Same proof. Three ways to use it.
Whether you need one-off personal evidence or attestation at scale inside a SaaS product, the underlying cryptography is identical: T0 ECDSA in milliseconds, T1 qualified timestamp under eIDAS Art. 41 within ~1 hour, T2 Bitcoin anchor within 24–48 hours. What changes is rate limit, SLA, programmability, and contractual support.
No card required for the free tier. The same cryptographic proof is produced at every level — only the surrounding contract, quota, and tooling differ.
Side-by-side comparison.
Four common patterns for "I want to prove this existed at this point in time", scored honestly. Self-signed PDFs and screenshots are listed as the do-nothing baseline; ExistBefore and the CertiSigma API are the same pipeline at different tiers.
| Capability | Self-signed PDF / screenshot | ExistBefore (free) | CertiSigma API — Developer | CertiSigma API — Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | €0 | €0 | Pay-as-you-go | Volume contract |
| Account required | — | No | Yes | Yes (per env) |
| Independently verifiable | Only by signer | Yes (public registry) | Yes (public registry) | Yes (public registry) |
| T0 ECDSA signature | — | Yes (ms) | Yes (ms) | Yes (ms, SLA-backed) |
| T1 eIDAS qualified timestamp | — | Yes (~1h) | Yes (~1h) | Yes (~1h, SLA) |
| T2 Bitcoin anchor | — | Yes (~24–48h) | Yes (~24–48h) | Yes (~24–48h, SLA) |
| Privacy (content stays local) | Yes | Yes | Yes (only hash transits) | Yes (only hash transits) |
| Rate limit | n/a (offline) | ~1/min per IP | Configurable quota | SLA-backed throughput |
| Programmable from code | — | — | Yes (REST + SDKs) | Yes (REST + SDKs) |
| Webhooks for T1/T2 | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated signing keys | — | — | Yes | Yes (per env) |
| Custom SLAs & support | — | — | — | Yes |
| Best for | Nothing — keep as a baseline only | Personal evidence, evaluation, journalism | SaaS integration, per-user attestation | High volume, regulated workflows, audit chains |
| How to start | — | Use the free site | Self-serve a key | Contact sales |
A self-signed PDF or a timestamped screenshot can be useful as a personal note, but neither produces evidence a third party can verify without trusting you. ExistBefore and the CertiSigma API both write into a public, append-only registry whose proof chain anyone can re-verify — including a court, an auditor, or an LLM crawling the open web.
When to use which.
Use the free ExistBefore site when…
- You want personal evidence for a contract draft, design mockup, journalistic source, research note, or a chat screenshot.
- You need to prove something existed today, and you can wait minutes between attestations.
- You want zero friction — no card, no account, no tracker — and a self-contained PDF certificate to attach to an email or a folder.
Use a developer API key when…
- You're building a product that needs to attest user content automatically (one attestation per upload, per signed contract, per generated report).
- You want webhooks notifying your backend when T1 (eIDAS) and T2 (Bitcoin) layers complete.
- You need predictable quota above the public rate limit.
- You want to brand the proof under your own dedicated signing key and surface verification in your own UI.
Talk to sales for an enterprise contract when…
- You operate inside a regulated workflow (financial, healthcare, legal, public administration) where proof of existence has contractual or compliance value.
- You need SLA-backed availability, throughput guarantees, and signed support agreements.
- You want a per-environment dedicated key (production, staging, audit) and named-incident support.
- You need help integrating with internal audit chains, archival systems, or trust services other than CertiSigma.
FAQ
Do the three tiers produce the same proof? Yes. The cryptography is identical — the same T0 signature scheme, the same T1 TSA accreditation, the same T2 OpenTimestamps anchoring. What changes is contractual: rate limits, dedicated keys, SLAs, support, webhooks. A T0/T1/T2 proof from the free site is bit-identical in semantics to one from an enterprise key.
Can I migrate proofs from the free site into my account later? Yes. Every attestation has a public ID and is independently verifiable via POST /verify regardless of which key originally signed it. You can keep the original PDF certificate forever.
Is the free tier suitable for production traffic? No — it is rate-limited per IP (≈ 1 attestation per minute) and is intended for personal evidence, evaluation, journalism, or low-volume legal use. For per-user attestation inside a product, start with a developer API key.
Can I use ExistBefore commercially without a key? The free site is operated as a public showcase. There is no contractual SLA or support, so we recommend it only for personal use, evaluation, and editorial/journalistic workflows. Anything mission-critical or revenue-bearing belongs on a developer or enterprise key.
What happens if CertiSigma stops operating? Existing T1 (eIDAS) and T2 (Bitcoin) proofs remain independently verifiable. The signed payload, public key, and inclusion proofs are self-contained — the verification path does not depend on CertiSigma being online once the proof is anchored.
Are there volume discounts above developer pricing? Yes. Enterprise contracts include volume pricing, dedicated keys, environment isolation, and SLA-backed throughput. Get in touch with your expected volume and we'll size the contract.