Apollo.io vs Ortto in 2026: Outbound prospecting engine vs inbound lifecycle CDP
One platform hands you a 275M-contact database and a dialer for finding and calling new business. The other unifies your existing customer data into a single CDP and automates what happens after someone is already in your funnel.
Apollo.io
Ortto- Apollo.io's database covers 275M+ contacts and 73M+ companies searchable across 65+ filters; Ortto has no prospecting database at all and works entirely from data you already own.
- Ortto ships a built-in customer data platform that unifies website events, CRM records, and product usage into one profile; Apollo.io enriches contact records through waterfall data providers but has no equivalent CDP layer.
- Apollo.io includes a US dialer on every paid plan, with call recordings and AI-generated call insights from Professional up; Ortto has no calling functionality anywhere in the product.
- Ortto bundles a native live chat widget, shared inbox, and knowledge base called Talk directly into the automation platform; Apollo.io has no support or chat layer at all.
- Apollo.io's Free plan gives 900 credits per year with real access to prospecting, sequences, and the Chrome extension; Ortto publishes no free tier and requires a sales conversation before you see pricing at any tier.
- Ortto was recently acquired by Canva, which adds real uncertainty to its long-term roadmap and pricing that a prospective buyer should ask about directly.
- Apollo.io's Organization tier requires a minimum of 3 seats at $119/seat/month; Ortto does not publish per-seat costs at any of its three tiers.
Apollo.io and Ortto rarely show up in the same buying conversation, but teams evaluating an all-in-one GTM stack often end up comparing them anyway. Apollo.io is built around finding people you do not have yet: a 275M+ contact database, 65+ search filters, a built-in dialer, and email sequencing, all sold on transparent per-seat pricing starting at $49/month. Ortto starts from the opposite end of the funnel. It assumes you already have customer or product data and gives you a built-in CDP, a visual journey builder across email, SMS, push, and in-app messages, plus a native live chat product called Talk, all sold through a sales conversation with no published pricing. If your problem is an empty top of funnel, Apollo.io is the more obvious tool. If your problem is a messy, disconnected view of the customers you already have, Ortto is built for that instead.
The tools at a glance
Apollo.io
Sales intelligence and outreach platform with 275M+ verified contacts, email sequences, dialer, and AI-powered prospecting.
Apollo.io solves a specific problem: you need to find people who fit your ideal customer profile and reach them without buying a separate data subscription. The 275M+ contact database is searchable across job title, seniority, industry, technology stack, and buyer intent signals, and the Chrome extension lets reps pull contact data straight off a LinkedIn profile without leaving the page.
Once you have a list, Apollo.io keeps you in the same product to sequence it. Unlimited email sequences on paid plans combine with a built-in US dialer, and call recordings on Professional and Organization plans get AI-generated insights like objections and follow-up recommendations. Automated workflows can trigger sequences off intent signals or CRM events, and waterfall enrichment on paid tiers chains multiple data sources to maximize match rates on existing CRM records.
The credits model is the one thing to plan around. Every export, phone reveal, or enrichment draws from a shared pool assigned per seat per year, and a team running daily prospecting will burn through the 30,000 annual credits on Basic faster than the number suggests. Apollo.io does not do lifecycle marketing, CDP-style data unification, or support chat, and it is not trying to.
| Feature | Free $0/mo | Basic $49/seat/mo | Professional $79/seat/mo | Organization $119/seat/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credits per seat per year | 900 | 30,000 | 48,000 | 72,000 |
| Email sequences | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Built-in dialer | Credits-based | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Call recordings + AI insights | ✗ | ✗ | 4,000 mins | 8,000 mins |
| Automated workflows | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM integrations | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Minimum seats | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Ortto
Marketing automation, CDP, analytics, and customer support in one platform built for SaaS and high-growth teams.
Ortto starts from a different assumption than Apollo.io: you already have customers, product usage data, or CRM records, and the problem is that none of it talks to each other. The built-in CDP ingests website events, CRM data, and product analytics into unified profiles, and that data becomes immediately usable inside a visual, no-code journey builder rather than requiring a separate data engineering project.
Journeys can span email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messages, and forms from one canvas, with triggers based on real product behavior instead of static list membership. Lead scoring runs on custom activities you define, so marketing and sales can agree on what a qualified signal actually looks like before a lead ever reaches a rep. Ortto Talk adds a live chat widget, shared inbox, and knowledge base into the same workspace, which is a meaningfully different bet than most marketing automation platforms make.
None of this is available without a sales conversation. Ortto does not publish pricing at any of its three tiers, and the recent acquisition by Canva means the roadmap and pricing structure could shift in ways that are hard to predict from outside. Teams evaluating it should ask directly about post-acquisition plans before signing a contract.
| Feature | Professional Contact for pricing | Business Contact for pricing | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journey builder | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in CDP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email, SMS, push | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live chat (Talk) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lead scoring | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom activities | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| API access | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated success manager | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Apollo.io | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Prospecting database | 275M+ contacts, 73M+ companies | No, works from your existing data |
| Built-in CDP | No, contact enrichment only | Yes, native CDP unifying all sources |
| Built-in dialer | Yes, on all paid plans | No |
| Email, SMS, push automation | Email and SMS via add-on; no native push | Yes, email, SMS, push, in-app, forms |
| Live chat / support inbox | No | Yes, native live chat and shared inbox (Talk) |
| Lead scoring | Yes, AI lead scoring on Basic and above | Yes, on Business and Enterprise |
| Free tier | Yes, 900 credits/year | No |
| Published pricing | Yes, published per-seat pricing | No, contact sales for all tiers |
| API access | Yes | Yes, on Business and Enterprise |
| Starting price | $49/seat/month | Contact for pricing |
Which should you choose?
Apollo.ioOrttoApollo.ioOrttoApollo.ioOrttoApollo.ioThese two rarely compete for the same budget line because they solve different halves of the customer lifecycle. Apollo.io is about finding and reaching people who are not yet in your system, backed by a database large enough that most SMB and mid-market teams will not need a second data vendor. Ortto is about what happens once someone already has a relationship with your product, using a real CDP to make that relationship data actionable across marketing, lifecycle, and support. Buying Ortto to replace a prospecting workflow, or buying Apollo.io hoping it will unify your product analytics, will both leave a gap.
Bottom line
Pick Apollo.io if your immediate problem is generating pipeline from a database you do not currently have, and you want dialer, sequencing, and enrichment in one subscription with a price you can see before talking to anyone. Pick Ortto if you already have customers or active product usage and need a CDP-backed journey builder plus support tooling in one workspace, and you are comfortable running pricing through a sales conversation. If you need both, expect to run them side by side rather than looking for one platform to cover the entire lifecycle.
Frequently asked questions
Does Apollo.io or Ortto have a built-in prospecting database?
Apollo.io is the one built around a prospecting database, covering 275M+ contacts and 73M+ companies searchable across 65+ filters including buyer intent signals. Ortto has no comparable database; it is built to work with customer and product data you already have rather than helping you find people you do not.
Which tool is better for a SaaS company that wants to unify CRM, product, and website data?
Ortto is the stronger fit here because its built-in CDP is specifically designed to unify behavioral, transactional, and CRM data into single customer profiles that power its journey builder. Apollo.io enriches individual contact records through waterfall data providers, but it does not build a unified customer data layer the way Ortto does.
Can I make calls directly from Ortto the way I can in Apollo.io?
No, Ortto has no calling or dialer functionality at all. Apollo.io includes a US dialer on every paid plan, with an Advanced Dialer add-on for high-volume calling and AI-generated call insights available on Professional and Organization plans.
Is Ortto pricing publicly available like Apollo.io's?
No, Ortto requires contacting sales for all three of its tiers (Professional, Business, and Enterprise), while Apollo.io publishes per-seat pricing starting at $49/month for Basic. If a fast, self-serve cost comparison matters to your evaluation, that difference alone is worth factoring in early.
Does Apollo.io include a live chat or customer support tool like Ortto Talk?
No, Apollo.io has no live chat, shared inbox, or support tooling anywhere in the product. Ortto includes all three natively through its Talk product, which shares the same customer data as the marketing and lifecycle side of the platform.
Is Ortto worth evaluating given the Canva acquisition?
It is still worth a demo, but ask directly about post-acquisition pricing and roadmap plans before signing an annual contract. Canva's acquisition of Ortto is recent enough that long-term product direction is genuinely uncertain, which is a real consideration for any multi-year buying decision even though the current feature set is strong.