[opensourcedex]

OpenSign is a free, open source document management & e-signatures project written in JavaScript and released under a custom open-source licence. It has 7,002 GitHub stars, 824 forks and 148 open issues, and was last pushed 28 days ago. On this registry it ranks #6 of 18 tracked projects in Document Management & E-Signatures, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 16 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

What is OpenSign?

What it is

OpenSign is a free and open source document e-signing application built in JavaScript, positioned by its maintainers as an alternative to commercial platforms such as DocuSign, PandaDoc, SignNow, Adobe Sign, Smartwaiver, SignRequest, HelloSign and Zoho Sign. It lives in the business software ecosystem, specifically the document management and e-signature category, and its topic list places it alongside digital-signature, electronic-signature, esign, legaltech and hacktoberfest projects. The project is distributed through a GitHub repository under the opensignlabs organisation, with a companion website at opensignlabs.com that also offers a cloud hosted free version.

The concrete problem it addresses is cost and lock-in in the e-signature market. Commercial signing platforms charge per seat or per envelope, which makes high-volume or occasional signing expensive for small businesses, legal teams and individuals. OpenSign provides the same core workflow — sending a PDF, collecting signatures, tracking completion — without a per-document fee, and it can be self-hosted so that signed documents and audit records stay under the operator's control rather than a vendor's. It also targets the gap left by other open source signing tools, which the README argues lack multi-signer sequencing, guest verification and template management.

Key capabilities

  • Secure PDF e-signing with encryption, allowing unlimited documents to be signed, including on the cloud hosted free version.
  • Document annotation through an advanced signing pad supporting hand drawn signatures, uploaded signature images, typed signatures and saved signatures.
  • Multi-signer support, including invitations by signing link and enforcement of a defined signing sequence.
  • Email unique code (OTP) verification for guest signers, so a guest can only sign after entering a code sent to their email address.
  • Expiring documents and rejection with reason, where a document can be set to expire after a number of days and a signer can decline with an explanation shared with the sender.
  • Customisable email templates for signing invitations, completion notifications and reminders.
  • PDF template creation for repeated use, plus OpenSign Drive, a centralised vault for storing, signing, organising, sharing and archiving documents.
  • Audit trails and a completion certificate, with detailed logs retained for tracking.

Who uses it and how

  • Businesses replacing a paid e-signature subscription use it to send contracts and collect signatures without per-envelope charges.
  • Teams handling recurring paperwork create PDF templates once and reuse them to collect signatures repeatedly.
  • Organisations inviting external parties rely on signing links and OTP verification so guest signers can sign securely without an account.
  • Legal and compliance-oriented users depend on audit trails and completion certificates to evidence who signed what and when.
  • Administrators managing document volume use OpenSign Drive as a central vault for storing, sharing and archiving signed files.

Getting started

The README documents an Installation section for running the software yourself, and a cloud hosted free version is available at opensignlabs.com for users who prefer not to deploy anything. Help docs, API docs and a Discord community are linked from the repository.

When to use it — and when not to

OpenSign is a reasonable choice when the goal is to avoid the recurring cost of DocuSign, PandaDoc, SignNow, Adobe Sign

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

The free and open source alternative to DocuSign

Average time to resolve an issue All Contributors GitHub commit activity (branch) GitHub last commit (by committer)

Website   •   Help Docs   •   API Docs   •   Blog   •   Discord   •   Twitter   •   LinkedIn

The premier open source document signing solution(DocuSign alternative)

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Features
  3. Installation
  4. Usage
  5. Contribution Guidelines
  6. License
  7. Acknowledgments

Please star ⭐ the repo to support us! 😀

Introduction

Welcome to OpenSign, the premier open source docusign alternative - document e-signing solution designed to provide a secure, reliable and free alternative to commercial esign platforms like DocuSign, PandaDoc, SignNow, Adobe Sign, Smartwaiver, SignRequest, HelloSign & Zoho sign. Our mission is to democratize the document signing process, making it accessible and straightforward for everyone.

Features

  • Secure PDF E-Signing: With the help of robust encryption algorithms, OpenSign™ ensures maximum security, privacy & compatibility. Now sign unlimited documents even on the cloud hosted free version of OpenSign.
  • Annotate Documents: OpenSign™ allows you to annotate PDF documents with an advanced signing pad that allows hand drawn signatures, uploaded images, typed signatures & saved signatures for the simplest open source document signing experience ever.
  • User-Friendly Interface: OpenSign™ was built while keeping Intuitive design in mind for ease of use. Features like "Sign yourself", "Templates", "One click signatures" and "OpenSign™ Drive" makes it stand out of the crowd and even makes it better than a lot of so-called industry leaders. OpenSign intends to provide the best document signing experience in the open source ecosystem.
  • Multi-signer Support: OpenSign's ability to invite multiple signers for signing along with the ability to invite by sharing signing links & being able to enforce signing in a sequence makes it the only open source solution that is fully loaded and allows it to compete head-to-head with established players in e-signature space.
  • Email Unique Code(OTP) verification support for guest signers: With OpenSign™, your documents are fully secure even when being signed by guest users. Guest signers can only sign the document after entering a unique code sent to their email address. 
  • "Expiring Docs" & "Rejection": You can set documents to expire after certain number of days after which nobody will be able to sign. Not just this, OpenSign™ also allows signers to reject signing a document with a reason that will be promptly shared with the sender.
  • Beautiful email templates: All document signing invitations, completion notifications & reminders are formatted using great looking email templates. Not just this, you are even allowed to customise the email templates making your free document signing invitations look the way you always wanted them to be.
  • PDF Template Creation: OpenSign™ allows you to create and store PDF document templates for repeated use thereby saving you a lot of time & collect e-signatures seamlessly.
  • OpenSign™ Drive: It is a centralised secure vault for your digital documents that makes storing, signing, organizing, sharing & archieving your docs a breeze.
  • Audit Trails & completion certificate: Being a security focused solution, OpenSign™ makes it a top priority to save detailed logs for tracking document activities along with time-stamps, IP addresses, email IDs & phone numbers. A completion certificate is generated as soon as document is completed which contains all the document related logs for added safety.
  • API Support: OpenSign™ API allows seamless integration into existing systems and software. You can generate an API key from the app and refer the official API docs to start integrating it in your existing applications.
  • Integrations: The open source document signing experience becomes even more seamless because of integrations with various Cloud storage systems, CRMs & enterprise platforms. We also have a Zapier integration that allows you to integrate it with virtually any application.
Login page Dash_board Widgets Request Signature Create template Manage_Template Folders OpenSign_Confetti

Deploy

Note: The default MongoDB instance used in deployment is not persistant and will be cleared on every restart. To retain your data, configure and supply your own MongoDB connection URL.

DigitalOcean

Deploy on DigitalOcean

Docker

The simplest way to install OpenSign on your own server is using official docker images by running the following command -

Command for linux/MacOS

export HOST_URL=https://opensign.yourdomain.com && curl --remote-name-all https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/Caddyfile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/.env.local_dev && mv .env.local_dev .env.prod && docker compose up --force-recreate

Command for Windows (Powershell)

$env:HOST_URL="https://opensign.yourdomain.com"; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/docker-compose.yml -OutFile docker-compose.yml; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/Caddyfile -OutFile Caddyfile; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/.env.local_dev -OutFile .env.local_dev; Rename-Item -Path .env.local_dev -NewName .env.prod; docker compose up --force-recreate

Command for Windows (CMD/Terminal)

set HOST_URL=https://opensign.yourdomain.com && curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/docker-compose.yml && curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/Caddyfile && curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign/main/.env.local_dev && rename .env.local_dev .env.prod && docker compose up --force-recreate

Make sure that you have Docker and git installed before you run this command -

Please refer to the Installation Guide for detailed instructions on how to install OpenSign o

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenSign free to use?

OpenSign is open source. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does OpenSign do?

Secure, customizable e-signatures for modern businesses

What is OpenSign written in?

OpenSign is primarily written in JavaScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign, and it has 7,002 GitHub stars.