Last Updated on September 5, 2024 by Ewen Finser
If you have tried – or are considering – Attentive for your customer messaging strategy (email and/or SMS), but aren’t sure it’s the best fit, this article is for you.
I’ve used MANY email marketing platforms and direct messaging tools for ecommerce, service, and media brands I’ve operated. There’s no lack of options.
But Attentive was an interesting one for me because it seemed to be the first platform that truly integrated SMS and email marketing as equally important sides of the same coin.
So, I’m not an Attentive detractor… but I have found some issues (and heard from clients with similar concerns), along these lines:
- The platform can be hard to use and fully leverage for new users…
- They have limited support for international brands beyond North America…
- Attentive isn’t always as deep on email marketing features compared to peers…
- More limited data and reporting capabilities compared to peers…
- Pricing is opaque and hard to figure out due to the “account manager” sales setup…
So with this in mind, here’s how I’d recommend alternatives to Attentive:
Klaviyo: Best Overall for SMS & Email
Zusammenfassung auf hohem Niveau: Klaviyo is the quintessential ecommerce marketing suit, with robust email AND SMS capabilities. While it’s a bit strong on the email marketing side, the data sharing benefits and analytics reporting alone makes Klaviyo the clear Attentive alternative in this scenario.
Why I Like Klaviyo
- eCommerce Focused: Like Attentive, Klaviyo has a strong – almost excluisive – ecommerce focus. It’s one of the most popular Shopify apps, featuring some of the best out of the box features for leveraging both email and SMS to increase sales.
- Helpful Templates: Right away, Klaviyo has abandoned cart sequences and dozens of other proven sequences and templates to increase sales. If you have even a modest email list of 500+ profiles, this can move the needle overnight.
- Integrated Data: Klaviyo uses “Active Profiles” to describe contacts you can market to (including SMS, Email, Push), but integrates all of the data so you can pull out insights across contact channels.
- Well Resourced: With their long history and recent (successful) IPO, Klaviyo has the staying power that many intriguing “upstart” competitors do not.
- Widely Integrated: As one of the more established players, Klaviyo has among the best integrations of any ecommerce focused customer messaging platform.
Klaviyo Compared to Other Peers:
Omnisend: Best Budget Alternative
Zusammenfassung auf hohem Niveau: Omnisend offers many of the same features as Klaviyo, but often at a more affordable price. To be clear, it doesn’t have as many templates, out-of-the-box automations or third-party consultants / freelancers, but it is worth considering if you need better email capabilities compared to Attentive, but don’t have the budget for Klaviyo yet.
Why I Like Omnisend
- Annehmbare Preisgestaltung: Omnisend has many more incremental and affordable plans for small to midsized brands on the earlier side with email marketing.
- Web Push Centric: Omnisend puts a bit more emphasis on web push notifications, with more thoughtful pricing break points and more integrated multi-channel analytics views.
- Also has SMS: Omnisend also has a well thought out SMS strategy, even with free credits for brands to get started (and figure out if SMS is even viable).
- Shopify Friendly: While Omnisend integrates with the major ecom platforms (WooCommerce, BigCommerce), they do have some nice Shopify specific features (wie Klaviyo), including a reviews collection suite (eliminating the need for a third party Shopify tool for this), and a well supported and highly rated Shopify native app.
Omnisend Compared to Peers:
- Omnisend vs. Klaviyo
- Omnisend vs tinyEmail
- Omnisend vs. GetResponse
- Omnisend vs. Constant Contact
- Omnisend vs. Mailchimp
- Omnisend vs. ActiveCampaign
- Omnisend vs. Shopify E-Mail
- Omnisend vs. Hubspot
- Omnisend vs Brevo
- Omnisend vs. Privy
Postscript: Best Dedicated SMS Alternative
High Level Summary: On the other hand, if you are heavily focused (or reliant) on SMS marketing, PostScript is a better dedicated SMS solution worth considering.
Why I Like PostScript
- Excellent Opt In Tools: PostScript has some of the best mobile and desktop SMS opt-in templates and pop ups, including after checkout eCommerce opt-ins.
- Shopify Native: Like Klaviyo, PostScript was built specifically for Shopify stores and this shows up as an easy to use native app.
- Integrates with Klaviyo: If you do decide to go with a more robust email platform like Klaviyo, PostScript is a top integration partner with Klaviyo. I personally think this is the best of both worlds if you want a more robust SMS capability and the leading eCommerce email marketing platform.
- Competitive Transparent Pricing: Unlike Attentive’s opaque “quote based” pricing, PostScript puts it all out front with a clearly delineated pricing plan that gets cheaper per message as you spend more budget each month.
Brevo: Pay Per Send Alternative
Zusammenfassung auf hohem Niveau: Brevo is another solid pick for ecommerce due to it’s transactional email sending features, SMS marketing, and other chat-based and web push solutions for full-sprectrum marketing in one dashboard.
Why I Like Brevo
- Pay Per Send Model: One of the reasons I almost always include Brevo in my recommendation mix, their “per contacts” vs subscriber-based billing is just a more logical way to bill. Most platforms bet on a certain percentage of their customers never using the full potential of their pricing tiers… terrible user alignment and Brevo is a breath of fresh air here.
- SMS Marketing Capabilities: While it’s not known for it’s SMS like Attentive or Postcript, Brevo has a very capable, fully featured SMS suite (if you need it), even on the lower priced tiers.
- WhatsApp & Messenger API: Unlike some of the other platforms mentioned in this list, Brevo specifically incorporates WhatsApp and can be configured to run on various messenger apps, expanding the reach of marketing messages and automations.
- Multichannel-Management: Best of all, Brevo wraps this all in an excellent multi-modal management view so that all of the data is integrated into useful views for action planning.
- Completely Free Tier: Up to 300 sends/day, Brevo’s free tier is excellent for small, but growing brands that what to drive growth and have systems set up (and KPIs established), once email takes on more importance.
Brevo Im Vergleich zu Gleichaltrigen:
- Brevo vs Klaviyo
- Brevo vs. Omnisend
- Brevo vs Drip
- Brevo vs GetResponse
- Brevo vs. Ontraport
- Brevo vs. SendGrid
- Brevo vs ActiveCampaign
- Brevo vs Mailchimp
- Brevo vs Mailerlite
- Brevo vs Sendlane
- Brevo vs SendX
Twilio: Best Upmarket Multi-Channel Alternative
Zusammenfassung auf hohem Niveau: Twilio is a much more comprehensive messaging and engagement platform for brands and in some cases it’s worth the investment to go with Twilio.
Why I Like Twilio
- Global coverage: Unlike many platforms that are US-specific and/or only cost effective in the US, Twilio has global reach (ideal for non-US or US based international brands).
- Owns the rails: Twilio has a lot of the infrastructure behind many third-party messaging tools. For example, Postscript relies on Twilio for deliverability.
- In-person training available: If you need to get your entire organization or just a department spun up on Twilio, they do offer hands-on training to get everyone operational with the platform.
- Programmable: Twilio is more complex and multifaceted, but this is an advantage for brands looking to build custom messaging solutions with less “out of the box” wrapping.
Final Note: So Which is Best?
SMS marketing is still coming into maturity as a customer contact model relative to email marketing. Savvy brands are integrating both, but not every platform is up to the task.
While many email marketing platforms also offer SMS, some include it more as an afterthought. The platforms above all have fairly robust offerings (which is why I included them).
But, if you are still on the fence, here’s how I’d narrow down the decision based on common use cases I see in the wild:
- Need a “better” overall alternative? I’d stick with Klaviyo as the best all-around ecommerce marketing stack. They do the best job of integrating email & SMS and have a long track record of success.
- Need a cheaper Attentive alternative? Omnisend is the “young upstart” here, in many ways a challenger brand to Klaviyo.
- Just need SMS? If email marketing really isn’t that important to your sales channels, try sticking with Postscript instead.