Comparison · November 2026 mandate
TOTAL, ACI Sky Workbench, ClickFORMS/NightHawk, and Property Appraiser Pro — what each one actually is today, not what a homepage claims. We build one of these, so judge our framing accordingly, but every fact below is sourced from public vendor statements.
| Vendor | Status | Platform | Migration path | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a la mode TOTAL a la mode, inc. | Live | Desktop (Windows) + mobile companion app | In-place update — "TOTAL 3.6 Launch Edition" accepts UAD 3.6 orders now | Per-seat / bundled desktop licensing |
| ACI Sky Workbench First American | Live | Fully cloud / browser-based (new platform, not the old desktop ACI) | Forced full-platform move — desktop ACI users are migrating to Sky Workbench, not receiving a 3.6 patch | Not publicly published — contact vendor |
| Bradford ClickFORMS / NightHawk Bradford Technologies | In transition | ClickFORMS stays desktop form-filler (no 3.6); NightHawk is a separate new cloud platform | ClickFORMS is not getting UAD 3.6 at all — Bradford built NightHawk as a distinct product instead | NightHawk free for existing ClickFORMS members through 2026 (beta) |
| Property Appraiser Pro Property Appraiser Pro | Live | Fully cloud / browser-based, multi-user, no desktop install | New account, live today — not a beta waitlist | Free during beta (no card); flat subscription later, not per-report — see /pricing |
a la mode states only about 6% of legacy UAD field data carries over as-is, so the update still means relearning a meaningful share of the form. A contract buyout program exists for appraisers switching in from elsewhere.
GSE-verified by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (June 2026). "Dynamic workflow" lets you start a report at any stage instead of a fixed sequence, with compliance checks running as you go.
NightHawk is in active beta with no announced general-availability date as of this writing. If you need UAD 3.6 before Nov 2, 2026, confirm your firm has been onboarded — don’t assume it.
Every export is checked against the official GSE UAD 3.6 specification before delivery. Still genuinely in beta, so expect rough edges we’re actively fixing — not a finished, polished claim.
Sourced from public vendor and GSE statements as of August 2026. Vendor status is changing quickly ahead of the mandate — confirm directly with any vendor before a purchasing decision on a hard deadline.
None of the three incumbents shipped UAD 3.6 as a quiet version bump. a la mode is calling it a "Launch Edition" with only a fraction of legacy field data carrying over. First American retired the old ACI desktop workflow in favor of a full cloud rebuild. Bradford didn't touch ClickFORMS at all — it built an entirely separate, still-beta product instead. In every case, appraisers are relearning a workflow, whether they change vendors or not.
That matters because it removes the usual argument for staying put: familiarity. If the new version of your current tool is unfamiliar anyway, the switching cost to a genuinely different vendor is much closer to what it costs to relearn your own incumbent's new platform — which makes this the cheapest year in a long time to actually compare options instead of defaulting to whoever you already pay.
No. We build one of the products in this table and say so. Facts about competitors here are sourced from public vendor statements and GSE announcements, not internal knowledge of their systems — where we’re not sure, we say unconfirmed rather than guess.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac maintain a list of vendors whose UAD 3.6 export has been tested and accepted for submission through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP). It’s a real technical bar, not a marketing claim a vendor can self-assign.
Bradford has stated it chose to build a new platform, NightHawk, instead of retrofitting ClickFORMS’s form-filler architecture for the new data model. That’s their call to make — but it means current ClickFORMS users are evaluating a different, still-beta product, not a routine update.
Vendor status is changing week to week ahead of the November 2, 2026 mandate. We update this page as public statements change, but always confirm directly with a vendor before making a purchasing decision on a hard deadline.
Free beta. No credit card. Export path and UAD 3.6 fields are there to test — not a brochure.
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