Ortto Review
Customer data and marketing automation platform with journeys, CDP, and AI features
Marketing Automation · From $199/mo
Overview
Ortto is a customer data and marketing automation platform that began life as Autopilot, adopted the Autopilot name in 2015, rebranded to Ortto in March 2022, and was acquired by Canva in 2026 with a public FAQ stating that Ortto continues as its own platform and customers will not be migrated into Canva's product. The pitch is one platform for the data layer and the messaging layer: a CDP that unifies contacts and activities into single profiles, a visual journey builder that fires email, SMS, push, live chat, in-app messages, popups, forms, surveys, and landing pages from that data, and analytics dashboards on top. Channel scope is far past the email-plus-SMS-plus-push story our earlier record told: in-app messaging, a team inbox with knowledge base, transactional email, and multilingual content are all listed products, MMS shipped in April 2026, and WhatsApp is documented as a new channel alongside email, SMS, and push. AI features carry official names: subject line recommendations, content generation suggestions, AI filters that build segments from plain text, AI decision shapes in journeys, and AI enrichment shapes, plus an MCP server (December 2025) that lets ChatGPT or Claude query the account, and an account-level switch that turns every AI feature off. Pricing is contact-based: the Starter page quotes from $199/month with up to 15% off for annual payment, the trial runs 14 days, larger plans require a 12-month commitment, and email overages bill at $1 per 1,000. Founded in Sydney in 2015 by Michael and Chris Sharkey, Ortto raised $35M from Salesforce Ventures, Rembrandt, and Blackbird. It competes with ActiveCampaign and Customer.io in the mid-market, differentiating on the built-in CDP and reporting depth rather than channel breadth. The CDP scales: documentation cites up to 12 million contacts out of the box and 100 million per instance with custom setup.
AI Capabilities
- AI subject line recommendations
- AI content generation suggestions
- AI filters (natural language segments)
- AI decision shapes
- AI enrichment shapes
- Ortto MCP server
Key Integrations
Pricing
Ortto is sold on paid plans, from $199/mo.
Starter from $199/mo (save up to 15% paying annually); 14-day free trial; larger plans require a 12-month commitment; email overage $1 per 1,000
Current plans and limits live on the Ortto pricing page.
How to install
- No install: Ortto is hosted SaaS. Signup is at ortto.app/signup with a Google or Microsoft account, and the docs note you choose a Data Hosting Location of US, EU, or AU at that point.
- The 14-day trial includes up to 10,000 contacts and 100 email sends (SMS excluded), and the help centre states that an expired trial account is deleted after 90 days if no plan is selected.
- The documented onboarding checklist is: add contacts by CSV upload or a data source connection, set up your Brand Book, build a first campaign (journey, playbook, email, SMS, or push), then invite team members.
- Connect a data source or paste the tracking snippet (the global ap3c object) to start collecting activities; the snippet can identify known visitors by email and be told to skip contacts that do not already exist.
- Before production sends, verify a custom email domain so mail comes from your domain rather than autopilotmail.com, with a tracking subdomain alongside it.
Requirements
Nothing to host; Ortto runs on its own infrastructure with a US, EU, or AU data region chosen at signup. You will want a verified sending domain for production email, an API key (configured as a data source) for programmatic use against the regional REST endpoints, and a contact-count expectation, since pricing scales with contacts and email overages bill at $1 per 1,000.
Best for
Mid-market B2C and B2B teams that want a CDP, journeys, and reporting in one tool, send across email, SMS, push, in-app, and live chat, and value a Sydney-hosted AU data region plus an MCP server for AI assistants.
Not for
Teams that need a published per-plan price table before buying (the public pricing page is currently unreachable and per-plan figures come from the Starter page and help centre), and enterprises needing deep custom data transformation or more than 12 million contacts without custom setup.
Review notes
Assessed from ortto.com, help.ortto.com, and roadmap.ortto.com/changelog in September 2026; we have no Ortto account and have not run a journey. The changelog shows steady shipping: an Ortto MCP server and account-level journeys (December 2025), saved filters and folder depth (January 2026), Microsoft Dynamics 365 and an account-wide AI off switch (March 2026), then dynamic webhooks, MMS, Microsoft Teams, and Stripe abandoned cart (May 2026).
Two corrections against our earlier record. First, founding: the about page states founded in 2015, when Autopilot Journeys launched, not 2012; 2012 fits the predecessor company Bislr, which no Ortto page names with that date. Second, AI: our record listed predictive lead scoring and send-time optimization, and neither appears in the official AI feature list, which names subject line recommendations, content generation suggestions, intelligent filters, AI decision shapes, and AI enrichment shapes. Lead scoring exists as rule-based Scoring with decay, and open-rate prediction is documented, but send-time optimization is not.
Channel scope was understated too. In-app messages is a first-class listed product, not a recent add-on: the site also lists live chat, knowledge base, popups, forms, surveys, landing pages, and transactional email. MMS support arrived in April 2026, and the WhatsApp integration is documented as a new channel alongside email, SMS, and push, in beta and available to all accounts.
The Canva acquisition is the strategic fact a buyer needs. The company's own FAQ confirms Canva acquired Ortto, that plans, pricing, and billing stay as they are, and that Ortto continues as its own platform without migration into Canva. That is reassurance today and an integration question for later; we would ask about roadmap independence before signing a 12-month commitment.
Verdict
A capable CDP-plus-journeys platform that now sits inside Canva: strong data model and channel range, contact-based pricing, and a pricing page that has gone missing at the worst possible time.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ AI capabilities: AI subject line recommendations | ✗ Closed source - no self-hosting option |
| ✓ Native integrations include Slack, Shopify, Salesforce (13 listed) | |
| ✓ API access for custom integrations |
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Frequently asked questions
What is Ortto?
Customer data and marketing automation platform with journeys, CDP, and AI features. It ships with AI subject line recommendations, 13 listed integrations. MartechSignal's review covers features, pricing, and how it compares to alternatives.
How much does Ortto cost?
Ortto starts at $199/mo.
Is Ortto a good Marketing Automation tool in 2026?
A capable CDP-plus-journeys platform that now sits inside Canva: strong data model and channel range, contact-based pricing, and a pricing page that has gone missing at the worst possible time.
How many custom fields can I create in Ortto?
Plan-dependent: 100 person fields and 25 account fields on Professional, 150 and 25 on Business, and 200 and 50 on Enterprise. Fields are also effectively permanent, since the help centre states that once a custom field is created it cannot be modified to alter its name, field type, or values (only single and multi-select options are exceptions). Plan the schema before import rather than after.
What happens if I go over my Ortto email or SMS limits?
Email keeps sending and bills overage at $1 per 1,000 emails, while SMS sending stops once you exceed twice your monthly SMS credit limit. Email and SMS limits reset on the first of each month UTC. Both behaviours are documented in the help centre's plan management article, so an overage on email is a billing event, not a blocked campaign.
Does Ortto have an API, and which endpoint should I use?
Yes. Authentication uses a custom API key that you configure as a data source and can disconnect from the interface. Endpoints are regional: api.au.ap3api.com for Australia, api.eu.ap3api.com for Europe, and api.ap3api.com for everyone else. The developer guide covers the JSON payload for person and activity updates, and there are SDKs for iOS, Android, in-app notifications, and Flutter on top of the REST API and tracking snippet.