The best e-signature app for contractors, compared honestly

What a contractor needs from a signing app

• In-person signing on a phone or tablet, so the homeowner signs the estimate before you load the ladder back on the truck.
• Fast change orders. Rotten decking under the shingles means a new price today, signed before anyone starts tearing it out.
• A price that fits the crew. Per-user pricing adds up once the estimator, the office manager and two foremen all send paperwork.
• A way to handle paper. Insurance scopes, permits and the customer's old contract show up on paper and need to become PDFs.
• Payments, if you want them in the same place. A few tools here collect deposits; most signing apps don't.

The shortlist at a glance

The five, one by one

SignMaster: built for signing at the job

This is the job we built SignMaster for. Crew covers 5 people at one price with unlimited envelopes, in-person signing is on every plan including Free, and the iPhone and iPad app scans paper with Apple's document camera. Signing pages come in 6 languages, Spanish included. Where it falls short: there's no Android app (Android crews use the browser), it doesn't collect deposits, and signing requests go out by email only, though you can copy a signer's link and text it yourself.

Jobber: if you want one app to run the business

Jobber is field-service software first: scheduling, quoting, invoicing and a client hub where customers approve quotes and pay invoices. Its quoting includes signature approvals, and card processing is listed at 2.9% + 30¢. If you want the deposit taken in the same place the quote gets approved, it covers more ground than any signing app here. The trade-off is cost and fit: Core is $29 a month billed annually for one user, and extra users are $29 a month each. Its feature table lists quoting with signature approvals on every plan, Core included.

DocuSign: when the general contractor already uses it

If you're a sub and the GC's paperwork already arrives through DocuSign, using it yourself keeps everyone in one system. Standard costs $25 per user a month billed yearly, or $30 on an annual plan paid monthly, and includes in-person signing, branding and shared templates, and the app runs on iPhone, iPad and Android with camera scanning. For a small crew the catches are the allowance of 100 envelopes per user a year on annual plans, and bulk send, signer attachments and web forms waiting for Business Pro at $40 per user a month billed yearly.

signNow: the lowest sticker price

signNow Business is the cheapest paid plan on this list at $8 a month billed annually, or $20 month to month, for the whole account with unlimited users, and its iOS and Android apps pass the device from signer to signer for in-person signing. Watch the allowance: 100 signature invites a year for the account on annual billing or 10 a month on monthly billing, with each extra invite costing $0.96 on Business. That's fine for a handful of jobs a month and adds up in storm season.

Signeasy: apps on every phone, even offline

Signeasy lists iPhone, iPad and Android apps and offline signing on every plan, which helps in basements and new subdivisions with no signal. In-person signing starts on Business at $20 per seat a month ($240 billed yearly). The entry Personal plan is $10 a seat a month but caps you at 5 emailed contracts a month, and your own branding needs Business Pro at $30 a seat.

Documents contractors send most

• The contractScope, price, payment schedule and start date, signed at the table. Start from a roofing contract or your own PDF.
• Change ordersNew work, new price, new date, signed before the work begins. A change order form keeps it short.
• Estimate acceptanceA one-page yes to the estimate, so the deposit and the schedule rest on something signed.
• Job completion sign-offThe walkthrough at the end, signed on your phone while the customer is standing in the finished room.

Test it on a real job before you commit

1. 1

   Send yesterday's change order

   Take a real change order and send it to your own phone from each app you're weighing. Time it from the truck, not the office.

2. 2

   Hand the phone to someone

   Run an in-person signing with a coworker playing the homeowner. Notice whether they could wander into your other jobs, and how you get the device back.

3. 3

   Price the whole crew for your busiest month

   Multiply per-user prices by everyone who sends, then check the envelope or invite cap against spring, not February.