Klaviyo alternatives split along one line: ecommerce and DTC brands looking for Shopify-native automation at a different price point, and SaaS or product-led teams that need behavior-triggered messaging Klaviyo was never built around. Klaviyo prices by active profile count regardless of how many emails you actually send, which is the single biggest reason teams start shopping. Omnisend and Drip compete most directly for the ecommerce workload; Sendlane and Brevo target cost-conscious senders with volume-based pricing instead; Customer.io and MailerLite serve teams whose triggers aren’t purchase events. Coldletter fits the SaaS-lifecycle case only, not ecommerce. Pricing below is current as of July 2026, pulled directly from each vendor’s own pricing page.
Why Teams Look Past Klaviyo
Klaviyo built its reputation on Shopify-native ecommerce automation: abandoned cart flows, post-purchase sequences, and predictive analytics tied to purchase history. Its own pricing page describes the platform as offering “email, SMS/MMS, push and marketing automation services…with flexible, tiered pricing based on number of active profiles and message volume.” That profile-based model is the crux of most switching decisions. The free plan covers up to 250 active profiles with 500 email sends and 150 SMS credits a month; the first paid tier, the Email plan, starts at $20/month for 251 to 500 profiles, and Email + SMS starts at $35/month for the same range. Once a list crosses a few thousand profiles, and especially once inactive or unengaged profiles pile up, the bill climbs regardless of send volume, a dynamic ecommerce brands with large historical customer lists feel directly.
For SaaS teams, the mismatch is different. Klaviyo’s automation model centers on ecommerce events (purchase, browse, cart) rather than generic product usage events (signup, activation, feature adoption), so SaaS lifecycle automation teams often end up bolting on a second tool anyway rather than forcing product events through an ecommerce-shaped workflow builder.
Klaviyo Alternatives by Fit
Omnisend: Ecommerce Automation Built for Shopify
Omnisend positions directly against Klaviyo for ecommerce brands, with native integrations for Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, and prebuilt workflows for abandoned cart, welcome series, and product recommendations. Email, SMS, and web push run from one automation builder rather than as separate add-ons. The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. The Standard plan lists at $16/month for 500 contacts and 6,000 emails (shown at a discounted $11.20/month for new signups at the time of writing), and Pro starts at $59/month for 2,500 contacts with unlimited email sends (discounted to $41.30/month), per Omnisend’s pricing page.
Drip: Workflow-First Ecommerce Automation
Drip is built specifically for ecommerce email marketing, with a visual workflow builder, deep segmentation, and Shopify Plus integration. Pricing is a single tier structure by contact count rather than a feature-gated ladder: every plan gets the full feature set, including unlimited email sends, up to 50 workflows, and open API access. The entry tier is $39/month for up to 2,500 contacts, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required, confirmed directly on Drip’s pricing calculator.
Sendlane: Pay for Sends, Not Contacts
Sendlane flips the usual model: contacts are unlimited, and you pay based on average monthly send volume instead. That suits brands with large but infrequently emailed lists, since a bigger list doesn’t automatically mean a bigger bill. Support tiers scale with contact count (Professional up to 9,999 contacts, Professional Plus above that, Enterprise from 200,000 contacts). Sendlane doesn’t publish a flat starting price; its site quotes cost through an on-site send-volume calculator, so get an exact number for your list before comparing. A 60-day free trial is available, capped at 100 contacts and 500 email sends.
Brevo: Unlimited Contacts, Pay by Volume
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) also prices by send volume rather than contact count, and every plan, including Free, stores unlimited contacts. The Free plan sends up to 300 emails a day at no cost; Starter runs $9/month and Standard $18/month, both scaling by monthly send volume rather than list size, per Brevo’s pricing page. Brevo has an official Shopify integration app, which makes it a workable Klaviyo substitute for smaller ecommerce stores that don’t need Klaviyo’s predictive analytics or deeper Shopify-specific automation.
Customer.io: Event-Based Messaging for SaaS Lifecycle
Customer.io is the closer match for SaaS teams, since it triggers on product events (signup, activation milestone, feature usage, inactivity) instead of ecommerce purchase events, running workflows across email, SMS, push, and in-app messaging from one builder. The Essentials plan starts at $100/month, covering 5,000 profiles and 1 million email sends; Premium starts at $1,000/month for teams scaling further, per Customer.io’s pricing page. Early-stage companies that have raised under $10 million can apply for a full year free through Customer.io’s Startup Program.
MailerLite: Budget Option for Simple Sending
MailerLite is the cheapest way off Klaviyo if your needs are closer to basic campaigns and light automation than deep ecommerce logic. The Free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; the Comfort plan starts at $12/month and scales sending to 10 times your subscriber tier ceiling; Power starts at $25/month with unlimited sending, per MailerLite’s pricing page. If you’re weighing MailerLite against other budget options beyond Klaviyo specifically, our Mailchimp alternatives guide covers both Brevo and MailerLite in more depth for non-ecommerce senders.
Coldletter: Developer-Friendly Templating for SaaS Teams
Coldletter fits the SaaS-lifecycle side of this list, not the ecommerce side. It pairs a developer-friendly core (API and SDK access, reusable templating with dynamic variables) with a visual builder for automation flows, aimed at teams that want product-event-triggered lifecycle email handled in the same platform their engineers can integrate directly. Coldletter does not publish pricing publicly; contact the team for details. It isn’t built for Shopify-style purchase automation, and isn’t a fit if that’s your primary use case. Teams that also need a dedicated transactional provider alongside marketing automation should see our guide to the best transactional email services.
Klaviyo Alternatives at a Glance
| Tool | Best Fit | Pricing Model | Ecommerce or SaaS | Free Tier | Entry Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omnisend | Shopify/ecommerce automation | Contact-based | Ecommerce | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo | $16/mo (500 contacts) |
| Drip | Ecommerce workflow automation | Contact-based, single tier | Ecommerce | 14-day trial, no free plan | $39/mo (2,500 contacts) |
| Sendlane | Ecommerce email + SMS | Send-volume based | Ecommerce | 60-day trial (100 contacts) | Calculated by send volume |
| Brevo | High-volume, budget senders | Send-volume based | Both | 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts | $9/mo |
| Customer.io | SaaS lifecycle automation | Profile-based | SaaS | Startup Program only | $100/mo (5,000 profiles) |
| MailerLite | Budget/simple senders | Subscriber-based | Both | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo | $12/mo |
| Coldletter | Developer-friendly SaaS templating | Not published | SaaS | Contact team | Contact team |
Pricing as of July 2026, verified directly against each vendor’s pricing page linked in this article. Confirm current rates before purchasing, since pricing and tiers change frequently.
Who Should Stay on Klaviyo
If your business is ecommerce-first, already lives on Shopify, and your automation needs are purchase-behavior flows (abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase upsell, predictive send-time), Klaviyo’s depth in that specific use case is hard to match feature-for-feature. Its ecosystem of ecommerce integrations and prebuilt flow templates is more mature than most of the alternatives above. The profile-based pricing becomes a real cost problem mainly once your list grows large relative to how often you actually email it, or once you need behavior triggers that aren’t tied to a purchase, browse, or cart event.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free Klaviyo alternative?
Omnisend’s free plan (250 contacts, 500 emails a month) and MailerLite’s free plan (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month) are the closest free-tier matches for small lists. Brevo’s free plan allows unlimited stored contacts but caps sending at 300 emails a day. None of these free tiers include the SMS credits Klaviyo’s free plan offers.
Is Omnisend cheaper than Klaviyo?
At comparable list sizes, yes. Omnisend’s Standard plan lists at $16/month for 500 contacts, versus Klaviyo’s Email plan at $20/month for 251 to 500 profiles, and Omnisend includes SMS and web push in the same builder rather than as a separate paid channel. Confirm current pricing directly on each vendor’s pricing page before switching, since both change tiers periodically.
What’s the best Klaviyo alternative for a SaaS company, not an ecommerce store?
Customer.io is the closest match for SaaS lifecycle email, since it triggers on product usage events rather than purchase events. Coldletter is worth evaluating if you also want developer-friendly templating and automation in the same platform your engineering team integrates directly. Klaviyo’s automation model is built around ecommerce behavior and doesn’t map cleanly onto product-led SaaS triggers.
Can I migrate my Klaviyo flows to another platform?
Contacts and basic profile data typically export as CSV. Flows and automations don’t transfer programmatically between platforms; each workflow needs to be rebuilt manually in the new tool. Budget more migration time if your existing Klaviyo flows use deep segmentation or many conditional branches.
Does Brevo integrate with Shopify like Klaviyo does?
Yes, Brevo has an official Shopify integration app that syncs customer, product, and order data and supports automated flows like welcome series and abandoned cart. It’s less specialized for ecommerce than Omnisend or Klaviyo, but workable for smaller stores that don’t need predictive analytics or deep purchase-behavior segmentation.
What’s the difference between profile-based and send-volume pricing?
Profile-based pricing (Klaviyo, Customer.io) bills for the number of contacts or profiles stored, regardless of how many emails you actually send. Send-volume pricing (Brevo, Sendlane) bills by how many emails go out each month, regardless of list size. Volume-based pricing tends to favor large, infrequently emailed lists; profile-based pricing tends to favor smaller, frequently emailed lists.
I’ve spent my career building software at scale with a soft spot for email: deliverability, lifecycle campaigns, and getting messages to actually land. I started Coldletter to fix what bugged me about transactional and marketing email tools. I’m based in Vancouver.