What the free plan actually includes
Plenty of “free e-signature” offers are trials in disguise: a watermark on the signed PDF, a cap of one signer, a seven-day clock or a page limit that stops a real contract going out. SignPe’s free plan is built the other way round. You get three documents, and each of those three is a full, real document — not a cut-down preview of the product.
That means every free document runs on the same signing engine as a paid one. You upload your file, place fields, add the people who need to sign, send it, follow its progress and download the signed PDF with its audit trail. Nothing about the document itself tells anyone you were on the free plan.
- Unlimited pages per document. Upload the whole agreement, schedules and annexures included.
- Unlimited signers per document. Add everyone who needs to sign, plus observers who only need to follow along.
- Real signing fields. Signature, Full Name, Email, Company, Designation, Date, Text, Checkmark and Shape, each dragged into place and assigned to a signer.
- Status tracking. See when each document is Sent, Opened, Signed or Declined, with the date and time of every action.
- An audit trail PDF. Document ID, sent and completed dates, and each signer’s emailed, viewed and signed times.
- Web, iPhone, iPad and Android. One account across every device, with documents kept in sync.
Recipients never pay
The people you send documents to do not need a plan or even an account. They sign in their browser, and their signatures never use one of your free documents.
How the 3 free documents are counted
The rule is simple once you know it: one file is one document, and a document is counted at the moment it goes out for real — when you send it for signature, or when you sign and submit it yourself. Everything before that is free to experiment with.
| What you do | Does it use a free document? |
|---|---|
| Upload a file and place fields | No |
| Save it as a draft and come back later | No — drafts never use a document |
| Send it to one signer | Yes, one document |
| Send it to ten signers | Still one document |
| Sign it yourself and submit it | Yes, one document |
| Other people signing your document | No — that costs you nothing |
| A 40-page file instead of a 4-page one | Still one document |
The allowance is one-time, not monthly. It does not reset at the start of each month, and it is shared by your business or team rather than given to each person separately. If three colleagues each send one document, the free plan is used up.
Because drafts are free, you can set a document up properly — check every field is assigned to the right signer, fix the date format, add an observer — and only spend a document when you press send. See saving documents as drafts for how resuming a draft works.
Getting the most out of three documents
Three documents is enough to prove the whole workflow on work that matters, not on a test file. A few habits make each one count:
- Send something real. A client agreement, an NDA, an offer letter. You learn far more from a real signer’s experience than from signing a sample to yourself.
- Combine pages into one file. Because pages are unlimited, a contract and its schedules can go out as one document instead of three.
- Put every signer on the same document. Five people signing one file is one document. Five separate copies is five.
- Prepare as a draft first. Place and assign fields at your own pace; nothing is counted until you send.
- Check the details before you send. A typo in an email address can mean voiding and resending, which uses another document.
If you are signing a single PDF for yourself and want to understand the basics first, the step-by-step guide to signing a PDF without printing walks through it.
Who the free plan suits
The free plan is designed for people trying e-signatures properly before committing — individuals and sole proprietors in particular.
- Freelancers and consultants who sign a handful of client agreements a year and want a clean, professional signing experience for their clients.
- Small businesses evaluating tools, who want to send a real contract to a real customer and see how it lands before rolling it out to the team.
- Anyone with a one-off need: a lease, a sale agreement, a consent form that needs several signatures.
- Teams comparing providers, who want to judge the signer experience, the audit trail and the mobile apps side by side with paid tools.
If you already know you will be sending documents every week, the free plan is still a useful first step: it lets you check the workflow end to end before you choose a paid plan.
When to upgrade to Basic or Professional
The clearest sign it is time to upgrade is simple: you have used your three documents and you need to send more. Both paid plans remove the document limit and keep unlimited pages and unlimited signers on every document.
| Plan | Documents | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 3, one-time — no credit card | Individuals and sole proprietors trying signing out properly |
| Basic | Unlimited | Small and medium teams sending agreements every week |
| Professional | Unlimited | Teams whose signing volume runs through email at scale |
Basic is for teams who sign every week: unlimited documents and unlimited signature requests, with the extras busy teams lean on, such as in-person signing, initials and official stamps, and Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box integration. Professional includes everything in Basic, with unlimited sending for signature via email for teams working at volume. Current prices for both are on the SignPe pricing page.
What happens when your free documents run out
Nothing is deleted. Every document you sent on the free plan, its signed PDF and its audit trail stay in your account and remain available to download. You simply cannot send a fourth document until you upgrade.
Upgrading takes effect immediately, and everything already signed stays exactly where it is. If you later cancel a paid plan, the cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period and your documents remain accessible on the free plan afterwards.
Free does not mean less legally sound
A document signed on the free plan is signed with the same process as one signed on a paid plan, and carries the same record of who signed and when. Electronic signatures are recognised under the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s IT Act 2000. For India-specific detail, read the legality guide.
Your documents are protected the same way too: HTTPS everywhere, encrypted storage and access limited to the people on the document. More on that in e-signature security.
How to send your first free document
Create your account
Sign up on the web at app.signpe.com or in the iOS or Android app. No credit card is asked for.
Upload your file
Add a PDF, Word document or images. The file becomes a document, and setting it up does not use one of your three.
Add signers and place fields
Add as many signers and observers as you need, then drag Signature, Date, Name and other fields onto the pages and assign each to a signer.
Send it
Press send. This is the point the document is counted. Each signer gets an email with a Review & Sign Document button.
Track it and download the signed copy
Follow each signer’s progress in your Documents list. When everyone has signed, download the completed PDF and its audit trail.
