Compare · DashSign

DashSign alternative with no extension — free, no upload.

DashSign and FreeSign agree on the important part: your PDF stays on your device. DashSign is a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers; its site (checked 22 October 2026) lists a Free tier with unlimited local PDF signing and a Pro plan at $8.99/month or $89/year for sending documents to other signers. FreeSign is a web page: nothing to install, no account, and every free signature is a PAdES-B-T cryptographic signature with your own certificate and a trusted timestamp.

The structural difference

DashSign is a local-first signing extension. Per its site, it detects a PDF open in your browser tab, lets you place a drawn, typed or photographed signature, initials, dates and text, fills interactive PDF forms, and saves the signed file to your Downloads. On the Free tier signed PDFs get a basic completion stamp. Pro adds Send for Signing (several signers, sequential or parallel, with tracking and reminders), Cloud Relay email from signed@dashsign.app, sending from your own Gmail, an ESIGN/UETA audit page with document hashes and a server co-signature, and a public verification URL on dashsign.app.

FreeSign is a cryptographic signing primitive with a thin ceremony shell. The PDF is hashed locally in your browser. A per-user X.509 leaf certificate is issued for that one ceremony from an HSM-backed CA. The CMS PKCS#7 seal is appended to the PDF as an incremental update, and the signed-region hash receives an independent OpenTimestamps proof. FreeSign’s Worker sees the OTP-verified email, your typed name, the OTP challenge, the SHA-256 hash, the public half of your browser ceremony key, the audit hash chain, and a standard request fingerprint — not the PDF.

Side-by-side

Comparison reflects DashSign’s own site on 22 October 2026. Features and prices change — verify against the linked page before final decisions.
Capability	FreeSign	DashSign
Price	Free — no document cap, no seats	Free tier with unlimited local PDF signing; Pro $8.99/month or $89/yearChecked 22 October 2026 on dashsign.app.
Document is uploaded to the vendor	No — only a SHA-256 hash	No for local signing; Pro Cloud Relay passes the signed PDF through its servers in memory, and Send for Signing sends an encrypted payload
Install needed	No — a web page	Yes — a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers
Account required	No — email + 6-digit OTP only	No for Free; Pro is tied to your purchase email (you log in to restore it) and starts with a one-time Activation Agreement
Sending to other signers	No hosted routing — you send the PDF to the next signer yourself and they countersign on free-sign.com	Pro only — Send for Signing to several signers, sequential or parallel, with tracking, reminders and cancellation
What a free signature contains	PAdES-B-T: CMS PKCS#7 with a per-signer X.509 certificate, RFC 3161 timestamp and embedded evidence JSON	Signature placed on the page; its pricing lists a basic completion stamp for Free and the ESIGN/UETA audit trail, cryptographic document hashing and server co-signature under Pro (its how-it-works section says every signed PDF embeds an audit page with hashes)
Independent verification	Adobe Signature Panel, `openssl`, pyHanko or the open-source verifier; OpenTimestamps `.ots` proof	Public verification URL on dashsign.app (Pro)
Form filling	No — bring a finished PDF	Yes — interactive PDF forms (AcroForms)
API / AI-assistant (MCP) access	Yes — `/embed` + `freesign-embed.js` and an MCP server that never receives the PDFIntegration guide	Not documented on the cited page
AATL-listed CA (Adobe green check)	No — FreeSign CAFAQ on the yellow warning.	Not documented on the cited page

See also FreeSign vs OpenSign, FreeSign vs SignWith and free e-signature plans compared. Enterprise FreeSign options (SSO, SMS/KBA, AATL CA) are on request — pricing.

Privacy: who can see the PDF?

DashSign. Its FAQ says PDFs are processed in your browser and are never uploaded to its servers, and that your saved signatures, profile and signing history live in your browser’s local storage. The exceptions are optional Pro features: Cloud Relay holds the signed PDF in memory on its relay long enough to send the email, and Send for Signing encrypts the document before it leaves your browser. Sending through your own Gmail or your default mail app does not go through DashSign’s servers.

FreeSign. FreeSign cannot read your PDF because we don’t have it. The Worker receives a SHA-256 of the document and a digest of the signature ByteRange. The MCP discovery contract (documentUpload: false) is enforced by a public-contract test. On privacy the two are close; the differences are the install, the signature format and who routes the document.

Pricing: what “free” means on each side

FreeSign is free for unlimited ceremonies, with no account and no card. Enterprise options (AATL green check, SSO, SMS/KBA verification) are available on request — see pricing; the free product will not be retroactively gated. DashSign’s pricing (checked 22 October 2026) lists Free at $0 with unlimited PDF signing, 3 saved signatures and 3 initials, and Pro at $8.99/month or $89/year with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Both are genuinely free for signing your own PDFs. Always re-check before relying on either.

When DashSign is the right choice

You work in Chrome, Edge or Brave and want signing one click away on any PDF you open.
You need to fill interactive PDF forms before signing.
You want to send a document to several signers and track it, and $8.99/month for Pro is fine.
A signature on the page with DashSign’s completion stamp or audit page is enough for the people who receive the PDF.

When FreeSign is the right choice

You cannot or do not want to install a browser extension, or you are not on a Chromium browser.
You want a cryptographic PAdES-B-T signature with your own certificate and a trusted timestamp on the free tier, checkable in Adobe Reader or openssl.
You want signing inside your web app (iframe embed) or from an AI assistant via MCP, while keeping PDF bytes off FreeSign servers.
You want an independent OpenTimestamps proof on top of an RFC 3161 timestamp.
You are fine preparing the PDF elsewhere and only need a verifiable seal.

How to sign a one-off NDA with FreeSign

Open the NDA PDF on your machine. Drop it into free-sign.com. The SHA-256 is computed in your browser.
Enter your email and full legal name, tick consent. Receive a 6-digit OTP. Type it in.
Download the signed PDF — evidence JSON is embedded in the signature’s CMS, so there is one file to keep.
Open the signed PDF in Adobe Reader. A yellow ⚠️ trust warning is normally expected (AATL membership), not a sign of a broken signature. Open the Signature Panel and confirm: document not modified, signed by your name.
Optional: verify outside Adobe with openssl cms -verify, pyhanko sign validate, and ots verify.

FAQ for switchers

Is DashSign free?

Yes, for signing your own PDFs. DashSign's site (checked 22 October 2026) lists a Free tier at $0 with unlimited PDF signing, 3 saved signatures and 3 initials, Sign & Download and Sign & Email via your default mail app, plus a basic completion stamp. Send for Signing to other people, the ESIGN/UETA audit trail and Cloud Relay are Pro features at $8.99/month or $89/year. FreeSign is free with no account and has no paid tier for its core signing.

Is FreeSign a free DashSign alternative?

Yes, if you want to sign a PDF without installing a browser extension. DashSign runs as an extension in Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers; FreeSign is a web page at free-sign.com. Both keep the PDF on your device. FreeSign adds a PAdES-B-T cryptographic signature with a per-signer certificate and an RFC 3161 timestamp on the free tier. DashSign Pro can send a document to several signers and track it; FreeSign does not route documents to other signers for you.

Does DashSign upload my PDF?

Not for local signing: DashSign's FAQ says PDFs are processed in your browser and never uploaded to its servers. The exceptions are its optional Pro features: Cloud Relay passes the signed PDF through its servers in memory to send the email, and Send for Signing encrypts the document in your browser before an encrypted payload reaches its servers. FreeSign never receives the PDF, only a SHA-256 hash.

Do I need an account for DashSign?

Not for the Free tier: DashSign's site says no account is required for Free. Pro is tied to your purchase email, which you log in with to restore it, and starts with a one-time Activation Agreement; signers who receive a Send for Signing link do not need an account. FreeSign has no accounts; each signing is verified with an emailed 6-digit code, or a passkey for returning signers.

If Adobe Reader shows yellow on a FreeSign PDF, is the signature broken?

Not necessarily. For a FreeSign PDF the yellow icon normally means Adobe's curated AATL trust list does not include FreeSign's CA — that is not by itself a document-integrity failure. Open Signature Properties in Adobe to confirm the document has not been modified; if those checks pass, the cryptographic checks show the document has not changed, the evidence links it to the signing ceremony, and the timestamp proof shows when that evidence existed.

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