Daily Post July 16 2025
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Docuseal
Digital document signing a part of many business workflows, especially for businesses needing secure, and legally binding signatures. Is an alternative to mainstream online services.
It is open source. The project’s source code and related repositories are publicly available on GitHub, allowing users and developers to inspect, modify, and contribute to its continuous evolution. The primary repository is distributed under the AGPLv3 license, showing its open-source credentials and ensuring any modifications or derivative works that are distributed must also be open source under the same license.
This licensing choice is significant because AGPLv3 is a strong copyleft license: if you modify the source and deploy it as a service (even only internally or via the web), you are required to share your changes with the community. This ensures that Docuseal remains a truly community-driven and evolving platform, rather than being locked down by corporations or proprietary interests.
Features
It is designed to make document signing easy, accessible, and flexible. Built primarily using Ruby on Rails with Vue.js components for UI tasks like form building, Docuseal offers a strong frontend and backend infrastructure.
Some of its features include:
- PDF form field builder with a variety of input options (Signature, Date, File, Checkbox, etc.)
- Document signing for multiple submitters
- Automated email notifications via SMTP integration
- Support for storing files on cloud services
- Mobile interface and, responsive user experience
- User management tools for teams and organizations
- API and webhook integration for embedding into existing apps
For developers, Docuseal is friendly. It provides SDKs and libraries for various programming languages (JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby), and dedicated components for popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. This enables integration and extension of Docuseal’s signing capabilities into virtually any application.
Why Use it
The open-source core and "Free Forever" cloud tier mean individuals and startups can access unlimited document signing and templates without subscription fees. For organizations with specialized needs, an enterprise plan extends the available functionality.
Open source means the code is visible and auditable by anyone. For privacy-conscious organizations, this eliminates the "black box" problem associated with closed-source software—users know exactly what the software does and how their data is handled.
Because the source is accessible, organizations can extend, adapt, or integrate Docuseal’s features to suit their internal processes. Custom branding, verification methods, and enterprise authentication (SSO/SAML) are among integration points.
Docuseal’s active presence on GitHub and forums has fostered a community. This encourages rapid updates, frequent bug fixes, and a flow of new features based on user feedback and real-world needs.
Its signatures are designed to be legally binding and compliant with regulations such as eIDAS (EU), UETA, and the ESIGN Act (US). For those deploying in regulated industries, cloud-hosted instances adhere to GDPR, with servers in the EU and US.
Privacy
Privacy is frequently cited as a weak point in many commercial document signing solutions, with some accused of invasive data harvesting or sharing information with third parties. Docuseal, gives users much greater privacy control, especially for those who choose to self-host.
When you deploy Docuseal yourself, you retain total control over your documents, metadata, and user data. Sensitive client contracts, internal memos, or HR paperwork never leave your infrastructure unless you configure integrations that require third-party access. It is especially well-suited for organizations with strict confidentiality requirements.
The AGPLv3 license also mandates code transparency. This means security experts—and even your own IT staff—can audit the platform for backdoors, vulnerabilities, or undisclosed data transfers, putting privacy-conscious users in the safest possible position for digital document management.
Self-Hosted?
It does have native support for self-hosting. Anyone can run Docuseal on their own servers, whether in a private datacenter, on a cloud VPS, or via a local development environment.
Self-hosting is not an afterthought with Docuseal; the process is actively supported and documented by both the maintainers and a growing user community. Installation guides cover DNS and SSL setup, reverse proxy configuration, and integrations with local or cloud storage providers. Two Factor Authentication (2FA) and audit logs are also available directly in self-hosted deployments, enabling security and compliance regimes.
It is a very good tool and it is something that we use here at mintarc. You should have a look: https://github.com/docusealco/docuseal