E-signatures, without a second tool to run.
DocuSeal is a focused, open-source e-signature product: a template builder, multi-party signing and an API to embed it. Stoatify ships that same signing experience natively, inside a vault that also organizes, searches, shares, reminds and audits every other document you own, so signing isn't a separate app with its own login and its own pile of files.
An open-source, self-hostable e-signature and DocuSign alternative.
Why people move to Stoatify
Built to be a vault, not a drive.
One vault, not two tools
Build, send and store signable documents in the same place you already keep everything else, no juggling DocuSeal plus a separate document manager.
No self-hosting required
Stoatify is a managed, multi-tenant service. Skip the Docker container, the TLS certificate and the upgrade cadence that self-hosted DocuSeal asks for.
Signing is one feature of many
Reminders, sharing, automation, versioning and org admin come standard, capabilities a signing-only tool like DocuSeal doesn't attempt.
Feature by feature
Stoatify vs DocuSeal, side by side.
A fair look at how the two stack up for organizing the documents of real life.
| Capability | Stoatify | DocuSeal |
|---|---|---|
| Organize for real life | ||
| Purpose-built for life documents | Signing-focused | |
| Ready-made real-life categories (Taxes, Identity, Medical…) | Folders only | |
| Tags, saved views & folders | ||
| Full-text OCR search inside scans & PDFs | ||
| AI auto-filing (category, tags, date) | AI field detection | |
| Capture & automated intake | ||
| Drag, drop & mobile photo capture | Upload only | |
| Private email / IMAP intake address | ||
| Watched folders, URL & CLI import | ||
| Formats & OCR breadth | ||
| Multi-language OCR (100+ languages) | ||
| Office / ODF (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) preview conversion | ||
| PDF/A archival copies | ||
| Collaborate & secure | ||
| Org sharing with roles (RBAC) | Admin & user | |
| Per-document & per-folder permissions | Folder-level | |
| Share links for a document or a whole search (password, expiry, registry) | Submission links | |
| SSO / SAML / OIDC | Paid plans | |
| Files proxied behind your auth (no public object URLs) | Self-host | |
| Versioning, audit & admin | ||
| Document versioning with one-click restore | Template versions | |
| Field-level before & after change history | ||
| Org-wide activity feed | Submission log | |
| Org usage & insights dashboard for documents | Submission stats | |
| Organization audit log | Audit certificate | |
| Notify & integrate | ||
| Reminders / expiry tracking | Signer reminders | |
| Scheduled queries & notifications | ||
| Webhooks (events, signing secret, JSON filters) | ||
| Scoped API keys (per-resource permissions) | ||
| CLI & TypeScript SDK | ||
| E-signatures | ||
| Drag-and-drop template / form builder | ||
| Signable field types (signature, initials, date, checkbox…) | 12+ field types | |
| Multi-party signing with configurable order | Order & roles | |
| Cryptographic PDF signing (PAdES/PKCS7) & verification | PAdES (self-signed cert) | |
| AI & platform | ||
| Built-in MCP server for AI assistants | ||
| Native web, iOS & Android apps | Web only | |
| Free plan | Yes | Self-host |
The differences that matter
What actually changes day to day.
A vault, not just a signing tool
DocuSeal starts and ends at the signature. Stoatify adds ready-made life categories, OCR search, automated intake and versioning around every document, signed or not.
Managed vs self-hosted
DocuSeal is free software you run yourself: hosting, TLS, backups and upgrades are on you, or you pay for its cloud. Stoatify is a managed service with that handled.
Reminders, sharing & admin beyond signing
Stoatify's due-date reminders, saved-search sharing, webhooks and org audit log cover the rest of your paperwork, not just documents waiting on a signature.
Native apps, not web-only
Stoatify ships native iOS and Android apps with a submissions dashboard and in-app guided signing. DocuSeal is a web application today.
In fairness
When DocuSeal is the better choice.
If the only job is collecting signatures and you want to fully self-host for compliance or cost reasons, with nothing else to run in the same tool, DocuSeal is a genuinely excellent, open-source (AGPL) option purpose-built for exactly that. Stoatify is the better fit when you want signing built into the same private vault that already organizes, searches and shares the rest of your documents.
FAQ
Switching from DocuSeal.
Does Stoatify actually do what DocuSeal does?+
Yes. Stoatify has a drag-and-drop template builder, the same range of signable field types, configurable multi-party signing order, a no-account guided signing flow, cryptographic PAdES/PKCS7 signing with an optional RFC-3161 timestamp, a verification tool and a completion audit certificate.
Can I embed Stoatify's signing form like DocuSeal's?+
Yes. Stoatify ships a framework-agnostic embeddable signing form (iframe + postMessage) as an npm package, plus a React wrapper, so you can drop it into your own product.
Is Stoatify open-source like DocuSeal?+
No, Stoatify is a managed product rather than self-hosted software. It trades self-hosting for a maintained service where e-signatures are one part of a larger vault: organization, sharing, reminders and admin all included.
Why not just use DocuSeal alongside my document manager?+
You can, but then a signed contract lives in one tool and everything else lives in another. Stoatify keeps the signed document, its audit certificate and every related file in the same searchable vault from the start.
Compare Stoatify with more tools
Give your paperwork a real home.
Bring your documents over from DocuSeal and see the difference organization makes. Free to start, no credit card.
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