Today’s customers expect convenience, quick turnarounds, and access to tech that makes life easier. Perhaps that’s why spending on digital transformation technologies worldwide reached $2.16 trillion in 2023. Teams looking for e-signature solutions often flock to industry titans like PandaDoc or DocuSign for help keeping up with customer needs. Still, the great PandaDoc vs. DocuSign debate is overshadowed by a third contender: CDP. Our eSign software and other digital tools make it simple to say goodbye to the need for wet ink signatures and countless hours spent mailing documents and organizing materials.
PandaDoc vs. DocuSign vs. CDP: Which is Best?
PandaDoc and DocuSign are some of the biggest names in the game, but bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Let’s take a closer look at what each e-signature service provider has to offer.
CDP eSign
eSign is one of CDP’s several digital technology solutions. It’s designed to make it simple for members and employees alike to sign checks, legal forms, and other documents electronically.
Who It’s For
Something that sets eSign apart is its emphasis on ease of use. CDP’s digital tools have been created with small to medium financial institutions, government offices, and similar settings in mind.
Our tech is comprehensive yet beginner-friendly. If your institution or business has yet to digitize, you might feel overwhelmed by the idea of implementing e-signature solutions. Likewise, if you’re a smaller organization, you likely don’t have the people or resources to manage a heavy learning curve.
Our mission is to provide services that help you grow and thrive without requiring a huge amount of hands-on training and work on your end.
How it Works
At CDP, we don’t believe in a “one size fits all” approach to digital transformation. Our focus is on helping you customize a service plan that fits your goals.
You tell us what you’re struggling with, what you’d like to improve – including seamless, timely e-signatures – and your business goals. From there, we’ll create a custom demo to showcase which digital tools we think are right for you.
Once we’ve ironed out all the details, including any additional services you may need, we’ll create a game plan. You’ll be walked through a step-by-step proposal plan by our team so that you have a chance to ask questions and discuss how pricing works.
Finally, you’ll be ready to implement your eSign tech into your daily workflow! But we won’t stop there. CDP offers ongoing support and training to help you seamlessly incorporate your new e-signature software into the workplace.
Key Features
Access everything you need to request and use digital signatures in one place with CDP. In addition to being fully customizable and user-friendly, CDP’s eSign tool is:
- Completely mobile
- Flexible: access easy integration with our other software solutions to fully manage your digital transformation
- Clean, clear, and fast
- Transparent: you won’t find any hidden fees here, nor will any of the essential features you need be locked behind additional paywalls
Accessibility: Is it Easy to Use?
eSign is only one piece of the puzzle here at CDP. However, since your tech solutions are customized to your needs, you never have to take on more than you want or can handle. That means that you can stick to eSign itself if you’d like to keep things as simple as possible.
To make eSign and our other tech as user-friendly as possible, we’ve created dozens of resources that walk you through utilizing them. You’ll get access to step-by-step user guides, ongoing group webinars, and one-on-one support that helps you stay compliant and efficient.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc is another digital technology provider that offers e-signature capabilities in its dense collection of tools. While PandaDoc may have more features than we could list at once, it’s so big that it’s often overwhelming to new users.
Who It’s For
PandaDoc positions itself as a solution for any organization or business, but many of its services are specifically aimed at sales teams. What is arguably PandaDoc’s biggest strength, though, is not easy e-signature tools but the ability to create interactive documents.
How it Works
When you sign up for PandaDoc, you’re not just signing up for an e-signature solution. You’re also signing up for document setup and customization features, too. And while digital signing on these documents is possible with a basic plan, it’s not necessarily the focus of the platform.
The features you can use vary based on your plan. There are a few tiers to choose from, and the full range of services and additional support features are locked behind more expensive plans.
Accessibility: Is it Easy to Use?
PandaDoc is a huge company, which means they offer nearly any digital technology tool you can imagine. But all that variety can prove to be more confusing than helpful. Many who have used PandaDoc report that its numerous features can easily become overkill, especially for organizations that are specifically looking to capture electronic signatures.
Another downside of the sheer scale of PandaDoc is a lack of support. For one thing, PandaDoc charges extra for access to live support from real people; their “premium” support services only come with the most expensive plans.
Likewise, a good portion of the security and compliance features PandaDoc is capable of offering are locked away for members with basic plans. If you run into an issue or can’t figure out how to use PandaDoc, getting timely support that actually addresses your specific issues can be a real challenge.
DocuSign
Our final option is DocuSign, which is also a well-established player in the industry that offers e-signature tools. For many smaller teams, the DocuSign vs. PandaDoc debate doesn’t necessarily seem to have a clear winner. In general, DocuSign is a little less overwhelming than PandaDoc – but only at the expense of its features, which are pretty sparse.
Who It’s For
As a simpler tool, DocuSign aims to target both individuals and organizations that need to digitize their documents. Its main goal is to help people save time on signing, printing, and scanning documents, but it isn’t exactly built to be an all-in-one digital transformation tool.
How it Works
DocuSign offers standard options for creating digital signatures, but with a basic plan, you’ll be limited to sending just five “envelopes” per month. An envelope, in this case, is essentially a “package” or collection of documents you need a party to sign. That means that you’re only allowed to send a small handful of materials per month!
Like PandaDoc, DocuSign is subscription-based. The more you pay, the more features you can access. However, that creates a significant gap in service quality. Even with a mid-tier plan designed for small-to-medium teams, you’ll still have to pay per use and won’t get access to things like live support or enhanced security.
Accessibility: Is it Easy to Use?
DocuSign gets some points for its relative simplicity compared to PandaDoc. There are far fewer tools and features to navigate in general. But for what you pay to access DocuSign, you don’t get as much value as you might expect.
You’ll need to purchase an “enhanced” plan to access services that help your e-signature system stay afloat over time. The way we see it, security features and ongoing support shouldn’t have to be considered “premium” services.
DocuSign vs. PandaDoc vs. CDP: The Final Verdict
When all is said and done, the choice between PandaDoc, DocuSign, and personalized tools like CDP probably comes down to your needs. Let’s see how each option stacks up in terms of features that are especially important for financial institutions or organizations new to the world of digital tech.
Only CDP is Designed to Help You Grow
PandaDoc and DocuSign aren’t “bad” options, but many of their potential benefits are only accessible if you’re ready to commit to a full-blown premium subscription. The problem with this is that these high-end plans are optimized for large teams, businesses, and corporations.
Large companies like PandaDoc or DocuSign are understandably committed to chasing big accounts that yield the best return on investment. But where does that leave those of us in the middle of the pack?
Small-to-medium teams already juggle enough different tasks as it is. The last thing you need is to spend weeks or even months trying to learn how to use your tech for something essential like e-signatures. Plus, having to fork over extra cash just to access fundamental support features that your team may need to manage this process makes it even harder to see digitizing as approachable.
CDP does things differently. We’re here to be your advocate, your teachers, and your shoulder to lean on. For over 20 years, CDP has worked with hundreds of small-to-medium finance businesses and helped them discover the right technology to support growth.
We know that choosing the right e-signature software is only the first step toward success. CDP takes care of employee training and troubleshooting for you so that you can focus on giving your customers the personal service you’re known for – plus the convenience and speed of technology.
So, the question may not be who comes out on top of the PandaDoc vs. DocuSign debate but who delivers services tailored to your needs.
The answer is clear: CDP is the best choice for accessible digital signature solutions made specifically for you. To learn more about eSign and our other tools, contact us today to set up a demo.
