Electronic notary software (RON and in-person electronic), compared

The software against what the rules ask

Each column is something a state rule asks of a RON platform or of you through it: an electronic journal, a certificate that makes later changes show, a recorded session kept for the state's period, identity proofing before a remote act. The first column is the one this page is about: whether the vendor's own pages describe an in-person electronic product beside RON. A check means the vendor states it; an em dash means its pages are silent; "check with the vendor" means what we read was unclear.

Tools an independent notary can run for their own signers

If you notarize on your own account, these are the tools to shortlist. For solo work on the remote side alone, the RON platforms for a solo notary page goes deeper on own-signer terms.

Tools you reach through an employer, lender or title office

These are sold to lenders, settlement agents, banks and title offices, whose in-house notaries run them. They carry most of the in-person electronic approvals on the lists, because hybrid closings, where some documents are signed on paper and others electronically, happen at a table. If you close loans for one office, ask which of these it licenses before you buy anything yourself; the title and escrow comparison covers the remote side. If the office signs through Docusign, PandaDoc or OneSpan instead, read e-signature platforms with a notary feature.

RON, IPEN or both: how the state lists split them

"Electronic notary software" covers two different acts. In an in-person electronic notarization (IPEN) the signer stands in front of you and signs an electronic document; Pennsylvania's Department of State keeps "the requirement for the signer to appear personally (physically) before the notary" for it. In remote online notarization (RON) that appearance happens over audio-video instead, and the session is recorded. Most of the tools below do RON; fewer are approved for both. Our RON and IPEN guide covers the acts themselves; this page is about the software.

The states that publish a provider list do not all write the split the same way, and the way they write it decides what you can use. The lists below name it outright:

Nebraska is the one to read twice. It runs two registrations on top of the commission, each with its own course, exam and filing fee: online notary (a $50 filing fee) and in-person electronic notary (a $100 filing fee, and a 20-question exam passed at 85%). Each has its own list of approved solution providers, and a tool on the online list is not on the in-person list by default. See Nebraska's two lists, read and dated.

Kansas keeps one list and writes each provider's technology in a cell, so you can see that a tool is approved for RON but not IPEN without leaving the page; before your first remote act you notify the Secretary of State of the provider you will use and pay a $20 fee. See the Kansas list by type and Pennsylvania's e-notary and RON approvals.

Where each tool is listed, act by act

Pick the acts you perform and the list you work under. With a list state chosen, the state's list decides; with "Another state", the vendor's own pages decide, and your state's list (if it keeps one) still has the last word. The state-approved platform finder covers the remote-only lists of other states.

The full grid shows the gaps the finder hides. Three things stand out. SIGNiX's own pages do not describe an in-person product, yet Kansas lists it for IPEN and Pennsylvania for e-notary: a list can know more than a marketing page. BlueNotary and OneNotary both sell IPEN, and Pennsylvania approves each for RON only. And on Nebraska's in-person list, the only tools here that an independent notary can run for their own signers are OneNotary and Snapdocs; the rest sit with lenders and settlement offices.

What the software supplies, and what you bring

An electronic act needs three things besides the session: a journal entry, a digital certificate that makes the document tamper-evident, and your electronic seal (what the seal must show is set out in electronic notary seal requirements). Some tools hand you all three on sign-up; others assume you arrive with a certificate bought from a certificate authority. That difference decides your start-up cost and how easily you can move platforms later: a certificate one platform issues may not be accepted by another (OneNotary, for one, does not take certificates issued by other RON providers).

Kansas puts it plainly: to use a RON platform you must obtain a digital certificate, and providers "may provide a digital certificate or may provide direction about how to obtain one" (Kansas Secretary of State, read 2026-10-22). The Kansas list even marks which providers supply a certificate or a journal, in the column below.

For the pieces you buy yourself, see digital certificate providers, electronic seal providers and electronic notary journals. Whichever tool keeps the recording, Kansas, Nebraska and Pennsylvania each set 10 years for it; the retention guide has the cites.

Each tool, one page

The same requirements, with the vendor's own words behind each mark and the state lists it is on.

How we compared