# Brew vs Ortto

## The short version

Choose Brew if you want a fully agentic setup, where your AI agent drives lifecycle marketing to engage and retain customers. Brew designs every email from your brand and runs your automations agentically.

Choose Ortto if you want SMS, push, in-app messages, popups and live chat on one customer data platform, and have someone to design each email.

Canonical: https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-ortto

## Why teams switch from Ortto to Brew

Brew is fully agentic: your agent designs on-brand emails, sends them and runs your automations. In Ortto, AI suggests subject lines; your team builds each email.

### Key differences

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fully agentic | Yes: Your agent designs, sends and runs automations end to end | Partly: AI suggests subject lines and filters; your team builds emails |
| Designs finished, on-brand emails | Yes: Layout, copy and images from your brand, ready to send | No: AI suggests subject lines; you design each email |
| Your agent takes it live | Yes: Sends, schedules and runs automations; OAuth and org-scoped MCP require confirmation, brand API keys do not | No: MCP creates HTML emails; it lists no send tools |
| Remembers your brand for every email | Yes: Brand files your agent reads every time | Partly: Brand book restyles templates: colors, fonts, headers |
| Unlimited contacts | Yes: On every plan; you pay for sends | No: Priced by contact tier |
| Unlimited team seats | Yes: No seat limits on any plan | Partly: Up to 30 users on Professional |

### Creating emails

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Visual editor | Yes: Infinite canvas, edit by hand or in chat | Yes: Drag-and-drop editor and email templates |
| Bring the emails you already have | Yes: HTML, MJML, React Email, Figma or a forwarded email | Yes: Custom HTML emails |
| A/B testing | No: Not built in | Yes: Subject line, content, from name and send time |

### Automation and data

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Event-triggered automations | Yes: Stripe, Shopify, Clerk, Supabase or your own events | Yes: Journeys start on real-time customer data |
| Builds an automation from a description | Yes: Emails, waits and branches together | No: Built in the journey builder; AI sorts contacts |

### Channels

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Email from your own domain | Yes: Marketing and transactional on every plan | Partly: Transactional on Business and Enterprise only |
| SMS, push and in-app | No: Email only | Yes: SMS, push and in-app messages |
| Popups, forms and surveys | No: Email only | Yes: Popups, announcement bars, surveys and forms |
| Live chat and support inbox | No: Not built in | Yes: Talk, with AI-suggested replies |

### Agents and developers

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes: Every Brew tool, in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Grok | Partly: Reads data and creates HTML emails, in Claude and ChatGPT |
| API | Yes: REST API, typed SDK and CLI | Yes: API and webhooks |

### Pricing

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Billed on | Emails sent and AI credits | Contact tiers; email volume follows the tier |
| Getting started | Free trial with 500 AI credits and 1,000 sends | A 14-day free trial |
| First paid plan | Growth, $99/month: 10,000 AI credits and 50,000 sends | Prices not listed on ortto.com |
| Next plan | Pro, $249/month: 25,000 AI credits and 200,000 sends | Business and Enterprise add transactional email |
| Top plan | Enterprise: custom volume and a dedicated account manager | Enterprise, with a dedicated success manager |

### Security and compliance

| Feature | Brew | Ortto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SOC 2 and ISO 27001 | No: Not yet; security review and DPA on request | Yes: Compliant; audit reports on request |
| HIPAA | No: Not supported | Yes: HIPAA compliant, per its site |

## Your agent runs your lifecycle email.

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Grok over MCP and your agent gets every Brew tool. It designs emails from your brand, builds audiences, runs automations and schedules sends. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

## Every email designed from your brand.

Paste your website and Brew writes your brand into two files your agent reads for every email. Describe the email and it appears on the canvas, ready to edit by hand or in chat.

## Moving from Ortto

Keep Ortto sending until Brew passes your tests. We’ll do the move with you on a call if you like.

1. **Export your contacts**: In Ortto, go to CDP > People and choose More > Export, or select people and choose Export selected. Pick visible or all data, and Ortto emails the CSV to the address on your account. Before importing, prepare a Subscribed column: true for opted-in contacts, false for unsubscribed, cleaned or suppressed contacts. Invert any Unsubscribed true/false flag first. Map the column to Subscribed and review the opt-out preview; new contacts default to subscribed if this value is missing.
2. **Bring or redesign your emails**: Most teams have Brew redesign their emails from their brand, which is faster and looks better. You can also paste the HTML of an Ortto email or forward a sent email to hello@email.brew.new; imports are free.
3. **Rebuild your flows**: Connect Stripe, Shopify, Clerk or Supabase, or send your own events over the API, then describe each journey. Brew builds the emails, waits and branches, usually simpler than the original.
4. **Connect your sending domain**: Connect and verify your sending domain, then review its health and inbox placement. For a new domain, select Gradual send to ramp the campaign in configurable batches before a large send. Gradual send is off by default; connecting a domain does not automatically warm it up.

## Questions

### Is Brew a good Ortto alternative?

Yes, if email is your main channel and you want an agent to run it. Brew designs finished, on-brand emails from your brand, sends them and runs your automations from your AI agent, with unlimited contacts and seats on every plan. Brew is email only, so SMS, push, popups and live chat stay in another tool.

### Can I use Brew alongside Ortto?

Yes. Design in Brew, export the finished email as HTML and bring it into Ortto as a custom HTML email, and keep SMS, push, popups and live chat in Ortto. Many teams design in Brew first and move their email sending over later.

### How is Brew’s agent different from Ortto’s AI?

In Brew, your agent designs the finished email from brand files it reads every time, builds audiences, runs automations and sends. Ortto’s AI predicts open rates and suggests subject lines, builds audience filters from plain language and sorts contacts in journeys. Ortto MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT and other clients read campaigns, contacts and reports and create HTML email assets; its tool list has nothing to send a campaign or build a journey.
OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

### Do Ortto emails come out on-brand?

Only as on-brand as the template your team styles. Ortto’s brand book applies your colors, fonts, headers and footers to a template, its AI suggests subject lines rather than designing the email, and an assistant using Ortto MCP writes the HTML itself. Teams that move to Brew tell us these drafts rarely look like their brand, so someone still redesigns them. Brew designs the whole email, layout, copy and images, from brand files your agent reads every time, so it goes out on-brand.

### Will Brew cost more or less than Ortto?

It depends on your list and how much you send. Ortto prices on contact tiers, with email volume set by the tier and extra emails at $1 per 1,000, and lists no prices on its site. Brew bills on sends and AI credits with unlimited contacts. Teams with a large list they email in part usually pay less on Brew. Start with the free trial and compare at your own numbers.

### Does Brew do SMS, push or live chat?

No. Brew is email only: marketing and transactional email from your own domain. Teams that need SMS, push, popups or live chat keep Ortto or another tool for those and design their emails in Brew.

### Is Brew SOC 2 certified?

Not yet. We complete security reviews and sign a DPA on request, and our privacy policy, DPA, GDPR page and subprocessor list are public at docs.brew.new/legal.

### How long does it take to move from Ortto?

Your first on-brand email is ready the day you start the trial. The rest depends on how many journeys you run: contacts import from Ortto’s CSV export, most teams have Brew redesign their emails rather than import them, and each journey is rebuilt by describing it. Keep Ortto sending until Brew passes your tests.
Before importing, prepare a Subscribed column: true for opted-in contacts, false for unsubscribed, cleaned or suppressed contacts. Invert any Unsubscribed true/false flag first. Map the column to Subscribed and review the opt-out preview; new contacts default to subscribed if this value is missing.

### Do you help with the move?

Yes. We get on a call to import your contacts and unsubscribe list, bring over or redesign your emails, rebuild your flows and connect your sending domain.

## Sources and review

Brew publishes this comparison. Brew Team reviewed the linked first-party documentation. This is a documentation review, not a claim of hands-on testing of every product. Pricing and plan limits can change.

Work at Ortto? If anything on this page is wrong or out of date, email support@brew.new and we will correct it. We want to compete on the product, not on a mistaken comparison.

Updated October 2026

- [Ortto MCP](https://help.ortto.com/a-910-ortto-mcp)
- [Ortto AI](https://ortto.com/ai/)
- [Ortto email marketing](https://ortto.com/email-marketing/)
- [Checking and managing your Ortto plan](https://help.ortto.com/checking-and-managing-your-plan)
- [Ortto security and privacy](https://ortto.com/security-privacy/)
- [Managing people in Ortto](https://help.ortto.com/a-182-managing-people)
- [Using the Ortto API to send emails](https://help.ortto.com/a-242-using-the-api-to-send-emails)
- [Brew MCP server](https://brew.new/mcp)
- [Public email templates](https://brew.new/browse/templates)
- [Brew pricing](https://brew.new/pricing)