Klaviyo vs Omnisend: pricing, SMS, flows and which one fits your store

Klaviyo and Omnisend are both built for online stores, which makes this a closer contest than most email tool comparisons. Both connect deeply to Shopify, both ship ready-made ecommerce automations, and both sell text messaging next to email. The differences are in how they bill you, how far each one goes on data and analytics, and how much setup work you want to take on.

This guide puts them side by side so you can decide in one read. Every fact about Klaviyo and Omnisend comes from their own pricing pages and help centers, read in October 2026. Both change plans often, so run your own list size through both pricing pages before you commit.

Klaviyo vs Omnisend at a glance

The short version: Klaviyo goes further on data, predictions and AI agents, and it costs more to grow into. Omnisend covers the core ecommerce jobs with less setup and publishes its starting prices. Most stores can do well with either. The choice comes down to how much you expect to lean on advanced segmentation and analytics.

Pricing: how each one bills

Neither tool charges a flat fee. Both charge more as your list grows, but they count your list differently.

How Klaviyo bills

Klaviyo prices its Profiles & Email plans by active profiles. Its help center says that any profile that can be emailed through Klaviyo, regardless of consent status, counts as active. Suppressed and unsubscribed profiles don't count toward the bill, and a profile with only a phone number doesn't count toward the email plan.

As of October 2026, from Klaviyo's pricing page and billing documentation:

• Free plan: up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, plus $5 of mobile messages and $5 of Composer (Klaviyo's AI marketing agent) usage each month. Email support covers the first 60 days.
• Going over on a paid plan: if your active profiles exceed your tier, you're moved to a tier that fits as of the next billing cycle.
• Going over on the free plan: you aren't upgraded, but you can't send emails or set flow emails live until you're back under the limit.
• Send peaks: you can choose flexible overages (the extra capacity between your tier and the next, for one cycle), an upgrade, or no more sends until the next cycle.
• SMS, MMS and WhatsApp: billed separately from email. You pay for a monthly spend amount that is used up as you send. Rates vary by country, and unused spend doesn't roll over to the next month.
• Extra products: Helpdesk and Customer Agent are priced separately, by ticket and conversation volume. Check the pricing page for current rates.

Klaviyo's pricing page doesn't print a price list for paid plans. You enter your profile count into a calculator, so that is the only way to see your number.

How Omnisend bills

Omnisend bills on billable contacts: subscribers (people who opted in to email, SMS or push) plus non-subscribers (people who gave an email or phone number through an order or an abandoned checkout without opting in). Its help center says, "Only unsubscribed contacts (those who opted out) are excluded from billing." Non-subscribers count because they still receive automated messages such as cart reminders.

As of October 2026, from Omnisend's pricing page and help center:

• Free: $0, no card. Up to 500 emails a month to at most 250 contacts. Omnisend branding is required.
• Standard: starts at $16 a month. Email sends are capped at 12 times your billable contacts each cycle. Includes unlimited web push and 24/7 support.
• Pro: starts at $59 a month. Unlimited email under a fair-use policy, unlimited web push, and Omnisend's advanced AI features (dynamic content, product recommendations).
• Custom: for more than 150,000 active profiles, by quote.
• Discount: the pricing page offers 30% off if you pay three months upfront, then bills monthly.
• Hitting the limit on Standard: campaigns stop sending, and contacts who trigger automations are removed from workflows until the cycle renews or you upgrade.

What this means for your bill

• With Klaviyo, anyone you can email counts, and unsubscribed or suppressed profiles drop out.
• With Omnisend, buyers who never opted in to marketing still count, because Omnisend sends them automated messages. A store with many one-time guest buyers can see a billable count well above its subscriber count.

Either way, the lever you control is list hygiene. Suppress or remove people who haven't opened in months. Our guide to email list cleaning covers how to do that without losing good customers.

Free plans compared

Both free plans cover 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, which is enough to test the editor and set up a welcome email, not to run a store's email program.

Klaviyo's free plan includes web forms, the drag-and-drop editor, an AI subject line generator, basic segmentation, campaign revenue attribution and a small Composer allowance. Omnisend's free plan includes campaigns and automation, and its FAQ says it includes segmentation plus AI help with subject lines and copy, with Omnisend branding on your emails.

Practically, pick the one whose editor and flow builder you like, and expect to move to a paid plan once your list passes a few hundred people.

SMS and push: theirs, and what it costs

Text messaging is a big part of why stores compare these two.

Klaviyo sells SMS and MMS (plus WhatsApp and RCS) as a separate monthly spend amount that is used up as you send. Carrier fees are included in the rate, and unused spend doesn't roll over. Klaviyo also offers mobile app push for stores with their own app.

Omnisend changed its SMS model in 2026. Its help center says that SMS isn't available on Free or Standard for new subscribers. Customers with an SMS subscription from before May 4, 2026 can keep it at legacy rates. New customers get SMS on Pro through an SMS Credits Subscription. As of October 2026, US rates run from $0.009 down to $0.007 per message depending on monthly spend, and unused credits expire after 60 days. For new Pro customers, SMS is bought separately from the plan, with no SMS credits included. Web push notifications are included on paid plans.

If SMS is central to your plan, compare real numbers: your expected monthly texts, the country mix, and whether you need a paid tier just to unlock SMS (Omnisend Pro) or a separate monthly SMS spend (Klaviyo).

Shopify and store data

Both tools have official Shopify apps and use store data heavily.

Klaviyo and Shopify

Klaviyo's Shopify integration brings customer profiles and orders into Klaviyo. With the app embed turned on, it tracks Viewed Product and Active on Site by default, and you can enable Added to Cart, Viewed Collection and Submitted Search. It can sync international Markets catalogs, and it can sync profile data back to Shopify: subscription status, email and SMS events, and custom profile properties.

Omnisend and Shopify

Omnisend's help center says orders, cart updates and customer actions sync within about three minutes. Profile updates take about an hour, and tag changes about 24 hours. Email subscription status syncs back to Shopify, but SMS subscription status doesn't. Omnisend can also sync Shopify segments and works with Shopify Flow.

Which goes deeper?

Both are deep enough for standard ecommerce email. Klaviyo uses the data for more advanced things on top, such as predictions and RFM analysis, covered below. If you're also weighing Shopify Messaging (formerly Shopify Email), our list of the best email marketing apps for Shopify covers it.

Flows and segmentation

Automation

Both tools ship ready-made versions of the core store flows: welcome, browse abandonment, abandoned cart or checkout, post-purchase and win-back. Omnisend's pricing table lists email automation, pre-built ecommerce workflows, custom events, automation splits and A/B testing on all plans. Its automation covers SMS and push as well as email. Klaviyo's flows are triggered by behavior and can branch on profile and order data. Klaviyo's Composer can draft a flow from a prompt.

If you're mapping out which flows to build first, see our guide to ecommerce email flows.

Segmentation

Klaviyo segments are dynamic and can use all-time data. Its predictive analytics add predicted customer lifetime value, churn risk and expected next order date. These have a threshold: Klaviyo's help center requires at least 500 customers who have placed an order, at least 180 days of order history with orders in the last 30 days, and some customers with three or more orders. RFM reports are gated behind a Marketing Analytics or Advanced KDP subscription.

Omnisend lists unlimited segmentation on all plans, with pre-built segments for things like first-time and repeat buyers. Its Customer Breakdown groups customers by recency, frequency and spend into stages such as "Champions" and "About to Lose", and each stage can be saved as a segment. Its AI segment builder turns a plain-language description into a segment and shows a preview of who matches.

Here's an example of a segment worth building in either tool. Say you sell coffee. Target "bought at least twice, last order 45 to 90 days ago, never opened a win-back email". That's a group whose bag is probably running out.

AI features

Klaviyo groups its AI under K:AI. Composer is a marketing agent that turns an idea into a campaign or flow and can answer questions from your data. Customer Agent is an AI customer service agent that is billed separately. Klaviyo also lists predicted CLV, churn risk, an AI image editor called Image Remix, and an MCP server that connects AI tools to your Klaviyo data.

Omnisend's AI page lists a Forms AI assistant, AI copywriting suggestions, AI subject lines and preheaders, brand assets import, the AI segment builder, a personalized product recommender, dynamic content, and an MCP connection for asking questions of your data. By plan, its help center says Pro includes the advanced AI features. Standard can buy personalized content or send time as add-ons.

In short, Klaviyo is pushing toward agents that build whole campaigns. Omnisend focuses on AI helpers inside forms, segments and the editor.

Which should you choose?

Choose Klaviyo if

• You have, or soon will have, enough order history to use predictive analytics and RFM.
• You want very flexible segments and flows, and someone on the team has time to learn them.
• You want email, SMS, WhatsApp and a helpdesk from one vendor.
• You're comfortable with a pricing calculator and a bill that rises with your active profiles.

Choose Omnisend if

• You want the core ecommerce flows running quickly with less configuration.
• You like seeing published starting prices and 24/7 support on every plan.
• You want web push included, and email, SMS and push in one workflow.
• Your plan for SMS fits Omnisend Pro, or you don't need SMS at all.

By store stage

• Just launching: both free plans cap you at 250 contacts and 500 emails. Choose by editor preference.
• Growing, under a few thousand contacts: Omnisend is often simpler to run. Check how many non-subscribed buyers would count toward your bill.
• Established, with repeat buyers: Klaviyo's predictions and segment depth start to pay off once you pass its data thresholds.

A third option: EterMail

EterMail is our product, so read this section with that in mind. It isn't a copy of either tool. It works differently in two ways.

• AI drafts, a person approves. EterMail learns your brand, products and voice from your website and store, then drafts campaigns and flows (welcome, browse abandonment, abandoned checkout, post-purchase, win-back, custom events). By default, nothing sends until someone approves it. AI can also make the pictures: on-brand banners, or scenes built from your real product photo, with an optional short greeting.
• You pay per email, not per contact. 1,000 credits are $1, and a marketing email costs 2 credits, about $2 per 1,000 emails. Plans run from Free ($0, 1,000 credits, up to 1,000 contacts, no card) to Starter $19, Growth $49, Pro $149 and Ultra $299.
• Shopify through a read-only custom app that syncs customers, consent, orders, products and open checkouts every 15 minutes.

Where it falls short: EterMail has no SMS or push, it isn't listed in the Shopify App Store, and it has nothing like Klaviyo's predictive analytics. If those matter, Klaviyo or Omnisend is the better fit. For direct comparisons, see EterMail as a Klaviyo alternative and EterMail as an Omnisend alternative.

FAQ

Is Omnisend cheaper than Klaviyo?

Often, at small and mid-size lists, but it depends on who counts. Omnisend publishes starting prices ($16 for Standard and $59 for Pro as of October 2026) and counts non-subscribed buyers who receive automated messages. Klaviyo uses a calculator and counts every emailable profile. Enter your own numbers into both pricing pages to compare.

Is Omnisend as good as Klaviyo for Shopify?

For the core flows, such as welcome, abandoned checkout and post-purchase, both work well with Shopify, and Omnisend is usually quicker to set up. Klaviyo goes further with predictive analytics, RFM reports and data sync back to Shopify. Most small stores won't miss Klaviyo's extras early on.

Can I switch from Klaviyo to Omnisend?

Yes. Omnisend lists free migration on all plans, and its help center has a guide for moving SMS and email from another platform. Plan the switch so your flows don't double-send. Turn off the old abandoned checkout flow before the new one goes live, and confirm your domain authentication carries over.

Does Omnisend still include SMS on every plan?

No. As of October 2026, Omnisend's help center says SMS isn't available on Free or Standard for new subscribers. New customers get SMS on Pro through an SMS Credits Subscription. Accounts with an SMS subscription from before May 4, 2026 can keep it at legacy rates.

Does Klaviyo charge for unsubscribed contacts?

No. Klaviyo's help center says unsubscribed and suppressed profiles don't count toward your Profiles & Email plan. Suppressing profiles doesn't lower your tier automatically, though. You choose a lower tier or turn on auto-downgrade where it's available.