Viato

Viato is a mortgage CRM for loan officers and lending teams managing prospects through borrower applications. It suits teams that want lead follow-up and loan workflows in one system. Its free CRM is a strong starting point, but support costs and seat-based pricing deserve attention as a team grows.

Overview

Viato combines contact and opportunity management with lead-source tracking, team assignment, and loan milestones. That mortgage-centered structure can make it a better fit than a general CRM for loan officers coordinating a pipeline around lending work. Teams should confirm that Arive or LendingPad meets their LOS needs: those are the listed live two-way LOS integrations, while UWM is coming soon.

Key features

Lead workflows and automation

The CRM captures leads, creates contacts and opportunities, and assigns them to teams or individual loan officers. Automations can combine triggers, conditions, and multiple actions to route leads, send texts, create tasks, and nurture prospects. This is useful for teams with consistent follow-up processes; users who only need a contact list may not need that workflow layer.

AI, calling, and loan tracking

Super Agent works across text, email, and chat, where it can run workflows, update deals, and create tasks. Viato also describes voice AI, call transcription and summaries, and a power dialer that rings as many as three contacts at once. The CRM tracks loan milestones and can generate a Fannie Mae 3.4 (1003) from a phone call. These tools target mortgage sales work, though teams should judge them against their own calling and documentation processes.

Communications and borrower portal

A unified inbox threads email, SMS, and iMessage conversations. Viato names Gmail, Outlook, Twilio, and RingCentral among supported communication tools. Its borrower portal, Viato POS, guides applicants through an application, provides a document portal, and can use the lender's logo and colors. Together, these features can keep borrower interactions closer to the loan pipeline rather than scattered across separate workflows.

Integrations and security

Beyond its live Arive and LendingPad LOS connections, Viato lists social publishing for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X. QuickBooks and Handwrytten are coming soon, so they should not be treated as current integrations. Viato says it encrypts data in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256, uses organization-level isolation with database row-level security, and completed an independent App Defense Alliance CASA assessment in June 2026. It also says it does not train models on customer data and that its third-party model providers use zero data retention.

Pricing

Viato has a free plan and a paid Support plan. The free plan is billed free forever and includes the full CRM platform, unlimited contacts, pipeline management, smart automations, LOS integrations, email, SMS and calling, team collaboration, community support, and weekly office hours. The unlimited-contact allowance and included core CRM make it a practical way for a loan officer or team to start without a subscription fee. Support is community-based, however, rather than ticket access with direct team replies.

Support costs $49 a month per loan officer, billed per LO; operations staff are $29/mo per seat. It includes everything in Free plus support tickets, direct replies from the team, and priority response times. This is the relevant upgrade for teams that need a more direct support channel, but per-seat billing means costs rise with headcount. Viato offers no free trial, so the free plan is the way to begin without committing to paid Support.

Platforms

Viato is available on web and iOS. The mobile app and web access give teams two ways to work, though Android is not among its listed platforms.

Who it's for

Viato is aimed at mortgage professionals, especially loan officers and teams that need lead assignment, loan tracking, automated follow-up, and a branded borrower application in a shared workflow. It is less suitable for organizations outside mortgage lending or for teams that depend on an LOS or other integration that is still coming soon.

Pros and cons

• Pro: The free plan includes the full CRM platform, unlimited contacts, automations, and team collaboration, making it possible to run a substantial mortgage pipeline without paying for the core CRM.
• Pro: Lead workflows, loan milestones, communications, and a borrower portal are combined around mortgage work rather than generic sales tracking.
• Pro: Viato describes specific security protections and zero-retention practices for third-party model providers, relevant to teams handling borrower data.
• Con: Direct ticket support and priority response require paid Support, and the per-LO and per-operations-seat charges can add up as teams expand.
• Con: Some connections, including UWM, QuickBooks, and Handwrytten, are coming soon rather than live.
• Con: The listed platforms are web and iOS, which may not suit teams needing Android access.

Alternatives

Mortgage CRM Software is a useful starting point for comparing mortgage-focused CRM options. Choose MloFlo if an SMS-centered option is the priority; its plans include SMS Only and SMS/MMS, with an activation fee on the SMS Only plan. KudosCRM is a freemium alternative with a free tier capped at three users, 1,000 contacts, and one pipeline, making its limits more explicit than Viato's unlimited-contact free plan.

Total Expert offers a complimentary plan with CRM access, inbound co-marketing connections, open-house lead capture, and single-property websites. MapleConnect is another option: its free tier is core CRM, while Essential adds automation for $199 a month at a flat rather than per-seat price. Aidium is an alternative with pricing provided through an order. Mortgage Magic may suit readers considering a paid option with a Prometheus plan at £85 a month. Brokeredge is another paid alternative with a free trial. Velocify is a paid alternative priced by quote through ICE Mortgage Technology sales.

Verdict

Viato is a good fit for loan officers and mortgage teams that want a free, mortgage-focused CRM with automation, borrower communications, and an application portal in one workflow. Its strongest reason to choose it is the breadth of core pipeline features available on the free plan. Look elsewhere if your team needs Android, relies on integrations that are still coming soon, or wants direct support without paying per seat.