OpenSign
Open-source e-signature you can self-host, or use free in their cloud.
Jobs Sign
Operated by OpenSign Labs
Opens the vendor's own site.
Jobs covered
Open a task to see exactly what the vendor documentation supports.
Sign
Browse all sign toolsrunning a server-backed electronic signature workflow in OpenSign: uploading a PDF, adding recipients and signing fields/templates, configuring signing order or links, using typed/drawn/uploaded signatures, email one-time-code verification for guest signers, expiry/rejection settings, and downloading the completed document with an audit trail/completion certificate and P12 document sealing. The scope records document preparation and signature collection, not legal certification, signature-law compliance guarantees, PDF body editing, OCR, redaction, accessibility remediation or general PDF protection; self-hosted Docker and the vendor cloud are separate processing editions
Where your files are processed
Mixed - depends on version and feature
The vendor's own documentation separates them. On the device: The Docker deployment. On their servers: The free hosted version, The hosted API. A single answer for the whole product would be wrong for one of them.
Signing is server-backed rather than browser-performed. The self-hosted Docker deployment runs on the customer's own infrastructure and keeps document data there; the hosted web/API editions run on OpenSign's cloud.
This is not an all-local claim, and the cloud storage location is not established by the pages read. The main-branch docker-compose has data/document volumes for ordinary restart persistence, which is a configuration reading rather than a durability or backup test.
Product-level data residency is unknown because the vendor cloud location is not established; the self-hosted edition's data remains on the customer's infrastructure, but that is an edition-specific fact, not a cloud-location claim.
What it does
OpenSign is an open-source e-signature platform built as a free alternative to DocuSign. It covers multi-signer workflows, signing links and order, reusable templates, typed/drawn/uploaded signatures, emailed one-time-code verification for guest signers, document expiry/rejection, audit trails with completion certificates, P12 document sealing and an API.
The current GitHub release is v2.41.3 (21 August 2026), licensed AGPL-3 with limited carve-outs. You can use the vendor's hosted cloud version free or deploy the same platform yourself with Docker; self-hosting is the main reason to choose it over a commercial signer.
Signing is a server-backed workflow, not an in-browser PDF operation, and it prepares and collects signatures rather than editing, OCRing, redacting or restructuring the PDF's content.
Best for
Teams that want e-signature they can self-host and audit, or budget-conscious users who need a lot of signing without a per-user bill.
Worth knowing
Self-hosting is real work: the current main-branch docker-compose mounts a data volume at /data/db and a separate named volume for document files, which indicates persistence across ordinary restarts. That is a configuration reading, not a durability or backup test, and deleting the volumes is a different operation; pin deployment guidance to a release or commit rather than a moving branch.
Plan details, file limits and cloud storage location are not established from the pages read; the site advertises unlimited free signing, but paid plans/advanced features exist and no price is published in readable form here. The free and paid self-hosted editions differ: the official API token guidance says free self-hosted installations require a paid plan for API access, so not every feature is available in the community edition.
The AGPL-3 licence and carve-outs matter for redistribution. Residency is edition-specific: self-hosted data stays on your infrastructure, while the vendor cloud's location is not verified.
Signing certificates, audit trails and completion certificates are workflow/technical evidence, not a legal-certification guarantee; signature validity depends on jurisdiction, configuration and the parties' process, and no legal advice is given. OpenSign does not edit PDF content, OCR, redact, remediate accessibility or provide general PDF protection.
Details, and where each comes from
Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.
- Versions covered
- Web · API · Self-hosted
- Website
- opensignlabs.com
- Requires an account
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
- Watermark on the free tier
- Not verified
- Maximum file size
- Not verified
- Batch processing
- Not verified
- Data residency
- Not verified
- Open source
- Yes
- Self-hostable
- Yes
- Licence
-
AGPL-3.0 with repository carve-outs: content under...
AGPL-3.0 with repository carve-outs: content under apps/OpenSignServer/cloud/customRoute, if present, has its own licence, and third-party components retain their original licences; the rest is GNU Affero GPL. The GitHub API reports NOASSERTION because of those carve-outs, but the LICENSE file and README identify AGPL-3.
The project is open source/self-hostable; hosted plans or advanced features may be paid, and the free hosted/self-hosted tiers are documented as unlimited for signing.
- Redaction
- No redaction feature
- Programmatic access
- HTTP API
- Last availability check
- Responded in 196 ms 21 October 2026
Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.
What the redaction verdict rests on
From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.
What that does not establish
The vendor’s own site was read on 22 September 2026 and contains no mention of redaction, sanitisation, blackout or whiteout. Absence from a vendor’s own material is not proof that a feature does not exist - it may be undocumented, or on a page the reading did not reach - but for a NEGATIVE claim it is the strongest evidence available, and it is weaker than a positive quote.
Recorded as such rather than presented as certainty.
What the vendor says
Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded - not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.
-
“The free and open source alternative to DocuSign”
Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026
Confirmed verbatim: the line appears unaltered as the repository's own description, and the README repeats the positioning twice more - "the premier open source document signing solution (DocuSign alternative)" and a longer welcome paragraph naming DocuSign, PandaDoc, SignNow, Adobe Sign, HelloSign and others as the commercial platforms it is an alternative to. Two notes.
The claim is a positioning statement rather than a capability, so what it establishes is the vendor's own framing; and naming a competitor is a claim about that competitor's pricing and licensing as much as about OpenSign, which this page does not address. There is a genuine conflict of framing worth flagging: OpenSign describes itself as free and open source, while DocuSign's own entry in this index records a paid, tiered product - the comparison is directionally fair but the page provides no side-by-side terms.
Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- 424074d2d250ed631baa97b323fc3177d580d250a6d43ef66be9fa92e5bef0f3
How we checked
Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://github.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-github-com-OpenSignLabs-OpenSign-d155fff0.txt.
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“Now sign unlimited documents even on the cloud hosted free version of OpenSign”
Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026
Confirmed verbatim: the sentence appears unaltered in the README's feature list, with the caveat that it is the tail of a longer bullet - "Secure PDF E-Signing: With the help of robust encryption algorithms, OpenSign™ ensures maximum security, privacy & compatibility. Now sign unlimited documents even on the cloud hosted free version of OpenSign." So the claim is real and it is scoped to the cloud-hosted free tier, which is the part a reader is choosing between.
"Unlimited documents" sits against a market where the free tiers of this index are anything but: PandaDoc's free plan allows 60 documents a year and 2 recipients each, verified in the same batch. The two facts are worth reading together, and neither vendor's page makes the comparison.
No account was created and no control was run.
Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- 424074d2d250ed631baa97b323fc3177d580d250a6d43ef66be9fa92e5bef0f3
How we checked
Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://github.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-github-com-OpenSignLabs-OpenSign-d155fff0.txt.
Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked - it is not a judgement about anyone.
Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.
Related reading
- Open source PDF tools, and what their licences require - what open source does and does not tell you.