- On-premise and cloud digital signing- An overview
- On-premise and cloud digital signing- Key differences
- Benefits of choosing Zoho Sign
- Top features
- Pricing plans- A breakdown
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On-premise digital signature solutions and cloud-based digital signature solutions: What is the difference?
When you're investing in a digital signature tool to streamline your document signing process, enhance security, and drive digital transformation, one of its main components must be flexibility. This enables you to align the solution with your company's unique needs.
Zoho Sign understands this and wants to help you in your evaluation journey with factual, comprehensible information.
What is an on-premise digital signature solution?
An on-premise solution refers to software that is installed and hosted on your organization's own servers and infrastructure. In this setup, your IT team is responsible for maintaining the software, managing data security, and ensuring compliance with any relevant regulations.
What is a cloud-based digital signature solution?
A cloud-based solution is hosted on external servers managed by a third-party provider, such as Zoho Sign, and is accessed via the internet. In this setup, the provider handles all aspects of software maintenance, security, and updates, allowing your organization to focus on core business activities.
Here's a comparison that highlights why a cloud-based digital signature solution like Zoho Sign is the smartest choice you can make for your organization:
| Key factors | Cloud-based digital signature solution | On-premise digital signature solution |
| Deployment | Requires only minimal upfront costs with no need for expensive hardware. | Requires substantial upfront investment with expensive hardware and software tools. |
| Maintenance and cost efficiency | Hosted and managed by the third-party provider, meaning no maintenance or manual updates are required on your part. | Requires constant maintenance and updates with a dedicated IT staff to manage the system, which can be expensive. |
| Accessibility and mobility | Access your documents anywhere, at any time, using any device with a simple internet connection. | Access is limited to the office environment or similar setups, which can restrict flexibility and mobility. |
| Security and compliance | Enterprise-grade security with advanced military-grade encryption, secure authentication, and global compliance. | Security is entirely your responsibility, requiring constant investments in securing servers, backups, and ensuring legal compliance. |
| Flexibility and innovation | Affordable subscription costs with little to no additional costs during product updates and improvements, which allows your business to scale up as it grows. | System upgrades and new updates often come with additional costs, which can affect the scaling up process as your business grows. |
With your documents protected and your data encrypted by the latest security protocols, you can focus on the core of your business while Zoho Sign handles the technical side.
Why choose Zoho Sign over other alternatives?
| Features | Zoho Sign | DocuSign | Adobe Sign |
| Unlimited contract signing, storage, and templates | |||
| Tighter integration with Zoho apps and third-party apps | |||
| Qualified electronic signatures (QES) for contract signing | |||
| Blockchain-based timestamping | |||
| Free migration and onboarding assistance | |||
| Free technical support |
Secure, legal, and simplified digital signing
Swift signing workflows
Zoho Sign makes your signing process a breeze. Set up specified access controls to maintain confidentiality, send and sign documents, collaborate effortlessly, and maintain a detailed trail of each and every action performed. Automate your document management process in just a few clicks.
Legally valid and secure
With us, your signature workflows are always secure. All data within Zoho Sign is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Zoho Sign helps you comply with industry regulations such as GDPR and GMP Annex 11 in the European Union, and CCPA, HIPAA, and Title 21 CFR part 11 in the United States. To learn more, read our legality guide.
Integrate with your favorite applications
Zoho Sign offers integrations with other Zoho software and many third-party applications, including those that offer services in CRM, cloud storage, and workflow automation. You can also build custom integrations with our REST APIs, mobile SDKs, and webhooks to simplify document signing at your company. Explore integrations
Sign from anywhere
With Zoho Sign, you can sign, manage, and track your documents from wherever you are. No more physical limitations that come along with manual signing—carry your contracts right within the app. Sign and collect signatures on the go, whether you're at work, on the subway, or at home.
Sign documents digitally with Zoho Sign
Top performer in analyst reports
Features at a glance
Sign documents
Digitally sign documents yourself or send documents and collect signatures from anyone.
"It is an excellent tool that facilitates legal processes, they can sign several documents with a single click."
Juan Vinay,Java Software Engineer, Adveritas
Configure workflows
Set the signing order while sending a document to multiple recipients, and send multiple documents in one envelope for even greater efficiency.
"The workflow process provided for signing documents is very easy to setup and understand."
Jaideep T,Head of Product, Glide Invest
Track document status
Track your document through every step of the document signing process.
"The status and notification features are great for staying in tune with docs that are out to be signed and those that I still need to sign."
Ben G,Senior Account Executive, Small Business Owner
Custom branding
Incorporate your brand's image and add authenticity to your signer communications with customized logos and emails.
"Zoho Sign has allowed me as a leader to be more efficient when onboarding new employees, contractors, and partners."
Kenny Schiff,Founder and Managing Partner, CareSight LLC
Granular access controls
Take control of app-wide data access. Assign custom roles and permission profiles to users and user groups across your Zoho Sign organization.
"Zoho Sign has significantly increased our operational efficiency and streamlined our onboarding process, eliminating the delays from collecting physical signatures."
Heshan J Peiris,Founder and CTO, Kreader
Reusable templates
Create personalized templates once and reuse them forever, thus saving time.
"Every month, we keep from printing more than 500 pages and save 13 hours in all this paperwork. Zoho Sign is a must-have app."
Nestor Tejero Bermejo,Chief Executive Officer, Agencia Reinicia
Simple, straightforward pricing
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