Proof Holdings vs Adobe Acrobat Sign
Adobe Acrobat Sign is document e-signature inside Acrobat, with the strongest QES path via the Adobe Approved Trust List. Proof Holdings sits at the other end of the eIDAS question: its everyday proof tokens are signatures carrying the technical hallmarks of AES — no PDF involved.
Adobe owns PDF signing and the QES path. Proof owns the signature under your operations: cryptographic proof that a party acted, portable and offline-verifiable, priced per proof — the primitive beneath approvals, delegation, and control.
One API · One key
One key does what a stack of vendors does
Every platform on this page puts signatures on documents. Proof is a single API where the proof itself is the signature — a signed, offline-verifiable ES256 token for each of these:
Flat price · Any asset
One flat price for every asset — phone, email, and domain today, with wallet and social coming soon. No per-seat, no per-MAU, no per-verification tiers — the meter that makes every rival's bill jump.
- Free every month
- 300 proofs
- Pay as you go
- €0.03 / proof
- At volume
- €0.0079 / proof
Feature Comparison
Swipe to compare →
| Feature | Proof Holdings | Adobe Acrobat Sign |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | Prove asset control → signed token | Sign documents & PDFs |
| Signs documents / contracts today | Roadmap (Proof of Signature) | Yes |
| Signs WITH an asset (proof of control) | Yes | No |
| eIDAS SES | Yes | Yes |
| eIDAS AES | Technical hallmarks of AES | Yes |
| eIDAS QES | Roadmap (needs QTSP) | Strong — via AATL / TSPs |
| Output | Portable ES256 token | Signed PDF + audit trail |
| PDF / Acrobat integration | No | Deep (native Acrobat) |
| Pricing | Per-proof (€0.0079) | Per-user/mo (~$13–$24) or Acrobat |
Pricing
Pricing model
Proof Holdings
Per-proof: €0.0079, 300 free/month
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Per-user/month: ~$13–$24 (Acrobat Standard/Pro); Sign Solutions enterprise
Signing PDFs today (and QES)
Proof Holdings
Not what Proof does — use Adobe
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Best PDF-native signing; strong eIDAS QES via AATL
Portable proof of who acted
Proof Holdings
ES256 token, verifiable offline by anyone
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Signed PDF + audit trail (document-bound)
Signing with an asset (proof of control)
Proof Holdings
Yes — the core of what Proof does
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Not part of Adobe Sign
Signing a document vs signing with an asset
Adobe Acrobat Sign is document e-signature built directly into Acrobat and the PDF workflow — the natural choice if your world is PDFs, with the deepest document integration and the strongest path to Qualified Electronic Signatures in this set (via the Adobe Approved Trust List and qualified TSP partners). For signing documents, especially where EU QES matters, it's excellent.
Proof Holdings signs a different way. It issues a cryptographic ES256 token when a person proves control of an asset — an electronic signature at the eIDAS SES level, but a signed proof of control rather than a signed PDF. Adobe signs the document; Proof signs with the asset. Different kinds of signature, and today, different jobs.
Where Proof fits — and the roadmap
Proof's signature today is the primitive for authorization, delegation, and human approvals — a portable proof that a party controls an asset and acted, verifiable offline by anyone with the public key. That's adjacent to document signing, not a replacement for it.
Document and PDF signing — Adobe's core — is on Proof's roadmap as Proof of Signature: signing a document with a proof of control. Until it ships: for signing PDFs and reaching QES today, use Adobe Acrobat Sign; for portable proof-of-control signatures, use Proof.
When to use Adobe Acrobat Sign
- You need to sign PDFs and documents, natively in the Acrobat workflow
- You need the strongest path to eIDAS QES (Adobe Approved Trust List / TSPs)
- You already use Acrobat across your organization
- You need templates, routing, and a certificate of completion
- Your workflow is fundamentally about documents and PDFs
When to use Proof Holdings
- You want a portable proof that a party controls an asset, as an electronic signature
- You're signing an authorization, delegation, or approval — not a document
- You want a token verifiable offline by anyone, not a document-bound audit trail
- You want to sign with an asset (phone, email, domain)
- You'd rather pay per proof than per user per month
- You're interested in Proof of Signature (document signing) on the roadmap
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to try Proof Holdings?
300 free proofs per month. No credit card required.
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