Email marketing costs continue to rise, and the value for the money is falling. Growing e-commerce brands report that costs and features of email marketing platforms have become unbalanced, and support has become nonexistent. For these reasons and more, many marketers are searching for Klaviyo alternatives that offer better solutions for the brand’s needs and future, rather than solutions for where the brand first started.
There’s a reason Klaviyo is a favorite for email and SMS marketing tools for online stores. However, there are new challenges for brands as they continue to scale. What was a good fit for a brand with 2,000 subscribers and a handful of flows becomes restrictive for brands looking to run multiple channels, automate their website personalization, and run a loyalty program.
Why So Many Brands Are Looking Beyond Klaviyo
There is usually a cause, not a reason, for brands to search for a new solution. These causes generally fall into three main factors
The Cost Problem
Klaviyo’s pricing model is based on the number of subscriber profiles in the account, and that (some would argue) even counterproductive costs continue to grow.
- Unengaged contacts who never even opened an email still bleed you dry.
- Marketing automated flows can quietly duplicate sends as well as amplify costs.
- During seasonal spikes, your monthly cost may rise without a matching increase in sales.
The Support Problem
Setups have become more complicated, requiring brands to have more direct and immediate support, but they are not receiving it. Waiting days for support to fix a broken automation that is costing you sales can have a significant impact on your business.
The Flexibility Problem
While Klaviyo has great support for email and SMS as well as great segmentation capabilities, it lacks native support for loyalty programs, on-site personalization, and web push notifications.
- Brands that need loyalty functionalities typically add a third-party loyalty app.
- Brands that need on-site personalization add a third-party tool for that.
- Every tool adds cost and complexity, and the likelihood of more broken frameworks.
What a Good Alternative Should Actually Offer
Before switching to a different platform, it is helpful to understand what you are solving. Support and cost relief are the top reasons for switching, but there are also deeper automations and channel coverage to consider.
Match the Tool to Your List Size and Budget
- Some platforms allow for true omnichannel reach, as they bundle email, SMS, and push notification tools into one value offering.
- For ambitious and larger e-commerce brands that want a real-time customer data platform, loyalty and rewards, on-site personalization, and basically everything else, a full-funnel platform has been built to replace Klaviyo and the other three or four tools that most brands end up combining with it.
For brands with large, low-engagement lists, a tool that charges by email volume rather than contact volume can lead to major savings.
- Small, early-stage brands can achieve significant savings by choosing a more affordable platform.
- If your team has more complex and multi-step automation needs, tools with native CRM bring something that Klaviyo lacks.
Match the Tool to Your Channel Needs
- Some platforms allow for true omnichannel reach, as they bundle email, SMS, and push notification tools into one value offering.
- For ambitious and larger e-commerce brands that want a real-time customer data platform, loyalty and rewards, on-site personalization, and basically everything else, a full-funnel platform has been built to replace Klaviyo and the other three or four tools that most brands end up combining with it.
Where the Alternatives Differ
Knowing the categories can help you shortlist vendors quickly, as alternatives don’t all aim to be all-in-one solutions.
E-Commerce Specialists
Some platforms provide practical e-commerce features such as personalization, cart recovery, and multi-channel messaging that include WhatsApp and other channels, without making you pay enterprise-level prices.
Enterprise-Scale Platforms
Some offerings were built for large brands with engineering resources that need real-time and cross-channel messaging. They are powerful solutions, but often more complex than necessary for most online sellers.
Multi-Channel Generalists
Some other tools are focused on brands that aren’t primarily transactional. They offer email, SMS, and scheduling tools for social media posts and are a better fit than the e-commerce-focused Klaviyo.
The correct decision comes from assessing your business’s needs, rather than choosing based on which company has the biggest brand.
Making the Switch Without the Headache
It’s common to feel a bit edgy when switching systems. You’ve invested effort into creating your customer flows, audience segments, and your sending reputation. We appreciate that it’s an inconvenience to have to stop and restart your business processes.
Audit Before You Switch
Take a look at your actual system usage and determine where your costs are going in Klaviyo.
- A lot of businesses pay for advanced features like predictive analytics or advanced segments that end up being unused.
- Generally available features like loyalty integration or on-site personalization that platforms actually need are typically not available.
- The indication of the gap in the technologies you need is often the clearest signal that it is time to look elsewhere.
Test Before You Commit
Reliable competitors offer some migration support, list cleaning, and in some cases, free onboarding.
- Check your last few months of email billings in comparison to your actual engagement.
- If the platform is holding you back, improving your list won’t solve the problem.
- Before you go ahead and send your main audience lists, use a small test segment.
Conclusion
There is no clear ‘best’ alternative to Klaviyo because it depends on your preferences at that level of development, your budget, and your requirements. A small, budget-conscious store might prefer a cheaper, less complex email tool. If a company is searching for more advanced, more sophisticated CRM automations, it might choose a solution that builds out sales automation. If a growing e-commerce company needs to integrate all its email, SMS, loyalty, and on-site solutions into one component, it might find a full-funnel solution to be better at addressing the challenges that Klaviyo was not designed to solve.
Choosing a marketing platform is an important business decision that should be made with great care. Your existing platform should be as effective as your business, and if that’s not the case, it’s worth considering a change.