DocuSign vs. Square 9 Softworks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
DocuSign
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
DocuSign 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
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
For document-intensive companies looking to improve business efficiency, Square 9 Softworks develops solutions for process automation that aim to drive increased productivity across all business applications.
$250
per month 5 users
Pricing
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Editions & Modules
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
Square 9 Process Automation Essentials
$50
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Digital Transformation Essentials
$68
per month per user (5 User Minimum)
Square 9 Enterprise Essentials
$75
per month per user (10 User Minimum)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsOffered via a three-tier pricing model that allows customers to scale their solution up or down based on the changing needs of their organization. Pricing excludes professional services and implementation fees
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Considered Both Products
DocuSign

No answer on this topic

Square 9 Softworks
Chose Square 9 Softworks
I like the Square 9 Softworks platform because it is simple to use and visually simple.
Best Alternatives
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Small Businesses
Foxit eSign
Foxit eSign
Score 9.3 out of 10
PowerDMS by NEOGOV
PowerDMS by NEOGOV
Score 7.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Score 8.4 out of 10
Conga Composer
Conga Composer
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
5.3
(155 ratings)
9.8
(60 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(12 ratings)
6.7
(7 ratings)
Usability
5.0
(13 ratings)
7.7
(6 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(3 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(46 ratings)
8.1
(26 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(5 ratings)
6.4
(3 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
DocuSignSquare 9 Softworks
Likelihood to Recommend
DocuSign
I am going to speak of a personal experience- on multiple occasions: I need my husband to sign documents during the day and I don't need him here- physically. He sometimes works in different parts of the state as well at his own company. There is no problem at all, as long as he has access to his cell phone, email, and cell phone service- he can sign the documents I need him to. It is AMAZING- I can't speak highly enough of Docusign.
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Square 9 Softworks
Can't say enough good things about the program. It allowed us to automate our document clerk function such that it can be managed by existing employees in a fraction of the time it was taking for our manual process. This allowed us to reduce cost by eliminating the doc clerk position and repurposing that individual to other value added tasks. The cost savings through this has paid for the software
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Pros
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
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Square 9 Softworks
  • The software is very flexible, and the technicians were great at implementing our customizations for the PO project.
  • While indexing fields in Global Search, the Key Free tool works great.
  • Global Search is well-organized. It's easy to navigate and find your documents.
  • The process for completing your project was well done. Communicating with individuals at Square 9 who were responsible for different aspects of the project was easy.
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Cons
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.
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Square 9 Softworks
  • Overall, it is not as stable as other software. Some errors could not be fixed, such as a form going forward without approval because a user pressed "enter" twice in a row.
  • I probably only use 20% of the functionality. Beyond that, I'd have to pay for development. We did that once, and the project that we paid for never was implemented. They allowed us to request a design before my time that was so complicated that they never got it to work. Once I came on board, I implemented a much simpler solution.
  • Our upgrade took much, much longer than expected, and was disrupted by so many software issues.
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Likelihood to Renew
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."
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Square 9 Softworks
We absolutely can't imagine not continuing software maintenance as there are always new additions that improve the system not to mention the excellent tech support when issues are encountered. Response times for troubleshooting are very quick and usually, my issue is resolved in less than an hour after connecting with support.
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Usability
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.
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Square 9 Softworks
The items I am searching for are easily found. They are found in at least 95% of the searches. The failure rate generally is related to another employees user error or a template error set up by our Square 9 team in house.
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Reliability and Availability
DocuSign
It does not go down. I have had zero issues with DocuSign, approaching 4 years.
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Square 9 Softworks
Square-9 can get this product out to you in almost the same hour your order it. We got ours very fast.
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Performance
DocuSign
Everything loads quickly. Reports are generated in a reasonable time. No noticeable difference in integrated software processing speeds.
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Square 9 Softworks
With the PDF projected viewer, the document retrieval-to-display can drag for a second more than some systems, and the capture workflow if you overload a server array can also drag, but those are the only two issues we've ever seen with this product, and they are not serious issues at all.
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Support Rating
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
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Square 9 Softworks
Support is always extremely helpful and responsive. Whenever we have a question, it is simple contacting them and also setting-up an appointment, if necessary. Scheduling the appointment is easy and they are willing to talk on the phone, which is not always true with software companies. Their report support tools are also really east to use.
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In-Person Training
DocuSign
No answers on this topic
Square 9 Softworks
It would have been higher, but the training is a bit muted for the lesser qualified office equipment vendors who signed up as partners to sell and support it. The more experienced ECM vendors and customer end-users will find the training very good, but a bit slow.
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Online Training
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.
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Square 9 Softworks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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.
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Square 9 Softworks
I think the implementation could have gone a little smoother than it did. Now that I know how to use the software, I could do it myself. I feel that as an organization, we could have been a little better prepared. If the consultant was more aware of what we were looking for, they could have assisted in setting up some workflows for us as per the contract. But because we were not prepared, the initial implementation process was a little painful. That said, adding a document management system to ANY business kinda means everyone has to re-think the way they do their work which can be difficult for some staff.
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Alternatives Considered
DocuSign
I would say that DocuSign's biggest competitor and a most similar product is Adobe Sign. They both offer almost identical features with Adobe offering a slightly better interface. Adobe Sign is also less costly than DocuSign while offering templates that can be useful for various activities. If you are looking for more branding options then Adobe offers a slight advantage but for corporate control, I would say DocuSign offers more security.
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Square 9 Softworks
A similar product I have used was Time Matters. For a Law Firm, I think Time Matters is more useful as it keeps track of everything for a client, including billing. However, since I now work for a legal department of a corporation, SmartSearch is definitley more useful. It is not possible to seperate the documents we have internally in neat client files. We have various miscellaneous documents for many different services and customers or vendors. SmartSearch allows us to organize in broad categories that make sense to internal employees using it and to make sure security is set on specific documents. Time Matters would not have been sufficient for our managers to have access to, since it uploads all documents to the file - some of which are confidential.
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Scalability
DocuSign
In my years of using DocuSign, I have never had an outage. I haven't even encountered a bug.
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Square 9 Softworks
The scale-ability is quite good actually, but you need competent sales/support folks providing it to you, so the scale is set right for the demands of your system use. Some resellers are not good at doing this, some are fantastic. If you are scaled correctly at first implementation, you'll be very happy with this system.
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Return on Investment
DocuSign
  • DocuSign has made fax machines obsolete for receiving, signing, and returning documents to multiple parties.
  • DocuSign is a secure method of signing documents and that is a positive. Fax machines are generally not very secure.
  • DocuSign stores your documents in an encrypted form which protects your privacy and the privacy of all parties named in a document.
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Square 9 Softworks
  • Having less paper in the office has saved space and supplies. We no longer need to purchase those expensive cardboard folders for archiving.
  • Having someone do their own health screening is safer and saves us from keeping a staff member devoted to that task.
  • I used to have to spend hours physically culling archive records. Now I can sort it and weed it with clicks of a button!
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ScreenShots

DocuSign Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Square 9 Softworks Screenshots

Screenshot of GlobalSearch, which allows users to organize and sort documents based on extracted dataScreenshot of automated data extraction from documents using Square 9's AI-powered extraction tool, TransformAI.Screenshot of GlobalCapture, which is used to build workflows and automatically assign tasks to users.Screenshot of a front-facing Portal for new hires and applicants. This lets them fill out important employee documents such as job application, Direct Deposit and W-4 forms.Screenshot of the hiring and onboarding portal, where new hire documentation is completed.Screenshot of GlobalForms, which has new hire government forms such as I-9 and W-4 forms.