Six resources let a small business get a sound agreement drafted, signed and stored without paying — two sets of lawyer-drafted free templates, two free e-signature plans with templates, and two contract-management platforms with a free tier of some kind. This is a thin category: most contract-lifecycle vendors sell only to sales-led accounts, and the Scorecards say which ones actually publish a free plan. Prices are USD and were checked on 21 October 2026. How we score · All Kurums Free lists
TL;DR — the free contract tool that fits
- A SaaS startup that needs NDAs, MSAs and terms: Common Paper — lawyer-drafted standard agreements free under CC BY 4.0, plus two agreements a month on its free platform.
- Raising a first round: YC SAFE documents — post-money SAFEs, side letters and a free ‘Send a SAFE’ tool.
- Send and sign a few contracts a month: PandaDoc Free eSign — five documents and five templates a month, no card; SignWell for one template and three a month.
- Full contract lifecycle, free tier: Contractbook — a free plan after its 14-day trial with limits the vendor does not publish.
Which contract templates & management tools have a free plan in 2026?
Contract management splits into three jobs: getting a good template, getting it signed, and tracking it afterwards. The free options cover the first two well and the third barely. Common Paper and Y Combinator publish free, lawyer-drafted agreements; PandaDoc and SignWell sign them free in small volumes; Contractbook and Concord are lifecycle platforms whose free tiers are either unpublished or sales-negotiated.
We excluded the vendors that offer only trials or sales-led pricing: Juro (no free plan, custom pricing), Rocket Lawyer (7-day trial, $149 a year), Bonsai (7-day trial), Legal Templates (trial length unclear), Docusign CLM and Ironclad (sales only). LawDepot’s page requires JavaScript and could not be read. For e-signature alone, the companion free e-signature list ranks ten tools.
The table shows the one limit most likely to push you to a paid plan, whether a card is needed to start, and the Free Score. The rows below open into the full Scorecard with every limit, the upgrade trigger, the cheapest paid step and the page we checked.
| Company | Free as | Key limit | Card | Free Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C |
Free forever | 2 agreements/mo on platform · templates unlimited | No | 88 | Scorecard ↓ |
| Y |
Free tools | Fundraising documents only | No | 84 | Scorecard ↓ |
| P |
Free forever | 5 docs/mo · 5 templates | No | 80 | Scorecard ↓ |
| S |
Free forever | 3 docs/mo · 1 template · 1 sender | No | 74 | Scorecard ↓ |
| C |
Free forever | Free plan · limits unpublished | No | 58 | Scorecard ↓ |
| C |
Free forever | Freemium by sales request only | No | 40 | Scorecard ↓ |
Free tiers verified 21 October 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page (third-party sources named in the Scorecard where the vendor page was silent). Order is by Free Score only; sponsorship never changes it.
What do the free contract tool plans actually include?
Open any row for the eight-field Scorecard. The “Why it ranks here” note under each row explains the score in plain terms.
1C
Common PaperUS · standard NDA, MSA, SaaS and other agreements free under CC BY 4.0, plus a free platform tier for two agreements a monthFree forever2 agreements/mo on platform · templates unlimitedNo card88⌄
- What’s free
- Standard agreements (NDA, MSA, cloud service agreement, SaaS terms, DPA and more) free under CC BY 4.0; a free platform tier with template and document generation, billing, alerts and Slack
- Hard limits
- 2 agreements per month per organisation on the free platform; the templates themselves are unlimited
- Time limit
- Unlimited
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- A third agreement in a month on the platform
- Cheapest paid step
- Startup $50/user/month, monthly
- Best free for
- A SaaS startup that wants lawyer-drafted, widely used standard terms rather than a blank Word document
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · commonpaper.com/pricing · commonpaper.com/standards
2Y
YC SAFE documentsUS · post-money SAFE forms for the US, Canada, Cayman and Singapore, side letters, a user guide and a free ‘Send a SAFE’ toolFree toolsFundraising documents onlyNo card84⌄
- What’s free
- Post-money SAFE forms (US, Canada, Cayman Islands, Singapore), pro-rata and MFN side letters, the SAFE user guide, and a free Send a SAFE tool
- Hard limits
- Fundraising documents only; no general commercial contracts
- Time limit
- Unlimited
- Card required
- No. Free downloads and tool.
- Upgrade trigger
- None
- Cheapest paid step
- None
- Best free for
- An early-stage founder raising on SAFEs
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · ycombinator.com/documents
Why it ranks here. The industry-standard instrument from its author, free. Scored below Common Paper because it covers one kind of contract; YC disclaims responsibility and recommends counsel, which we repeat.
3P
PandaDoc Free eSignUS · five documents and five templates a month with real-time tracking and 24/7 support, no cardFree forever5 docs/mo · 5 templatesNo card80⌄
- What’s free
- Free eSign: 5 documents per month, up to 5 templates, real-time tracking, 24/7 email and chat support, AI assistants in beta
- Hard limits
- 5 documents/month shared across the team, API documents included · 5 templates · the page is inconsistent on whether the editor is in Free
- Time limit
- Unlimited
- Card required
- No. The page states no credit card is required.
- Upgrade trigger
- A sixth document in a month, or needing the editor or CPQ
- Cheapest paid step
- Starter $19/seat/month (shown as $19 on both annual and monthly views)
- Best free for
- A small team that sends a few standard contracts a month and wants them tracked
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · pandadoc.com/pricing
Why it ranks here. Templates plus signing plus tracking is most of contract management for a small business, and PandaDoc gives five of each free. The page contradicts itself on whether the document editor is included, which we flag.
4S
SignWellUS · three documents and one template a month for one sender, with a template library and 25 API documentsFree forever3 docs/mo · 1 template · 1 senderNo card74⌄
- What’s free
- Free: 3 documents per month, 1 template, 1 sender, 25 free API documents per month, template library
- Hard limits
- 3 documents/month · 1 template · 1 sender
- Time limit
- Unlimited
- Card required
- Not stated; the page says you will not be billed unless you upgrade.
- Upgrade trigger
- A fourth document or a second template
- Cheapest paid step
- Light $10/month billed annually ($12 monthly), per sender
- Best free for
- A freelancer with one standard contract who signs a few a month
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · signwell.com/pricing
Why it ranks here. The one free template and the template library make it usable as a lightweight contract tool for a sole trader. Priced per sender, which suits one person and not a team.
5C
ContractbookDenmark · a contract-lifecycle platform whose 14-day trial drops to a limited free plan with limits the vendor does not publishFree foreverFree plan · limits unpublishedNo card58⌄
- What’s free
- A limited Free plan after the 14-day trial; the page states that limits are set upon trial expiry
- Hard limits
- Not stated
- Time limit
- Unlimited after the trial
- Card required
- No. The trial states no credit card is required.
- Upgrade trigger
- Not stated
- Cheapest paid step
- Essential $399/month billed annually (the table lists $399 for Centralize as well; inconsistent)
- Best free for
- Trying full contract-lifecycle features before committing to an enterprise plan
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · contractbook.com/pricing
Why it ranks here. A free plan exists, but a free plan with unpublished limits cannot be scored above the midpoint on capacity. The paid step is $399 a month, which places the product in a different market from the rest of this list.
6C
ConcordUS · a lifecycle platform whose pricing page offers freemium plans only through its sales teamFree foreverFreemium by sales request onlyNo card40⌄
- What’s free
- No public free tier; a footnote states that freemium plans are available on request from Sales
- Hard limits
- Not stated
- Time limit
- Not stated
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Not stated
- Cheapest paid step
- Essentials $499/month paid annually, 5 users included, extra users $49/month
- Best free for
- Only a company willing to negotiate a free tier with sales
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · concord.app/pricing
Why it ranks here. Listed because Concord is widely described as having a free plan; its pricing page says the free plan is a sales conversation. We score it as the page states and rank it last.
Which free contract tool has no credit-card requirement?
PandaDoc states that no card is required and YC’s documents are downloads; Contractbook says ‘no card’ for its trial; SignWell says you will not be billed unless you upgrade. Common Paper and Concord do not state a card requirement, which we record as “not stated”. No free plan here converts to a paid one automatically.
The decision is which job you need done. Templates: Common Paper for commercial agreements, YC for fundraising. Signing with templates: PandaDoc (five and five a month), SignWell (three and one). Lifecycle tracking: Contractbook’s unpublished free plan, or Concord by negotiation. Most small businesses can combine Common Paper’s templates with PandaDoc’s free signing and pay nothing until they send more than five contracts a month.
When does the free plan stop being enough?
Kurums Match: which free contract tool fits your situation?
SaaS startup signing customers
Common Paper templates, signed through PandaDoc Free eSign.
Founder raising a pre-seed
YC’s post-money SAFE and the Send a SAFE tool.
Freelancer with one standard agreement
SignWell Free: one template, three a month.
Team sending a handful of contracts
PandaDoc Free eSign: five documents, five templates, tracked.
Evaluating lifecycle software
Contractbook’s trial, then its free plan.
How we score free tiers
Duration (30): free forever scores 30, a 30-day-plus trial 15, a trial of 14 days or less 8, credit-based tiers 12. Capacity (30): whether the limits carry a team of three for twelve months. Core job (25): whether the free tier does the category’s main work — here, getting a sound agreement drafted, sent, signed and stored. Friction (15): no card 15; card but no auto-charge 8; auto-charge 0; self-hosting deducts for setup and maintenance.
Each free tier was checked on the vendor’s pricing page on 21 October 2026; where the vendor page was silent, the Scorecard names the third-party source used. Free tiers change, so this list is re-verified every quarter and a discontinued free plan stays listed for one month with a notice. Order is by Free Score only. Kurums Free sells no placement; sponsorship, affiliate links and vendor requests never change a score, a rank or a label. Vendors can submit corrections through the Update your free tier form.
How did we verify these free tiers?
For each resource we opened the pricing or documents page and recorded the free tier’s stated limits, the cheapest paid plan and its billing basis, and the card requirement if stated. Contractbook publishes no limits for its free plan and Concord offers freemium only through sales; both rows say so and are scored accordingly. PandaDoc’s page is inconsistent on whether its editor is in the free plan, which we flag. LawDepot’s page could not be read and Juro, Rocket Lawyer, Bonsai, Legal Templates, Docusign CLM and Ironclad were excluded for the reasons given above.
Prices are USD. Nothing here is legal advice; template licences are as stated on each publisher’s page (CC BY 4.0 for Common Paper; YC does not state licence terms on its page).
Frequently asked questions
Where can I get free contract templates a counterparty will accept?
Common Paper’s standard agreements are free under CC BY 4.0 and used widely in SaaS; YC’s SAFE forms are the standard for early fundraising. Both are lawyer-drafted and both publishers recommend counsel for your situation.
Is PandaDoc free?
PandaDoc Free eSign allows five documents and five templates a month with real-time tracking and no card. The editor’s inclusion in the free plan is stated inconsistently on PandaDoc’s page.
Does Juro have a free plan?
No. Juro’s pricing is custom and based on contract volume; the page shows no free tier.
Is Concord free?
Not publicly. Concord’s pricing page says freemium plans are available by contacting its sales team; the listed Essentials plan is $499 a month.
Is Rocket Lawyer free?
Rocket Lawyer offers a seven-day trial; the Standard membership is $149 a year. It is excluded from this list as trial-only.
How is this different from the Best Contract Management Software comparison?
This list answers ‘where can I draft and sign contracts without paying’. The Best comparison answers ‘which lifecycle platform should I buy’. Both use the same no-sponsorship rule.
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