About DocSpring

What DocSpring does

Fill existing PDFs

Upload a PDF and place fields over its pages, or import its existing form fields. Send JSON data to fill the document while keeping the original layout, whether it is a government form or your own application form.

Generate documents from HTML and CSS

Write HTML/CSS templates with Liquid loops and conditions for invoices, reports, and other documents whose length changes with the data. Tables can grow to fit a list of items across multiple pages.

Collect data with web forms

DocSpring generates a web form from the fields in your PDF template. Share the form or embed it on your website so people can enter their details and receive a filled PDF.

Collect e-signatures

Use Data Requests to ask people for missing information and signatures, with hosted or embedded signing forms. DocSpring records an audit trail and generates the PDF when everyone has completed their part.

Who uses DocSpring

• SaaS developers adding document generation to their applications, including BrightReps.
• Agricultural software developers, including Harvust, building tools for growers.
• Financial and legal businesses processing large volumes of forms, among DocSpring's earliest customers.

Our PDF filling API page includes testimonials about their experience integrating DocSpring.

What makes DocSpring different

Keep the PDF you already use

The template editor places fields on an existing PDF. You can automate a required document without rebuilding its layout in HTML or a document designer.

Validate data before generating a document

Each template has a JSON schema based on its fields. Invalid submissions return errors that identify the fields to fix, so your application can catch missing or incorrectly formatted data before producing a PDF.

Put template setup inside your application

Embed the PDF template editor so your customers can configure their own documents. Choose which editor controls they can access.

Choose where documents are processed

Use DocSpring's US or EU data region, or license a self-hosted installation for your own infrastructure. Contact us to discuss an enterprise deployment.

Our comparison guides explain how these options compare with other PDF and signing services.

How DocSpring started

DocSpring's founder, Nathan Broadbent, was a software engineer at Gusto, a payroll company. Processing payroll involves 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 recognized that many other companies faced the same problem.

You can find Nathan on X and LinkedIn.

FormAPI launched in October 2017, announced in a Show HN post. Users uploaded a PDF, placed fields on it in the browser, and sent JSON to fill it.

Early customers were financial and legal companies with a high volume of forms, and their requests set the roadmap. HTML templates for documents whose length depends on the data arrived within the first month. Data Requests and e-signatures, for sending a form to a customer and receiving it back signed, followed in 2018. An EU data region followed for customers who needed to keep European data in Europe. Most of what DocSpring does today was built in response to a customer request.

In 2019 FormAPI was renamed DocSpring. The original name described a single endpoint, and the product had grown well beyond it. The API remained compatible, so existing integrations continued to work without changes.

How we work

Support is handled by the engineers who build DocSpring. A report about a field rendering incorrectly goes to someone who can inspect the renderer and correct it, and fixes are usually deployed within days.

New features are driven by customer requests, and we decline those that would compromise reliability. Every template has a JSON schema. PDF-generation request data is validated against that schema before the document is generated.

We are a remote company, incorporated in the United States, with servers in the US and the EU. In 2019 we took a small investment from Calm Company Fund, then called Earnest Capital, which backs companies that intend to stay independent and grow at the pace their customers set. There is no pressure to change the API or the pricing model in ways that would disrupt existing customers.

DocSpring has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit, is GDPR and HIPAA compliant, and publishes its controls on the Trust Portal. The security page has the details.

Getting started

Start with a 14-day free trial. No credit card is required.

1. Upload a PDF and configure its fields, or create an HTML/CSS template.
2. Send your first API request with your template ID and JSON data, then download the generated PDF.
3. Check the output with your own data and connect the request to your application. Our client libraries include examples to get you started.

If you need help setting up a template or integrating the API, email [email protected].

Key facts

Company

DocSpring

Product

PDF filling, document generation, web forms, and e-signatures via API

Founded

October 2017, originally as FormAPI

Founder

Nathan Broadbent

Location

Fully remote, incorporated in the United States

Hosting

US and EU data regions; self-hosted enterprise licenses available

Pricing

Monthly subscriptions with included usage. See plans and usage rates.

Trial

14 days, no credit card required

Support

[email protected] or our contact form

Timeline

1. 2017

   FormAPI launches in October with PDF filling and web forms. HTML templates for documents that grow with the data follow a month later.

2. 2018

   Batch generation, Visual Forms drawn over the PDF, and the first auto-generated API client libraries. Data Requests bring e-signatures and embedded signing.

3. 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.

4. 2025

   SOC 2 Type II audit completed. A new documentation site and the Trust Portal launch.

5. 2026

   HIPAA compliance with BAAs on request. The template editor can be embedded in your own product, fields gain conditional logic, and n8n and Zapier integrations are added.