Qualified Electronic Signatures Are Now Available in Verdocs
Verdocs Team
Verdocs now supports Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) as a paid add-on. If your platform's customers do business in Europe, their signers can now sign at the highest level the EU recognizes, inside the same signing flow you already embed.
We built QES on eID Easy, which connects one integration to dozens of qualified trust service providers (QTSPs) and national eID schemes. The signer picks a provider they already trust, and the signature completes in Verdocs.
What a qualified signature is, and why it matters
The EU's eIDAS Regulation recognizes three levels of electronic signature: simple (SES), advanced (AES) and qualified (QES). Verdocs has supported SES and AES on every account. QES is the level above them.
Two parts of Article 25 are what set QES apart:
- A qualified electronic signature has the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature.
- A QES based on a qualified certificate issued in one member state is recognized as a QES in every other member state.
A QES is backed by a qualified certificate issued by a QTSP, after that provider has verified the signer's identity. That is what makes it harder to dispute than a signature backed only by an email address or a one-time code.
Most agreements do not need it. QES matters when a law, a regulator, or the other party to a contract asks for the highest level. Which documents need which level in which country is a question for your customer's counsel, and our compliance page sets out the three levels side by side.
Who asks for it
The requests we hear come from platforms whose customers sign agreements with people in Europe, mostly in insurance, legal, and financial services. Those are the workflows where a counterparty or a compliance team is most likely to ask for a qualified signature, and where the platform would rather offer it than send the signer to another tool.
How it works for the signer
QES is set per signer, from the API or the web app, so one document can mix a QES signer with signers who use a standard signature.
- The signer opens the document in your product and completes their fields, as they do today.
- When they sign, they choose their country and a qualified provider, without leaving the Verdocs signing view.
- They confirm their identity with that provider. Depending on the method, that means their national ID card, a mobile ID app, or a remote identity check through the provider's app.
- The qualified signature is applied, and the signer finishes in Verdocs.
You get back a signed PDF that carries the qualified signature, along with the Verdocs certificate and full audit trail you already rely on.
Your document stays with Verdocs
eID Easy never receives the document. Verdocs sends only a cryptographic fingerprint (a hash) of the file to be signed, and the qualified signature is applied to the document in Verdocs. For platforms in regulated industries, that means one less place where customer documents are stored.
Where signers can use it
Every method below is available through Verdocs. Each one gives either a qualified signature (QES) or an advanced signature (AES). AES still ties the signature to a verified identity, but it is not the qualified level, so check which one your customer's documents need.
National eIDs and mobile IDs
| Country | QES methods | AES methods |
|---|---|---|
| Austria | Handy-Signatur | |
| Belgium | Belgian ID card, itsme | |
| Croatia | Croatian ID card | |
| Czech Republic | Czech ID card | MojeID |
| Denmark | MitID | |
| Estonia | Estonian ID card, Mobile-ID, Smart-ID | |
| Finland | Finnish ID card | Finnish Trust Network (bank IDs) |
| Germany | D-Trust sign-me | |
| Iceland | Auðkenni | |
| Italy | InfoCert | SPID |
| Latvia | Latvian ID card, eParaksts Mobile, Smart-ID | |
| Lithuania | Lithuanian ID card, Mobile-ID, Smart-ID | |
| Netherlands | iDIN | |
| Norway | BankID | |
| Poland | SimplySign | |
| Portugal | Portuguese ID card, Chave Móvel Digital | |
| Romania | certSIGN (USB token and WebSign), Trans Sped | |
| Spain | AutoFirma | |
| Sweden | BankID, Freja eID+ | |
| United Kingdom | OneID |
Cross-border providers
| Provider | Level | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Evrotrust | QES | All 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway |
| ZealiD | QES | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden |
| Swisscom, Adacom One-Shot, Halcom One | QES | Remote qualified signing; ask us about coverage for your signers |
| Veriff | AES | Remote check of an ID document and a selfie; ask us about coverage for your signers |
Coverage for Evrotrust and ZealiD follows eID Easy's published method list.
Worth knowing before you promise QES to a Nordic or Dutch customer: the most popular eIDs in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden give AES, not QES. Signers there who need a qualified signature can use Evrotrust or ZealiD.
Pricing and availability
QES is $5.00 per signature, and the AES methods above are $2.50. Both are flat prices, the same for every provider and country, and you are charged only when a signature completes: a failed or abandoned attempt costs nothing. They are available on paid plans and listed with our other identity add-ons on the pricing page. There is no setup fee.
We activate QES for your account on request. You can run the full flow in your own account before you go live, so your team can see exactly what your signers will see.
Talk to us about QES
If your customers sign with people in Europe and a qualified signature would close a gap in your workflow, book a time with our team. We will walk through your signers' countries, show you the flow, and switch it on when you are ready. Developers can start with the Verdocs developer documentation.
