How to Use OpenSign: The Beginner's Guide (First Document, the Widget Lesson, Requesting Signatures, and the Certificate Rule)

CodexFuse Team · 2026-11-01T12:51:04.198Z · 12 min read

Learning how to use OpenSign is the fastest way for a freelancer or small team to start collecting e-signatures without paying DocuSign's monthly bill. OpenSign is a free and open-source PDF e-signature platform — billed by its maker, Qik Innovations Private Limited, as "the free and open source alternative to DocuSign" — whose free cloud plan includes unlimited e-signatures and unlimited signed documents, plus an AGPL-licensed self-hosted server if you would rather run it on your own infrastructure.

A quick naming note so you do not land on the wrong product: OpenSign is not Opensignal (the mobile-network coverage app) and not OpenSesame (the psychology experiment software). This opensign tutorial covers only the e-signature platform at opensignlabs.com.

You have two entry points — create the free cloud account and sign your first document in minutes, or self-host OpenSignServer with Docker for full control — and every arc below works on both. If you are surveying the self-hosted e-signature world, our DocuSeal beginner guide covers the sibling lane: DocuSeal is the self-hosted, template-and-SMTP-first e-sign tool, while OpenSign is the free-cloud plus self-hosted DocuSign alternative built around widgets, templates, and a completion certificate on every finished document.

What Is OpenSign?

OpenSign is an open-source e-signature platform that lets you sign PDFs yourself, collect signatures from other people by email, and turn repeat paperwork into reusable templates — with unlimited e-signatures included on its free cloud plan.

The project lives at github.com/OpenSignLabs/OpenSign under the AGPL-3.0 license. At the time of writing it has 7,206 stars and 852 forks across 86 releases, and the current release is v3.1.0, which added undo and redo for widgets; v3.0.0 added QES support and a redesigned interface. Those figures come from the project's GitHub repository, fetched today.

The free plan's headline is real: unlimited e-signatures, unlimited documents signed and stored, free for life. The boundaries you should know before you start: when you collect signatures from others, the free plan includes 15 invitation emails per month, and the request-signatures flow handles one document at a time — bulk send and public signing links are paid features. The official blog's own workaround is honest: copy the signing link and send it yourself for unlimited requests. The opensign request signature flow is where the free plan's one real boundary lives, so plan around the 15-invite cap before you start a big batch. Documents can be up to 10 MB, in PDF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, or DOCX format.

How Do You Sign Your First Document Yourself?

The sign-yourself flow is the shortest path to a signed document, and it takes about two minutes:

1. Log in to your free account and click "Sign yourself" in the left menu or on the dashboard.
2. Upload your file from your computer or Dropbox — it must be 10 MB or smaller.
3. Give the document a title (required), add an optional note, and pick a folder (it defaults to Root), then click Next.
4. In the creation panel, place a Signature widget where you want to sign: draw it with your mouse, upload an image, type your name, or reuse your saved "My Signature". Add other widgets — initials, date, text — wherever the document needs them. The page controls let you add, delete, reorder, rotate, or zoom pages.
5. Click Finish. The "Successfully Signed!" popup confirms the document is sealed.
6. Print it, download it, or email it to whoever needs a copy.

That arc follows the current vendor documentation, verified at write time — the older vendor tutorials floating around are two years old and the interface has moved since.

What Are OpenSign Widgets, and Which Ones Should You Learn?

Here is the one mental-model lesson that makes the whole product click: widgets are the product. Every field any person fills on any document — a signature, a date, a checkbox, a company name — is a widget you drag onto the page, and mastering widgets is what separates a beginner from a power user.

The full widget catalog, verified in the current docs, is: signature, stamp, initials, name, job title, company, date (in multiple formats), text, cells (table-like input), checkbox, image, email, attachment (which lets signers upload supporting files back to you), and QES. There are also prefill widgets — dropdown, radio button, and draw — and signature pens come in red, blue, and black. Most beginners only ever need four: signature, initials, date, and text. Learn those four well and you can sign anything the free plan throws at you.

How Do You Request Signatures from Other People?

Requesting signatures is the core freelancer workflow — sending a client contract and getting it back signed:

1. Start a new document and choose request signatures.
2. Add your signers with name, email, and optionally phone. Assign each a role: Signer, Approver, or Viewer.
3. Choose the signing order: "Send in Order" yes or no, with an option to enforce a strict order.
4. Set the Time To Complete in days — this field is required, and the document expires after it lapses.
5. Optional: BCC or CC people on the completion emails, set a redirect URL, or enable the signer tour that walks recipients through the document.
6. Send. Each signer gets an email link and signs in their browser.

The lesson worth stating once: your signers do not need an OpenSign account. They open the email link and sign as guests, verifying with an email OTP link — the official homepage states this plainly: "Bring multiple people into the signing process at no extra cost." They can also reject the document with a reason, which you will see in the tracking view.

On the free plan, the boundary to remember is the 15 invitation emails per month for collecting signatures from others — copy the signing link and send it yourself when you run out. Paid-only options in this flow include automatic reminders (up to 15, sent every N days), OTP email verification, allowing signer modifications, offline signing uploads, and merging the completion certificate into the final PDF. You can also set an optional 6-digit numeric access code per signer for extra link security.

How Do Templates Turn Repeat Contracts into One-Click Paperwork?

If you send the same NDA, contractor agreement, or intake form every month, opensign templates are where OpenSign pays for itself:

1. Open Templates and choose Create template, then upload your source document (PDF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, or DOCX).
2. Give it a title and description, and set the defaults: send-in-order, auto reminders, OTP verification, and the signer tour.
3. Add roles — for example Candidate, HR, and Manager — and assign the right widgets to each role on the page.
4. Save. Every future send pre-fills the roles and widget layout; you just name the signers.

Templates also unlock the paid distribution lanes: bulk send (1 credit per document), embedding the signing flow in your own site with React, HTML, JS, or Angular components (1 credit per signed document), and a public URL toggle. On paid plans you can set a public profile — username plus tagline — so public templates can be signed by anyone via a link, no account needed.

How Do You Track Documents and Download the Completion Certificate?

The rule to tattoo on your workflow: always download the completion certificate with every signed document. OpenSign generates it automatically when signing completes, and it is the audit trail — timestamps, IP addresses, email IDs, phone numbers, and access logs for every action on the document. You can download it separately, have it merged into the final PDF (merging is a paid option), and it is emailed to you alongside the signed document.

Day-to-day tracking lives in two places: the Reports section for status overviews, and the OpenSign Drive explorer for browsing documents like files. Owners get a completion email with the signed document and certificate attached, and a paid "Notify on signatures" option emails the owner as each individual signer completes.

OpenSign vs DocuSign: Which Should a Small Team Pick?

OpenSign's official site positions it directly as "the free and open source alternative to DocuSign," so the honest comparison is where each product's free tier ends:

Two honesty notes on that table: OpenSign publishes no official side-by-side comparison, and the DocuSign figures come from a third-party SourceForge comparison fetched today, not from DocuSign's own site — treat them as directional, and verify current DocuSign pricing yourself before deciding. For a freelancer sending a handful of contracts a month, this free docusign alternative wins outright; the paid decision only starts to matter when you need bulk sending, public signing links, API-driven documents, or QES.

What Does the OpenSign API Unlock?

The API (currently v1.2) is the paid-plan lane for developers: it issues Live and Sandbox tokens, the sandbox is free on all plans, and a Live token requires a paid plan. Self-hosted API use requires a paid self-hosted plan, and a Zapier integration exists for no-code wiring. The credit system works like this: credits are consumed only by documents sent via API, bulk send, public or sharable links, kiosk mode, and website embeds — one credit per document, with up to 10 signers each. Professional costs $9.99 per month and includes 100 premium credits monthly (240 credits per year on annual billing); Teams costs $19.99 per user per month with 500 credits per year; Enterprise is request-a-price. Extra credits are $0.15 each. All of those figures come from the official OpenSign blog and pricing pages, fetched today.

One boundary to state once: QES — qualified electronic signatures — is available only on paid plans, costs 10 API credits per QES document signing, and uses country-specific qualified signing methods through integrated providers. Countries, providers, and steps change, so the account UI is the source of truth; do not trust any third-party country list you find.

How Do You Self-Host OpenSign with Docker?

Because the codebase is AGPL-3.0, self-hosting is fully above board, and the official opensign docker flow is a short one — this is the opensign self hosted lane, for teams that want no cloud account and no usage limits. Set your HOST_URL, pull the docker-compose.yml, Caddyfile, and .env.local_dev files from the GitHub main branch, rename the env file to .env.prod, and run docker compose up. The app lands at https://localhost:3001 (accept the certificate warning), with the API at http://localhost:8080/app and MongoDB at mongodb://mongo-container:27017/OpenSignDB.

Two infrastructure warnings from the official docs: never expose port 27017 — the bundled MongoDB has no authentication by default — and configure real storage and email before inviting anyone. Storage goes to S3 or DigitalOcean Spaces via environment variables, or USE_LOCAL=true for local disk; email goes through Mailgun or your own SMTP. A DigitalOcean 1-click deploy exists if you want the server without the compose wrangling. If the compose file looks intimidating, our Docker beginner guide teaches the commands it assumes, the Caddy beginner guide explains the reverse proxy sitting in front of it, and what is VPS hosting helps you pick the server it runs on.

7 Beginner Mistakes to Avoid with OpenSign

Sources

Every fact above was verified from a page fetched today, 2026-11-01: the official OpenSign site and pricing pages (opensignlabs.com), the OpenSign documentation (docs.opensignlabs.com — sign-yourself, request-signatures, templates, API token, and Docker self-host pages), the official OpenSign blog post on unlimited signatures and the credit system, the GitHub repository OpenSignLabs/OpenSign and its releases page (7,206 stars, 852 forks, AGPL-3.0, v3.1.0), the vendor's dev.to walkthroughs (opensign001), and a third-party SourceForge comparison for the directional DocuSign pricing figures, flagged as such in the article.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OpenSign really free?

Yes — the free cloud plan includes unlimited e-signatures and unlimited signed documents stored, free for life. The limits are: 15 invitation emails per month when collecting signatures from others, 10 MB maximum document size, and one-at-a-time request sending. Bulk send, public signing links, API documents, and QES are paid.

Do the people I send documents to need an OpenSign account?

No. Recipients open the email link and sign as guests, verifying with an email OTP link. OpenSign's own homepage states that multiple people can join the signing process at no extra cost and without a license.

Can I self-host OpenSign instead of using the cloud?

Yes. The codebase is AGPL-3.0 and the official path is a Docker Compose deploy — pull the compose file, Caddyfile, and env template from the GitHub main branch and run docker compose up. Never expose the bundled MongoDB port 27017, and configure S3 or local storage plus Mailgun or SMTP email before going live.

Is OpenSign a legal alternative to DocuSign?

OpenSign positions itself as the free and open source alternative to DocuSign, and every completed document gets a completion certificate with timestamps, IPs, emails, and access logs as an audit trail. For qualified signatures, the paid plans support QES at 10 API credits per signing, with country-specific methods — but this article is not legal advice, so confirm enforceability for your jurisdiction before relying on it.

How is OpenSign different from DocuSeal?

Both are open-source e-signature tools, but they sit in different lanes: DocuSeal is the self-hosted, template-and-SMTP-first tool, while OpenSign is the free-cloud plus self-hosted DocuSign alternative with a wider widget catalog, a public-template lane, and an API credit system. Our DocuSeal guide covers the other lane in the same depth if you want to compare hands-on.