Docusign eSignature vs Youtrust (Yousign)

Docusign eSignature

All three eIDAS levels are named and placed in the plan structure — SES included in every plan, AES in advanced plans, QES as an add-on — and Docusign names itself a registered Qualified Trust Service Provider in Europe, with QES described as the legal equivalent of a handwritten signature in the EU. That covers my fixed-term contracts' written-form need at the level of naming. I found no public information on the EU Trust List entry, qualified electronic seals, ZertES, per-country availability, or the signature level being shown in the signed document and audit trail.

Youtrust (Yousign)

All three eIDAS levels are named, priced and mapped to document types, with employment contracts listed under the advanced level and the qualified signature sold from €10 per use on the Plus and Pro plans. Recognition as a qualified trust service provider is claimed and an electronic seal add-on exists, but I found no public information naming the trust service provider's EU Trust List entry, the countries each level is available in, or the signature level shown in the signed document.

Docusign eSignature

Methods are listed by name: one-time passwords, phone authentication, automatic validation of most government-issued identity documents, video-selfie liveness with randomized facial movements, AI-driven identity proofing that lets a signer complete QES identification in minutes, CLEAR or ID.me accounts, and an identity wallet that reuses a completed check for later signatures. For my applicants the open question is which countries' IDs actually pass — no country or document list is published — and I found no public information on a named identification provider, automated versus agent-based identification, or retention and deletion of ID data beyond the general privacy policy.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Identification methods are listed by name and level, from SMS one-time password for advanced up to video capture, biometric face match and an ANSSI-certified option stated as legally equivalent to in-person checking with human expert review, and ninety-day retention of ID data is committed in the privacy policy. I found no public information on which countries' or which ID documents the checks accept, or on who performs the identification, which is exactly what I need to know before sending contracts to applicants.

Docusign eSignature

Bulk send to multiple recipients at once, reusable and team-shared templates, delegated signing, mobile-optimised web forms with conditional logic and custom envelope fields, custom branding, 44+ signing languages, WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and no-code workflow automation — with HR recruiting and employee onboarding named as a use case. This is the ten-minutes-on-a-phone experience I need. I found no public information on signing without an account or on a published accessibility conformance statement beyond the WCAG line on the pricing page.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Bulk sending from a CSV against a template is documented in depth, with per-signer columns, seven signer languages, per-plan quotas and per-request tracking, plus approvers and followers, automatic reminders, custom branding, and in-person or link signing contexts; an accessibility statement is listed among the published legal documents. I found no public information on conditional fields, signing order or delegation to substitute signers.

Docusign eSignature

Every agreement automatically generates and stores a robust audit trail, identity verification results compile into a secure proof file, and AES carries tamper-evident PKI-based digital certificates. What the pages leave undescribed is what the audit trail records, whether qualified timestamps or long-term validation such as PAdES-LTV apply, how long documents and evidence are kept, and whether they can be exported with evidence intact — exactly what I need to prove a signature on a disputed fixed-term contract years later.

Youtrust (Yousign)

The audit trail is a PDF per signer recording sender and signer details, authentication mode, IP, consent and validation times plus a document hash for integrity, evidence is kept ten years, and an optional certified archiver (Arkhineo) adds a ten-year digital safe with a dual-location option. The vendor states the audit trail cannot form part of the signed document and that a bulk download of audit trails across documents is not possible, and I found no public information on long-term validation or qualified timestamps.

Docusign eSignature

A developer centre with a free developer account and API overview, web forms that embed into our own applications with API pre-population, cloud storage on every plan (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box), workspace apps such as Slack, Teams, Zoom and Stripe, and a Microsoft suite — Outlook, Word, Teams, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Power Automate — each described with its scope, plus an App Center with 1,000+ partner integrations. Salesforce, Dynamics and NetSuite connectors come only via sales. I found no public information on webhooks, SDKs, published rate limits, API access to qualified signatures, or a named HR system connector.

Youtrust (Yousign)

There is a documented API with detailed webhook events across signature requests, signers and contacts, sandbox and production environments, a free forty-day development account and a developer centre, plus a priced API plan from €106 excluding VAT per month, and HubSpot and Zapier connectors with contact sync are named. I found no public information on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace connectors, SDKs or connectors for named HR systems, which is the integration that matters for my contract volume.

Docusign eSignature

European elements are proven: a registered European QTSP with data centres across three EU countries, an EMEA entity in Dublin for privacy matters, and a French controller entity. Against that, the privacy policy says personal data will likely be stored in infrastructure in Australia, the United States, the European Union and/or Canada, transfers to 21 countries are listed with binding corporate rules moving data out of the EEA, and data residency is listed as not included in the published plans, available only by contacting sales. We found no public information on ownership, the hosting or subprocessor chain, or where signer ID data is stored.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Youtrust SAS of Caen, France is published with registry number, share capital and VAT ID, hosting is stated as exclusively within the EU with the host named as Amazon Web Services' French establishment in Courbevoie, and a DPA and subprocessor list are among the published documents, with standard contractual clauses for any transfers outside the EU. Ownership is not confirmed on the captured pages and the hosting parent is US-headquartered, so the chain is European but not proven end to end.

Docusign eSignature

The main plans are public with billing period and limits: Personal at 9 €/month with 5 envelopes per month, Standard at 23 €/month per user with 100 envelopes per user per year, Business Pro at 38 €/month per user, an ID check at "Ab 2,35 €/Ausweisüberprüfung", a five-business-day cancellation notice before renewal, and no-refund terms. What I cannot compute is my real cost: QES is only "available as an add-on to eSignature plans" with no price, the identity-verification page says "Contact sales to add identity verification to your plan", AES sits in advanced plans without public prices, and overage fees are mentioned but not quantified.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Every main plan is priced publicly with billing period and limits, including Free at €0 with two requests a month, One at 9 € net monthly with ten requests, Plus at 23 € and Pro at 38 € per license with unlimited requests, annual billing giving two months free, qualified signatures from €10 each, the forms add-on from €10 a month, and bulk-send quotas per plan. I found no public information on identification or verification fees, overage charges or the Scale plan price, so the fully-loaded cost of one qualified hire signature cannot be computed from public pages alone.