signNow is a cloud-based document and eSignature management platform that simplifies the signing of documents, contracts, and forms online. In addition, signNow can boast l workflow automation, document generation, and contract management tools.
signNow is a part of airSlate's suite of digital solutions. airSlate, an all-in-one no-code document workflow solution, offers a comprehensive range of document management and automation features. Many of these functions overlap with signNow – however, we want to stress that signNow and airSlate are two separate products.
With that said, in this review, we’ll examine signNow's core features, pricing, and how to implement this platform. That's a fair amount to cover, so let's jump into this signNow review!
signNow Review: signNow's Core Features
Your signNow account comes with a dashboard. From here, you can view, manage, and edit all your documents from one localized point. You can also oversee your workflows and key metrics at a glance.
Now that we've covered the basics, let's turn our attention to the nitty-gritty of what signNow has to offer:
Document Management
As we've alluded to, one of signNow's most standout features is its eSignature functionality. signNow makes it easy for you to create and send documents for signature, as well as store them securely in the cloud. It enables you to transform PDFs (and other docs) with drag-and-drop fillable fields, including the ability for recipients to e-sign your doc. But, it’s not only fillable signature boxes you can add. You can insert the fields that enable the signer to add their initials and dates, as well as create drop-down menus, add checkboxes, and number fields.
Fillable fields can be assigned to the end-user with a custom message instructing them on how to fill out the document. In addition, for PDFs, you can annotate, highlight, and add images to any part of your document. You can also blackout sensitive information if needed.
You can create brand-new documents and contract templates using signNow's drag-and-drop editor. You can then populate them by importing data from any record you upload – no coding is needed. For instance, if you have a spreadsheet with customer orders, you can import this information directly into an invoice document to save you from manually adding these details.
You can configure email reminders for each signatory, along with an expiration date. For instance, you and the signatories will get an email update when everyone has signed the document. You can also receive notifications when people make changes to the document. signNow's Audit Trail can be helpful if you and the document’s recipients require a detailed log of who viewed and signed the document and when.
All signatures are secured with a two-step authentication. Users can sign documents from any device by drawing, uploading their signature, or typing it into the necessary field.
Payments
signNow is an excellent choice for businesses that want to be able to collect payments from their contracts, invoices, or quotes.
signNow allows you to add automated payment collection into your document workflows. This means that when a customer signs one of your documents, they’re automatically brought to the payment gateway of your choice.
Payments are PSI-DSS compliant, and every transaction is documented and searchable for future audits.
Moreover, you view your transaction analytics from your dashboard (more about this below).
Contract Management
When it comes to contract negotiation and management, there's usually a fair amount of back and forth between you and a third party before the contract is finalized..
Luckily, signNow makes it easier for you to create and manage various contracts, including:
- Invoice
- Sales contracts
- Procurement documents
- Employee contracts
- Orders
…to name a few!
You can also automate data collection within your documents and contracts. For instance, let’s say you’re negotiating a new supply order. You can create an initial procurement document using the client’s data records. Or you can send the recipient a fillable document for them to complete that specifies the details you need. Then, once you’ve signed the documents, you can send an automated email requesting further signatures. Followed by an automated invoice once all the necessary parties have signed the contract.
On top of that, every interaction between you and your clients is archived and instantly retrievable. This means you can access each agreement version to closely monitor how contract negotiations and modifications are progressing.
Surveys and Web Forms
signNow also enables you to collect customer information via the following document types:
- Surveys
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Web-based feedback forms
You can create surveys from scratch using signNow’s drag-and-drop editor, including condition-based forms and surveys that respond to the data a user enters. In addition, signNow supports IF, AND, and OR logic to enable you to customize what happens once a user enters a response in one of the fields.
For example, if a user says they’re happy with your service, you could ask what features they enjoy. Whereas, if they say they’re unhappy, this could trigger the survey to ask them to explain what they think you could do better. As you can see, by using logic-based surveys, you ensure that you only display fields that apply to the specific customer in question.
Automation
As we’ve already hinted, the back and forth of emailing various documents between you and your clients isn’t just time-consuming and uneconomical; it also leaves room for error.
This is where signNow’s automation comes in handy. You can create unlimited workflows for all of your docs.
Here’s an example of the kind of automated workflow you may wish to set up: You can automatically send an invoice as soon as a customer has signed an agreement with you.
Similarly, you can use automated workflows to generate forms, collect signatures, accept payments, assign roles and assignments to employees, etc. For example, with the latter, let’s say you have an invoice team; using automated workflows, you can ensure invoices and invoice-related documents are automatically sent to them.
You can also integrate your workflows with your existing tech stack, including software like GSuite, Office 365, Salesforce, etc. With the latter, you can automatically update customer records inside your CRM whenever customers enter their details into one of your signNow forms or documents.
Analytics
signNow offers real-time analytical data on the status of your documents. For instance, how many documents were successfully processed, the time it took to collect signatures, the number of emails opened, etc.
You can configure your dashboard to track critical data. For instance, the number of contracts signed and payments received. You can also monitor customizable metrics for each stage in your workflow (i.e., document creation, signature collection, and archiving).
On top of that, there are hundreds of report templates to choose from that you can integrate with multiple live data sources. That way, you know the information you’re looking at is always up to date.
Example report templates include:
- Expenditure, payment, and revenue reports
- Contracts, procurement, and invoice workflows
- Employee onboarding (contract generation, signed contracts, leave requests, etc.)
You can see changes and inputs to documents made by individual team members, administrators, and business partners. You can even generate reports detailing the exact timeline of the signing process – including who signed, when they signed, and what changes were made throughout the process. Every change is documented, so rest assured you can use this report for compliance and auditing purposes.
Lastly, you can export these reports as PDFs, CSVs, or XLS files and share them via SMS, email, and QR code.
signNow Review: Integrations
signNow boasts a decent range of native integrations to help you pool multiple data sources into one localized place. The most popular integrations include apps for cloud storage, CRM (customer relationship management), document management, security, and productivity:
To give you a taste of what’s on offer, we’ve listed a few available integrations below:
- Document management – Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Sheets
- CRM – Hubspot, Zoho, and Salesforce
- Cloud storage – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive
- Productivity – Zapier, Slack, Workplace
- Security – 1Password
But, there are more than 100 different integrations available!
signNow Review: Customer Service
Although signNow is relatively simple to use, there’s a wide variety of resources and documentation on signNow’s website to help you get started.
These include:
- The help center – you’ll find info for all signNow’s features, integrations, and pricing.
- FAQs
- Academy – here, you can access free courses and certifications on workflows, document management, and much more.
- Blog
Should you have questions you can't find the answers to or need technical support, you can also contact the signNow team via live chat or their contact form. Their team is available 24/7.
Phone support is also unlocked with signNow’s most expensive pricing tier.
signNow Review: Pricing
Four pricing plans are available; all provide monthly or yearly billing options. With the latter, you can benefit from up to a 60% discount. We'll provide the price for monthly billing below.
It's also worth noting that signNow comes with a seven-day free trial. If you choose monthly billing, your plan will automatically renew at the end of each period (the same applies to yearly billing). If you don’t want to continue your plan, you can cancel before the next billing period.
All plans include live chat customer support. You can learn more about signNow pricing compared to other eSignature apps.
Business – $8 per user, per month
The Business plan is designed for small companies needing relatively simple document management services.
It includes:
- Document generation
- Fillable PDF fields
- eSignature capabilities
- You can create unlimited report templates
- Access cloud storage integrations, including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and other popular providers
- Document version control – i.e., you can see each version of the document, who signed, and when
- Mobile compatibility
- You can send notifications and reminders to signatories.
Business Premium – $15 per user, per month
The next plan up offers the best value for money and includes everything you'll find in the Business plan, plus:
- Conditional document settings- i.e., for surveys, web forms, and questionnaires, you can use ‘and,’ ‘or,’ and ‘if’ operators to customize what users see based on their responses.
- Send in Bulk – you can send signature requests to multiple parties in one go.
- Signing link invites – no email is needed for signature collection; you can just send a link to the document for the recipient to sign
- Document groups – you can organize documents by group affiliation, I.e., company, department, etc.
Enterprise – $30 per user, per month
The Enterprise plan provides organizations with everything they need to manage more complicated workflows. It includes everything in the above plans and:
- Payment request options
- Advanced security protection – documents are automatically scanned for threats and malicious content when uploaded.
- Advanced conditional workflows- for instance, you can route documents to multiple parties based on signing orders.
- Personalized document and dashboard branding
Business Cloud – $50 per user, per month
The Business Cloud plan offers everything in the above plans and the use of airSlate cloud features, such as:
- CRM and sales integrations
- HIPAA and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance – this includes audit trails, two-factor authentication, and medical record grade security
- Phone support
- Personalized integration support – the signNow team will help you integrate with your existing tech stack.
signNow Review: FAQs
Before wrapping up this signNow review, we’ll endeavor to answer some of the most frequently asked questions concerning the platforms:
How do I set up a signNow account and sign an eSign document?
It’s relatively simple to create a signNow account. First, if you visit the signNow website, you’ll be able to start a seven-day free trial by selecting the ‘Free trial’ button in the top-right corner of the homepage. Next, you can use your Google, Facebook, or email account to register. Once you’ve entered your details, you’ll be directed to the dashboard. From there, it’s simple to start editing and creating documents:
- Select ‘Upload or Create ’ from the homepage and find the appropriate file. Or drag a document into the browser to upload it.
- In the left sidebar, select the ‘My Signature’ icon.
- Select the area on the document where you wish to create a fillable field to add your signature.
- You can create a new signature by drawing, uploading an image, or using the type signature option.
- Once the document has been signed, click ‘Save and Close’ to go back to the dashboard.
- Alternatively, you can click ‘Invite to Sign' to send out your document for signing to a third party. You can now invite others to sign the document or share it.
What documents does signNow support?
In addition to PDFs and doc/docx management, signNow also supports 14 other formats, including:
- .ppt
- .rtf
- .png
- .tif
- .tiff
- .jpg
- .jpeg
Is there a browser extension for signNow?
Yes, you can download a Chrome extension by visiting the Chrome web store and searching for signNow:
- Once the extension is installed, log into your signNow account.
- Now, you can select any document from the browser by right-clicking ‘Open in signNow.’
- It will open the document in your signNow dashboard, and you can edit it as needed.
signNow Review: Our Final Verdict
Overall, we think signNow is the perfect solution for businesses and individuals who need a clear and structured way to manage their documents. With automated workflows, it’s easy to speed up the process of negotiating contracts, sending invoices, and obtaining signatures.
However, we can’t help but notice that most of signNow’s workflow features are only available on the upper-tier plans. These plans are excellent for large and enterprise-size businesses, but smaller companies might be intimidated by the price.
While the Business and Business Premium plans provide eSignatures and email reminder functionality, you don’t have as much control over automation. For instance, you can collect signatures but can't automate what happens after they’re collected beyond notifying recipients. In contrast, with the higher tier plans, you can also automate payment collection after a document is signed.
For this reason, unless you’re looking to use signNow for creating documents, as opposed to workflow management – the lower-tier plans are somewhat lacking.
That said, the Enterprise plan is relatively cost-effective for what it includes. Let's compare signNow to other workflow managers like Monday.com. You’ll see that they don’t offer the same degree of document control. Similarly, software for document management, such as DocuSign, doesn’t provide the same degree of customization as signNow. For instance, you can’t assign users to the signature field, create roles for different documents, or ask for payments unless you’re on their top-tier plan, which costs more than signNow.
In short, signNow offers a lot for its price compared to its competitors. So, it would be a worthwhile investment if you need comprehensive document and workflow management and can afford steeper plans.
That’s all for this signNow review, folks, over to you. What do you think about signNow? Tell us your thoughts in the comments box below!
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