SignAndGoDigital signatures and electronic signatures: the difference.
The two phrases get swapped freely in conversation and in sales material, which causes confusion when someone in procurement or IT asks which one you use. They describe different things. This guide untangles the terms so you can answer the question clearly.
Electronic signature: the broad term
An electronic signature is the general idea of signing something on a screen. It covers drawn and typed signatures, clicking to accept, ticking a box and initialling pages. The focus is on the person: who signed, what they agreed to and when.
When most people in a New Zealand office say they have signed something online, this is what they mean.
Digital signature: a technical method
A digital signature is a specific technique that uses cryptography. A document is run through a mathematical process and sealed with a key tied to a certificate issued to a person or an organisation. If even one character of the file changes afterwards, checking the seal reveals it.
The term describes how a file is protected against tampering, rather than how a person shows agreement. You will mostly meet it in software that handles certificates, and in some government and banking systems.
- Electronic signature: about the person and their agreement.
- Digital signature: about a cryptographic seal on the file.
Why the words get mixed up
Marketing tends to use digital as a general word for anything on a computer, so a digital signature in an advert often just means an electronic one. Meanwhile, technical documentation uses it in its narrow sense. When a supplier questionnaire asks the question, it is worth asking which meaning they have in mind before you answer.
What SignAndGo gives you
SignAndGo is an electronic signature service. Signers draw or type their signature, add initials and complete fields. Behind each signing, the envelope keeps an audit trail of every view and signature, with names, email addresses, times and IP addresses.
Each finished document comes with a completion certificate, and carries a verification ID that anyone can check online to see the document's signing record. That is the evidence most teams need when someone later asks who signed and when.
Answering a security questionnaire
If a customer's IT team sends a questionnaire, describe what is actually there: the audit trail, the completion certificate, the online verification ID, workspace roles managed by admins and optional two-step sign-in on accounts. Plain, accurate answers go further than borrowed terminology.
Common questions
- Are digital and electronic signatures the same?
- No. Electronic signature is the broad idea of signing on screen; digital signature names a cryptographic method of sealing a file.
- Which kind does SignAndGo provide?
- Electronic signatures, backed by an audit trail, a completion certificate and a verification ID.
- How can someone check a signed copy later?
- By looking up the document's verification ID online.