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Adobe Acrobat Sign vs. DocuSign vs. Formstack Documents

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Acrobat Sign

    Score8.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Acrobat Sign is an e-signature solution that combines simple and secure e-signatures with Adobe Acrobat. With Acrobat Sign, the user can create, sign, send for signature, manage, and track documents from one Adobe platform. The user can create signing experiences for customers and teams by enabling them to sign documents on any device or browser – anytime, anywhere. No additional software download or accounts are needed. As Microsoft’s e-signature solution, Acrobat Sign…

    $14.99

    per month license

    DocuSign

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ADocuSign supports transactions with document sharing and electronic signature, as well as automated and guided data collection and entry, record updating across disparate systems and payment collection upon agreement, as well as analytics and reporting.

    $15

    per month

    Formstack Documents

    Score6.4 out of 10
    N/AFormstack Documents (formerly WebMerge, acquired by Formstack April 2019) is an online service that automates the document creation process. It allows users to create customized PDF and Word documents for contracts, applications, government forms, and more.N/A
    Pricing
    Adobe Acrobat SignDocuSignFormstack Documents
    Editions & Modules
    Acrobat Standard DC for teams
    $14.99
    per month license
    Acrobat Pro DC with advanced e-sign
    $16.99
    per month license
    Acrobat Sign Solutions
    Call 800-685-4192 for pricing
    Personal
    $15
    per month
    Real Starter
    $15
    per month
    DocuSign for Realtors
    $35
    per month
    Standard
    $40
    per month
    Business Pro
    $60
    per month
    Advanced Solutions
    Custom Pricing
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe Acrobat SignDocuSignFormstack Documents
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup Fee$34.99 license per monthNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe Acrobat SignDocuSignFormstack Documents
    Small Businesses
    BoldSign, by Syncfusion
    Score10 out of 10
    BoldSign, by Syncfusion
    Score10 out of 10
    Formstack for Salesforce
    Score7.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    OneSpan Sign
    Score9.6 out of 10
    OneSpan Sign
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Formstack for Salesforce
    Score7.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    DocuSign
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Conga Sign
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Conga Composer
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe Acrobat SignDocuSignFormstack Documents
    Likelihood to Recommend
    2.9
    (228 ratings)
    9.0
    (161 ratings)
    8.5
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (30 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    1.8
    (194 ratings)
    8.5
    (19 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (164 ratings)
    10.0
    (46 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe Acrobat SignDocuSignFormstack Documents
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    Acrobat Sign isn't quite as user friendly as other E-Sign platforms I have used. However, it offers a wide range of features that provide convenience and efficiency. For example, I can have multiple people receive the same document separately, or I can have multiple people receive and review the exact same document. I also like that I can choose to set a signing order or not, this is important for when I send Offer Letters and other things that require order of approvals.
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    This product is well suited in the use case that I provided before: when it comes to onboarding employees and providing a clear channel for decision making for human resources, this is an excellent tool to accomplish that. I would say the weak points is when you have back and forth communication with users that it might seem a little redundant to have that back and forth communication in that scenario.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    [Formstack Documents (formerly WebMerge) is] well suited for a mid-size organization that has multiple data inputs and needs to provide structure and professional document generation. As helpful as it is, the cost would prevent smaller businesses from realizing the cost savings that a larger one will.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Adobe
    • Adobe Acrobat Sign tracks whether or not a signer has viewed a document
    • Adobe Acrobat Sign tracks when a signer has signed, and the document has been sent to the next signer
    • Adobe Acrobat Sign sends you confirmation emails and progress update emails along the way
    • Adobe Acrobat Sign provides a "confirmation of signing" page at the end of the document package you put together, to prove the signatures are authentic
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    • Ease of sending the same document out to multiple recipients, at multiple locations, for multiple signatures
    • Quick turnaround - once the recipient signs the document, we receive notification and the document back immediately
    • Can resend, alter, change, and/or add to the email and/or document that is sent out very easily
    • The recipient can save the document after signing, so they too have their own electronic copy for their records
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    • Excellent integration with other popular platforms
    • Clear and usable documentation to walk through setup in a number of scenarios
    • Responsive support that provided appropriate answers when we had questions
    • Flexibility in use cases that support multiple modes of use
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Adobe
    • Builds on Adobe platform so it is easy to utilize, but many features require enterprise subscription.
    • Integrations available but your CRM integration is only available with enterprise license.
    • Lots of templates but there are additional templates with enterprise only and there was no drag and drop editor.
    • Adobe captures some analytical metrics but many of the analytics we required were not available - specifically metrics related to how the tool converts and reduces use time by our team and the impact on clients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    • Tracking, particularly when collecting signatures through connected applications, such as an ATS, is not always clean or easily traceable.
    • Formatting documents to handle electronic signature types (signatures, initials, etc.) is not always easy, and highly dependent on the partner's technology.
    • It is not convenient to have to use DocuSign as a stand alone product if the signatures are required for 3rd party applications. It definitely excels on its own, but the scope of that usage, at least for us, is slim.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    • We've had some issues with document formatting when the Formstack document comes through. Nothing outrageous, but it has been very inconvenient and annoying.
    • The Formstack website is not attractive or user friendly.
    • I think it could be clearer to Formstack users that it is a tool that needs another tool, not a tool all its own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    It is by far the easiest service we have used to obtain digital signatures from employees. In the past we had done it by hand (a process I would not recommend for 1500+ employees) and with another company that would not allow us to create our own forms and would charge us for each form.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    I can't imagine doing business without DocuSign now. I would never want to go back to the way we used to do things. The "new way" is "the way" is "the right way." We can honestly be proud of a "one right way" process and not have to suffer through "5 ways for 5 days."
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    Ease of use, nice functionality that saves time
    Read full review
    Usability
    Adobe
    I've had very little trouble with it in all my uses with it. I do wish the text boxes you add wouldn't cut off the text if you entered too many words and that it would adjust it's size to fit within the space you've provided. However, that just takes a little refining in the initial set up of the document before you send it out.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    Generally user-friendly once you have command of the basics, but also has a lot of nuances that can make it difficult to train others on. DocuSign University is a helpful tool, but understandably a lot of content to get through to become a well-versed user. A lot of different functionalities but only a few I use on a weekly basis.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Adobe
    I would have rated this a 9 or greater had they not had had such critical outages. They have taken steps to resolve this so I may come in and revise this
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    It does not go down. I have had zero issues with DocuSign, approaching 4 years.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Adobe
    The Adobe Acrobat Sign's performance are excellent.
    When we send electronic document by email for signature all the customers receive it regularly, nobody has any issue to open it and the signature phase was very easy. The user-friendly aspect of this product reduce or reset the call for IT support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    Everything loads quickly. Reports are generated in a reasonable time. No noticeable difference in integrated software processing speeds.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    It is a great tool to get signatures from the client and has reduced a lot of overhead that was caused before resulting in very long delays. With the integration of Adobe Acrobat Sign, we have reduced this delay making the process much smoother and more efficient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    I'd give them a 10, but there has been 1 or 2 small cases that seemed to fall to the wayside, but I was able to call them up and get them resolved. We were having a bad implementation night (after midnight) and we needed assistance from Docusign. They were able to get an engineer to help us in the early morning hours
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    Support was always readily available and happy to assist whenever I had a question or needed help. Great experience every time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Adobe
    The best types of training are well integrated into the product and Echosign does this well. As mentioned earlier in my review - there are some areas of functionality that can be difficult to understand ("only I sign") for the novice user. Other areas such as macro usage, bulk signature and so on were easily learned and understood via the online tools.
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    Docusign is super easy to use, and apart from a few administration details, there was really nothing to train on. Post implementation, there were issues with configuration of auto-filled documents with the integrating 3rd party. That training required some time, because the DocuSign expert took the time to walk me through the 3rd party's configuration (how often does that happen?) so I could see how DocuSign should be best used to overcome weaknesses in the 3rd party platform. 10/10 expert care.
    Incentivized
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    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    We did not use it in the manner that most companies do, so I am pleased with how our company handled implementation. We will be pushing the full company over into Echosign for various processes which will incorporate more of an implementation effect.
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    Until you get the hang of it, I recommend doing several internal tests before sending a document to a client. As I mentioned earlier, you have to go through a bit of trial and error at first to verify that the workflow works as expected.
    Read full review
    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    They are just different. Adobe's number one feature that puts it above it's competitors is that your document, the signing process, all of it exists within Adobe. There is no need to go from Word, to Adobe, to DocuSign. It saves you time and makes life easy for you (and for your clients).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    There has never been anything that we could really compare to Docusign. We have tried sending documents in a PDF version, but that was not nearly as efficient. DocuSign saves your signature in the system and uses that as it goes through your documents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    Each of the programs above answered a specific call to action. While each addressed a small portion of our need, they never quite fit the bill for what we needed. It was actually a representative from three of the ones above which selected WebMerge. They wanted to sell their product, but knew that we would be unfulfilled if we went with them
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Adobe
    At the beginning we assigned Adobe Acrobat Sign just to Purchase Office Department because at that moment we needed a tool that supported us to avoid manual signature and was compliance with remote working.
    Now we are using it also in other situation because it help us with time and we can also reduce cost
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    In my years of using DocuSign, I have never had an outage. I haven't even encountered a bug.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • Significantly reduced the time required for document signing processes reducing wasted time and effort
    • Cost savings since there is no longer any need to print and post/scan traditional signed paper-based documents
    • Faster decision-making since time-sensitive decisions and approvals can now be processed much more quickly by using e-signatures.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    DocuSign
    • Less paper use, faster signature times, less time standing at the printer/scanner to send documents to yourself
    • Security over your signature! Security over your company's signature and authorization to approve projects, cash flow etc
    • Love audit trails and the seamless tracking of the status of the document
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Formstack
    • The return on investment has been very good. It's very cost effective product. Our service team is on the phone and it takes away from the customer service if they are having to input the same information on applications. Web Merge eliminates additional key strokes while giving customers more time to run their business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Adobe Acrobat Sign Screenshots

    Screenshot of Send, sign, manage and archive documents with 100% legal e-signatures. Collecting e-signatures is as easy as swipe and tap with Adobe Sign. Sign from any device. Legally binding. Works with multiple apps. extremely cost-effective.Screenshot of Easily send e-signature requests to multiple recipients using Send in bulk feature.  Send a document to multiple people with one click, and every recipient gets their own personalized form ready to sign.Screenshot of Track and manage signatures with Adobe Acrobat Sign.  Get real-time visibility for every document out for signature, and receive notifications when documents have been signed.Screenshot of Create an online web form with Acrobat Sign.  It allows your recipients – whether they’re your employees or customers – to quickly access, complete, and sign critical documents without printing or mailing anything.  You will also get immediate access to the data and signatures.

    DocuSign Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot