About DocSpring
DocSpring is an API for filling PDF forms, generating PDFs and Word documents, and collecting e-signatures. Developers have built it into their products since 2017.
- 2017 Launched as FormAPI
- Millions of PDFs generated for customers
- SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant, with BAAs on every paid plan
- US and EU data regions
- Remote team, incorporated in the United States
- Since 2019 backed by Calm Company Fund
What DocSpring does
Fill existing PDFs
Upload a PDF and DocSpring imports its form fields or finds them on the page. Send JSON to fill it, and the original layout stays as it is.
Generate PDFs from HTML
Write HTML and CSS templates with Liquid loops and conditions, for invoices and reports whose length changes with the data.
Generate Word documents
Upload a Word document with tags like {{ customer.name }} in it,
and download the result as a Word document or a PDF.
Design PDFs from scratch
Build a new PDF in the Page Designer, with text, images, tables and barcodes, and your data where it goes.
Collect data with web forms
DocSpring makes a web form from your template's fields. Share it or embed it, and each submission fills the document.
Collect e-signatures
Send signature requests for missing details and signatures. DocSpring emails each signer, keeps an audit trail and makes the PDF when everyone has signed.
Who uses DocSpring
Software companies that build documents into their products, like BrightReps and Harvust, and teams in finance, insurance, healthcare and law that fill forms at volume.
DocSpring has been great! We had to do a lot more PDF template iterations than we originally planned, and being able to do those from your interface was a lifesaver. When a PDF fails because we didn’t send the right payload, the detailed error messages you provide have been very helpful.
DocSpring's simple API and client library was fast to integrate, flexible to our needs, and well documented. Using your service has allowed Harvust to iterate faster and deliver the best product to our growers.
DocSpring has been the PDF engine at the core of iENROLL for more than five years, and we couldn’t be happier. Of all the solutions we evaluated, it was the most capable and had the richest API, and it has only gotten better with each release. But what has made the biggest difference is the team. They go well beyond support. They’ve built a real relationship with us and are invested in our product’s continued success.
What makes DocSpring different
Keep the PDF you already use
The template editor places fields on your existing PDF, so a required form keeps its layout. Nothing to rebuild in HTML.
Check data before it's printed
Each template has a JSON schema made from its fields. A request with a missing or wrongly formatted value gets an error naming the field.
Template setup in your app
Embed the template editor so your customers set up their own documents, with the controls you choose.
Choose where data lives
Use our US or EU region, or license a self-hosted installation and run DocSpring on your own servers.
How DocSpring started
DocSpring's founder, Nathan Broadbent, was a software engineer at Gusto, a payroll company. Payroll means thousands of tax and banking forms, and the team built an internal tool to fill them from data the application already held. After Gusto he moved to Thailand, where every visa application and extension meant filling in the same government PDFs by hand. He set out to build a template editor that could fill those forms automatically, and saw that many other companies had the same problem.
FormAPI launched in October 2017, announced in a Show HN post. You uploaded a PDF, placed fields on it in the browser, and sent JSON to fill it.
The first customers were financial and legal companies with a lot of forms, and their requests set the roadmap. HTML templates, for documents whose length depends on the data, arrived within the first month. E-signatures followed in 2018, and an EU data region for customers who needed to keep European data in Europe. Most of what DocSpring does today was built because a customer asked for it.
In 2019 FormAPI became DocSpring. The old name described a single endpoint, and the product had grown well beyond it. The API stayed the same, so existing integrations kept working without changes.
Timeline
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2017
FormAPI launches in October with PDF filling and web forms. HTML templates for documents that grow with the data follow a month later.
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2018
Batch generation, Visual Forms drawn over the PDF, and the first auto-generated API client libraries. Signature requests (then called Data Requests) bring e-signatures and embedded signing.
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2019
FormAPI becomes DocSpring. An EU data region opens. Earnest Capital, now Calm Company Fund, invests. Client libraries ship for Ruby, Python, JavaScript, PHP, C#, and Java.
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2025
SOC 2 Type II audit completed. A new documentation site and the Trust Portal launch.
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2026
HIPAA compliance, with BAAs on every paid plan. Word templates generate Word documents and PDFs, the Page Designer builds new PDFs, the template editor can be embedded in your own product, fields gain conditional logic, signature requests email each signer their link, and n8n and Zapier integrations are added.
How we work
Engineers answer support
The people who build DocSpring answer your questions. A field printed in the wrong place goes to someone who can fix the renderer, and fixes usually ship within days.
Built from customer requests
New features come from what customers ask for, and we turn down the ones that would make DocSpring less reliable.
Independent
In 2019 we took a small investment from Calm Company Fund (then Earnest Capital), which backs companies that stay independent. Nothing pushes us to change the API or pricing under you.
Audited
A SOC 2 Type II audit, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, and our controls published on the Trust Portal.
Getting started
Start free on the Developer plan, with 200 credits every month, and try a paid plan's features free for 14 days. No credit card needed.
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Set up a template
Upload a PDF and set up its fields, start from a Word document, build a page in the Page Designer, or write an HTML template.
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Send a request
Send your first API request with your template's ID and JSON data, then download the PDF.
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Connect your app
Check the output with your own data, then call the API from your app. Our client libraries have examples.
Need help with a template or the API? Email [email protected].
Key facts
- Company
- DocSpring, Inc.
- Product
- PDF filling, document generation, web forms and e-signatures, by API
- Founded
- October 2017, as FormAPI
- Founder
- Nathan Broadbent
- Location
- Fully remote, incorporated in the United States
- Hosting
- US and EU data regions, and self-hosted Enterprise licenses
- Pricing
- A free plan, monthly plans with included credits, and credit packs. Plans and prices
- Trial
- 14 days of a paid plan's features, no credit card needed
- Support
- [email protected] or our contact form
Talk to us
Questions about DocSpring, a BAA or an Enterprise license? We'd like to hear from you.
