DocuSign is a good product. It works. It's reliable. If you've been running it for years, it's woven into your workflows in ways you probably don't even notice anymore.
None of that changes the fact that you're almost certainly overpaying for it.
This isn't a hit piece on DocuSign's software. The software is fine. It's the business model that deserves a harder look, because for most mid-market companies, the product hasn't changed nearly as much as the invoice.
The renewal treadmill
Here's what happens. Your contract comes up. A quote shows up from your rep. The number is higher than last year, maybe 10%, maybe more. You push back. They knock off a little. You sign it because switching sounds harder than eating the increase.
Twelve months later, the same dance. And every year, the gap between what you're paying and what this tool actually does for you gets a little wider.
Per-envelope pricing is the engine behind it. This model was designed for a world where digital signing was a premium capability. Charging per transaction made sense when every envelope replaced a trip to FedEx. But eSignature isn't a premium capability anymore. It's plumbing. And nobody wants plumbing that bills by the flush.
Seat-based tiers make it worse. When the pricing is tied to user count, you start making weird decisions. The operations team that would genuinely benefit from eSignature doesn't get it, because adding them bumps you into the next tier. Departments that should be sending agreements digitally are still emailing PDFs around because the budget math doesn't work.
This is the pattern we hear constantly. DocuSign works great for the people who have access. The problem is everyone who doesn't, because the pricing model won't let them through the door.
Capabilities: where it's close, where it's different
Most competitor comparisons get slippery right about here, so let's not.
For the things mid-market companies actually use every day (sending documents for signature, building and managing templates, mobile signing, audit trails, admin controls) Propper Sign and DocuSign are comparable. Signing works. Templates are clean. Mobile is native. Compliance standards are met. If your team uses DocuSign for straightforward signing workflows, Propper handles those workflows the same way.
Where the products diverge is less about checkboxes and more about trade-offs.
Propper is newer. That means a smaller integration library today. It also means the architecture is clean, built for how companies work now, not retrofitted from code that's been accumulating weight for fifteen years. Our API covers the integrations mid-market companies actually use. It doesn't try to cover the sprawling enterprise customizations that most organizations pay for in their tier pricing and never touch.
DocuSign's edge is incumbency. More connectors. More procurement familiarity. Less explaining to do when your IT team asks "why are we switching?" For companies with deeply custom, multi-system DocuSign implementations, switching means real migration work.
But here's the thing most companies get wrong: they overestimate their own complexity. The majority of mid-market organizations aren't running exotic, custom-built DocuSign integrations. They're running standard workflows with standard connectors. For them, switching takes hours, not months.
We know this because our team built and scaled the product you'd be moving off of. We've seen the integration ecosystem from the inside. We know where the complexity is real and where it's a story vendors tell to keep you from looking around.
What migration actually involves
The fear of switching keeps more companies on overpriced contracts than any feature gap ever could. So let's walk through it honestly.
You're moving three things: templates, integrations, and people.
Templates are the easy part. Most mid-market companies run 20 to 100 active templates. Rebuilding them takes a couple of focused days, and you'll end up cleaning out the dead ones that have been cluttering the account for years. It's spring cleaning that's been overdue anyway.
Integrations depend on what you're running. Standard connectors to Salesforce, HubSpot, or your HRIS map directly. If you've got custom middleware or DocuSign embedded deep in a proprietary system, the effort goes up. We won't pretend otherwise.
People barely notice. The folks sending and signing documents adapt in their first session. The interfaces are similar enough that muscle memory transfers. Admins need about an hour on the new dashboard. That's it.
Total timeline for most mid-market companies: one to two weeks of part-time work. Not the multi-month migration project that the fear of switching conjures up.
The honest answer on when to switch
We could say switching always makes sense. We'd rather say something true.
If your organization has gone deep on DocuSign's enterprise platform (custom branding, complex workflow automation, IAM integrations wired across multiple business units) switching costs are real. The savings need to be large enough to justify the effort, and for some companies in that position, they won't be.
For everyone else, and this is the majority of companies between 20 and 5,000 employees, the picture is clearer. You're on enterprise-level pricing for capability that's now available at a fraction of the cost. The product does what you need. Migration is manageable. The savings start on day one and compound at every renewal you're no longer overpaying for.
The best signal is your renewal date. Six months out? Plenty of time to evaluate properly. Three months? Move with purpose. Renewal is next week? Get a quote anyway. Even if you end up staying with DocuSign, knowing the alternative number gives you real leverage in the negotiation.
We keep coming back to the same line because it keeps being true: if you want to save 30% on your DocuSign renewal, mention Propper. If you want to save 70%, call us.
Numbers first, then everything else
The best way into this conversation is a quote, not a demo.
Give us your envelope volume, user count, and integration needs. Takes two minutes. We'll hand you a number. You compare it to what you're paying. If the gap is worth pursuing, we'll prove the product works using your actual templates and workflows. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too.
No six-month evaluation. No extended sales process. Numbers first. Then proof.