marked "affiliate link" on this page. It doesn't change our ranking or verdicts; here's how we test.
Prices on this page were checked on the vendor pricing pages on 2026-09-13. Hands-on test notes and screenshots are being added product by product; until a section carries the tested tag it's marked documentation-based and describes the vendor's published plans and limits. We label drafts rather than fake tests.
Buy this if you sell through proposals
Better Proposals — US$19 for one sender and 10 sends. Add a colleague and it's US$58, because the second seat forces Premium. Count seats before you count features.
See plans (vendor site)Buy this if approvals or a CRM drive the decision
PandaDoc — Business is US$49 a seat with unlimited documents and approval workflows. Individual is US$9 for up to 5 documents a month. The free tier signs unlimited PDFs.
See plans (vendor site)Don't pay anyone if you just need signatures
DocuSeal — Free for 10 request emails a month, US$20 a seat for unlimited, open source if you'd rather run it yourself. We're not paid for saying so.
See plans (vendor site)Price your actual workflow
Set what you do, how many people send, and how many documents a month. The plan each vendor would put you on, and what it costs, updates as you type. Before tax, card fees and optional extras; not a supplier quote.
Rules the calculator applies: Better Proposals counts sends per account (10 on Starter, 50 on Premium) and needs Enterprise for internal approvals. PandaDoc Individual caps documents created at 5 a month per user; Business is unlimited and includes approval workflows; annual billing is cheaper ("up to 30%") but the vendor doesn't publish the figure, so annual is shown as monthly × 12 with that caveat. DocuSeal Basic counts signature-request emails (one per recipient); Pro is unlimited; API and embedded signing add US$0.20 per completed submission. PandaDoc's API is priced on request and isn't estimated.
Side by side
| Product | Plan you'd actually need | USD/month | AUD/month | Key limits | Trial | Transaction fees | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Better Proposals documentation-based | Premium | US$29/mo | ≈A$44 | per seat, 50 sends a month across the account, custom domain, CRM integrations (US$21/mo annually) | 14-day free trial, no card | None on the plan; optional Nudge follow-up add-on US$10 a seat; payment-processor fees if you take payment through it | The second sender forces Premium, so US$19 becomes US$58 |
| PandaDoc documentation-based | Business | US$49/mo | ≈A$74 | per user, unlimited documents created, approval workflows, content library, CRM integrations | 14-day trial on paid plans, no card; Free eSign is permanent | None on the plans; annual billing is cheaper (vendor says up to 30%, exact figure not published); payment-processor fees if you collect payment through it | Individual's 5-documents-a-month cap arrives fast |
| DocuSeal documentation-based | Basic (cloud) | Free | Free | 10 signature-request emails a month; one email per recipient | Free plan, no card | API and embedded signing: US$0.20 per completed submission on top of Pro; optional ID verification extra | Basic counts request emails, so two signers on one document use two |
USD prices from each vendor's pricing page, checked 2026-09-13; monthly billing shown, annual billing is cheaper on most. AUD is indicative at 0.66 USD per AUD. Australian businesses may be charged GST at checkout.
Better Proposals documentation-based
Better Proposals is the tool for a business whose proposal has to sell the job, not just record it. You build a web proposal with options and add-ons, the client reads it on their phone, you see when they opened it, they sign. Starter is US$19 a month on monthly billing, and that's the number the vendor leads with.
Here's the number it doesn't lead with. Starter is one seat and 10 sends a month. The day a colleague needs to send a proposal you're on Premium, which is US$29 per seat, so a two-person practice pays US$58, not US$19. Send limits are per account: Premium's 50 a month is shared across everyone. Cross 50, or need a manager to approve before a proposal goes out, and it's Enterprise at US$49 a seat. Annual billing knocks roughly a third off each tier and is paid upfront.
Buy it when the proposal is the pitch. Skip it if your documents are already final and only need a signature; both of the other tools on this page do that for nothing. And note the trial doesn't want a card, which is the right way to run one.
Best for
- consultants and agencies who sell a defined scope
- anyone whose proposal has to do the selling
- small teams reusing proposal content
Not for
- signing a PDF you wrote somewhere else
- a free plan (there isn't one)
- embedding signing in your own product
Drawbacks
- The second sender forces Premium, so US$19 becomes US$58
- Send limits are per account, not per seat
- Internal approvals are Enterprise only
Plans (USD, checked 2026-09-13)
- Starter: US$19/mo (≈A$29) — 1 seat only, 10 sends a month across the account (US$13/mo billed annually)
- Premium: US$29/mo (≈A$44) — per seat, 50 sends a month across the account, custom domain, CRM integrations (US$21/mo annually)
- Enterprise: US$49/mo (≈A$74) — per seat, unlimited sends, manager approvals, content locking (US$42/mo annually)
PandaDoc documentation-based
PandaDoc has quietly become the best free signing tool on this page. Free eSign lets you upload a document and collect unlimited legally binding signatures, no card, no monthly cap. If all you need is a client to sign something you wrote in Word, stop reading and use it.
The paid plans are about creating documents inside PandaDoc. Individual is US$9 a user for up to 5 created documents a month, which is the cheapest proposal builder here if your volume is that low. Business is US$49 a user for unlimited documents plus the things a growing team actually buys it for: approval workflows (a manager signs off before the client sees it), a content library, and CRM integrations. Annual billing is cheaper; the vendor says up to 30% but doesn't print the figure, so get it in writing before you budget it. One more caution: PandaDoc has been showing different line-ups to different visitors in 2026. We've had a report of a page with a Starter plan at US$19 a seat billed annually and a free plan capped at 60 documents a year instead of Individual and Free eSign. The table below is the page we were served on the check date; if yours looks different, price from yours and tell us.
Shortlist it when approvals or your CRM decide the purchase. At US$49 a seat it ties Better Proposals Enterprise on price; PandaDoc wins on workflow, Better Proposals wins on the proposal experience and unlimited sends. That's the only close call on this page.
Best for
- documents that need internal approval before they go out
- teams that want proposals wired to a CRM
- anyone who only needs unlimited free signing on their own PDFs
Not for
- a proposal builder for US$9 at more than 5 documents a month
- budgeting on the annual price without seeing it in writing
- an API budget without a quote
Drawbacks
- Individual's 5-documents-a-month cap arrives fast
- Business is US$49 a seat and seats add up
- Annual discount isn't published, so you can't budget it from the page
Plans (USD, checked 2026-09-13)
- Free eSign: Free (Free) — unlimited signatures on documents you upload; no document creation
- Individual: US$9/mo (≈A$14) — per user, up to 5 documents created a month, templates and tracking
- Business: US$49/mo (≈A$74) — per user, unlimited documents created, approval workflows, content library, CRM integrations
- Enterprise: Price on request — custom: SSO, API, advanced workflows; quoted
DocuSeal documentation-based
DocuSeal does one thing: gets documents signed. The cloud Basic plan is free for 10 signature-request emails a month, Pro is US$20 a user for unlimited, and the whole product is open source, so you can run it on your own server and pay nobody. We're not paid for this recommendation; it's here because a free, open-source signing tool belongs in any honest comparison of signing tools.
Watch the unit. Basic's allowance is request emails, not documents: a contract sent to two signers uses two of the ten. And if you're a developer embedding signing in your own app, that's a different meter again: Pro seats plus US$0.20 per completed submission, published on the pricing page, which is more than PandaDoc will tell you without a sales call.
Use it when the document is written and you need signatures. Compare it with PandaDoc Free eSign, which has no cap; DocuSeal's edge is the API price and the option to self-host. Don't use it to write proposals, and don't call self-hosting free: someone has to own the server, the backups and the email delivery.
Best for
- signing PDFs you already produce
- developers embedding signing in an app at a published per-completion price
- anyone who wants to own the tool and the data
Not for
- writing proposals (it doesn't)
- internal approval workflows
- treating self-hosting as free
Drawbacks
- Basic counts request emails, so two signers on one document use two
- No proposal authoring at all
- Self-hosting is a real operational job
Plans (USD, checked 2026-09-13)
- Basic (cloud): Free (Free) — 10 signature-request emails a month; one email per recipient
- Pro (cloud): US$20/mo (≈A$30) — per user, unlimited signature requests; API and embedded signing billed separately
- Open source: Free (Free) — self-host the full product; you supply the server, email delivery and maintenance
Questions people ask
What's the cheapest way to get a client to sign a document?
Free. PandaDoc Free eSign has no monthly cap on signatures for uploaded documents; DocuSeal Basic covers 10 request emails a month and can be self-hosted. Pay only when you need to create documents in the tool, need approvals, or need an API.
What's the cheapest proposal builder?
PandaDoc Individual at US$9 a user if you create 5 or fewer documents a month. Above that, Better Proposals Starter at US$19 for one sender and 10 sends, then Premium at US$29 a seat for 50 sends across the account.
Which handles internal approvals?
PandaDoc Business (US$49 a seat) and Better Proposals Enterprise (US$49 a seat). Same price; PandaDoc is the stronger workflow tool, Better Proposals the stronger proposal tool. DocuSeal doesn't do approvals.
Are these prices in Australian dollars?
No, all three bill in US dollars. The AUD column is a conversion at the rate under the table, refreshed with each check. GST may be added at checkout for Australian buyers; supply your ABN if registered.
How were these tested?
The same consulting proposal with an optional item and two signers is built on each tool, through approval where supported, a revision, and export of the signed file and its audit trail. Sections still marked documentation-based describe the vendor's published plans and get replaced as each test finishes. Prices on this page were checked on 13 September 2026.
How we tested and how we're paid
Same proposal with an optional item and two signers on every tool, through approval where the plan supports it, a revision, and export of the signed file and audit trail, on an account we control. Screenshots are ours. Prices come straight from the vendor pricing pages; the check date is on the table. Links marked "affiliate link" pay us a commission; DocuSeal pays us nothing and is here anyway. This page doesn't run paid ads.