The highest level of electronic signature defined by eIDAS — legally equivalent to a handwritten signature in the 27 EU Member States. Issued by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) listed on the EU trust list. No subscription, no commitment, pay-per-use.
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is defined in articles 3(12) and 26 of the eIDAS European regulation (EU) No 910/2014. It is based on a digital certificate issued personally to the signatory after strict identity verification, and created via a qualified signature creation device (QSCD) managed by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) listed on the European trust list.
Article 25(2) of eIDAS confers on it a unique legal value: QES is strictly equivalent to a handwritten signature in the 27 Member States, without additional formality. It is the only level of electronic signature that benefits from this strong legal presumption at 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. VAT | Typical profile |
|---|---|---|
| 1 na sainini | €9.90 | One-off deed — INPI filing, public procurement, authentic deed |
| 5 na sainitaka | €49.50 | Law or notary firm — regulated monthly deeds |
| 20 na sainini | €198 | Average notary practice — routine deeds + authentic deeds |
| 50 na sainini | €495 | Corporate law / M&A — closings and high-stakes deeds |
| 100+ na sainitaka | Volume pricing | Enterprise contract — discount negotiated by monthly volume |
Prices incl. VAT. Billed 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 challenge requires maximum probative force. Here are the six use cases that represent the bulk of QES demand in 2026.
Notarial powers of attorney, electronic authentic deeds, inter vivos gifts: QES is required by decree No 2017-770 when the authentic deed is drawn up on electronic support. Probative force equivalent to a 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 signatures with embedded cryptographic proof and qualified certificate.
Responses to public procurement tenders requiring qualified signature (large EU contracts, sovereign contracts, defence contracts). Decree No 2016-360 and the PLACE platform impose QES for certain public procurement thresholds.
M&A closings, business disposals, merger-absorption deeds, shareholders'' agreements worth tens of millions: QES rules out any possible challenge to the signatory''s identity or the integrity of the deed.
Operations requiring the highest level of customer identification (AML/CFT, very 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 high-risk litigation contexts, international contracts subject to foreign jurisdictions that explicitly require eIDAS QES for the deed to be recognized.
Four steps — approximately 3 to 5 minutes for the first deed, 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. When 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 + ID document. First time only — subsequent signatures reuse the certificate.
The QTSP issues the qualified certificate, calculates the cryptographic signature (PAdES-LTA), and seals it into 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 full audit trail. The signature is billed at €9.90 on your end-of-month Stripe invoice.
The three eIDAS levels address different probative force requirements. Here is a reference table to calibrate the level to the risk of your deed.
| Criterion | SES rawarawa | AES — Advanced | QES — Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signatory authentication | Click or checkbox | Dual OTP email + SMS | Qualified certificate issued by QTSP after identity verification |
| Probative value | Contractual basis | Strong — presumption art. 1367 French Civil Code | Maximum — equivalent to handwritten EU (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 pay-per-document — from Standard plan |
| Available on Certyneo | Yes — all plans | Yes — from Personal plan | Yes — from Standard plan, pay-per-document |
Yes. Certyneo QES goes through a qualified trust service provider (itsme in Belgium, Evrotrust for other EU countries) listed on the European trust list published by the Commission. The certificate issued is uniformly recognized in the 27 Member States under Article 25(2) of eIDAS. The signature produced 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, identity verification and a cryptographic operation on their infrastructure. Rather than passing this cost into a flat monthly subscription (which disadvantages occasional use), we charge per use. You only pay for QES in months when you use it, and only for the volume actually signed. Beyond 100 signatures/month, negotiated volume pricing is available in the Enterprise contract.
For the first signature only, the signatory must install the Evrotrust app (iOS or Android) or authenticate via itsme if in Belgium. Identity verification takes approximately 3 minutes — ID document + video selfie. Once the certificate is issued, all subsequent QES signatures are appended in less than a minute, without further verification. The certificate is stored on the signatory''s phone and remains valid for several years.
No — QES is available from the Standard plan (€19/month). On the Free and Personal plans, QES is not enabled on the server side; you must first upgrade to the Standard plan to be able to choose "Qualified (QES)" in the send wizard. The cost of QES (€9.90/signature) is added to your Standard, Business or Business Pro subscription and appears on your end-of-month Stripe invoice.
Yes. Certyneo QES uses the PAdES-LTA (PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures — Long Term Availability) format defined by ETSI EN 319 142 standards. The qualified certificate, qualified timestamp and all validation information are embedded in the PDF itself, allowing the signature to be verified for 10 years even if the QTSP closes in the meantime. Adobe Reader, INPI/RBE/court registry verifiers and public procurement portals recognize this format natively.
The €9.90/signature cost applies only to a QES signature actually appended to a document. You can prepare an envelope, send it to the signatory and have them sign in QES — billing is triggered the moment the QTSP validates the signature, not before. If you want to test the signatory journey without committing, choose the AES level (included in your subscription) to familiarize yourself with the interface, then switch to QES for your actual deeds.
Within the EU and EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), eIDAS QES is legally recognized in all Member States. 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 United Kingdom 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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