Penneo Sign vs Certifaction Comparison: Everything You Need to Know Before Choosing

Certifaction is a Swiss electronic signature provider that describes its product as a privacy-first eSigning solution, designed to be easy to integrate while meeting the legal and regulatory requirements that apply in Switzerland and the European Union. The company addresses a concern that frequently holds back e-signature adoption in regulated or privacy-conscious organisations: conventional platforms typically require documents to be uploaded to and stored on the provider's servers, creating data protection and confidentiality risks. Certifaction takes a different approach, using client-side encryption and a zero-knowledge design so that document contents remain under the customer's control, while cryptographic proofs establish the integrity and authenticity of each signature. This architecture makes it particularly relevant to organisations handling confidential personal, financial or legal information. The platform supports the three signature levels defined under Swiss ZertES and EU eIDAS regulations — simple, advanced and qualified electronic signatures — with identity verification services available for qualified signatures that carry the same legal weight as handwritten ones. Users can sign documents through a web application, request signatures from colleagues and external parties, and track progress in a central overview. A key differentiator is integration: Certifaction offers add-ins and connectors for Microsoft 365, including Word, Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, allowing documents to be signed from within the tools employees already use, and it provides an API for embedding signatures into business applications and document workflows. Administrative features cover user management, single sign-on and centralised billing. Data is hosted in Switzerland, which supports compliance with Swiss data protection law and the GDPR. Typical customers include banks, insurers, law firms, fiduciaries, healthcare providers and public sector bodies in Switzerland and across Europe, as well as mid-sized enterprises seeking a compliant alternative to American signature providers. Pricing starts from around CHF 17 with a free trial; there is no permanently free version.