We’re breaking down the top Notarization Platforms available in 2022. We’ve come a long way from Remote Online Notarization being legalized in Virginia in 2013 and even farther from when Notaries Public first came to be in the Roman Republic (the first society that used Notaries Public legally). Gone are the days of the roman senate and dissipating are the days of googling “Notary Near Me” and then driving across town to get a document signed. It’s becoming a RON world and we’re all just living in it. We won’t waste much more time on the semantics of how we got here.
We felt it would be best to create a ranked Top 10 list, and then gather the best of the rest in alphabetical order for your reading pleasure. We’ve gone ahead and included 18 Notary Platforms, so really it’s more of a Top 10 Remote Online Notary Platforms list + the best of the rest in alphabetical Order” list. We hope this can be a valuable resource for your research in selecting the best Remote Online Notarization platform for you! Without further ado, let’s get right to it and dive into the breakdown of what’s important RIGHT NOW.
1. BlueNotary
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Founded in early winter of 2022 out of Chicago, Illinois (by some pretty cool guys)
BlueNotary is one of the youngest and newest platforms of the bunch. It is one of the absolute best platforms to hop on if you are looking to get your feet wet. With a free GNW program, as part of a limited time offer you can dive in and are immediately provided with an e-seal and digital certificate to use within the platform (an $86 value completely FREE). With the free GNW program, you are able to do unlimited GNW work without paying for any subscription.
BlueNotary touts one of the best packages for if you are bringing in your own clients. Documents are easily accessible to both parties. If you are a member of the Pro-Hybrid program you are able to invoice clients outside of BlueNotary. This means you can set up your own business and run it how you want it. There are some small charges to cover administrative fees, but all prices are competitive.
Starting at just $2/ notarization, you can name your own price to your client and then provide them your own personal link and then be well on your way to starting your OWN remote online notarization business. BN also provides resources on how to go about creating your own online sales funnels and has a growing library of content.
BlueNotary charges a flat rate of $25 for loan signings to members of their Pro-Hybrid plan and they have unlimited seals and unlimited loan signings. The UI is smooth and simple to operate and they tout a 24/7 help chat to promptly get any questions you might have answered. On numerous occasions, these chats have turned into new features directly requested by the clients.
For sourcing clients from BlueNotary’s Open Call program, notaries are paid $25 for all GNW work, which is as high as you will find in the industry. They also provide templates, training, and the ability to plans for businesses who are looking for full on integration, or partial integration with a bit of personalized branding.
BlueNotary was built by some techies, so it is constantly changing and growing to adapt to client needs, which is one of the reasons they’ve been able to grow so fast. BlueNotary stores all downloadable sessions for 10 years and is MISMO approved by the largest standards board in the space. They also provide Remote Online Notary API integration for clients high in volume.
We can promise that BlueNotary is just getting started adding features to provide values to the end customer. We just won’t be announcing them here in this article.
2. Notarize
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Notarize was founded in 2015 out of Boston, Massachusetts.
Notarize is one of, if not the biggest name in the space. We must tip our hats to their name. Very on brand. They tout a slick platform that makes it easy on notaries and signers to accomplish most anything they are trying to get done. They even include some notarial certificates so that notaries do not have to source them themselves. We always recommend double checking with local jurisdictions as the responsibility of performing notarizations legally always lands on the shoulders of the notary.
For the enterprise portion of their platform, signup and setup is free to the Notary and your pay will be determined by the enterprise that you are working for and your negotiation skills. You will need to check and see if these programs are available in your particular state, but the number is less than half the union. As we all know, RON is the signing state of the future, so we expect this number to grow over time.
The independent side of their platform is free to sign up for and has no monthly or signing fees at present. This is a limited time promotional event that lasts until December 31st, 2022 you are still required to have $25k in E & O insurance. There will be fees added at the end of the promotional period though and this is only available in 13 states. They also provide a free to use electronic seal when you are using their platform. We have heard conflicting information regarding if you are able to do loan signings between Notarize staff and notary expert “Side Hustle Seattle” (Side Hustle Seattle has done some solid profile reviews)
It’s also important to note, that in this realm, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and all that glitters is not gold. Notarize has been publicly criticized for some of their client acquisition tactics. At a certain point YouTubers such as “Notary Socials” caught on and have done deeper dives on this claim.
For sourcing clients from Notarize, notaries are only paid $5/seal for clients sourced from their platform and $1 for each additional seal. This means that you would not only have to catch 5x as many calls from Notarize but you would have to spend 5x as much time performing the Notarizations. For Loan Signing packages they pay out $25.
In order to be eligible for their client sourcing you do need to be an NNA certified signing agent, have $25k Errors & Omissions Insurance, and pass their training course, which you have a limited number of attempts to complete. This program is only available for Florida, Nevada Texas, and Virginia notaries.
Like most on demand platforms, catching calls is still not easy. They do have some sort of ranking system that allows you to get higher priority the more signings you do depending on the signing type, but users on Reddit have noted it is very difficult to reach these numbers if you weren’t there early.
We recommend that whatever platform you choose to work with, build your own relationships so that you are not dependent on “catching” calls. We can do anything we set our mind to, building your own relationships helps you claim your power.
3. OneNotary
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- OneNotary was founded in 2020 and is based out of San Francisco.
For their initial plan to sign up they have a Basic free account. This provides unlimited GNW signings at $13 per session with 1 seal and $5 for each additional seal. They also provide 3 free loan signings at a cost of $30 to the notary for unlimited seals. This account type maxes out at 3 participants per session and like any other platform on this list should be doing, they store your video files for 10 years.
They also have a Professional account for $25/month. This provides unlimited GNW signings at $10 per session and $4 for each additional seal. This allows unlimited loan signing packages at a cost of $25 per session. This account type maxes out at 5 participants per session. This does allow you to charge the client whatever you desire as well. You will need to check to see if this feature is available for their Basic plan.
Currently OneNotary is only available in 12-13 states that you will need to check on as well.
OneNotary does not provide open calls to just anybody. However, they do have contract positions available from which people can apply for. This is a bit more formal and not gig-economized. In these positions you would be signing all kinds of Notary work like Affidavits, Power of Attorney, and numerous others. They do allow you to create your own schedule and it is up to you to choose how many sessions you want to take. It is more exclusive than other platforms as you do need to apply and get hired.
4. Notary Live
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Notary Live was founded in 2018 out of the state of Nanuet, New York.
Notary Live has some of the most respectable branding in the space. They have a sleek design and even have their own animated “RON” character that is a humanized webcam. “RON” is featured in guides to help notaries get started and answer questions. Like BlueNotary above, you have the option and are encouraged to bring on your own clients with a $0 set up fee.
At Notary Live there is a stated $0 transaction fee, but how this works out to the Notary is that you receive $10 for every document notarized whether the client is sourced from Notary Live or you bring them on yourselves. This is no matter how many seals are on their document.
Notary Live has 4 different tiers available to their notaries. Everybody starts out at their lowest bronze tier. Silver, Gold, and Platinum tier are invite only and enable the ability to source clients from their Open Calls and also get access to their NotaryLive Slack channel. At the Gold and Platinum tiers, you are paid for the amount of time you spend with customers and waiting for customers. Platinum being the highest, offers Full-time RON employment positions.
NotaryLive has a rather in depth ranking system that determines how you can reach these tiers that includes how many hits your profile gets, customer reviews, the number of languages you speak, your total # of completed sessions and more.
This program is only available for notaries in Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.
5. PandaDoc
- Platform Type: For notaries and businesses
- PandaDoc was recently acquired Live Notary back in April of 2022.
For notaries to signup, Pandadoc costs $59/month. They have a flat rate of $10 per transaction regardless of how many seals/stamps are used. This means that if you are charging $25 for your GNW work, you can net a cool $15 per session. It is available in the majority of states that have gotten with the times and legalized RON. Be sure to reach out to your SOS to ensure that you are legal and compliant before wasting valuable time and money signing up. Their flat rate, although not the lowest for GNW work on this list, is still a great value for Loan Signing Packages.
One of the pros is that PandaDoc’s entire platform is available to you. This includes the e-signature side of their platform. You also have the ability to integrate payment processors into your business using PandaDoc by using payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, Quickbooks and Square.
As the platform is a recent acquisition, it is in a relative constant state of change, which can be viewed as either a positive or negative point depending if you are a “glass half full” kind of person or not.
6. NotaryCam
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- NotaryCam was founded in 2014 by Rick Triola and has headquarters at Newport Beach, California. (That’s Laguna Beach for all you Lauren Conrad and “The OC” fans).
Over the more recent years. It has turned itself into a Hybrid platform.
NotaryCam is pretty simple to sign up for. Here are some of the requirements to join the independent part of their platform:
– You will need to pass a background check
– $100k in E & O insurance
– Your own digital certificate & notary seal
There is a $99 onboarding fee for notaries and then a monthly fee of $15 from there. Each seal then costs $15. Additional ID proofing costs $5, which makes some sense as ID proofing can be costly to these businesses. Most of them end up paying for KBA/ID checks even if they FAIL. NotaryCam sets a max transaction of $52.50 to the notary.
These fees may be more suited for if you are an LSA. At a cost of $15/seal, a $25 notarization to a client that you have sourced may only net you $10 in this case. And if you can’t keep your cost low to your client as an independent notary, you may not be surprised to see them go elsewhere. For this reason, we think it may be better for those operating with larger loan packages.
NotaryCam is live in most states, but be sure to check with local laws before you start throwing down cash. Their dropdown menu for commission when you register includes all states, even states like California, Illinois, and North Carolina where RON on the notary side is not yet legal. We’re not certain if they have code in place to block payment in these states, but we expect that if they are ethical, they should refund you if they let you sign up and pay in an unapproved state (that’s what the person writing this article would do anyways 😉).
The payouts for the contractual side of the operation are not easily publicly available. From our research, they payout $25 for a full closing and $5 for a partial. Partial might mean you only sign 1 or 2 documents from a full loan package instead of all. They also hire separately for GNW and Loan Signings.
For GNW work they hire in shifts, including nighttime/overnight shifts. There is more of a traditional application process and they look to hire those with 1 year experience as a commissioned Notary as well as 3 months experience with RON. You will also again need E & O insurance and a background check within the past year.
Unlike OnlineNotary.net down below, there is no guarantee that you will be assigned specific volume or earn any minimum amount of money. This is pretty typical of the space and is why it is often encouraged to build your own unique brand and optimize your customer acquisition methods if you choose to embark on this Notary career. Good things come to those who grind.
NotaryCam allows users to add attendees to signings. This is different from adding a secondary signer or witness and could be beneficial to firms looking to train a team of notaries. At the time of writing this article, they are hiring in about 20 states, but this number is more like 6 for the daytime shifts. So this may be a good look if you are a night owl.
7. Nexys Clear Sign
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Nexsys was founded in 2015 and is based out of Detroit, Michigan (the 313).
They specialize with a few different legal tech products to serve lenders, including their RON platform. They have recently merged their signing product “Clear Sign” with Amrock. In order to join their notary network you need to fill out an application and meet their requirements.
Their requirements are pretty straightforward, but it is certainly not a low barrier to entry:
-Notary commision license
-Background screening from the NNA showing a minimum of 1 year experience signing for mortgages
-E & O insurance with a minimum of $25k in coverage.
Nexys gets good reviews for their UI and is FREE to sign up.
They also work with snapdocs, which is another signing database. As an enterprise platform, they’re mainly worth using if you are already associated with one of their partners like Amrock or Snapdocs.
At present they are not accepting recruitment for all states. If your state is one of the newer states to approve RON you may have a better chance of being brought on board. If not, you will need to check back periodically in order to see if they have any openings.
8. ENotaryLog
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- ENotaryLog was founded in 2019 by two longtime friends out of Tampa, Florida.
The current cost to sign up is $0/month. They charge $13 per session, $5 per additional signer or witness and of course they provide the 10 years of digital storage for videos and documents.
ENotaryLog also has a business plan available for $150 per month. They don’t publicly state the difference between their free plan and their business plans but we expect there to be some differences in order to justify the price difference.
ENotaryLog is MISMO-certified as well, like many of the other premier platforms on this list. We commend them for doing their due diligence to be compliant. They have dedicated support teams to help you get onboarded.
Unfortunately, if you are in a state that only allows you to charge $10 per seal this might not make sense for you. Depending on what kind of transaction you are performing, $13 may be a lot just to do a GNW document, so they may be more valuable to notaries doing large packages.
ENotaryLog has notaries available for notarizations from 8 am – 12 am EST and is available in most states where permanent RON laws are implemented.
9. DocMagic
- Platform Type: Enterprise
- DocMagic was founded back in Mezozoic Era in 1987 out of Torrence, California
DocMagic does a lot of different things well. They do everything from document generation to eClosing and of course, they do eNotary. Everybody that wants to have an end to end solution in the eClosing space of course does eNotarization.
Like most platforms they allow businesses to use their own notaries or use notaries affiliated with their network of over 25,000 notaries. They also provide the option for IPEN notarization, although this utility is looking like it will become an artifact of the past as RON just makes more sense for everybody involved at scale.
DocMagic is a partner with Secure Insights, who actually loans out THEIR notaries to DocMagic. Secure Insights is a risk mitigation company that does background checks and risk analysis on everything from real estate attorneys and escrow officers down to the notaries themselves. They basically make sure that everybody involved in the notarization and closing process is legit.
As a notary, the only way you can get on DocMagic’s platform is if you have been vetted and verified by Secure Insights. This helps prevent theft and fraud in the eCLosing space. DocMagic then maintains this catalog of “safe” notaries and then provides this list to their clients in need of notaries.
Getting signed up for DocMagic as a notary is essentially FREE after you use a few promo codes. Normally, to get approved through Secure Insight it will run you $399 as an individual, but through partnership promotions with DocMagic, this fee is waivable. They have a similar promotion to waive the fee for their mandatory $29.99 training class.
Approval is not instant as Secure Insight is very thorough in their background checks. In fact, they are so thorough that their checks are continuous so be sure to keep up with your commission if you choose to use this platform.
10. Cyberize It!
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Cyberize It! was founded in 2021 and was founded by an individual who was a notary herself, Amy Seitz.
We’ve written a brief comparison regarding Cyberize It! before. They tout themselves as a platform made by notaries for notaries.
Pricing depends on the length of time for which you sign up. It starts at $39.99/month, then $89.97/month, $119.97/month and then finally $239.94 for the full year. Costs for transaction break down to $11.99 for your first seal, extra stamps are $1, and if you have 5 or more signers, every signer after signer #4 costs $3.00. Witnesses cost $5.00 a pop.
Cyberize it! makes sure that notaries are paid $25 per transaction by charging their clients $36.99 for the first seal and $10 for each additional seal and the notary is paid the difference. Cyberize it! Is available in most states where RON is legal.
Cyberize has 24/7 technical support and provides some pre-made marketing tools as well as a free notarial seal. Some YouTubers have said that the amount of options when it comes to charging clients can be a bit overwhelming, but for those who are tech savvy, this may not be an impediment.
The Best of the Rest!
DocVerify
- Platform Type: For Notaries and Businesses, no open calls
- DocVerify was founded clear back in 2006 in the pre RON era.
For notaries to get set up it is a $125 set up fee as well as a charge of $100 for your digital seal if it is purchased through them. If you pay monthly it comes at a cost of $75 per month, but if you pay yearly for $780, this comes down to $65 per month. Their prices per signing are a little bit more confusing as each notary is given credits from which to work with.
Under these plans notaries are given 32 credits per month. If you go with the yearly plan you are awarded 384 credits up front (32 credits x 12 months). The breakdown of credits works like this:
E-Notary Only
Single Document – One (1) transaction credit
Packet – Five (5) transaction credits
RON
Single Document – Four (4) transaction credits
Packet – Eight (8) transaction credits
Entire Session Recording – Eight (8) additional transaction credits
Some additional fees apply for states with special storage requirements
So speaking straight up, it’s not the most straightforward pricing on this list. Aside from the credits you also pay $2.25 per KBA/ID verification. As you can see, if you do 8 RON signings in a month or 4 loan packages this will use the entirety of your credits (or even less including the video recordings). From there, you can purchase more credits on a sliding scale where the more you purchase the cheaper they are. They start at 2 credits for $10 and end at 250 credits for $700.
DocVerify is available in most states that have permanent RON laws. They also have lots of API integration that are beneficial if you are working with an enterprise, such as Salesforce and CRM integration, custom branding, and audit information.
DocVerify does not offer chat support (only email) and their UI has not seen a lot of updates in recent years.
Exela RN
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Exela Technologies launched their Remote Online Notarization platform in December of 2021.
We commend Exelas’ straightforward pricing. They charge $25 for a session with 1 seal and $5 for each additional seal for their general notary work.
For the notary side of things, they payout $10/seal and $1 for each additional seal. This is more than platforms such as Notarize, but less than platforms like BlueNotary and Cyberize It.
For notaries their system works by uploading your times of availability as well as where you are legally commissioned and then companies have the opportunity to choose you for your services. They may book you for a couple hours from now, or tomorrow, or even next week depending on the availability that you have provided.
At the time of this writing Exela is available in half the union (25 states). One peculiarity about Exela, is that you are directly tied to your state. Where on other platforms, you can legally notarize documents across state lines, this is not really possible with Exela. Your profile and availability will only be shown to businesses in the same state as you. For the majority of documents that get notarized, notaries being in the same state is not necessary, but for some signings, it is of course legally required.
Friendly reminder to always check with your local jurisdiction regarding notarial laws!
This makes it difficult if your state hasn’t moved into the modern era of RON yet or if you are living in a smaller state, but for a $0 set up fee, there is not too much to complain about.
Live Notary
LiveNotary was recently acquired by PandaDoc, see the information about PandaDoc down below.
OnlineNotary.net
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Onlinenotary.net was founded in March of 2020 out of the great state of Texas.
OnlineNotary.net takes great pride in being an entirely bootstrapped operation and they were started by a husband and wife pair. At least one of them also works as a notary, so there is a nice personal touch there.
OneNotary.net claims their notaries have the opportunity to earn up to $25/hour from their remote online work. As of the writing of this article they are hiring notaries in 22 states. Just a couple too many for us to list out for the purposes of this article, but it is worth mentioning that others on this list boast 40+ states.
One perk of working for OneNotary.net is that you have the option of being a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor. On this platform you are working a scheduled shift, so this operates a little differently than other platforms as you will be paid in accordance with your shift. They are one of the only Remote Online Notarization platforms where you are paid hourly.
From the information that we have gathered, the $25/hour number is mostly for their notaries that are specializing in loan signings. Notaries doing mostly the general notary work make closer to $17/hour. It will be interesting to see how this business format holds up in the new age gig economy.
Although it is nice to be guaranteed an hourly wage, in many states you are able to make $25 an hour for one stamp in a notarization that may take 10-15 minutes. So if you are driven to find your own clients, and think you can source enough to make over $25/hour, this might not be the platform for you. For the more entrepreneurial minded notary, we would have to recommend looking at a few of the other platforms.
OnlineNotary.us
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- OnlineNotary.us was founded in 2018 out of Ritzville, Washington.
They keep information regarding their notary program pretty close to their chest. It does appear to be a hybrid platform where signers are able to bring people for their firm or business or get signers that are referred tot hem from OnlineNotaruy.us. It appears to be legal in the majority of legal RON states.
They do appear to require a 15 session minimum for organizations to sign up. To be honest, we are not certain if they allow individual notaries to onboard that are not part of their referral program.
If you have any additional information regarding OnlineNotary.us, and their payouts for notaries and whether they are competitive feel free to leave the information in the comments so that the community can learn the details and figure out what they’re working with!
Pavaso
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Pavaso was founded clear back in 2011 and has their headquarters in the great state of Texas as well (Plano, specifically).
Pavaso is an enterprise platform company. For notaries, this means that the only way you get assignments is if a company who is partnered with that enterprise platform is ALSO giving you work already. In other words, unless you are sourcing clients who use Pavaso, there is no other way to get notary work from them.
So Pavaso is not great for sourcing clients, but they are professional and respected in the space. Despite this, you still have to pay a $99 set up fee and a $50 renewal fee yearly. Like most good business deals however, there is a modicum of pay to play. Pavaso clearly got the memo that “if you are good at something, don’t do it for free”.
Pavaso requires their notaries to pass a short quiz to become “Pavaso Certified”. If you are in pursuit of landing clients that are already partnered with Pavaso, this is a platform that could make sense for you. However, if you are sourcing new clients who are not using Pavaso, it may be a bit of a stretch to convince them to sign up for a new platform, especially as they appear to be pretty hush hush on their business plan pricing and do not provide any info on their sales page.
At this time, Pavaso also does not offer its platform to independent notaries. They only are working with notaries associated with particular signing agencies, title companies, and real estate attorney firms, or lenders that are already working with Pavaso.
Pavaso is available in most states where RON is legal. Pavaso has public lists of all companies they are currently associated with if you want to reach out to these signing services directly.
SigniX
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- SigniX was founded in 2002 out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They have been in the signing game for a long time.
For notaries to start out there are only annual memberships. These are 1 year and 3 year packages. To sign up for the 1 year package costs $449 (or $37.42 per month broken down). This also includes transaction fees of $10 for the 1st notarial seal, zoom session, and KBA. It also has an additional fee of $5 for each additional seal. There is a max fee of $60 per transaction. One thing to note is that they only provide 90-day document storage, where a lot of other platforms on this list provide 10 full years.
If you join their 3 year package it costs just $299 annually. This breaks down to $24.99 per month over the course of 36 months. Again this only provides the 90-day document storage. One thing worth noting and that we’ve written about regarding SigniX before, is that they do not use their own proprietary software for the video connections. This leaves them open to outside vulnerabilities and complicates the session to the end user. There are actually some other platforms on this list suffering from this same problem.
SigniX does provide a free digital certificate to use within their platform and their user interface has gotten generally positive reviews.
SigniX is permitted in most states that have permanent RON laws, but again, due to the storage limit, you will need to purchase your own storage solution to meet state requirements.
Secured Signing
- Platform Type: Hybrid
- Secured Signing was founded by TME Consulting out of New Zealand in 2008. This is one of the only platforms on this list not based out of the US.
For their single user plan, they charge $9.95 per month to join. For team plans, the initial price is $9.95 per month + $9.95 per month for each additional notary added to your team for up to 10 members.
Secured Signing is the second platform on our list to implement a credit system. They charge $1.50 per document notarized, $1 per notary stamp added, $5 for a 30-minute, $3 per person for ID verification and $1 for KBA authorization. To add this up for you, a single document notarization with one signer will cost $11.50 per notarization. They do provide a calculator so that you don’t need to do all the mental math every time.
Secured Signing also does give you a free digital certificate to use within their platform.
We don’t want to poo poo other platforms in this article but we have had feedback from partners who were unable to get done what they needed to consistently.
Secured Signing is available in most states with permanent RON laws.
Rounding out the Top 10 Notary Platforms
Okay, so every single platform wasn’t exactly ranked all the way through. After the Top 10 didn’t list them in order, but rest assured, the Best of the Best Notary Platforms for Notaries have all been included on this robust list of 18 Remote Online Notary Platforms. Were there any platforms we missed? Leave a comment with the details down below!