Introduce electronic signature to a team that has never used it and you will hear the same nine objections, in roughly the same order, every time. Most of them are wrong. A couple are half right and deserve a straight answer rather than a sales one.
1. “A scanned signature is the same thing”
Wrong, and it is the most expensive mistake on this list. A scan is an image. It does not identify who signed, does not bind the signature to the pages it sits on, and does not record when anything happened. An electronic signature establishes identity, seals the document so alteration is visible, and attaches a record of every event. Same-looking file, entirely different evidence.
2. “There are three legal levels of signature”
Half right, and geographically confused. The simple, advanced and qualified categories are real, but they are European law. They describe how thoroughly identity was checked and how the signature was constructed. They are useful shorthand and international counterparties use them constantly, but they are not the test applied here. Under Guinean law what matters is that the signer can be identified and the document’s integrity guaranteed.
3. “You need technical skills to use it”
Wrong, and backwards. The signer needs no skills at all: they receive a link, open it in the browser they already have, and follow the fields. There is no account to create and no application to install. The sender needs about twenty minutes with the tool once. If anything, the paper process demands more skill, because it requires knowing which printer works today.
4. “It is only for big companies”
Wrong. The economics run the other way. A large organisation has an internal courier, a registry, and someone whose job is chasing signatures. A four-person business has none of that, which is exactly why the three-day round trip hurts them more. The smallest teams usually get the biggest relief.
5. “It costs more than signing on paper”
Almost always wrong, but people compare the wrong numbers. They compare a subscription against a ream of paper. The honest comparison includes the printing, the toner, the vehicle across town, the two hours of someone’s afternoon, the document that had to be redone because a page was missing, and the deal that closed three days later than it could have. Compare those and the arithmetic is not close.
6. “You can sign anything electronically”
Wrong, and this one matters. Most commercial documents are fine. But certain categories of act carry specific formal requirements, and a few must be done before particular officials or in a particular form. This varies by document type and it is not something to guess at. If a document is unusual, or involves property, family status, or a formal act, ask your lawyer before you assume.
7. “The other side needs an account with the same provider”
Wrong, and it is a persistent one. Your counterparty does not sign up for anything. They receive a link, they sign, they are done, and they never hear from the provider again unless you send them another document. The provider relationship is yours alone.
8. “It will not work on our connections”
Half right, and it depends entirely on the tool. A signing page built for European office broadband, loading a heavy viewer and a large PDF preview in one go, will genuinely struggle on a phone on a weak signal. This is a real objection and it is worth testing before you commit. But it is a property of the product, not of electronic signature. Test the actual signing page on the actual devices your signers use, on a normal day, before you sign a contract of your own.
9. “A foreign provider is automatically safer”
Wrong, and worth thinking about carefully. A large international brand buys you a mature product and an established name. It does not buy you an invoice you can put through your own accounts, support in the language your team works in, pricing in your currency, or a supplier who is answerable under the law that governs your contracts. Those are not small considerations, and they do not show up on a feature comparison.
Judge a provider on the evidence its documents actually carry and on whether you can hold it to account. Size is a proxy for neither.
General information, not legal advice.
The e-signature product page covers what is inside a sealed document, and pricing is quoted in Guinean francs.