The highest level of electronic signature defined by eIDAS — legally equivalent to a handwritten signature in all 27 EU member states. Delivered by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) on the EU trusted list. No subscription, no commitment, billed per use.
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is defined in articles 3(12) and 26 of the European eIDAS Regulation (EU) No 910/2014. It is based on a digital certificate issued personally to the signatory after strict verification of their identity, and created via a qualified signature creation device (QSCD) managed by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) listed on the European trust list.
Under eIDAS article 25(2), QES has a unique legal value: QES is strictly equivalent to a handwritten signature in all 27 Member States, without any additional formality. It is the only level of electronic signature that benefits from this strong legal presumption at the European level.
QES is billed at €14.90 per signature without a subscription, on every plan, including Free — or €9.90 with a subscription. No minimum, no commitment. You only pay for what you sign.
| QES signatures / month | Monthly cost (excl. VAT) | Standard profile |
|---|---|---|
| 1 signature | €14.90 | One-off act — INPI filing, public procurement, notarial deed |
| 5 signatures | €49.50 | Law or notary firm — regulated monthly acts |
| 20 signatures | €198 | Medium notary office — routine acts + notarial deeds |
| 50 signatures | €495 | Business firm / M&A — closings and high-stakes acts |
| 100+ signatures | Volume pricing | Enterprise Contract — negotiated discount based on monthly volume |
Prices excl. VAT, VAT added on top. A one-off signature without a subscription costs €14.90, paid at send time. The monthly volumes above assume a subscription: each signature is then €9.90, charged to your saved card at send time. Prepaid packs, from €6.90 per signature, cover irregular use. Above 100 signatures/month, volume pricing is negotiated in the Enterprise contract — contact the sales team.
QES becomes necessary as soon as the law explicitly requires it, or when the risk of dispute demands maximum probative force. Here are the six use cases that represent the bulk of QES demand in 2026.
Notarial powers of attorney, electronic authentic acts, gifts between living persons: QES is required by decree n°2017-770 when the authentic act is drawn up on electronic medium. Probative force equivalent to handwritten signature before a notary.
Changes, closure of a business, annual accounts filings: the French business formalities one-stop shop (Guichet unique), operated by the INPI, requires FranceConnect+ or an advanced signature based on a qualified certificate, applied to the formality's summary PDF. A qualified signature meets this requirement. Trademark and patent filings, on the other hand, are signed directly in the INPI portal.
Responses to public procurement requiring qualified signature (major EU tenders, sovereign tenders, defense contracts). Decree n°2016-360 and the PLACE platform mandate QES for certain public procurement thresholds.
M&A closings, company sales, merger-acquisition acts, shareholder agreements worth tens of millions: QES eliminates any possible dispute over the signatory's identity or the integrity of the act.
Operations requiring the highest level of customer identification (AML-CFT, high-stakes contracts, ACPR/AMF requests). QES guarantees cryptographic proof of the signatory's consent with audit trail embedded in the PDF.
International mobility agreements, settlement agreements in high-risk contentious contexts, international contracts subject to foreign jurisdictions that explicitly require eIDAS QES to recognise the act.
Four steps — approximately 3 to 5 minutes for the first act, less than a minute for subsequent ones once identity is verified.
Import the PDF to sign, add signatories and place fields as with any Certyneo envelope. At the time of sending, choose "Qualified (QES)" in the signature level.
The signer is redirected to our provider's qualified identity app, a QTSP on the European trusted list, for an identity-document and video-selfie check. First time only: subsequent signatures reuse the certificate.
The QTSP issues the qualified certificate, calculates the cryptographic signature (PAdES-LTA), and seals it in the PDF. The operation takes a few seconds on the server side, transparent to the signatory.
The signed PDF is archived for 10 years in the Certyneo vault, exportable at any time with its complete audit trail. With a subscription, the signature (€9.90) is charged to your saved card at send time; without one, it is paid per act, €14.90.
The three eIDAS levels meet different probative force needs. Here is a reference table to calibrate the level to your act's risk.
| Criterion | SES — Simple | AES — Advanced | QES — Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signatory authentication | Click or checkbox | SMS OTP | Qualified certificate issued by QTSP after identity verification |
| Probative value | Contractual basis | Strong — presumption art. 1367 Civil Code | Maximum — equivalent to EU handwritten (art. 25(2)) |
| Typical use case | T&Cs, quotes, acknowledgements | HR contracts, NDAs, mandates, leases | Notarial deeds, INPI, public procurement, M&A |
| Certyneo pricing | Included in all plans | Included from Personal plan (€9/month) | Per act on every plan: €14.90 without a subscription, €9.90 with one |
| Available on Certyneo | Yes — all plans | Yes — from Personal plan | Yes — on every plan, per act |
Yes. Certyneo's QES goes through a qualified trust service provider on the European trusted list published by the Commission. The issued certificate is uniformly recognised across all 27 member states under Article 25(2) of eIDAS: the resulting signature is strictly equivalent to that of any other QTSP on the list. Identity documents issued by 65 countries are accepted.
The marginal cost of a qualified signature comes from the partner QTSP — each signature consumes a certificate, an identity check and a cryptographic operation on their infrastructure. Rather than folding that cost into a flat monthly subscription (which penalises occasional use), we bill by usage, and you pick the formula: €14.90 per signature without a subscription, €9.90 per signature with a subscription (worth it from 2 signatures a month), or prepaid packs from €6.90 per signature. Above 100 signatures/month, negotiated volume pricing is available in the Enterprise contract.
For the first signature only, the signer installs our provider's qualified identity app (iOS or Android) and authenticates. Verification takes about 3 minutes — identity document + video selfie — and accepts documents issued by 65 countries. Once the certificate is issued, every subsequent QES signature is applied in under a minute with no further verification. The certificate is stored on the signer's phone and remains valid for several years.
Yes. Since per-act payment shipped, QES is available on every plan, including Free and Personal — no upgrade is needed to pick “Qualified (QES)” in the send wizard. Only the price and the way you pay change: with no active subscription you pay for the envelope at send time, €14.90 per signature or from a prepaid pack; with a Personal, Standard, Business or Business Pro subscription, €9.90 per signature is charged to your saved card at send time, and Business and Business Pro include 1 and 3 signatures per month respectively.
Yes. Certyneo's QES uses the PAdES-LTA format (PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures — Long Term Availability) defined by ETSI EN 319 142. The qualified certificate, the qualified timestamp and all validation information are embedded in the PDF itself, which keeps the signature verifiable for 10 years even if the QTSP shuts down in the meantime. Adobe Reader, the INPI / RBE / court verifiers and public procurement portals recognise this format natively.
The cost of a QES (€14.90 without a subscription, €9.90 with one) is paid when you send the envelope: preparing an envelope or a draft costs nothing. If you want to test the signer experience before committing to a qualified signature, choose the AES level (included from the Personal plan) to get familiar with the interface, then switch to QES for your real deeds.
Within the EU and the EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), the eIDAS QES is legally recognised in every member state. Outside the EU (United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, etc.), recognition depends on bilateral agreements and the law of the destination country. Switzerland and the UK have equivalent frameworks (ZertES, eIDAS-UK) with partial mutual recognition agreements. For a deed intended for a third country, consult an international lawyer to confirm local recognition.
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