March 11, 2026

Tarmika Alternative: Why Agencies Choose RPA Studio

If you're reading a Tarmika review or shopping for a commercial quoting alternative, you already know Tarmika has a strong reputation. It holds roughly 26% of the commercial lines comparative rating market, and after Applied Systems acquired the platform in 2023, the integration story inside the Applied Epic ecosystem got even stronger.

But if you're still searching, something is missing. For most agencies looking at a Tarmika alternative, that something is the step that happens after the quote comes back. Tarmika delivers the quote. Your CSR still logs into each carrier portal to complete the submission. That manual portal work is where your team's time goes, and it's the part that a comparative rater cannot automate.

RPA Studio is built for that step.

Quick Comparison: Tarmika vs. RPA Studio

Where Tarmika Excels

Tarmika does comparative rating well. You enter client data once, and it maps to multiple commercial carriers in parallel. They report 80 minutes saved per commercial quote and $50 saved per risk. For agencies that quote mostly commercial, those numbers are real.

The Applied Systems integration is also a genuine advantage. If your agency runs Applied Epic, the data flows cleanly between your AMS and Tarmika's quoting workflow. That reduces duplicate entry at the front end of the quoting process.

Tarmika also includes a carrier appetite guide that helps you identify which carriers will consider a risk before you start a submission. That upfront filtering saves time on submissions that would have been declined anyway.

Where RPA Studio Goes Further

Here is the distinction that matters for agencies evaluating a Tarmika alternative.

Tarmika is a comparative rater. It sits in front of the carrier portal workflow. Once your CSR gets a quote back from Tarmika, the portal work begins: log in, fill out forms, submit, repeat for each carrier. That work takes 20 to 45 minutes per carrier portal. On a commercial quote touching 4 carriers, that is 80 to 180 minutes of manual entry per submission.

RPA Studio automates that work. It is carrier portal automation, not a form mapper. When a new submission comes in, RPA Studio logs into each carrier portal directly, fills out the actual portal forms with your client's data, and completes the submission the same way your CSR would, but in seconds rather than hours. Your team gets the same result without touching the portal.

That difference adds up fast. Agencies using RPA Studio typically get back 8 to 12 hours per week per CSR that was going to manual portal entry. One of our clients cut their quoting time by 80% in the first month.

The Difference at Submission Time

With a Tarmika workflow, submissions look like this:

1. Enter client data into Tarmika
2. Receive quotes from participating commercial carriers
3. Log into each carrier portal to complete the application
4. Bind coverage in each portal manually

With RPA Studio, steps 3 and 4 are automated. Your team submits the ACORD form, and RPA Studio handles portal entry across all carriers in the queue. No logins. No duplicate entry. No portal-hopping.

RPA Studio also handles personal lines. Tarmika is built around commercial. If your book is mixed, or you want one quoting automation platform across your entire operation, that matters. You can learn more about carrier portal automation for personal and commercial lines.

Who Should Look for a Tarmika Alternative

RPA Studio fits well if your agency checks most of these boxes:

• Your CSRs spend significant time on manual portal entry after quotes come back
• You want quoting automation that covers both personal and commercial lines
• You need end-to-end automation from ACORD intake through carrier submission
• You are not locked into the Applied Epic ecosystem as your primary constraint
• Your quoting volume is high enough that 20 to 45 minutes per carrier adds up to a real cost

Tarmika may still be the right fit if:

• Your book is almost entirely commercial and you only need the quoting comparison step
• You run Applied Epic and the native integration is a hard requirement
• Your submission volume is low enough that remaining manual portal work is not a bottleneck

The self-qualifying question is this: after your CSR gets a quote from your current tool, how long does it take them to complete the portal submission for each carrier? If the answer is more than 20 minutes per carrier, you have an automation gap that a comparative rater alone will not close. That is the gap RPA Studio closes.

Key Takeaways

• Tarmika is a strong comparative rater with real time savings and deep Applied Epic integration
• Tarmika stops at the quote. Your CSR still handles carrier portal submissions manually.
• RPA Studio automates the full portal workflow: ACORD form through carrier submission, no manual entry
• RPA Studio covers personal and commercial; Tarmika focuses on commercial lines

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