What is ZealiD?

ZealiD is a Swedish Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) that verifies a person's identity remotely on their phone and issues them a qualified electronic signature (QES). It is listed on the EU Trusted List under Sweden and supervised by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS). People use ZealiD on its own, through Trust Circle, or inside Adobe Acrobat Sign, DocuSign and Foxit eSign.

A QES is the highest level of electronic signature under the EU eIDAS Regulation, and the only one with the same legal effect as a handwritten signature in every EU member state (eIDAS Art. 25(2)). Only a provider on the EU Trusted List can issue one. The signer's identity must be verified to a regulated standard before the certificate is issued.

Trust Circle is ZealiD's client workspace for law, accounting and advisory firms. Each client or matter gets an identity-verified space where up to 9 people share documents and sign them with QES. Firms run as many circles as they need, and every view, upload and download is logged.

ZealiD is the regulated provider that verifies identity and issues the qualified signature. Trust Circle is the product firms use day to day: a client workspace with that verification and signing built in. Signing a QES inside Trust Circle uses the same ZealiD certificate as signing through Adobe or DocuSign.

Yes. A ZealiD QES has the legal effect of a handwritten signature in all EU member states under eIDAS Art. 25(2), and member states must recognise each other's QES under Art. 25(3). The proof of who signed travels inside the PDF, so any EU body can verify it independently.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) supervises ZealiD as a QTSP under eIDAS. Two accredited eIDAS conformity assessment bodies, TÜViT and SRC Security, assess ZealiD every year.

No. ZealiD issues qualified signatures to natural persons, and the certificate carries the person's name, not a company name or registration number. Organisations that need a qualified electronic seal (for example for the EU Digital Product Passport registry) need a seal provider from the EU Trusted List.

ZealiD runs a qualified timestamping authority, and every ZealiD QES has carried a qualified timestamp since 12 October 2022. Contact sales about stand-alone timestamping.

No to both. ZealiD does not provide notary services. It does not sell identity verification as a separate white-label service either: verification exists to issue a qualified signature or to confirm a client's identity inside Trust Circle.

You verify once in the ZealiD app, in about 3 minutes, with no video call or appointment. The app checks that you are a live person with a selfie, captures your passport or ID card, and reads the chip by NFC where the document has one. A trained identity specialist then reviews the case, including checks against lost and stolen document registers. The process is certified to ETSI TS 119 461, the EU standard for remote identity proofing.

About 10 minutes from download to your first signature: around 3 minutes of self-service steps plus a manual review that usually takes a few minutes. 85% of people pass verification on their first attempt.

ZealiD accepts passports, national ID cards and residence permits from more than 50 nationalities, including the US and the UK: 265+ document types in total. The app is available in 24 languages. Not every version of every card is supported. Older ID cards without a chip or the security features the standard needs can be rejected even while they are still valid. Check your exact document on the supported identity documents list before you start.

The two most common reasons are an unsupported document version and a poor capture: glare, blur, part of the document out of frame, or a missed step in the document video. Documents issued before a country moved to chip-based cards, such as some older Czech and Romanian ID cards, are often the issue. If your document is on the list and still fails, try again in even, indirect light, and use your passport if you have one.

Yes. You need an iPhone or Android phone with Face ID, Touch ID or a fingerprint sensor (Android face unlock must be Class 3), because your signing key is bound to the device and unlocked with biometrics. A company-managed phone with restrictive device management can block the app. In that case, register on a personal phone.

No. ZealiD verifies identity from your passport or ID card in its own app. That is what lets people without a national eID, such as foreign residents or non-EU citizens, get a QES. If you already have a national eID that offers QES, you may not need ZealiD.

Two years. You verify once and sign as many documents as your plan includes until the certificate expires. Documents you signed stay valid after it expires. If you change phones, you register again, because the certificate is tied to the device.

PDF files, up to 32 MB, with up to 9 signatures on one document. Password-protected PDFs and PDFs with attachments cannot be signed. ZealiD signs in the PAdES format with a qualified timestamp, so the signature lives inside the PDF.

No. ZealiD signs PDFs only. Filings that need an XAdES-signed XML file, such as some Polish tax and beneficial-owner registers, or an ASiC-E container, need a provider that supports those formats.

No. Your private key stays in ZealiD's qualified signature creation device and is never handed out, so you cannot load it into desktop tools or government portals that ask for a local certificate. You sign through ZealiD (My ZealiD, Trust Circle) or through a platform that integrates ZealiD, such as Adobe Acrobat Sign, DocuSign or Foxit eSign.

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader and look at the signature panel, or upload it to the free EU Commission DSS validation tool. A valid ZealiD signature shows as a qualified signature (QESig) issued under the Swedish trusted list. No ZealiD account is needed to check it.

Run the document through the EU DSS validation tool and send the recipient the report. In most cases we see, the ZealiD signature passes and something else fails: a signature added later by another tool, editing the PDF after signing, or a printed and rescanned copy. Some banks and portals also run outdated validation software. Contact support if the report itself fails.

Yes. You can add your QES to a PDF that already carries other signatures, and the earlier signatures stay intact. Make every change to the document before anyone signs, because editing a signed PDF invalidates the signatures on it.

No. A ZealiD signature always shows the ZealiD mark and your verified name. Full signer details appear in the PDF's signature panel. If the document needs your name typed or placed in a set field, add it before you sign.

Your organisation enables ZealiD as a trust service provider in the platform, and senders choose QES for a recipient. The recipient verifies once in the ZealiD app and then approves each signature on their phone. For Adobe Acrobat Sign, activation takes minutes once ZealiD has your Adobe account ID.

No, it works inside them. DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign and Foxit eSign run the signing workflow. ZealiD is the qualified trust service provider those platforms call when a signature has to be a QES. You keep your current platform and add ZealiD for the signers and documents that need qualified signatures.

Standard platform signatures are simple or advanced electronic signatures. They are valid for most business documents, but they do not meet a legal requirement for a QES. When a law, an authority or a counterparty asks for a QES, only a provider on the EU Trusted List can issue it, after verifying the signer's identity to a regulated standard. ZealiD is that provider.

A simple signature can be a typed name or a click. An advanced signature is uniquely linked to the signer and detects later changes. A qualified signature is an advanced signature made with a qualified certificate from a Trusted List provider on a certified device (eIDAS Art. 3), and it is the only type automatically equal to a handwritten signature across the EU.

National eIDs only work for people who hold that country's ID. ZealiD issues a QES to anyone with a supported passport or ID card, wherever they live. That is why firms use it for foreign clients, new hires abroad and non-residents.

ZealiD needs no live video call with an agent and no appointment. Verification is self-service in the app, followed by a specialist review, and is certified to ETSI TS 119 461. The signer verifies once and reuses the verification for two years, rather than identifying again for each signing.

File-sharing tools confirm that someone has a login, not who the person is. In Trust Circle every member's identity is verified against a government ID before they get access, every signature is a QES, and every view and download is logged. That record is what an AML audit or a dispute about who signed asks for.

ZealiD prices by plan, not per transaction. Plans start at €40 a year for 10 qualified signatures, and business plans start at €49 a month for up to 3 users and 15 signatures. Enterprise and API pricing is per contract. Typical QES prices on the market range from about €1 to €30 per signed document, depending on volume and identification method.

When a law, an authority or a counterparty requires one, or when you need a signature nobody can credibly dispute. Common cases include filings with company registers and patent offices (such as France's INPI), public tenders, EU grant agreements, bank and loan documents, cross-border employment contracts and board resolutions. Each EU country has its own list of documents that legally require a QES.

Yes. You need a supported passport or ID card, a smartphone, an email address and a phone number. You do not need EU residency or an EU ID. US passport holders use ZealiD for EU company filings, board documents and contracts. Some nationalities are not supported yet, so check the supported documents list first.

Yes. Personal plans start at €40 a year (about €3.34 a month) for 10 qualified signatures, for one person working on their own. ZealiD does not sell single signatures without a plan, and you can cancel before renewal.

Law firms, accounting firms and advisory practices that collect identity documents and signatures from clients, especially clients abroad. Typical uses are client onboarding with verified identity, sharing deliverables in one place instead of email, and signing engagement letters, powers of attorney and filings with QES.

The EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation takes effect on 10 July 2027 for most regulated businesses and requires obliged entities, including law and accounting firms, to verify client identity and keep it current (AMLR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624). Trust Circle verifies each client against a government ID before they see anything, keeps documents and due diligence in the same workspace, and moves you from one-time onboarding checks to ongoing verification.

Yes. New hires verify once in the app with their own passport or ID card and sign their contract with a QES, wherever they are. Microsoft uses ZealiD through Adobe Acrobat Sign for HR onboarding and cut the process from 10 days to 10 minutes, saving €30 to €40 per employee (Microsoft case study).

Yes. Banks use ZealiD QES for credit, guarantee and account documents where they need certainty about who signed. ABN AMRO uses ZealiD through Entrust across more than 70 credit and guarantee processes and reduced signing from 14 days to 10 minutes, saving €50 per agreement (ABN AMRO case study).

Yes, through the Cloud Signature Consortium (CSC) API or the ZealiD API. Integration usually takes up to a month from test credentials to production. ZealiD currently supports SHA-256 hashing with RSA, and signers still verify and approve in the ZealiD app. A fully white-labelled, app-free signer journey is not offered today. See developer.zealid.com.

Yes, up to 9 signatures on one PDF. Each signer uses their own ZealiD certificate. In Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign, the platform routes the document to each signer in turn.

Plans are priced by users and signatures per month, in euros excluding VAT, and yearly billing saves 20%. Client seats are free and unlimited. Full details are on zealid.com/en/pricing.

No. ZealiD moved from per-signature credits to plans in 2026. The lowest-cost option for occasional signing is Micro at €40 a year for 10 signatures. If you run out on any plan, you can buy extra signature credits without changing plans.

No. Signatures included in a plan are for that billing period and do not carry over. Annual plans give you the full year's signatures up front, which suits uneven use better than monthly billing.

No. Client seats are free and unlimited. Business plans are priced by how many of your own people use ZealiD, so only internal headcount counts towards a tier.

There is no free plan. The earlier Freemium plan with one free signature a month has ended. You can see Trust Circle working in the 2-minute walkthrough on zealid.com before you buy.

Cancel any time under Account & billing in My ZealiD. Your plan stays active until the end of the paid period, and there are no refunds for the current period. After that you can still log in and download your documents for 30 days, and resubscribing within that time restores everything. After 30 days, account data is permanently deleted.

Yes. Upgrades apply immediately and downgrades apply from the next billing period.

Talk to sales about invoiced annual billing. Firms with ten or more people move to Enterprise terms.

Support can tell you your remaining signature balance at any time.

An individual can sign the same day: about 10 minutes from download to first signature. A Trust Circle workspace is ready the same day, with nothing to install for the firm. Adobe Acrobat Sign activation takes minutes, DocuSign under 24 hours, Foxit about 4 weeks including a proof of concept, and an API integration up to a month.

Microsoft, ABN AMRO, DLA Piper and DocuSign use ZealiD in production, alongside law firms, banks and HR teams across Europe. Published results:

Yes. ZealiD AB is listed as a qualified trust service provider under Sweden on the EU Trusted List, where anyone can check it.

TÜViT and SRC Security assess ZealiD every year against the eIDAS Regulation and the ETSI standards for trust service providers: ETSI EN 319 401 (general requirements), EN 319 411-1 and 411-2 (certificate issuance) and TS 119 461 (remote identity proofing). Signing keys are held in a Common Criteria EAL4+ certified HSM. Conformity certificates are published in the ZealiD repository.

In the EU, off cloud, in ZealiD's own data centres. There is no US cloud, each client's data is kept separate, and deletion workflows are built in. Identity data is processed under GDPR, with ZealiD's lead supervisory authority in Sweden.

Yes. ZealiD processes identity and signing data under GDPR as a Swedish company. It collects only what eIDAS requires to verify identity and issue a certificate, keeps it in the EU, and publishes its data processing agreement in the repository. Trust Circle customers sign a DPA as part of their agreement.

Signatures made while ZealiD was qualified stay qualified. ZealiD signatures are PAdES with a qualified timestamp, so they can be validated from the PDF itself without ZealiD's systems or a login. eIDAS also requires every QTSP to keep a termination plan that preserves validation data.

ZealiD keeps registration and certificate evidence for the retention periods eIDAS sets for qualified providers, separate from account data, which is deleted 30 days after a subscription ends.

Yes. ZealiD holds professional liability insurance as eIDAS Art. 24(2)(c) requires of qualified trust service providers.