Why 1-signature.fr?

Signing a document, as simply as taking the metro.

The observation

A filing on the INPI one-stop shop (the French intellectual property office), a response to a call for tenders submitted at the last minute, an employment contract or a lease to sign: most people need an electronic signature a few times a year, sometimes just once.

Yet the market is designed for the opposite use. Create an account, choose a subscription, enter a credit card for a trial you will have to remember to cancel: everything is built to retain the user. For an occasional need, you pay twelve months for one signature, or you rely on a free tool without knowing what it will be worth the day the signature is challenged, and which is often paid for with sales follow-ups or the use of your personal data.

Making the difference with 1-signature.fr

1-signature.fr takes the opposite approach: one signature, one transaction, and nothing else.

In one go, with no account, no subscription, no sales follow-ups and no resale of your data.

The whole journey fits in one visit. You verify your email address with a code, state your identity, upload your PDF, place your signature on the page, choose your level, pay — and sign. No account is created, no password is requested, no subscription is taken out.

The site's currency is the star, at €2.50 including VAT, held on a SignPass: a bearer code, like a metro ticket. A signature costs 1 to 5 stars depending on its level. Stars remain valid for twelve months and can be topped up if the need comes back — but nothing pushes you to come back. It is a deliberate choice, rare for an online service: the value is delivered in one go, and the business model does not need to retain anyone.

From simple to qualified, one single journey

1-signature.fr offers six levels, from the seal within the meaning of the eIDAS regulation up to the qualified signature, the legal equivalent of a handwritten signature:

• simple: a qualified electronic seal is applied to the document, and access to the signature is protected by a code received by email or SMS;
• advanced: a certificate is issued in the signatory's name. Their identity is verified by FranceConnect, or declared and linked to their mobile phone by a code received by SMS, whose number is kept in the evidence file. In both cases, authentication links the signature to the signatory, who alone keeps control of it;
• qualified: a qualified certificate is issued in the name of the signatory, whose identity is verified by France Identité or by Identité Numérique La Poste.

The journey is the same for all six levels: only the authentication changes, and it belongs to the identity providers, not to the application. The qualified signature, usually reserved for business contracts, becomes available to an individual, for €12.50, in a few minutes, with no sales process.

This choice is made knowingly before it is paid for: each level shows its use and its prerequisites before any stars are reserved.

Trust as a design rule

Trust should not rest on a relationship. It should rest on clear commitments — to rigour, to quality, to standards and to the requirements of electronic signatures, whether simple, advanced or qualified.

To that end, 1-signature.fr relies on an eIDAS qualified trust service provider, Goodflag, which is also ISO 27001 and HDS (French health data hosting) certified. Its infrastructure is hosted in France on its own servers, and all its email and SMS delivery partners are French, as are those of 1-signature.fr.

Pay only for what is completed. Stars are reserved during the signature, and charged only once the signed document and the evidence file are safe. A signature that is not completed gives its stars back.

Protect people from their own mistakes. At the level where no one verifies identity, a summary and an explicit confirmation come before launch, because a typo there would produce a valid signature bearing an incorrect name.

Keep only what is necessary. The uploaded document is encrypted as soon as it is received and erased as soon as it is sent for signature. Signed files are available for seven days, then erased: what is announced is carried out. The SignPass code exists nowhere on our side, not even encrypted: only a fingerprint is kept.

Proof that outlives the service. The signed document, in PAdES-B-LT format, can be verified on its own, without us, in any standard PDF reader. The evidence file brings together the sealed evidence certificate, the timestamped evidence record and a notice explaining step by step how to verify them: proof you cannot produce is proof that did not help.

A site open to the world

The site is fully bilingual, French and English: interface, help, emails, legal pages, evidence file. It is also meant for foreign residents completing a formality in France and for foreign companies responding to a French public tender. It states precisely which levels are open to them: the advanced signature by SMS to everyone, FranceConnect as soon as you have a French tax or social security account, Identité Numérique La Poste with a residence permit valid for at least five years.

Not retaining, but supporting

Not trying to bring users back does not mean leaving them on their own. 1-signature.fr publishes in-depth content on electronic signatures: help choosing the level, pages dedicated to each use — INPI filing, call for tenders, employment contract, lease, acknowledgement of debt, quote, power of attorney — and frequently asked questions with a troubleshooting section, one question per difficulty encountered.

Support answers every message, without users having to reconstruct what happened: each request is automatically matched with its journey — steps completed, messages sent, stars reserved or returned —, and the likely cause is usually identified before replying. Without an account, it is the service that remembers, not the user.

First results

In its first five days of operation, from 1 October 2026, 1-signature.fr completed 158 signatures. The INPI filing emerged as the leading use, confirming the need: individuals and entrepreneurs who have a signature to make, now, with no subscription to take out.

In short

1-signature.fr shows that a trust service can be both demanding and immediate: the full eIDAS range, from simple to qualified, in a single journey, with no account or subscription, at a clear price, with commitments that the design makes verifiable. Digital trust should not be reserved for those who sign every day.