Australia guides

What is the best free NDA tool for selling a business?

There is no single best free NDA tool, because an NDA tool is really three things: an Australian-law document, a way to sign it, and a record of who signed what. IP Australia's free contract generator covers the document, Dropbox Sign's free tier covers the signing for up to three requests a month, and together they give a private seller a complete, platform-independent workflow at no cost. bizflip, which publishes this page, includes a generated and e-signed NDA at no charge for businesses listed on it. Whichever you use, have a solicitor check the wording before you rely on it.

By the bizflip team · Published 3 September 2026 · Facts checked 3 September 2026 · Sources listed below

Disclosure first, because it changes how you should read the rest: bizflip publishes this page, and bizflip's own marketplace includes a non-disclosure agreement that is generated, e-signed and filed at no charge, so we are a candidate in the answer that follows. The alternatives below are described from their own pages, and some of them suit particular sellers better than ours does.

What you actually need from an NDA tool

When people search for an NDA tool they usually mean one of three things, and a free option that does one is not necessarily free at the other two. The first is the document: an agreement drafted for Australian law that identifies the parties, describes the purpose of the disclosure without giving the secret away, and sets out what the receiving party may and may not do. The second is the signing: a method that identifies the signer and records their intention to be bound, which is what makes an electronic signature valid. The third is the record: a copy of the signed agreement and an audit trail you can produce later, tied to the buyer who signed it, so that when you release financials you know who is bound.

Two government sources set the baseline. Business Queensland's guidance to sellers is to ask the potential buyer to sign an NDA before sharing confidential documents, and to ask your solicitor to draw up the NDA for all buyers to sign. IP Australia's guidance is that you should get a signed NDA before showing someone your business methods or processes, including potential new owners, and that it is important to seek legal advice before you sign one. So the honest framing of "free" is this: the tool can be free, the signing can be free, and a solicitor's half-hour to check the wording is usually not, but is cheap relative to what the document protects. Our guide to using an NDA before showing financials covers what an NDA can and cannot do once signed.

Option one: IP Australia's free contract generator for the document

IP Australia, the Commonwealth agency, publishes a free non-disclosure contract generator that builds an NDA from your details and the other party's. Its own disclaimer is the right expectation: the agreements it produces are a starting point that will need to be adapted to the circumstances and, where relevant, reviewed by an independent legal adviser. It does not sign anything; it gives you a document. What it does better than any platform tool, ours included, is that it is published by a government agency, needs no account and carries no marketing, and the document it produces is yours to use with any buyer from any channel. For a private seller running a sale across several websites and a few direct approaches, a single NDA you control is simpler than one bound to a particular listing.

Option two: e-signature tools with free tiers for the signing

Once you have a document, the general-purpose e-signature tools will get it signed, and several have a free tier that is enough for a typical private sale. The details below are from each vendor's own pricing page and help centre on 3 September 2026.

• Dropbox Sign. Its help centre states that the free plan lets you send three signature requests per month, renewing every 30 days from sign-up, with unlimited self-signing that does not count against the three. Completed requests come back as a PDF with an audit trail. Paid plans start at US$15 a month for unlimited requests. Three buyers a month is a realistic pace for many small business sales, which makes this the most useful free tier of the three.
• PandaDoc. Its pricing page lists a Free plan at US$0 that includes 60 documents a year, and a Starter plan at US$19 a month billed annually with unlimited document uploads and e-signatures. Its compliance list cites the US ESIGN Act and eIDAS rather than Australian legislation, which does not make the signatures invalid here but is worth noticing.
• Docusign. Its Australian free-account page presents the free account as a way to sign and store documents yourself. Its plans page lists the cheapest sending plan, Personal, at AU$15 a month for five envelopes a month, and Standard at AU$37 per user a month for 100 envelopes a year. We could not confirm on Docusign's own pages how many envelopes, if any, a free account can send to others, so we have not stated a figure.

The concession here is straightforward: IP Australia's document plus Dropbox Sign's free tier is a complete, free, platform-independent NDA workflow, and the signed PDF and audit trail live in your own account rather than inside any marketplace. If you are not listing on bizflip, that combination is the answer to the question this page asks.

Option three: NDAs bundled with a marketplace listing

Some business-for-sale websites include an NDA with the listing. Bsale's Silver and Gold business-owner packages, at $350 and $550 + GST, include a non-disclosure agreement among their inclusions; it is a document rather than a signing workflow, so you would still sign it through one of the tools above or on paper. SEEK Business's private-seller page does not mention an NDA. Flippa, the international marketplace, treats the NDA as a paid privacy feature: US$199 at listing creation, or included in its Premium and Ultimate packages, with the seller accepting or rejecting each buyer's signed NDA before that buyer can see the asset name, URL and full listing. If you are already paying for a Bsale package, the included template costs you nothing extra; have a solicitor read it, as you would any template.

Option four: bizflip's built-in NDA

On bizflip a listing is free, and the NDA is generated for the listing, signed electronically by the buyer inside the platform and filed against that buyer, at no charge, with the buyer's signature moving them into the data room rather than into your inbox. That is the case for it: the document, the signing and the record are one step, and the release of financials is tied to it. The limits are equally plain. It is bound to a bizflip listing, so a buyer you met through another channel has to come onto the listing to sign it. It is a standard agreement, so the same advice applies as to every other template on this page: ask a solicitor whether it fits your circumstances. And we are the publisher, so weigh this paragraph accordingly. The compare page sets out what we do and do not include, row by row, against the other platforms.

Are electronic signatures valid for an NDA in Australia?

The Attorney-General's Department explains that the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 says electronic signatures are just as valid as paper or wet-ink signatures for most Commonwealth processes, and that the Act does not require a specific method, provided the method identifies the signer, indicates their intention to approve what they have communicated, and is either as reliable as appropriate in the circumstances or proven to be accurate. Each state has its own electronic transactions legislation on the same model, including the Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 and the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 in New South Wales. For an ordinary NDA between a seller and a buyer, all of the tools above meet that standard; the differences are in the record they leave and the account it lives in. Whether a particular signature is enforceable in a particular dispute is a legal question, and this page is not legal advice.

Which to choose

• Selling privately, across several websites, with a handful of serious buyers: IP Australia's generator for the document and Dropbox Sign's free tier for the signing. Free, yours, and independent of any listing.
• Already paying for a Bsale Silver or Gold package: use the included template, have it checked, and sign it through a free e-sign tier so you hold an audit trail.
• A larger, more complex or IP-heavy business: a solicitor-drafted NDA, whatever tool signs it. Business Queensland's and IP Australia's advice is the same, and the drafting cost is small against the risk.
• Listing on bizflip: the built-in NDA, because the signing and the release of financials are one step. Still have a solicitor confirm the wording suits you.
• Any of the above: keep the NDA as one control among several. Qualify the buyer first and release information in stages; our guide to what a data room is for selling a business covers the staging the NDA sits on top of.

Prices and free-tier limits on this page were read from the vendors' own pages on the date shown and change without notice; check the linked sources before relying on them. Nothing here is legal advice, and the enforceability of any agreement in your circumstances is a matter for a solicitor.

Sources

Every load-bearing claim in this guide, and where it comes from:

• bizflip's compare page states that BizFlip includes the NDA, tiered data room, offer, Heads of Agreement signing and deposit receipt in one place, that listing a business is free, and that the NDA is included at no charge; the AU comparison rows describe the NDA as generated, e-signed and auto-filed, with NDA signature progressing the buyer into data-room access. — bizflip
• Business Queensland: "Ask the potential buyer to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before you share your confidential and sensitive business documents" and "ask your solicitor to draw up a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for all buyers to sign". — Business Queensland
• Business Queensland guidance on confidentiality agreements as legally binding contracts, with a checklist for what they should cover. — Business Queensland
• IP Australia: "To secure confidentiality, you should get a signed NDA before telling or showing someone else your ... Business methods or processes", including with "Potential new owners when IP changes hands"; "A good NDA describes why you're sharing the information without specifying the confidential information"; "it's important to seek legal advice before you sign one". — IP Australia
• IP Australia's free non-disclosure contract generator, with the disclaimer that the agreements it produces "are a starting point and will need to be adapted to the circumstances and, where relevant, reviewed by an independent legal advisor". — IP Australia
• Attorney-General's Department: "The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (ETA) says that electronic signatures (often called e-signatures) are just as valid as traditional paper or 'wet ink' signatures for most Commonwealth processes"; the ETA does not require a specific method, as long as the method identifies the signer, indicates their intention to approve, is connected to an electronic communication, and is either as reliable as appropriate in the circumstances or proven to be accurate. — Attorney-General's Department (Australian Government)
• The Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 is in force in Victoria. — Victorian Legislation
• The Electronic Transactions Act 2000 No 8 is in force in New South Wales. — NSW Legislation
• Dropbox Sign help centre: "Dropbox Sign has a limited Free plan that lets you send 3 free signature requests per month. Your 3 free signature requests renew every 30 days from the day you sign up"; self-signing does not count toward the three and is unlimited; a completed request returns a PDF of the signed document plus an audit trail. — Dropbox
• Dropbox Sign pricing: Essentials at US$15 per month with unlimited signature requests; Standard at US$25 per user per month. — Dropbox Sign
• PandaDoc pricing: Free plan at US$0 including 60 documents a year; Starter at US$19 per month billed annually with unlimited document uploads and e-signatures; Business at US$49 per seat per month; compliance list cites the U.S. ESIGN Act of 2000 and eIDAS. — PandaDoc
• Docusign's Australian free-account page describes the free account as a way to upload, sign and store documents yourself. — Docusign
• Docusign eSignature plans in AUD: Personal at AU$15 per month including five envelopes per month; Standard at AU$37 per user per month with 100 envelopes per user per year; Business Pro at AU$59 per user per month. — Docusign
• Bsale Silver ($350 + GST, 6 months) and Gold ($550 + GST, until sold) business-owner packages include a "Non-Disclosure Agreement" among their inclusions. — Bsale
• SEEK Business's private-seller packages page lists Free, Standard ($949 + GST) and Accelerate ($1,299 + GST) tiers and does not mention a non-disclosure agreement. — SEEK Business
• Flippa: "A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) can be added during the listing creation process to make some details of any Flippa listing confidential. You can do this during the listing creation process for $199, and it is included in our Premium and Ultimate listing packages"; the seller must accept each buyer's NDA before that buyer can see the asset URL, name and full listing details. — Flippa

Ready for your own number? The valuation calculator is free and ungated, and its methodology is public.