Cheaper alternative to Yousign: the 2026 comparison
Yousign is a solid solution — but if you're looking for predictable pricing, certified EU hosting and a more flexible API, Certyneo is worth a look. Permanent free plan, 5 envelopes for 14 days, then 2/mo, no credit card required.
Comparison last updated
Why look for an alternative to Yousign?
We read the 184 French-language Trustpilot reviews of Youtrust (formerly Yousign) rated 1 to 3 stars, as collected on 25 September 2026. Three topics each come up in more than one review in four: price, support and cancellation. The cards below explain the causes, checked against Youtrust's public terms and price list.
Cancellation you have to plan ahead
Youtrust's terms of use (version of 2 July 2026) require 15 days' notice on a monthly plan and 30 days' notice on an annual plan, by email. The period already started remains payable, with no pro-rata refund: miss the deadline and you pay for another month — or another year.
Qualified signature: Plus plan required
For a change, a closure or an annual accounts filing, the INPI one-stop shop (Guichet unique, France's business formalities portal) requires FranceConnect+ or an advanced signature based on a qualified certificate. At Youtrust, that level is only available on the Plus and Pro plans (at least €23 excl. VAT per user per month), and each signature costs an extra €15 excl. VAT. For a single formality, expect to pay at least €38 excl. VAT.
Billing per sending user
Beyond the One plan, limited to one user and 10 invitations per month, every person who sends documents adds a seat: €23 excl. VAT per month on Plus, €38 excl. VAT on Pro. The cost tracks the size of the team, not the number of documents sent.
Advanced signature: annual commitment
The advanced signature is only offered on the Plus and Pro plans, as an add-on, and with an annual commitment only. You cannot take it for a single month to cover a one-off need.
An API sold separately
The API is not included in any of the app's plans: it has its own price list, starting at €104 excl. VAT per month. That is the entry ticket to automate your sending.
Ten interface languages
If your signers are outside Western Europe, they will sign in a language that is not theirs — a point of friction at the worst moment of the journey.
Certyneo vs Yousign — quick comparison
Figures taken from the vendors' official websites in September 2026. Yousign® is a registered trademark of Yousign SAS, a French vendor whose data is hosted in the European Union. Re-check these details before committing to a contract.
| Criteria | Certyneo | Yousign |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan (no credit card) | ||
| Per-envelope pricing rather than per sending user | ||
| REST API included in a plan under €20 per month | ||
| Interface available in more than 20 languages | ||
| SES, AES and QES levels (eIDAS) | ||
| Data hosted in the European Union | ||
| Timestamped audit trail and exportable signature evidence |
What you really pay, at equal volume
The two pricing grids cannot be compared line by line: Certyneo charges for sent envelopes, Yousign charges for users who send. The gap therefore only appears once your headcount is set.
| Criterion | Certyneo | Yousign |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes — 5 envelopes per month for 14 days, then 2 per month, no credit card required | Yes — 2 signature invitations per month, 1 user |
| Paid entry price | €9/month, 25 envelopes included | €9/month excl. VAT — 1 user, 10 invitations per month |
| Billing model | Per envelope sent — the team can grow at no extra cost | Per sending user — each sender adds a seat |
| Budget for 5 senders, 100 envelopes per month | €19/month — Standard plan, 10 users included | €115/month excl. VAT — 5 × €23 per user (Plus plan) |
| REST API and webhooks | Included from the Standard plan at €19/month | Separate API pricing, from €104 excl. VAT per month |
| A qualified signature for an INPI filing | Per signature: €14.90 excl. VAT without a subscription (free plan included), €9.90 with a subscription | Plus plan required, plus €15 per signature: at least €38 excl. VAT |
| Cancellation | Anytime from your account area, no notice | By email, 15 days before renewal (monthly) or 30 days (annual) |
Prices taken from both vendors' public pricing pages in September 2026. Both price lists exclude VAT: the amounts compare directly. Yousign® is a registered trademark of Yousign SAS. Pricing changes: re-check before any commitment.
What the free plan really includes, the per-user plans and the cost of a pay-per-use qualified signature: the full breakdown of Yousign prices and plans.
The other alternatives to Yousign
Yousign is not the only option — and neither is Certyneo. Here are the main electronic signature platforms on the market, with their free offer and their exposure to the US Cloud Act, so you can compare before choosing.
| Platform | Permanent free plan | Cloud Act exposure | Detailed comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certyneo | Yes | No | — |
| Yousign | Yes | No | View comparison |
| DocuSign | No | Yes | View comparison |
| Adobe Acrobat Sign | No | Yes | View comparison |
| PandaDoc | Yes | Yes | View comparison |
| Dropbox Sign | Yes | Yes | View comparison |
| SignNow | No | Yes | View comparison |
Cloud Act exposure is determined by the vendor's legal domicile, not by the country of the data centre. Each name cited is a registered trademark of its respective vendor.
Why choose Certyneo?
Predictable pricing, no surprises
Permanent free plan with up to 5 envelopes for 14 days, then 2/mo. Paid plans by envelope or subscription — no hidden fees and no extra charge for additional users.
Data in the European Union
Certyneo is a French company, and your documents and signature data stay hosted in the European Union on our own infrastructure. GDPR-compliant by design, with no transfer outside the EU and no Cloud Act exposure.
Onboarding in 5 minutes
No sales rep, no qualification call. Create your account, upload a document, send your first envelope — in under 5 minutes.
How to migrate from Yousign to Certyneo in 3 steps
Free migration, assisted by a Certyneo operator. No lead time is announced before your case is scoped.
1. Export from Yousign
You export your signed contracts and their audit trails (PDF + signature proof): our migration tool does it through the Yousign API, on the Plus, Pro and Scale plans. The migration changes nothing at Yousign: your documents remain accessible there as long as your account is active.
2. Certyneo Configuration
You recreate your templates in the Certyneo editor (signatures, initials, custom fields), set up your branding (logo, colors, sender email) and create user accounts with equivalent roles and permissions.
3. Go live
Switch new sends to Certyneo, and have your technical teams redirect your API integrations and webhooks. Your Yousign signatures remain valid for life; you can also re-archive your signed PDFs in the Certyneo vault to consolidate.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Certyneo really an alternative to Yousign?
- Yes. Certyneo covers the same core use cases: eIDAS-compliant SES, AES and QES electronic signatures, multi-signer workflows, audit trail and REST API. Both solutions are developed in France and host data in the European Union — the legal value is identical. The difference is the commercial model: Certyneo bills per envelope with users included and sells the qualified signature pay-per-use, whereas Yousign bills per sending user and reserves the qualified signature for its Plus and Pro plans.
- Can I migrate my templates from Yousign to Certyneo?
- Certyneo accepts standard PDF documents. If your Yousign templates can be exported as PDFs, you can re-import them into Certyneo without losing your layout. Contact our support team for personalized assistance.
- Does Certyneo support qualified electronic signatures (QES) like Yousign?
- Yes. Certyneo natively offers all three eIDAS levels: SES (simple), AES (advanced) and QES (qualified). Certyneo's QES goes through a qualified QTSP on the EU trusted list, with video identity verification and documents issued by 65 countries accepted, and costs €14.90 per signature without a subscription and €9.90 with one, on every plan, including Free, with no add-on and no enterprise tier.
- Why Certyneo instead of Yousign?
- Three structural differentiators: (1) the qualified signature per signature on any plan, free plan included — €14.90 without a subscription, €9.90 with one — whereas Yousign adds it at €15 excl. VAT on top of a Plus plan costing at least €23 excl. VAT per month; (2) per-envelope rather than per-sending-user pricing — Certyneo cuts costs for teams of 5 people or more; (3) the REST API included from the Standard plan at €19/month, while Yousign's is sold separately, from €104 excl. VAT per month.
- Are Certyneo and Yousign both eIDAS compliant?
- Yes, both are. Simple electronic signatures (SES) and advanced electronic signatures (AES) issued by Certyneo and Yousign comply with European regulation eIDAS no. 910/2014 and are legally binding throughout the European Union. The difference lies in product features and pricing, not in legal value.
- What is the pricing difference between the two?
- Yousign charges per sending user: €9 excl. VAT per month for the One plan (a single user, 10 invitations), then €23 to €38 excl. VAT per user per month. Certyneo charges per envelope (from €9/month for 25 envelopes, up to €99/month for 1,000 envelopes), with users included. For a team of 10 people each sending 30 documents a month, Certyneo Business at €39/month replaces a Yousign Plus plan at €230 excl. VAT per month (10 × €23).
- Can you migrate your Yousign templates to Certyneo?
- Not automatically: Yousign templates cannot be exported in a reusable format, so they are recreated in the Certyneo editor. What can be brought over is your signed contracts and their audit trails, through our free migration offer (tool ready for Yousign, Plus, Pro and Scale plans). See /offre-migration.
- Does Certyneo offer an API like Yousign?
- Yes, and included earlier. OpenAPI-documented REST API, HMAC-signed webhooks and a free test environment — available from the Standard plan at €19/month. At Yousign, the API is not included in any of the app's plans: it is sold separately, from €104 excl. VAT per month.
- What is the best free alternative to Yousign?
- Certyneo offers a permanent free plan: 5 envelopes for 14 days, then 2 per month, for life, with no credit card, with eIDAS compliance and hosting in the European Union. Yousign also has a Free plan, limited to 2 signature invitations per month and one user. The real difference lies elsewhere: at Certyneo, the qualified signature can be bought per signature from the free plan; at Yousign, it requires a Plus plan.
- Is Yousign hosted in the European Union?
- Yes. Yousign is a company governed by French law whose data is hosted in France, with OVHcloud, and it is not subject to the US CLOUD Act. On this specific criterion, Yousign and Certyneo are level: data sovereignty is not a deciding factor between these two solutions. The real differences lie in the pricing model, the price of the qualified signature, the plan level at which the API becomes available, and the number of languages.
- How much does API access cost at Yousign and Certyneo?
- At Yousign, the API is sold separately from the app's plans, starting at €104 excl. VAT per month (API Plus plan, 500 simple signatures per year). At Certyneo, it is included from the Standard plan at €19 per month, billed per envelope rather than per sending user. For a team that automates its sending, the gap exceeds €100 per month before a single seat is even added.
- Do my documents already signed with Yousign remain valid if I migrate?
- Yes, indefinitely. An eIDAS electronic signature is legally binding for life, regardless of the platform that issued it — this is the principle of open standards PAdES and RFC 3161. Your Yousign archives remain verifiable after migration, and can be re-archived in the Certyneo vault if you wish to consolidate everything in the same place.
- Is Yousign becoming Youtrust?
- Yes, since July 2026, following an announcement in November 2025. This is not a spin-off but simply a change of name: everything this page says about Yousign applies to Youtrust.
- How do I cancel a Yousign subscription?
- According to Youtrust's terms of use (version of 2 July 2026), you cancel by emailing unsubscribe@youtrust.com at least 15 days before the end of the period on a monthly plan, and 30 days before on an annual plan. The period already started remains payable, with no pro-rata refund. At Certyneo, you can cancel anytime from your account area, with no notice and no fees.
- Can I complete an INPI formality with Yousign without a subscription?
- No. For a change, a closure or an annual accounts filing, the INPI one-stop shop (Guichet unique, France's business formalities portal) requires FranceConnect+ or an advanced signature based on a qualified certificate; at Yousign, that level only exists on the Plus and Pro plans: you therefore need a subscription of at least €23 excl. VAT per month, plus €15 excl. VAT for the signature. At Certyneo, the qualified signature meets this requirement and costs €14.90 excl. VAT per signature without a subscription, free plan included (€9.90 with a subscription).
Also worth exploring
The other alternatives in this comparison
Each page follows the same layout: why leave, what Certyneo offers instead, when to stay.
Ready to switch to Certyneo?
Permanent free plan, no credit card required. Assisted migration available.