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Email Marketing · head to head

Ortto vs Sendy

Ortto logo

Ortto

Email Marketing

Australian marketing automation with a customer data platform and analytics included rather than sold separately

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sendy logo

Sendy

Email Marketing

Self-hosted newsletter app bought once for $69 that sends through your own Amazon SES account

From
$69/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Ortto contact-based pricing counts everyone stored, including unsubscribed and long-inactive records, so the bill rises with list decay unless someone owns a pruning routine.; Sendy free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.
  • They diverge on capability: Ortto covers Customer data platform, Sendy covers One-time licence.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ortto and Sendy actually diverge.

Attributes where Ortto and Sendy differ
AttributeOrttoSendy
Starting priceOn request$69/one-time
Pricing modelquoteOne-time purchase
PlatformsWeb, REST APIWeb, Linux

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Ortto

  • Customer data platform
  • Journeys
  • Talk
  • Dashboards and reports
  • Playbooks
  • Capture

Only in Sendy

  • One-time licence
  • Amazon SES delivery
  • Multiple brands
  • Autoresponders
  • Segmentation
  • Bounce and complaint handling
  • Reporting
  • Client access

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Ortto

  • A SaaS company that wants trial and onboarding lifecycle plus product analytics without buying two toolsnot Sendy
  • A small team replacing a stack of email tool, chat widget and dashboard product with one subscriptionnot Sendy
  • Reporting on revenue by campaign and cohort without exporting events to a warehouse firstnot Sendy
  • Teams already on Autopilot that need a supported migration path rather than a replatform to a US vendornot Sendy

Sendy

  • A publisher with a large list sending frequently, where a hosted platform bills by subscriber count month after monthnot Ortto
  • An agency managing newsletters for several clients who each get their own brand and login under one licencenot Ortto
  • A business that must keep subscriber data on its own infrastructure for privacy or contractual reasonsnot Ortto
  • A developer wiring signups from a custom application into a mailing list without paying platform API feesnot Ortto

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Ortto

  • Contact-based pricing counts everyone stored, including unsubscribed and long-inactive records, so the bill rises with list decay unless someone owns a pruning routine.
  • Each bundled component is shallower than the specialist it replaces, and the email template editor in particular is behind the ecommerce-focused competitors.
  • Deliverability guidance and reputation tooling are thinner than at dedicated email providers, which matters most in the first months of a sending domain.
  • The partner and agency ecosystem outside Australia and New Zealand is small, so hiring contractors with real Ortto experience is harder than for the larger platforms.
  • Support hours follow Australian business time, so European and American teams often wait a working day for a substantive answer on complex issues.

Sendy

  • Free updates run only to the next major version, so the one-time purchase is really one purchase per major release and the long-term cost is not zero.
  • Deliverability becomes entirely your problem: SES gives you a raw sending pipe and no warm-up guidance, reputation dashboards or deliverability consultants when a campaign starts landing in spam.
  • Amazon SES requires production access approval and will suspend accounts on high bounce or complaint rates, which can take a list offline mid-campaign with little warning.
  • The template editor and design tooling are basic next to Mailchimp or Klaviyo, so anything visually ambitious means hand-written HTML email.
  • You own the server: PHP upgrades, database backups and patching are yours, and an unmaintained Sendy install holding a subscriber list is a data breach waiting to happen.

Pricing, plan by plan

Ortto

On request
  • Ortto$undefined/month
    • Priced by number of contacts held, with separate email and SMS send allowances
    • Talk live chat and additional seats charged separately
    • Monthly and annual terms available

Sendy

$69/one-time
  • Sendy licence$69/one-time
    • One-time purchase, no subscription
    • Free updates only up to the next major version
    • Unlimited lists, subscribers and campaigns
  • AI Assistant bundle$39/one-time
    • Optional add-on, listed at a discount from $49
    • AI writing assistance inside the campaign editor
  • Installation service$79/one-time
    • Optional one-off setup by the vendor
    • For buyers who do not want to configure hosting and SES themselves

Which should you pick?

Choose Ortto if

  • You need customer data platform.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want journeys.
Ortto review

Choose Sendy if

  • You need one-time licence.
  • You work on Web, Linux.
  • You also want amazon ses delivery.
Sendy review

Questions people ask

Is Ortto or Sendy better?
Neither clearly leads. Ortto starts at On request and Sendy at $69/one-time, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ortto or Sendy?
Ortto starts at On request and Sendy at $69/one-time.
Does Ortto or Sendy run on more platforms?
Ortto runs on Web, REST API. Sendy runs on Web, Linux.
What is Ortto best used for?
Ortto is most often used for a saas company that wants trial and onboarding lifecycle plus product analytics without buying two tools, a small team replacing a stack of email tool, chat widget and dashboard product with one subscription, reporting on revenue by campaign and cohort without exporting events to a warehouse first, teams already on autopilot that need a supported migration path rather than a replatform to a us vendor. Of those, a saas company that wants trial and onboarding lifecycle plus product analytics without buying two tools and a small team replacing a stack of email tool, chat widget and dashboard product with one subscription are not what Sendy is typically brought in for.
What can Ortto do that Sendy cannot?
Ortto covers Customer data platform, Journeys, Talk, Dashboards and reports. Sendy covers One-time licence, Amazon SES delivery, Multiple brands, Autoresponders.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ortto: Is Ortto the same product as Autopilot?

It is the successor from the same company, rebranded in 2022 and substantially rebuilt. Older Autopilot tutorials no longer match the interface.

Sendy: What does it actually cost to send?

The licence is $69 once. Delivery is Amazon SES at roughly $1 per 10,000 emails, plus your own hosting, so a 50,000-contact weekly newsletter costs a few dollars a month to send.

Ortto: Do inactive contacts cost money?

Yes. Pricing counts contacts stored, so unsubscribed and dormant records consume allowance until they are deleted.

Sendy: Are updates free forever?

No. Updates are free up to the next major version, for example within 7.x. Moving from 7.x to 8.x is a paid upgrade.

Ortto: Can it replace a BI tool?

For campaign, funnel and cohort reporting on its own event data, usually yes. For joins against finance or support data it cannot.

Sendy: Do I need to know how to set up a server?

Standard PHP and MySQL hosting is enough and the vendor compares it to installing WordPress, but the SES side needs AWS configuration. An $79 installation service is offered if you would rather not.

Sendy: What happens if Amazon suspends my SES account?

Your sending stops until you resolve it with AWS. There is no alternative delivery route built in, and this is the single biggest operational risk of the model.

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