Lock & Quill vs DocuSign
Last updated 2026-11-10
Lock & Quill is an e-signature service that charges one flat price per workspace, with users included. DocuSign, the best-known name in e-signatures, prices its team plans per user and does a great deal more. This page lays the two side by side, along with Dropbox Sign, PandaDoc and BoldSign, so you can tell quickly which one fits.
Every competitor figure below was read from that company's own pricing page on November 10, 2026. Prices change; follow the source link before you decide.
The short version
- Choose Lock & Quill if several people in a small business need to send agreements, you want a predictable bill, and standard electronic signatures are all you need.
- Choose DocuSign if you need identity verification, notarization, deep integrations with other business systems, or a vendor with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 attestations.
Pricing side by side
| Service | Charged | Entry paid plan | Team plan | Sending limits | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lock & Quill | Per workspace, users included | Pro: $29 a month or $290 a year, 5 users | Business: $79 a month or $790 a year, 25 users | Pro: 100 documents a month. Business: unlimited. No overage fees | 5 documents a month, 1 user |
| DocuSign | Per user | Personal: $11 a month on an annual commitment, single user | Standard $30 and Business Pro $45 per user a month on an annual commitment, up to 50 users | Personal: 5 envelopes a month. Standard and Business Pro: 100 envelopes per user per year; extra envelopes are billed pay-as-you-go | None listed |
| Dropbox Sign | Per user | Essentials: $15 a month on monthly billing, 1 user | Standard: $25 per user a month on monthly billing, 2 or more users | Unlimited signature requests on paid plans | Free plan offered |
| PandaDoc | Per seat | Starter: $19 per seat a month, billed annually | Business: $49 per seat a month, billed annually | Unlimited documents on paid plans | Free: 5 documents a month |
| BoldSign | Per user (Premium is flat) | Growth: $5 per user a month billed yearly, $15 billed monthly | Business: $15 per user a month billed yearly, $25 billed monthly | Growth: 50 envelopes per user a month. Business: unlimited envelopes | Essential: 25 envelopes a month, 1 user |
Competitor prices and limits as published on each vendor's pricing page, read November 10, 2026. Lock & Quill prices exclude sales tax.
What the difference means in practice
Per-user pricing is fair when one or two people send everything. It gets expensive when a whole office each needs to send the occasional form. At DocuSign's published Standard rate of $30 per user a month, five senders cost $150 a month, with an allowance of 100 envelopes per user per year. Lock & Quill Pro is $29 a month for up to 5 users sharing 100 documents a month, and Business is $79 a month for up to 25 users with no document limit.
Lock & Quill never bills overage. If a workspace reaches its monthly limit, sending pauses until the next month or until you change plan. Reminders, corrections, resends and voided documents do not count toward the limit.
What DocuSign and the others do better
Price is one part of the decision. Each of these services offers things we do not:
- DocuSign: Identity verification, remote online notary and 1,000+ integrations on higher plans; lists ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II.
- Dropbox Sign: SMS authentication, single sign-on, Dropbox, Google and Microsoft integrations; lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
- PandaDoc: A full document editor, quotes, CRM integrations and payment collection; lists SOC 2 Type II.
- BoldSign: An API, SMS and WhatsApp delivery and ID verification as add-ons; lists SOC 2 Type II, and HIPAA support on yearly Business and Premium plans.
Lock & Quill provides standard electronic signatures under the U.S. ESIGN Act and UETA. It does not offer certificate-based digital signatures, notarization, or identity verification by ID document, and it holds no SOC 2, HIPAA or ISO attestations today. If your work needs any of those, one of the services above is the better choice. Our Security page says exactly what we do and don't do.
What you get with Lock & Quill
- Upload a PDF and the signature, date and name lines are found for you; adjust by dragging and save the result as a template.
- Send to one signer or several, one after another or all at once.
- Signers sign in the browser from an emailed link. No account, no app.
- A sealed PDF with a certificate of completion: who signed, when, from which IP address and browser, and SHA-256 fingerprints of the original and the finished document.
- Anyone holding a finished PDF can check it at lockandquill.com/verify; the file is not uploaded.
- Fix a typo in a signer's email and it re-sends, with no voiding or re-uploading.
Questions
Is Lock & Quill cheaper than DocuSign?
For a team it usually is. As read on November 10, 2026, DocuSign Standard is $30 per user a month on an annual commitment, so five users is $150 a month. Lock & Quill Pro is $29 a month for up to 5 users. For one person who signs a handful of documents, DocuSign Personal at $11 a month and Lock & Quill Free at $0 are both inexpensive.
What does DocuSign do that Lock & Quill does not?
DocuSign offers identity verification, remote online notary, SMS delivery, a catalog of more than 1,000 integrations and APIs on its higher plans, and compliance programs including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II. Lock & Quill has none of those today.
Can I move from DocuSign to Lock & Quill?
Yes, for new documents. Create a free Lock & Quill workspace, upload the PDFs you send most often and save them as templates. Documents already completed in DocuSign stay valid; download them from DocuSign and keep them with their certificates.
Is there a free DocuSign alternative?
Lock & Quill has a Free plan with 5 documents a month for 1 user and no card required. Among the other services compared here, BoldSign and PandaDoc also listed free plans on November 10, 2026.
Start a free Lock & Quill workspace (no card needed), or read how it fits a small business.