Electronic Signatures & the eIDAS Ladder
Two kinds of electronic signature. DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, and Adobe Acrobat Sign put a signature on a document — the tools for signing a contract today. Proof Holdings issues cryptographic proof that a person controls an asset — itself an electronic signature on the eIDAS ladder. Adjacent tools, not rivals.
Use the platforms to sign documents; use Proof to sign everything else. Every proof token is an electronic signature under eIDAS — verification, delegation, approval — issued by API at €0.0079 and verifiable offline by anyone.
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 Matrix
Swipe to compare all 4 providers →
| Feature | Proof | DocuSign | Dropbox Sign | Adobe Sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core job | Prove asset control → signed token | Document signing workflow | Document signing workflow | Document signing workflow |
| Signs documents / contracts today | Roadmap (Proof of Signature) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Every verification is an e-signature | Yes | Per document signed | Per document signed | Per document signed |
| eIDAS SES (simple) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| eIDAS AES (advanced) | Technical hallmarks of AES | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| eIDAS QES (qualified) | Roadmap (needs QTSP) | Via QTSP partner | Via partner (limited) | Via TSP (AATL) |
| Signs WITH an asset (proof of control) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Portable ES256 proof token | Yes | Signed PDF + audit trail | Signed PDF + audit trail | Signed PDF + audit trail |
| Pricing unit | Per-proof | Per-user/mo | Per-user/mo | Per-user/mo (or Acrobat) |
Pricing Comparison
Swipe for pricing notes →
| Provider | Model | Price | Free Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proof Holdings | Per-proof | From €0.0079 | 300 proofs/mo | Proof-of-control tokens that are electronic signatures (SES). Document signing = roadmap |
| DocuSign | Per-user / month | ~$10–$40/user | 30-day trial | The document e-signature leader; templates, audit trail, IAM platform. QES via QTSP partners |
| Dropbox Sign | Per-user / month | ~$15–$25/user | 3 requests/mo | Formerly HelloSign; developer-friendly API. SES/AES; QES more limited. Owned by Dropbox |
| Adobe Acrobat Sign | Per-user / month | ~$13–$24/user | Trial | Deep PDF/Acrobat integration; strong QES via the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) / TSPs |
This isn't a like-for-like feature comparison. DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, and Adobe Acrobat Sign are document e-signature platforms priced per user per month — the right tools for signing a contract today. Proof Holdings prices proof-of-control per proof; each proof token is itself an electronic signature (SES on the eIDAS ladder), but Proof does not sign documents today — that's the roadmap 'Proof of Signature' product.
Category Winners
DocuSign
The market leader for signing contracts and documents — templates, routing, certificate of completion, an audit trail, and now the IAM agreement platform. If you need to sign a document today, this is the default.
Adobe Acrobat Sign
Deepest PDF integration through Acrobat, and the strongest path to Qualified Electronic Signatures via the Adobe Approved Trust List and qualified TSP partners — ideal where EU QES matters.
Dropbox Sign
The old HelloSign heritage makes it a clean, API-first way to embed document signing, at a lower price point, now inside Dropbox.
Proof Holdings
Every successful verification mints a portable ES256 token that is itself an electronic signature — you sign WITH an asset (proving control) rather than signing a document. A different kind of signature; document signing is on the roadmap.
Two kinds of signature
When most people say "e-signature," they mean signing a document — placing a mark on a contract so it's legally binding. That's DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, and Adobe Acrobat Sign: upload a PDF, route it to signers, get back a signed document with a certificate of completion. If you have a contract to sign today, use one of them.
Proof Holdings signs a different way: you sign with an asset. Proving control of a phone, email, or domain produces a cryptographic ES256 token — and under eIDAS, an electronic signature is data in electronic form used to sign. That token *is* an electronic signature (at the SES level). It's not a signed document; it's a signed proof of control. Different kind, same underlying idea — a verifiable, non-repudiable mark that a specific party acted.
The eIDAS ladder
eIDAS defines three levels of electronic signature. Here is where a proof token lands on each:
- SES (Simple): the baseline — any electronic signature. Proof's tokens qualify; so do all three platforms' basic signatures.
- AES (Advanced): uniquely linked to the signatory, able to identify them, under their sole control, tamper-evident. DocuSign, Adobe, and Dropbox Sign offer AES. Proof's tokens carry the technical hallmarks of AES — unique linkage, sole control, tamper-evidence. The one prong Proof does not assert is "identifies the signatory": a proof token establishes asset control, not legal identity, so it stops short of a full AES claim.
- QES (Qualified): AES plus a qualified certificate from a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP). DocuSign and Adobe reach QES through QTSP partners; for Proof this is roadmap — it requires QTSP status we don't yet hold.
Proof of Signature (roadmap)
Document and contract signing — the job DocuSign and Adobe own today — is a product on Proof's roadmap called Proof of Signature: signing a document *with* a proof of control, so the signature carries a verifiable attestation of who acted, not just a typed name.
Until it ships, the position is simple: for signing documents today, use a document e-signature platform. For a portable, cryptographic proof that a party controls an asset — an electronic signature of a different kind, useful for authorization, delegation, and approvals — that's what Proof does now.
Detailed Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
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