The confusion is understandable. Product teams at companies like DocuSign and Adobe have deliberately blurred the distinction because "electronic signature" is the more accurate term for most of what their products do, but "digital signature" sounds more tech-forward and secure. Here's the actual difference.
Electronic Signature: The Broad Category
An electronic signature (or e-signature) is any digital representation of a person's intent to agree to something. That's a deliberately broad definition, and that's the point.
Under the US ESIGN Act (2000) and UETA, and the EU's eIDAS regulation, an electronic signature can be:
- Your name typed at the bottom of an email
- A scanned image of your handwritten signature
- Clicking "I Agree" on a website
- Drawing your name with your finger on a touchscreen
- A signature image inserted into a Word document or PDF
All of these are legally valid electronic signatures for most contracts in most jurisdictions, as long as both parties have consented to doing business electronically. That's the key requirement, consent to electronic processes, not a specific technology.
Digital Signature: The Specific Cryptographic Kind
A digital signature is a specific type of electronic signature that uses public-key cryptography to:
- Verify identity, it proves the signer is who they claim to be, using a digital certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority
- Detect tampering, if the document is changed after signing, the signature becomes invalid
- Provide non-repudiation, the signer cannot later claim they didn't sign it
When you sign a PDF using Adobe Acrobat with a digital ID, or when a contract is signed through a platform that issues certificates, that's a digital signature.
The Practical Difference
| Feature | Electronic Signature | Digital Signature |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | Any digital mark | Cryptographic key pair |
| Identity verification | Varies (often none) | Certificate-backed |
| Tamper detection | No | Yes |
| Legal validity (US/EU) | Yes, for most contracts | Yes, plus higher assurance |
| Requires software | No special software | Certificate Authority + supporting software |
| Cost | Free to nearly free | Certificates cost money; services charge per use |
Which One Do You Actually Need?
For the vast majority of everyday documents, employment contracts, NDAs, freelance agreements, offer letters, rental agreements, a simple electronic signature is completely sufficient. Courts routinely uphold these.
You need a proper digital signature (or at minimum, a witnessed/notarized e-signature) for:
- Real estate transactions in certain jurisdictions
- Court documents and legal filings
- Financial instruments (some loans, securities)
- Government filings that specify a certain assurance level
- Situations where proving identity is critical and disputed signatures are likely
When in doubt: for any high-stakes contract, ask a lawyer. The good news is most of the platforms people already use (DocuSign, Adobe Sign) offer both e-signature and digital signature options at different price tiers.
What SignatureHub Creates
To be transparent: SignatureHub's signature tool creates electronic signatures, specifically, an image of your handwritten or typed signature that you can use in documents. This is appropriate for most day-to-day uses.
It doesn't create cryptographically backed digital signatures, those require a Certificate Authority and are a different category of product. For the vast majority of documents people sign in everyday life, an electronic signature image is what they need.
Create a Free Electronic Signature
Draw, type, or upload your signature and download it as a transparent PNG for documents, PDFs, and Word files.
Create Signature – Free