How should this grid be used?

Send the eight questions as they are to each shortlisted vendor, and ask for written answers. Then compare the answers with each other, not the product pages. A question left without a written answer is an answer in itself.

Which criterion matters most?

Deployment architecture, because it determines both the user experience and the scope your security officer has to validate. Data location comes next in most European organisations.

Should a public price list be required?

It is not essential, but it is telling. A public price lets you position yourself before entering a sales discussion, and makes the negotiation more balanced.

Why is reversibility in the grid?

Because it only comes up when it is too late. Knowing at selection time how to retrieve your templates and have your data deleted avoids discovering, three years later, that you are captive.

Choosing an email signature tool: the eight-criteria grid

A comparison grid usable with any vendor: deployment, data location, access to email, campaigns, price, trial, support and reversibility.

This grid is made to be used as is. Send the eight questions to each shortlisted vendor, ask for written answers, and compare the answers with each other. We give our own answers for each criterion; ask for theirs.

Product characteristics change. This grid does not claim to describe any particular vendor’s offer: it provides the questions, to be asked directly, at the date of your project.

Criterion 1 — Deployment method

The question: is the signature inserted client-side while writing, or server-side after sending? Does the message travel through the vendor’s infrastructure?

Why it is decisive: client-side insertion makes the signature visible to the sender and in sent items, avoids stacking in threads, and does not touch routing. Server-side insertion has the opposite properties. It is the criterion that determines both the daily user experience and the extent of the security review.

Our answer: Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace add-ins, insertion while writing, with no rerouting and no connector.

Criterion 2 — Data location

The question: where are the synchronised directory and the templates hosted? Which jurisdiction does the vendor company fall under? Which sub-processors are involved?

Why it is decisive: location and jurisdiction are two distinct questions, often conflated. The full reasoning is in data sovereignty.

Our answer: hosting in France, European vendor, no transfer outside the European Union as part of the service.

Criterion 3 — Access to email content

The question: does the supplier access message content at any point? What exact permissions are requested at admin consent?

Why it is decisive: it is your security officer’s first question, and it can be verified objectively on the Microsoft or Google consent screen — see can a signature tool read your email.

Our answer: no email content read, analysed, stored or routed through us. Only the directory attributes displayed in the signature are synchronised, read-only.

Criterion 4 — Scheduled campaigns

The question: are dated banners, per-team targeting and automatic succession included, or reserved for a higher edition?

Why it is decisive: it is the function that turns a cost centre into a communication channel. It is frequently positioned as a paid option, which changes the budget calculation — see email signature marketing.

Our answer: included in the single price, with no higher edition.

Criterion 5 — The price list

The question: is the price public? Is there a minimum commitment? How is a user counted — are shared mailboxes and aliases billed?

Why it is decisive: a public price lets you position yourself before any sales discussion. The counting method can move the invoice by 20% at identical headcount.

Our answer: public grid from €1.50 down to €0.50 excl. VAT per user per month, decreasing with volume, available on the pricing page. Shared mailboxes and aliases not billed separately.

Criterion 6 — A real trial

The question: can you create a signature and test it before talking to a salesperson?

Why it is decisive: a tool that only opens its product after a demo prevents you forming an independent view. It is also a signal about the vendor’s confidence in their own product.

Our answer: editor freely available at app.signally.io, with no credit card.

Criterion 7 — Support and language

The question: is the team reachable in your time zone and your language? Is support included or billed?

Why it is decisive: initial deployment is when you need help most, and a nine-hour time difference turns a ten-minute question into a two-day wait.

Our answer: European team, support included in the subscription.

Criterion 8 — Reversibility

The question: do you get your templates and artwork back if you leave? Within what timeframe is the data deleted? Is an export possible without involving support?

Why it is decisive: it is the most frequently forgotten criterion, because it only comes up when it is too late. It belongs among the elements written into the processing agreement — see email signatures and the GDPR.

Our answer: export of templates and artwork, complete deletion of the workspace on request.

How to use the answers

Do not weight the eight criteria uniformly: two or three genuinely matter in your context, and you know which.

An IT department in a regulated sector will weight criteria 2, 3 and 8 heavily. A marketing director will look at 4 and 6 first. A finance director will compare 5 with the current cost of manual management, calculable in the calculator.

Worth knowing: a question left without a written answer is an answer. Record it as such in your table rather than leaving it blank: it is often the most useful information in the exercise.

The landscape of tool families and the shortlisting method are in the best signature management software.