5 Best HelloSign Alternatives in 2026 (Free, EU-Hosted)

# HelloSign Is Now Dropbox Sign: Best Alternatives 2026

TL;DR

HelloSign no longer exists. Dropbox acquired it in January 2019 and rebranded it to Dropbox Sign in August 2022. The product still works, but pricing changed, the free tier shrank to 3 requests per month, and you now need a Dropbox account.

If you are looking at HelloSign alternatives in 2026, the right pick depends on what you actually need:

• EU hosting + GDPR + eIDAS → SignQuick (€15/mo, Frankfurt + EU Postgres)
• Free tier for freelancers → SignWell (free, simple UI)
• Open-source / self-hosted → Documenso (MIT license)
• Enterprise / Fortune 500 procurement → DocuSign
• Cheapest paid plan → SignNow ($8/mo)

Below: what actually changed in the rebrand, why people leave, and a comparison table with real numbers.

What changed when HelloSign became Dropbox Sign

The transition happened in three steps:

• January 2019 — Dropbox acquires HelloSign for $230 million.
• 2019-2022 — Product runs under the HelloSign name, integrated into Dropbox.
• August 2022 — Official rebrand to Dropbox Sign. Domain redirected, logo changed, billing migrated.

What that meant for users:

• Free tier shrank from "30 days unlimited then 3/mo" to a straight 3 signature requests per month.
• Dropbox account required for new sign-ups. The standalone HelloSign account flow is gone.
• Pricing nudged up. Essentials moved to $20/mo, Standard to $30/mo per user (billed annually).
• API kept the same endpoints during the transition, but the brand and docs now live under dropbox.com/sign.

The product itself is fine. The problem is that a lot of people who originally chose HelloSign chose it *because* it was not Dropbox.

Why people look for HelloSign alternatives in 2026

Three reasons keep coming up in our HelloSign comparison data:

1. EU data residency. Dropbox Sign is hosted on AWS US East. For European agencies handling client contracts, that triggers GDPR transfer questions (Schrems II, Standard Contractual Clauses). EU-hosted competitors avoid the conversation entirely.

2. Forced Dropbox bundling. You cannot sign up for Dropbox Sign without a Dropbox account. Teams that already use Google Drive or OneDrive see this as friction with no upside.

3. White-label gap. Dropbox Sign does not offer agency white-labelling at any tier. If you want to sell e-signature under your own brand, you have to leave.

Best for EU-hosted and GDPR: SignQuick

Honest pitch: this is our product. We built it because we ran an agency, hit the Dropbox Sign EU-hosting wall, and could not find anything between "DocuSign enterprise" and "open-source DIY."

• Hosted in Europe — AWS Frankfurt + dedicated EU Postgres VPS, no US transfers.
• eIDAS-compliant audit trail with timestamps, IP, and document hash.
• Pricing: Free 5 docs/mo, Starter €15/mo, Pro €29/mo unlimited.
• White-label at €150/mo (Starter) or €300/mo (Pro) — your logo, color, domain.

A Founding Partner cohort at €75/mo on white-label closes end of June 2026 (3 spots left). See pricing.

Skip SignQuick if you need 50+ seats with SSO and a procurement contract — DocuSign is built for that.

Best for solo freelancers: SignWell

SignWell (formerly Docsketch) has the cleanest free tier in the market: 3 documents per month with no card, no Dropbox account, no time limit. Paid starts at $8/mo.

The catch: US-hosted, no eIDAS audit trail, no white-label. Fine for sending a quote to a freelance client. Not fine for a French SARL signing employment contracts.

Best for developers: Documenso

Open-source, MIT licensed, self-hostable. If you want to run e-signature on your own infrastructure — or you want to read the code before trusting it — Documenso is the answer.

The cloud version starts at $30/mo. Self-hosting is free but you pay in ops time (Postgres, S3, certificate renewal, audit-log hardening).

Best for enterprise: DocuSign

The default if you have a procurement team. SOC 2 Type II, 21 CFR Part 11 for pharma, signature workflows for 350+ document types, integrations with Salesforce / Workday / SAP.

Pricing starts at $15/user/month (Personal) but the realistic enterprise tier with SSO, API, and audit reporting is $40+/user/month with annual minimums. Overkill for a 3-person agency.

Best for cheapest paid: SignNow

SignNow (owned by airSlate) starts at $8/user/month for the Business plan. That is the lowest paid entry in this category.

Trade-off: the UI feels older than the others, and the audit trail meets US ESIGN Act but is not eIDAS-qualified by default. Fine for US contractors. Not the right pick if a German auditor is going to look at your trail.

HelloSign alternatives compared

Numbers as of June 2026 from each vendor's public pricing page.

How to migrate from HelloSign / Dropbox Sign

The migration is simpler than vendors make it sound, because there is no contact database to import — every e-signature tool sends documents email-by-email.

The 4-step move:

• Export completed documents. In Dropbox Sign, go to Documents → Select All → Download. You get a ZIP of signed PDFs with embedded audit certificates. Archive these — they are your legal record regardless of which tool you use next.
• Recreate templates. Upload your top 3-5 templates (NDA, MSA, quote, employment contract) to the new tool. Most teams have under 10 active templates.
• Update your email signatures and proposals. Anywhere you link to a HelloSign signing page, update the link.
• Cancel Dropbox Sign at the end of the billing cycle. Your already-signed documents stay accessible via the download in step 1.

For SignQuick specifically, the white-label tier lets agencies migrate clients without re-training them — the signing page just shows your brand.

FAQ

Is HelloSign still free in 2026?

The HelloSign brand no longer exists. Dropbox Sign (the rebrand) has a limited free tier of 3 signature requests per month, and you need a Dropbox account to use it.

Why did HelloSign rebrand to Dropbox Sign?

Dropbox acquired HelloSign in January 2019 for $230 million. In August 2022, Dropbox consolidated branding to integrate it more tightly into the Dropbox ecosystem.

How do I migrate from Dropbox Sign to SignQuick?

Export your completed documents as PDFs, recreate your top 3-5 templates in SignQuick, and start sending new requests. Most teams finish in under an hour.

Is SignQuick cheaper than Dropbox Sign?

Yes. Dropbox Sign Essentials is $20/mo; SignQuick Starter is €15/mo and Pro is €29/mo with unlimited documents.

Does SignQuick offer the same API as HelloSign?

SignQuick has its own REST API with signing requests, templates, webhooks, and audit-trail endpoints. It is not a drop-in HelloSign API replacement, but a typical integration rewrites in a day. For an open-source architectural match, look at Documenso.