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Aloan vs MeridianLink
Two different approaches for community banks. Aloan automates underwriting with AI-powered document analysis. MeridianLink digitizes the entire loan origination workflow from application to closing.
How do Aloan and MeridianLink compare?
Aloan is an AI-powered underwriting automation platform that overlays your existing LOS, automating financial spreading, document analysis, risk flagging, and credit memo generation with source-document citations. MeridianLink is a broad digital lending and account opening platform serving 2,000+ financial institutions with consumer, mortgage, and business loan origination. Both serve community banks, but Aloan focuses on underwriting depth while MeridianLink focuses on origination breadth.
- Deploy in days — no LOS replacement needed
- Every number cites exact source page & line
- AI reads every line — surfaces buried risks in financials
- Post-booking covenant monitoring and annual reviews
- Purpose-built for complex commercial underwriting
- End-to-end digital origination across consumer, mortgage, and business
- 2,000+ financial institutions on the platform
- Automated decisioning with rules-based logic
- Primarily consumer/mortgage — commercial underwriting is not the focus
- No AI-powered document analysis or financial spreading
Public company (NYSE: MLNK) · Costa Mesa, CA · 2,000+ FI customers
When should you choose Aloan vs MeridianLink?
Choose Aloan when:
- →Your bottleneck is commercial underwriting, not consumer loan origination
- →You need AI-powered financial spreading with source-document citations
- →You want to keep your existing LOS and add underwriting automation
- →Complex multi-entity commercial and CRE deals are your focus
- →Examiner-ready audit trails matter for your compliance team
- →You need post-booking covenant monitoring and annual reviews
Choose MeridianLink when:
- →Your priority is digitizing consumer and mortgage loan origination
- →You want a single platform for consumer, mortgage, and business lending
- →Cross-selling across loan products and deposit accounts is a strategic goal
- →You need automated decisioning for high-volume consumer lending
- →You want to consolidate multiple lending systems into one platform
Detailed feature comparison
Architecture & Implementation
| Feature | Aloan | MeridianLink |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Overlay on existing LOS | Full LOS replacement platform |
| Implementation Time | Days | 3–6+ months |
| Migration Required | None | Data migration and workflow redesign |
| Primary Focus | Commercial underwriting automation | Digital lending origination (consumer/mortgage/business) |
| Pilot Capability | Run on select deals alongside existing systems | Full platform commitment required |
Underwriting & Document Analysis
| Feature | Aloan | MeridianLink |
|---|---|---|
| AI Document Analysis | Reads every line — surfaces buried risks | Basic document management |
| Financial Spreading | Automated with full audit trail and citations | Not a core capability |
| Source-Document Citations | Every number traces to exact page and line | Not available |
| Credit Memo Generation | Complete memos with cited sources | Not available |
| Risk Flagging | Auto-detects NSF fees, UCC liens, revenue decline | Rules-based alerts |
| Credit Policy Ingestion | AI reads policy docs and auto-configures | Manual rules configuration |
Loan Origination & Workflow
| Feature | Aloan | MeridianLink |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Loan Origination | Not the focus | Full digital origination with automated decisioning |
| Mortgage Origination | Not available | Complete mortgage LOS with secondary market tools |
| Digital Application Portal | Document intake portal | Full borrower-facing application across all products |
| Cross-Sell Capabilities | Not available | Automated cross-sell between loan and deposit products |
| Automated Decisioning | AI-assisted analysis (human decides) | Rules-based automated loan decisions |
Commercial Lending Depth
| Feature | Aloan | MeridianLink |
|---|---|---|
| Complex Commercial Deals | Built for multi-entity, guarantor analysis | Basic business lending module |
| CRE Lending | Rent roll, NOI, DSCR, LTV, debt yield analysis | General commercial support |
| Post-Booking Monitoring | Covenant monitoring, annual reviews, early warning | Not available |
| Global Cash Flow Analysis | Automated multi-entity cash flow consolidation | Not a core feature |
Trust & Compliance
| Feature | Aloan | MeridianLink |
|---|---|---|
| Examiner Readiness | Source-cited audit trails — one-click verification | Standard compliance reporting |
| AI Positioning | AI-assisted (human decides, AI prepares) | Rules-based automation |
| Integration Ecosystem | Works with any existing LOS | 200+ integrations with credit bureaus, eSign, core systems |
The fundamental difference: Underwriting depth vs. origination breadth
MeridianLink digitizes the loan origination workflow. Aloan automates the underwriting analysis that happens within it.
Aloan: Deep underwriting automation
Aloan focuses exclusively on the hardest, most time-consuming part of commercial lending — the underwriting analysis. AI reads every document, spreads financials with source citations, flags risks, and generates examiner-ready credit memos. It overlays your existing LOS with no migration required.
MeridianLink: Broad origination platform
MeridianLink provides a comprehensive digital lending platform spanning consumer, mortgage, and business origination. It excels at digitizing applications, automating decisioning for high-volume consumer loans, and cross-selling across product lines. For commercial underwriting specifically, it relies on manual processes or third-party tools.
Why they can work together
Many community banks use a platform like MeridianLink for consumer and mortgage origination while needing specialized AI for commercial underwriting. Aloan can complement MeridianLink — handling the complex commercial analysis that broad origination platforms weren't designed for.
The AI difference
MeridianLink uses rules-based automation to speed up decisioning on standard consumer loans. Aloan uses AI to analyze complex commercial documents — tax returns, financial statements, rent rolls — and produce cited analysis that would take an underwriter hours to complete manually.
How Aloan works
Upload documents. Get a cited credit memo. Keep your existing systems.
Upload documents
Drop in tax returns, financial statements, rent rolls, bank statements, and any supporting documents. Aloan accepts all standard commercial lending document types.
AI analyzes everything
Aloan reads every line of every document — not just headers and totals. It spreads financials, calculates ratios, identifies risks, and cross-references across documents automatically.
Review cited analysis
Every extracted number includes a citation to the exact source document, page, and line. Your team verifies instead of recreates — cutting review time from hours to minutes.
Generate credit memo
Aloan produces a complete, examiner-ready credit memo with your institution's format, all backed by source citations. Ready for committee presentation.
Documents to complete credit memo in minutes — not days.
See it on your dealFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Aloan and MeridianLink?
Aloan is an AI-powered underwriting automation platform that overlays your existing LOS to automate financial spreading, document analysis, and credit memo generation for commercial loans. MeridianLink is a digital lending and account opening platform that provides end-to-end loan origination for consumer, mortgage, and business products. Aloan focuses on underwriting depth; MeridianLink focuses on origination breadth.
Is Aloan a MeridianLink alternative?
They solve different problems. If your bottleneck is commercial underwriting — manual spreading, document analysis, and credit memo preparation — Aloan addresses that directly. If you need to digitize consumer and mortgage loan origination, MeridianLink is designed for that. Many banks could benefit from both: MeridianLink for consumer origination and Aloan for commercial underwriting.
Can Aloan work with MeridianLink?
Yes. Aloan is designed as an overlay that works alongside any existing LOS or origination platform. Banks using MeridianLink for consumer and mortgage origination can add Aloan specifically for AI-powered commercial underwriting automation without disrupting existing workflows.
Does MeridianLink offer AI-powered financial spreading?
MeridianLink focuses on loan origination workflow automation with rules-based decisioning. It does not offer AI-powered financial spreading, source-document citation, or automated credit memo generation for commercial loans. These are core Aloan capabilities purpose-built for commercial underwriting.
How does implementation compare between Aloan and MeridianLink?
Aloan deploys in days as an overlay on existing systems with no data migration required. MeridianLink implementations typically take 3–6+ months as the platform replaces or integrates with existing lending infrastructure, requiring data migration, workflow configuration, and staff training.
Which is better for commercial real estate lending?
Aloan is significantly deeper for CRE lending. It automates rent roll analysis, NOI calculations, DSCR, LTV, and debt yield analysis from source documents with full citations. MeridianLink provides general business lending workflows but does not offer specialized CRE underwriting analysis.
See Aloan on one of your actual deals
Upload your documents. Get a cited credit memo back in minutes. No LOS migration. No commitment.
No setup fees · Deploy in days · Works with your existing LOS