Comparison Guide
Klaviyo vs Omnisend for Small Shopify Stores
Both free plans allow 250 contacts and 500 sends, and both include automation. Klaviyo adds $5 of SMS credit; Omnisend adds 500 web push notifications. Where they differ is the paid path.
Quick verdict
On the free tier, Klaviyo gives you more for the same 250-contact allowance: automation, segmentation, revenue attribution, and $5 each of mobile messages and Composer usage per month. Omnisend's free tier includes every feature too, plus 500 web push notifications a month, but no SMS credit. Where Omnisend wins is the paid path: Standard is a published $16 a month, while Klaviyo builds your price from your contact count rather than publishing a flat rate. For a store that expects to stay under 250 contacts for a while, Klaviyo's free tier is the better-stocked one. For a store planning to upgrade soon and wanting a predictable number, Omnisend is easier to budget.
Choose Klaviyo if
Klaviyo better fits your current workflow and budget.
Choose Omnisend if
Omnisend better fits your current workflow and budget.
Compared tools: Klaviyo vs Omnisend
Last updated: 2026-10-02
This page is based on publicly available information and editorial research. Always check current pricing, feature limits, integrations, and terms before buying.
Klaviyo vs Omnisend: quick comparison
The usual summary of this pair is that Klaviyo is the powerful one and Omnisend is the easy one. That is true of the paid platforms, but it is misleading about the free plans, which are much closer than the reputations suggest. Both allow 250 contacts and 500 email sends a month, and both let you build automations without paying. The differences that survive a careful read are narrower and more concrete: what Klaviyo bundles into its free tier on top of email, what Omnisend bundles that Klaviyo does not, and which of the two will tell you what you will pay once you outgrow it.
| Feature | Klaviyo | Omnisend |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan contacts | 250 active profiles | 250 billable contacts |
| Free plan sends | 500 emails/month | 500 emails/month |
| Automation on the free plan | Included — build automations and flows | Included — every feature is available on the free plan |
| SMS on the free plan | $5 of mobile messages/month, region and provider dependent | Not included — SMS credits are added to the Pro plan |
| Other free credits | $5 of Composer usage/month | 500 web push notifications/month |
| Free plan support | Email support for the first 60 days only | 24/7 live chat and email support on every plan, including free |
| Cheapest paid plan | No flat price published — built from your contact count | $16/month (Standard) |
| How paid pricing scales | By active profile count, shown as a live estimate | Standard's email credits equal contacts × 12; Pro is unlimited under a fair-use cap of 60× list size |
| What paid pricing counts | The profiles stored in your account | Subscribers and non-subscribers who received automated messages; unsubscribed contacts are not billed |
| If you exceed the allowance | Sending is paused until the next billing cycle or you upgrade | You are offered an upgrade and must confirm it before anything changes |
| Platform integrations | Standard library including ecommerce platforms and CRMs, not restricted on the free tier | 11 native one-click integrations, including Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce |
How to decide between Klaviyo and Omnisend
The better choice depends on your store size, selling platform, budget, workflow, and the specific problem you need to solve. Use the criteria below before committing to a paid plan.
Choose by workflow fit
Pick the tool that better matches your current store workflow, not just the one with the longest feature list.
Check pricing as you grow
Entry pricing can look similar, but costs may change as your store grows, your list expands, or you need advanced features.
Review switching costs
Before committing, consider setup time, integrations, data migration, cancellation terms, and how easy it is to move later.
The free plans are closer than the reputations suggest
Klaviyo's free plan allows up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Omnisend's allows 250 billable contacts and 500 emails a month. Those are the same numbers, and they are the numbers that decide when you have to start paying. Both platforms also include automation on the free tier: Klaviyo's pricing page states that the free plan lets you build automations, segmentation and reports, and lists create campaigns and flows among the free features, while Omnisend makes its whole feature set available on the free plan and caps only the volume. If you had been told that Klaviyo charges for automation and Omnisend does not, that is out of date. The allowance is what runs out first on both — 500 sends against a 250-contact list is roughly two campaigns. What happens at that moment is the first place the two really separate. Klaviyo's own FAQ says that once you pass either limit the account can no longer send until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade to a paid plan. Omnisend says that if you exceed the limit on Free or Standard it will offer you an upgrade, and that you are always asked to confirm an account upgrade before it happens — so the difference is between sending stopping, and a prompt you can decline.
What Klaviyo bundles in that Omnisend does not
Klaviyo's free tier includes two credits Omnisend's does not. The first is $5 of mobile messages a month, which is enough to test SMS and MMS campaigns without upgrading — the pricing page notes that this credit is region and provider dependent. Omnisend's free plan has no SMS at all, and on paid plans SMS credits are added to the Pro plan, charged from $0.007 per message. The second credit is $5 of Composer usage a month, Klaviyo's AI-assisted content tool. Klaviyo's free tier also includes built-in reporting and dashboards, basic customer segmentation, contact and list growth tracking, and revenue attribution for campaigns, which is the metric most stores actually want from an email platform. Omnisend answers the Composer credit with a different one rather than with nothing: its free plan includes 500 web push notifications a month, a channel that does not appear in Klaviyo's free-plan feature list. The catch on Klaviyo is support: free-plan users get full email support for the first 60 days only, after which you are left with the help centre, community and training material.
Where Omnisend's paid path is easier
The moment you outgrow 250 contacts, the two diverge in how they tell you the price. Omnisend publishes Standard at $16 a month, with a pricing calculator that returns your figure from your contact count, and a 30% discount for paying three months upfront that brings Standard to about $11.20 a month. Klaviyo does not publish a price table: its pricing page pairs a slider for active profiles with a monthly total, and the entry point is a $20 plan at 500 profiles. Above that the number moves with your list, so there is no flat rate to compare against. That difference matters more than it sounds. A store that knows it will hit 2,000 contacts within a year can plan around $16 and a calculator; with Klaviyo it has to check the estimate each time the list grows. Three further Omnisend details are worth knowing before you commit. First, what you are billed for: Omnisend charges for subscribers and non-subscribers who received automated messages, and unsubscribed contacts are not billed, whereas Klaviyo bills its email plan on active profiles — any contact in the database who can receive marketing — which is a different basis, not just a different number. Second, the send caps differ by tier: Standard's email credits equal your contact count multiplied by 12, while Pro is unlimited under a fair-use cap of 60× your list size. Third, SMS sits behind Pro: credits are added to the Pro plan, Pro includes bonus SMS credits equal to your monthly bill, and US volume rates start at $0.009 per message on $10 to $49.99 of spend and fall to $0.007 above $10,000. On Standard, SMS is not available at all if you subscribed on or after 4 May 2026. Omnisend's tier also adjusts automatically each billing cycle, so the bill can change without you doing anything.
Which one for a small Shopify store
If your list is under 250 contacts and you want to run a welcome sequence and an abandoned cart flow without paying, both will do it and Klaviyo will give you more alongside it — segmentation, revenue attribution, and credits for SMS and Composer, against Omnisend's 500 web push notifications a month. That makes Klaviyo the better free tier of the two, which is the opposite of its reputation. The one thing to plan for is the moment the allowance runs out: Klaviyo stops sending until you upgrade or the cycle resets, while Omnisend asks you to confirm an upgrade first. If you are already close to the 250-contact ceiling and want a price you can write into a budget, Omnisend is the easier choice, because $16 is published and Klaviyo's is a slider estimate. One thing applies to both: neither is a fit if you sell on Magento. Omnisend's native one-click integrations cover Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, WordPress, Wix, Shoplazza, Ecwid, PrestaShop, nopCommerce, Big Cartel and SureCart, and Magento is not among them, so it needs a custom API integration with developer help.
Final recommendation
For a small Shopify store that wants ecommerce automation without paying yet, Klaviyo's free plan is the stronger of the two, and that is worth saying plainly because the usual advice runs the other way. It allows the same 250 contacts and 500 sends as Omnisend, includes automation and segmentation, adds $5 a month each of mobile messages and Composer usage, and reports revenue attribution — with the caveat that full email support stops after 60 days, and that passing either allowance pauses sending until the next cycle or an upgrade. Omnisend's free plan answers with a different credit rather than none, in the form of 500 web push notifications a month. Choose Omnisend instead if you are planning to upgrade soon and want a published number to budget against, since Standard is $16 a month against Klaviyo's contact-count estimate. If SMS is central to your plan, note that Omnisend puts it behind the $59 Pro tier while Klaviyo includes a $5 monthly credit on the free plan.
Read the full reviews
This comparison only covers the differences. Each review below goes deeper on pricing tiers, free plan limits, and who the tool is actually built for.
Email Marketing Tools Review
Klaviyo Review for Shopify Stores
Klaviyo's free plan is 250 profiles and 500 sends a month, with automation included. The paid Email plan starts at $20 for 500 profiles.
Email Marketing Tools Review
Omnisend Review for Shopify Stores
Omnisend's free plan gives you 500 emails a month to 250 contacts. What that covers, and what it does not.
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Frequently asked questions
Does Klaviyo's free plan include automation?
Yes. Klaviyo's pricing page states that the free plan lets you build automations, segmentation and reports, and lists create campaigns and flows among the free features. This is worth checking against older reviews, because many still say automation is a paid feature. The free plan's real limits are the 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, not the feature list.
What do Klaviyo and Omnisend give you free?
Both give 250 contacts and 500 email sends a month, and both include automation. Klaviyo adds $5 of mobile messages a month and $5 of Composer usage a month, while Omnisend adds 500 web push notifications a month. Klaviyo also limits free-plan email support to the first 60 days, whereas Omnisend states 24/7 live chat and email support on every plan, including free.
Which is cheaper once I outgrow the free plan?
Omnisend is easier to price, not necessarily cheaper. Standard is a published $16 a month, with email credits equal to your contact count multiplied by 12 and a 30% discount for paying three months upfront that brings it to about $11.20. Klaviyo does not publish a flat rate and builds an estimate from your active profile count, so you have to check the figure for your own list size before comparing.
Do either of these work with Magento?
Klaviyo supports a standard library of integrations including ecommerce platforms, CRMs and data sources, and does not restrict them on the free tier. Omnisend lists 11 native one-click integrations — Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, WordPress, Wix, Shoplazza, Ecwid, PrestaShop, nopCommerce, Big Cartel and SureCart — and Magento is not among them, so it needs a custom API integration.
What happens if I go over the free plan's allowance?
Klaviyo and Omnisend handle it differently, and the difference is worth knowing before you pick. Klaviyo's FAQ states that once you pass 250 active profiles or 500 email sends in a month, the account can no longer send until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade to a paid plan. Omnisend says that if you exceed the limit on Free or Standard it will offer you an upgrade, and that you are always asked to confirm an account upgrade before it happens. So one platform stops sending, and the other asks you first.