Switch Guide: Moving from DocuSign to Notarius
DocuSign is the global e-signature default, but it's a San Francisco company with US data infrastructure. For Canadian organizations — particularly law firms, notaries, financial institutions, and government bodies — electronic signatures have specific legal requirements under Canadian law (PIPEDA, ESIGN equivalents by province, Quebec's LCCJTI). Notarius is a Montreal-founded company that has spent decades building electronic signature solutions specifically designed for Canadian legal contexts, including support for Quebec's civil law system and bilingual documentation. When legal admissibility in Canadian courts matters, using a Canadian-built solution built for Canadian law is the right call.
What You'll Gain
- Canadian legal compliance: Notarius is purpose-built for Canadian legal requirements, including Quebec civil law and provincial e-signature legislation.
- Bilingual support: Full French and English support — essential for Quebec and federal government work.
- Canadian data hosting: All documents and signature records stored in Canada.
- Long-term archiving: Notarius offers certified archival storage for executed documents — critical for legal records retention.
- Notarial certificate support: Notarius supports advanced electronic signatures that meet notarial requirements in Canadian jurisdictions.
- Canadian customer support: Support in both official languages, in your timezone.
What You Might Miss
- Global ecosystem: DocuSign is recognized everywhere. Some counterparties may not have heard of Notarius and may require verification of its legal validity.
- Integrations: DocuSign connects natively with Salesforce, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and hundreds more. Notarius's integration library is smaller.
- Workflow builder: DocuSign's envelope workflows and conditional logic are more sophisticated for complex multi-party agreements.
- Mobile signing experience: DocuSign's mobile app is more polished than Notarius's mobile signing flow.
Migration Checklist
- Download completed DocuSign envelopes — From DocuSign, go to Manage → Completed → Download to save your executed agreements and audit trails as PDFs.
- Export template library — Export your DocuSign templates as PDFs. You'll rebuild the signing configuration in Notarius.
- Set up Notarius account — Work with Notarius's onboarding team to configure your organization account and identity verification settings.
- Recreate your document templates — Upload your PDF templates to Notarius and configure signature fields, initials, and data fields.
- Configure integrations — Set up any API integrations or connect your CRM/document management system to Notarius.
- Run a pilot — Process your next 5–10 agreements through Notarius to validate the workflow before full deployment.
- Update counterparty communications — Update any boilerplate language that references DocuSign to reference your new e-signature process.
- Cancel DocuSign — After 30 days of successful Notarius use, cancel your DocuSign subscription.
Data Export Tips from DocuSign
In DocuSign, each completed envelope includes a signed PDF and a Certificate of Completion (the audit trail). Download both for each important agreement. For bulk export, DocuSign's API allows programmatic envelope downloads — if you have hundreds of completed agreements to preserve, have a developer script this export. Store completed agreements in your document management system (not DocuSign) as the permanent record — treat DocuSign as a transaction processor, not a document archive.
Timeline Estimate
Most organizations complete this switch in 2–3 weeks. Archiving existing DocuSign documents and setting up Notarius account takes about a week. Rebuilding templates and training users adds another week. Organizations with complex DocuSign workflows (conditional routing, embedded signing) should plan 4–6 weeks for a thorough migration.