How they differ
DocuSign is an e-signature specialist with a very large ecosystem: many integrations, industry-specific products, and advanced identity and routing options on its higher plans. It suits organisations that want one vendor for agreements across many systems.
Adobe Acrobat Sign is part of Adobe’s document products. It makes most sense for teams that already use Acrobat and edit PDFs daily, since signing sits alongside editing.
Both are typically licensed per user, and both have capable free signing for the people you send to.
When neither is the right fit
If what you need is to get documents signed, sometimes with a sign-off first, with a clean audit trail, in Australian dollars and without licensing every occasional sender, both can be more product and more cost than the job needs.
Refrendo does that: electronic signatures with optional approval steps in the same request, at one price for the workspace, with a monthly allowance every sender shares. Everyone who approves or signs is free.
A quick way to decide
- You need hundreds of integrations or industry-specific compliance products → DocuSign.
- You edit PDFs every day and want signing in the same tool → Adobe Acrobat Sign.
- You mostly need approve-then-sign workflows at a sensible price → Refrendo.
Details about other products are from their public websites as of September 2026 and may have changed. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Refrendo is not affiliated with them.