01COUNTERSIGNED VS ADOBE ACROBAT SIGN
Adobe sells self-serve e-signing inside Acrobat. A free Adobe account allows 2 signature requests every 30 days; Acrobat Standard is $14.99 a month on an annual plan, and reusable e-sign templates need Acrobat Pro at $19.99. Countersigned does one job and gives you 20 envelopes a month and up to 20 templates, free.
20 envelopes a month and up to 20 templates. Free forever.
02SIDE BY SIDE
Countersigned Free against Adobe Acrobat Sign’s own published plans. A free Adobe account allows 2 e-signature requests every 30 days.
| Feature | Countersigned Free | Adobe Acrobat Sign |
|---|---|---|
| 01Signature requests on the free plan | 20 a month | 2 every 30 days Advantage: Countersigned. |
| 02Reusable templates | Up to 20 on Free | Acrobat Pro ($19.99/mo, annual) Advantage: Countersigned. |
| 03Signer password or access code | Included | Acrobat Pro for teams Advantage: Countersigned. |
| 04Recipients need an account | No | No Advantage: Even. |
| 05Unlimited sending | 200 a month on Pro ($20/seat) | Acrobat Standard, $14.99/mo annual Advantage: Them. |
| 06PDF editing | Page tools for signing | Full editor, OCR, redaction, compare Advantage: Them. |
| 07Apps | Browser only | Desktop, Reader mobile and Adobe Scan Advantage: Them. |
ADOBE ACROBAT SIGNPUBLISHED SELF-SERVE PLANS
03DO THE MATH
Pick how many agreements you send a month. We’ll find Adobe Acrobat Sign’s cheapest published plan that covers it, and ours.
One sender, cheapest self-serve Adobe Acrobat Sign plan that covers your volume, at its listed monthly rate. Checked October 10, 2026.
04IN FAIRNESS
We’d rather you choose with the whole picture. If you edit PDFs all day, Acrobat earns its subscription. If you just need signatures, you’re paying for a suite to use one button.
A full PDF toolkit: edit, convert, OCR, redact and compare.
Desktop and mobile apps, Adobe Scan, and 100GB of cloud storage.
Microsoft and Box e-sign integrations, bulk send, web forms and payments on Acrobat Pro.
An AI Assistant on Acrobat Studio.
Enterprise Acrobat Sign Solutions with advanced signer authentication and compliance certifications.
05HOW IT’S FREE
Free isn’t a trial or a teaser. It comes from how we build, and who builds it.
The team behind DocuPipe spent a decade building machine-learning systems. Now we write, review and test Countersigned with AI at every step. That lets a small team run a complete signing product without legacy code or a large sales floor to fund, so the essentials can stay free.
It also means we move quickly. When something you need is missing, tell us.
Countersigned is built by the team behind DocuPipe, the document-intelligence platform with ISO 27001:2022 certification, a SOC 2 Type II report and annual penetration tests. Those attestations cover DocuPipe, not Countersigned yet, but the habits came with us.
06SWITCHING
There’s no import tool yet, and you don’t need one. Your agreements are PDFs.
Email or Google. No credit card, no trial clock.
Upload the PDFs you already send, place signer fields, and save up to 20 as reusable templates.
Recipients sign in the browser without an account, and everyone gets the completed PDF.
07QUESTIONS
A free Adobe account allows two e-signature requests every 30 days on a rolling basis. More requires an Acrobat plan, from $14.99 a month on an annual plan. Countersigned Free includes 20 envelopes a month at $0.
Adobe lists reusable e-sign templates on Acrobat Pro and above, at $19.99 a month on an annual plan. Countersigned Free keeps up to 20 reusable templates.
We build with AI at every step, so a small team can run the whole product without a large sales organization to pay for. Free covers 20 envelopes a month and up to 20 templates, permanently. Teams that need more pay for Pro: $20 per seat per month for 200 shared envelopes. That, not your data, is the business model.
Countersigned records each signer’s consent, signing events, IP address and browser, and produces a completed PDF with a completion record and document hashes. In the US, the ESIGN Act and UETA generally prevent a signature from being denied legal effect just because it’s electronic, but whether e-signing suits a particular agreement depends on the document and the law that applies. Countersigned doesn’t yet offer certificate-backed PDF sealing or qualified eIDAS signatures.
Sending pauses until your allowance resets on the first of the month, or you can upgrade to Pro for 200 shared envelopes at $20 per seat per month. Signing and template reuse never use up envelopes; only sending does.
No. Recipients open a private link, review the document and sign in the browser. They don’t need an account or a subscription, and everyone gets the completed PDF.
08YOUR NEXT AGREEMENT
