DocuSign is built to sign agreements of every kind. Proposal Expert is built to write, send and track sales proposals, with the electronic signature as the last step. If the documents you send for signature are mostly your own quotes and proposals, one proposal tool can replace the separate signing step. If you need qualified signatures, ID checks or bulk sending, DocuSign remains the stronger choice.
Most lists of DocuSign alternatives compare one signing tool with another. This page is different, because DocuSign and Proposal Expert are different kinds of software. DocuSign is an electronic signature and agreement platform. Its eSignature plans are built around envelopes, which are documents you prepare elsewhere and upload for signing, with templates, audit trails, bulk sending on Business Pro and, on higher plans or as add-ons, advanced and qualified signatures and identity verification. Proposal Expert is a proposal tool with signing built in. You write the proposal in the tool, starting from an AI draft based on your briefing, add pricing tables with tax per line and optional line items, send it, see which sections the client reads and for how long, and collect an eIDAS simple electronic signature with a trusted RFC 3161 timestamp and a sealed audit trail. Below you will find what DocuSign costs at the time of writing (September 2026), when DocuSign is the better choice, when Proposal Expert is, and when you need neither.
It depends on what you send. Proposal Expert can replace DocuSign when the documents you send for signature are your own quotes and proposals, because it also covers the steps before the signature: writing the proposal, pricing it, sending it and following up. It does not replace DocuSign when you need to sign documents that come from somewhere else, such as an employment contract drafted by a lawyer, a lease or a supplier agreement in PDF, because Proposal Expert does not sign arbitrary uploaded files today. The difference is one of kind. DocuSign defines an envelope as an electronic record containing one or more documents uploaded to its eSignature service for signature processing, so the document is normally finished before it reaches DocuSign. In Proposal Expert the document is created in the tool and the signature is the final block of the proposal. Many sales teams build a proposal in Word or PowerPoint, export a PDF and upload it to DocuSign for signing. For them, moving the whole flow into a proposal tool removes the export and upload steps and shows how the client actually reads the proposal. Teams that sign many different kinds of documents will usually keep DocuSign for that work.
At the time of writing (September 2026), DocuSign publishes three self-service eSignature plans plus custom Enhanced plans. On the US pricing page, Personal costs $10 a month billed annually ($120 a year), $11 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or $15 on a monthly plan. It is for a single user and includes 5 envelopes a month, reusable templates and an AI-assisted summary. Standard costs $25 per user a month billed annually ($300 per user a year), $30 on an annual plan billed monthly or $45 month to month. It allows up to 50 users and adds shared templates, real-time comments, your own branding, delegated signing and a one-time bonus of 5 SMS deliveries and 5 identity verifications. Business Pro costs $40 per user a month billed annually ($480 a year), $45 on an annual plan billed monthly or $65 month to month, and adds web forms, payment collection, interactive form fields and bulk send. On the UK page the same plans cost £8, £20 and £33 a month billed annually (£96, £240 and £396 a year), or £12, £34 and £54 on a monthly plan. Annual Standard and Business Pro plans include up to 100 envelopes per user per year, and monthly plans up to 10 per user per month. Envelopes beyond the allowance are billed pay-as-you-go at a per-envelope rate that the plan page does not publish. Paid add-ons include SMS delivery from $0.36 per delivery and ID verification from $2.40 per attempt in the US, and qualified signatures from £9 per recipient and ID verification from £2 per attempt in the UK. Enhanced plans, with custom envelope limits, single sign-on and 24/7 support, are priced through sales. Separate IAM plans add AI agreement management and workflows from $40 per user a month billed annually, with unlimited envelopes sent through the web app from IAM Standard, which has a three-user minimum. Tax may apply on top of all these prices.
Start by checking whether DocuSign's own free options are enough. According to DocuSign, a free account lets you sign and send back an unlimited number of documents, but you can only send three documents out for signature before you need a paid plan. DocuSign also offers a 30-day free trial of eSignature Business Pro with no credit card required, after which you upgrade to a paid plan to keep sending. The cheapest paid version of DocuSign is Personal, at $10 a month billed annually in the US or £8 a month in the UK, with 5 envelopes a month for one user. Proposal Expert has a free plan with 3 proposals and 3 electronic signatures a month, with proposal tracking included and a small watermark on the PDF. That makes it a practical free DocuSign alternative when the documents you send are proposals and quotes and your volume is low. If you mostly sign documents that other people send you, DocuSign's free account may already cover what you need, and you do not need a proposal tool for that.
DocuSign is the better choice in five clear situations. First, when you need more than a simple electronic signature. DocuSign's self-service plans provide simple electronic signatures, advanced electronic signatures (AES) come with its Enhanced plans, and qualified electronic signatures (QES), which DocuSign describes as the legal equivalent of a handwritten signature, are available as a paid add-on. Proposal Expert offers simple electronic signatures only. Second, when you need to verify who is signing. DocuSign ID Verification asks signers for a government-issued identity document and a biometric check, and Proposal Expert does not verify identity documents. Third, when you send the same document to many recipients at once, such as a policy update to every customer, because bulk send is part of Business Pro and Proposal Expert has no bulk send. Fourth, when you sign documents you did not create yourself, such as leases, HR forms or supplier contracts in PDF or Word. Fifth, when you work in a regulated industry. DocuSign lists HIPAA support through a BAA, FedRAMP Moderate authorisation and 21 CFR Part 11 as options on its Enhanced plans, and Proposal Expert does not offer these today. Organisations with more than 50 users that need single sign-on, central account management and 24/7 support will also find those on DocuSign's Enhanced plans.
Proposal Expert is the better fit when the documents you send for signature are your own proposals and quotes, and the signature closes a sales conversation rather than being the whole job. In that case the work that decides whether you win happens before the signature: writing a clear proposal, pricing it well and following up at the right moment. Proposal Expert drafts a first version from your briefing with AI and scores every section, so you see where the proposal is weak before the client does. Pricing tables handle tax per line and optional line items, so the client can choose extras without you sending a new version. After sending, you see when the proposal is opened and how long the client spends on each section, and status and amounts are written back to HubSpot, Salesforce or Monday.com. Brand kits keep every proposal on brand, and the interface works in 16 languages. The signature is an eIDAS simple electronic signature with a trusted RFC 3161 timestamp and a sealed audit trail. For many commercial proposals and quotes a simple electronic signature is sufficient, but check what your sector and country require before you rely on it. For a team that now builds proposals in one tool and signs them in another, this removes a step and a subscription from the sales process.
Whether an alternative is cheaper depends on how you use DocuSign today. For a business that signs many kinds of agreements and needs strong signer assurance, the price buys a mature platform. For a small sales team that mainly sends proposals, three cost drivers add up. Pricing is per user, so every colleague who sends documents needs a seat. Annual Standard and Business Pro plans include up to 100 envelopes per user per year, which is roughly eight a month, and additional envelopes are billed on top. SMS delivery and ID verification are paid add-ons. As an example based on the published US prices, three salespeople on Standard billed annually pay $900 a year for up to 300 envelopes, and $1,440 a year on Business Pro. That covers the signing, while the proposal itself is still written in another tool. Proposal Expert publishes its plans on its pricing page, and you can start on the free plan to see whether the proposal flow suits your team before you compare costs. Always check the current prices on both websites, because both can change.
Not for your proposals, but possibly for other documents. Proposal Expert collects the signature on the proposal itself, so there is no need to upload an accepted proposal to DocuSign afterwards. If your company also signs employment contracts, third-party NDAs or documents that require a qualified signature, keeping a DocuSign plan for that work makes sense, and when that volume is low a Personal plan with 5 envelopes a month may be enough. Some businesses need neither tool. If you send only a handful of simple quotes a year and your clients are happy to confirm by email or sign a PDF, a clear template in your word processor may do the job, and a well-structured quote template is a good place to start. A proposal tool starts to pay off once you send proposals every week and want to know what happens to them after you press send.
Moving your proposal flow from DocuSign to Proposal Expert takes four steps. First, download the completed envelopes and certificates of completion you want to keep from DocuSign, so your signed archive stays with you. Then rebuild your two or three most used proposal templates in Proposal Expert and let the AI draft write the first version of new proposals from a short briefing. Next, put your logo, colours and fonts in a brand kit and connect HubSpot, Salesforce or Monday.com so status and amounts flow back to your CRM. Finally, send a test proposal to a colleague and sign it to see the flow from the client's side. Before you cancel anything, check your DocuSign renewal date. DocuSign's annual plans renew automatically each year, and its refund on annual plans applies within 30 days of purchase. Keep DocuSign running for any other document types you still need to sign.
Write, price, send, track and sign the proposal in one tool, instead of building it elsewhere and uploading a PDF to a signing platform.
See when a client opens your proposal and how long they spend on each section, so you follow up on what they actually read.
The AI writes a first version from your briefing and scores every section, so weak spots are fixed before the client sees them.
The free plan includes 3 proposals and 3 electronic signatures a month, with tracking. Paid plans are published on the pricing page.
| Feature | Proposal Expert | DocuSign |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Writing, sending and signing proposals | Signing and managing agreements |
| Create the proposal in the tool | ✓ | Upload, or generate on IAM plans |
| AI first draft | Proposal from your briefing | Agreement templates on IAM plans |
| AI score per proposal section | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reading time per section | ✓ | Envelope status |
| Simple electronic signature (SES, eIDAS) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced electronic signature (AES) | ✗ | Enhanced plans |
| Qualified electronic signature (QES) | ✗ | Paid add-on in the UK and EU |
| ID verification with an identity document | ✗ | Paid add-on |
| Bulk send | ✗ | Business Pro and up |
| Sign any uploaded PDF or Word file | ✗ | ✓ |
| HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP, 21 CFR Part 11 | ✗ | Enhanced plans |
| CRM integrations | HubSpot, Salesforce, Monday.com | Salesforce, Dynamics, NetSuite on Enhanced plans |
| Languages | 16 interface languages | 44+ signing languages |
| Free option | 3 proposals and 3 signatures a month | Free signing account (3 sends), 30-day trial |
| Entry price for paid plans | See /en/pricing | $10 or £8 a month, billed annually |
Sales teams, agencies and consultants whose signed documents are mainly their own proposals and quotes, and who want to write, price, track and sign them in one tool. If you need qualified or advanced signatures, ID verification, bulk send or signing of documents from third parties, DocuSign is the better choice. If you send only a few simple quotes a year, you may need neither.