Last Updated on août 21, 2024 by Ewen Finser
In this review I’m going to be finally taking a deep dive on Klaviyo. I’ll share some of the things I really like, some things I don’t, and who I think it’s the right fit for.
First, some background on me…
I’ve been operating ecommerce sites in various niches for the last 10+ years. Klaviyo has always been the platform I think of as MOST tied to ecommerce use cases.
My first experiences with Mailchimp and others was okay, but I quickly realized that more powerful, dedicated e-commerce platforms were the future. This was especially true 4-5 years ago when Mailchimp had a falling out with Shopify… making it difficult to directly integrate.
Regardless, my knock on Klaviyo has always been that it’s expensive and sometimes overkill for new brands. But I wanted to re-look at Klaviyo with fresh eyes for one of my new store launches.
So let’s dive in to my findings…
Things I Really Like About Klaviyo
These are the things that keep me coming back to Klaviyo for many of our ecommerce brands:
- Prebuilt Flows & Templates: Most ecommerce operators I know aren’t really email marketing experts. They know they should be doing it, but it’s not the thing they think about on the daily. Klaviyo’s templates (flows) make it really easy to start maximizing value from your list (and making money) right away. And it’s not just the typical “abandoned cart” sequences…
- Data & Metrics: The other extremely valuable parts of Klaviyo that keep me with them for our larger brands are their robust data tracking, analytics, and metric breakdowns. I particularly like how the pre-bundle and collect data on specific user behaviors without me having to really set it up. To be honest, there are some reports I didn’t even think I needed, but proved to be valuable additions.
- Built-in SMS: Klaviyo actually has a very robust SMS marketing platform, not something that every email marketing platform does well. It’s nice to have it all under one roof so I can sync data across communication channels. A certain subset of our audience responds really well to SMS, for example.
- eCommerce Focused: Part of why Klaviyo has been so successful is that they intentionally focused on the ecommerce market (one of Shopify’s most used apps, for example). This shows up subtly throughout their platform, but just makes life easier for ecommerce operators overall.
Areas for Improvement
Klaviyo clearly has some really strong points, but there are a few areas that could be improved (in my opinion) to better serve different types of users.
- Abordable Options de tarification : Klaviyo isn’t the cheapest email marketing platform. This makes sense given the features, particularly for ecommerce options. But they also are slightly more expensive than peers like Omnisend and MailerLite. Specifically, their starting paid tier of $45/month for 1,001 – 1,500 subs (or profiles) is about $10-20 more expensive for similar features.
- Sends + Subs Pricing: I don’t love the two-tier pricing around “active profiles” AND monthly sends. Particularly if you are near the bubble for the next tier, it’s easy to exceed and hit the overage charges. I’m generally in favor of EITHER sends or subs being the benchmark. It’s also much easier to do the math and cost forecasting.
- No Browser Push Notifications: This is more of a minor nitpick for me, but there are some use cases where browser push notifications can be super helpful for ecommerce & Klaviyo doesn’t natively offer these (some competitors do).
Breaking Down the Pricing Tiers
Since the pricing tiers are some of where my key concerns are, let’s break down how it works.
Klaviyo has tiered pricing for just Email or Email and SMS plans. Both pricing tiers are based on the number of “Active Profiles” you have in your account (think of these as just subscribers):
As you can see here, there’s ALSO an implicit “Sends” limit for each tier, so this is important to do the math on to understand your true cost.
What the heck are “Active Profiles” anyway? This is definitely a nomenclature change for me. Klaviyo defines them as such:
On the one hand, these suggests that “suppressed email profiles” are not counted towards your active count. This is significant as some other platforms like Mailchimp count even your “inactives” or “unsubs” towards your limits, unless you manually go and delete them.
On the other hand, it seems as though SMS profiles and Push profiles DO count towards your limit, even if they don’t have a corresponding email account associated with them.
Klaviyo Integration Landscape
I’m a super fan for integrations and love building customized stacks that all work together. So, getting a sense for the integration partners is always a big item on my list.
Thankfully, as one of the oldest ecommerce email marketing platforms (and most popular), Klaviyo integrates with a WIDE array for third party platforms.
Drilling down a bit, it becomes obvious just what a huge advantage this is. There’s literally dozens of CATEGORIES, let alone integrations to choose from:
This is low-key one of Klaviyo’s strongest selling points and similar to the “network effect” of using Shopify, WordPress, or any other well integrated platform ecosystem.
There’s even some pretty obscure platforms I’ve honestly never heard of (but am very curious to explore).
Bottom line on integrations: The integrations (alone) are one of the most compelling reasons to go with Klaviyo as your ecommerce email platform.
Other Alternatives on the Market
There are SO many really competent email marketing tools on the market these days. It’s malpractice NOT to at least consider and compare peers in market.
Here’s some other alternatives I’ve used, considered, and contrasted against Klaviyo:
- Omnisend: Omnisend is the “little brother” Klaviyo never wished they had. It’s similar to Klaviyo in almost every way, with the exception of being slightly cheaper (in some instances), a tad more user friendly for newbies, and having fewer integrations and time in market (and all of those associated benefits).
- Brevo: Brevo offers a unique “pay per sends” pricing model which is a great way to control costs if you are not quite sure HOW you’ll be using email just yet and want to stay on a budget. Brevo also has a strong transactional email focus.
- MailerLite: One of my favorite options for cost effective automations and a longtime integration partner with many leading ecommerce platforms, MailerLite is a good pick if you want to explore marketing automations without breaking the bank.
- Sendlane: Another top competitor to Klaviyo and Omnisend, Sendlane has been getting some market share due to it’s ambitious features (lots of testing frameworks, data insights) and comparable (or less expensive) pricing plans.
- ActiveCampaign: I’m a longtime ActiveCampaign user and still have many brands with them. Simply put, they are the king of marketing automations, with triggers for pretty much everything, excellent data insights, and established CRM-like functionality.
- Privy: Another ecommerce oriented relative newcomer, Privy has an incredibly user-friendly “back to basics” orientation for ecommerce email (and SMS). Think of it as somewhere between basic Shopify Email (see below) and robust Klaviyo. Generally a budget alternative to boot!
- Shopify Email: If you are JUST getting started thinking about email marketing and don’t have a list YET (and run a Shopify store), just integrating the free Shopify email app is a better option to get started. Once your list is substantial (1000+), you can always migrate over to Klaviyo.
Who Should NOT Use Klaviyo?
I’ll get to what type of businesses are ideal for Klaviyo below, but I always like to examine the inverse.
Who shouldn’t use Klaviyo and will probably be disappointed if they tried?
- Not in eCommerce: This almost goes without saying, but if you aren’t selling things online, Klaviyo is going to be an odd fit for you, and there are better options out there for different business use cases.
- Pre-sales / Low Sales / Low Margin: If you aren’t yet profitable or don’t have many sales yet, you may actually end up in a situation where your email list is large enough to be in the paid tiers, but the ROI isn’t there yet. Klaivyo is jet fuel for growing or established ecommerce stores, but as one of the more premium priced options, it’s not suitable for shops still figuring out product market fit or struggling for sustainable sales.
- SMS Only: If you are just running SMS campaigns, you probably are better served by going with one of the “SMS-first” platforms, even if you eventually plan on getting into email (you can always migrate over later).
Who is Klaviyo Perfect For?
Conversely, these are the types of businesses that I think Klaviyo is an EXCELLENT fit for:
- eCommerce Operators in General: If you run an established or growing ecommerce business, I’d be hard pressed NOT to first take a hard look at Klaviyo. Between integrations, SMS capabilities, and out of the box ecommerce specialized automations & templates. If this is you, give Klaviyo a try first.
- Shopify Operators Specifically: Klaviyo is famously one of the most popular Shopify apps and for good reason! As a leading Shopify app, expect top tier support, timely updates, and adaptations to the latest Shopify platform changes. If you run a Shopify store, there’s an even stronger case to go with Klaviyo here.
- Looking to ADD SMS: Technically a sub category of the above, but if you want to level up your SMS game and your current email marketing platform is limited here, consider migrating to Klaviyo for their well-integrated email + SMS combo.