Standard contracts

Free standard contracts: which one fits your deal

Open-licensed standard forms for NDAs, SaaS, services, data processing and design partners: which fits your deal, what you fill in, what you may edit.

By DealMate Editorial Team·Last reviewed 10 November 2026·7 min read

Match the form to the deal: NDA to share secrets, cloud service agreement to sell software, professional services agreement to sell services, data processing agreement for personal data, design partner agreement for an early product. Common Paper and Bonterms publish free versions of most under CC BY 4.0, which allows edits with credit. For the cover-page versions, you fill in a cover page and list every change there; the standard terms stay unchanged.

Which standard fits your deal?

Note the version number of the terms you pick; your cover page should name it.

Your deal	Standard form	License	What to agree before you fill it in
Sharing confidential information before a deal	Common Paper Mutual NDA; Bonterms Mutual NDA; oneNDA	CC BY 4.0 for Common Paper and Bonterms; oneNDA's page is unclear (see below)	The purpose, how long the NDA lasts, how long confidentiality lasts, the governing law, and courts or arbitration
Selling a SaaS or cloud subscription	Common Paper Cloud Service Agreement; Bonterms Cloud Terms	CC BY 4.0	The product, the subscription period, fees, renewal, liability caps, the governing law and courts
Selling services or custom deliverables	Common Paper Professional Services Agreement; Bonterms Professional Services Agreement	CC BY 4.0	Each project's services, deliverables, review periods and fees; whether deliverables are licensed or assigned, and when ownership passes
Processing personal data for a customer	Common Paper Data Processing Agreement; Bonterms Data Protection Addendum	CC BY 4.0	The main agreement, each side's role, the kinds of personal data, subprocessors, security measures, transfer details
Early users trading feedback for early access	Common Paper Design Partner Agreement	CC BY 4.0	The product, each side's commitments (feedback sessions, a case study, a later discount), term, fees, law and courts
Freelance or consulting work	Common Paper Independent Contractor Agreement	CC BY 4.0	The work, deliverables, fees and schedule

If you're the freelancer, read a contractor agreement from your side before you sign it. Compare it with what a freelance service agreement has to spell out.

How do the cover page and the standard terms fit together?

Common Paper's standards come in two parts. The standard terms are fixed text; Common Paper says they "never change." The cover page holds the deal: names, dates, fees, options and changes. As Common Paper puts it, "All negotiations happen on the cover page." oneNDA has a cover page too, with a Special Provisions field for changes. Read a Bonterms form the same way: find where the deal details and the changes go.

Where changes go. Put every change on the cover page, naming the section it changes. Leave the standard terms' text alone.
Who wins a conflict. Find the clause that says which document controls, and check that the cover page wins over the standard terms.
Versions. Name the exact version of the standard terms on the cover page, and keep a copy of that version with the signed cover page.
Fields left out. Before you leave a field blank, read what the form says a blank means. A field left out may switch a clause off.

Before you send a cover page, check that:

Its version matches the terms you read.
Every field is filled in, or left out on purpose.
Every change names its section.
The license line and link remain.

A standard form's license decides what you may do with its wording.

License	Used by	What it allows	What you must do when you share it
CC BY 4.0	Common Paper's agreements; Bonterms' standard agreements; oneNDA, per Law Insider's wording	"reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material" (§2(a)(1))	Keep the credit, copyright, license and warranty-disclaimer notices supplied, and any note of earlier changes; link to the material where reasonably practicable; include the license text or a link to it; "indicate if You modified the Licensed Material" (§3(a)(1))
CC BY-ND 4.0	oneNDA, per the license Law Insider's page links to	"produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material" (§2(a)(1))	The same duties; "You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material" (§3(a)(1))

Both licenses define "Share" as "to provide material to the public" by means such as distribution. Ask a lawyer whether sending a filled-in form to one counterparty counts, and before an edited form gets passed around.

What the publishers' own pages say:

Common Paper: its agreements are "free to use and modify under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." Keep the license line and the link to the standard terms on your cover page.
Bonterms: its standard agreements are "released under CC BY 4.0 (unless otherwise noted)." Check the notice on each file you download.
oneNDA: its license is unclear. Law Insider's page says "It is licensed under CC BY 4.0" but links to the CC BY-ND 4.0 deed. Check the license in the file you download. Law Insider says to "use the Special Provisions field in the Cover Page to make any changes," and to remove "all references to oneNDA and its branding" if you modify the document.

What should each side check in each form?

What should you check in a mutual NDA?

Check two periods: how long the NDA itself lasts, and how long confidentiality lasts. If confidentiality is counted from the effective date, information shared late in the deal may be protected only briefly. Trade secrets may need protection for as long as they stay secret. A standard mutual NDA, read from both sides goes clause by clause.

What should you check in a cloud service agreement?

Check whether the subscription renews automatically and, if it does, how much notice stops it. Check, too, whether fees can rise at renewal, and by how much. Agree on both before you fill in the order form, and untick any option you didn't agree to.

What should you check in a professional services agreement?

In either professional services agreement, check whether deliverables are licensed or assigned, and when any assignment takes effect: as the work is created, or once it's paid for. Providers generally prefer ownership to pass on payment, and clients on creation. Check, too, that the assignment leaves out your pre-existing work and any third-party materials. Your client redlined your contract compares the two forms further.

What should you check in a data processing agreement?

A data processing agreement (DPA) sets rules for a business that handles personal data on a customer's behalf. Check which privacy laws the form was written for, and whether they match where your customers and their data are. Check, too, which kinds of data relationship it leaves out. Ask a privacy lawyer whether you need a DPA, and which one.

What should you check in a design partner agreement?

Check what the startup may do with your feedback, and whether feedback counts as your confidential information. If it doesn't, keep secrets out of your feedback. Check, too, how either side can end the program, and on how much notice.

How do you propose a standard form to the other side?

To propose a standard form, name it and its version, and send your filled-in cover page. Ask the other side to add changes in the same row.

Copy and send

“Hi [Name], To keep review short for both of us, could we use the [Common Paper Professional Services Agreement], Standard Terms version [number], at [link to the Standard Terms]? I've attached the filled-in Cover Page and first SOW. I haven't edited the Standard Terms; my proposed changes are under "[Other Changes to Standard Terms]" on the Cover Page. Could you add any of yours there too? Best, [Your name]”

Copy and send

“Other Changes to Standard Terms: Section [number] ([heading]) is replaced with: "[new wording]". There are no other changes to the Standard Terms.”

When is a standard form the wrong tool?

A standard form may be a poor fit, or need a lawyer's check first, when:

The deal falls outside the form's design. Read the publisher's notes on what a form isn't meant for before you rely on it, especially for a DPA.
A party or the governing law is outside the US. Ask which country's law the form was drafted for. Have a local lawyer check the form and adapt it on the cover page.
The deal is large for you, or a cap or indemnity could cost more than you could pay.
You handle health information for a US health care business. Ask a lawyer whether HIPAA makes you a business associate. Both publishers offer a Business Associate Agreement.
The work looks like employment. Whether someone is an employee or a contractor is a question for an employment lawyer.

Bonterms tells readers to "have a lawyer review any materials we provide before use in any circumstance," in its site footer. Common Paper says its forms "are not a substitute for a lawyer."

When does working from standard forms by hand stop working?

One standard form, read once, can be handled by hand: check the version, the cover page and the changes row. It starts to slip when the other side adds terms to the cover page, or sends a "standard" file that differs from the published one. It slips again when one client needs an NDA, a services agreement and a DPA at once. At that point it's worth letting a tool read each document from your side and show what changed and what it costs you.

DealMate is an AI contract assistant that takes a deal from first draft to final: describe the deal in a sentence and get a draft built from your templates and clauses; when they send their template, review it from your side and see what's risky; when their redlines come back, compare the versions and see every change and the risk it carries.