What is a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA)?
A Non-Disclosure Agreement, also known as a confidentiality agreement, is an essential type of legal contract which allows a disclosing party to share confidential information with a receiving party for a specific purpose. In exchange, the receiving party must protect the confidential information for an agreed time period and not disclose it or use it for their personal gain without the discloser's written consent. A breach of contract will occur if the receiving party discloses the confidentiality within the term of the NDA, and the disclosing party will be able to seek injunctive relief and damages from them.
What is an NDA generator?
An NDA generator lets you draft NDAs quickly, easily, and transparently. NDA generators are a self-serve solution for users allowing them to customise their non-disclosure agreements fully. The platform will ask simple questions, such as the confidentiality term, when that term will start, whether it is mutual or one way and more. Based on the answers, the platform will generate an NDA. This type of service will usually be end to end, allowing users to create a contract, negotiate terms and invite parties to sign the agreement. An NDA generator replaces the need to have legal professionals who would need to draft such agreements.
What is DocuSign?
DocuSign is a SaaS company that allows its users to send documents electronically to be signed. The electronic signature platform is designed to accelerate the signing process of documents, provide an easily accessible audit trail of documents and provide a paperless alternative. Users simply need to upload their reusable templates to the DocuSign platform and invite parties to sign them via their email address, where they will receive notifications to electronically sign (e-sign) the document. As a user-friendly platform, DocuSign can be signed on a mobile device or via its mobile app (iOS and Android compatible). User can streamline their contracting processes by getting the templates they have uploaded quickly, efficiently and greenly. To ensure that users can drag and drop documents and operate a seamless workflow, DocuSign also has some critical integrations with other software providers, such as Google and Evernote.
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Difference between using an NDA generator and DocuSign
End to end service
NDA generators will most likely have an end to end service allowing users to create, negotiate and invite the other party to sign the contract all in one place. Using a comprehensive service like this for your NDA agreements is convenient for users because they don't need to switch from different platforms when negotiating and signing the contract. Compared to DocuSign, which only facilitates the electronic signature stage of the entire process, users have to have a separate platform/software for each step.
Efficiency
An NDA generator is convenient as they save users a significant amount of time. Rather than having legal departments draft the agreement taking several days, an NDA generator can do the job in just a few minutes. Once the contract is drafted, you can download, print or invite parties to sign. DocuSign is efficient because you can upload any agreement and obtain a signature quickly and easily. If you have your own NDA agreements that need signing, you must upload this to DocuSign for electronic signatures. Although this may seem like a simple task, time spent uploading documents can make the process inefficient in the long run.
Price
DocuSign subscriptions start from as little as £8, which may not seem however, when you have to also pay for a lawyer to draft the contract or buy a suitable template elsewhere, it can add up. If you have a free non-disclosure agreement template, it may not seem too expensive, but one must consider whether the contract clauses are up to date, lawyer-approved and in line with industry standards, and tailored to your needs. A free NDA agreement template can save you a few quid in the short run, but if you ever end up in court and your contract isn't legally sound, it can prove costly.
Platforms like DocuSign have replaced manual, slow, expensive and error-prone paper-based agreement processes and paved the way for e-signatures, allowing users to sign from anywhere using any device. However, if you want a more streamlined, end to end service for managing your confidentiality agreements, consider using a contract managing platform like Legislate.
About Legislate
Legislate is a contracting platform where business owners can create contracts to help grow and develop their business. Legislate's employment contracts and offer letters are key in protecting your IP and Legislate's NDAs are crucial to ensure you can have conversations and partnerships to help develop your business and brand. Book a demo or sign up today to put the confidence back into contracting.
The opinions on this page are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice you should rely on.