Best DocuSign Alternatives for Agencies

If you’re running a web design, development, or marketing agency, you’ve probably used DocuSign. And if you are signing a lot of documents, at some point, you’ve probably thought:

“Why is this so expensive? And why does getting a simple proposal signed feel like filing a tax return?”

You’re not alone. We have found others!

Sure, DocuSign still dominates enterprise procurement. But most agencies — the kind building WordPress sites, running WooCommerce stores, and managing 10–50 active clients — don’t need enterprise-grade legal infrastructure. They need something faster, cheaper, and built around how agencies actually close deals.

Now, this guide doesn’t just tell you which tools to pick; it does show you how to switch, what to build first, and what to do today to cut proposal friction from your agency workflow.

TL;DR – Best DocuSign Alternatives for Agencies

No time? Too busy getting documents signed? We get it. Here’s the short version:

Best overall: PandaDoc

Best budget option: BoldSign

Best modern workflow: Agree

Best enterprise alternative: Adobe Acrobat Sign

Best for WordPress agencies: WSForms + PandaDoc

These tools win because they combine eSignature, proposals, and automation in one flow — not just signatures. That’s the difference between closing a deal and chasing one.

Step 1: Audit What Your Current Workflow Is Actually Costing You

Before switching anything, run this quick audit. It takes ten minutes and usually reveals the problem is bigger than the software bill.

Count your proposals from last month.

How many did you send? How many bounced back with confusion, questions, or “can you resend that?”

Track your average close time.

From the moment you send a proposal to the moment you receive a signed copy and a deposit — how many days does that take? Agencies commonly report 3–7 days on tools like DocuSign, where clients get confused, and follow-up piles up. With a tool like PandaDoc or Agree, agencies typically report dropping that to under 24 hours.

Calculate your real cost per envelope.

Take your monthly DocuSign bill and divide it by the number of documents you actually sent. G2 reviewers report paying an average of around $4.50 per envelope in real-world use once you factor in plan tiers and seat costs — for what is, at its core, a PDF with a signature box. That number climbs fast if you’re sending 20–40 proposals a month.

Add up your admin hours.

Count the follow-up emails, the “did you get my proposal?” messages, and the calls from clients who couldn’t figure out how to sign. That time has a dollar value. Write it down.

Once you see those numbers together, the case for switching usually makes itself.

Step 2: Pick the Right Tool for How Your Agency Actually Works

“Sustainability isn’t about doing less work. It’s about building systems that don’t break as you scale”
Rocket.net – Grow Your WordPress Agency in a Smart and Sustainable Way

Don’t choose based on features. Choose based on workflow. Most agencies fall into one of four buckets. Which is yours?

Deal Closers (Best fit for most agencies)

PandaDoc, Agree

These tools combine proposals, signatures, and payments in a single flow. The client gets one link, reads the proposal, signs it, and pays — all in one session. No back-and-forth. No invoice step. No “did you get my email?”

If your agency sends proposals regularly, this is your category.

Compliance Tools (Enterprise or legal-heavy work)

DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign

When a client genuinely needs audit trails, HIPAA compliance, or enterprise-grade legal standing, these tools earn their cost. If you’re building healthcare portals or handling government contracts, don’t cut corners here.

Budget eSignature Tools (Simple needs, tight budgets)

BoldSign, SignNow

No frills. You send a document, someone signs it, done. Good for solopreneurs or agencies that rarely need signatures and just want the cheapest compliant option.

WordPress Ecosystem Tools (Agencies living inside WordPress)

WSForms, WooCommerce-native workflows, Zapier

If your agency builds on WordPress — and especially if you’re running WooCommerce — there’s a strong case for keeping your proposal and signature workflow inside the same ecosystem your clients already trust.

Step 3: Understand the Head-to-Head Before You Commit

DocuSign vs. PandaDoc – Winner for Agencies: PandaDoc

PandaDoc does what DocuSign doesn’t — it covers the full proposal-to-close journey. You build the proposal in PandaDoc, the client reviews it, signs it, and pays in one seamless session. No separate invoice. No separate signature request.

Where DocuSign focuses on the moment of signing, PandaDoc focuses on the moment of closing.

Templates are fast to build, content blocks are reusable, and analytics show you exactly when a client has opened your proposal — so you know when to follow up without guessing.

All paid plans include unlimited documents and eSignatures. The Essentials plan starts at $19/user/month (annual billing), and Business at $49/user/month.

Do this first: Sign up for PandaDoc’s free trial and rebuild your most-used proposal template in their editor. Most people have a working template ready to send within an hour. Send it to yourself and experience the client’s view. Most people switch the same day.

DocuSign vs. Agree — Winner for Modern UX: Agree

Agree launched in September 2024 and has grown fast for good reason. The core eSignature feature is free — unlimited contracts, no per-signature fees, no account required for your client to sign. A paid Standard plan at around $13/month adds custom branding and team features.
The interface is cleaner than almost anything else in this space.

Clients don’t need an account, don’t get confused, and don’t call you asking how to sign. Agree also converts signed contracts into invoices and payment requests automatically, which puts it firmly in the Deal Closer category despite its low entry price.

For freelancers and lean agencies where every friction point costs real time and real deals, Agree’s simplicity is its superpower. It’s not trying to do everything. It’s trying to make the thing it does feel effortless — and it’s free to find out if it works for you.

Do this first: Create a free Agree account and send your next real proposal through it instead of your current tool. It costs nothing. Watch how your client responds. If they sign without a single follow-up email, you have your answer.

DocuSign vs. BoldSign — Winner for Pricing: BoldSign

BoldSign is what you use when the answer to “what do you need?” is genuinely just “a way to get a signature.” Their Growth plan starts at $15/month for one sender with unlimited envelopes — no envelope caps, no overage fees. BoldSign’s own published data shows that switching from DocuSign Business Pro to BoldSign Business saves around 62.5% per user per year, based on publicly listed pricing as of January 2026.

The feature set covers all the basics — audit trails, reusable templates, custom branding, automated reminders – and it doesn’t pretend to be a proposal tool. There’s also a free Essential plan with up to 25 envelopes per month if you want to test before committing.

Do this first: Export your most recent DocuSign invoice. Compare it line-by-line with BoldSign’s $15/month Growth plan for the same number of documents and users. The gap is usually obvious within two minutes.

DocuSign vs. Adobe Acrobat Sign — Winner for Compliance

If your clients are already in the Adobe ecosystem — PDF-heavy workflows, legal deliverables, enterprise procurement — Adobe Acrobat Sign is the closest 1:1 DocuSign replacement. It matches DocuSign on compliance features with tighter integration into Creative Cloud.

Use this if: A client contract specifically requires DocuSign-equivalent audit trails, or you’re working in a regulated industry. For standard agency work, it’s still more than you need.

Step 4: Calculate What Slow Proposals Are Really Costing You

“Top ways to make your WordPress agency stand out? Start with improving your proposal flow.”
Rocket.net – Top 8 Ways to Make Your WordPress Agency Stand Out

This is the number most agencies never run — and it’s the most important one.

Here’s a simple formula:

Average proposals sent per month × Average days to close × Your hourly rate

= Monthly cost of proposal friction

Example: You send 15 proposals a month. Each one takes an average of 5 days to close, with 2 hours of follow-up work per proposal (emails, calls, resends, invoices). At $100/hour, that’s $3,000 a month in hidden labor — not counting the deals that went cold while you were waiting.

Cut that close time from 5 days to 1 day, and you recover the majority of that time. That’s not a software decision. That’s a revenue decision.

The hidden cost nobody talks about: standalone tools like DocuSign add manual steps between proposal, signature, and payment. Each handoff is a place where deals stall, clients lose momentum, and you lose time. One tool handling all three removes those gaps entirely.

Step 5: Build the WordPress Agency Workflow (The Right Way)

This is where most comparison articles stop. They compare tools in a vacuum. But if your agency lives inside WordPress, the right question isn’t just “which tool is best” – it’s “which tool connects to everything else I’m already using?”

Here’s the full stack, and how to build it:

WSForms handles lead capture directly on your WordPress site. Forms trigger automations. Client data flows cleanly without anyone copying and pasting between tabs.

PandaDoc or Agree connects via Zapier to pull that form data into a proposal template automatically. Your template does the heavy lifting. You review, tweak, and send.

WooCommerce handles payment — whether that’s a deposit at signing, a subscription, or a full project fee. If your clients already have WooCommerce stores, this makes the handoff feel native and trusted.

“WordPress reseller hosting for WooCommerce stores makes sense. That’s the pitch.”
Rocket.net – Why WordPress Reseller Hosting Makes Sense

Zapier ties everything together. Here’s the exact automation flow to build:

The Zapier Workflow: Step by Step

Zap 1 – Form to Proposal

Trigger: WSForms new entry

Action: PandaDoc – create document from template

Map these fields: client name, company, project type, budget, timeline

Result: A pre-filled proposal is ready to review in under 60 seconds

Zap 2 – Signature to Payment

Trigger: PandaDoc document completed (signed)

Action: WooCommerce — create order OR Stripe — create payment link

Add filter: only fire if document status = “completed”

Result: Payment request goes out automatically the moment they sign

Zap 3 – Payment to Project Kickoff

Trigger: Stripe payment received, OR WooCommerce order paid

Action 1: Send a welcome email via Gmail or Mailchimp

Action 2: Create a project in your PM tool (Asana, Trello, ClickUp)

Action 3: Post a Slack notification to your team channel

Result: Project is live before you’ve even seen the notification

Build time for all three Zaps: approximately 2–3 hours. Once they’re running, they run forever.

“How you start a project off matters as much as how you close it.”
Rocket.net – Agency Guide To Offboarding Client Websites

A Real Agency Scenario

A WooCommerce development agency gets an inquiry through its site. WSForms captures the brief. Within 90 seconds, a pre-filled PandaDoc proposal is sitting in the agency owner’s dashboard — ready to review. They make two edits and hit send.

The client gets one clean link. They read the proposal, sign, and pay the 50% deposit — all in under ten minutes. The agency owner gets a Slack notification. A project task is created in ClickUp. A welcome email goes to the client automatically.

No email chains. No PDF attachments. No invoice to remember to send. No follow-up to ask if they got it.

That’s not a fantasy workflow. It’s three Zapier automations and the right tool choice.

One more thing worth mentioning: the speed of your website matters more here than most agencies realize. When a client lands on your WooCommerce checkout, load time directly affects whether they complete the payment. A slow checkout page at the exact moment a client is ready to say yes is a leak in your conversion rate you can’t see in your proposal tool. A fast managed WordPress host — one serving pages from Cloudflare’s global edge network — removes that leak entirely.

Step 6: Do This Today (Quick Wins That Cost Nothing)

You don’t need to rebuild your entire stack today. Here are three things you can do right now — before buying anything – that will immediately reduce proposal friction:

Quick win 1: Build one master proposal template.

Whatever tool you’re using, build a single reusable template for your most common project type. Include your scope, terms, payment structure, and a signature field. Stop building proposals from scratch. Most agencies find that this cuts proposal prep time by more than half immediately.

Quick win 2: Add one sentence to your proposal email.

After you send a proposal, your follow-up email usually sounds like: “Let me know if you have questions.” Change it to: “This link stays active for 7 days — you can sign and pay the deposit directly from the document.” Giving clients a clear next step and a deadline cuts the “I’ll get back to you” response significantly.

Quick win 3: Time your next three proposals.

From the moment you start writing to the moment the client signs — track it. Most agencies are surprised when they see the actual number. That measurement becomes the baseline you’re improving against, and it makes the ROI of switching tools concrete and personal.

What Real Users Hate About DocuSign

Across forums, Reddit threads, and agency communities, the same complaints surface over and over. This isn’t cherry-picked criticism — it’s a consistent pattern.

“It’s overkill for what I actually need.” Most agency use cases don’t require enterprise-grade compliance infrastructure. Paying for features you’ll never use is a poor trade.

“The UI is outdated and confusing for clients.” Every time a client calls because they can’t figure out how to sign, you lose time. Multiply that across 30 proposals a month, and it becomes a serious drag.

“The pricing model punishes growth.” Envelope-per-user pricing means your software cost scales with your success – which is exactly backwards from how software should work for agencies.

“There are too many steps between proposal and close.” Building a proposal in one tool, sending it in DocuSign, collecting payment in another, and updating your CRM manually are four separate workflows that should be one.

Where eSignature Tools Are Headed (2026 Trends)

The category is changing fast. Here’s what matters for agencies:

eSignature is becoming invisible.

The best tools in 2026 don’t feel like “signing a document.” They feel like agreeing to move forward. The signature happens inside the proposal, inside the checkout flow — not as a separate step at the end.

Proposals and payments are merging.

Tools that handle all three — proposal, signature, payment — are pulling ahead of tools that handle just one. Clients don’t want three separate experiences to say yes to a project.

Automation-friendly tools are winning.

Agencies don’t want to babysit their sales workflows. They want tools that plug into Zapier, into their CRM, into their WordPress stack, and handle the handoffs automatically.

Standalone signature tools are losing ground.

Not because they’re bad — but because agencies need more than a signature. They need a complete close.

How to Choose (The 30-Second Version)

No fluff. Just the decision:

You send proposals regularly = PandaDoc

You want the cleanest client experience = Agree

You need the cheapest option that works = BoldSign

You’re building inside WordPress/WooCommerce = WSForms + PandaDoc via Zapier

You have genuine enterprise compliance requirements = Adobe Acrobat Sign or DocuSign

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use PandaDoc with WordPress?

Yes. PandaDoc connects to WordPress via Zapier. You can trigger proposal creation from a WSForms submission, embed a proposal link in a confirmation email, and collect payment through WooCommerce — all without leaving the WordPress ecosystem.

Is DocuSign ever still the right choice for agencies?

Yes — if your clients are in regulated industries (healthcare, legal, government) and require HIPAA-compliant or SOC 2-certified signature workflows. For standard web design, development, and marketing agency work, it’s more than you need.

How long does it take to set up PandaDoc from scratch?

Most agencies have their first template built and a test proposal sent within a single afternoon. The Zapier automation adds another 2–3 hours. Plan for one focused work session to get it fully running.

What’s the fastest way to get a proposal signed?

Send it through a tool like Agree or PandaDoc, where the client signs directly in their browser with no account required. Include the payment step in the same flow. Remove every extra click you can. Agencies that make this switch commonly report going from 3–5 day closes to same-day closes.

Does the proposal tool speed really affect close rate?

Yes — and it’s not subtle. Every extra step between “I’m interested” and “I’ve signed” gives a prospect a reason to pause, compare competitors, or simply forget. The fewer the steps, the higher the close rate. This is why integrated tools consistently outperform standalone signature tools in agency sales workflows.

Final Verdict

“Client acquisition and retention matters. Do you have a strategy?”
Rocket.net – Top Client Acquisition and Retention Strategies for WordPress Agencies

If you’re running an agency in 2026, the question isn’t “Which eSignature tool is best?”

It’s “Which tool helps me close deals faster – and what do I build today to make that happen?”

Start with the audit in Step 1.

Run the cost formula in Step 4.

Build the three Zapier automations in Step 5.

Your proposal workflow will look completely different in a week — and your close rate will show it.

For most agencies, the right answer is PandaDoc or Agree for proposals, WSForms for lead capture, WooCommerce or Stripe for payment, and Zapier connecting all three. That stack closes deals in hours instead of days. It removes admin work you shouldn’t be doing. And it makes the client experience clean enough that people refer others without being asked.

DocuSign built the category. But the category has moved on. The agencies winning right now aren’t the ones with the most legally robust signature tool — they’re the ones with the fastest, smoothest path from “interested” to “signed and paid.”

That’s where the real advantage is. Now you have the steps to build it.