Shape vs BNTouch

What each one is built to do

Shape sells breadth of platform. BNTouch sells depth of one vertical.

Shape runs the same product into insurance, solar, debt settlement, education and small business. The mortgage edition is a deep configuration of that platform, not a separate build. It carries a native application, a borrower portal, and direct lead feeds from Zillow, LendingTree, Bankrate and Realtor.com.

BNTouch sells nothing but mortgage and has since the early 2000s. It is a marketing and database engine. More than 400 mortgage drip campaigns, video, text, priced by the record.

Shape can hold the borrower before the origination system does. BNTouch hands the application over and works the database around it.

Price, and this one is not close

BNTouch publishes a full rate card. Individual runs $165 a month with a $125 activation fee. Team runs $95 per user with a two user minimum and a $95 activation fee per seat.

Both tiers include 5,000 records per user. Overage runs $5 per additional thousand. Text and voice include 100 segments a month, then $0.03 each. There is no annual contract.

Shape publishes three tiers and no figures. Every path ends at a quote. The only public prices sit on G2 and Capterra at $119 per user per month. G2 adds that interface access, extra storage and call recording cost more.

One oddity worth naming. Shape’s own competitor page says it publishes per-user pricing while its pricing page publishes none.

Integrations, and a contradiction on the BNTouch side

Shape names Encompass, LendingPad, Arive, nCino and LendingDox for origination.

Its Encompass connector has a real limit written into the vendor’s own guide. The sync is two way at file creation only. After that, updates flow from Encompass into Shape and not back. Processing can lag up to fifteen minutes at volume.

It also needs Encompass Bankers Edition with a Developer Connect addendum. Shape does not say who pays for that.

BNTouch names Encompass, Calyx, LendingPad, BytePro, Floify and Arive on its marketing pages. Its own integrations page names one origination system, LendingPad, and describes the rest as roadmap.

Those two statements cannot both be true. Ask which one is.

What the review record shows

Shape carries 4.9 on G2 across 100 reviews for the mortgage product. Capterra has it at 4.6 across 46. TrustRadius carries 2 reviews.

BNTouch carries 4.5 on G2 across 68 reviews and 4.5 on Capterra across 97. The recurring complaints are a dated interface and a steep implementation.

Both are thin on TrustRadius. Neither publishes a status page or an uptime record.

Claims neither vendor supports

Shape publishes several figures with no method behind them. More than 100,000 customers, 41 percent more loans closed, a 3.1 times return.

BNTouch publishes $43.7 billion in closed loans on the same basis.

Treat all of them as marketing until somebody shows the working. Ask for the sample, the period and the control.

Two smaller inconsistencies deserve a question each. BNTouch gives its founding year as both 2003 and 2004. Its own G2 listing says 2,500 records per user where the pricing page says 5,000.

Which one to pick

Take BNTouch if you run under about ten seats. You can compute the whole bill from a public page before you speak to anyone. That is rare here and it is worth real money in a negotiation.

Take Shape if you are a bank or a large independent. More enterprise plumbing is documented, including nCino, an open interface, and a stated enterprise tier with onboarding.

Ask Shape who pays for the Encompass Bankers Edition licensing. Then ask what happens to a record edited in Shape after the loan file exists. Ask BNTouch to reconcile six origination systems on the marketing pages against one on its own integrations page.

Neither publishes a security attestation. For a bank that is a blocking question on both sides.

Ownership, which is the quiet advantage here

Both are independent and say so.

Shape describes itself as self funded with no outside investors. BNTouch describes itself as bootstrapped and profitable, with the owner running it day to day.

Neither has a private equity clock running. In a category where three rivals changed hands recently, that is worth something.

Also in this category

Also in this category: BNTouch vs Bonzo and BNTouch vs Insellerate.