Klaviyo Alternatives for Small Stores: Real Costs at 1,000 and 5,000 Contacts
Independent look at Klaviyo alternatives for stores under 5,000 contacts, with real monthly costs at 1,000 and 5,000 and when to stay on Klaviyo.
In this guide
The best Klaviyo alternatives for a small store are Omnisend if you want similar ecommerce automations for less, MailerLite if you want the lowest bill, and Shopify's built-in Messaging app if your email needs are simple. At 5,000 contacts, Klaviyo's Email plan costs $100 a month, Omnisend's Standard plan costs $81, and MailerLite's Comfort plan costs $49. But the saving is small below 1,000 contacts, so if Klaviyo is already set up and earning, staying is often the right call.
Most pages on this topic are written by Klaviyo's competitors. Sellbino doesn't sell any of these tools, and we haven't tested them ourselves, so this comparison is based on each company's published plans and features.
What Klaviyo costs as of November 2026
These prices come from the plan builder on Klaviyo's pricing page, in US dollars, as of November 2026:
| Active profiles | Email plan per month | Emails a month |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 250 | Free | 500 |
| 500 | $20 | 5,000 |
| 1,000 | $30 | 10,000 |
| 2,500 | $60 | 25,000 |
| 5,000 | $100 | 50,000 |
Klaviyo was also running a first-month discount at the 500-profile level, so check the page for current offers.
Two billing details matter more than the headline price:
- You pay for active profiles. Klaviyo counts people you can reach, and it excludes unsubscribed and suppressed contacts. But its help center says any profile that can be emailed counts, whether or not that person consented to marketing. So importing old customers can raise your bill even if you never email them.
- Your plan doesn't always drop by itself. Klaviyo says the plan doesn't automatically downgrade when you remove profiles, so check your tier after a list clean.
The free plan is fine for a very new store, but it's narrow. It covers 250 profiles and 500 sends, keeps Klaviyo branding in the footer, and limits email support to your first 60 days.
Klaviyo alternatives compared by monthly cost
This is the table most Klaviyo alternatives pages leave out. Each price comes from the vendor's own pricing page as of November 2026, in US dollars, for the lowest plan I'd consider for a store. Prices are monthly billing unless noted.
| Tool and plan | 1,000 contacts | 2,500 contacts | 5,000 contacts | Emails a month at 5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo Email | $30 | $60 | $100 | 50,000 |
| Omnisend Standard | $20 | $44 | $81 | 60,000 |
| MailerLite Comfort | $19 | $33 | $49 | 50,000 |
| Mailchimp Standard | $45 | $60 | $100 | 60,000 |
| Drip | $39 | $39 | $89 | Unlimited |
| ActiveCampaign Starter (billed yearly) | $15 | $39 | $79 | 50,000 |
| ActiveCampaign Plus (billed yearly) | $49 | $95 | $145 | 50,000 |
A few notes on reading that table:
- Mailchimp's price is its regular rate. It was offering 50% off for the first 12 months, so $45 becomes $22.50 and $100 becomes $50 in year one. Its tiers are wider too: the $45 tier runs from 501 to 1,500 contacts.
- Omnisend offers a 30% discount if you pay three months upfront. After that, you're billed the monthly price.
- MailerLite comes to $17.10, $29.70 and $44.10 a month if you pay yearly.
- ActiveCampaign shows yearly billing on its pricing page, so you pay $180 a year for Starter at 1,000 contacts, or $948 at 5,000.
Here's what switching saves over a year compared with staying on Klaviyo:
| Switching to | Saving at 1,000 contacts | Saving at 5,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|
| Omnisend Standard | $120 a year | $228 a year |
| MailerLite Comfort | $132 a year | $612 a year |
| Drip | $108 more expensive | $132 a year |
Omnisend's pricing page advertises saving "up to 35%" against Klaviyo. On these figures, the gap is 33% at 1,000 contacts, 27% at 2,500 and 19% at 5,000. That's still a real saving, but it's smaller at the size where you'd notice it most.
The best Klaviyo alternatives for small ecommerce
Omnisend: the best overall alternative
Omnisend is my pick for most Shopify and WooCommerce stores leaving Klaviyo. It's built for ecommerce in the same way, and its support documentation says automation workflows are included on all plans, with abandoned cart and abandoned checkout presets.
Its Pro plan is also worth checking. At 5,000 contacts it costs $90, just $9 more than Standard, and adds unlimited emails. It's also the plan that shows SMS, from $0.007 a message. Omnisend's free tier matches Klaviyo's at 250 contacts and 500 emails. It also lists free migration within 5 days, which removes much of the pain of moving, though that's the company's own claim.
MailerLite: the cheapest good option
MailerLite is the clear price winner. At 5,000 contacts, it costs less than half of Klaviyo. Its free plan is also more generous, with 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, plus three automations.
There's one catch for Shopify stores. MailerLite's help page on triggers says abandoned cart workflows on Shopify only fire for recognized shoppers who subscribed through a MailerLite form on your store. If cart recovery matters to you, read that page first. It suits WooCommerce stores and sellers whose main need is a newsletter.
Shopify Messaging: the one you may already have
If you're on Shopify, price this first. Shopify's pricing help page includes 10,000 free emails a month, then charges $1 per 1,000. Abandoned checkout emails don't count towards that limit.
Here's an example with four campaigns a month to your full list:
| List size | Emails sent | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 4,000 | $0 |
| 2,500 | 10,000 | $0 |
| 5,000 | 20,000 | $10 (10,000 extra at $1 per 1,000) |
Nothing else here comes close on price. You give up the deeper segmentation of a dedicated tool, but plenty of stores under 5,000 contacts aren't using that anyway. Our email marketing guide shows which basics matter most.
Mailchimp: fine if you already know it
Mailchimp is a recognizable name, and its first-year discount looks good. After that, Standard matches Klaviyo at 2,500 and 5,000 contacts, and costs $15 more at 1,000. For a store, I can't find a price reason to choose it over Omnisend. Its plan comparison lists automation flows on paid plans and leaves them out of Free, so the free plan won't run your recovery emails.
Drip: useful for one specific size
Drip charges one price from 1 to 2,500 people with unlimited sends and a 14-day free trial. That makes it reasonable if you're close to 2,500 and send often. At 1,000 contacts you'd pay $9 more than Klaviyo. Above 2,500, it jumps. There's no free plan.
Brevo: a different pricing model
Brevo prices mainly on email volume rather than list size, and it was listing Starter from $9 a month and Standard from $18 a month. Marketing automation sits on Standard, not Starter, so that's the plan a store would need. It can work for a large list that you email rarely, and prices rise with volume, so I've kept it out of the table.
ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo
The ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo comparison looks closer than it is, because ActiveCampaign's Starter price stands out at $15 for 1,000 contacts. But its feature table shows abandoned cart on every plan, while product catalog blocks and coupons start on Plus. Those are exactly what a store needs, and Plus costs $49 at 1,000 contacts and $145 at 5,000, on yearly billing. That's more than Klaviyo's $30 and $100.
| At 5,000 contacts | ActiveCampaign Plus | Klaviyo Email |
|---|---|---|
| Price per month | $145 (billed yearly) | $100 (monthly) |
| Emails a month | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Abandoned cart | Included | Included through flows |
| Commitment | Paid yearly | Monthly |
ActiveCampaign is a general marketing automation tool, and it makes more sense for a business that sells services or has longer sales conversations. For a product store, Klaviyo wins this matchup on price and focus.
When staying on Klaviyo is the right choice
Most Klaviyo competitors won't tell you this, but moving isn't always worth it. Stay if:
- You're under 1,000 contacts and set up. Saving $10 or $11 a month, about $120 a year, doesn't pay for an afternoon of rebuilding flows and re-testing emails.
- Your flows are earning money. One recovered $50 order a month can cover the difference. Moving risks breaking what works.
- You use its segmentation. If you target by what people bought and how often, keep it. If you send the same email to everyone, you're paying for something you don't use.
- You expect to add SMS. Klaviyo's page listed US toll-free SMS from $0.01 plus carrier fees per send, so it's a reasonable place to combine both.
Leave if your list is approaching 5,000 and you send simple campaigns, since the $51 monthly gap to MailerLite is $612 a year. Also leave if your list is full of old contacts you can't remove without losing them.
Try one thing before switching: clean your list. Removing people who haven't opened anything in a long time can move you down a tier, which might save as much as moving. Going from 2,500 to 1,000 profiles saves $30 a month on Klaviyo with no migration at all.
How to choose in 5 minutes
Stop at the first match:
- On Shopify, under 2,500 contacts, sending simple campaigns? Use Shopify Messaging.
- Want the lowest cost, on WooCommerce or newsletter-led? Use MailerLite.
- Want proper ecommerce automations for less, and over 1,000 contacts? Use Omnisend.
- Already on Klaviyo with working flows, under 1,000 contacts? Stay.
Whichever you choose, set up your abandoned cart emails first, because recovered orders are what pay for the tool. Then count the cost as part of your store budget.
Your next step
Look up your active profile count, then find your row in the table and work out the yearly saving. If it's under $150, stay where you are and spend the time improving your emails. If it's more, sign up for a free tier and rebuild one flow before you cancel anything.
