Shopify Email vs Klaviyo: which one should your store use in 2026?

Shopify Email is now called Shopify Messaging, and for most stores sending once or twice a week it is the better choice: it lives in your Shopify admin, the first 10,000 emails each month are free, and abandoned checkout emails never count. Klaviyo is better when you will actually use deeper segmentation, predictive analytics and SMS in the same flows, and you accept a bill based on every profile you can email, from $30 a month at 1,000 profiles. This guide compares the two on how they bill, what they automate and when to move. If you only want the Klaviyo bill for your store, read Klaviyo pricing for Shopify stores instead. Every figure below was checked on help.shopify.com and klaviyo.com/pricing on 21 October 2026, in US dollars, billed monthly.

Shopify renamed Shopify Email to Shopify Messaging when it added SMS in December 2025, so most comparisons still ranking use the old name. Same app, same email rules: when we write Shopify Messaging below, read Shopify Email if that is the name you know.

Shopify Email vs Klaviyo at a glance

How Shopify Messaging prices email

What counts as an email

Shopify's pricing page puts it plainly: "sending 1 promotional email to 800 subscribers counts as 800 emails." Every store gets 10,000 free emails per calendar month, shared across campaigns and automations, and unused emails do not carry over. Above that the rate is $1 per 1,000 additional emails up to 300,000, then $0.65 per 1,000 until 750,000, then $0.55 per 1,000. Shopify's own example: two campaigns to 6,000 subscribers are 12,000 emails, 10,000 free and 2,000 chargeable, $2 in total.

What is free, and who can use it

The rule that matters most for a store is buried in the automations documentation: "Abandoned checkout automation emails don't count towards your emails sent with Shopify Messaging." Other automations, welcome and winback included, do count, but the flow with the most volume and revenue is free. Our abandoned cart email sequence guide covers what those emails should say.

The help center says Shopify Messaging is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans; on a free trial or Pause and Build you can build campaigns and send tests to yourself but not to subscribers. Extra emails land on the next Shopify bill as "Marketing emails"; the monthly spending threshold you can set is a notification, not a cap.

How Klaviyo prices email

What an active profile is

Klaviyo's billing article defines active profiles widely: "Any profile, regardless of consent status, that can be emailed through Klaviyo is considered an active profile. This includes your subscribers and those who are added by general engagement (such as sharing their email on a store's checkout page but not actually opting in)." Suppressed, unsubscribed and deleted profiles do not count, but the count can take up to 72 hours to refresh, and the plan never downgrades on its own: you pick the lower tier yourself, more than 24 hours before renewal.

The Shopify integration syncs checkout customers into Klaviyo, so the billable count is usually higher than the newsletter list. The tables below assume the two are equal, which flatters Klaviyo. Our list cleaning guide covers finding and suppressing the profiles that should not be billed.

Tiers, the 10x send allowance and automatic upgrades

On klaviyo.com/pricing the Email plan is $20 a month at 500 profiles, $30 at 1,000, $100 at 5,000 and $150 at 10,000, checked 21 October 2026. Each tier includes 10 emails per profile per month, a rule Klaviyo's limits article states as 10 times the plan's maximum profiles. Above 10,000 profiles the tiers climb steeply, and the full table at Shopify list sizes is in Klaviyo pricing for Shopify stores.

Both limits are enforced. Exceed the profile tier at the end of a billing cycle and "You will be automatically upgraded to a profile-compliant plan"; exceed the send allowance and you choose between flexible overages, an upgrade or stopping sending. The free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month. Predictive analytics sits in the Marketing plan, not the Email plan. Tier mechanics are compared with Mailchimp's in Klaviyo vs Mailchimp pricing.

What a store pays at three list sizes

Two sending patterns: 4 emails per subscriber per month (a weekly newsletter) and 8 per month (newsletter plus welcome, cart and post-purchase flows). Shopify Messaging follows its formula: (emails sent minus 10,000) times $1 per 1,000. Klaviyo is the same in both patterns because 8 emails per profile is inside the 10x allowance. MailingPlatform is the plan price in euro, excluding VAT; delivery runs through your own Amazon SES account and is billed by AWS (see the footnotes).

• Worked example, last row at 8x: 80,000 emails. 10,000 free, 70,000 at $1 per 1,000: $70.
• Currencies are kept apart: Shopify and Klaviyo in US dollars, MailingPlatform in euro, no conversion.
• The Shopify Messaging figures are a ceiling: abandoned checkout emails do not count, so a store whose 8 emails include a cart flow pays less.
• The Klaviyo figures assume active profiles equal subscribers; because checkout profiles who never opted in also count, the real bill is often a tier higher.
• The MailingPlatform figures exclude delivery, which AWS bills to your own Amazon SES account at its list rate. Details in the billing help article.
• The Shopify plan itself is not included; you pay it whichever email tool you choose.
• Prices checked 21 October 2026. Klaviyo above 10,000 profiles: see Klaviyo pricing for Shopify stores.

Read honestly: at 4 to 8 emails per subscriber, Shopify Messaging is the cheapest of the three at all three list sizes. At 1,000 subscribers MailingPlatform (€39) costs more than Klaviyo ($30), and at 5,000 the Professional plan (€129) is the most expensive. At 10,000, Klaviyo ($150) and MailingPlatform (€129 plus SES) are close. Price alone is no reason to leave Shopify Messaging if you send once or twice a week.

If you send most days

Take 30 emails per subscriber per month: a daily send, or a newsletter on top of flows firing every day.

• 10,000 subscribers, 300,000 emails. Shopify Messaging: 290,000 billable emails, $290. Klaviyo: far above the 100,000 emails included at the 10,000 tier, so flexible overages or a much larger tier. MailingPlatform: €129 plus AWS delivery.
• 25,000 subscribers, 750,000 emails. Shopify Messaging: 290,000 emails at $1 and 450,000 at $0.65 per 1,000, $582.50. Klaviyo: you would need the tier that includes 750,000 emails, 30 times what 25,000 profiles send at 4x. MailingPlatform: €129 plus AWS delivery.

Our flat rate email marketing pricing page says the same in one sentence (fine at low volume, expensive once automations fire daily); this is the arithmetic behind it.

SMS: two different bills

Shopify Messaging charges SMS per message, billed monthly, at a rate that depends on the country, and long messages count as several. The current rate for your country is in Shopify's SMS pricing in the help center; we do not repeat it here because it changes by country and over time.

Klaviyo uses dollar-based rates per message by channel, country and number type, with carrier fees bundled into the plan rate. Its public pages express the SMS bundle in different ways, so we are not quoting a fixed price. MailingPlatform does not do SMS at all; if texts drive a meaningful share of your revenue, that alone decides between the other two.

What each one can automate and segment

Shopify Messaging

Shopify lists ready-made automations for welcome, winback and upsell, plus custom workflows where you "Set the trigger and conditions, then add any conditional logic or wait steps". Automations require Basic or higher and "For full functionality, your store needs to have the Shopify Flow app installed". Campaigns go to Shopify customer lists or segments, templates pull logo, products and prices from the store, Sidekick drafts copy and suggests a send time, and reports show open rates and sales. Signup forms are a separate free app, Shopify Forms, and Shopify Network Intelligence must be enabled in your privacy settings.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo's free plan lists web forms, basic templates with a drag-and-drop editor, basic segmentation and reporting; the paid Email plan adds 350+ integrations, A/B testing and sender reputation features. The Marketing plan holds the well-known depth: predictive analytics, onsite personalization, product recommendations and mobile push. That depth is Klaviyo's real argument, and the price comparison should be read with it in mind. What we have not verified, such as whether Shopify Messaging supports A/B testing, we do not claim either way.

When Shopify Messaging is enough

• Your list is small or medium and you send once or twice a week: the table shows it is the cheapest option, often free.
• Your flows are the standard three, welcome, abandoned checkout and winback, and the highest-volume one costs nothing.
• You want everything inside the Shopify admin, on one bill, with templates that already know your products.
• You sell mainly to countries where Shopify's per-message SMS rates fit your margins.

When it is time to move to Klaviyo

• You will use predictive analytics, engagement-based segmentation and A/B testing, and someone has time to maintain the flows. Features are the argument, not price.
• SMS is a core channel and must run inside the same flows as email.
• You have budgeted for reality: checkout profiles count, and moving up a tier happens automatically at the end of a billing cycle. The Klaviyo migration guide is there if you later want out.

Where a flat rate fits

There is a third bill shape. MailingPlatform prices by active, emailable subscribers: €39 a month up to 3,000, €129 up to 25,000, €299 up to 100,000 and €499 unlimited, excluding VAT. Unsubscribed, bounced and suppressed contacts are free, and platform sends are unlimited: no send cap, no send credits, no overage from us. The honest footnote is the one in the table: delivery runs through your own Amazon SES account, billed by AWS at its list rate.

It fits a growing list with high sending frequency, the "If you send most days" scenario. It does not fit a small list mailed twice a month, where Shopify Messaging is cheaper, and it does not replace Klaviyo if you need SMS or predictive analytics. The Shopify email marketing app sets up webhooks, product sync, on-site tracking and the coupon API on installation, so cart and back in stock flows run on live store data and unique discount codes per recipient are possible. Plan details are on the pricing page.

How to decide in 15 minutes

• Count active subscribers. In Shopify, customers who accept marketing. In Klaviyo, active profiles including checkout profiles who never opted in, because that is the billed number.
• Count emails per subscriber per month. Campaigns plus every flow email a typical subscriber receives.
• Multiply and price it. Shopify Messaging: (emails minus 10,000) times $1 per 1,000, $0.65 above 300,000. Klaviyo: the tier that covers your profiles, checked against 10 emails per profile. Flat rate: your subscriber band plus AWS.
• Ask what you actually use. If you would not open the predictive analytics tab this quarter, do not pay for it. If you send twice a month, do not pay a tier for it either.

Frequently asked questions