Ptally vs Duck Creek Rating
How Ptally compares with Duck Creek Rating for insurance rating: who each suits, standalone and suite use, how rates are built and changed, testing, deployment, AI and cost.
Duck Creek Rating suits P&C carriers that run, or plan to run, Duck Creek Policy and want rating, rules, forms and workflow defined in one product configuration. Ptally suits insurers and MGAs that want a rating engine any policy system can call over an API, with readable, tested models, AI built into the workflow and no upfront cost. If you are building on the Duck Creek suite, its rating engine sits next to your policy and product definitions. If you are not, or you want a product live quickly, look at Ptally.
What Duck Creek Rating is
Duck Creek Technologies sells a suite of P&C core systems, including policy, billing, claims and rating, which it says can be "implemented independently or via a combined approach".
Duck Creek Rating is the suite's rating engine. Duck Creek's current product sheet calls it "the enterprise-grade P&C rating engine" for personal, commercial and specialty lines. Its public material describes:
- Low-code configuration of "rates, rules, algorithms, and workflows", designed so business users can define products without writing code.
- One product definition combining rating, rules, forms, pages and data, with product inheritance to reuse structures across lines and regions.
- What-if modelling to evaluate the impact of a rate change on the book before it goes live, and to produce data for filings.
- Native support for ISO, AAIS and NCCI bureau content.
- Rate change and approval workflows, audit controls, and automated regression testing through the Duck Creek Test Automation Center.
Duck Creek Rating can run as a "black box" rating engine alongside a carrier's existing policy system, or with Duck Creek Policy. It is delivered as SaaS through Duck Creek OnDemand, where Duck Creek hosts and upgrades the software. Duck Creek runs on Microsoft Azure.
On AI, the product sheet says Rating is "powered by an agentic platform", and Duck Creek markets a wider Agentic AI Platform. We did not find published detail on AI features specific to rating. Duck Creek does not publish pricing.
What Ptally is
Ptally is an AI enabled insurance pricing platform for insurers and MGAs. A model is a readable JSON file of ordered steps: lookups, calculations, transforms, exclusions and referrals. Every change runs against the model's regression test suite and goes through draft, approval and publishing, with full version history. One engine serves a real-time API, embedded quote forms, and chat and voice agents, and any policy system can call it. Ptally has served over 50 million quotes and covers any line of business in the UK, Europe and the US.
Side by side
| Ptally | Duck Creek Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI enabled pricing platform and rating engine | Rating engine within the Duck Creek core suite |
| Typical buyer | Insurers and MGAs of any size | Typically P&C carriers, often on or moving to Duck Creek Policy |
| Policy system | Any. Called over an API | Duck Creek Policy, or standalone with another policy system |
| Where models come from | Rating guides, Excel raters, US rate filings or any modelling tool | Configured in Duck Creek's low-code product tools; ISO, AAIS and NCCI content |
| Model format | Readable JSON of ordered steps, tests included | Duck Creek product definition |
| Testing | Regression test suite runs on every change | What-if modelling; automated regression testing via Test Automation Center |
| Approvals and audit | Draft, approve, publish; every quote tied to a version | Approval workflows and audit controls |
| AI | AI drafts and checks models; MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor | Agentic platform described; rating specific detail not published |
| Deployment | Managed by Ptally; self-host option on Enterprise | SaaS through Duck Creek OnDemand on Microsoft Azure |
| Upfront cost | None. No implementation fee | Not published; typically a subscription and an implementation project |
| Commercial model | Up to 1% of GWP, a flat fee per model, or Enterprise terms | Not published |
The key differences
Suite versus independent engine
Duck Creek Rating's main strength is the product definition. When rating, rules, forms and pages live in one configuration with the policy system, a change is made once and flows through. Bureau content support also helps US carriers using ISO, AAIS or NCCI. Ptally is independent of any policy system. It works as an external rating engine called over an API, so it fits carriers on other platforms, MGAs on a broker's system, and direct or aggregator quote journeys.
Who does the work
Core system rating is typically configured by trained specialists, often with an implementation partner. On Ptally your team can build models itself, through the dashboard or with an AI client. If you would rather not, Ptally's pricing experts can build the model from your documentation, with no implementation fee.
How models are read and checked
Both products let you test changes before release. In Ptally the model is a single readable file of ordered steps with its tests included. Each test is a full quote with an expected result, the suite runs on every change, and a change can be reviewed as a diff before anyone approves it. The debug trace shows every input, lookup and formula for any quote, and each quote records the version that priced it. US carriers can also build models straight from rate filings.
How AI is used
Duck Creek positions its platform as agentic but has not published what AI does inside rating. Ptally uses AI to build and maintain the production model itself: extracting rate tables from documents, drafting steps and checking them against worked examples. Through the MCP server, Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can read, validate, test and edit draft models. Agents cannot publish. People approve every release.
Cost and time to first quote
Duck Creek does not publish pricing, so ask for the full cost before the first live quote, including implementation and integration with your policy system. Ptally is free to build. On the Performance plan you pay up to 1% of the gross written premium your models write. The Per model plan gives a flat annual fee per live model, and Enterprise adds a self-host option, SSO, audit and approvals, and custom SLAs.
When Duck Creek Rating is the better choice
- You run Duck Creek Policy, or are moving to it, and want rating in the same product definition as rules and forms.
- You are a US carrier relying on ISO, AAIS or NCCI content and want it supported natively.
- You want one core system vendor for policy, billing, claims and rating.
When Ptally is the better choice
- Your policy system is not Duck Creek, or you are an MGA without a core system programme.
- You are launching or migrating a product and want it live without a licence or implementation project.
- Your rates come from a rating guide, spreadsheet or filing, or from a modelling tool you already use.
- You want models people can read and audit, with tests on every change.
- You want endorsements in the model to drive policy documents.
- You want to pay as premium is written rather than before launch.
Next steps
See how a Ptally model is built and tested on the developer page, or compare the pricing plans. Our overview of Ptally vs insurance pricing platforms compares core system rating modules with other options, and How much does an insurance rating engine cost? covers the full cost picture.
This comparison reflects publicly available information as of November 2026. Vendor offerings change and vary by customer, so check current details with each vendor.