Contract Types That Work Best with eSignatures

Getting a signature used to mean printing, scanning, mailing, or physically meeting someone. For businesses that process dozens of contracts per week, that process drains time, slows revenue, and creates friction for everyone involved.

Electronic signatures change all of that. According to research cited in the 2025 Contracting Benchmark Report, the average contract takes 60 days to execute with traditional methods. With eSignatures, many of those same agreements close in minutes.

But not all contract types are created equal when it comes to digital signing. Some contracts are perfectly suited for eSignatures. Others require a specific level of eSignature security. And a small number still require a handwritten wet signature by law.

This guide breaks down which contract types work best with eSignatures, which need a more advanced approach, and which ones you should not try to sign electronically.

Why Choosing the Right Contract Type Matters for eSignatures

Before diving into specific contract types, it helps to understand that "eSignature" is not a single method. There are three primary types, and matching the right type to the right contract protects both parties legally.

The Three Levels of Electronic Signatures

Simple Electronic Signatures (SES): These are the most widely used type. They cover typed names, drawn signatures, and clicking an "I Agree" button. They are appropriate for most everyday business agreements where the parties already have a clear relationship and identity is not in dispute.

Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES): AES are uniquely tied to the signer's identity and are designed to detect document tampering after signing. These are appropriate for higher-value contracts where more verification is needed.

Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES): QES carry the same legal weight as a handwritten signature under EU law. They are required for regulated industries or for agreements across EU member states where strict compliance rules apply.

Legal Foundation in the US

In the United States, electronic signatures are governed by two primary laws. The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN), passed in 2000, establishes that electronic signatures are legally valid for most commercial transactions. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), adopted by 49 states, reinforces that neither a signature nor a contract can be denied legal effect simply because it exists in electronic form.

Together, these laws mean that most business contracts signed electronically are just as enforceable as those signed with ink.

Business Contracts That Work Best with eSignatures

The following contract types are widely used in business and are excellent candidates for electronic signing.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)

NDAs are among the most common contracts processed by legal and operations teams. They protect confidential information before partnerships, hiring conversations, vendor discussions, or product demonstrations.

eSignatures are ideal for NDAs because both parties are typically identified through email, the terms are short, and speed matters. A potential partner should not wait three days for a paper NDA to arrive before a conversation can begin.

With eSignatures, NDAs can be sent, reviewed, and signed in under ten minutes. The audit trail created by the eSignature platform also documents exactly when each party reviewed and signed the document.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES)

Employment Contracts and Offer Letters

Hiring moves fast, and a delayed offer letter can cost a company a top candidate. Employment contracts, offer letters, and at-will agreements are well suited for electronic signing because the identities of both parties are already verified during the hiring process.

HR teams use eSignatures to send offer letters the moment a verbal offer is accepted. The candidate signs from any device, and the executed document is automatically stored in the company's HR system.

In most US states, employment contracts signed electronically are fully enforceable. Teams hiring internationally should review local jurisdiction rules, particularly in countries with more prescriptive requirements for employment agreements.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES)

Service Agreements and Freelance Contracts

Freelancers, agencies, and consultants exchange service agreements constantly. These contracts define scope, payment terms, deliverables, and intellectual property rights. Traditional paper signing delays project kick-offs.

eSignatures allow both parties to execute a service agreement on the same day a project is agreed upon. This accelerates revenue for service providers and speeds up project timelines for clients.

Many freelance platforms and project management tools now have built-in eSignature capability, making it easy to send and sign agreements without leaving the platform.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES)

Vendor and Supplier Contracts

Procurement teams manage dozens of vendor relationships at any given time. Supplier agreements, purchase orders, and vendor onboarding documents pile up quickly, and getting signatures from multiple stakeholders across different organizations adds complexity.

eSignatures streamline this by enabling sequential or parallel signing workflows. A vendor agreement can be routed to a procurement manager, a legal reviewer, and a finance approver in a single automated flow. Each party signs electronically, and the document moves forward automatically.

Best eSignature level: Simple or Advanced Electronic Signature (SES or AES), depending on contract value

Master Service Agreements (MSAs)

MSAs govern long-term relationships between businesses and often include complex terms around liability, indemnification, and intellectual property. They are one of the more detailed agreements in any organization's contract library.

Despite their complexity, MSAs are excellent candidates for eSignatures. The parties involved are known organizations with established identities. The negotiation may happen in a document management platform, and the final execution via eSignature creates a clean record for both parties.

According to the 2025 Contracting Benchmark Report, complex agreements like MSAs can take an average of 60 days to execute through traditional methods. eSignature workflows can cut that timeline significantly, especially when automated routing and approval workflows are used.

Best eSignature level: Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) for high-value or regulated MSAs

Sales and Purchase Agreements

Sales teams operate at speed. A purchase agreement that takes a week to countersign can stall a deal or give a competitor time to step in.

Sales and purchase agreements are ideal for eSignatures because the buyer and seller are known, the terms are already negotiated, and all that remains is execution. CRM-integrated eSignature platforms allow sales reps to send agreements for signature directly from tools like Salesforce or HubSpot, reducing the time between verbal agreement and signed contract to minutes.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES) for standard sales; AES for high-value transactions

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Industry-Specific Contracts That Thrive with eSignatures

Beyond core business agreements, several industries have workflows that benefit enormously from eSignature adoption.

Real Estate Lease Agreements

Residential and commercial lease agreements involve multiple signatories, often at different physical locations. Property managers, tenants, and guarantors may all need to sign, and collecting wet signatures from each person is a logistical challenge.

eSignatures solve this by enabling landlords and property managers to send a single lease document to all parties. Each signer receives the document, signs from their device, and the fully executed lease is stored automatically. Some states have specific requirements for real estate agreements, so it is worth reviewing local regulations, but most US states accept electronically signed lease agreements.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES) for standard residential leases; AES for commercial real estate with high transaction values

HR Onboarding Documents

Employee onboarding involves a significant volume of paperwork: direct deposit authorization, benefits enrollment, policy acknowledgments, tax forms, and more. Processing these manually during a new hire's first week creates a poor experience and delays productivity.

HR teams using eSignatures can send an entire onboarding packet before day one. New hires sign each document from their phone or laptop, and the HR team has a fully executed set of onboarding records before the employee walks in the door.

Best eSignature level: Simple Electronic Signature (SES)

Financial Loan Applications

Banks, credit unions, and fintech lenders use electronic signatures to accelerate loan origination. Loan applications, promissory notes, and truth-in-lending disclosures can all be signed electronically in most jurisdictions.

Financial institutions often apply Advanced Electronic Signatures or multi-factor authentication for loan documents to ensure the identity of the borrower is properly verified. This protects the lender and adds an extra layer of compliance documentation.

Best eSignature level: Advanced Electronic Signature (AES)

Government and Procurement Contracts

Government agencies increasingly use eSignatures for procurement documents, grant agreements, and contractor onboarding. The GovTech sector has published extensive guidance on the use of eSignatures for contract routing and signing across public-sector workflows.

Many federal procurement processes now accept electronically signed documents, though some agency-specific requirements remain. Teams working in government contracting should verify the specific requirements of each contracting authority before relying solely on eSignatures.

Best eSignature level: Advanced or Qualified Electronic Signature (AES or QES), depending on the agency and contract type

Contracts Where You Need a Higher-Level eSignature

Some contracts carry significant financial, legal, or regulatory weight. While they can still be signed electronically, they call for more robust identity verification and document integrity controls.

When to Use Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES)

AES is appropriate when the contract involves a higher financial value, touches regulated industries, or when the parties do not have a pre-established relationship. AES provides a cryptographic link between the signature and the document, making it easy to detect any post-signature changes.

Use cases for AES include regulated financial agreements, healthcare contracts involving protected health information, cross-border business contracts where identity needs to be more formally established, and commercial real estate transactions.

When to Use Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES)

QES is required in the European Union for specific document types under the eIDAS Regulation. It carries the same legal weight as a handwritten signature and requires a digital certificate issued by a qualified trust service provider.

Use cases for QES include EU-regulated financial instruments, notarized equivalents in certain EU member states, government identity verification documents, and formal legal filings in jurisdictions requiring QES.

Contracts That Cannot Use eSignatures

While the ESIGN Act and UETA cover most commercial transactions, a defined set of documents are explicitly excluded from electronic signing and require traditional wet signatures or notarization.

Wills and testamentary trusts cannot generally be signed electronically. These documents have specific witnessing and notarization requirements under state probate law that electronic signatures do not satisfy in most jurisdictions.

Adoption and family court orders are typically excluded because they involve court approval and specific procedural requirements that go beyond the basic intent-to-sign standard.

Divorce decrees and court judgments require physical filing with a court and often require notarization or judicial signatures that fall outside the scope of eSignature law.

Certain real estate deeds in specific states still require notarized wet signatures, though this is changing as remote online notarization (RON) becomes more widely accepted.

Always consult with a legal professional before relying on an electronic signature for a document that may have jurisdiction-specific requirements.

How to Match Your Contract Type to the Right eSignature Level

Choosing the right eSignature level is straightforward when you apply a simple risk-based framework.

Step 1: Assess the financial value of the contract. Low-value, high-frequency agreements like NDAs, offer letters, and freelance contracts are fine with a Simple Electronic Signature. High-value or regulated agreements call for AES or QES.

Step 2: Consider the relationship between the parties. If both parties already know each other through an established business relationship, SES is usually sufficient. If one party is unknown or identity verification is important, use AES.

Step 3: Check for industry or jurisdictional requirements. Regulated industries like financial services, healthcare, and government contracting may have specific requirements for signature type or identity authentication. Verify these before choosing a platform.

Step 4: Think about the audit trail. All eSignature platforms create some form of audit trail, but more sensitive contracts benefit from platforms that capture IP addresses, timestamps, multi-factor authentication events, and device information.

Step 5: Consider international parties. If signatories are in the EU or other jurisdictions with specific eSignature regulations, ensure your platform supports the appropriate signature tier for those regions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What types of contracts can be signed with an electronic signature?

Most business contracts can be signed electronically, including NDAs, employment agreements, service contracts, vendor agreements, lease agreements, sales contracts, MSAs, and HR onboarding documents. In the US, the ESIGN Act and UETA give legal validity to electronic signatures for most commercial and consumer transactions.

Q2: Are electronically signed contracts legally binding?

Yes. In the United States, electronically signed contracts are legally binding under the ESIGN Act (federal) and the UETA (adopted by 49 states). Both laws confirm that a signature cannot be denied legal validity solely because it is in electronic form, provided the parties demonstrated clear intent to sign and consented to transact electronically.

Q3: Which contracts cannot be signed electronically?

Certain documents are excluded from electronic signing, including wills, codicils, testamentary trusts, adoption papers, divorce decrees, and some court orders. Specific real estate instruments in certain states also require notarized wet signatures. Always consult a legal professional for documents in these categories.

Q4: What is the difference between a Simple, Advanced, and Qualified Electronic Signature?

A Simple Electronic Signature (SES) covers typed names, drawn signatures, and checkbox agreements. It is appropriate for most routine business contracts. An Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) is uniquely tied to the signer's identity and can detect post-signing document tampering, making it better for high-value contracts. A Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is the highest level, carrying the same legal weight as a handwritten signature under EU law, and is used for regulated or high-stakes agreements.

Q5: Can you use eSignatures for employment contracts?

Yes. Employment contracts, offer letters, and at-will agreements are well suited for electronic signing in most US states. The parties are typically already identified through the hiring process, and the audit trail provided by eSignature platforms adds an additional layer of documentation. Teams hiring internationally should review local labor law requirements.

Q6: Do eSignatures work for lease agreements?

Yes. Residential and commercial lease agreements are regularly signed electronically. Most US states accept electronically signed leases. Some jurisdictions may have specific witnessing requirements, so it is advisable to check local real estate law before relying solely on a Simple Electronic Signature for a commercial real estate transaction.

Q7: What eSignature level should I use for vendor contracts?

For standard vendor agreements with established counterparties, a Simple Electronic Signature is usually sufficient. For high-value vendor contracts or agreements in regulated industries, consider using an Advanced Electronic Signature to ensure stronger identity verification and document integrity protections.

Q8: How do I know my eSignature is secure?

Reputable eSignature platforms create a comprehensive audit trail for every signing event, capturing the signer's email address, IP address, device type, and timestamps for every action taken. Many platforms also support multi-factor authentication, which requires the signer to verify their identity via a code sent to their phone. Look for platforms that use encryption for data in transit and at rest.

Summary

eSignatures are legally valid, efficient, and secure for the vast majority of contracts that businesses sign every day. NDAs, employment agreements, service contracts, vendor agreements, MSAs, leases, and onboarding documents are all excellent candidates for electronic signing.

The key is matching the right level of eSignature to the contract's risk profile. Simple Electronic Signatures cover most day-to-day business agreements. Advanced Electronic Signatures are appropriate when identity verification matters or contract values are high. Qualified Electronic Signatures are the standard for regulated industries and EU compliance.

A small category of documents, including wills, certain court orders, and some real estate instruments, still requires traditional wet signatures. Knowing these exclusions protects your business from executing unenforceable agreements.

When your eSignature workflow is connected to a contract lifecycle management platform, the benefits compound further. Documents move from draft to signed in a fraction of the time, audit trails are automatic, and every executed agreement is stored in a searchable, accessible repository. 

Schedule a demo with our team to see how our contract management platform connects eSignatures with automated routing, storage, and compliance tracking.

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