Documenso
The polished open-source DocuSign alternative - teams, templates, API, and real PKCS#12 document sealing.
One-click deploy, from $25/mo on a Miget plan.
Documenso is the venture-grade open-source e-signature product: a signing experience recipients do not need explaining, teams and templates for the senders, an API for automation - and signed PDFs sealed with a real PKCS#12 certificate, so documents carry cryptographic proof, not just an audit log.
The deployment is stateless: one container on a managed Postgres, with the signing certificate supplied as base64 in env (self-signed is explicitly supported - the README has the three openssl commands). NEXT_PUBLIC_* vars are runtime-injected, so the official image deploys behind any domain without rebuilds.
Hosted Documenso runs $25-40/month with the heavier features in higher tiers; DocuSign charges per envelope. Self-hosted is unlimited documents on a $25 plan - the AGPL edition does not gate signing.
Upstream project: Documenso
#what you get
- Signing workflows with templates, teams, and recipient roles
- PKCS#12 document sealing - cryptographic proof in the PDF
- API + webhooks for automated sends
- Stateless container: cert via env, state in managed Postgres
- Runtime-injected public URL - no image rebuilds per domain
- AGPL, 13k+ stars, active development
#topology
| Service | Role | Public |
|---|---|---|
| documenso | app + API (:5000) | yes |
| db | Postgres 14+ - managed service on Miget, container locally | no |
#miget sizing
// this stack needs
3 GiB RAM · 5 GB disk · 2 services
Upstream quotes a 2 GB floor for the app. Fully stateless - the managed Postgres holds everything, so redeploys and the comfort tier are uneventful.
Hobby - recommended fit
$25/mo
2 vCPU · 4 GiB · 80 GiB disk
Headroom for your own apps: 8 GiB at $49/mo
Professional - production
$43/mo
2 vCPU · 4 GiB · 25 GiB disk
Dedicated resources, production SLOs - plan details
One Miget plan is a fixed pool of compute - the whole stack (managed databases included) deploys inside it, and anything left over runs your other apps. No per-service or per-seat math.
#vs. the managed service
What the hosted equivalents charge, against the flat Miget plan this stack fits on. Prices as of June 2026, sources linked.
| Service | Plan | Monthly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documenso on Miget ★ | 4 GiB plan | $25 | this whole stack, flat - no usage meters, and room left for your own apps |
| DocuSign | Standard | ~$30 | per user/mo (annual), 100 envelopes per user per year |
| PandaDoc | Starter | ~$19 | per seat/mo (annual), 110 documents/year, $3.50 per extra doc on monthly |
| Documenso Cloud | Teams | ~$40 | 5 users included, +$8/user - same software, their hosting |
#vs. other PaaS
Estimated monthly cost of running this exact stack (3 GiB RAM, 5 GB disk, 2 containers) elsewhere, from published June 2026 rates.
| Platform | Est. monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Miget ★ | $25 flat | compose stacks first-class: one deploy, dedicated vCPU, managed Postgres/Valkey, volumes and TLS all included in the plan |
| Heroku | ~$150 | no volumes; nothing between 1 GB ($50) and 2.5 GB ($250) dynos - 2 GB containers cost far more than shown |
| DO App Platform | ~$41 | no persistent volumes - stateful containers need managed DBs/Spaces (base $5 Spaces included here) |
| Render | ~$39 | per-service instances (0.5 GB $7, 2 GB $25) - every container is its own paid service |
| Railway | ~$31 | usage-based ($10/GB RAM-mo); vCPU billed separately at $20/vCPU-mo on top |
| Fly.io | ~$18 | cheapest sticker price - but burstable shared CPUs (1/16 core; dedicated vCPUs cost ~2-3×), no compose deploys (one app per container, manual wiring), managed DBs billed extra |
Estimates assume RAM fully allocated at published on-demand rates - and sticker price isn't the whole comparison: the cheaper rows buy burstable shared CPUs, per-service wiring instead of a compose deploy, and managed databases billed separately. Heroku and DO App Platform have no persistent volumes at all - stateful stacks like this one need workarounds there.
#deploy it
On Miget
- Create a Compose Stack in app.miget.com pointing at the templates repository
- Set the stack path to
documenso -
Set the required variables:
NEXTAUTH_SECRET / NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY (+SECONDARY), core secretsSIGNING_CERT_B64 (+ passphrase), base64 PKCS#12 cert - self-signed OK, generate once and keepSMTP_*, the signing flow is email-drivenNEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL, the app’s https domain after first deploy
- Deploy. Miget layers
compose.miget.yaml(RAM, privacy, volumes, managed services) automatically
Locally first?
Every template is portable, vanilla Docker Compose - the Miget overrides are ignored locally:
git clone https://github.com/deployable-sh/stacks
cd miget-compose-templates/documenso
docker compose up -dSame files, same behavior. The template README covers connection strings and scaling notes.
#faq
Why does it need a certificate, and is self-signed really OK?
The cert seals signed PDFs so the signature verifies cryptographically inside the document. Documenso explicitly supports self-signed certs (three openssl commands, base64 into env) - the seal proves integrity either way. Generate it once and keep it: old documents verify against the cert that sealed them.
How does pricing compare to DocuSign and PandaDoc?
DocuSign Standard is $30/user/month with 100 envelopes/year; PandaDoc Starter $19/seat with 110 documents/year. This stack is $25/month total, unlimited documents and users - and Documenso’s own cloud Teams tier is $40/month, so even first-party hosting costs more than running it here.
Documenso or DocuSeal?
Documenso for the recipient-facing polish, teams, and cert-sealed PDFs; DocuSeal for the lighter footprint and fastest setup. Both are AGPL with un-gated signing - the honest answer is taste, and the catalogue ships both.
Ship Documenso today
One compose stack, 3 GiB of RAM, from $25/month flat, and it runs on your laptop with the same files.