10 Best Klaviyo Alternatives Tested in 2026
Klaviyo is not a bad platform, and that is exactly why leaving it is a pricing decision rather than a product one. In our database of 42 email platforms, Klaviyo ties for the highest automation score we award, 9.5/10, and carries the second-lowest pricing-value score, 3.5/10. Only one platform in the entire set scores worse on value, and it is on this page.
We priced 10 alternatives against Klaviyo’s published billing rules and ranked them by the review score each one already carries on this site, out of 10. Two of the ten beat Klaviyo overall. Nine of the ten beat it on value. We say which is which, and for every one of them we name what you give up by leaving. — If you are on Shopify and want the nearest like-for-like swap rather than the highest score, skip to Omnisend.
Why look for a Klaviyo alternative in 2026
Klaviyo bills you for the size of the list you hold, not for the email you send. Every consequence below follows from that one design choice.
Klaviyo’s billing unit is the active profile, which its help centre defines as “any profile, regardless of consent status, that can be emailed through Klaviyo”. Since the billing changes of February 18, 2025, customers who pay by card must be on an email plan that matches or exceeds their active profile count. Cross a tier boundary and the plan moves up automatically at the start of the next billing cycle. Your invoice is therefore driven by list growth, which is the one metric every marketer is being asked to increase.
The cleanup path is slower than most people expect. Suppressed and unsubscribed profiles do drop out of the billable count once fully processed, and deleted profiles stop counting going forward — but Klaviyo states it can take up to 72 hours for the active profile count to refresh after you suppress, delete or bulk-remove. Pruning your list the day before renewal does not change that invoice.
The free plan is a trial in everything but name: 250 profiles, a maximum of 500 emails a month, and email support only for the first 60 days after sign-up. That is enough to look around and not enough to run a store on.
None of this makes Klaviyo weak. Our own review scores it 9.5/10 on automation, 9.5/10 on API and MCP, and 8.0/10 on deliverability, for an overall 7.3/10. Only two platforms on this page finish above it. Three cases where you should stay: your revenue depends on catalogue-aware flows such as browse-abandon and back-in-stock; you are building agent-driven workflows and want the most mature first-party MCP server in this category; or your list is still small enough that the tier ladder is not yet biting. Everyone else has nine cheaper options below, and we would argue for only two of them on quality alone.
10 Klaviyo alternatives at a glance
Ranked by the review score each platform carries on SMTPedia, out of 10. Klaviyo itself scores 7.3. Click any name to jump to its deep block.
| Platform | Score | Starting $ | Free plan | Best for | MCP | Deliverability | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 7.7/10 | $9/mo | 300 emails/day forever | Big lists that are sent to rarely | Yes | Medium | The only one here that bills what you send, not what you store |
| MailerLite | 7.4/10 | $12/mo | 250 subs / 2,500 emails | Small senders who want the bill to stop climbing | Yes | High | The cheapest credible swap, and the best value score of any full platform here |
| Sender | 7.3/10 | $6.30/mo | 2,500 subs / 15,000 emails | Validating a list before paying anyone | No | Low | Ten times Klaviyo’s free ceiling, with automation included |
| ActiveCampaign | 7.2/10 | Not published | No (14-day trial) | Keeping automation depth while leaving the profile ladder | Yes | High | The only platform here that matches Klaviyo on automation |
| Moosend | 7.2/10 | Not published | No (30-day trial) | Unlimited sending on a mid-sized list | No | High | Unlimited sends and an SMTP server on every paid plan |
| Omnisend | 7.1/10 | $11.20/mo | 250 contacts / 500 emails | Shopify stores wanting the nearest like-for-like | Yes | Low | Same shape as Klaviyo, a fraction of the entry price |
| Customer.io | 7.1/10 | $100/mo | No (startup program only) | Product events rather than a store catalogue | Yes | Medium | For teams whose triggers come from the product, not the cart |
| HubSpot | 6.5/10 | $7/mo/seat | Yes, up to 2 users | One contact record shared with sales | Yes | Low | Pick it for the CRM, never for the savings |
| Drip | 6.3/10 | $39/mo | No (14-day trial) | Refusing the feature ladder entirely | No | Medium | One price, every feature, unlimited sends to 2,500 |
| Mailchimp | 6.3/10 | $13/mo | 250 contacts / 500 emails | Non-technical teams who need onboarding above all | Partial | High | Easier to run, and it matches Klaviyo on deliverability |
Scores are the overall review score published on each platform’s own SMTPedia page, out of 10, not a separate rating for this comparison. Prices verified September 2026 against each vendor’s public pricing page or help centre; “Not published” means the vendor renders no price until you configure a quote. Deliverability grades map our published deliverability score: High is 8.0 and above, Medium 6.0 to 7.9, Low below 6.0. MCP means a first-party Model Context Protocol server, checked vendor by vendor; community and Zapier-hosted servers count as No.
1. Brevo
Brevo
When to pick Brevo over Klaviyo
You hold tens of thousands of contacts but send a handful of campaigns a month. Klaviyo charges you for holding them; Brevo charges you for reaching them. The free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts and lets you send 300 emails/day forever, and paid plans are priced in send tiers rather than profile tiers. Brevo also carries the highest pricing-value score in our database at 8.5/10, against Klaviyo’s 3.5/10.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Billing basis | Active profiles held | Emails sent |
| Free plan | 250 profiles / 500 emails per month | 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts stored |
| Entry paid price | Published only after sign-in | $9/mo Starter |
| Automation reach on free | Included | Capped at 2,000 contacts |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Brevo: Automation depth and ecommerce intelligence. Brevo scores 6.0 on automation against Klaviyo’s 9.5, and it has no predictive analytics and no catalogue-aware product blocks. If your revenue comes from browse-abandon and back-in-stock flows, this is a downgrade you will feel in week one.
Medium
half a day
CSV import plus manual flow rebuild; no native Klaviyo importer
From $9/mo
Starter · from 5,000 monthly sends
Free forever at 300 emails/day with up to 100,000 contacts stored. Starter from $9/mo, Standard from $18/mo, Professional from $499/mo. Tiers are set by monthly send volume, not by list size.
2. MailerLite
MailerLite
When to pick MailerLite over Klaviyo
You are under 5,000 contacts, you send campaigns rather than orchestrated flows, and the line item you want to shrink is the monthly invoice. MailerLite matches Klaviyo’s deliverability score at 8.0/10 and more than doubles its pricing-value score, 8.0 against 3.5. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count toward your limit.
| Feature | Klaviyo | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Published only after sign-in | $12/mo monthly, $10.80/mo annual |
| Free plan | 250 profiles / 500 emails per month | 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails per month |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Bills unsubscribed contacts | No, once suppression settles | No |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for MailerLite: Ecommerce orchestration. MailerLite scores 6.0 on automation against 9.5, caps Comfort at 50 active automations, and has no SMS channel in the platform. You also inherit a cumulative billing count: any address active at any point in a cycle counts for that whole cycle, even if you delete it mid-month.
Easy
about 2 hours
CSV import keeps segments and tags; automations rebuilt by hand
From $12/mo
Comfort · monthly billing
Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month since the June 16, 2026 change, down from 500 and 12,000. Comfort from $10.80/mo billed annually or $12/mo monthly; Power from $22.50/mo annually or $25/mo monthly.
Read full MailerLite review
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3. Sender
Sender
When to pick Sender over Klaviyo
Klaviyo’s free plan stops at 250 profiles and 500 emails a month, which is not enough to learn anything. Sender’s free plan carries 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month with automation included — ten times the contacts and thirty times the sending, at zero. For a store still deciding whether email is a channel, that is the difference between a test and a guess.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Sender |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan subscribers | 250 | 2,500 |
| Free plan monthly emails | 500 | 15,000 |
| Automation on free | Included | Included |
| Entry paid price | Published only after sign-in | $6.30/mo |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.5 / 10 |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Sender: Inbox placement, and it is not a small loss. Sender scores 5.5/10 on deliverability in our testing against Klaviyo’s 8.0 — the weakest figure of the ten platforms on this page. A free tier you cannot land in the inbox with is a false economy, so treat Sender as a proving ground and re-test placement before you move real revenue onto it.
Easy
about 1 hour
CSV import; small list sizes make this trivial
From $6.30/mo
Standard · entry tier
Free forever up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails/month with automation and no credit card. Standard from $6.30/mo, Professional from $10.50/mo, plus a pay-as-you-go option at $5.80 per 1,000 emails.
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign
When to pick ActiveCampaign over Klaviyo
Every other alternative on this page asks you to accept less automation. ActiveCampaign does not: it ties Klaviyo at 9.5/10 on our automation score, the joint highest in our database of 42 platforms. It also scores 8.5/10 on deliverability, half a point above Klaviyo. You move sideways on capability and gain 1.5 points of pricing value.
| Feature | Klaviyo | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 9.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 5.0 / 10 |
| Published entry price | No | No |
| Send allowance | Tied to profile tier | 10x contact limit on Starter and Plus |
| Overage handling | Auto-upgrade to next tier | $0.005 per send, cut off at 3x limit |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for ActiveCampaign: Simplicity, and price transparency. ActiveCampaign scores 5.5/10 on ease of use, the lowest of the ten, and its pricing page renders every plan price as a dash until you configure a quote. You also swap Klaviyo’s automatic tier bump for hard overage economics: $0.005 per extra send, and sending is switched off entirely once overage reaches 3x your limit.
Medium
one to two days
Flows must be rebuilt; free migration assistance is offered
Price not published
Starter · quote required
No free plan; 14-day trial without a card. Starter is capped at 25,000 contacts. Send allowances run at 10x your contact limit on Starter and Plus, 12x on Professional and 15x on Enterprise, with overage at $0.005 per send.
Read full ActiveCampaign review
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5. Moosend
Moosend
When to pick Moosend over Klaviyo
Moosend removes the second half of the Klaviyo bill. Paid plans carry unlimited email sends, so campaign frequency costs nothing, and an SMTP server is included at every tier rather than sold as a separate product. It matches Klaviyo’s 8.0/10 deliverability and doubles its pricing value, 7.0 against 3.5. Duplicate addresses across lists and segments are billed once.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Moosend |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly send allowance | Tied to profile tier | Unlimited on paid plans |
| SMTP server included | Sold separately | Every paid plan |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 7.0 / 10 |
| Free plan | 250 profiles / 500 emails | None, 30-day trial only |
| Published entry price | No | No |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Moosend: The safety net of a free tier, and again the automation depth. Moosend has no permanent free plan at all — once the 30-day trial ends you either subscribe or buy credits. Automation scores 6.5 against Klaviyo’s 9.5, and like ActiveCampaign it publishes no price until you work the calculator.
Medium
half a day
CSV import; automation recipes rebuilt from templates
Price not published
Pro · calculator only
30-day free trial, no card, with unlimited sends for up to 1,000 contacts during the trial. Paid plans carry unlimited email sends and an SMTP server. Discounts of 15 percent bi-annual and 20 percent annual, with a further 25 percent for nonprofits. Prepaid credits never expire.
6. Omnisend
Omnisend
When to pick Omnisend over Klaviyo
This is the closest structural match on the page. Omnisend prices by contact tier like Klaviyo, carries email and SMS in one platform like Klaviyo, and publishes an official MCP server like Klaviyo — then charges $11.20/mo at 500 contacts. The Pro plan at $41.30/mo removes the send cap entirely, which Klaviyo’s tier model never does.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Omnisend |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Contact tiers | Contact tiers |
| Email and SMS in one platform | Yes | Yes |
| Published entry price | No | Yes, $11.20/mo at 500 contacts |
| Unlimited sending option | No | Yes, on Pro |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.0 / 10 |
| Official MCP server | Yes | Yes |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Omnisend: Inbox placement, by the widest margin on this page. Omnisend scores 5.0/10 on deliverability against Klaviyo’s 8.0 — a 3-point drop, and the largest deliverability drop on this page. Every dollar you save here is a bet that your own list hygiene closes that gap. Warm the new sending domain slowly and re-test placement before you migrate a revenue-carrying flow.
Easy
about 3 hours
Native Shopify reinstall plus CSV import; flows rebuilt from recipes
From $11.20/mo
Standard · 500 contacts
Free up to 250 contacts and 500 emails/month. Standard at $11.20/mo for 500 contacts, Pro at $41.30/mo with unlimited monthly emails. SMS is bought as separate global credits from $0.007 per message.
7. Customer.io
Customer.io
When to pick Customer.io over Klaviyo
If your best-performing message fires on a product event rather than a cart action, Klaviyo’s ecommerce-shaped model is working against you. Customer.io is built the other way round: profiles and objects driven by your own event stream, $100/mo for 5,000 profiles, and $0.009 per profile beyond that on every plan. Automation scores 9.0/10 in our testing, second only to Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Customer.io |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger model | Ecommerce events and catalogue | Arbitrary product events and objects |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 9.0 / 10 |
| Published entry price | No | Yes, $100/mo |
| Overage pricing | Forced tier upgrade | $0.009 per extra profile |
| Free plan | 250 profiles / 500 emails | None |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 4.0 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Customer.io: Everything that makes Klaviyo turnkey for a store. There are no ecommerce templates, no catalogue-aware product blocks and no free tier, and the entry price of $100/mo is above what most Klaviyo leavers are currently paying. Our ease-of-use score is 6.0/10. This is a platform you commit engineering time to, not one you switch to on a Friday.
Medium
one to two weeks
Medium to hard: flows must be re-expressed as event-driven journeys
From $100/mo
Essentials · 5,000 profiles
Essentials from $100/mo billed monthly for 5,000 profiles, with additional profiles at $0.009 each. Premium from $1,000/mo billed yearly. No free tier, but companies that have raised under $10M can apply for 12 months free through the startup program.
8. HubSpot
HubSpot
When to pick HubSpot over Klaviyo
There is exactly one reason to move from Klaviyo to HubSpot, and it is not price. If your sales team and your marketing team need the same contact record, with deal stages and email history in one object, HubSpot is the only platform on this page that delivers it natively. Starter is $7/mo per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts, and the free tier covers two users.
| Feature | Klaviyo | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Native CRM with deal stages | No | Yes |
| Free tier | 250 profiles / 500 emails | Yes, up to 2 users |
| Entry paid price | Published only after sign-in | $7/mo/seat |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 3.0 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 5.5 / 10 |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for HubSpot: Money, and inbox placement. HubSpot is the only platform on this page that scores — in our database — worse than Klaviyo on pricing value, 3.0 against 3.5, and its deliverability score of 5.5 is 2.5 points below Klaviyo’s. The Starter-to-Professional step is brutal: $7/mo per seat becomes $800/mo the moment you need real marketing automation.
Medium
one to two weeks
Medium to hard: CRM property mapping and flow rebuild both required
From $7/mo/seat
Starter · 1,000 marketing contacts
Free tier for up to 2 users. Starter from $7/mo per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts. Professional from $800/mo with three core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts. Enterprise from $3,600/mo with five seats and 10,000 marketing contacts.
9. Drip
Drip
When to pick Drip over Klaviyo
Klaviyo’s structure is a ladder: capabilities and costs both rise with your profile count. Drip removes the ladder. $39/mo covers 1 to 2,500 people with unlimited email sends, and the published promise is that everything is included at every list size. For a store under 2,500 contacts that wants the full toolset without negotiating a tier, that is the simplest offer on this page.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Drip |
|---|---|---|
| Feature gating by plan | Yes, by tier | None, all features at every size |
| Entry price published | No | Yes, $39/mo |
| Send allowance at entry | Tied to profile tier | Unlimited to 2,500 people |
| Free plan | 250 profiles / 500 emails | None, 14-day trial |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 6.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Drip: Headroom, and agent tooling. The flat rate is flat only to 2,500 people; past that Drip returns to a usage calculator and the simplicity argument weakens. Automation scores 7.5 against Klaviyo’s 9.5, deliverability 6.5 against 8.0, and there is no first-party MCP server, so agent-driven workflows stay out of reach.
Easy
about 3 hours
CSV import plus Shopify reconnect; workflows rebuilt from templates
From $39/mo
Flat · 1 to 2,500 people
No free plan; 14-day trial with no card required, though unlimited sending is not part of the trial. Paid from $39/mo covering 1 to 2,500 people with unlimited email sends and every feature included at every list size.
10. Mailchimp
Mailchimp
When to pick Mailchimp over Klaviyo
Klaviyo scores 6.5/10 on ease of use in our testing; Mailchimp scores 8.5. If the person sending your campaigns is not a marketing engineer, that two-point gap is the whole decision. Mailchimp also matches Klaviyo’s 8.0/10 deliverability and publishes its entry price openly at $13/mo for the 0 to 500 contact tier.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Our ease-of-use score | 6.5 / 10 | 8.5 / 10 |
| Our deliverability score | 8.0 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Entry paid price | Published only after sign-in | $13/mo Essentials |
| Free plan ceiling | 250 profiles / 500 emails | 250 contacts / 500 emails |
| Our automation score | 9.5 / 10 | 6.0 / 10 |
| Our pricing-value score | 3.5 / 10 | 4.5 / 10 |
What you give up by leaving Klaviyo for Mailchimp: Automation, and the free plan is no escape at all. Mailchimp’s free ceiling is the same 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails as Klaviyo’s, so leaving for the free tier buys you nothing. Automation scores 6.0 against 9.5, the Premium tier jumps to $350/mo, and there is no general marketing MCP server — only a transactional guide and a Claude connector.
Easy
about 2 hours
CSV import; audience tags map cleanly, flows rebuilt by hand
From $13/mo
Essentials · 0 to 500 contacts
Free up to 250 contacts with a maximum of 500 emails a month or 250 a day. Essentials from $13/mo, Standard from $20/mo and Premium from $350/mo, all quoted at the 0 to 500 contact tier on 12-month terms.
Read full Mailchimp review
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Klaviyo alternative?
On published entry price, Sender is the cheapest paid plan at $6.30/mo, and it also carries the largest free tier on this page: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month with automation included. Brevo is free forever at 300 emails a day and starts at $9/mo. MailerLite at $10.80/mo billed annually is the cheapest option that still matches Klaviyo’s deliverability score of 8.0/10, which makes it the better buy for anyone sending revenue-carrying campaigns.
Which Klaviyo alternative has the best deliverability?
By our published deliverability scores, ActiveCampaign leads this page at 8.5/10, the only one above Klaviyo’s 8.0. MailerLite, Moosend and Mailchimp all match Klaviyo at 8.0. At the other end, Omnisend scores 5.0 and Sender 5.5, so the two cheapest routes off Klaviyo are also the two that ask the most of your own list hygiene.
Does Klaviyo charge for unsubscribed contacts?
No. Klaviyo’s help centre states that suppressed and unsubscribed profiles “are not included in your billable profile count once they are fully processed as suppressed”, and that deleted profiles stop counting going forward. The caveat is timing: Klaviyo publishes a lag of up to 72 hours before the active profile count refreshes after you suppress, delete or bulk-remove. This is a real difference from platforms that bill on raw list size, and it is a point in Klaviyo’s favour.
Which alternative is closest to Klaviyo for a Shopify store?
Omnisend. It is the only platform here that shares Klaviyo’s shape: contact-tier billing, email and SMS in one product, and a first-party MCP server. It publishes $11.20/mo at 500 contacts against a Klaviyo entry price you cannot see without signing in, and its Pro plan at $41.30/mo removes the send cap entirely. The trade is inbox placement: Omnisend scores 5.0/10 on deliverability against Klaviyo’s 8.0, the largest single-axis drop on this page.
Is any Klaviyo alternative actually a better platform?
Two, on our scoring. Brevo at 7.7/10 and MailerLite at 7.4/10 finish above Klaviyo’s 7.3. The other eight score lower overall and are a deliberate trade of capability for cost. That is the honest framing: they are cheaper platforms, not better ones, and if automation depth is what drives your revenue you should read the ActiveCampaign block before any of the budget options.
Which alternatives have an official MCP server?
Six of the ten: Brevo, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, Omnisend, Customer.io and HubSpot, the last in public beta. Mailchimp is partial — it publishes a Transactional (Mandrill) MCP guide and a Claude connector, but no general marketing server. Sender, Moosend and Drip have no first-party server; community and Zapier-hosted options exist but are not vendor-supported. Klaviyo’s own MCP server is one of the most complete in the category and scores 9.5/10 in our review, so this is a column where leaving usually costs you something.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
