Two-product ecommerce comparison
Omnisend vs Klaviyo for Ecommerce Email Automation
By Marcus Hale · Updated Oct 2026
Omnisend and Klaviyo are both built for online stores, so this is a store question. At 500 contacts Klaviyo's Email plan is $20 a month, while Omnisend Standard shows $11.20 under a three-month offer and works out to $16 afterwards. For a store choosing fresh, with a list in the hundreds or low thousands and SMS on the roadmap, Omnisend is the better starting point. A store already running Klaviyo should not move for price alone. Coaches and course sellers with no store should skip both.
Who should pick which
Pick Omnisend when you are choosing for the first time and want the lower entry bill: Omnisend's pricing page lists a Free plan (250 contacts, 500 emails and 500 web push notifications a month), Standard at $11.20 a month for 500 contacts and 6,000 emails, and Pro at $41.30 a month for 2,500 contacts with unlimited emails. The $11.20 and $41.30 are 30%-off first-three-months rates, so the real recurring prices are higher, and the next sections show by how much.
Pick Klaviyo when it is already your store's system of record for email, or when your team will build segments from order and browsing data and has someone to own them. Klaviyo's pricing page lists a Free plan (up to 250 active profiles, 500 emails a month) and an Email plan at $20 a month for 500 profiles, $30 for 1,000, $100 for 5,000 and $150 for 10,000. If you sell coaching or a course rather than products from a store, neither tool is built for you; the Kit and ActiveCampaign comparisons linked below are.
Decision snapshot
| Area | Omnisend | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 250 contacts, 500 emails and 500 web push notifications a month | Up to 250 active profiles, 500 emails a month |
| Entry paid | Standard $11.20 a month for 500 contacts and 6,000 emails (first-three-months offer) | Email plan $20 a month at 500 profiles, $30 at 1,000 |
| Larger lists | Pro $41.30 a month for 2,500 contacts, unlimited emails (offer rate); other sizes come from the page's list-size selector | Email plan $100 a month at 5,000 profiles, $150 at 10,000 |
| Who is billed | Subscribers plus non-subscribers who received automated messages; unsubscribed contacts are not billed | Profiles, counted per the plan you pick on the page's calculator |
| SMS | From $0.007 per message, varying by country and volume | The free plan lists $5 of mobile messages a month; paid SMS rates are not in the pricing text read |
| Moving in | The page promises free migration of contacts, automations, forms, segments and templates in up to 5 days | No migration offer is mentioned in the Klaviyo pricing text read for this page |
The offer that reverts, in numbers
Omnisend's $11.20 and $41.30 are not the monthly prices of those plans. The page headlines them under a "Pay 3 months upfront (save 30%)" toggle, and it prints the totals beside them: Standard "$33.60 today" against a struck-through $48.00, and Pro "$123.90 today" against $177.00, each for three months, with "after 3 months, you will be billed monthly". Divide the struck-through totals by three and the recurring prices they imply are $16 a month for Standard ($48.00 / 3) and $59 for Pro ($177.00 / 3). The percentages check out: $33.60 is 70% of $48.00. Those implied figures are arithmetic on the page's own numbers, not a separate price list, so read the monthly price off the page before you pay.
Put the offer next to Klaviyo's Email plan at the same list size, 500 contacts. Omnisend Standard costs $33.60 for the first three months, then $16 a month for nine more, which is $33.60 + 9 x $16 = $177.60 in year one. Klaviyo is $20 x 12 = $240. That is $62.40 less for Omnisend in year one, and $48 less in year two, when Omnisend is $16 x 12 = $192 against Klaviyo's $240. Omnisend's pricing page carries a banner reading "Save up to 35% vs. Klaviyo"; at this size the offer rate is 44% below Klaviyo ($11.20 against $20) and the implied recurring rate is 20% below ($16 against $20), so the banner is the vendor's own marketing, not something this comparison confirms across sizes.
| At 500 contacts | Months 1-3 | Months 4-12 | Year one | Year two |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omnisend Standard | $33.60 upfront ($11.20 a month) | $16 a month, implied | $177.60 | $192 |
| Klaviyo Email, 500 profiles | $20 a month | $20 a month | $240 | $240 |
Beyond 500 contacts the comparison gets harder, and this page will not fake it. Omnisend's pricing page shows Standard and Pro for whichever list size you select, and what we read covers its 500-contact Standard and 2,500-contact Pro starting bands. Klaviyo's page gives $30 at 1,000, $100 at 5,000 and $150 at 10,000 profiles, so a 2,500-profile Klaviyo quote lands somewhere between $30 and $100. Put both calculators on the same list size, 2,500 and again at 5,000, and compare the recurring price, not the offer rate.
Who gets counted, and what SMS adds
The billing units differ in a way that bites stores specifically. Omnisend states that you are billed for "subscribers and non-subscribers who received automated messages", and that unsubscribed contacts are not billed. A store that sends order and shipping automations to guest checkouts can therefore pay for people who never joined the marketing list. Before comparing price per contact, count the people each tool would bill: for Omnisend, every address that receives an automated message; for Klaviyo, the profiles on its plan calculator.
SMS changes the shape of the bill. Omnisend lists SMS from $0.007 per message, and says the starting rate applies to high-volume US sends while country and volume move the price. At that best-case rate, 10,000 texts a month is 10,000 x $0.007 = $70, and a smaller volume or another country costs more per message. Omnisend's Pro plan is described as the one for high-volume senders adding SMS. Klaviyo's page lists $5 of mobile messages a month on its free plan, but the paid SMS rates are not in the text read, so a store that plans heavy texting should price its own volume in both tools rather than inherit either headline.
Flow ownership and migration risk
The risk in moving between these two is not the contact list, which exports as a CSV. It is the flows. Abandoned cart, browse follow-up, post-purchase and win-back each carry a trigger, filters, delays, an exit rule and a template, and in many stores one person or one agency built them and nobody else can say why a given delay is 4 hours. That knowledge is the asset that does not export. Plan to recreate each flow by hand rather than import it, and expect a rebuilt flow to send in a slightly different order and timing for a few weeks until someone notices.
| Piece | Klaviyo to Omnisend | Omnisend to Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts and consent | Export profiles with their consent status and source, and import unsubscribed people as suppressed first | Same export; confirm Omnisend's SMS and email consent are kept separate before they become Klaviyo profiles |
| Flows | Written down as a trigger, filter, delay, exit and template list, then rebuilt; Omnisend's page offers to move automations for you in up to 5 days | Rebuilt by hand from the same inventory; the segments that justified the move are built last, after the store data has synced |
| Store data | Reconnect the store and check how far back orders sync, since segments on past purchases depend on it | The same check, in the other direction |
| Billing during overlap | On a list of 250 or fewer, both free plans (250 profiles at Klaviyo, 250 contacts at Omnisend) let you run side by side at no cost | Above 250, expect to pay for both until the old flows have drained |
Keep the old tool's flows live, then turn off each flow only after its replacement has run one full cycle, including the longest delay. Cancel last, not first, and download the revenue reports from the old account before you do, because attribution history stays behind.
Four stores, four answers
- A new shop with 400 contacts and plans for texting: Omnisend. Standard at the offer rate is $11.20 a month and recurs at an implied $16, below Klaviyo's $20 at 500 profiles, and the Free plan covers the first 250 contacts.
- A store with 8,000 profiles on Klaviyo and agency-built flows: stay, unless a Klaviyo-versus-Omnisend quote at 8,000 shows a gap large enough to pay for a rebuild. The flows are worth more than a few dollars a month.
- A data-heavy shop segmenting on order history, browsing and product: Klaviyo, provided someone owns the data model. The $150 at 10,000 profiles buys depth only if the segments get used.
- A coach or course seller with no store: neither. Read Kit vs Mailchimp if you sell programs to a list, or Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign if you book discovery calls.
How an Omnisend or Klaviyo choice gets misread
- Quoting $11.20 as Omnisend's monthly price. It is the first-three-months rate, and the page's own totals imply $16 after it.
- Comparing Omnisend's 2,500-contact Pro price with Klaviyo's price at 1,000 or 5,000 profiles. The sizes must match.
- Counting only marketing subscribers on Omnisend. Non-subscribers who received automated messages are billed too.
- Moving flows over a weekend and cancelling the old account on Monday. Delays of several days mean the first failures show up a week later.
- Choosing a store tool for a business with no store. Both are priced and built around a storefront feed.
Verdict: Omnisend to start with, Klaviyo to stay with
For a store choosing today with a list in the hundreds or low thousands, Omnisend is the better pick: it lists the lower entry price (an implied $16 a month against Klaviyo's $20 at 500 contacts), a free plan with the same 250-person ceiling plus web push, SMS in the same account, and a free migration offer. For a store whose flows and segments already live in Klaviyo, or whose team segments on order and browsing data, Klaviyo wins, and the price difference at 500 contacts, $48 a year in year two, is not a reason to rebuild.
The honest limit is the sizes in between. Omnisend's selector and Klaviyo's calculator are the only way to compare them at 2,500, 5,000 or 10,000, and the offer rate will mislead you at every one. Prices are from omnisend.com/pricing and klaviyo.com/pricing, read on 2026-10-07.
Related comparisons
For wider context, see the alternatives hub, the ecommerce email automation guide and the email automation metrics guide.
- Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Prices Klaviyo against Mailchimp at 5,000 and 10,000 contacts, useful if Omnisend is not on your list.
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) vs Mailchimp: For a course seller who found this page by mistake: the creator-side comparison.
- Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign: For a consultant who books calls and needs deal-stage follow-up.
- Drip vs ActiveCampaign: A third store-first tool, priced per person, set against ActiveCampaign.
Frequently asked questions
Is Omnisend cheaper than Klaviyo?
At 500 contacts, yes. Omnisend Standard shows $11.20 a month for the first three months and works out to $16 a month afterwards, from the struck-through $48.00 three-month total on its pricing page. Klaviyo's Email plan is $20 a month at 500 profiles. That is $177.60 against $240 in year one and $192 against $240 in year two. At larger sizes you need both vendors' calculators, because the offer rate is not the recurring price.
Does Omnisend have a free plan, and what does it cap?
Yes. Omnisend lists a Free plan with 250 contacts, 500 emails and 500 web push notifications a month, no credit card required. Klaviyo's free plan is up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month. Both stop at 250 people, so a store with a real list moves to a paid plan almost at once.
Is the $11.20 Omnisend price permanent?
No. It is a 30%-off rate for paying three months upfront, which the page prints as $33.60 today against $48.00 in total. After the three months the plan bills monthly, and the struck-through total implies $16 a month. The Pro plan works the same way: $41.30 a month at the offer, $123.90 today against $177.00 in total, and an implied $59 a month afterwards.
What does it cost to send SMS on each?
Omnisend lists SMS from $0.007 per message, with country and volume moving the price, so 10,000 texts at the best-case rate is 10,000 x $0.007 = $70 a month. Klaviyo's pricing page lists $5 of mobile messages a month on the free plan, and the paid SMS rates are not in the text read here, so price your own volume in its calculator before comparing.
What is the biggest risk in moving from Klaviyo to Omnisend?
The flows. Contacts export as a CSV, but each abandoned-cart, browse, post-purchase and win-back flow has to be rebuilt with its triggers, filters, delays and exits. Omnisend's page offers free migration of automations, forms, segments and templates in up to 5 days, which helps, but run the old flows until each replacement has completed a full cycle.
I sell coaching or a course, not products. Which should I pick?
Neither. Both are built around a store feed, and you have no store. A course seller with a subscriber list is better served by Kit (formerly ConvertKit), which lists a Free plan to 10,000 subscribers, and a consultant who books calls by ActiveCampaign. The Kit vs Mailchimp and Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign comparisons price each.