Docusign eSignature vs Youtrust (Yousign)

Docusign eSignature

SES, AES and QES are each named as eIDAS levels and tied to commercial terms — SES in every plan, AES in advanced plans and add-ons, QES as an add-on — and the provider states it is itself a registered Qualified Trust Service Provider in Europe. Before I sign at QES I am still missing what the captured pages do not show: no link to the provider's entry on the EU Trust List, no per-country availability, no qualified seals, no ZertES, and no statement that the level appears in the signed document and its audit trail.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Simple, advanced and qualified signatures are each named as eIDAS levels, priced by plan (QES ab 10€/QES on Plus and Pro), mapped to document examples, and an electronic seal is offered as an add-on alongside a claim of recognition as a qualified trust service provider. What holds me back is that the captured pages never name the trust service provider issuing the qualified certificate with a link to its EU Trust List entry, state ZertES coverage, or show the signature level inside the signed document itself.

Docusign eSignature

Methods are named in depth — OTP, phone authentication, automatic validation of most government-issued identity documents, biometric liveness through video selfies, and AI-driven identity proofing for QES — with CLEAR and ID.me named as providers, an Identity Wallet that re-uses a verification for later signatures, and identity checks priced from ab 2,35 €/Ausweisüberprüfung. What I cannot establish is which method applies in which country at which level, and I found no public information on retention and deletion of ID data or on the identification provider being listed as a subprocessor.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Signers are authenticated by email or SMS one-time codes, and four named identification methods — image capture, video, face match, and an ANSSI-certified level combining automated facial recognition with human expert review — are tied to the advanced and qualified levels, with retention of ID data for ninety days stated in the privacy policy. We found no public information on which countries or ID documents each method accepts, or on who performs the identification as a named provider or listed subprocessor.

Docusign eSignature

The workflow evidence is broad: conditional fields, bulk sending, delegated signing, shared team templates, custom branding, mobile-optimised web forms with a no-code builder and embedding, documents routed to the right people in the right order, 44+ signing languages, and WCAG 2.0 Level AA listed as included. For the top level I found no public information on mixed signature levels within one process, in-person signing, or a published accessibility conformance statement.

Youtrust (Yousign)

Templates with fields, automatic reminders, approvers, custom branding, workspaces and a thoroughly documented bulk-send feature with per-plan monthly quotas and seven signer languages are all evidenced, and the audit trail distinguishes signatures made in person, via shared link and via emailed link. An accessibility declaration is offered among the legal documents; we found no public information on conditional fields or substitute signers.

Docusign eSignature

An audit trail is automatically generated and stored for every agreement, signatures rest on PKI with tamper-evident digital certificates, and a proof file compiles identity verification results for auditing. For a contract disputed eight years from now I found no public information on qualified timestamps, long-term validation (PAdES-LTV), a validation report or independent validation tool, or how long signed documents and their evidence are kept — only that personal data is held no longer than necessary for the purposes of processing.

Youtrust (Yousign)

A PDF audit trail is generated per signer recording authentication mode, consent and validation times, IP addresses and a document hash for integrity checks, backed by a timestamped evidence file for every signature, ten-year retention of signature evidence, and optional certified archiving through Arkhineo for ten years. The pages give no statement of long-term validation under PAdES, name no qualified timestamp provider, and state that audit trails cannot be downloaded in bulk across documents — so whether the proof still validates unaided in an eight-year dispute is not established.

Docusign eSignature

There is a developer centre with a free developer account, an industry-leading API from the Standard plan upward, embedding of forms into the customer's own application, and connectors across the Microsoft suite (Word, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Power Automate, Dynamics 365) plus Salesforce, NetSuite, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom and Stripe, with over a thousand partner integrations. I found no public information naming webhooks, SDKs, published rate limits, or API access to each signature level.

Youtrust (Yousign)

A webhook system with sandbox and production environments, a free 40-day sandbox with a developer centre, an API plan from 106 € excluding VAT per month, and HubSpot and Zapier connectors are publicly documented. We found no public information on a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace connector, SDKs, API versioning or rate limits, or confirmation that every signature level is reachable through the API.

Docusign eSignature

The controller is named as Docusign, Inc. and its affiliates with the San Francisco address, alongside a DocuSign International (EMEA) Ltd in Dublin and a Docusign France SAS for French users; personal data is 'likely' stored in infrastructure in Australia, the United States, the EU and Canada, with EU data centres across three unnamed countries and data residency available only by contacting sales. Registered European QTSP status, ISO 27001 and Binding Corporate Rules are real European elements, but I found no published subprocessor list and the default storage chain spans non-EU regions.

Youtrust (Yousign)

The contracting entity is Youtrust SAS of Caen with a German address in Berlin, hosting is stated to be exclusively within the EU with Amazon Web Services named through its French establishment in Courbevoie, and a data processing agreement and subprocessor list are offered as documents. Ownership is not evidenced, and standard contractual clauses covering transfers outside the EU are referenced without showing which processors that touches.

Docusign eSignature

Personal at 9 €/Monat (108 € jährlich abgerechnet), Standard at 23 €/Monat pro Nutzer with 100 envelopes per user per year, and Business Pro at 38 €/Monat pro Nutzer are public with billing period and limits, identity checks are priced ab 2,35 €/Ausweisüberprüfung, and the terms state overage fees and a cancellation notice of five business days before term end. QES is named as an add-on with no price shown, AES sits behind sales conversations, one captured page says to contact sales to add identity verification, and I found no public API pricing; the captured pages also give different figures on refunds, one showing a one-time 30-day option on the pricing page and the terms stating payments are non-refundable unless expressly provided.

Youtrust (Yousign)

All main plans are publicly priced with billing periods and request, template, workspace and bulk-send limits, the qualified signature is priced at ab 10€/QES, the API plan at ab 106 € exkl. MwSt. per month, automated forms at ab 10€ per month, and annual billing is stated as two months free. We found no public price for identification or verification services, no overage terms, no price for the Scale plan, and no contract term or notice period for subscriptions.