- © 2026 Mailsoftly Inc. The name "Mailsoftly" and the Mailsoftly logo are registered trademarks of Mailsoftly Inc.
by Isabella Torres · Last updated: 2026-06-05Klaviyo pricing starts with a free plan (250 profiles and 500 monthly email sends) and scales by the number of profiles you store, which makes it powerful for e-commerce but expensive as your list grows. Mailsoftly is a simpler, lower-cost alternative to Klaviyo for newsletters and small-business automation: a free plan with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, paid plans from $39 per month billed annually for 5,000 contacts, the Shopify integration, and real human support.
Klaviyo pricing starts free for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month, then scales by your number of active profiles. As of 2026-04-15 the Email plan runs about $20 per month at 500 contacts, $30 at 1,000, $100 at 5,000, and $400 at 25,000. SMS is billed separately on top.
The headline numbers look reasonable until you account for how Klaviyo defines an active profile, how send volume is capped per tier, and what you pay once SMS, push, and premium support enter the picture. This breakdown walks through every tier with verified figures, flags the costs that surprise growing stores, and shows where cheaper platforms make more sense for your stage.
Weighing your options first? See our roundup of the best email marketing services for the full landscape before you commit.
Quick context: Mailsoftly offers transparent pricing, free hands-on migration, and human support. 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, no credit card.
Start free with Mailsoftly →
Key Takeaways
Klaviyo prices on two variables at once: the number of active profiles in your account and a monthly send-volume allowance tied to each tier. An active profile is any contact you can email, text, or push to, and that count is what drives your plan price as you move up the slider on Klaviyo’s own pricing page.
This matters because list growth and engagement both push your bill upward. The Email plan generally includes a send allowance of roughly ten times your profile count, which is generous for most stores, but suppressed and unengaged profiles still count toward your tier unless you actively clean them out. If you understand the mechanics of permission and list hygiene from Email Marketing Fundamentals, you can keep that profile count lean and avoid paying for contacts who never open.
The free plan covers up to 250 profiles and 500 email sends per month, which is enough to test the product but not to run a real store. Once you cross 250 profiles you move onto a paid Email plan, and SMS lives on a separate plan with its own usage-based billing.
Read enough? Try Mailsoftly free with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, no credit card.Start free with Mailsoftly →
Klaviyo’s Email plan costs scale steadily with profile count (all figures as of 2026-04-15). At 500 profiles you pay about $20 per month, at 1,000 it is $30, at 5,000 it jumps to $100, and at 25,000 it reaches $400. The steepest relative increases happen in the mid-tiers, where a doubling of contacts can more than double your invoice.
| Active profiles | Klaviyo Email plan (per month) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | Free | 500 email sends per month |
| 500 | $20 | Roughly 5,000 sends |
| 1,000 | $30 | Roughly 10,000 sends |
| 2,500 | $60 | Roughly 25,000 sends |
| 5,000 | $100 | Roughly 50,000 sends |
| 10,000 | $150 | Roughly 100,000 sends |
| 25,000 | $400 | Roughly 250,000 sends |
Notice the gap between 10,000 and 25,000 profiles: the price moves from $150 to $400, a 167 percent increase for a contact range that many growing Shopify stores hit within a single strong year. Independent buyer reviews of Klaviyo on G2’s email marketing software category consistently flag this scaling curve as the platform’s main cost concern, even among users who rate the product highly overall.
Klaviyo’s published profile prices cover email only. SMS is a separate, usage-based plan layered on top, so your true monthly cost is the email tier plus whatever text volume you send. There is no single combined number, which makes budgeting harder than it first appears.
For an e-commerce store leaning on abandoned-cart and back-in-stock texts, SMS can quickly match or exceed the email line item. Klaviyo sells SMS credits that you consume per message segment, and prices vary by country, so a US-heavy list and an international list with the same contact count can produce very different bills. If text is core to your strategy, model the SMS spend separately rather than assuming the slider price covers it.
The practical takeaway: when comparing Klaviyo to other platforms, compare email-to-email first, then add channels deliberately. Bundling SMS into your mental price too early makes Klaviyo look more expensive than it is at the email layer and less predictable than it is at the combined layer.
The biggest hidden costs in Klaviyo are SMS overages, push notification usage, and the support tier you actually qualify for. None of these show up in the headline profile price, yet all three can meaningfully change your monthly total.
Aggregated user ratings on Capterra’s email marketing software directory echo the same pattern: strong scores for automation and deliverability, lower marks for value-for-money once a store scales past the early tiers. Budget for the channels and support level you will actually use, not the entry slider.
Klaviyo justifies its price when email and SMS revenue clearly outweigh the platform cost, which usually means a high-AOV Shopify brand with mature flows. If your store earns hundreds of dollars per order and recovers a steady stream of carts through automation, a $100 to $400 monthly bill is a rounding error against the revenue those flows generate.
The platform’s deep Shopify integration, granular segmentation, and predictive analytics genuinely earn their keep at that stage. Brands sending sophisticated, behavior-triggered campaigns across email and SMS get tooling that few competitors match, and the data Klaviyo collects compounds in value the longer you run it. For these stores, switching platforms to save a hundred dollars would risk far more in lost flow performance than it saves.
If that sounds like your store, our detailed Klaviyo review walks through where the feature depth pays off and where it overshoots typical needs.
Klaviyo is rarely worth it for early-stage stores and multi-channel growing-business teams who will not use its advanced segmentation and predictive features. If you are sending broadcast newsletters and a couple of simple automations, you are paying for capability you do not touch while your bill scales with every new subscriber.
Early-stage e-commerce sellers often hit the profile slider’s mid-tiers before their revenue per email catches up, which inverts the value equation. The same applies to service businesses, creators, and growing businesses whose lists grow faster than their order volume. In those cases the feature depth becomes a cost center rather than a multiplier, and a simpler, contacts-based platform delivers the same practical results for less.
If you have already outgrown the value, our guide to the best Klaviyo alternatives and our walkthrough on switching from Klaviyo to Mailsoftly cover how to move without losing your flows or your list.
The cheapest credible Klaviyo alternatives for most stores are Mailsoftly, Omnisend, and MailerLite, each trading some of Klaviyo’s depth for lower, more predictable pricing. Mailsoftly’s annual Basic plan covers 5,000 contacts and 40,000 emails per month for $39 per month (as of 2026-04-15), where Klaviyo charges $100 per month at the same 5,000 profiles for email alone.
| Platform | Pricing | Free plan | Support | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo | By active profiles, from $20/mo at 500; $100/mo at 5,000 (email only) | Yes, 250 profiles / 500 sends | Tiered, premium gated to higher spend | High-AOV Shopify brands with mature flows |
| Mailsoftly | By contacts, $39/mo annual at 5,000 (40,000 emails) | Yes, 500 contacts / 2,000 emails | Human support on all plans, free migration | growing-business and stores wanting simple, affordable email |
| Omnisend | By contacts, e-commerce focused (check current pricing) | Yes | Standard tiered support | Shopify stores wanting bundled email and SMS |
| MailerLite | By contacts, value-oriented (check current pricing) | Yes | Standard tiered support | Budget creators and small stores |
The pattern is consistent: Klaviyo wins on e-commerce depth, the alternatives win on price and simplicity. For a side-by-side at the feature level, our Klaviyo vs Mailsoftly comparison shows exactly which capabilities you keep and which you trade when you move to a contacts-based plan.
For the broader landscape, see our full comparison of marketing automation software tools covering every major platform.
Looking for a simpler Klaviyo alternative? See why teams switch to Mailsoftly as a Klaviyo alternative — free hands-on migration in 1-2 hours, no contracts, real human support.
Mailsoftly is a strong lower-cost Klaviyo alternative for teams that do not need deep e-commerce segmentation. It offers a free plan with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, paid plans from $39 per month billed annually, the Shopify integration, real human support, and free hands-on migration.
Mailsoftly is a strong lower-cost Klaviyo alternative for teams that do not need deep e-commerce segmentation. It offers a free plan with 500 contacts and 2,000 emails per month, paid plans from $39 per month billed annually, the Shopify integration, real human support, and free hands-on migration.
Yes. Klaviyo’s free plan covers up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month, which is enough to test the platform but not to run an active store. Once you pass 250 profiles you move onto a paid Email plan, and SMS requires its own separate plan.
At 5,000 active profiles the Klaviyo Email plan costs about $100 per month (as of 2026-04-15), with a send allowance of roughly 50,000 emails. The increases steepen above this point: 10,000 profiles is around $150 and 25,000 reaches $400, so plan for a sharper curve as your list grows.
For most Shopify stores, Mailsoftly is among the cheapest credible alternatives: its annual Basic plan covers 5,000 contacts and 40,000 emails for $39 per month, versus $100 per month on Klaviyo at the same contact count. MailerLite and Omnisend are also budget-friendly options worth comparing on their current pricing.
Usually not at the earliest stage. New stores tend to grow their profile count faster than their revenue per email, so they pay for advanced segmentation and predictive features they do not yet use. A contacts-based platform delivers the same practical results for less until your flows are mature enough to justify Klaviyo’s depth.
Ready to switch?Start free with Mailsoftly →
500 contacts, 2,000 emails per month. Free hands-on migration. No credit card.
Looking for an alternative?
Mailsoftly offers the features you need at a price that makes sense.
Switch to MailsoftlyMigrate in minutes