{
  "slug": "docusign-to-documenso",
  "title": "Docusign Standard to self-hosted Documenso",
  "summary": "Docusign is expensive per seat and Documenso is a direct answer, but the legal-evidence story is where the real comparison lives.",
  "publishable": true,
  "block_reason": null,
  "freshness": {
    "state": "fresh",
    "publishable": true,
    "oldest_input_days": 46.5,
    "problems": []
  },
  "incumbent": {
    "vendor": "Docusign",
    "vendor_id": "docusign",
    "plan": "Standard",
    "plan_id": "standard",
    "amount": 30,
    "period": "month",
    "per_seat": true,
    "billed": "annual",
    "seats": 3,
    "quote": "Standard ... $ 30 /user/month Annual ... This is an annual commitment of $360.",
    "caveat": null,
    "source_url": "https://www.docusign.com/products-and-pricing",
    "verified_at": "2026-10-19",
    "needs_reverification": false
  },
  "alternative": {
    "name": "Documenso (self-hosted)",
    "repo": "documenso/documenso",
    "project": {
      "full_name": "documenso/documenso",
      "url": "https://github.com/documenso/documenso",
      "homepage": "https://documenso.com",
      "description": "The Open Source DocuSign Alternative.",
      "stars": 15468,
      "forks": 3371,
      "open_issues": 211,
      "license": "AGPL-3.0",
      "archived": false,
      "pushed_at": "2026-10-19T10:08:13Z",
      "days_since_push": 0,
      "latest_release": {
        "tag": "v2.21.0",
        "published_at": "2026-10-19T01:25:42Z",
        "url": "https://github.com/documenso/documenso/releases/tag/v2.21.0"
      },
      "days_since_release": 0,
      "health": "active",
      "recommended": true,
      "verified_at": "2026-10-19T10:53:49.788Z"
    },
    "box": {
      "provider": "Vultr",
      "name": "vc2-2c-4gb",
      "id": "vultr:vc2-2c-4gb",
      "vcpu": 2,
      "ram_gb": 4,
      "disk_gb": 80,
      "bandwidth_tb": 3,
      "monthly_usd": 20,
      "url": "https://www.vultr.com/pricing/",
      "verified_at": "2026-10-19T10:53:42.716Z"
    },
    "storage": {
      "id": "backblaze-b2",
      "name": "Backblaze B2",
      "usd_per_gb_month": 0.00695,
      "egress": "free up to 3x stored volume per month, then $0.01/GB",
      "pricing_url": "https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/pricing",
      "quote": "the amount of data stored per byte-hour over the last month at a rate of $6.95/TB/30-day",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-03",
      "verified_by": "human",
      "affiliate": true,
      "gb": 40,
      "monthly_usd": 0.28
    },
    "requirements": {
      "ram_gb": 4,
      "vcpu": 2,
      "disk_gb": 30
    },
    "box_alternatives": [
      {
        "provider": "Vultr",
        "name": "vc2-2c-4gb",
        "monthly_usd": 20,
        "vcpu": 2,
        "ram_gb": 4,
        "disk_gb": 80,
        "url": "https://www.vultr.com/pricing/",
        "chosen": true
      },
      {
        "provider": "Linode",
        "name": "Linode 4GB",
        "monthly_usd": 24,
        "vcpu": 2,
        "ram_gb": 4,
        "disk_gb": 80,
        "url": "https://www.linode.com/pricing/",
        "chosen": false
      },
      {
        "provider": "DigitalOcean",
        "name": "2 vCPU · 4 GB",
        "monthly_usd": 24,
        "vcpu": 2,
        "ram_gb": 4,
        "disk_gb": 80,
        "url": "https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets",
        "chosen": false
      }
    ],
    "migration_hours": 8,
    "maintenance_hours_per_month": 0.75
  },
  "result": {
    "computable": true,
    "inputs": {
      "seats": 3,
      "horizon_months": 36,
      "hourly_rate": 50
    },
    "incumbent": {
      "cash_monthly": 90,
      "time_monthly": 0,
      "monthly": 90,
      "one_time": 0,
      "annual": 1080
    },
    "alternative": {
      "cash_monthly": 20.28,
      "time_monthly": 37.5,
      "monthly": 57.78,
      "one_time": 400,
      "cash_one_time": 0,
      "time_one_time": 400,
      "annual": 693.34
    },
    "delta": {
      "monthly": 32.22,
      "upfront_to_switch": 400,
      "annual": 386.66
    },
    "break_even_month": 13,
    "break_even_hourly_rate": 71.71,
    "totals": {
      "at_12_months": {
        "incumbent": 1080,
        "alternative": 1093.34
      },
      "at_36_months": {
        "incumbent": 3240,
        "alternative": 2480.01
      },
      "at_horizon": {
        "incumbent": 3240,
        "alternative": 2480.01
      }
    },
    "savings": {
      "year_1": -13.34,
      "year_3": 759.99,
      "at_horizon": 759.99
    },
    "verdict": "switch"
  },
  "managed": null,
  "curve": [
    {
      "month": 0,
      "incumbent": 0,
      "alternative": 400
    },
    {
      "month": 1,
      "incumbent": 90,
      "alternative": 457.78
    },
    {
      "month": 2,
      "incumbent": 180,
      "alternative": 515.56
    },
    {
      "month": 3,
      "incumbent": 270,
      "alternative": 573.34
    },
    {
      "month": 4,
      "incumbent": 360,
      "alternative": 631.12
    },
    {
      "month": 5,
      "incumbent": 450,
      "alternative": 688.9
    },
    {
      "month": 6,
      "incumbent": 540,
      "alternative": 746.68
    },
    {
      "month": 7,
      "incumbent": 630,
      "alternative": 804.46
    },
    {
      "month": 8,
      "incumbent": 720,
      "alternative": 862.24
    },
    {
      "month": 9,
      "incumbent": 810,
      "alternative": 920.02
    },
    {
      "month": 10,
      "incumbent": 900,
      "alternative": 977.8
    },
    {
      "month": 11,
      "incumbent": 990,
      "alternative": 1035.58
    },
    {
      "month": 12,
      "incumbent": 1080,
      "alternative": 1093.36
    },
    {
      "month": 13,
      "incumbent": 1170,
      "alternative": 1151.14
    },
    {
      "month": 14,
      "incumbent": 1260,
      "alternative": 1208.92
    },
    {
      "month": 15,
      "incumbent": 1350,
      "alternative": 1266.7
    },
    {
      "month": 16,
      "incumbent": 1440,
      "alternative": 1324.48
    },
    {
      "month": 17,
      "incumbent": 1530,
      "alternative": 1382.26
    },
    {
      "month": 18,
      "incumbent": 1620,
      "alternative": 1440.04
    },
    {
      "month": 19,
      "incumbent": 1710,
      "alternative": 1497.82
    },
    {
      "month": 20,
      "incumbent": 1800,
      "alternative": 1555.6
    },
    {
      "month": 21,
      "incumbent": 1890,
      "alternative": 1613.38
    },
    {
      "month": 22,
      "incumbent": 1980,
      "alternative": 1671.16
    },
    {
      "month": 23,
      "incumbent": 2070,
      "alternative": 1728.94
    },
    {
      "month": 24,
      "incumbent": 2160,
      "alternative": 1786.72
    },
    {
      "month": 25,
      "incumbent": 2250,
      "alternative": 1844.5
    },
    {
      "month": 26,
      "incumbent": 2340,
      "alternative": 1902.28
    },
    {
      "month": 27,
      "incumbent": 2430,
      "alternative": 1960.06
    },
    {
      "month": 28,
      "incumbent": 2520,
      "alternative": 2017.84
    },
    {
      "month": 29,
      "incumbent": 2610,
      "alternative": 2075.62
    },
    {
      "month": 30,
      "incumbent": 2700,
      "alternative": 2133.4
    },
    {
      "month": 31,
      "incumbent": 2790,
      "alternative": 2191.18
    },
    {
      "month": 32,
      "incumbent": 2880,
      "alternative": 2248.96
    },
    {
      "month": 33,
      "incumbent": 2970,
      "alternative": 2306.74
    },
    {
      "month": 34,
      "incumbent": 3060,
      "alternative": 2364.52
    },
    {
      "month": 35,
      "incumbent": 3150,
      "alternative": 2422.3
    },
    {
      "month": 36,
      "incumbent": 3240,
      "alternative": 2480.08
    }
  ],
  "sensitivity": [
    {
      "hourly_rate": 0,
      "verdict": "switch",
      "break_even_month": 0,
      "savings_at_horizon": 2509.99
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 25,
      "verdict": "switch",
      "break_even_month": 4,
      "savings_at_horizon": 1634.99
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 50,
      "verdict": "switch",
      "break_even_month": 13,
      "savings_at_horizon": 759.99
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 75,
      "verdict": "stay",
      "break_even_month": 45,
      "savings_at_horizon": -115.01
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 100,
      "verdict": "stay",
      "break_even_month": null,
      "savings_at_horizon": -990.01
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 150,
      "verdict": "stay",
      "break_even_month": null,
      "savings_at_horizon": -2740.01
    },
    {
      "hourly_rate": 200,
      "verdict": "stay",
      "break_even_month": null,
      "savings_at_horizon": -4490.01
    }
  ],
  "tradeoffs": {
    "you_lose": [
      "Docusign's name on the audit trail, which counts for something in a dispute",
      "Twenty years of case law and enterprise procurement acceptance",
      "Managed certificate handling and identity verification add-ons"
    ],
    "you_gain": [
      "Signed documents stored on infrastructure you control",
      "No envelope limits",
      "AGPL-3.0 with an open, inspectable signing implementation"
    ]
  },
  "caveats": [
    "Read this one carefully: e-signature validity depends on your jurisdiction and on the evidence you can produce. Documenso produces a cryptographically sound audit trail, but \"sound\" and \"accepted by the other side's lawyers\" are different questions.",
    "You must supply your own signing certificate. Getting a trusted one is a cost this page does not include, because it varies enormously.",
    "For high-value contracts, the cost difference here is small relative to the risk. We would stay on Docusign."
  ],
  "category": "e-signature",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-19"
}