↗ · How-to guide
How to get a PDF signed online, free, with a real audit trail.
Upload the document, place the fields, send a link. The signer needs no account, and you get back a cryptographically sealed PDF, on Sign Sail's free plan.
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↗ · Step by step
The job sounds trivial and somehow never is: the 'free' tools watermark the result, cap you after two sends, or make your signer create an account mid-flow. Here's the clean version. Document signing, including the audit trail and the PAdES seal, is part of Sign Sail's free plan, metered only by the 25-submissions-a-month allowance.
01 ·Upload the PDF
Drag the file into Documents. Free plan accepts PDFs up to 10MB, which covers nearly any contract; paid tiers raise it to 100MB for scan-heavy documents.
02 ·Place the signature and date fields
Drag fields from the palette onto the page: signature, date, text, checkbox. Assign each field to a signer slot. If you control the source document, skip this step next time by typing tags like {{sig:s1}} where fields belong, and they place themselves on upload.
03 ·Prefill anything that's yours to fill
Fields assigned to the Prefilled slot, like names, dates, and amounts, get completed by you at send time and are baked into the document before the signer ever sees it. Fewer blank boxes, fewer signer mistakes.
04 ·Send the signing link
Add the signer's name and email and hit send. They receive a private, token-gated link that opens in any browser, phone included, with no account, no app, and no Sign Sail branding hoops. Free plan supports up to 2 signers per document.
05 ·Download the sealed PDF
When signing completes, both sides get the final document: signatures placed, audit trail embedded (signer identity, IP, UTC timestamps, consent, SHA-256 hash), and the whole file cryptographically sealed with PAdES. Open it in any PDF reader's signature panel to verify it hasn't been altered since.
↗ · Questions
Before you start.
What's the catch on the free plan?
The meter, not the features. Free includes the full signing pipeline, audit trail and PAdES seal included, capped at 25 completed submissions a month, 2 signers per document, 1 stored document slot, and 90-day retention. The signature quality is identical to paid tiers; you pay for volume, not legality.
Does the signer pay or need an account?
Never. Signers open a private link, review, and sign, from any device. Accounts, plans, and limits are entirely on the sender's side.
How do I verify the document wasn't changed after signing?
Open the PDF in a reader with signature support, like Adobe Acrobat, and check the signature panel: the PAdES seal shows when the document was sealed and whether anything changed since. Independently, the SHA-256 hash printed in the audit block can be recomputed against the submission record.
The PDF is ready. Send it.
Upload, place, send, sealed. Free plan includes the audit trail and cryptographic seal, no watermarks, no signer accounts.