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Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

cheapesignature.com

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Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#61

Post by marcus_cemes »

I pay $5 a month for 5 family members on 1password. I use it every day, it's as important as my credit card.

Every other subscription based service seems to target the $10 range, even if you use it only a few times a month. Theese costs add up, I understand the concerns of unexpected bills in pay-as-you-go, but it's also a lot easier than commiting to much more than you need. I don't have any movie-streaming subscriptions, but how is someone supposed to keep up with Netflix/Disney/HBO/Amazon Prime and the lot?

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#62

Post by jackconsidine »

As others have commented, the brand moat is a challenge. My company built our own signing app (with an API!) [1] because high volumes of envelopes with DocuSign / HelloSign are exorbitant (you have to "talk to sales" if you have needs more than a few hundred per month).

We recently pivoted to the digital waiver space because signing waivers for experiences doesn't necessitate the same brand recognition. And lots of experience sites need an API that isn't way marked up.

[1] https://waivercat.com

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#63

Post by ClumsyPilot »

rvnx wrote: post #29
tata71 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We'll send you an email to sign with our secure in-house service, it's like DocuSign?, and that'll wrap everything up!"

Yeah, won't work for most of the situations when the lawyers come, because the lawyers will claim the third-party website is bogus

"lawyers will claim the third-party website is bogus"

Docusign is bogus too.

Either you buy a real eIDAS-compliant certificate and sign things cryptographically, or you are faking it, broadly equivalent to "tick here to accept the agreement".

The only thing Docusign "proves" is that someone with access to your email signed the agreement.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#64

Post by lbittner »

300bps wrote: post #24

Back when DocuSign first came out around 2003 the finance company I worked for was ready to sign up with them at an exorbitant rate. From what I recall, President Clinton had just signed the e-signature bill in 2000 and all DocuSign seemed to be doing is combining a snapshot of a document along with someone's hand-typed name and generating an MD5 hash from it. I proposed creating our own e-signature app that did that…

I work for a large PDF processing company (not Adobe) and true digital signatures are a bit more complex than that. Docusign actually uses our technology in their signing flow and it is a bit more complex than what you are describing.

A true digital signature ensures that the document is not altered after the document is signed. This is done by creating a hash of the document, encrypting it using a private key provided by a signing authority, and embedding that in a certificate that is then attached to the document.

When opening the signed document (in Adobe reader for example), the hash in the certificate is validated using a public key provided by the signing authority. If the document hash matches the certificate hash, then the document has not been altered!

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#65

Post by melony »

voisin wrote: post #46
nojito wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay as you go doesn’t scale. It’s chasing short term growth in lieu of long term stability.

Pay as you Go scales until there is enough loyalty and demand that your users opt for a monthly fee to save money. By forcing everyone to a monthly fee you alienate a ton of users that want to use your service but not enough to need a subscription.

The only ones you alienate are penny pinching HN users.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#66

Post by MichaelApproved »

tyingq wrote: post #4

I know bikeshedding about names is discouraged, but in the case of signatures, isn't there a desire to evoke a "trust" feeling? It's hard to tie "cheap" to "trust". Some other synonym like "eco" might project trust better.

I'll never understand using "cheap" for a company name, especially when people who require signatures are usually in very professional environments.

- They're positioning themselves to always compete on price, not offerings.

- It's professionally embarrassing to use a product named "cheap" anything. I have so much trouble recommending namecheap.com to my clients because of this. They're reliable and budget friendly but the word cheap makes them worry about trusting their domain name to them.

- "Cheap" refers to price but it can also refer to quality.

- I'd be surprised if lawyers weren't their #1 market and I can't imagine they'd be comfortable sending their clients to a "cheap" product.

I'm sure they did market research to make it worth using the name. I'd love to hear their take on it.

Who knows, maybe this domain name is only for the initial marketing rollout and the actual product will use a more professional domain name.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#67

Post by whatever1 »

paxys wrote: post #58
whatever1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A signed document sent from my email address has the same properties.

Okay how do I capture the IP address of the person who signed the document over email?

Folks we are in HN. Emails have headers with time stamps and everything.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#68

Post by ClumsyPilot »

paxys wrote: post #58
whatever1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A signed document sent from my email address has the same properties.

Okay how do I capture the IP address of the person who signed the document over email?

What are you going to do with that IP address? I don't know what IP I had 5 years ago when I signed some documents, or whether I signed it from home. What does that IP address prove?

Furthermore, likely your email provider does know what IP address you connected from.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#69

Post by prepend »

tyingq wrote: post #4

I know bikeshedding about names is discouraged, but in the case of signatures, isn't there a desire to evoke a "trust" feeling? It's hard to tie "cheap" to "trust". Some other synonym like "eco" might project trust better.

I disagree and don’t think of cheap as being bad. If used honestly, I think it’s a good way of using accurate language to describe a brand.

Sometimes a cheap burger or a cheap taco is the best. For signatures, I think this works. I don’t think I would skimp on important, non-commodity things.

I think it’s funny and off putting when brands try to overestimate their importance. I don’t want a “signature experience” just like I don’t want to “invest” in a $5 domain name. Just be honest instead of pretending like everything is part of my identity.

Re: Stop paying DocuSign $2 for an e-signature

#70

Post by wikibob »

I would never ever use this.

I use DocuSign because I trust them to continue to be around. Why? Because Important Conpanies(tm) also use them.

$2 is absolutely irrelevant in the context of signing a document that is even remotely related to a financial outcome.

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