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A shop's email list is meant to be its cheapest way to sell again, until the Klaviyo invoice grows faster than the list. Since February 2025, Klaviyo has charged for every profile it can email, and on a Shopify shop that includes people who bought once and never ticked the marketing box. For a UK shop the bill comes in US dollars, sometimes with VAT added, and texts cost extra by the message.
What is email and SMS marketing software for Shopify?
It's the app that turns visitors and buyers into a list. It collects sign-ups through pop-ups and forms, reads orders from Shopify, and sends newsletters (campaigns) and automatic messages (flows) such as a welcome email, an abandoned basket reminder and a thank-you after an order. Some send texts as well. Shopify has its own, Shopify Messaging, which was called Shopify Email until it added SMS in December 2025. Klaviyo is the best-known app beyond it, rated 4.7 from 3,372 reviews on the Shopify App Store in October 2026.
Why are shops looking for Klaviyo alternatives?
Because the way Klaviyo bills changed. From 18 February 2025, every plan has had to cover all of an account's active profiles, and Klaviyo counts any profile it can email as active, including customers added at checkout who never opted in. Accounts over their limit move up a tier at the next billing cycle. Existing customers had the rise capped at 25%, a cap Shopifreaks called "for now" in January 2025. In the UK, "klaviyo pricing" is searched about 880 times a month and "klaviyo alternatives" 70 (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026).
What does it cost over a year, and what's the catch?
For a shop with 5,000 subscribers, a year of email in October 2026 runs from about $120 on Shopify Messaging (sending four campaigns a month) to $588 on MailerLite, $972 on Omnisend, Ad$1,080 on 
PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → and $1,200 on Klaviyo. All bill in US dollars, so the pound cost moves: Klaviyo's $1,200 came to about £907 at the Bank of England's rate for 9 October 2026. Klaviyo adds UK VAT for customers who aren't VAT registered (Klaviyo); registered businesses handle it under the reverse charge.
The catch is the word "subscribers". Klaviyo counts everyone it can email, so a shop with 5,000 subscribers and 3,000 customers who never opted in has 8,000 active profiles: $150 a month, or $1,800 a year, unless it suppresses the extra 3,000 (Klaviyo). Texts come on top, priced per message.
The short answer: a new or small shop on a paid Shopify plan can cover the basics with Shopify Messaging, which includes 10,000 emails a month and doesn't charge for abandoned-checkout emails. Omnisend is the closest like-for-like Klaviyo alternative, a little cheaper at 5,000 contacts and cheaper per UK text. Klaviyo still earns its price for shops that use its segments and forecasts. PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → suits shops whose first job is growing the list: pop-ups and email together from Ad$30 a month for 1,500 contacts, charged only for people who opted in, though it can't text UK numbers yet. More tools are on our email marketing software page.
Klaviyo alternatives side by side
Prices are the cheapest paid month in October 2026, in US dollars before VAT unless shown in pounds.
| Tool | Who it suits | Free plan | Paid from | Texts to UK numbers | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Messaging | New and small Shopify shops | 10,000 emails a month | $1 per 1,000 extra emails | $0.06 each | Needs a paid Shopify plan |
| Klaviyo | Shops that live in their data | 250 profiles, 500 emails | $20 for 500 profiles | About $0.06 each | Charges for every profile it can email |
| Omnisend | Klaviyo-style flows for less | 250 contacts, 500 emails | $16 for 500 contacts | $0.035 to $0.045, Pro plan only | Charges for non-subscribers sent automated emails |
| PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → | Shops growing a list with pop-ups | None, 15-day trial | Ad$30 for 1,500 contacts; pop-ups only $24 | Not yet | Pop-ups switch off when the trial ends |
| Mailchimp | Shops already using it | Up to 250 contacts | £9.90 for 500 contacts | Paid add-on, from a phone number | Overages billed automatically |
| MailerLite | Email on a tight budget | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails | $12 for 500 subscribers | Not on its marketing plans | Shopify app rated 2.4 from 27 reviews |
| Drip | Email-only shops wanting unlimited sends | None, 14-day trial | $39 for 2,500 people | None | Highest starting price here |
List size changes the answer more than anything else, so I'd like to know where readers' lists are.
What does each cost at 5,000 and 25,000 subscribers?
By 25,000 subscribers the gap passes $200 a month, and how each tool counts contacts matters as much as its price. These are each vendor's own prices for that list size in October 2026; Shopify Messaging assumes four campaigns a month to the whole list.
| Tool | 5,000 subscribers | 25,000 subscribers | What it charges for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Messaging | About $10 | About $90 | Emails beyond 10,000 a month |
| MailerLite (Comfort) | $49 | $179 | Subscribers |
| Omnisend (Standard) | $81 | $282 | Contacts it sends to, not unsubscribes |
| Omnisend (Pro, with texts) | $90 | $400 | The same |
| Drip | $89 | $369 | People on the list |
| PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → | $90 | $390 | Contacts who opted in |
| Klaviyo | $100 | $400 | Every profile it can email |
| Mailchimp (Standard) | £76.13 | £235.99 | Contacts |
At 25,000, Klaviyo's $4,800 a year is about £3,630. Omnisend's Standard plan saves $118 a month, or nothing once you want its texts. PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → doesn't count contacts "who have not explicitly opted into your marketing" (AdPrivy), so for a shop carrying thousands of checkout-only customers in Klaviyo, the real gap may be wider than the table shows. Shopify Messaging charges by email sent rather than list size, so emailing 25,000 people twice a month costs about $40.
What does a small shop actually need?
Four things do most of the work: a sign-up form or pop-up, a welcome email, an abandoned basket reminder and a follow-up after an order. Omnisend's pricing page, for one, lists ready-made workflows for exactly these. What dearer plans add is depth, such as Klaviyo's predicted customer lifetime value and finer segments, which Matt Walsh of Style Factory says come with a steeper learning curve (September 2026; the review carries affiliate links). His verdict is that Omnisend suits most small and mid-sized shops, with Klaviyo the better fit "when you need to take things further".
My view is that a shop under a few thousand subscribers will feel the gap between a good welcome email and a lazy one far more than the gap between these tools.
Is Shopify Messaging enough?
For many small shops, yes. Shopify Messaging comes with the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans: 10,000 emails a month, then $1 per 1,000 (Shopify). Abandoned-checkout emails are free and don't count; its other automations do, and go only to customers subscribed to marketing (Shopify). The app is rated 4.8 from 4,644 reviews and bills in US dollars, and sign-up forms come from the free Shopify Forms app.
George Vlasyev compares it with Klaviyo on ease, features, price and support, noting that Klaviyo's free plan gets email support only for its first 60 days (his description carries affiliate links to both).
Who it suits: shops on a paid Shopify plan sending a few campaigns a month.
Less suited to: shops that want detailed segments and forecasts.
Price: 10,000 emails a month included, then $1 per 1,000 in October 2026; texts to UK numbers $0.06 each (Shopify).
Klaviyo: is it worth the price?
It is if you'll use the depth. Klaviyo is here because it's the tool the others are measured against: email and texts in one place, with detailed segments and a forecast of what each customer is likely to spend. Its UK page shows prices in dollars: $20 a month for 500 active profiles, $150 for 10,000 (Klaviyo).
The figure to watch is active profiles. Suppressed profiles don't count towards the bill, but a suppressed customer who later checks out "will remain suppressed and ineligible to receive any marketing emails" unless they resubscribe (Klaviyo). Boyuan Zhao, who sells email audits, explains the February 2025 change and builds a segment of people sent at least ten emails in 180 days who opened none, ready to suppress.
Two weeks before the change, one r/Klaviyo poster with 2,100 subscribers found 13,000 more profiles that had never subscribed. A Klaviyo chat agent told them those are charged because abandoned-basket and post-purchase flows can reach them; one reply warned against suppressing people still engaging with the brand.
Texts are priced in dollars per message, carrier fees included (Klaviyo), and customer data is hosted in the US on Amazon Web Services, under the UK Extension to the Data Privacy Framework (Klaviyo).
Who it suits: shops with tens of thousands of customers who'll use segments, forecasts and texts together.
Less suited to: small shops paying for checkout customers they never market to.
Price: $100 a month for 5,000 active profiles and $400 for 25,000 in October 2026, plus UK VAT for buyers who aren't VAT registered (Klaviyo).
Omnisend vs Klaviyo: is Omnisend cheaper?
A little, and more so without texts. Omnisend is here because it's the switch most people discussing Klaviyo's prices mention. Its Pro plan adds texts and unlimited email, it bills in US dollars, and its rule is close to Klaviyo's (Omnisend): you pay for "subscribers and non-subscribers who received automated messages", though not for unsubscribed contacts. Texts to UK numbers cost $0.045 each at low volume, falling to $0.035. Omnisend is a Lithuanian company with a UK subsidiary in London, and says it normally processes data in the European Economic Area (Omnisend). It's rated 4.7 from 3,188 reviews on the Shopify App Store.
Switching splits the people who've done it. In an r/Klaviyo thread started by a shop with 135,000 active profiles and a bill of "over $2,000" with VAT, most replies said to clean the list first. One user who had moved to Omnisend found it cheaper but said "you lose out on more than you save", and went back; others recommended Omnisend, and some suggested Brevo because it charges by emails sent.
Who it suits: small and mid-sized shops that want Klaviyo-style flows for a little less.
Less suited to: shops that want texts on the cheaper plan.
Price: Standard $81 and Pro $90 a month for 5,000 contacts in October 2026 (Omnisend).
Privy: when growing the list comes first
PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → is here because it starts where a shop's list starts, with the sign-up pop-up. Its Pop-ups & Displays plan, from $24 a month for up to 10,000 page views, can sit in front of Shopify's own email or Klaviyo (AdPrivy), sending sign-ups one way into Klaviyo lists (Privy). Its Email plan adds email and texts: $30 a month for up to 1,500 contacts, with unlimited sends and 250 text credits a month. Privy says contacts "who have not explicitly opted into your marketing are not factored into your price", the opposite of Klaviyo's rule.
Privy's own walkthrough shows a display being built: a template and layout (pop-up, flyout, bar or full screen), a phone preview, one of the shop's own discount codes as the sign-up reward and the rules for who sees it.
The limits matter for a UK shop. Its text estimator lists the UK as "Coming soon" (AdPrivy). It bills in US dollars, uninstalling the app doesn't cancel the plan, refunds are considered only within 10 days and never on annual plans, and displays switch off when the 15-day trial ends (Privy). Privy bought the texting firm Emotive in July 2025 and says it serves over 10,000 online shops (AdPrivy); it's rated 4.5 from 4,205 reviews on the Shopify App Store.
Who it suits: small shops that want pop-ups and email in one tool, and Klaviyo users who only want better pop-ups.
Less suited to: UK shops that want to text customers now, and anyone who wants a free plan.
Price: Email $90 a month for 5,000 contacts and $390 for 25,000, Pop-ups & Displays from $24, in US dollars in October 2026; the page doesn't say how VAT is handled (AdPrivy).
Mailchimp, MailerLite, Drip, Brevo and Dotdigital
Mailchimp is the one priced in pounds, and charges automatically for going over a plan's limits. Its texts are a paid add-on, sent in the UK from a virtual phone number rather than the shop's name, after an application (Mailchimp). Its Shopify app is rated 4.8 from 1,515 reviews (Shopify App Store).
MailerLite is the cheapest paid email here, but its Shopify app has only 27 reviews averaging 2.4 (Shopify App Store). Drip sends unlimited email and pop-ups, with no texts. Brevo prices by emails a month rather than list size, which suits big lists emailed rarely; its Shopify app is now Brevo PushOwl, rated 4.8 from 2,299 reviews (Shopify App Store). Dotdigital, based in London, suits larger brands, with plans from $187 a month on its Shopify listing.
Should a UK shop add texts?
Only once email is working, in my view, because each text costs money while each extra email barely does. Per text to a UK number in October 2026, Omnisend charges $0.035 to $0.045 and Shopify $0.06, and Klaviyo's calculator put 5,000 texts at $295, about $0.059 each (Klaviyo). Mailchimp doesn't publish its rate, PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → can't send to the UK yet, and MailerLite and Drip don't send marketing texts.
UK texts usually arrive from a branded sender name of 4 to 11 letters and numbers, which can't receive replies (Klaviyo), so a "reply STOP" opt-out won't work from one. Twilio warns that UK networks can block generic names such as "INFO", and advises texting only in the daytime unless it's urgent (Twilio).
Can a UK shop email or text customers who didn't sign up?
Sometimes, under the soft opt-in, and texts follow the same rules as email. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations let a shop market its own similar products to people whose details it got during a sale or talks about one, as long as it offered a simple way to refuse when it collected them and in every message after. Texts count as electronic mail (ICO), and the ICO says "Including an opt-out in an order confirmation email is not sufficient", so the chance to say no has to come at checkout (ICO). Everyone else needs specific consent, asked for each channel separately with no pre-ticked boxes.
The ICO fined HelloFresh £140,000 in January 2024 over 79 million emails and a million texts, partly because its sign-up wording never mentioned texts (ICO). Since 5 February 2026 the maximum fine has been £17.5 million or 4% of turnover, up from £500,000 (Clifford Chance). Being charged for a profile, as Klaviyo charges for checkout customers, doesn't make marketing to it lawful.
Questions people ask
Is Klaviyo free?
Up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month, with $5 of texts; sending stops at the limit until you upgrade (Klaviyo).
How much does Klaviyo cost per month in the UK?
In October 2026, $20 for 500 active profiles, $100 for 5,000 and $400 for 25,000, billed in US dollars, with UK VAT added for customers who aren't VAT registered.
Does Shopify have email marketing?
Yes. Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, includes 10,000 emails a month on paid plans, then $1 per 1,000.
Is Omnisend cheaper than Klaviyo?
A little: $81 or $90 a month at 5,000 contacts against Klaviyo's $100, and the same $400 at 25,000 once you want texts.
Privy vs Klaviyo: which is cheaper?
At 5,000 contacts, PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → is $90 a month and Klaviyo $100, and Privy counts only contacts who opted in. Klaviyo can text UK numbers and Privy can't yet.
So which should a UK Shopify shop use?
A shop under a few thousand subscribers on a paid Shopify plan already has Shopify Messaging, and the four flows that matter cost it next to nothing there. For more depth, Omnisend is the cheaper like-for-like move and Klaviyo the deepest, provided its active-profile count gets watched. PrivyPrivyPrivy is an email, SMS and pop-up marketing tool for online shops, best known as a Shopify app for growing a mailing list with sign-up pop-ups and discount codes. It suits small ec1 current offer · View store → makes most sense for shops whose problem is the list itself, either as the pop-up in front of another tool or as the whole kit for a shop that doesn't need UK texts yet. Whichever wins, the ICO's checkout opt-out matters more than the logo on the invoice.
Our email marketing software page has more tools, the best newsletter platforms suit a list that's there to read rather than to buy, the best Typeform alternatives cover quizzes and forms that collect sign-ups, and what changed after the Honey scandal matters to any shop handing out sign-up codes.
