Guide · how the market works
What happens when you hit Download — free legal form sites compared
Dozens of sites will help you write a lease, a bill of sale or a power of attorney “for free”. The differences show up at one precise moment: the download button. This page describes the four business models behind that button — without naming anyone — and gives you the questions to ask before you type your details into any of them, including ours.
The four business models
All four are common, and none of them is a scam by definition — but only one of them is what most people mean by “free”. Knowing which one you’re standing in changes what you should check before you start typing.
Model 1
Free trial → subscription
Filling in the document costs nothing — the price appears at the download button, where a credit card is required to “start your free trial”. If the trial isn’t cancelled in time, it converts into a recurring monthly charge. The document was never the product; the subscription is.
The tell: a card form between you and a file you already finished writing.
Model 2
Pay per document
A one-time fee unlocks the specific document you built. More transparent than a trial — you pay once and you’re done — but each new document (and on some sites, a later revision) is a new purchase, and the price often only appears after you’ve typed everything in.
The tell: a per-document price, usually shown at checkout rather than up front.
Model 3
Membership / library access
A flat monthly or annual fee unlocks a library of forms. Reasonable if you genuinely need many documents all year; expensive if you needed exactly one lease. The download button leads to a plan-picker instead of a file.
The tell: pricing pages organized as “plans”, not documents.
Model 4
Free, sustained by labelled ads & affiliate links
The document itself is free — download, print, come back tomorrow. The site earns from advertising and from clearly labelled suggestions for related paid services (say, an attorney review), which you can ignore entirely. This is how SealForms works.
The tell: you reach the file without ever seeing a checkout.
Six questions to ask before typing your details into any site
You can identify the model in under a minute, from the outside, before entering a single name or address. Here’s the checklist — and, since it would be odd to make you audit everyone but us, how SealForms answers each one.
| Ask this | Why it matters | SealForms’s answer |
|---|---|---|
| Does it ask for a card before you can download? | A card at the download step means the business model is billing you later. That’s where “free” trials convert into subscriptions. | No. “Download / Print PDF” opens your browser’s print dialog immediately. There is no checkout on this site — no page where you could even enter a card. |
| Does the price appear before or after you’ve typed everything in? | Sites that reveal the price only after you’ve invested twenty minutes of typing are counting on sunk-cost pressure at checkout. | There is no price. What you see on the template page — form, preview, download buttons — is the entire transaction. |
| Can you print the same document again tomorrow, without paying? | Some models lock your finished document behind the account: stop paying and you lose access to what you wrote. | Yes. Your entries auto-save in your own browser, and “My documents” keeps named saves with version history. Reopen and reprint whenever, forever, free. |
| Is the free version watermarked or cut down? | A watermarked “preview” is a paywall wearing a costume — the readable copy is the paid one. | The PDF and the Word (.docx) file are clean and complete. No watermark, no locked sections, no cut-down “free version”. |
| Does what you type leave your browser? | Names, addresses, rent amounts and loan figures are sensitive. On most sites they’re stored on the company’s servers, tied to your account. | No. The form and the live preview run entirely in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded. Even “send to sign” carries the document inside the link you share — not through us. |
| If you do end up paying, how do you cancel? | Hard-to-find cancellation flows are a feature of the subscription model, not a bug. Check for a self-serve cancel button before you subscribe anywhere. | There is nothing to cancel here — no account, no billing relationship. If you ever see a charge that claims to be from this site, it isn’t us: report it to your bank. |
Everything in the third column is verifiable right now: open any template, fill it with test data, and press Download. The full promise — and how the site sustains itself — is onActually free: here’s what that means.
FAQ
Why do “free” legal form sites ask for a credit card at the download step?
Because on many of them the document is the marketing and the subscription is the product: filling in the form is free, but downloading requires starting a trial with a card, and the trial converts to a recurring charge unless cancelled in time. It’s a legal and widespread model — but it means “free” only describes the typing, not the document.
How do free legal template sites make money?
Four common models: (1) free trials that convert into paid subscriptions, (2) one-time payment per document, (3) memberships that unlock a form library, and (4) genuinely free documents sustained by advertising and clearly labelled affiliate links. SealForms uses the fourth: the download is free, with no card and no account, and the site earns from labelled ads and affiliate suggestions you can ignore.
How can I tell which model a site uses before typing in my details?
Look for a pricing page before you start; try reaching a download with a blank document; and ask three questions — does it want a card before the download, does the price appear only after you’ve filled everything in, and can you reprint tomorrow without paying? If any answer worries you, check the site’s cancellation terms before entering personal details.
Is SealForms really free, with no catch?
Yes — no card, no trial, no subscription, no watermark, no document limit. The site is sustained by advertising and clearly labelled affiliate links (disclosed on every page that carries them). The honest limits are about scope, not payment: it isn’t a law firm and doesn’t give legal advice.
A note on fairness: this page describes business models, not businesses. Paid template services can be worth paying for — some bundle attorney help that a free site can’t offer. The point is simpler: you deserve to know which model you’re in before the download button, not after.