Switching
Looking for a NetRate alternative
If you are evaluating a change of ISO rater, the useful questions are about how the system is operated day to day: who can change a rate, what happens on dates, and how a premium is proved years later. This page sets out how SelectRate answers those, and how a migration is verified before anything is committed.
Why we will not give you a feature comparison table
Most "alternative to X" pages are a two-column table where one column has ticks and the other has crosses. They are easy to write and worth nothing, because the person writing them does not have current, verified knowledge of the other product's configuration model, and because the things that actually decide whether a rating platform works for you are not tickable.
We can tell you precisely how SelectRate behaves. We are not going to characterize how anyone else's product behaves. What follows is the first: a description of our own system organized around the decisions that matter when you change rater.
If a statement below matters to your decision, ask us to demonstrate it, and ask your current vendor the same question. That comparison is worth more than any table we could write.
The five questions worth asking any ISO rater
1. Who can change a rate, and what stands between the decision and it being live?
In SelectRate, your team changes it. Carrier multipliers, state overrides, minimums, fees and program rules are configured in Program Studio by the people who own the program. There is no support ticket and no code release between a pricing decision and a tested version.
Every field starts from the currently published values, so a change is an edit to something real rather than a form filled from scratch. You change only what should differ.
The practical test: ask how a loss cost multiplier gets changed in one state, who performs it, and how long it takes from decision to live.
2. What happens on dates?
Effective date is the only temporal input SelectRate accepts. It resolves the bureau edition, the base version and any carrier or program override in force for that date. You cannot pin a version, and no version identifiers are accepted anywhere in the public API contract. That is deliberate: it is what guarantees a quote for a given date resolves the configuration that was genuinely in force.
Creating a change never disturbs what is live. The published configuration stays in force for policies dated before the new version.
A program that is not effective for a quote's date returns no premium and says why, rather than rating on the wrong version. A date with no applicable edition fails closed with a correction. Neither returns a number.
The practical test: ask what the system does when someone quotes a risk effective next January against a program whose new version starts in March.
3. Can a premium be reproduced years later, and what artifact proves it?
Every rating run is immutable. Fetching a run from three years ago returns exactly what it returned the first time, including its worksheet. Nothing about a completed run is ever rewritten.
The worksheet is the rating as the engine executed it: exposure, loss cost, multiplier, increased limit factor, adjusted rate, premium, and the rule that fired at each step. Derived values carry provenance, so a territory assignment records which filed mapping was selected, why it governed, and the document and page it came from. Values are shown at the precision the engine used rather than rounded for display.
The practical test: ask to see a worksheet for a quote written under a superseded edition, and ask whether it re-rates on that edition or on the current one.
4. How does rating reach people who are not your staff?
One Rating API endpoint serves every rating channel you authorize, all on the version you released. Each API client has its own credential and is granted the specific programs it may rate. Scopes decide which operations a credential can call. Grants decide which programs. There is no wildcard at request time, and a client never sees another client's quotes or policies. Every call carries a correlation id, and every rating run is retained as it was executed.
The API is a channel onto the same engine, not a second rating path. Identical inputs, program and effective date produce an identical premium and an identical worksheet whichever channel asked.
The practical test: ask whether the API and the underwriting screen can ever disagree, and why not.
5. What is deliberately not in the product?
We publish the answer rather than waiting to be asked. Not in this release: short-rate or minimum-earned cancellation (cancellation is pro rata, with an audited factor override), reinstatement after a lapse, rewrite or extension transactions, TRIA, webhooks, asynchronous or batch rating, and a PDF worksheet endpoint (worksheets are JSON). SelectRate is not a policy administration system.
SelectRate rates and records policy transactions. It holds the bound policy term, its current rated state and a ledger of every transaction, each with its calculation and worksheet. It is not a policy administration or accounting system: billing, invoicing, commissions and accounting stay in the systems you already run.
Some of those will matter to you and some will not. The point is that you should know before you buy, not during implementation.
The practical test: ask any vendor for the list of what their product does not do, in writing. The willingness to produce one tells you more than the list itself.
How a migration actually runs
Programs are configuration rather than custom code. That is why moving them is a mapping exercise rather than a rebuild, and why you can run both systems side by side until you are satisfied the numbers agree.
1. You send us your program definitions. Deviations, rules, fees, eligibility, the states and classes you write. Whatever form they are in today, including spreadsheets.
2. We stand them up in Program Studio. Mapped onto current ISO content, versioned from day one, and yours to edit the moment they land.
3. You verify, then cut over. We re-rate a sample of your bound book on both systems and hand you the variance report. Your team re-rates live submissions against the new program until that report satisfies them. Nothing moves before that.
The variance report is the part worth insisting on, from us or from anyone else. A migration that cannot be checked against the book you have already written is not a migration, it is a rebuild with the same name.
Edited without touching what is live.
The same engine that serves production traffic.
Effective from the date you set, not from the moment you saved.
When SelectRate is not the right answer
Worth saying plainly, because it saves both sides a procurement cycle.
- You need policy administration. SelectRate rates and records transactions; it does not bill, issue documents, pay commissions or keep accounts. If you are looking for one system to do all of that, this is not that system.
- You need short-rate cancellation, reinstatement after a lapse, or rewrites today. Those are not in this release. Endorsement, pro rata cancellation, reinstatement and renewal are.
- You need PDF worksheets out of the box. Worksheets are JSON.
- You need asynchronous or event-driven rating. All rating is synchronous.
- You write lines we do not cover. SelectRate rates the four primary ISO commercial lines, general liability, commercial property, businessowners and commercial auto, and ten AAIS products. If your book depends on a line outside that, ask before you invest time in us.
Common questions
Do you publish a feature comparison against NetRate?
No. We describe how SelectRate works and encourage you to put the same questions to any vendor you are considering. We are not in a position to make verified current statements about another company's product internals, and a comparison built on guesses would not help you.
Can we run both systems at the same time?
Yes, and we recommend it. The point of the variance report is that you keep rating on what you have until the numbers agree.
How long does a migration take?
It depends on how many programs, states and classes you write, and on how long your own verification takes. The configuration is the smaller part. The verification is measured by your underwriters' satisfaction, not by our schedule.
What happens to quotes written on the old system?
They stay where they are. SelectRate does not retroactively re-rate another system's history, and you should be suspicious of anything that claims to.
Is SelectRate an ISO or Verisk product?
No. SelectRate is built and operated by Selectsys Tech LLC and is a licensed user of ISO content.
Third party disclaimer: NetRate is a trademark of NetRate Systems, Inc. ISO is a registered trademark of Insurance Services Office, Inc. SelectRate is a product of Selectsys Tech LLC, is a licensed user of ISO content, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by NetRate Systems, Inc., Insurance Services Office, Inc. or Verisk Analytics, Inc. AAIS is a trademark of American Association of Insurance Services, Inc. SelectRate is not affiliated with or endorsed by AAIS. References to other products are for identification only. Statements on this page describe SelectRate. We make no representation about the current features, pricing, performance or roadmap of any other product.
Bring a program you already run.
Pick one you know the numbers on, a state, a class or the whole thing, and we will configure it live on the call. You will see the worksheet, and you will see whether it agrees with yours.