Customer.io vs Klaviyo
Customer.io and Klaviyo are both email marketing tools. Customer.io is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Klaviyo is aimed at E-commerce and small businesses. Klaviyo costs less, from $20/mo versus $100/mo for Customer.io. Only Klaviyo has a free plan.
Behavior-triggered messaging across channels
Email, SMS and customer data platform built for ecommerce brands
| Pricing | Paid · $100 | Freemium · $20 |
| Starting price | $100/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise | E-commerce, Small businesses, Agencies, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2012 | US · 2012 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Customer.io if
Product-led SaaS and apps with event data who need multichannel lifecycle automation.
- Deep, flexible automation
- Developer-friendly data model and APIs
- Multichannel in one platform
Look elsewhere if: Newsletters and small lists (MailerLite, Kit) or enterprises wanting Braze-scale services.
Choose Klaviyo if
Ecommerce brands, especially on Shopify, that want data-driven email and SMS automation with clear revenue attribution.
- Best-in-class ecommerce data integration, especially with Shopify
- Powerful segmentation and automation templates out of the box
- Clear revenue attribution makes ROI easy to prove
Look elsewhere if: Bloggers, B2B companies or very price-sensitive senders with large lists (Mailchimp, Brevo, Customer.io).
Customer.io vs Klaviyo pricing
Customer.io
- Essentials$100/mo5,000 profiles, 1M emails/mo, $0.009 per extra profile
- Premiumfrom $1,000/moBilled yearly; custom volume, premium support, HIPAA add-on
- EnterpriseCustomAudit logs, priority support, dedicated CSM add-on
Klaviyo
- Free$0250 active profiles, 500 sends/mo, $5 mobile messages, $5 Composer
- Email$20/moFrom 500 active profiles; price scales with profile count
- Email + SMS$35/moFrom 500 profiles; includes monthly SMS/MMS credits
- Composer$20/moAI marketing agent add-on; $10 top-ups for extra usage
Customer.io · Key features
- Visual workflows with branches, delays, A/B and webhooks
- Real-time segments from events and attributes
- Email, push, in-app, SMS and Slack/webhook channels
- Data Pipelines (CDP) and warehouse sync
- Transactional API with templates
- Journeys analytics and deliverability tooling
Cons
- Entry price is high for tiny products
- Email editor less design-oriented
- Learning curve for complex journeys
Klaviyo · Key features
- Real-time sync of orders, browsing and catalog data from Shopify and others
- Prebuilt flows for abandoned cart, browse abandonment and win-back
- Email, SMS, MMS, WhatsApp and mobile push in one platform
- Predictive analytics for customer lifetime value and churn risk
- Signup forms and pop-ups with A/B testing
- Composer AI agent that builds campaigns and flows from prompts
Cons
- Gets expensive as active profile counts grow
- SMS is limited to supported countries and priced per credit
- Learning curve for advanced segmentation and analytics
Customer.io vs Klaviyo: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Customer.io or Klaviyo?
Klaviyo starts at $20/mo and Customer.io at $100/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Customer.io and Klaviyo have a free plan?
Customer.io has no free plan, a 14-day free trial. Klaviyo has a free plan.