If something about filling, signing, or keeping documents has you confused — or you want to know exactly how filefriend works before you trust it with anything — this is where to start.
Yes, for the vast majority of documents. The ESIGN Act (federal, 2000) and UETA (adopted in 49 states) put electronic signatures on equal legal footing with ink. A court cannot reject a signature solely because it was electronic.
The exceptions are narrow: wills, adoption papers, certain court documents, and a few consumer notice categories still require wet ink. For business contracts, NDAs, leases, service agreements, and employment docs — e-signatures are valid and legally enforceable.
What makes them stick is the audit trail, not the form of the signature itself. Read the full breakdown →
Legally, yes. The ESIGN Act doesn't distinguish between a typed name, a drawn signature, a clicked button, or a stylus scrawl — any electronic action that demonstrates intent to sign satisfies the law. Courts have upheld typed signatures in disputes consistently since 2000.
The practical consideration: a typed name in a Word doc emailed back and forth is harder to defend than a signature made through a platform that creates a timestamped, IP-logged audit record. The signature's form isn't what wins disputes — the evidence around it is. More on this →
Yes. A "locked" PDF usually just means it has no interactive form fields — it's a flat document, not truly locked against annotation. Several free approaches work:
filefriend also accepts locked and scanned PDFs — it detects where the fillable areas are and creates an interactive form automatically. Full guide with methods →
Filo is filefriend's fill assistant — a conversational tool that asks you questions in plain English and fills the document for you as you answer. Instead of staring at a wall of blank fields and guessing what each one wants, you have a back-and-forth: "What's the effective date?" → "June 28." → field filled.
Filo also explains clauses you don't understand, suggests relevant templates based on what you're describing, and flags anything that looks unusual before you sign. It's a tool, not legal advice — but it's the tool that makes the whole process feel manageable rather than bureaucratic.
Yes. For multi-party signing, filefriend routes the document sequentially: Party A signs, the document is sent to Party B, Party B signs, and both parties automatically receive the executed copy with the full audit certificate. You don't manage the handoffs manually.
You set the signing order when you set up the document. Each signer receives an email with a signing link — they don't need a filefriend account to sign. The final executed copy goes to everyone when all signatures are collected.
For most situations, no. A well-written, jurisdiction-aware NDA template covers a contractor, a new hire, an investor conversation, a vendor with system access, or an early-stage business discussion. Lawyers use similar templates themselves — you're not getting something categorically different from a solo drafting session with them.
When you do want a lawyer: the information is a core trade secret worth a lot of money, the other party has legal representation who will send redlines, or the deal is international. Full breakdown →
Functionally, nothing. They're the same legal instrument — a contract where one or both parties agree to keep specific information private. "NDA" is the common term in US startup and tech culture; "confidentiality agreement" is favored in more formal legal contexts and in the UK. Courts treat them identically.
The distinction that actually matters is one-way (only you share, only they're bound) vs. mutual (both sides share, both are bound). More detail →
The rule of thumb: 7 years after the contract expires or the relationship ends. That covers the IRS audit window and most statutes of limitations for breach of contract claims.
Exceptions that go longer: employment contracts (duration + 7 years), real estate (ownership + 7 years), intellectual property assignments (permanent — you may need to prove ownership forever), settlement agreements (permanent or 10+ years minimum). The clock starts at expiration, not at signing. Full retention table →
DocuSign is a signing routing tool — it takes a document you already have and manages who signs it. filefriend does that, and also helps you fill the document (via Filo), pick from 40+ templates if you don't have one yet, and keep it long-term in an encrypted vault with the audit certificate attached.
Practically: DocuSign Personal is $15/month, Business Pro is $65/seat/month. filefriend Personal is $9/month, everything in. There's no per-envelope pricing, no watermarked certificates on cheaper tiers, no separate storage add-on.
filefriend also doesn't hold your documents hostage to your subscription status. Your vault stays accessible regardless of what tier you're on.
No, and no. filefriend is software — specifically, a tool that helps you fill out, sign, and store documents. Filo can explain what a clause means in plain English, but that's explanation, not legal advice.
Whether a specific document will be enforceable in your situation depends on the applicable law and the facts of your case — that's what lawyers assess. For high-stakes agreements (major asset purchases, complex employment situations, anything with unusual risk), consult one. For routine contracts, a complete template correctly filled out is what you actually need.
Your executed documents stay in your vault for 7 years after signing regardless of subscription status. We don't hold them hostage to an active subscription. If you cancel, your account moves to a read-only state and you can download everything you've ever signed.
This is a deliberate policy — a contract you signed three years ago shouldn't require an active $9/month subscription to access. That's not how document retention should work. Why we built it this way →
Yes. The free plan lets you fill, sign, and keep 3 documents per month — with the full audit trail and vault access, not a watermarked demo version. If you only need this occasionally, the free plan is genuinely sufficient.
The Personal plan ($9/month) removes the document cap, includes all 40+ templates, and enables multi-party signing. Higher tiers add more limits and team accounts. We won't bill you for features that aren't live yet — things like remote notarization and white-label are on the roadmap, and we'll say so plainly until they ship.
DocuSign Personal is $15/month for 5 envelopes. DocuSign Business Pro is $65/seat/month. LegalZoom charges per document plus optional attorney consultation fees. Instafill is $99/month. pdfFiller is $20–40/month.
filefriend Personal is $9/month with no per-envelope cap, templates included, vault included. We're not trying to compete on a single feature — we're cheaper at every tier for more capability. The pricing reflects the fact that we don't have DocuSign's sales organization to fund.
Documents are encrypted at rest and in transit. Each document gets a SHA-256 hash at the moment of signing — any change to the document after that point produces a different hash, making tampering detectable. The audit certificate records this hash alongside every signing event.
filefriend employees do not have access to your document content. Your documents are yours. We don't train models on your data or share it with third parties for advertising purposes.
An audit trail is a timestamped log of every event in a document's life: when it was created, when it was sent to each signer, when each signer opened it, when each signature was applied, the IP address of each signing action, and the document hash at signing.
You need it the moment someone disputes whether they signed something, whether they saw the version of the document they claim they signed, or whether the document was altered after signing. Without an audit trail, a signed contract is a PDF that anyone could claim was fabricated. With one, the evidence is clear and machine-verifiable. Every filefriend document includes it automatically — you don't have to do anything extra.