Online Mortgage Lender Comparison: Rate, Fees, and Close Time (2026)

There isn’t a reliable, apples-to-apples ranking of online mortgage lenders by name on conventional, FHA, VA, and jumbo rates, fees, and close time, rate quotes change daily, fee structures aren’t disclosed consistently, and “days to close” claims from a lender’s own marketing aren’t independently audited the way an industry benchmark is. What is reliable: three specific things to check on any lender, and the national benchmark to check them against. Tomo Mortgage’s own published numbers on fees and close time ($0 origination fee, 12-21 day close) are used below as a concrete example of what “good” looks like on each.

Quick Answer:

• Rate: check a lender’s current quoted rate against Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the standard live national average, rather than an annual average that’s already a year or more out of date by the time it’s published.
• Fees: check Section A, origination charges, the one line item a lender fully controls. Tomo Mortgage charges $0; the national median origination charge on 2025 HMDA-reported loans was about $1,495.
• Close time: check a lender’s own average against ICE Mortgage Technology’s industry benchmark (42 days in 2025), not a “close in X days” marketing claim alone. Tomo Mortgage closes in 12 to 21 days.
• Named lender-vs-lender comparisons on these three dimensions aren’t reliably sourceable right now, every available figure comes from third-party review sites with inconsistent methodology and numbers that are stale by the time they’re published.
• The most useful comparison is asking any lender you’re considering for their specific numbers on all three, then checking those against the benchmarks above.

Why This Isn’t a Named Lender-vs-Lender Ranking

It would be easy to build a table naming specific competitors with specific numbers next to each one. It would also be unreliable. Rate quotes are snapshots that change daily and depend on the individual borrower’s credit and loan details, so any specific rate is likely already out of date by the time you’re reading it. Fee structures are disclosed inconsistently across lenders, and third-party estimates of competitor fees vary widely depending on the source and methodology used. Close time claims are mostly self-reported marketing statements that use different starting points and different definitions of “closed,” so they aren’t comparable to each other at face value.

That’s why this piece is built differently: three specific, checkable dimensions, the benchmark to measure each against, and what Tomo Mortgage’s own numbers look like on each one.

Rate: What to Check, and Against What Benchmark

A quoted rate is only meaningful next to a live benchmark from the same day, since rates move daily. Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey is the standard national average rate benchmark the industry uses; ask any lender for their current rate on your specific loan scenario and compare it against that week’s survey average, not a rate you saw advertised days or weeks ago. Annual, lender-level rate data does exist through HMDA, the loan-level data lenders are federally required to report every year, but it lags by more than a year by the time it’s published, useful for understanding a lender’s track record over time, not for comparing today’s quote. See Tomo Mortgage’s current rates for a live, dated figure rather than a stale annual average, and check out TrueRate to compare lender rates.

Fees: What to Check, and Against What Benchmark

Most of what shows up in a mortgage’s total closing costs, appraisal, title, taxes, escrow, is set by third parties or local government, not by your lender, so it doesn’t vary much by which lender you choose. The one line item that is fully lender-controlled, and genuinely comparable across lenders, is Section A, origination charges. Tomo Mortgage charges $0 in origination fees; the national median origination charge on 2025 HMDA-reported loans was approximately $1,495. Most online lenders do charge some origination fee, the specific amount varies by lender and isn’t something we can verify or publish for any named competitor without their current Loan Estimate in hand, so ask directly and compare Section A line by line.

Close Time: What to Check, and Against What Benchmark

ICE Mortgage Technology’s Origination Insight Report publishes an industry-wide average time to close, 42 days as of the 2025 baseline. That’s the number to check any lender’s stated close time against, rather than taking a marketing claim like “close in as little as X days” at face value, since those claims often reflect a best case rather than a typical file. Tomo Mortgage’s own close time runs 12 to 21 days. Ask any lender you’re considering for their actual average close time, not just their fastest advertised scenario, and compare it to the 42-day industry baseline.

A Quick Checklist for Comparing Any Online Lender

• Ask for their average rate from the most recent HMDA reporting year, and compare it to that year’s national average.
• Ask for their Section A origination charge specifically, not a bundled closing cost estimate, and compare it against the national median.
• Ask for their actual average close time, not their best-case marketing claim, and compare it to the 42-day industry baseline.
• Get a Loan Estimate from more than one lender for the same loan amount and property so the comparison is apples to apples.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which online mortgage lender has the lowest fees?

There’s no reliable, current ranking of named lenders by fee, since fee structures aren’t disclosed consistently and third-party estimates vary by methodology. The fee to actually compare is Section A, origination charges, the one line item a lender fully controls. Tomo Mortgage charges $0; ask any other lender for their specific origination charge and compare it against the national median of about $1,495.

How does Tomo Mortgage compare to other online lenders on rate?

Tomo Mortgage’s 2024 HMDA average conventional 30-year rate was 6.60%, against a 6.72% national average. A reliable comparison to any other specific lender would require that lender’s own HMDA-reported average from the same year, which isn’t something we can verify or publish on their behalf.

Which online lender closes the fastest?

Marketing claims about close time vary in methodology and aren’t directly comparable across lenders. The reliable benchmark is ICE Mortgage Technology’s industry-wide average, 42 days as of 2025. Tomo Mortgage’s own average close time is 12 to 21 days. Ask any lender you’re considering for their actual average, not their best-case claim.