Dropbox Sign (HelloSign) vs CanUSign: Feature and Pricing Comparison

I've been signing contracts digitally for almost a decade now. Started back when HelloSign was just this scrappy little startup that made e-signatures feel less awful than whatever DocuSign was doing. It wasn't perfect, but it worked, and the free tier was generous enough that my tiny freelance business could actually afford it.

Then Dropbox bought HelloSign in 2019 for $230 million. Fine, I thought. Dropbox is reasonable. Nothing bad will happen.

In October 2022 they rebranded it to Dropbox Sign. The pricing went up. The free tier got squeezed. And somewhere along the way, the tool that used to feel lightweight started feeling like just another enterprise SaaS product trying to upsell me into tiers I didn't need.

So when people ask me about Dropbox Sign alternatives these days, I have opinions. I've tested most of them. This is my honest side-by-side between Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign) and CanUSign, which is the tool I've been using for about a year now. I'll be fair. Dropbox Sign is a real product with real strengths. But if you don't need the Dropbox ecosystem, there are cheaper, simpler options.

Let's get into it.

A quick history lesson (because it matters)

HelloSign launched in 2011. It was one of the first e-signature tools that didn't feel like enterprise software bolted onto a fax machine. The UX was clean, the free tier let you sign three documents a month, and small businesses loved it.

Dropbox acquired HelloSign in January 2019. For a few years, not much changed. Same product, same name, same pricing. Then in October 2022, Dropbox rebranded the whole thing to Dropbox Sign, integrated it more tightly with Dropbox Business, and quietly adjusted the pricing structure.

Here's what changed:

• The free tier now limits you to 3 signature requests per month (it used to be more generous)
• Several features that used to be on the Standard plan got pushed up to Premium
• The product got noticeably more integrated with Dropbox, which is great if you use Dropbox and annoying if you don't

None of this is evil. Dropbox is a business, businesses raise prices, acquired products often lose their quirky personality. But the cumulative effect is that the HelloSign I used to recommend isn't really the same product anymore. It's Dropbox Sign now, and it's aimed at a slightly different customer.

CanUSign, for context, is newer. Launched more recently, pay-per-document or flat subscription, built by a small team that isn't trying to turn e-signatures into a full document suite. It's not perfect either (I'll get to the weak spots), but it fills a gap that used to exist back when HelloSign was still HelloSign.

Feature comparison: side by side

Here's the straightforward feature comparison. I've actually used both tools extensively, so these aren't specs I copied off a marketing page.

A couple of notes on the things the table doesn't show well.

Dropbox Sign wins on: polish, mobile apps, and the sheer depth of the Dropbox integration. If you live inside Dropbox all day, signing a document from the Dropbox sidebar is genuinely magical. The mobile apps are good. The enterprise features (SSO, advanced admin, compliance dashboards) are more mature.

CanUSign wins on: price, simplicity, API accessibility, and no vendor lock-in. You can export your signed docs anywhere, sign without needing to be part of a walled garden, and the pay-per-document model means you can actually match your cost to your actual usage.

Pricing breakdown

This is where it gets interesting, and honestly, it's where most of my frustration with Dropbox Sign lives.

Dropbox Sign pricing (2026)

API access is a completely separate product with separate pricing.

Because every paid plan is billed per user, the cost grows with every seat. Bulk send and in-person signing need Premium, and API access is billed on top.

CanUSign pricing (2026)

That's it. No tier-gated features that should honestly just be included (looking at you, Dropbox Sign's per-user pricing for a feature as basic as bulk send).

Let me do the math for a few real scenarios:

Solo freelancer, 10 contracts a month:

• Dropbox Sign: Essentials, a per-user monthly subscription
• CanUSign: billed per document, or the monthly Pro plan
• Winner: roughly even, slight CanUSign edge

5-person agency, 100 docs/month:

• Dropbox Sign: Standard, billed per user for all 5 users
• CanUSign: billed per document, so five people signing 100 documents cost the same as one person signing 100
• Winner: CanUSign, because there is no per-seat charge

10-person team, needs the API:

• Dropbox Sign: Premium billed per user, plus separate API pricing
• CanUSign: the API is available without a separate product, and there is no per-seat charge
• Winner: CanUSign

Occasional user, 2-3 docs/month:

• Dropbox Sign: Free tier works
• CanUSign: Free tier plus per-document billing for occasional use
• Winner: even

For a more comprehensive look at alternatives in this space, I wrote a breakdown of DocuSign alternatives that covers the whole landscape.

Template library

Only Dropbox Sign supports templates. This is the thing that separates "I have to re-upload the same NDA every time" from "I have to re-upload the same NDA every time, but less often."

Dropbox Sign has a template library with decent built-in templates for common use cases: NDAs, contractor agreements, offer letters. You can create your own templates too, and they're available across the team on Standard and above. The template editor is solid.

CanUSign has no template library and no saved templates. You upload a PDF, place the signature, initials and date fields, and share the link.

If you need templates, Dropbox Sign has the edge.

Integrations

This is where Dropbox Sign genuinely shines.

Dropbox Sign integrates deeply with Dropbox (obviously), Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, HubSpot, and dozens of other tools. The Dropbox integration is basically native: you can request signatures directly from a file in your Dropbox folder without ever leaving the Dropbox UI. If Dropbox is your company's document hub, this is a real productivity win.

CanUSign's integrations are more modest: a REST API with webhooks.

The API question is where things flip, though. Dropbox Sign's API is mature but expensive. It's a separate product line, basically, with its own pricing. If you're a developer building e-signatures into your product, CanUSign can work out cheaper for low-to-medium volumes.

Mobile experience

Dropbox Sign has dedicated iOS and Android apps. They work well. You can sign, send, and manage documents from your phone. The apps sync with the desktop app and with Dropbox generally. Nothing revolutionary, but solid.

CanUSign doesn't have a native mobile app. The web interface is responsive and works on phones, which is fine for signing (most signers do it once and have no use for an app), but the sender experience on mobile isn't as smooth. If you're constantly sending contracts from your phone, this might matter. For most people, it doesn't.

Score one for Dropbox Sign on this.

Security and compliance

Both tools meet the bar for legally binding e-signatures in most jurisdictions.

Dropbox Sign:

• ESIGN Act compliant (US)
• eIDAS compliant (EU)
• SOC 2 Type II certified
• HIPAA compliance available on higher tiers
• 256-bit SSL encryption
• Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) available as an add-on

CanUSign:

• ESIGN Act compliant (US)
• Simple electronic signature under eIDAS, valid where the law does not require a handwritten signature or notarisation.
• 256-bit SSL encryption
• Qualified signature (QES): in preparation, not yet available.

If you're curious about the legal side of this (and you probably should be if you're signing contracts), I've got a full guide to electronic signature law that goes deeper. There's also a post explaining the difference between digital and electronic signatures, which trips a lot of people up.

For the vast majority of business contracts (employment agreements, NDAs, freelance contracts, sales agreements, service agreements), both tools produce signatures that are valid where no specific form is required. The differences in compliance mostly matter at the enterprise level, where specific certifications (HIPAA, FedRAMP, etc.) might be required.

Signer experience

The person on the receiving end, the one who actually has to sign your contract, doesn't care about your pricing tier or your template library. They care about how fast and painless the signing process is.

Dropbox Sign's signer experience is good. Clean interface, clear instructions, works in any browser. Signers don't need to create an account to sign. The email prompts are well-designed. It feels professional.

CanUSign's signer experience is also good. Same clean flow: signers click a link, see the document, sign the fields, done. No account required. I'd say it's slightly more minimalist, which some people prefer and some people find less branded.

Dropbox Sign lets you customize the email that goes to signers (branding, custom messages), with more options on higher tiers. For the actual signing experience, they're roughly equivalent.

Team collaboration

Dropbox Sign has solid team features: team templates, shared document folders, admin controls, user management, activity logs. On higher tiers you get advanced admin features like custom signing workflows and team analytics. If you're running a team of 20+ people who need tight collaboration, Dropbox Sign is built for that.

CanUSign has no team features: one account per user, no shared templates, no admin controls. If you need team collaboration, Dropbox Sign wins.

So who should pick which?

This is the verdict section, and I'll be blunt.

Pick Dropbox Sign if:

• You already pay for Dropbox Business and use it heavily. The integration is genuinely great, and the bundle pricing can make sense.
• You need enterprise features: SSO, advanced admin, HIPAA compliance, big-team workflows.
• You want a native mobile app for sending documents on the go.
• Your company has strong brand loyalty to Dropbox and your procurement process prefers known vendors.
• You need deep Salesforce or HubSpot integration at the CRM level.

Pick CanUSign if:

• You're a freelancer, solo founder, or small business and you just want to send contracts without a per-user monthly subscription.
• You send enough contracts to justify the unlimited Pro plan but not enough to justify Dropbox Sign Standard.
• You need API access without paying for a separate product line.
• You value simplicity over feature depth. CanUSign has everything most people actually use, without the bloat.
• You want the option to pay per-document rather than commit to a subscription.

My honest take

I've used HelloSign, then Dropbox Sign, then CanUSign, in roughly that order, over the last six years. Each of them did the job.

HelloSign had heart. Dropbox Sign has polish and a platform. CanUSign has focus and price.

For my current workflow (small team, API integration, maybe 80-100 contracts a month, don't use Dropbox), CanUSign comes out cheaper than Dropbox Sign's equivalent plan, mostly because the team seats and the API are not billed separately. Run your own numbers against the pricing page. For a freelancer doing 10 contracts a month, the gap is smaller but the simplicity is real.

Would I still recommend Dropbox Sign to some people? Yeah, absolutely. If you're a 50-person company living inside Dropbox already, don't switch. The integration cost alone isn't worth it.

But if you're starting out, if you're a small team, if you're a developer who needs API access without a separate enterprise contract, or if you just don't want to pay for features you'll never use, give CanUSign a look. The first document is free, and the Pro plan can be cancelled anytime.

You can try it free at canusign.com. No credit card required, and if you just need to sign something someone sent you, signing is always free.

Good luck with your contracts.