Loops vs Ortto in 2026: minimalist API-first email vs full-stack CDP and journey builder
Loops keeps the model to four ideas, contacts, properties, events, and event properties, and a clean API on top. Ortto builds a customer data platform underneath a visual journey builder, then adds live chat and analytics dashboards on top of that.
Loops
Ortto- Loops publishes its pricing directly, with a free tier and a contact-based slider; Ortto's own data lists no pricing at all, only 'Contact for pricing' across all three tiers.
- Ortto includes a built-in customer data platform (CDP) that unifies CRM, product usage, and third-party data; Loops has no equivalent CDP layer, working from its own contact and event model.
- Ortto bundles live chat, a shared inbox, and a knowledge base (Ortto Talk) directly into the platform; Loops has no support or live chat product at all.
- Loops has official developer SDKs for Node, Next.js, Ruby, PHP, and NuxtJS; Ortto's journey builder is described as a no-code, visual tool aimed at broader marketing teams.
- Ortto has been acquired by Canva, introducing uncertainty about its long-term roadmap and pricing; Loops carries no comparable acquisition uncertainty in its own data.
- Loops has no per-seat pricing at any tier; Ortto lists per-seat as a pricing dimension in its own tags data.
- Loops includes an MCP server for AI-agent accessibility; Ortto's AI capabilities are not detailed as an agent-native architecture in its own feature list.
Loops and Ortto both target SaaS and tech companies, but they made opposite bets on how much platform a team actually needs. Loops strips marketing automation down to contacts, events, and a REST API, trusting developers to build what they need on top of a simple, contact-priced platform with no per-seat fee. Ortto goes the other way, building a full customer data platform underneath a no-code journey builder, then bundling in live chat, a shared inbox, and analytics dashboards, all sold through a sales conversation with no published pricing. The choice mostly comes down to whether your team wants to write integration code or configure a bigger, unified platform.
The tools at a glance
Loops
Unified email platform for SaaS teams covering marketing, product, and transactional email from a single simple interface
Loops reduces marketing automation to four concepts: contacts, contact properties, events, and event properties. Once a developer understands those, building any automation follows the same logic, and the API mirrors it directly with SDKs for Node, Next.js, Ruby, PHP, and NuxtJS. Trusted by Framer, Linear, Perplexity, and Reuters, it has real traction among product-led companies.
One account covers marketing campaigns, product lifecycle sequences, and transactional sends like password resets, and pricing is based on subscribed contact count with no per-seat fee. The free plan, up to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 sends a month, is enough to validate an integration before committing to a paid tier starting around $49/month.
Loops has no built-in customer data platform, no live chat product, and no analytics dashboards beyond what its own event data supports. It is intentionally lean, and teams that need to unify data from a CRM, product analytics, and third-party sources into one customer profile will need to build that themselves or look elsewhere.
| Feature | Free $0/mo | Paid (contact-based) Starts at ~$49/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in CDP | ✗ | ✗ |
| Live chat / support inbox | ✗ | ✗ |
| Team seats | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| MCP server | ✓ | ✓ |
Ortto
Marketing automation, CDP, analytics, and customer support in one platform built for SaaS and high-growth teams
Ortto's core bet is that automation should be built on top of unified customer data, not static lists. Its built-in CDP ingests data from CRMs, product analytics, and third-party tools into single customer profiles, and that data is immediately usable in the journey builder, a visual, no-code tool for building multi-step sequences across email, SMS, push, and in-app messages.
Beyond automation, Ortto includes Talk, a native live chat widget, shared inbox, and knowledge base, so support teams work from the same customer history the marketing team sees. Lead scoring with custom activities lets marketing and sales define shared thresholds for qualified engagement, and custom dashboards report on journey conversion and channel performance without needing SQL.
None of this comes with published pricing; all three tiers, Professional, Business, and Enterprise, require a sales conversation. Ortto was also recently acquired by Canva, which adds real uncertainty about how the product and its pricing evolve going forward, something a team evaluating it today should factor into the decision.
| Feature | Professional Contact for pricing | Business Contact for pricing | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in CDP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live chat (Talk) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lead scoring | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| API access | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Loops | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | Published directly, contact-based slider | Not published; requires contacting sales |
| Free tier | Yes, up to 1,000 subscribers | Not publicly listed |
| Built-in CDP | No | Yes, unifies CRM, product, and third-party data |
| Journey / workflow builder | Basic event-driven automation, not a full journey builder | Yes, visual no-code journey builder |
| Live chat / support inbox | No | Yes, Ortto Talk from Business tier up |
| Lead scoring | No | Yes, from Business tier up |
| Developer API / SDKs | Yes, Node, Next.js, Ruby, PHP, NuxtJS SDKs | Yes, developer API, less emphasized than the no-code UI |
| Transactional email | Yes, included | Not a primary use case; oriented to marketing and lifecycle |
| Team seat pricing | No per-seat fee at any tier | Per-seat pricing dimension listed |
| AI-agent accessibility (MCP) | Yes, MCP server included | Not detailed as agent-native in own data |
Which should you choose?
LoopsOrttoLoopsOrttoLoopsOrttoThe real fork in this comparison is build versus buy on the data layer. Loops assumes you are comfortable wiring your own product events into a clean API and building whatever customer view you need on top, and it charges accordingly, transparently, by contact, with no seat fee. Ortto assumes you would rather pay for a CDP, journey builder, and support inbox already stitched together, and it prices that bundle through a sales conversation with no public number to compare against. Neither approach is wrong, but they attract very different teams.
Bottom line
Choose Loops if you want transparent, contact-based pricing, a clean developer API, and are fine building your own customer data view on top of events you already send. Choose Ortto if you want a CDP, visual journey builder, and live chat bundled together and are willing to go through a sales process without seeing pricing upfront, while keeping in mind the Canva acquisition adds some uncertainty to its roadmap. Teams that specifically need live chat support built into their automation platform have no equivalent in Loops at all.
Frequently asked questions
Does Loops have a built-in CDP like Ortto does?
No, Loops has no built-in customer data platform. It works from its own contact, property, and event model, which developers populate directly through the API. Ortto's CDP unifies data from CRMs, product analytics, and third-party tools into a single customer profile automatically.
Why does Ortto not publish its pricing the way Loops does?
Ortto's own pricing data lists all three tiers, Professional, Business, and Enterprise, as 'Contact for pricing,' requiring a sales conversation to get a number. Loops publishes its pricing directly: free up to 1,000 subscribers, then a contact-based slider starting around $49/month, with no sales call required to see the cost.
Does Ortto include live chat support like Intercom, and does Loops have anything similar?
Yes, Ortto includes Talk, a native live chat widget, shared inbox, and knowledge base, from its Business tier up, letting support agents see full customer history from the CDP. Loops has no live chat or support inbox feature at all; it is strictly an email platform.
Is Ortto a safe long-term choice given the Canva acquisition?
It is a genuine open question. Ortto announced it is joining Canva, and while existing features should continue to function, the roadmap and pricing may shift as the acquisition integrates. Teams evaluating Ortto today should monitor announcements and factor that uncertainty into a long-term platform decision.
Which tool is easier for a non-technical marketer to use without developer help?
Ortto's visual, no-code journey builder is designed for marketers to configure directly without engineering support. Loops leans more on a developer relationship, since its events and properties typically need to be sent from the product codebase, even though the email editor and campaign builder itself are simple to use.
Does Loops support lead scoring the way Ortto does?
No, Loops has no dedicated lead scoring feature. Ortto's lead scoring, available from its Business tier, uses custom activities defined against unified CDP data so marketing and sales can agree on what qualified engagement looks like, which is a materially different capability than anything in Loops' event-based model.