Lumail vs Ortto
Lumail
Ortto
CDP-backed marketing automation platform (email, SMS, push, support)
Lumail and Ortto pricing and feature comparison
Free allowance
Lumail
$0
Ortto
14-day trial
$0 · 3,000 emails · Unlimited subscribers
14-day trial
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$237/mo billed annually at 10,000 contacts (Starter)
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Contact count (audience size), with monthly email volume as a separate adjustable limit; quarterly (−10%) and annual (−15%) discounts
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Visual journey builder on Starter: email, SMS, push, actions, delays, conditions, filters, and percentage splits, plus cadence playbooks.…
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
In-product AI (subject-line generator and open-rate predictions on Starter; AI filters, decision shapes, enrichment, Talk replies). Remote…
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Professional and Enterprise on the live pricing page: mark campaign/journey/playbook messages as transactional (support approval required)…
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Starter: forms, popups, bars, surveys, in-app messages. Professional: landing pages (drag-and-drop, custom domain or Ortto default) plus…
Choose Lumail if…
- You store a large list but send selectively and do not want contact-tier jumps (official Starter is $237/mo billed annually at 10,000 contacts vs Lumail Premium $20/mo for 40,000 emails with unlimited subscribers)
- You need transactional SMTP (smtp.lumail.io:587) or a send API on every sending plan, not Professional-plus with support approval
- Agents should operate the same org as the dashboard through 89 MCP tools, CLI, TypeScript SDK, and REST — Ortto MCP is mostly reports, contacts, assets, and knowledge base
Choose Ortto if…
- You want a CDP plus omnichannel journeys (email, SMS, push, widgets, ads audiences) and a live-chat/knowledge-base inbox in one vendor
- You need landing pages, lead scoring, dedicated IPs, and transactional email/SMS as a packaged Professional tier
- You prefer marketer-facing AI (subject lines, filters, Talk replies) on top of a contact database rather than an agent-operated email system
Where Ortto is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Ortto is a contact-tier marketing automation and CDP suite with visual journeys, omnichannel messaging, Talk support, and a remote MCP server; public Starter pricing is shown at $237/mo billed annually for 10,000 contacts. People pick Ortto when they need saaS, ecommerce, and nonprofit teams that want a marketer-facing CDP, omnichannel journeys, and support inbox in one product and will pay by stored contacts..
- CDP, visual journeys, email/SMS/push, widgets, analytics, and Talk support in one product
- Public Starter/Professional/Enterprise ladder with a contact slider; annual −15% and quarterly −10%
- First-party remote MCP (launched November 2025) plus a documented REST API including transactional send
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Ortto, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Ortto?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Ortto's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Ortto?
Choose Ortto when you want one CDP plus journeys across email, SMS, push, widgets, landing pages, and live chat, and you accept contact-count billing. Choose Lumail when you want unlimited subscriber storage billed by email volume, graph workflows on every plan, transactional API or SMTP in the same org, and 89 organization-scoped MCP tools rather than a ~20-tool read/report MCP.
Can I migrate from Ortto to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.