Buying guide • 2026

The best employment contract template for Saudi HR managers: choosing between Qiwa, free downloads, AI, a lawyer and a certified library

The employment contract is documented on Qiwa, and the real question is where its wording and its annexes come from. This guide compares the available sources against criteria anyone who has hired an employee will recognise.

Reviewed by a licensed Saudi lawyer Updated 3 October 2026 10 min read

An HR manager in a small or medium business is not looking for an elegantly worded employment contract. They want a contract that goes through Qiwa without conflicts, protects the business if the relationship ends in a dispute, and that a non-Arabic-speaking employee understands before approving it. The owner who hires in person wants the same thing in less time.

Documenting the employment contract through Qiwa is required of private-sector establishments, so no template replaces it. But Qiwa is a set of fields you fill in, and the wording that tells you what to put in those fields, the annexes around the contract and the English version for the employee all come from another source. That is where the options multiply: free downloads, law firm libraries, AI generators, a lawyer drafting to order, and certified libraries such as Sighaty.

This guide does not explain the Labor Law; separate guides on this site do that. It helps you choose the source: six criteria, then the options as they appear on their own pages on 3 October 2026, then a recommendation per situation, not one winner for every case.

Get the Fixed-Term Employment Contract templateE-01

What an HR manager needs from an employment contract source

Before you compare prices, compare sources against these six criteria. Any source that fails two of them will cost you time in Qiwa or a weak position in a dispute.

Fit to the Qiwa fields: the basic wage, allowances, job title, term, probation and notice must match what you enter in Qiwa and what is transferred through the Wage Protection System, and any difference between them is flagged as a violation.
The right contract type: fixed-term or indefinite. A non-Saudi employee goes on a fixed-term contract, while a Saudi employee may be better served by an indefinite contract, especially in professions covered by Saudization. A good source tells the two apart and does not hand you one contract for every employee.
Probation: it applies only if stated in writing, its maximum is one hundred and eighty days including any extension under Articles 53 and 54 of the Labor Law, and an extension needs a written agreement. A template that misses this costs you the whole probation period.
The annexes around the contract: the offer letter before signature, the probation annex, the remote work annex, the confidentiality and IP agreement, and the final settlement at the end. Qiwa does not issue these documents, and a source that gives you only the contract leaves you hunting for the rest.
The update trail: who wrote the text, when it was last updated, and who updates it when the law is amended. The 2025 Labor Law amendments changed the probation and termination rules, and contracts circulated before them are no longer enough.
Arabic and English: many employees do not read Arabic, and a contract invoked before a Saudi authority needs Arabic wording. The safer choice is a bilingual contract with a clause making the Arabic text prevail on divergence.

The options you really have, and who each one suits

What follows about other providers is taken from their public pages as they appeared on 3 October 2026, and prices and catalogues change.

Qiwa: the place where the contract becomes documented; documentation there is required of private-sector establishments, and the contract reaches the employee through their account for approval or rejection. It suits everyone because it is a step you cannot skip. Its limit is that it is fields and an electronic service: it does not draft your offer letter, your confidentiality annex or a detailed English version for the employee.
Free templates on websites and law firm blogs: good for understanding a contract's structure and the order of its clauses before you sit with your lawyer. Their usual limits: no update date, an unknown author, no matching Arabic and English pair, and no way to know whether they reflect the 2025 amendments.
A law firm library, for example Hoquqi: its published template registry lists fixed-term, executive, remote and part-time employment contracts, all marked coming soon on 3 October 2026, and we did not find them for sale in its store on that date. Its store offers a recruitment bundle covering the job posting, screening, the offer, onboarding and a confidentiality undertaking, and we did not find an employment contract in it. Its files are Word and Arabic, its store says later updates are free, and it advises a lawyer review for unusual or disputed matters.
AI generators: Adel is an AI legal assistant whose site lists employment contracts among what it creates, through a smart questionnaire, alongside AI document review and questions on Saudi law in Arabic and English. Its Basic plan is 124 riyals a month for twenty five created documents and Premium is 165 riyals a month for fifty, its pricing page does not mention VAT, and we could not verify the output file format. Genie AI is an international platform that publishes English template pages labelled Saudi Arabia, including a one-year employment contract, priced in dollars; we found no Arabic or bilingual output, and its terms say it does not offer legal advice.
A lawyer drafting to order: Shwra, for example, lists employment contracts among the contract types its lawyers draft, with the price set by offers lawyers submit after reviewing the request and the timing depending on the number of pages. It suits senior roles, unusual packages and any case involving a dispute. Its limit is that every contract is a separate project with its own price and time.
Sighaty: a certified Saudi library holding the employment contracts and their annexes in bilingual form. You answer short questions and an Arabic and English Word document comes out in minutes, certified under the name of a licensed Saudi lawyer and updated as the law changes on the paid plans. Its limit is that it does not review a contract from another source, does not draft anything outside its catalogue, and does not stand in for Qiwa.

Which option fits which situation

You are hiring one employee on ordinary pay and terms and only want to understand the structure: start with a free template for reading, then enter the data carefully in Qiwa. That is enough if you accept the risk of a text whose date you do not know.
You hire regularly and want a bilingual contract that matches Qiwa, with its annexes: a certified library such as Sighaty is the better fit, because the contract and annexes come from one updated source.
Your legal team or firm writes a lot and needs to review contracts others send and ask questions about the law: an AI assistant such as Adel offers what Sighaty does not, namely document review and answers to questions.
You need a quick English text for an overseas candidate you are negotiating with: Genie AI's English pages are fine for orientation, and the contract documented in Qiwa still needs Saudi-grounded wording.
A senior role with equity, commissions or a broad non-compete, or a disputed termination: a lawyer drafting or reviewing for your case, through a firm or a platform such as Shwra.
You prefer Arabic-only Word files from a named law firm: follow Hoquqi's registry, and check that the employment contracts are actually available in its store before you plan around them.

Sighaty's place: what the library holds for this need, what it costs, and what it will not do

Sighaty's employment and HR pack holds eighteen documents, and these are the ones that bear directly on hiring and the employment contract:

E-01 Fixed-Term Employment Contract: the core contract for most small and medium businesses, and the contract a non-Saudi employee goes on.
E-02 Indefinite Employment Contract: built for Saudi employees, and suited to Saudization roles that rest on stability.
E-03 Part-Time Employment Contract, and E-04 Remote Work Annex.
E-05 Offer Letter, and E-06 Probation Annex.
E-13 Final Settlement and End-of-Service Statement, to close the relationship with a clear document.

Cost: E-01 is not on the Free plan. It can be bought once for 199 riyals, it is among the core templates on the Essential plan at 99 riyals a month with five smart-fill documents a month, and it is in the whole library on the Professional plan at 249 riyals a month with unlimited smart-fill. Anyone who wants all eighteen HR documents at once can take the HR Pack at 999 riyals. Prices include VAT. The Free plan needs no card and lets you keep three of nine documents, including the E-05 offer letter, but it does not include smart-fill or law-change updates.

What Sighaty does not do should be clear before you pay: it does not document the contract in Qiwa for you, it does not e-sign, it does not review a contract the employee already signed elsewhere, it does not draft clauses outside the certified template, and it offers no team workspace with multiple roles because an account belongs to one person. If a termination is disputed, you need a lawyer, not a template. The Business Plus plan adds one thirty-minute review with a licensed lawyer each quarter, and that is not representation in a dispute.

Test any source before you pay

Write down a real employee's details: the job title as in Qiwa, the basic wage and allowances, the term, the probation period and the notice.
Ask the source for a contract with these details or open its template, and check that every Qiwa field has a clear place in the text.
Read the probation clause: is it in writing, does it respect the one-hundred-and-eighty-day limit, and does it require written agreement for an extension?
Look for the last-updated date and the name behind the text, and for a clause stating which of the Arabic and English texts prevails.
Check the annexes you will need during the year: the offer letter, confidentiality, remote work, the settlement. Do they come from the same source?
Compare the real annual cost against the number of people you hire, not the price of the first document alone, then decide.

Common mistakes when choosing an employment contract source

Assuming the template replaces Qiwa, or that Qiwa replaces a written contract the employee understands in their own language.
Putting a non-Saudi employee on an indefinite contract because the only free template available was one.
Choosing an English-only source and translating it afterwards, which carries over the phrasing without correcting the legal grounding.
Paying a monthly subscription for one contract a year, or buying contracts one by one for a business that hires every month. Choose the way you pay by your actual number of hires.
Relying on a template in a disputed termination instead of consulting a lawyer early.

Facts about other providers were taken from their public pages on 3 October 2026; prices and catalogues change, so check the current page before you decide, and if anything here is out of date or wrong, tell Sighaty support so it is corrected. Sighaty templates are certified drafts and a strong starting point, not a substitute for legal advice on a specific case or dispute, and the Arabic text prevails on divergence.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best employment contract template for small businesses in Saudi Arabia?

There is no single template for every case. For regular hiring with a bilingual, Qiwa-matched contract and its annexes, a certified and updated library suits you; for a first understanding a free template is enough; for senior roles or disputed cases you need a lawyer. In every case, documentation on Qiwa remains a step required of private-sector establishments.

Do I need an employment contract template if I document the contract on Qiwa?

Qiwa documents the contract and does not draft what surrounds it. A template helps you enter Qiwa knowing what you will write, gives the employee an English text they understand, and covers annexes such as the offer letter, the probation annex, the confidentiality agreement and the final settlement, which Qiwa does not issue.

Is the Sighaty employment contract free?

No. E-01 can be bought once for 199 riyals, or it comes with the Essential plan at 99 riyals a month or Professional at 249 riyals a month, prices including VAT. The Free plan lets you keep three of nine everyday documents, among them the E-05 offer letter, the E-10 warning letters and the E-14 salary certificate, and the employment contract is not one of them.

Is an AI-generated employment contract usable in Saudi Arabia?

It works as a draft if you check it against the same criteria: the Qiwa fields, the contract type, written probation and an authoritative Arabic text. Adel offers document creation and review in Arabic and English, and Genie AI offers English pages labelled Saudi Arabia where we found no Arabic output. The difference with a certified template is that its text is fixed, its source is known, and it is updated as the law changes.

Should I use a fixed-term or an indefinite contract for a non-Saudi employee?

A non-Saudi employee goes on a fixed-term contract, which in Sighaty is E-01. The indefinite contract E-02 is built for Saudi employees and particularly suits Saudization roles that rest on stability.

When do I need a lawyer instead of an employment contract template?

For senior roles with unusual packages, for a broad non-compete, for any disputed termination, and when you want a contract the employee signed elsewhere reviewed. Sighaty does not review other people's contracts and does not represent anyone in a dispute.

Certified template · E-01

The next step

This guide ends with a ready bilingual template, drafted from the statute and its regulations and reviewed by a licensed Saudi lawyer.