Technology plays a vital role in how mortgage brokers manage client journeys, recommend products, and meet compliance requirements. But while the range of tools available to brokers continues to grow, adoption and satisfaction vary significantly depending on the technology solution.
To understand how brokers are actually using technology, we asked respondents to our H2 2025 Mortgage Lender Benchmark: “For the following functions, do you use an in-house system, an external provider, or not use a tool at all?”
The results show a clear divide between decision support tools and operational systems.
Criteria sourcing (73.1%) and affordability platforms (71.7%) are the most widely outsourced parts of the broker tech stack, underlining how reliant brokers are on specialist third party providers for accurate and real-time decisioning. Product sourcing follows closely (70.1%), with only 3.6% of brokers saying they don’t use a sourcing tool at all.
CRM usage remains split. While 42.8% use an external CRM, almost the same proportion (44.9%) self-manage or rely on in-house builds, reflecting a continued preference for control and customisation.
Overall broker satisfaction with technology
Brokers report the highest levels of satisfaction with tools that directly support research and decision making. Product sourcing platforms achieve the strongest overall Broker Experience Index (63.6), followed closely by criteria sourcing (63.0) and affordability tools (61.2).
Operational systems tell a different story. CRM platforms score lowest across all categories, with a Broker Experience Index of 56.6 and a negative Net Promoter Score (NPS) (–14.5). Despite being critical to daily operations, CRMs are consistently rated poorly for usability, innovation and workflow efficiency.
This suggests that while the industry has largely solved the problem of finding the right product, it continues to struggle with managing the case once it exists.
Product sourcing
Product sourcing platforms remain the benchmark for broker technology. Satisfaction is high across every metric, with particularly strong performance on ease of use and integration with wider workflows.
The data suggests that product sourcing is now a mature and competitive market, where incremental improvements in usability and filtering are driving broker loyalty.
Criteria sourcing
Criteria sourcing continues to be one of the most trusted areas of broker technology, reflecting the increasing complexity of lender policies and the need for fast, reliable interpretation.
Unlike CRM, satisfaction with criteria tools is fairly consistent across providers, suggesting brokers now have a clear idea of what a good criteria tool should deliver.
Affordability tools
Affordability platforms play a critical role in advice and compliance, and performance across the category remains consistently positive.
Mortgage Broker Tools leads the category with a Broker Experience Index of 69.0 and the highest NPS (+53.2), with brokers citing accuracy, confidence in results and strong customer support as key strengths. The results indicate a stable market where differentiation is driven more by output quality than feature sets.
CRM
CRM remains the lowest performing part of the broker technology stack, with a wide spread of results and the most mixed sentiment of any tech category.
Even the strongest performing CRMs fail to match the satisfaction levels seen in sourcing and affordability tools. Brokers continue to report friction around rigid workflows, slow processes and limited automation.
Final thoughts
Brokers are broadly happy with the tools that help them make decisions, but far less satisfied with the systems that help them run their businesses. It will be interesting to see whether that gap starts to close in our next Mortgage Lender Benchmark, due in June 2026.
