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The 5 Best Alternatives to Klaviyo for eCommerce

27 Sep
2022
The 5 Best Alternatives to Klaviyo for eCommerce

Email marketing is critical to the success of any eCommerce store.

And companies that want serious sales need an email automation platform that’s tailor-made for selling products online.

That’s exactly how Klaviyo has staked their claim since 2012. With over 265,000+ users and 1,500+ reviews across Shopify, the platform has become a staple of eCommerce brands eager to win more sales and learn more about their customers.

email-marketing-UI

However, you might be looking for an alternative to Klaviyo for many reasons. Thankfully, you have plenty of options to choose from!

In this post, we’ll introduce you to 6 excellent alternatives to Klaviyo for eCommerce, along with details about each platform’s features, shortcomings and pricing.

Let's get started!

6 best Klaviyo alternatives for eCommerce brands

1. Sendlane - the best eCommerce email marketing software for brands of all sizes

2. ActiveCampaign - for focus on product recommendation emails and automation

3. Mailchimp - great for merchants brand new to email marketing

4. Omnisend - ideal for creating stylish, omnichannel offers

5. Drip - for seamless “set and forget” email marketing automation

1. Klaviyo vs Sendlane

Hey, you can’t blame us for taking the number one spot!

Sendlane’s email marketing features represent the perfect balance between functionality and ease of use.

With features laser-focused on generating revenue and helping merchants build a dedicated email list, we help our users uncover new ways to translate their messages into dollars and cents.

sendlane-dashboard-analytics
Sendlane Platform

Both personalization and automation are central to our platform. With features like multivariate segmentation This ultimately encourages merchants to create messages their customers want to engage with.

From custom workflows and email templates to retargeting and autoresponders, there’s nothing that Sendlane can’t do regarding eCommerce marketing compared to Klaviyo.

Oh, and don’t forget about Sendlane’s seamless eCommerce integrations (including Shopify and Shopify Plus).

Where Sendlane wins

  • Stellar customer support! Sendlane provides users with around-the-clock assistance (available 24/7/365 with a 30-second average response time.)
  • Ease of use, with a more navigable UI versus Klaviyo.
  • Customizable multi-store integrations allow eCommerce brands to host multiple storefronts (Shopify, Woocommerce) under a single account, aligning all of your email analytics and customer data in one place.
  • Multivariate testing. Move over A/B tests. With Sendlane, you can test various components in up to four email versions at a time.
  • Deliverability! We give you everything you need to make sure your messages get where they need to go (and stay out of the “Spam” folder, too.)

Sendlane pricing

At Sendlane, we’re proud to have transparent pricing with no additional or hidden fees!

There’s a 14-day free trial, so you can take our email and SMS marketing automation features for a spin, and it doesn’t require a credit card.

automations-example-in-sendlane

You’ll get unrestricted access to all the pro features, but you need to stick to 100 contacts and 500 sends during the trial period.

When you’re ready to buy a plan, you have the following options:

  • Growth Plans: Start at $100/month for up to 5,000 contacts. You get access to all features, our all-star Product Support Team, the SMS subscription add-on, and access to eCommerce Academy - Email Marketing Basics & SMS Marketing Basics online courses
  • Pro Plans: Start at $660/month for up to 50,000 contacts. You get access to everything in the Growth plan, plus custom onboarding, access to our Customer Success Team, monthly program reviews, and access to eCommerce Academy - Email Marketing Basics, Novice, and Intermediate, and SMS Marketing Basics online courses

//[inject:ad-personalized-email]

2. Klaviyo vs ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign represents both an email marketing and eCommerce tool, including its own CRM and a slew of sales features.

active-campaign-email-builder

The platform’s emphasis on abandoned cart emails, win-back campaigns, and product recommendations highlights why it’s so popular with eCommerce brands.

Where ActiveCampaign wins

  • 500+ prebuilt workflows. Users are spoiled for choice and get started with just about any type of automation they can think of.
  • 24/7 support. ActiveCampaign’s superior support and one-on-one checkups help make sure that your initial campaigns are compliant.
  • Easy-to-use. Intuitive personalization and conditional rules for email marketing campaigns make it seamless to segment emails based on customer behavior.

ActiveCampaign pricing

ActiveCampaign also provides transparent pricing with no setup fees. However, it’s not as straightforward as most other tools. The price you pay for each plan varies depending on how many contacts you have.

For up to 500 contacts, you can purchase the following plans:

  • Lite: $9/month with limited features (only email marketing)
  • Plus: $49/month with some additional features (e.g., SMS and landing pages)
  • Professional: $149/month with more additional features (e.g., website personalization and predictive sending)
  • Enterprise: Tailored pricing for custom features.

The platform also offers a free trial but with limited features.

3. Klaviyo vs Mailchimp

MailChimp has been a household name in email marketing seemingly forever. It’s one of the most popular email automation platforms and is loved by businesses of all sizes.

mailchimp-automation-builder

Their free plan (supporting up to 2,000 contacts and basic automation features) often represents a “starter” solution for new email marketers, but their base ranges everywhere from SMBs to enterprise users.

Where MailChimp wins

  • Ease of use. The popularity of MailChimp makes for faster onboarding, given the plethora of resources for new marketers.
  • Beginner-friendly features like the new subscriber journey and email builders help hold new marketers’ hands through the process of setting up automations.
  • The ability to set up entire storefronts from scratch as part of Mailchimp’s larger marketing suite.

Mailchimp pricing

Mailchimp offers flexible pricing plans that allow new marketers to get started with email automation.

Instead of a free trial, they simply let you sign up for a free plan with limited features to use as long as you like.

Just like ActiveCampaign, however, Mailchimp’s pricing also varies based on the number of contacts you have.

Below are the plans Mailchimp currently offers:

  • Free: At $0/month, you can access the marketing CRM, website builder, and more, as long as you stick to 500 contacts or less and send up to 10,000 emails monthly.
  • Essentials: Starts at $11/month for up to 500 contacts and goes up as you scale. Offers some additional features like email and landing page templates, customer journey builder, and A/B testing.
  • Standard: Starts at $17/month for up to 500 contacts and goes up as you scale. Offers more additional features like dynamic content, send time optimization, and custom templates.
  • Premium: Starts at $299/month for up to 10,000 contacts and goes up as you scale. Offers full features, including advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, and priority support.

Mailchimp also offers a Pay-As-You-Go plan for infrequent senders and a 15% discount for nonprofits and charities.

4. Klaviyo vs Omnisend

Omnisend is a massively popular email platform among Shopify users (with nearly 4,000 reviews to their name.)

omnisend-email-builder

As its name implies, the platform offers omnichannel marketing experiences, including email, SMS, social media, and push notifications.

The ability to make so many touch points through Omnisend helps merchants reach their customers anywhere and everywhere.

Where Omnisend wins

  • Style and customization when it comes to design — awesome pre-built email templates and custom fields for eCommerce make email personalization a breeze.
  • Gamified popups and landing pages are built into the platform, both all the rage for merchants right now.
  • 24/7 support!

Omnisend pricing

Omnisend’s pricing plans are also made to scale as you go. Like Mailchimp, they also offer a free plan for new businesses and two additional paid plans.

However, their free plan is more robust in terms of features. The only limit is the number of contacts you can reach and the emails you can send monthly.

  • Free: At $0/month, you can reach up to 250 contacts, send 500 emails/month, and access all features, including templates, pop-ups, and analytics.
  • Standard: Starts from $16/month for up to 500 contacts and includes 24/7 live support.
  • Pro: Starts at $59/month for up to 500 contacts and includes SMS and advanced reporting.

There’s no free trial for the paid plans, but you can try out all the features using the free plan.

5. Klaviyo vs Drip

Drip presents itself as a sort of “money machine” for eCommerce marketers, helping merchants to find a balance between automated messages and real-time communication (think: SMS) to engage customers.

drip-email-builder

Where Drip wins

  • In-depth customer segmentation, including automatic tags and recommended segments based on customer behavior.
  • Unique email builder features such as expiring links, top-selling product blocks, and more.
  • Built-in Facebook Audience integration highlights the link between eCommerce emails and social media marketing.

Drip pricing

This email marketing software probably has the simplest (yet flexible) pricing out of all the tools on this list. They only offer one plan, which increases in price with your number of contacts.

Drip’s pricing starts at $39/month for up to 2,500 contacts and goes up as you scale. Includes all features and unlimited email sends.

You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial to take the tool for a spin.

Our final thoughts on Klaviyo alternatives

We’ll bite: Klaviyo is a mighty marketing tool for any eCommerce business. That said, it’s definitely not the be-all, end-all for merchants.

If you’re looking for a less complicated tool that can still get the job done when it comes to customer experience and driving revenue minus a bigger price tag, it might be time to look into a Klaviyo alternative.

And if you haven’t already, make sure to take Sendlane for a spin yourself to see exactly why we earn the top spot when it comes to email & SMS automation.

What is the best alternative to Klaviyo for eCommerce?
What is a less expensive alternative to Klaviyo?
Is Klaviyo worth the price?

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