A link people open, fill and sign on their own.

What is a signing link or web form?

A web form, sometimes called a signing link or self-serve form, is a public link to a document that anyone can open and sign without you sending it to them first. You put the link on your website, in an email footer or behind a QR code at the front desk, and signers fill in their own details.

Web forms are live in eSignSimple. Any single-signer template can become a public link in a few clicks.

How do web forms work in eSignSimple?

Pick a template with one signer role and turn it into a web form. You get a public link that starts with /f/. Anyone who opens it enters their name and email and signs their own copy right away in the browser. No account, and no waiting for an email to arrive.

Every submission becomes its own document in your dashboard, with the same audit trail, certificate of completion and SHA-256 fingerprint as any other document. You can switch the link off at any time, and it stops accepting signatures immediately.

What limits apply to web forms, and why?

A public link is also a public entry point, so each form is rate-limited to 30 submissions per hour. That is plenty for a front desk or a busy sign-up page, and it keeps a bot or a stuck script from flooding your dashboard. Signer data is visible only to you, the sender.

Web forms are part of Silver ($9.99 a month) and Gold. Each submission counts as one document, and both plans include unlimited documents, so a link that sits on your website never hits a monthly cap.

Who are web forms for?

Activity providers who need a liability waiver from every participant, studios collecting a fitness waiver, offices asking visitors to sign an NDA at reception, and anyone running sign-ups where each person has to agree to terms before joining.

They are not ideal for negotiated contracts or documents where you need to know the identity of the signer in advance. The signer types their own name and email, so for those cases send the document directly to the named person instead.

How do you get the most out of a signing link?

Print the link as a QR code for the front desk, and put it next to the booking button on your website. Keep the template short and clear, since people sign on their phones. When an event or season ends, switch the link off so old versions do not keep collecting signatures.

How do competitors handle self-serve signing links?

DocuSign calls this PowerForms, Dropbox Sign offers embedded and self-serve options, and other tools have similar features. They are widely used for waivers, intake forms and client onboarding, and they are often available only on higher-priced or business plans.

Our take: a signing link is one of the most practical features for small businesses, gyms, studios, tutors and nonprofits, precisely the people least likely to pay for a top tier. So we made it part of our normal plans, not an upsell.

Web form, bulk send or a direct send: which one should you use?

The three features overlap, so here is how we decide. Use a direct send when you know exactly who must sign and the identity of that person matters: a contract with a named client, an offer letter, a lease. Use bulk send when you know who must sign and there are many of them, all receiving identical text: 140 employees acknowledging a new expenses policy. Use a web form when you do not know in advance who will sign, or when signers arrive on their own schedule: walk-in customers, people booking a class, volunteers registering for an event.

A quick test: if you could write the list of signers today, you probably want bulk send or a direct send. If the list only exists after people have signed, you want a web form. A climbing gym is the classic example. It cannot know who will turn up on Saturday, but it needs a signed waiver from every single person before they touch the wall.

The difference also shows up in the evidence. A direct send or bulk send proves the document was sent to a specific address you chose. A web form proves that someone who typed a given name and email signed at a given time, from a given IP address and device. Both are useful records; they answer slightly different questions.

What does the signer actually see when they open the link?

They see your document, a short step asking for their full name and email address, and then the signing view with the fields from your template. On a phone the page fits the screen, and they can draw a signature with a finger or type their name. There is no app to install and no account to create, which is why web forms work well at a busy front desk.

When they finish, their copy goes through the same completion step as any other document: the signed PDF gets a certificate of completion appended, and the finished file is emailed to the signer and to you. Nobody else who uses the same link ever sees their details. Each person signs their own copy, and the submissions never mix.

Why isn't my web form accepting signatures?

Check four things, in this order. First, is the link switched on? A link you switched off at the end of last season stops working immediately, and visitors see that the form is unavailable. Second, has the form received 30 submissions in the last hour? The rate limit resets on a rolling basis, so a queue at the door usually clears within the hour. Third, is your plan still Silver or Gold? Web forms are a Silver feature, and if a subscription lapses the form pauses. Visitors see a neutral message rather than anything about your billing, and you see a notice in your dashboard.

Fourth, did you change the template so that it now has more than one signer role? A web form needs exactly one role, because the person opening the link is the only signer. If a document genuinely needs your countersignature as well, it is not a web form document: send it from a template with two roles and signing order, one person at a time or many at once with bulk send.

How much can you trust what a web form signer types?

Less than a document you sent to a named address, and it is worth being clear about that. Anyone with the link can type any name and any email. We record what they entered along with the timestamp, IP address and browser, but we do not check that the person is who they claim to be. That is fine for waivers, visitor agreements and acknowledgments, where the point is that the person in front of you agreed to the terms before taking part.

For anything where identity carries money or liability, such as a loan, a high-value sale or a guarantee, use a direct send to an address you have confirmed with the person. If someone disputes a web form signature later, the audit trail helps: a signature made at 9:02 on the gym's Wi-Fi, minutes before the class the person booked, is a strong record. A signature from an unknown location days later is weaker. Our guide to online signature forms walks through the setup in more detail.

Who uses web forms, and for what?