Sealing a partnership with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) is common among businesses, big or small. Some information must remain private, even confidential.
It’s not just the groundbreaking research or trade secrets that must be safeguarded. Businesses regularly deal with sensitive information—customer data, marketing campaigns, financial information, investor or partnership agreements, and more. This data must remain protected.
Mishandling such information can have serious consequences, such as a tarnished reputation, loss of competitive advantage, and legal issues.
While it would be ideal for businesses to operate solely on goodwill and trust, it isn’t always practical. Instead, you must rely on business agreements to guarantee undisrupted operations and protect corporate interests.
One such contract is the Non-Disclosure Agreement or NDA, also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA) or Proprietary Information Agreement (PIA). An NDA is a legal contract between two or more parties that restricts them from disclosing confidential information.
In this blog, we’ll explore what makes a good non-disclosure agreement and how to draft a legally binding contract that ensures accountability for all parties involved.
Plus, we’ll share five ready-to-use NDA templates you can customize for your business relationships and ship out NDAs at a moment’s notice.
Top 5 Free NDA Templates in Word, PDF, Google Docs, & ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat are NDA Templates?
An NDA template is a pre-written document that outlines the terms and conditions of a non-disclosure agreement. It includes standard clauses barring the contracted parties from disclosing confidential business information without prior written consent.
These templates provide businesses with a ready-made framework that they can use to create customized NDAs for different scenarios, such as employee onboarding, scope of work contracts, and negotiations.
Using an NDA template simplifies the creation of legally sound confidentiality agreements. It saves time, increases efficiency, and provides businesses with a consistent and standardized format to define confidential information. Templates ensure that all key points are covered and reduce the risk of overlooking essential clauses.
A typical NDA template includes these sections:
- Introduction: This section identifies the subject of the NDA—for example if it’s about a partnership, access to data, or a feature blueprint
- Definition: This elaborates on the different terms that will be used throughout the NDA, such as the names of the parties, details about the disclosing and receiving parties, whether the parties are an individual entity or a corporation, and any other such detail
- Confidential information: This defines and describes the nature of the actual confidential data
- Exclusions: This section lists the information that is not protected by the confidentiality agreement and can be shared with others
- Obligations: This section explains how the receiving party must handle the confidential information and under what circumstances they can reveal it to others
- Return of confidential information: This section outlines the procedures for returning confidential information once the agreement concludes
- Remedies: This section explains the consequences of a breach in the agreement and can include financial penalties, criminal charges, and termination of employment
- Notices and amendments: An optional section, this written notice lists any changes or add-ons to the original NDA
- Jurisdiction: This explains the state or court jurisdiction where any disputes over the NDA will be resolved
- Signing block: This includes blocks for each party and will include their names, signatures, and date
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good NDA Template?
Most non-disclosure agreements follow this basic framework, but some free NDA templates make it easier to draft the NDA without starting from scratch.
Let’s explore what makes some NDA templates better than others. Here are some characteristics to look out for in one.
- Clear language: Like any legal agreement, an NDA template has to be straightforward, succinct, and concise to prevent ambiguity. You should avoid excessive legalese and unnecessary jargon, making it easy to understand
- Comprehensive framework: The template should be consistent with the NDA best practices and contain all key segments, such as definition, confidential information, remedies, and more
- Legally sound: The template should be legally enforceable and compliant with relevant laws and regulations. It should mention the parties and governing jurisdiction and state the terms and clauses clearly to ensure it’s held valid in court
- Flexibility: With various types of NDA agreements available—such as employee, partnership, dual-party, and multi-party—it’s vital to pick a template that you can easily customize to suit different business situations
- Integrations: Another critical factor to consider is e-sign integration. Check if your template and the drafting tool are compatible with e-signature tools. This ensures that you can digitally sign and notarize contracts
- Formatting and style: Ensure that the template is visually appealing, too. Consider factors such as page and text spacing, use of headings, font type, and paragraph structure
Summarize this article for me please5 Free NDA Templates to Use
Here’s a short list of our favorite NDA templates that are free to download and use.
1. ClickUp NDA Agreement Template
First up is ClickUp’s NDA Template. In this beginner-friendly template, you can find all the necessary segments in an industry-standard non-disclosure agreement.
This template even helps you create ClickUp tasks with various custom statuses to help manage your agreements. You can categorize and add features to visualize and track sensitive information.
Simply duplicate this template onto ClickUp Docs and add all crucial details, such as the names and details of the parties involved, a brief of the confidential disclosure agreement, and more.
The template lets you stay on top of collaboration agreement tracking with comment reactions, nested subtasks, multiple assignees, and priority labels.
Plus, ClickUp’s workspace and productivity tools simplify your contract management process, inter-party collaboration, and more.
You can also draft and edit content for your legal documents with ClickUp Brain’s generative AI tool. The AI Writer for Work pulls out answers to questions instantly and puts together a contract document within seconds. Rest assured, all your contracts will remain safe on ClickUp; your data will never be used to train AI models.
You can also use ClickUp Brain’s AI Knowledge Manager to search for information, find clauses you added to previous contracts, etc.
You can localize your free agreement copies with ClickUp’s translation capabilities to stay on track with your globally located employees or vendors.
Once you’ve drafted your NDA, you can create a ClickUp Task and assign it to your manager and legal team for review. Once the agreement is finalized, export it as a PDF and share it with the receiving and signing parties for e-signature. Or, if you like things done the old-school way, print it out in a jiffy!
2. Word Non-Disclosure Agreement Template by LegalTemplates
Our next template is the Word NDA Template from LegalTemplates. This template is well structured and comprises all the essential components of a standard NDA template. You can choose between a standard non-disclosure agreement or one customized for employment agreements, inventions, sale, or purchase transactions. Plus, you can modify the template based on your state laws and local jurisdiction.
Not just that, LegalTemplates also packs in a free legal document form builder. You just have to add your agreement details to the text boxes, and it will generate your legal agreement within seconds. LegalTemplates also offers a paid eSign feature if you’d prefer to go digital.
3. Word Non-Disclosure Agreement Template by Simul
The next template on this list is by Simul, a Microsoft Word version control and collaboration tool. The Word Non-Disclosure Agreement Template by Simul is a simple non-disclosure agreement template in a document format that you can download with just a click and edit on your word processing software, be it Google Docs, MS Word, or Apple Pages.
Once done, you can upload it to your digital signing tool or send a physical print to the receiving party.
The template has lots of details, and you can add more depending on the kind of confidential information you want to bind into an agreement.
To prevent any unauthorized disclosure or access, ensure that your NDAs for employees, interns, or contractors cover everything in the NDA template, such as information regarding company equipment, accounting information, production processes, and intellectual property.
When using this template, remember to ensure that words and phrases match what you use in your other contracts. For instance, if you commonly use terms such as ‘Disclosing Party’ and ‘Receiving Party’ in your agreements, use those instead of ‘Information Provider’ and ‘Recipient’ in this template.
Additionally, it would be an excellent practice to cross-reference this NDA template with the format prescribed by the governing state to ensure that both align in structure and terminology.
4. PDF NDA Agreement Template by Signaturely
On Signaturely, you can create and sign your agreements without any hassles. The platform is an online digital signature tool that offers free templates that you can download in both Doc and PDF formats.
However, their free plan allows you to sign only one document monthly. You’ll have to subscribe to a paid plan to sign more documents.
While the Word NDA Template by Signaturely follows the standardized format, it is relatively concise. You’ll need to create sections such as Obligations, Remedies, and Amendments from scratch. We suggest you use this template for simpler contracts that don’t require extensive details as they don’t involve highly sensitive information.
5. Google Docs NDA for HR Consultants by Template.net
The final free template on this list is quite specific—it’s an NDA designed for HR consultants. Most organizations use a different NDA for HR employees as they have access to employee data, sensitive company information, and internal business processes.
This Google Docs NDA Template for HR Consultants by Template.net is customized to disclose confidential information that HR consultants usually deal with, such as business operations, strategies and plans, client management, employee data, intellectual property, etc.
You can add the information directly into the document editor in Templates.net, along with any branding items like a company logo, color schemes, and more.
You can also share the NDA with others on your team so they can review and make edits to the agreement. Once the agreement has been confirmed, you can download it as a PDF and share it with the receiving party.
Also Read: Retainer agreement templates
Summarize this article for me pleaseSafeguard Confidential Information with NDA Templates
Whether you’re onboarding employees or independent contractors, applying for a top-secret patent, or engaging in negotiations to acquire a business—a non-disclosure agreement is crucial for maintaining confidentiality and protecting sensitive information.
Customizing the NDA templates we’ve listed above is a straightforward process. Ensure you run your final document by your legal counsel before finalizing the non-disclosure agreement.
Keep your non-disclosure agreements in one place by saving them as ClickUp Docs and sharing them with the parties involved. Features like version and access control will keep your confidential information safe. With real-time and collaborative editing, you can quickly make amendments when needed.
Besides keeping your proprietary information safe and accessible, ClickUp can help your team save time and increase productivity at your workplace. With its efficiency-driving features, this all-in-one productivity platform can save your teams as much as one day per week.
Sign up for free today and explore how ClickUp can help you draft, collaborate on, and manage your agreements in a single dashboard!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
