CE Broker is the continuing-education tracking platform a number of state boards use as their official system of record. If your board mandates it, you don't really get a choice. But it's worth understanding what you're paying for, what nurses complain about, and when you can skip the paid tier entirely. Every number below is sourced and dated.
What CE Broker is
CE Broker (now operated by Propelus) calls itself “the official CE/CME tracking app for 100+ boards” across professions. For nurses, the model is simple: in states that mandate it, your board-approved CE providers report your completed hours directly to CE Broker, and the board checks your compliance there at renewal. It is a reporting conduit between you, your CE providers, and your board, not a course catalog you have to buy from.
What CE Broker costs
CE Broker sells tiered accounts (pricing from cebroker.com/plans, accessed June 2026):
- Basic (free). Reports and tracks your CE; satisfies the reporting mandate in states that require CE Broker.
- Professional: “Starting at $39.99/yr.” Adds the compliance-status view (a transcript that calculates exactly which courses you still need) and certificate storage.
- Pro+: starting at $89.99/yr. Adds course access and multi-state features; availability and price depend on your state and profession.
The free Basic tier is enough to satisfy a board mandate. The friction, and most of the resentment below, comes from what sits behind the Professional paywall.
When you actually need it
You need a CE Broker account only when your nursing board uses it as the system of record. As of 2026, that's a minority of states. We keep a live, board-sourced list: which states require CE Broker. If your state isn't on it, you self-document your CE and the board audits a sample. No CE Broker account required.
What users praise
It's only fair to lead with the upside, because it's real: on the Apple App Store, the CE Broker app holds 4.8 out of 5 from about 36,000 ratings (apps.apple.com, accessed June 2026). For the average nurse whose providers auto-report and whose renewal goes smoothly, CE Broker quietly does its job. That score is a big sample, and it should temper the louder complaints.
What users complain about
The picture flips on Trustpilot, where CE Broker sits at 1.8 out of 5 from 23 reviews (trustpilot.com, accessed June 2026). The smaller, angrier sample is concentrated at the worst possible moment: a renewal that isn't going through. A few verbatim examples:
“I would give this site zero stars if allowed. It is required by my state’s licensing board yet it does not recognize my renewal. I have submitted the renewal information to them twice, sent numerous…”
Lisa C, Trustpilot, May 29, 2026
“They are aggressive and coercive with upselling of paid subscriptions. The tracking of CEUs may be ‘free’ with the basic plan. However, Florida’s mandatory use of the platform is unethical…”
CAM, Trustpilot, April 28, 2026
“Customer service is poor and they want you to pay so they leave you in limbo while your license has expired.”
Latitia Robinson, Trustpilot, June 2026
The recurring themes across the negative reviews:
- Paying to see your own deficit. The status view that tells you exactly what you still owe sits behind the Professional tier, so the question nurses most want answered (“am I compliant?”) is the one that prompts an upsell.
- Upsell pressure on a mandated tool. Because some boards require the platform, nurses feel cornered into paying for a service they didn't choose.
- Support access. Slow responses and difficulty reaching a person, especially when a renewal isn't registering.
Squaring the 4.8 with the 1.8
Both scores are true at once. CE Broker is fine, even invisible, when your providers auto-report and nothing goes wrong, which is most of the time for most nurses (hence 4.8 on the App Store). The fury concentrates at renewal-failure moments: a credit that didn't post, a mandate the system missed, a deadline closing in, and that's exactly when people go looking for help or alternatives. If you're in a mandated state, the move is to keep your Basic account, log everything, and not rely on it as your only record.
Alternatives
If your state doesn't require CE Broker, you don't need it at all. You just need to keep your own records. RenewRN tracks your CE hours and renewal deadlines, stores your certificates, and shows your mandatory-topic coverage, and it never charges you to see whether you're compliant. For a side-by-side, see our CE Broker alternative page.
Also enroll in Nursys e-Notify. It's free and official (run by NCSBN) and will email or text you when your license is approaching expiration. It doesn't track CE hours or store certificates, so it complements rather than replaces a real tracker, but there's no reason not to turn it on.
Bottom line
CE Broker is a competent reporting conduit that earns most of its anger from one design choice: putting the compliance answer behind a paywall on a tool some nurses are forced to use. If your board mandates it, keep the free tier and document everything yourself anyway. If it doesn't, you can skip it. Pair a free tracker with Nursys e-Notify and you've covered both the math and the reminder without paying to find out where you stand.