Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HotDocs by CARET
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
HotDocs is a document automation and assembly software product, acquired and now supported by AbacusNext since 2017.
$25
per user/per month
PandaDoc
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
PandaDoc headquartered in San Francisco offers their eponymous electronic signature platform for sales teams, containing sales proposal automation and CPQ (configure, price, quote) features, and integration with CRMs.
$19
per user/per month
Pricing
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Editions & Modules
Basic
$25
per user/per month
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Essentials
$19
per user/per month
Business
$49
per user/per month
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsPandaDoc offers a free eSign plan and 3 paid packages for eSigning and document automation starting at $19 per month per user. All plans include unlimited documents and eSignatures. Evaluations start with a free 14-day trial.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Small Businesses
Jotform
Jotform
Score 8.7 out of 10
PDFfiller
PDFfiller
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Responsive
Responsive
Score 6.4 out of 10
MSB Docs
MSB Docs
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Responsive
Responsive
Score 6.4 out of 10
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(9 ratings)
8.9
(269 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
5.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(23 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(21 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(2 ratings)
5.2
(23 ratings)
Implementation Rating
4.0
(1 ratings)
6.3
(4 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
2.8
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(20 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(20 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
6.7
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
HotDocs by CARETPandaDoc
Likelihood to Recommend
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
It is well suited in the organisations which deals with lots of paper work like legal, teaching, research, etc as they need similar kind of documents again and again. In a typical office set up it is of great use by human resource, marketing and legal department. Hot docs is not suitable if you have a proprietary or solo business as it do not caters to them.
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PandaDoc
It is ideal for going from phone call (or even while on a phone call) to sending an NDA or SOW out to a client. I have done this often, and have found the faster I get them out, the higher the likelihood of getting a signature. While it is more than capable for many proposals, for very complex proposals, numbering in the 100s of pages (not uncommon for complex ERP proposals), it is not the right tool. If you incorporate Powerpoint Slides in your proposals, it is not great for that either.
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Pros
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Personalized training. We were able to get an expert on a video call who walked us through solutions to each of our unique problems (i.e. all fifty states have different notary blocks, how can we auto-populate it when the state of the deal is selected?).
  • Team access. Multiple people can work with the templates at once, thus allowing the members of our team who deal with financials to work on their documents while others focus on the organizational and legal documents.
  • Once you have successfully drafted your templates, it runs incredibly smooth (barring any minor hiccups that happen with software updates) and efficiently.
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PandaDoc
  • Complex quoting.
  • API integration for cross platform communication and automation.
  • Easy signing experience.
  • Easy user interface.
  • Excellent engagement and willing to partner with clients.
  • Fantastic training resources (1:1 sessions, webinars, micro-videos, on-demand, articles).
  • Beautiful proposal designs.
  • Integrations - HR, CRM, Payments, CRMs. (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Greenhouse, Lever, etc).
  • Online Notary.
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Cons
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Most HotDocs templates demand high-level code. This includes complicated Word codes
  • Using HotDocs is incredibly user-friendly. Creating and maintaining templates is a programming task
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PandaDoc
  • The visibility of who has completed but not fully signed. I love the dashboard but have to consistently scroll to get back to where I was looking and find interesting agreements to surface where we have not counter signed yet.
  • More calculated fields that are custom to us
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Likelihood to Renew
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
PandaDoc
The reason I gave it a rating of 7 is because it's probable, but not for sure. This is because there are a few little things we don't love about pandadoc. Mostly that there is not conditional logic such as: they must either fill this field out OR this one. Also it's a little pricey. But we'll probably stay because it's good enough and a pain to switch to something new
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Usability
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
Could be more intuitive - could even "suggest" fill-ins with the option to take or not take the suggestion.
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PandaDoc
Once you get the hang of it, it's very easy to use. There can be a slightly steep learning curve to get fully in on the system. The new editor v2 has really improved usability and allows us to collaborate on documents simultaneously. Once the templates and library items are set up, a new document, whether it be a sales or HR document, takes very little time to complete.
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Reliability and Availability
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
PandaDoc
We haven't had any real issues regarding downtime as of yet.
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Performance
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
PandaDoc
The documents load quickly for the most part but sometimes if there are larger documents with a high number of variables it could take a bit longer to get the document to show up. Most of the time the document comes on the screen relatively quickly allowing for quick access to documents to be edited and sent out.
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Support Rating
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
I haven't had to contact HotDocs very often for support. I suppose I rated them mid-level simply because I would like to see more online training options or white papers to view to assist with learning. I want to understand how to do something versus having it done for me.
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PandaDoc
Recently I could not upload a pdf to a contract - support was very responsive and easy to work with. They got back to me the next day with an apparent fix - however when I opened the document nothing had changed. I then could not respond to the rep who was helping me because it was a "no-reply address", the problem still has not been solved and we had to make alternate arrangements to get this to the client. Never had it happen before and was only with this one contract.
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Implementation Rating
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
If you use WordPerfect X9 - choose"no word-processing software."
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PandaDoc
Implementation was before the time I was here at Riafox, however, support has been great in assisting to merge spaces and upgrade to 2.0 Editor.
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Alternatives Considered
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
I haven't evaluated other products. We are so used to HotDocs that it would be difficult for us to switch to something else. We continue to use HotDocs because switching cost is high once you have already started. Be careful before beginning to use this program, as it is hard to breakaway.
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PandaDoc
PandaDoc offers a free version with basic features and several tiered pricing options. The pricing is generally considered to be competitive and offers good value for the range of features provided. we often find PandaDoc intuitive and user-friendly. Its interface is designed to facilitate easy document creation and management, even for users who aren't particularly tech-savvy. PandaDoc is known for its robust document management capabilities. It offers a wide range of features such as document creation, a rich content library, customizable templates, and a user-friendly interface for creating interactive and engaging documents. It also includes CRM integrations, automated workflows, and analytics.
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Scalability
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
PandaDoc
It's scalable
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Return on Investment
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Time savings by employees when generating documents mean better ROI efficiency for labor.
  • Faster, more accurate turnaround for documents needing to be generated from templates.
  • Large capital expenditure depending on the number of users and developers.
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PandaDoc
  • Time saved creating documents. Not copying that answer. I've said that several times in this review already
  • IDK about increasing close rate, but customers certainly aren't afraid to click on a PandaDoc link or attachment
  • Only miniscule, miniscule negative is that it isn't always instant
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ScreenShots

PandaDoc Screenshots

Screenshot of Custom-designed themes, templates, embedded rich media, and interactivity to give every deal the opportunity to get noticed.Screenshot of Automatic notifications, on-the-fly editing, CRM Integrations, and integrated eSignatures.Screenshot of Reporting, with drill down to the deal level with proposals, to pick which deals to include (or exclude).Screenshot of legally binding eSignaturesScreenshot of Centralized communications to streamline the negotiation process, and make revisions in real-time in a single location.Screenshot of Document analytics displays what’s really happening after documents are sent with real-time reporting on engagement and activity on the documents. This enables teams to respond faster to prospects.