Docusign eSignature vs Youtrust (Yousign)

Docusign eSignature

All three eIDAS levels are documented by name — simple signatures included on every plan, advanced in higher plans, qualified as an add-on to eSignature plans — and Docusign names itself as a registered qualified trust service provider in Europe whose tamper-proof certificates accompany every advanced signature. The pages fall short of the top level: we found no public information on the EU Trust List entry link, qualified electronic seals, per-level country availability, or the signature level shown in the finished document and audit trail.

Youtrust (Yousign)

All three eIDAS levels are named and tied to plans — simple requests tiered from two per month on Free, advanced unlimited from Plus, and qualified signatures from €10 per qualified signature as an add-on on Plus and Pro — and the vendor states it is recognised as a qualified trust service provider. We found no public information on which countries each qualified level covers, a link to an EU Trust List entry, ZertES, or the signature level being shown inside the signed document and its audit trail.

Docusign eSignature

The Identify portfolio documents its methods by name — one-time passcodes, phone authentication, automatic validation of government ID documents, biometric liveness via video selfies, and CLEAR or ID.me accounts for IAL2 — plus an identity wallet that reuses a completed verification on later agreements and a proof file compiling the results, with ID checks priced from 2.35 € each. We found no public information on country coverage per method, on retention and deletion of the ID data, or on the identification provider appearing as a named subprocessor.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Authentication is documented per mode — email code, SMS code or no code, recorded in the audit trail — alongside four named identification tiers (image, video, face match, and a certified tier with automated facial recognition plus human expert review, described as ANSSI-certified and legally equivalent to in-person verification), with ID data retained for 90 days. We found no public information on accepted countries or ID documents, the identification provider behind each tier, or reuse of an identification for later signatures.

Docusign eSignature

Bulk send, delegated signing, mobile-optimised web forms with conditional logic and drag-and-drop building, custom branding, eWitness, 44+ signing languages and WCAG 2.0 Level AA in the plan comparison cover most of the advanced workflow range, with shared team templates and the no-code Workflow Builder on top. We found no public information on signer roles, parallel and sequential signing order, automatic reminders, or in-person signing.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Templates, automatic reminders, real-time tracking, approvers and followers, per-plan branding, seven signer languages and a thoroughly documented CSV bulk send are all on the page, and the audit trail distinguishes signing in person, by shared link and by email. We found no public information on signing order, conditional fields or substitute signers, and the accessibility statement is listed among the legal documents without its contents shown.

Docusign eSignature

An audit trail is automatically generated and stored for every agreement, signatures carry tamper-evident PKI certificates, and identity checks compile into a proof file. This is the weak point for our archive requirement: we found no public information on the audit trail's contents and timestamps, long-term validation, a retention period for signed documents and their evidence, or bulk export with the evidence intact into a DMS.

Youtrust (Yousign)

An audit-trail PDF is generated per signer with hash-based integrity verification, the authentication mode and the signature context; the evidence file is timestamped, signature evidence is retained for ten years, and a certified third-party archiver (Arkhineo) offers ten-year dual-location archiving as an add-on. The help centre states that audit trails cannot all be downloaded at once, and we found no public information on PAdES long-term validation or qualified timestamps from a named provider.

Docusign eSignature

A Developer Centre with an API overview and a free developer account, forms embeddable into our own applications with our branding, API pre-population of fields, and named connectors with described scope — SharePoint send-sign-store with list data synchronised back, Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Salesforce, Outlook, Word, Teams and Power Automate — plus an App Center of 1000+ integrations give us a genuine embedding story. But we found no public information on webhooks, API versioning, published rate limits, SDKs, or whether qualified signatures can be triggered through the API rather than only the web app, and API plans are named with no prices attached.

Youtrust (Yousign)

The core I build on is there: a free 40-day sandbox in a dedicated development environment with paid-plan features, webhook events for every signature-request and signer state with a sandbox-to-production switch and tracking interface, a Developer Center, embedded signing via a shareable link, and an API plan from €106 excluding VAT per month. We found no public information on API versioning, published rate limits, SDKs, connectors beyond Zapier and HubSpot, or whether every signature level including qualified is reachable through the API rather than only the web app.

Docusign eSignature

European elements are proven: a Dublin EMEA entity for privacy matters, data centres across three EU countries, registration as a European qualified trust service provider, and ISO 27001. However the contracting controller is Docusign, Inc. of San Francisco, personal data is stored in infrastructure that may span Australia, the United States, the EU and Canada, data residency is offered only through a sales contact, and we found no public information on ownership or the subprocessor chain.

Youtrust (Yousign)

The contracting entity is proven European — Youtrust SAS of Caen with registry number, VAT number and share capital published — with EU hosting stated as standard, a data processing agreement and subprocessor list offered, and standard contractual clauses for any transfers. The named host is the French establishment of a US-headquartered cloud provider, and we found no public information on ownership, the contents of the subprocessor list, or ISO 27001-type certifications.

Docusign eSignature

The three main plans are fully priced with billing period and limits — Personal 9 €/month with 5 envelopes per month, Standard 23 €/month per user with 100 envelopes per user and year, Business Pro 38 €/month per user — plus identity checks from 2.35 € per ID check, overage fees, and auto-renewal with five business days' notice and no-refund terms in the published conditions. We found no published price for the qualified signature add-on or the API plans, and identity verification on its own product page sits behind a sales contact, so the cost of a qualified-signature volume is not computable from these pages.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Every main plan is priced publicly with billing periods, request limits, templates, workspaces and mass-send quotas per plan, and the qualified signature is priced at from €10 per qualified signature with the API plan at from €106 excluding VAT per month. The Scale plan is presented as a customised, volume-based offer, and we found no public information on identification or verify fees, the archiving add-on price, or overage terms.