Free electronic signatures in the UK
There are genuinely free ways to get a document signed, and for some documents they are perfectly adequate. The question is not whether free works. It is what you lose, and whether that matters for the document in front of you.
What free usually means
- A monthly allowance, commonly three to five documents, after which you are asked to pay.
- Their branding, not yours, on the emails your client receives.
- A limited audit trail. Often a basic timestamp rather than IP address, device, open history and consent.
- No API, so nothing can be automated.
- Sometimes, your data as the product. Worth reading the privacy notice, particularly on free tools hosted outside the UK.
When free is genuinely fine
An internal sign-off. A low-value acknowledgement. Something you would happily settle with a phone call if it were ever questioned. If the document has no real money or liability attached, the audit trail is not doing much work and free is a sensible choice.
When it will cost you
The moment the document could be disputed. A quote acceptance, a variation, a tenancy, a subcontractor agreement, a guarantee. In those cases the signature is not the valuable part: the evidence behind it is. If your platform cannot show who signed, from where, on what device, at what moment, and that nothing has changed since, you are relying on the other side not to argue.
A useful test: if this went to a dispute in two years, what could I put in front of someone? A PDF with a signature image on it is a weak answer. A PDF with a certificate recording IP, device, timestamps, open history and explicit consent, in a tamper-evident chain, is a strong one.
The middle ground
Free for the trivial, paid for the consequential, is a perfectly reasonable policy. The awkward part is that per-user subscriptions make that expensive: you are buying a licence at £10 to £25 a month for the handful of documents that genuinely need the evidence.
Paying per document sidesteps that. At £1.19 you can afford to use it only where it matters, and pay nothing in the months you do not.
Watch where free tools are hosted
If your document contains a client's name, address, or anything else identifying them, you are their data processor's customer, and UK GDPR applies. Check where the files are stored, how long for, and what the provider does with them. A free tool hosted outside the UK with a vague privacy notice is a risk you are taking on your client's behalf, not just your own.
General information, not legal advice. GetSigning is not a law firm. If a document matters, take proper advice on it.
£1.19 a document. No subscription.
Three documents free, then £1.19 each. Full audit trail on every one, including the free ones.
Start with 3 free documents