The 5 Best Online Notary Services

Not that long ago, you needed to track down a Notary Public in person to put that final stamp of approval on documents ranging from adoption paperwork to the closing documents needed for purchasing a new business. It could be a real inconvenience if you weren’t lucky enough to have a notary in your office or among your acquaintances.

Online notary services cut down the frustration of trying to find a notary at the last minute before you need to send off documents. While the online services aren’t free, they are secure and can be finalized in as little as 15 minutes. 

If you are someone who needs to use a notary on a regular basis for your real estate or other business transactions, they can really streamline your workflow, allowing you to upload hundreds of documents a month at a surprisingly affordable cost.  

Notary Public: A Quick History

The rising prevalence of online notary services is just the latest development of a profession that has its origin as far back as the Roman Empire. The first notary may have been an enslaved person named Tiro, who developed a shorthand system for taking notes when Cicero, the famous orator, gave speeches. These witnessing stenographers, who went by the title Notarius, prepared official documents such as wills and contacts for a fee. 

The first notaries were necessary because very few people were literate during the Middle Ages. Reading and writing were the province of the Holy Roman Empire, whose monks transcribed official documents and had almost exclusive control over the written word. In fact, notaries were appointed by the Pope. 

In England, with the Reformation came the dissolution of the monasteries and the end of papal rule. Close on the heels of this development was the establishment of a public university system and suggestions that literacy be extended to the poor. These reform initiatives were not universal; in 1543, British Parliament passed The Act for Advancement of the True Religion, which attempted to ban women, servants, apprentices, and artisans from reading and discussing the Bible (a clause was later added allowing gentlewomen to read, as long as it was a private activity). 

The secularization of Britain meant the widespread development of layman notaries who performed duties similar to our modern Notary Public. Moreover, notaries served the important function of documenting historical events. They even accompanied Columbus, who was distrusted by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, on his voyages to ensure any discovered treasure was properly accounted for!

In colonial America, notaries served the important intermediary role of documenting trans-Atlantic trade contracts and negotiations. Thus, only people of high moral character were allowed to enter the profession. It could be a dangerous job – some notaries were even murdered when parties objected to their impartial documentation. 

How Does an Online Notary Service Work?

Gradually, the Notary Public evolved to serve its modern three-part function: verifying identities, certifying the veracity of document copies, and making an official transaction record. The Notary acts as an impartial third-party screen; as the National Notary Association website points out, “Every day the process of notarization prevents countless forged, coerced and incompetent signings that would otherwise overwhelm our court system and dissolve the network of trust allowing our civil society to function.”

You may wonder if an online notary service provides the same level of security, impartiality, and trust. To address that concern, let’s look at how a document's remote online notarization takes place.  Although it can vary from state to state, and even vendor to vendor, generally speaking, the process is as follows:

• The signer, or person who needs a document to be notarized, uploads a pdf file containing the document electronically after registering an account with the online notary service.
• The signer speaks with the notary via a video call to establish that the signer is real.
• The signer verifies their identity in one of several ways. You might be prompted to answer a series of questions pulled from your credit or personal history. This is called knowledge-based authentication. Another method that may be used to verify your identity is called a credential analysis or an electronic scan of your ID card. Depending on state law, more than one verification method may be needed.
• It’s time for the signer and online notary to sign the document and the notary to apply the official seal of authentication. Both the signature and seal are electronic. 
• The notary retains an auditory and video copy of the notarization, and the records are also available to the signer. Some states require the notary to note the transaction in their official record book.
• The online notary sends the notarized document back to the signer.

As you can see, online notaries are required by state law to take verification seriously. The only true difference is that all elements of the transaction take place remotely. In fact, online notary services are considered even more secure than in-person ones because security features can be embedded directly into your document. Moreover, you can access the electronic records whenever you need them. 

The 5 Best Online Notary Services

Notarize

Notarize.com is one of the better-known online notary services. It has a big partner and affiliate list, including Adobe, Zillow, and Dropbox. Launched in 2015, Notarize experienced rapid growth and became an industry leader in a few short years. 

Although it has a polished mobile app and can notarize documents for just about any industry, its main feature is 24/7 accessibility – after registering and making an account, you upload your document and meet the notary via webcam. The whole process takes about 15 minutes. Notarize can even process mortgage transactions 24/7 on business days.

For individuals, the cost to notarize a single document is $25, with $10 per additional seal. Businesses and real estate title companies pay a custom fee for the ability to handle many transactions per month. 

NotaryCam

With a process similar to that of Notarized, NotaryCam boasts robust security measures, using SSL encryption and storing files in Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud platform. The company has also acquired Experian’s E13PA certification, which the website explains “is modeled directly on the PCI standard that banks and credit card processing companies follow.” 

The company can work with multiple signers at a time in different locations worldwide, making it especially convenient for complex global business transactions. With the exception of mortgages, it offers online notary services 24/7, 365 days a year. NotaryCam operates in all 50 states and 145 countries in the world. 

The cost of single document notarization for an individual in the United States is $25; if you are located outside the U.S. at the time of the signing, the fee is $79. In order to get a volume discount, you need to submit an online sales proposal.

NotaryLive

One nice thing about NotaryLive is that this online notary service offers a free trial to its business clients so that you have a chance to look around and see if the platform design and features are for you. They offer plans for both individuals and businesses, including bulk pricing. 

The prices of the business plans are undisclosed, but for an individual seeking to get a single document notarized, the price is $25. Individuals have access to free online document storage and their own personal dashboard. 

Amrock

Amrock’s Clear Sign is a good choice for your online document signing needs – if you are a real estate professional. They specialize in the mortgage industry, hosting companies that process multiple documents a day. 

Developed by the Chicago-based fintech company Nexsys Technologies, Clear Sign won a Housing Wire Tech100 award for its innovative and streamlined approach to the industry. If state law allows it, the platform makes it possible to conduct an entire real estate closing remotely. 

Pricing for Clear Sign is not listed on the Amrock website. You will have to reach out to the company in order to find out how much their plans cost. 

OneNotary

What’s nice about OneNotary, a San Francisco-based company, is that you can schedule a 15-minute time slot to meet with the notary, guaranteeing speedy delivery of your notarized documents. 

OneNotary also has decent bulk pricing and you don’t have to go through hundreds of documents per month to get the discount. The price for a single notarized is $25. The lowest tier plan, which allows five free notary stamps a month, is just $57 a month. 

Some Final Thoughts

Although state law affects some details of the notarization process, all the companies featured here have similar processes: make an account, upload your pdf file, verify your identity, and sign the documents in the video presence of a Notary Public.  

Thus, some things to look for are: 

• Where the company is legally allowed to operate.
• What sort of security and platform features it offers.
• Which industries it serves.
• Whether there are bulk discounts.
• If the platform supports multiple users. 

If you don’t need any particular feature, you just need to get a document notarized, the price is going to be the same pretty much across the board. In that case, the deciding factor may be company reputation and 24/7 access.