If you are choosing a signing tool, you will quickly run into two terms that sound identical but are not: electronic signature and digital signature. Picking the right approach starts with understanding what each one actually means, because the gap between them affects legal defensibility, security, and how much friction your signers experience.
What an electronic signature is
An electronic signature is a broad legal category. It covers almost any electronic indication of intent to sign: typing your name, drawing it with a mouse or finger, clicking an "I agree" button, or pasting an image of your signature. In the United States, the ESIGN Act and UETA give these signatures the same legal standing as ink on paper for most transactions, provided the signer intended to sign and consented to do business electronically. The European Union recognizes a comparable baseline under eIDAS, where this tier is called a simple electronic signature.
The strength of an electronic signature comes less from the mark itself and more from the evidence collected around it: a timestamp, the signer's IP address, the sequence of events, and a record that the signer saw and agreed to the document. That bundle of evidence is the audit trail, and it is what you rely on if a signature is ever questioned.
What a digital signature is
A digital signature is a specific technical method, not a legal category. It uses public key infrastructure (PKI): a pair of cryptographic keys, one private and one public. When a document is signed, the signing software generates a cryptographic value from the document's contents and the signer's private key. Anyone with the matching public key can later verify two things at once: that the signature was produced by that key, and that not a single byte of the document has changed since it was signed. If someone edits the file afterward, verification fails and the signature shows as invalid.
In other words, every digital signature is one way to implement an electronic signature, but not every electronic signature is a digital signature. The PKI mechanism is what gives a digital signature its two extra properties: cryptographic identity binding and tamper-evidence.
When a basic electronic signature is enough
For everyday, low-risk agreements between parties who already have a relationship, a basic electronic signature backed by a solid audit trail is usually sufficient and far less friction for signers. Think permission slips, internal approvals, standard service agreements, and routine consent forms. The transaction is unlikely to be disputed, the parties are known to each other, and the audit trail provides enough evidence of intent and consent.
When you want digital signatures and stronger identity checks
As the value or risk of a document rises, two questions get harder to answer with a basic electronic signature alone: are you certain who signed, and can you prove the document was not altered after signing? Digital signatures address the second question directly through PKI. The first question, signer identity, is handled by layering verification steps on top of the signing flow. Common options, in roughly increasing strength, are email confirmation, a one-time passcode sent by SMS, and knowledge-based or document-based identity verification for the most sensitive cases. The eIDAS framework formalizes these higher tiers as advanced and qualified electronic signatures, which carry stricter identity requirements.
A practical way to choose: match the assurance level to the consequences of a forged or disputed signature. Higher-value contracts, regulated financial and healthcare documents, and anything you expect could be challenged are good candidates for PKI-based digital signatures plus stronger identity verification. Lower-risk paperwork rarely needs that overhead.
What to look for either way
Whichever tier you land on, three things matter across the board: a complete, immutable audit trail; tamper-evidence so a completed document can be checked for changes; and identity verification proportional to the document's risk. It also helps if the completed file is sealed cryptographically rather than left as an editable PDF, so recipients and auditors can confirm integrity on their own.
One option that covers both ends of this spectrum is Anvil's Etch e-sign. It uses PKI digital certificates for identity verification in document signing, includes an audit trail on every plan, and supports compliance frameworks including SOC 2 Type II, eIDAS, GDPR, and HIPAA. It bills only for signature packets that are fully completed rather than every request sent. If your team needs to support both routine low-risk signatures and higher-assurance documents from the same workflow, it is worth evaluating alongside the general criteria above.
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