What are the top 9 digital banking platforms on the market?

Introduction

If you’ve been following this blog series so far, you should now be well aware of what we mean when we talk about Engagement Banking, as well as the top 3 things that differentiate it from digital banking. Along the way, I'm confident you’ve come to understand the importance of this essential new paradigm. Ideally, you’ve even started thinking about how your bank can leverage a platform model to eliminate the burdens of your legacy tech, maximize the value of your existing investments, and power confident, customer-centric innovation.

But here’s a bit of advice: don’t try to do it alone. Believe me when I say that trying to pull off Engagement Banking in a vacuum is a recipe for failure, even with the biggest budget and the top minds out there.

This, of course, begs the question: who should you turn to for assistance? Which vendor will be the best strategic partner for your bank as you begin your digital transformation journey? Or maybe you’re just starting the research process and need an overview of the digital banking platform landscape. In any case, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look at the top 9 digital banking platform players out there, along with some pros and cons of each, starting alphabetically. Just a quick note: many of these vendors take the digital-banking approach, rather than Engagement Banking, so take that under consideration.

Alkami

Product: Alkami Online Banking Platform

• Pros:

  • Wide range of out-of-the-box features and capabilities

  • Many integrated partner products to enhance the offering

  • Future-focused architecture makes it easy to adapt to market changes

  • User-friendly interface helps developers to upskill

• Cons:

  • SDKs and APIs aren’t fully mature but show promise

  • Custom development is needed, which significantly extends the launch timeline, according to former/current users

Backbase

Product: The Backbase Engagement Banking Platform

• Pros:

  • Composable platform fabric for end-to-end banking journeys

  • Offers out-of-the-box components and facilitates streamlined customization/self-build

  • Vast partner ecosystem for core banking, credit scoring, pricing, and more

  • Comprehensive retail, business, and corporate banking apps

  • Extensive delivery options, including cloud-based

• Cons:

  • Lacks low-code/no-code solutions

  • Some upskilling needed to fully understand the platform, but Backbase provides training

Finastra

Product: FusionFabric.cloud Platform

• Pros:

  • Solid, feature-rich core banking product based in the cloud

  • Offerings are both broad and deep when it comes to feature functionality

  • Extensive partner app ecosystem with relevant APIs

  • Global reach makes them a good fit across regions

• Cons:

  • Legacy code base can lead to disjointed customer experiences

  • Current/former customers report issues with support, implementation speed, lack of customization

Infosys/Finacle

Product: Finacle Digital Engagement Suite

• Pros:

  • Comprehensive digital banking platform, complemented by optional components

  • Broad offering, incorporates retail, corporate, SME banking, wealth management

  • Significant resources for R&D/implementation

  • Well-defined roadmap, application architecture

• Cons:

  • Current/former customers express some issues with on-time delivery, need for customization, old-school UX

  • Solutions are core-centric, making them less comprehensive

  • Lack of targeted digital sales solution

nCino

Product: nCino Cloud Banking Platform

• Pros:

  • Fully cloud-based platform architecture with strong loan origination capabilities

  • End-to-end solutions, available out of the box

  • Training and live sessions help upskill developers fast

  • Salesforce partnership is a plus

• Cons:

  • Solution doesn’t cover the entire customer lifecycle, with a focus on onboarding/origination

  • Significant customization needed to offer a comprehensive banking solution, plus old-school UX, according to current/former customers

  • Lack of solid mobile apps

Oracle

Product: Oracle Banking Digital Experience

• Pros:

  • Breadth of out-of-the-box features and functionalities

  • Particularly appealing to tier 3-5 banks undergoing a digital transformation

  • Notably strong in the areas of solution integration, channel management, and ecosystem strategy

• Cons:

  • Not the most mature solution on the market, may still need some fine-tuning to compete

Q2

Product: Q2 Platform

• Pros:

  • Comprehensive retail banking solution

  • Extensive support for third-party integrations, including pre-built integration with Salesforce

  • Solid user experience across web and mobile with easy-to-use dashboard

  • Versatile API toolkits

• Cons:

  • Current/former customers report project delays, occasionally poor UX, lack of customization that makes innovation difficult

  • Focus on retail makes them less comprehensive than other solutions

Sopra

Product: Sopra Digital Banking Engagement Platform

• Pros:

  • Position as both a solution provider and an integrator is a strength

  • Solid adoption of open APIs and marketplace collaboration

  • Secure by design across all layers of the platform

  • Well-defined solution architecture with relevant microservices

• Cons:

  • Customers report a mismatch between sales promises and delivered solution, as well as on-time/on-budget delivery and communication of the roadmap

  • Hiring partners to deliver projects results in lack of ownership down the line

Temenos

Product: Temenos Infinity

• Pros:

  • Off-the-shelf capabilities for retail, business, and corporate banking

  • Highly automated with straight-through-processing (STP) capabilities, analytics, and AI

  • Solutions for composable banking

  • Low-code capabilities

• Cons:

  • Platform is broad but not particularly deep in some notable areas, including customer engagement

  • Customers express some issues with on-time, on-budget delivery

Selecting your bank’s ideal strategic partner

At the end of the day, the best vendor for your bank depends entirely on your needs and priorities. The best advice I can give you is to look for a platform provider that gives you the freedom to innovate on your own terms and at your own pace, one that doesn’t box you in but rather gives you access to a rich ecosystem of best-in-class solutions. More than a vendor, your bank needs a true strategic partner that will help you drive value for years to come.

For more information, check out our Banking Reinvented podcast, where I dissect similar topics alongside my colleague, Tim Rutten. And stay tuned, as we chat about everything from progressive modernization to decomposing your bank’s complexity.