The Quiet Death of myCOI: What Happened to a Category Pioneer
myCOI was an early pioneer in COI tracking software. Two decades later, the platform is showing its age — and the Illumend rebrand isn't fixing the underlying problems. Here's what's happening.
myCOI was one of the first platforms in the COI tracking category. They built early, they captured market share, and for years they were a default choice for mid-market and enterprise compliance teams. Two decades is a long run in B2B software.
Two decades is also, sometimes, too long. The platform that defined an early version of a category isn't always the platform that defines the modern version. And myCOI — now rebranding parts of its offering as Illumend — is in the awkward zone of trying to modernize while customers quietly migrate elsewhere.
This post is for risk managers who are on myCOI today, considering myCOI for new business, or wondering what's happening with Illumend. We'll be direct.
The user feedback that's hard to ignore
We've talked to former myCOI customers and prospects who evaluated Illumend. The pattern is consistent enough to be worth quoting (anonymized, but representative):
"Illumend is a hot mess. Lipstick on a pig. Nothing really innovative behind the scenes." — Former myCOI customer
"They've been talking about modernization for years. The screenshots get prettier but the workflow underneath is the same." — Risk manager who evaluated Illumend in 2024
"We left because the certificate review times were too slow and the vendor portal felt like 2010. We didn't see Illumend solving either." — CRE customer who migrated to TrustLayer
These are anecdotes, not quantitative data. But the pattern across multiple sources tells a story: the modernization narrative isn't matching the customer experience.
The structural challenges
A few specific issues that show up in customer feedback:
1. The 200-certificate minimum. myCOI has historically had a minimum certificate count for new customers — somewhere around 200, depending on the contract. This excludes a substantial portion of the SMB and lower-mid-market segments. While there's a logic to this for an enterprise sales model, it limits growth and creates an awkward scenario where modern alternatives (TrustLayer, bcs) can serve the segment myCOI can't.
2. Dated UX/UI. Even with the Illumend rebrand, the underlying user experience reflects two decades of accumulated design decisions. Modern platforms built in the last 5-7 years feel cleaner, faster, and more intuitive. Adoption rates in customer organizations are sensitive to this — if your team feels like the tool is slowing them down, they'll work around it.
3. Slow review times. Customer feedback consistently mentions slower-than-modern review and verification cycles. This compounds the operational burden — your team is waiting for the platform to produce determinations instead of getting them in near-real-time.
4. AI as veneer, not core. The Illumend rebrand emphasized AI capabilities, but the AI implementation appears to be layered on top of a rule-based legacy system. This is the "bolted-on AI" pattern we've covered elsewhere — functional, but not transformative, and unlikely to compound capability over time.
5. Strategic confusion. The relationship between myCOI and Illumend in product positioning has been muddled. Is Illumend a replacement? An add-on? A new tier? Customers we've talked to don't have a clear answer, which suggests the company itself doesn't either.
What this means for current customers
If you're on myCOI today, three honest considerations:
1. The platform is functional, not great. It's not broken. It's not catastrophic. It's a 20-year-old product that does the basic job adequately. Whether that's enough depends on your needs.
2. The trajectory matters. Platforms that aren't investing in real modernization fall behind incrementally. The gap between myCOI and modern alternatives is wider in 2026 than it was in 2020, and probably wider in 2028 than it is now. Switching costs are real but compound the longer you wait.
3. Your vendors might thank you. myCOI's vendor portal experience has been a friction point in customer feedback. Your subs and tenants probably don't love it. A migration to a platform with stronger vendor experience often improves your operational metrics in ways that are hard to attribute but real.
What this means for new evaluations
If you're considering myCOI for new business in 2026, the honest answer is: probably not. There are better options for most use cases.
- For SMB and mid-market with modern UX needs: TrustLayer, bcs
- For SMB-only with simple needs: SmartCompliance
- For construction with Procore-heavy workflows: TrustLayer (Jones has issues we've covered elsewhere)
- For complex multi-vertical enterprises: TrustLayer, with Veriforce in industrial-heavy contexts
myCOI fits a specific historical buyer profile — large enterprise with established workflows that match the platform's legacy patterns. If that's you, fine. If you're anyone else, the modern alternatives are usually the better fit.
A note on fairness
We try to be fair in our coverage. myCOI has been a serious player in this category for a long time and has real customers running real compliance programs. The platform is not a fraud, not a failed product, not a disaster. It's an aging incumbent in a category that's modernized faster than the platform has.
The Illumend rebrand is an attempt to address this. Based on customer feedback, the attempt isn't landing. That doesn't mean it never will — companies do recover from rough modernization cycles. But buyers evaluating in 2026 should base decisions on the current reality, not on an aspirational version of where the platform might be in two years.
If you want to evaluate myCOI/Illumend against modern alternatives, our comparison tool is structured to surface the differences. The platforms that have invested in modernization will rank higher in most use cases. The legacy platforms will rank where they should — adequate for specific profiles, suboptimal for most.
That's not a hit job. It's just where the category is.