How it works

How PactSign works

PactSign turns a short form into a clean, structured contract — a Services Agreement, a Monthly Retainer, or a Mutual NDA — and it does the whole job in your browser. This page explains what each template contains, how the clauses adapt to your answers, how export works, and — importantly — why you should still have a lawyer review the result.

Privacy guarantee
The three templates
Conditional clauses
Copy & export
Not legal advice
Sign it & what's next

The privacy guarantee: nothing leaves your browser

PactSign has no backend. When you fill the form, every value — party names, addresses, scope, fees — stays on your machine. The contract is assembled in JavaScript, locally, in the same tab you're looking at.

No uploads. What you type is never POSTed, beaconed, or sent to any server — ours or anyone else's.
No storage. Nothing is written to a database, a log, local storage, or analytics. Close or reload the tab and the draft is gone.
It works offline. Load the page once, disconnect from the internet, and the generator still runs. That's the simplest proof there's nothing to upload to.

Verify it yourself. Open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and build a contract. You won't see a request carrying your input — because there isn't one. The only network activity is loading the page, its stylesheet, the script, and the web fonts.

The three templates

Pick the agreement that matches your engagement. Each is written in plain, professional language and built around the terms freelancers and agencies most often get burned without.

Template	Use it when	Key terms
Independent Services Agreement	One-off or project work with a defined deliverable.	Scope, total fee, deposit %, IP transfer, term & termination.
Monthly Retainer	Ongoing work billed on a recurring monthly basis.	Monthly fee, scope per period, month-to-month term, notice period.
Mutual NDA	Both sides will share confidential information before a deal.	Mutual confidentiality, standard exclusions, survival period, remedies.

Conditional clauses

PactSign doesn't just drop your text into a fixed template — the clauses change based on the type you pick and the toggles you set:

The form adapts to the type

Choose Monthly Retainer and the fee field becomes a monthly figure, the deposit field disappears, and the term clause switches to month-to-month. Choose Mutual NDA and the fee, scope, and IP sections drop away entirely, replaced by purpose, definition, exclusions, and return-of-materials clauses written for two-way disclosure.

Optional protections you control

For service and retainer agreements you can toggle individual clauses on or off, and they renumber automatically:

IP ownership — final deliverables transfer to the client on full payment; you keep pre-existing tools and portfolio rights.
Confidentiality — each side protects the other's non-public information.
Independent contractor status — makes clear there's no employment relationship.
Limitation of liability — caps each party's liability at the fees paid.
Late-payment clause — adds interest on overdue invoices and a right to pause work.

Smart payment language

The fees clause rewrites itself from your inputs: a deposit percentage produces a deposit-then-balance structure, 100% produces payment-in-advance, and the net-terms selector flows into the wording (for example, "due within 14 days of the invoice date (Net 14)").

Copy & export

Once the preview looks right, take the contract with you in whatever form you need:

Copy HTML — copies styled markup to your clipboard, ready to paste into an email or document editor.
Download .html — a self-contained, styled file you can open in any browser or convert to PDF.
Download .md — clean Markdown for your repo, wiki, or a Markdown-aware editor.
Download .txt — word-wrapped plain text for maximum compatibility.
Print — produces a clean, print-ready page; choose "Save as PDF" in the dialog to get a PDF.

Every exported format carries the same content from a single source, so they never drift out of sync — and every one includes the disclaimer below and a signature block for each party.

This is a template — not legal advice

Important: PactSign is a drafting tool, not a law firm and not legal advice. The documents it generates are general templates that do not account for your jurisdiction, industry, or the specifics of your deal.

Contract law varies enormously by location and situation. A clause that's standard in one place can be unenforceable in another; some engagements need terms a generic template simply can't anticipate. PactSign gives you a strong, organized starting point — but the last step is a human one.

Have a qualified lawyer review the contract before you sign or send it, especially for high-value, long-term, or unusual engagements. Every document PactSign produces says exactly this, right at the top, so neither party is misled about what it is.

Signing it, and what's next

Each generated contract ends with a signature block for both parties. For now, you sign it the way you already do: print and sign by hand, or drop the exported file into the e-signature tool you use.

Coming soon: a built-in send-for-signature flow with a tamper-evident audit trail and a signed-document archive — so you can go from draft to fully executed contract without leaving PactSign. That's the paid tier we're building on top of this free generator.

And if you're standing up a website to win clients, you probably need a privacy policy and terms of service too. Our companion tool ComplyKit generates those the same way — same studio, same browser-only approach, also free.

Generate a contract now