ChickenSign: simple e-signatures for UK service businesses
Our own product · Business software · chickensign.com
ChickenSign is an electronic signature app for UK freelancers, trades and small firms. Upload a PDF, drop signature, initials, date or tick boxes where they’re needed, and send each signer a private link. Signers don’t need an account.
The problem: e-signatures priced for big companies
Small service businesses need signatures all the time: quotes, variations agreed on site, engagement letters, letting paperwork and client agreements. The best-known e-signature platforms are built and priced for larger companies. Per-user seat fees and yearly envelope limits make little sense for a plumber who sends a dozen quotes a month.
There’s a second worry. Many owners aren’t sure whether an e-signature is legally valid in the UK, or for which documents. Without a clear answer they go back to printing, signing, scanning and emailing, which slows down every job and every payment.
What we built
- Upload any PDF as it is. ChickenSign doesn’t rebuild your document into a template. You place the boxes and assign each one to a signer.
- A private signing link for each person. Clients sign on a phone or computer with no sign-up.
- A proper record. The document is locked when it’s sent and fingerprinted with SHA-256 when it’s sent and again when it’s completed. Every step is logged with the London time, and the signed PDF comes with a certificate.
- Plain-English UK legal notes. A page that says exactly what a ChickenSign signature is: a simple electronic signature under the Electronic Communications Act 2000. It also lists the documents ChickenSign refuses, such as wills, lasting powers of attorney and deeds.
- Tools for busier firms. Batch sending from a CSV file, sequential or parallel signing for several parties, and a REST API with signed webhooks, so a business can send documents from its own systems.
- Simple pricing. 10 signatures a month free, or unlimited for £9.95 a month.
How it helps small businesses
A tradesperson can send a quote from the van and have it signed before they leave the drive. An accountant can send an engagement letter in the morning and have it back by lunch. Because the legal notes are clear about what the signature is and isn’t, owners know which documents they can use it for and which still need wet ink or a witness.
We think that honesty matters as much as the features. ChickenSign tells people what it won’t do, so nobody finds out the hard way.
Related service: App & software development
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