4 Best Klaviyo Alternatives (July 2022) – Detailed Comparison
So you’re looking for Klaviyo alternatives? You’re not alone.
Although it’s a good marketing platform, the recent changes to its pricing made many marketers question whether investing in this tool is the right thing to do.
And the truth is, there are many other great marketing automation platforms out there. Some of those are more affordable, while others may simply be a better fit for your business.
To help you make the best decision, we’ve looked at the top Klaviyo alternatives and carefully reviewed the four of the most popular ones.
The Klaviyo alternatives we analyzed include:
- GetResponse
- Mailchimp
- ActiveCampaign
- AWeber
Our criteria in the search for the alternative platform for Klaviyo is based on:
- User-friendliness and customer support – how easy is it to start with and use the platform
- What industries are more suitable for what alternative
- Price – The best value for your specific needs
- Features and updates – Best features that platforms offer to help your business
If you are in a hurry, here’s the shortest go-to suggestion list for Klaviyo alternatives
If you are in a hurry, here’s the shortest go-to suggestion list for Klaviyo alternatives
- GetResponse – Marketing automation platform that supports you on every step with truly multi-channel marketing campaigns using popups, email marketing, ecommerce automation, transactional emails, SMS, landing pages, live chats, webinars, and PPC campaigns.
- Mailchimp – Popular marketing platform, particularly used by companies that are just starting out. Great for running email marketing campaigns, landing pages, managing leads in CRM, and running social ads.
- ActiveCampaign – Robust marketing automation platform best fit for advanced B2B brands that focus mostly on lead nurturing and sales-driven campaigns.
- AWeber – A reliable marketing platform that’s great for small businesses, creative industries, and content creators for gaining and retaining a trusted following.
Take GetResponse for a 100% free spin with our free-forever account. No credit card needed.
Table Of Contents
Klaviyo – an overview
It is well known that Klaviyo is an excellent tool for the ecommerce business. Retailers on Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento often trust Klaviyo with their email marketing campaigns.
However, Klaviyo is not a good fit for everyone. Most reviewers find Klaviyo’s pricing, the complexity of their tools, and email builder to be a deal-breaker.
Also, although it’s often referred to as a marketing automation tool, its capabilities are limited only to email and SMS marketing. If you’d like to promote your business using other marketing channels, you’d need to integrate Klaviyo with yet another tool and pay for it separately.
When we were testing the platform, we experienced difficulties when trying to build our newsletter. For example, when we tried to add a new block to an already created template, we had to edit it first separately. It took us a lot of time to do this.
Even if you are a skilled email marketing specialist and have some knowledge of HTML, this process will take a lot of your time.
Compared to other tools we’ve reviewed below, we noticed that Klaviyo doesn’t put much emphasis on the visual aspects of your campaigns. That means neither their email templates, the email builder, or the user interface are particularly pleasant to work with.
Before we dig into Klaviyo alternatives, there are some features that we like in Klaviyo.
Let’s see what’s good and what is troubling with this software.
What we like in Klaviyo:
- Focused attention to returning customers – Those categorized as VIP are the buyers that spend the most in your shop. You can keep them engaged by offering the first look at your products with an option to purchase first.
- Event creating – Direct your attention toward frequent buyers by offering special discounts or coupons.
- Attribution and analytics – Klaviyo has in-depth, comprehensive analytics for each campaign, which helps you quickly identify the ROI from your email and SMS marketing campaigns.
- Simple popup forms design – Drag and drop builder is intuitive and straightforward; you can create popups and forms in a couple of minutes.
- Integrations – Seamless integration with ecommerce marketing platforms, including Shopify.
What we don’t like in Klaviyo:
- Price – In comparison to other alternatives that offer similar features, Klaviyo is more expensive.
- No landing page builder – This is a massive disadvantage of Klaviyo. Landing pages are included in other platforms and are available in both free trials and free packages.
- Adding columns into existing blocks is complicated – instead of just moving and dropping newly created blocks in your email template, you have to edit them first. It feels like you need to take an HTML programming course to know how to use the platform and effectively design your emails.
Klaviyo pricing
Klaviyo offers a free trial that includes up to 250 contacts, 500 emails, 150 SMS messages and email support.
We used their calculator to estimate the price for 1,000 emails.
For the list of 1,000 contacts, your monthly cost would be $45.
If you add SMS service, the cost grows to $60 for 1,250 SMS.
When you’re just starting out, the price difference between Klaviyo and its competitors isn’t big. Often it’s just $10 to $15 difference. But once your list grows, the gap widens.
So, for example, for 100,000 contacts, Klaviyo would cost you $1,440 (just emails), while the GetResponse Ecommerce Marketing plan would be $699.
Our intention is not to slay Klaviyo but to present better and more affordable options for your particular use case. So let’s take an in-depth look at different Klaviyo alternatives and see if they’re the right fit for you.
Read more: Best marketing automation apps for Shopify stores
Klaviyo alternative #1 – GetResponse
We are proud to say that this is our tool. But we are also honored to say that we are persistent in understanding our users better, and constant improvements are the priority.
However, although this is our software, we will be objective and honest while evaluating it. We want you to find the best Klaviyo alternative for your use case.
What is GetResponse?
GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that supports you on every step with truly multi-channel marketing campaigns using popups, email marketing, ecommerce automation, transactional emails, SMS, landing pages, live chats, webinars, and PPC campaigns.
Advantages of GetResponse:
- Marketing Automation – GetResponse analyzes your customers` activity and behavior to help you adjust, change or rebuild new automation. You can customize your emails based on the results and better target your audience.
- Advanced functionalities – AI recommendations for emails and websites, SMS marketing automation, web push notifications.
- Building and Personalizing Emails – Its drag and drop feature allows everyone to create beautiful and engaging emails, and the best part is that you don’t need to know much about HTML or coding to build an email template.
- Automated Email Responses – You can schedule email sending by selecting the time zone. Emails will be delivered at the right time, and your audience will appreciate the extra attention. This will also help you to scale your campaign.
- Easy to use – The platform is straightforward to use. It is an entirely drag-and-drop set. The best part is if you have questions, the availability of the webinars, help center or customer support is just one click of the button away.
- Updated templates – In selecting hundreds of modern prebuilt email, popup, and landing page templates, you can find a perfect match for your business and personal style. Categories to choose from are endless; from fitness to retail, marketing to beauty, webinars, or agencies.
- Social sharing – Plug and play buttons are available for sharing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Shortcomings of GetResponse:
- Needs more integrations – Although GetResponse has some impressive app integrations (including Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and Magento), it still lacks some important ones. But it’s easily solvable through Zapier or other APIs.
GetResponse pricing
We offer five pricing plans. Depending on your list size and feature needs, the price varies from $0 (the Free plan is free forever) for up to 500 contacts, through $15 per month for the list size of 1000 contacts in the Email marketing package, $49 for Marketing automation plan, $99 per month for 1000 contacts for a Ecommerce marketing package, and for a flexible plan, there is a MAX package.
We are supporting non-profit organizations by offering up to a 50% special discount. We consider this to be a small contribution to more significant purposes.
Who should step away from Klaviyo and join GetResponse
- Growing ecommerce businesses that are looking for multichannel capabilities like live chats, web push notifications, websites, SMS, or webinars.
- Advertising companies that need a bulk of content daily with fast and easy landing pages builder to correspond with considerable demand.
- IT companies looking to scale their services and build relations with their users.
- Online schools and course companies looking for a comprehensive sales funnel solution, comprehensive analytics, and 24/7 support.
- Entrepreneurs and business owners looking for a complete marketing solution software to build audiences and email campaigns with precise analytics to support their growth.
We combined reviewers’ scores from different software testing platforms in four categories: user/customer friendliness, price, features, and email open rates to calculate overall platform scores. Finally, we presented the results with a simple graph.
Klaviyo alternative #2 – Mailchimp
Mailchimp has been a standard for email marketing for decades. In 2019 they announced platform expansion from a simple email platform to an automated email marketing tool.
We signed up for their free plan to test out the features and innovations. There were some features that we loved, and there are some that we considered outdated and confusing.
What we like in Mailchimp:
- User/customer friendliness – Mailchimp is an award-winning platform in the support category. They offer 24/7 support in addition to complete tutorials on how to use the platform.
- AI-powered Creative Assistant – This feature will help you with all designing you undertake, email templates, newsletters, and landing pages.
- Free of charge to get you started – Instead of the classic free trial, Mailchimp offers a free plan. The idea is to attract marketers and beginners to get them started with campaigns if their budget is limited or none.
- Email builder – Builder is relatively simple, but a lot can be done to improve it. The available templates are beneficial if you are out of ideas and are not a pro in coding.
- Integrations – Mailchimp integrated with 250+ apps. LinkedIn, Facebook, WordPress, Instagram, etc.
- Ecommerce Automation – Targeting messages based on customers’ behavior. Mailchimp is integrated with WooCommerce, ShopSync, Magento, and BigCommerce.
What we don’t like in Mailchimp:
- Automation needs improvement – It might sound like nitpicking, but Mailchimp has limitations automation-wise. For example, once the automation is applied to a subscriber`s single email address, it cannot be used again.
Mailchimp pricing
Besides the free plan, Mailchimp offers three additional options to choose from. Each plan is priced for the lists with up to 2 000 contacts and 10000 emails (with the daily limit of 2000 sent emails per day), but let’s get into more details regarding each plan.
Here’s where our confusion kicked in. They presented the Essentials plan as an email sending plan, and their new features are barely included in the Standard plan. The premium plan includes all the features, but you will have to break the bank and pay $299 per month for 200,000 contacts. The main difference between the packages is in the number of contacts and audiences.
Who should step away from Klaviyo and join Mailchimp
- Small businesses that only need complimentary email sending software for the lowest price on the market.
- Healthcare, telecommunications, and utility industries with up 100,000 contacts to keep them engaged with newsletters and promotional materials.
- Those who are looking into creating their first email marketing campaign for free and don’t mind the limitations that come with the free plan.
Regardless of some issues with Mailchimp, they have been around for a long time.
Mailchimp was a standard for decades, and this graph proves that their huge user base is admirable in every way. Mailchimp scored better than Klaviyo in 3 out of 4 categories: user/customer friendliness, features, and price.
Klaviyo alternative #3 – ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform. It offers pre-built automation for email marketing and CRM to help you personalize your campaign across messaging, social, chat, text and email.
ActiveCampaign is integrated with 850+ apps, including Microsoft, Shopify, Facebook, and Salesforce.
What we like in ActiveCampaign:
- Precise targeting – You can target your audience by messaging them through integrated apps and direct their attention toward your product or service.
- Create guidance for your customers – You can create educational materials for your products and services and help your customers understand how to use them.
- Free migration – Transition from other platforms is free of charge.
- Training and Support – The platform offers complementary training to educate you on how to use its features.
- Email campaigns – Campaigns are easy to create and personalize. Even with automation, you still have control over your emails. For example, if you are a retailer, you can customize triggered emails based on product purchases or website visits.
What we don’t like in ActiveCampaign:
- Slow interface – Extensive libraries of images, forms, and features come with the price. Loading images and forms takes forever.
- Price – We admire ActiveCampaign`s features, but their starting package is $25 per month for 1000 contacts. Features included with this package are extremely limited. For example, you can send emails and newsletters, so why would you pay $25 monthly when you can do that with free tools or for a more cost-effective price with other platforms.
ActiveCampaign pricing
Four packages are available on the platform with no setup fee. Plans are priced based on the number of contacts.
Other than the price, we don’t like the limitations of the Light package. Most automations are limited, and landing pages are unavailable.
Who should step away from Klaviyo and join ActiveCampaign
- Small and Midsize businesses that can afford the Plus package will appreciate integrations with social media apps and easy-to-build email campaigns.
- Professional training and coaching companies might appreciate integrations with video apps. This can help them with the following on social media and YouTube as well.
- Health, Wellness, and Fitness companies would appreciate broadcast emails to promote special offers and deals.
- Everyone who is focused on customer acquisition would benefit from the email autoresponders feature. Automatic welcoming emails are just one of the conveniences that break the ice with the new subscribers.
Klaviyo alternative #4 – AWeber
AWeber is a small business’s favorite. Their interface is simple, but it is a powerful email marketing software. It is integrated with 1000+ apps and software for seamless template building.
What we like in AWeber:
- Canva integration – A massive image library within the software for endless design options. The drag and drop feature for the email template builder works excellent. We haven’t experienced any loading issues.
- Free migration – A lovely welcoming gesture, AWeber will help you with moving your contacts for free, and additionally, instruct you how to proceed with their platform.
- End-to-end assurance for email delivery – AWeber guarantees that your email will be delivered. Their automation will analyze your customers` IP addresses and domains to check if these are valid.
- Pre-built campaigns are great for those who don’t enjoy designing their templates, even with a drag and drop feature.
- Excellent customer support – Very responsive and helpful, the award for best customer support went into the right hands.
What we don’t like in AWeber:
- Limited packages – Only two packages are available, Free and Pro. The price is based on the number of subscribers, and the free package is extremely limited in available features.
- Limited number of channels supported – AWeber focuses on email marketing and landing pages and doesn’t offer as many marketing channels as other alternatives to Klaviyo.
AWeber pricing
We wanted to calculate monthly expenses for the list of 1000 contacts. However, we couldn’t do that in the AWeber`s calculator. The closest option was to select 501-2500 subscribers bar. This will cost you $25.15 per month for up to 2500 subscribers, but at least you can use all the features.
Who should step away from Klaviyo and join AWeber
- The marketing and Advertising business could benefit from thousands of stock images, each email campaign will be unique, and you don’t have to worry about being repetitive in your design.
- Health, Wellness, and Fitness companies could benefit from the multi-user account manager. If your business has segments under one roof, everyone with permission can use the same account.
- Professional Training & Coaching could benefit from direct integrations with PayPal and Shopify. It would be a piece of cake to sell your books or courses.
- Information Technology and Services could better present their services and demonstrate the features with video landing pages.
- Entrepreneurs and businesses that focus on customer success could benefit from simplified reporting regarding email and website tracking tools.
- Beginners who need 24/7 support and consultations to create their first email campaign.
The final feature overview
Evaluation | Klaviyo | GetResponse | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign | AWeber |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ease of Use | 3.5 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.8 |
Feature Score | 4.4 | 5 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4 |
Customer Support | 4.7 | 5 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.9 |
Ability to create perfect landing pages | 4 | 5 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 4.8 |
Pricing | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
TOTAL SCORE | 3.92 | 4.96 | 4.54 | 4.22 | 4.3 |
Pricing | Klaviyo | GetResponse | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign | AWeber |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Plan | Based on list size, e.g.: $45/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | $15/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | $9.99/mo for up to 500 subscribers | $25/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | No |
Medium Plan | $49/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | $14.99/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | $49/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | No | |
Pro Plan | No | $99/mo for up to 1000 subscribers | $299/mo for up to 10.000 subscribers | $279/mo for up to 10.000 subscribers | $19.99/mo for up to 500 subscribers |
25,000 subscriber list in the middle package | $425/mo | $179/mo | $230/mo | $319/mo | $149/mo |
Use cases | Klaviyo | GetResponse | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign | AWeber |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for | Retailer and ecommerce merchants looking for email and SMS automation for e-stores | Growing ecommerce businesses and B2B brands that require a marketing automation platform with multi-channel capabilities | Beginner/small companies looking to create simple email campaigns for free and scale as they grow | Mid-sized B2B and ecommerce companies to automate customer experience | Beginners and small companies looking to automate and nurture customer relationships |
Features | Klaviyo | GetResponse | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign | AWeber |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Email marketing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Autoresponder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Transactional Emails | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Landing Pages | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Popups | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Web Push Notifications | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Webinars | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Paid Ads | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Marketing Automation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Popups and Forms | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Live chats | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
The bottom line – what’s the best Klaviyo alternative for you?
Go for AWeber:
- If you are a small business and are fighting for your place under the business sky.
- If you are offering services and need an easy tool to get you started.
- If your budget is limited or none.
Go for ActiveCampaign:
- If you are a B2B company getting ready to expand and need to align your sales and marketing teams.
- If you are focusing on customer retention and lead nurturing.
- If your business depends on customer relations.
Go for Mailchimp:
- If you need a simple tool to create an email marketing campaign.
- If you are looking to simplify marketing processes.
- If you want a trustworthy and responsive partner.
- If you want a cost-effective platform with simple features.
Go for GetResponse:
- If you are in the process of scaling your ecommerce business and need more multichannel capabilities.
- If you are looking into spreading your products and services globally and need a multi-language platform.
- If you want complete sales funnel automation, 30 conversion-optimized scenarios are pre-built and professionally designed. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.
- If you want a cost-effective and scalable platform.
- If you want to engage with your customers, a webinar builder is a perfect tool to record your content or go live.
Author’s note: This comparison is accurate on July 20th, 2022. We do our best to keep it as accurate as possible, and we check it on a regular basis, however, if you want to acquaint yourself with the offer of our competitors, you should check it at their official website or contact their representatives.