What is a digital signature?
A digital signature is a secure, unique, and paperless alternative to wet ink signatures Digital signatures prevent digital document tampering, forged signatures, and impersonation.
Digital signatures use cryptographic techniques to guarantee that the digital document and its contents are secure in transit and at rest. They also trace the signer’s identity, the sign time, and the authenticity of the signature, amongst other benefits.
What is a digital contract?
A digital contract is a legally binding, digital agreement between two or more parties. With digital contracts, you can say goodbye to manual paperwork and management. Instead you can author, collaborate, negotiate, approve, track, terminate, and renew contracts digitally.
Zoho Sign is a comprehensive digital signature tool that you can use to generate digital contracts. Generate reusable contract templates, negotiate with counterparties, obtain digital signatures, design signing workflows, collect payments, terminate contracts, and store documents securely using Zoho Sign.
Signing your contract digitally with Zoho Sign means:
Signing with military-grade AES-256 backed encryption and restricting access using multi-factor authentication.
Negotiating and editing contracts in real time.
Automating your personalized signing workflow, from auto-filling recipients to editing end signature blocks.
Complying with legally enforceable digital signature laws and guidelines across regions and countries like HIPAA, GDPR, ETA, ITA-2000, and more.
Reducing document turnaround time and contract tampering or loss.
Executing contracts anywhere, anytime: from your desktops, mobile phones, or web browsers.
The role of digital signatures in digital contracts
Digital signatures are must-haves in contract lifecycle management (CLM) today. As businesses increasingly engage in contractual negotiations both locally and internationally, signing contracts physically is no longer a considerable option. Digital signatures become a more secure, faster, easier and eco-friendly alternative.
Moreover, digital signature solutions like Zoho Sign are compliant with regional and international digital signature laws and regulations, making them flexible to use anywhere, anytime. You can even sign on the go using Zoho Sign for your mobile devices. Contract execution no longer needs to be a ping-pong game of email negotiations and reminders; opt for a comprehensive digital signature solution like Zoho Sign to automate your CLM’s signing needs.
CLM made easy with Zoho Sign
Seamless contract execution
Generate, customize, sign
- Generate reusable and signable templates using Zoho Sign.
- Retain your brand identity by customizing the templates.
- Sign contracts yourself or bulk send your contracts to hundreds of recipients for signing. Recipients don't have to have a Zoho Sign account to sign your contracts.
Better control over execution
Manage access and controls
- Assign roles for your signatories. Signatories can view, sign, or approve the contract as witnesses.
- Send private messages to your signatories and customize the signing order for your recipients.
- Choose where to store contracts, its recipients, and other post-sign workflow functions using Deluge.
- Granularly track the signing status and signature activities for contracts sent for signatures. See the previous signing cycles, and edit or renew contracts. Generate automated reports using Zoho Sign to analyze your contract signing history.
Accelerate execution with automation
Auto-fill data and automate signing workflows.
- Configure signing workflows and set them as default signing workflows. Auto-send post-signing emails and reminders to sign, set signing deadlines, and automate post-signing storage by using Zoho Sign for Zoho Contracts.
- Automate all aspects of your signing process, such as predetermining authentication codes and methods, automatically adding fields using text tags, auto-filling the recipients list using the bulk send feature, and auto-populating fields by merging with data sources.
- Reduce up to 80% of contract turnaround time by automating your custom digital signing process.
Secure. Swift. Paperless. Choose Zoho Sign
Try it now Request DemoFrequently Asked Questions
Are digital signatures legally valid?
Yes, digital signatures are legally valid and enforceable in most regions. You can verify the legality status of digital signatures in your region here.
Is digitally signing your digital contracts safe?
Digitally signing your digital contracts is absolutely safe. In fact, digitally signing contracts is safer than physically signing them. Digital signatures use cryptographic techniques to protect digital contracts from tampering, interception and forgery. Learn how digital signatures safeguard your documents here.
How can Zoho Sign help in digital signing?
Zoho Sign is a comprehensive, legally binding, and user-friendly digital signature tool offered by Zoho. With Zoho Sign, you can securely sign documents online, collect signatures from recipients, manage signing workflows, recall signature requests, track documents, and store them securely on your devices or in the cloud. Zoho Sign can be used on the go via the native mobile and desktop apps available on all popular operating systems. Learn more about our features and benefits here.
Do you offer a free trial?
Yes, you can try all Zoho Sign features with our 14-day Enterprise trial for free.
Can I use Zoho Sign for contract lifecycle management (CLM)?
Yes, Zoho Sign can be used for CLM. From authoring a contract to automatically reminding recipients, Zoho Sign offers a range of features for CLM. Zoho Sign is also part of Zoho Contracts, our contract management app. If you are using a different solution for CLM, you can integrate Zoho Sign with your existing solution for digital signatures via our APIs.
Does Zoho Sign offer AES and QES?
Yes, Zoho Sign offers both advanced electronic signatures (AES) and qualified electronic signatures (QES).
AES are digital signatures where the signer's identity is authenticated through one of various methods, such as producing a government-issued ID or entering a unique identity verification code. Zoho Sign integrates with regional and national IDs, such as e-Aadhaar and Singpass, and trust service providers (TSP) like TrustFactory.
QES are advanced electronic signatures that require the digital signature certificate to be issued by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) with a qualified signature creation device (QSCD). QES is the only type of digital signature that is considered legally equivalent to wet ink signatures in the European Union. Zoho Sign can be integrated with QTSPs like itsme, Swisscom, Uanataca, and InfoCert, and also with regional IDs like the European Union eID.