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 €9.90 per signature, in addition to your Certyneo subscription. No flat fee, no minimum, no commitment. You only pay for what you sign.
| QES signatures / month | Monthly cost (incl. tax) | Standard profile |
|---|---|---|
| 1 signature | €9.90 | 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 inclusive of VAT. Billed at end of month via Stripe in addition to your Certyneo subscription (Standard, Business, or Business Pro). Beyond 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.
Trademark and patent filings with INPI, declarations to the Register of Beneficial Owners (RBE), annual account filings with commercial court registries — these portals require electronic signature with embedded cryptographic proof and qualified certificate.
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, conventional termination agreements in contentious at-risk contexts, international contracts subject to foreign jurisdictions that explicitly require eIDAS QES for recognition of 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 signatory is redirected to our partner QTSP (itsme in Belgium, Evrotrust for other EU countries) for video identity verification + identity document. 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. The signature is billed at €9.90 on your end-of-month Stripe invoice.
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 | Double OTP email + SMS | 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) | €9.90/signature per document — from Standard plan |
| Available on Certyneo | Yes — all plans | Yes — from Personal plan | Yes — from Standard plan, per document |
Yes. Certyneo's QES goes through a qualified trust service provider (itsme in Belgium, Evrotrust for the other EU countries) on the European trusted list published by the Commission. The issued certificate is uniformly recognized 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.
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 passing this cost through a flat monthly subscription (which penalises occasional use), we bill per use. You only pay for QES in the months you use it, and only for the volume actually signed. Beyond 100 signatures/month, a negotiated volume rate is available under the Enterprise contract.
For the first signature only, the signer must install the Evrotrust app (iOS or Android), or authenticate via itsme if they are in Belgium. Identity verification takes about 3 minutes — ID document + video selfie. 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.
No — QES is available from the Standard plan (€19/month) upwards. On the Free and Personal plans, QES is not enabled server-side; you must first upgrade to Standard to choose “Qualified (QES)” in the send wizard. The QES cost (€9.90 per signature) is added on top of your Standard, Business or Business Pro subscription and appears on your end-of-month Stripe invoice.
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 €9.90 per signature only applies to a QES actually applied to a document. You can prepare an envelope, send it to the signer and have them sign with QES — billing only triggers at the moment the QTSP validates the signature, not before. If you want to test the signer experience without committing, choose the AES level (included in your subscription) 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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