Docusign, Acrobat Reader, Xodo and iLovePDF compared — draw a quick signature or send a legally robust one, with the eIDAS difference explained plainly.
Printing a contract, signing it with a pen, scanning it and emailing it back is a ritual that stopped making sense long ago. From a phone you can draw a signature once, save it and drop it onto any document in twenty seconds. What changes between apps is how much legal weight that mark carries: a finger-drawn image is fine for a school authorisation but thin in a genuine dispute, while a verified signature with an audit trail is what companies expect. The four apps reviewed below run from the reference PDF reader to the standard law firms request, with a clear note on what each signature is actually worth.
Docusign is the standard companies and law firms expect: it verifies the signer and keeps an audit trail, so the signature holds up against third parties.
When a document has to survive a legal challenge, this is the industry reference: each envelope records who signed and when, the signer's identity is verified, and many organisations simply will not accept anything else. Signing documents sent to you is free, which covers most private users' needs; sending documents out for signature requires a paid plan, it is expensive for occasional personal use, and its full workflow is more machinery than a casual user needs.
Pros
Legally valid e-signature with an audit trail
Signing documents others send you is free
Accepted by companies and law firms
Cons
Sending documents for signature requires a subscription
Acrobat Reader lets you draw, save and reuse a signature on any PDF for free, and it remains the most reliable app for opening odd documents.
The benchmark reader covers what most people need without paying: read, comment, highlight and fill in forms, plus a signature drawn once and reused on every document after. It opens files that defeat lighter apps, which makes it the safe default on a phone. Editing the text or exporting to Word is reserved for subscribers, the app is fairly heavy, and its subscription prompts appear frequently during routine use.
Xodo signs, fills forms and lets you merge or reorder pages before sending a document back — all free, all offline, with a fast viewer.
The most generous free Acrobat alternative handles annotation, highlights, signatures and forms, then goes further with merge, split and page reordering without asking for a subscription for the basics. The viewer stays fast even with documents of hundreds of pages. Its limits are the same as in the editor role: changing the original text is only partly possible, the design is less polished than Adobe's, and some advanced tools are paid.
iLovePDF offers the quickest sign-and-return flow and can request signatures from other people by email, on top of its conversion toolbox.
The app of the well-known Spanish website keeps its direct "pick a tool, drop the file" approach for signing, and adds signature requests by email for when a document needs to come back from someone else. Conversion remains its heartland — PDF to Word, compression, merge, split, JPG export and watermarks — with a camera scanner included. Free use has daily limits, some operations run on the company's servers, and premium tools require a subscription.
Download price only. In-app purchases and subscriptions may cost extra.
Questions & answers
Is it legal to sign a contract from your phone?
In the European Union, the eIDAS regulation recognises electronic signatures as valid but distinguishes levels. A signature drawn with a finger in Acrobat or Xodo is a simple electronic signature: enough for many everyday uses, but weak if someone disputes it. Docusign produces signatures with signer verification and an audit trail, far more solid in a dispute. For genuinely important documents, asking a professional is money well spent.
What is the best free app to sign a PDF?
Acrobat Reader and Xodo are the strongest free options: both let you draw a signature, save it and reuse it on any document without limits or a subscription. Xodo adds form filling and page rearrangement before you send the file back, which makes it the more complete tool if the PDF needs more than a signature placed on the last page.
Can I ask someone else to sign a document?
Yes, but that is usually the paid part. Docusign lets you sign incoming documents for free, while sending documents out for signature requires a subscription. iLovePDF includes signature requests within the limits of its free plan. If you only ever sign documents yourself, either free app handles the job; routing a document to several signers is where payment starts.
What is the difference between a drawn signature and a digital certificate?
A drawn signature is an image of your handwriting placed on the page: convenient, but easy to copy. A digital certificate, such as the one issued by Spain's FNMT or held on the electronic ID card, signs the file cryptographically and lets anyone verify the document has not been altered afterwards. Dealings with the Spanish public administration normally require a certificate, not a drawn image.
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