SignNow: Sign & Fill PDF Docs

Review by eFreeware

SignNow is an electronic signature and document workflow app for Android, published by the company of the same name. It has been on the Play Store since June 2012 and has built a following of more than 5 million installs, with a 4.5 average across 12,571 ratings. The core promise is simple: sign contracts, invoices and agreements on your phone or tablet, and collect signatures from other people, without printing or scanning anything.

What makes it worth a closer look is the combination of signing and form filling in one place, plus a workflow layer for tracking who has opened and signed what. The developer says neither you nor the people signing on your behalf face a cap on how many documents you can sign each month, which matters if paperwork is a regular part of your week rather than an occasional annoyance.

The app is free to download and shows no ads, though it offers in-app purchases. A seven-day free trial is available without a credit card, after which you pick a plan. That structure tells you a lot about who it is built for: people who will use it often enough to justify paying for it.

Signing documents without a printer

The basic job is signing. You can eSign PDF forms, contracts and agreements with a tap, and the app handles PDF, Word and Excel files. Your signature can be drawn with a finger, typed, or uploaded as an image, which covers most of the ways people want to sign something on a phone.

Beyond the signature itself, there are stamp and sign tools for PDFs, and a set of fill tools for completing forms: text fields, checkboxes, dates, stamps and attachments. That means a lease, an HR onboarding packet or a consent form can be filled out and signed in one pass rather than printed, completed by hand and scanned back in.

If you deal with images, the app converts JPEG, PNG and BMP files into PDFs. Files can be pulled in from email, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and similar sources, so the document does not have to start life on your phone. Signed documents can be downloaded, stored or printed afterward, and organized into folders.

Collecting signatures from other people

Sending a document out for signature is where the app does more than a simple PDF editor. You can bring in one signer or several, by email or through a link, decide the order in which they sign, and give each person a role. For contracts that need a client, a manager and a witness in sequence, that structure is the difference between a tidy process and a chain of forwarded emails.

The app alerts you the moment a file is opened or signed, so you are not left wondering whether a document is sitting unread. Notification Bots are available to keep everyone on track, and you can follow where a document stands and see a complete record of every action taken on it.

There is also a Kiosk Mode for collecting signatures in person, which the developer suggests for events, front desks and waiting rooms. If you run a registration table or a clinic intake desk, that is a genuinely different use case from remote signing, and it is handled inside the same app.

Templates, teams and repeat paperwork

Documents that repeat are handled with reusable signing templates, which let you autofill and sign quickly instead of rebuilding the same form each time. You can create a team and collaborate on those templates, which points the app toward small businesses and departments rather than one-person use.

The workflow features are the part that separates this from a bare signing tool. A team that sends the same NDA or permission slip every week can keep the template in one place and let several people work from it, with the audit history recording what happened to each copy.

The kinds of documents the developer highlights are telling: NDAs and business contracts, HR forms and onboarding paperwork, real estate agreements and leases, invoices and other financial paperwork, consent forms for healthcare, and waivers or permission slips. That is a working list of what people actually sign, and it is a fair picture of what the app is designed around.

Getting set up and what you need

You can sign in with a Google or Facebook account in one tap, and your files are reachable from the Android app or from SignNow in a browser. That cross-device access matters if a document starts on a laptop and needs a signature while you are away from it.

The app works offline, according to the developer, and syncs automatically once you reconnect. That is useful for anyone signing on a plane or in a building with poor signal, though the sync behavior is only as good as the connection when it returns.

Signing requests can be shared instantly with a signing link, and the trial runs for seven days without a credit card. After that, the practical setup question is not technical but commercial: whether your volume of documents justifies paying. On the enterprise side, MobileIron AppConnect is supported for mobile security.

Security and legal standing

Signatures are encrypted with 256-bit AES both in transit and at rest. The app complies with the ESIGN Act, UETA and eIDAS, the frameworks that give electronic signatures their standing in the US and Europe.

Every document keeps a record of who signed, from which device address, and when they finished. Signature fields are tamper-evident and court-admissible. For anyone whose paperwork could end up in a dispute, that record is the feature that matters most.

The app records the details you would need if a signature were ever questioned, and its encryption and audit features are described in specific terms rather than vague ones.

Who gets the most from SignNow

The clearest fit is someone who handles contracts or forms as part of their work: a freelancer sending agreements, a small business processing onboarding paperwork, an agent dealing with leases, or an office that collects consent and waiver signatures. If paperwork arrives regularly and needs signatures from more than one person, the workflow features earn their place.

Teams get more out of it than individuals, because templates, shared collaboration and the audit history all assume repeat use by several people. A person who signs one document a year would be using a lot of machinery they never touch.

The Kiosk Mode broadens the audience to anyone collecting signatures face to face, such as event organizers or front-desk staff. The common thread is volume and repetition: the app is built for people who sign things often and need a record of it.

A dependable choice for regular paperwork

SignNow covers the whole arc of a signed document: importing it, filling it, signing it, sending it out, chasing signatures and keeping a record. The 4.5 average from more than 12,500 ratings suggests that approach has landed well with a large user base, and the app has been maintained since 2012, with a recent update focused on bug fixes and stability.

The trade-offs are straightforward. There is no ad support, but there are in-app purchases. The app is also at its best when documents are part of your routine, so occasional signers will find it heavier than they need.

If contracts, HR forms, leases or consent paperwork cross your desk regularly, and especially if other people need to sign them too, this is a well-rounded option worth trying during the free week. If you sign something rarely and simply, a lighter tool will do the job.

What's new in version 9.28.1

∙ Bug fixes and stability improvements Thank you for using signNow! We're constantly improving our application and streamlining flows with regular updates. Install the latest update for the signNow app to access the latest features, tools, and workflows. If you need our help or have any issues, please visit http://support.signnow.com