Klaviyo Review

Klaviyo Review: 1-minute summary

Here’s the deal: Klaviyo offers the best email + SMS marketing solution for ecommerce companies looking to level up their marketing. So what do I mean by leveling up? Well, it has some of the best segmentation, personalization, and reporting features, especially on ecommerce brands.

Klaviyo Pros

Best for Shopify users

Although Klaviyo offers one of the best email marketing services for ecommerce businesses, it’s especially suitable for those using Shopify as their ecommerce platform. The integration between these two platforms is seamless. According to Crunchbase, Klaviyo has 17 investors and raised close to $800 million, whereas Shopify invested $100 million, i.e., one of the largest Klaviyo investors.

SMS marketing features

Klaviyo also offers SMS marketing, aside from email marketing. Keep in mind that not every email tool offers SMS features. So why add SMS marketing to your marketing efforts? According to Klaviyo, 1 in 3 consumers prefer texts over emails from their favorite brands, and SMS marketing gets 5.5x the email click rate.

Advanced Segmentation and Targeting

Klaviyo offers powerful segmentation and targeting capabilities, allowing businesses to create highly personalized email campaigns tailored to individual subscribers’ needs and interests using its dynamic template tags. See this part of my review for a more detailed look into their segmentation features.

The best reporting features

So, the thing is, a lot of email marketing tools out there have crappy reporting features. Sure, they give you the deets on each campaign, automation sequence, or sign-up form, but not many give you an excellent overview of everything combined. I like to see how ALL my campaigns performed over a certain period – my campaigns, my sign-up forms, my list growth, you name it.
But here’s the good news: Klaviyo’s reporting features are top-notch. I’ve tested many different email marketing tools, and none even come close to Klaviyo regarding reporting. So if you’re looking for a tool to give you the big picture of your email marketing efforts, Klaviyo’s the way to go.

Great free plan

Klaviyo grants access to free plan users to 99/100 of its features, which no other email marketing tool does. The upside is that you can test all its features without entering your credit card details.

Klaviyo Cons

Pricey

MailerLite (MailerLite review) is an email marketing solution that offers affordable prices for beginners. For up to 10,000 subscribers, Klaviyo’s price is approximately 2 to 3 times higher than MailerLite’s price. However, once the subscriber count exceeds 15,000, Klaviyo becomes even more expensive, costing around 3 to 4 times more than MailerLite.

It’s worth noting that the marketing tools MailChimp (Mailchimp review), ActiveCampaign (ActiveCampaign review), and HubSpot (HubSpot review) are more expensive than Klaviyo.

Despite its higher price point, Klaviyo’s website highlights its ability to help ecommerce brands improve their email marketing ROI. Therefore, while it may be pricier than other email tools, the potential return on investment will likely be higher.

No 24/7 live chat support

If you sign up for a paid plan, you can access email and live chat support. But here’s the catch: Klaviyo doesn’t offer 24/7 live chat. Instead, they have specific hours when they’re available. For instance, I’m in Europe, so when Klaviyo’s chat support starts, my workday ends (I like to start early in the morning). Also, they don’t have a live chat on Saturdays and Sundays, which is a bummer.

No landing page features

Nowadays, most email tools offer a landing page feature but not Klaviyo. However, there’s an alternative you can use. Klaviyo allows you to create up to 1,000 lists, and every list has its unique subscribe page. Although there aren’t many customization options, you can still link to it. For example, this is a subscriber page of one of my example lists. Remember, this isn’t a real newsletter you can subscribe to, i.e., I only created this for this review.

Learning curve

Although writing and sending a newsletter isn’t rocket science, Klaviyo offers more features than only newsletters. Mastering all these features can be complex and take some time to learn, especially for beginners unfamiliar with email marketing tools. This may be a barrier for some users.

SMS sending is not available everywhere

Sadly, Klaviyo SMS is not available everywhere. You can only collect SMS consent and send text messages in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. For more information, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

You can trust our reviews✔️ We spend days testing and comparing this software to help you find the best marketing tool. Click here to find out more about how we test products.

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Klaviyo Review: Pricing

In this pricing section, I’ll discuss the topics below. Click on […] and skip to that section.

Different Klaviyo tiers […]
Price comparison with its competitors […]
Discounts […]
Extra discounts (special occasions) […]
Cancellation process […]
Refunds […]
Hidden fees […]
Email credits […]

Click here to sign up for Klaviyo.

The above link is our partner link. If you sign up through our link, you’ll receive free goodies at no extra cost. For more information on how to receive the free goodies, click here.

Different plans

Free plan (forever free)
Klaviyo Email (starting from $20/mo)
Klaviyo Email & SMS (starting from $20/mo)
Klaviyo One (For enterprise)

Price comparison

The table below shows the annual prices of the most popular email marketing companies, including discounts for purchasing annually since most email marketing companies offer discounts when you buy a yearly subscription. Sadly, Klaviyo doesn’t provide annual subscriptions, so no discounts exist.

The top horizontal bar represents the number of subscribers in your account. The first two columns on the left are the email tool + the tier/plan.

Remember that the email tool Sendinblue (Sendinblue review) isn’t included in the table below because it doesn’t calculate its price based on the number of subscribers in your account. Therefore, if you only send one or two newsletters monthly, Sendinblue might be financially more attractive than any other email tool.

By scrolling to the right, you can find higher contact numbers. Click here for a full-width version if you’re on a laptop or PC.

	500	1,000	1,500	2,000	2500	3,000	4,000	5,000	6,000	7,000	8,000	10,000	15,000	20,000	20,000	50,000	100,000	200,000	300,000	500,000	700,000	900,000	1,200,000	1,500,000	2,000,000	2,500,000	3,000,000	4,000,000	5,000,000
MailerLite Growing Business	$10	$15	$25	$25	$25	$39	$39	$39	$59	$59	$59	$73	$109	$139	$139	$289
MailerLite Advanced	$20	$30	$40	$40	$40	$50	$50	$50	$80	$80	$80	$110	$150	$180	$180	$340	$440	$820	$1,200	$1,900
ConvertKit Creator	$29	$29	$49	$49	$49	$49	$79	$79	$99	$99	$99	$119	$149	$179	$179	$379	$679	$1,279	$1,879
ConvertKit Creator Pro	$59	$59	$79	$79	$79	$79	$111	$111	$139	$139	$139	$167	$209	$251	$251	$519	$879	$1,579	$2,179
Zoho Standard	$4	$7	$17	$17	$17	$18	$24	$31	$35	$38	$41	$49	$61	$74	$74	$138	$242
Zoho Professional	$6	$12	$29	$29	$29	$30	$40	$52	$58	$63	$69	$81	$101	$123	$123	$230	$403	$748	$1,035	$1,380
Sender Standard	$19	$19	$19	$19	$19	$33	$33	$33	$57	$57	$57	$57	$87	$107	$107	$227	$367	$697
Sender Professional	$35	$35	$35	$35	$35	$60	$60	$60	$120	$120	$120	$120	$200	$250	$250	$460	$860	$1,660
Constant Contact Lite	$12	$30	$50	$50	$50	$80	$80	$80	$120	$120	$120	$120	$180	$230	$230	$430
Constant Contact Standard	$35	$55	$75	$75	$75	$110	$110	$110	$160	$160	$160	$160	$210	$260	$260	$460
Constant Contact Premium	$80	$110	$150	$150	$150	$200	$200	$200	$275	$275	$275	$275	$325	$375	$375	$575
ActiveCampaign Marketing Lite	$39	$39	$61	$61	$61	$99	$99	$99	$174	$174	$174	$174	$286	$286	$286	$486
ActiveCampaign Marketing Plus	$70	$70	$125	$125	$125	$186	$186	$186	$287	$287	$287	$287	$474	$474	$474	$699
ActiveCampaign Marketing Professional	$187	$187	$187	$187	$187	$262	$262	$262	$424	$424	$424	$424	$686	$686	$686	$1,011
ActiveCampaign Bundles Plus	$116	$116	$171	$171	$171	$232	$232	$232	$333	$333	$333	$333	$520	$520	$520	$745
ActiveCampaign Bundles Professional	$482	$482	$482	$482	$482	$557	$557	$557	$719	$719	$719	$719	$981	$981	$981	$1,306
GetResponse Email Marketing	$19	$19	$29	$29	$29	$54	$54	$54	$79	$79	$79	$79	$174	$174	$174	$299	$539
GetResponse Marketing Automation	$59	$59	$69	$69	$69	$95	$95	$95	$114	$114	$114	$114	$215	$215	$215	$359	$599
GetResponse Ecommerce Marketing	$119	$119	$139	$139	$139	$169	$169	$169	$199	$199	$199	$199	$299	$299	$299	$444	$699
Mailchimp Essentials	$27	$45	$45	$75	$75	$110	$110	$110	$180	$180	$180	$180	$230	$270	$270
Mailchimp Standard	$20	$45	$45	$60	$60	$100	$100	$100	$135	$135	$135	$135	$230	$285	$285	$450	$800
Mailchimp Premium	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$350	$465	$535	$535	$815	$1,025	$1,600
AWeber Lite	$15	$25	$25	$25	$25	$45	$45	$45	$65	$65	$65	$65	$145	$145	$145	$388	$788
AWeber Plus	$30	$40	$40	$40	$40	$60	$60	$60	$80	$80	$80	$80	$160	$160	$160	$403	$803
AWeber Unlimited	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899	$899
Klaviyo Email	$20	$30	$45	$60	$60	$70	$100	$100	$130	$150	$150	$150	$350	$375	$375	$720	$1,380	$2,070
Klaviyo Email & SMS	$35	$45	$60	$75	$75	$85	$115	$115	$145	$165	$165	$165	$365	$390	$390	$735	$1,395	$2,085
Beehiiv Launch	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Beehiiv Grow	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49	$49
Beehiiv Scale	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99	$99
HubSpot Marketing Hub - Starter	$20	$20	$40	$40	$60	$60	$78	$96	$112	$128	$144	$176	$256	$336	$336	$816	$1,616
HubSpot Marketing Hub - Professional	$890	$890	$890	$890	$1,140	$1,140	$1,140	$1,140	$1,140	$1,140	$1,390	$1,390	$1,640	$1,890	$1,890	$3,190
HubSpot Marketing Hub - Enterprise	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,600	$3,700	$3,700	$3,700	$4,000	$4,450	$5,250	$5,950	$7,350	$8,550	$9,750
Moosend Pro	$9	$16	$24	$24	$32	$32	$48	$48	$64	$64	$64	$88	$160	$160	$160	$315	$624	$1,216	$1,808	$2,896	$4,080	$5,840

Learnings

With up to 10,000 subscribers, Klaviyo’s price is roughly 2 to 3 times that of MailerLite (MailerLite review), an email marketing solution offering beginner-friendly prices.
At 15,000 subscribers and up, Klaviyo becomes more expensive, roughly 3 to 4 times the price of MailerLite.
Email marketing tools that are more expensive than Klaviyo are MailChimp (Mailchimp review), ActiveCampaign (ActiveCampaign review), and HubSpot (HubSpot review)
Remember, Klaviyo consistently mentions on its website that ecommerce brands use Klaviyo to increase the ROI of their email marketing. In other words, it might be more expensive than most other email tools, but you probably will see a higher return on investment.

Discounts

Most email marketing companies offer discounts when purchasing an annual subscription, which can be attractive since email marketing is a long-term game.

Sadly, Klaviyo doesn’t offer the option to purchase an annual subscription or discounts.

Furthermore, most email marketing companies offer discounts for non-profit organizations. Klaviyo doesn’t offer discounts for non-profit organizations.

Extra discounts (special occasions)

Some email marketing tools like GetResponse (GetResponse review) offer deals during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Valentine’s day, etcetera. Sadly, Klaviyo doesn’t provide any special discounts.

Cancellation process

You can easily cancel your Klaviyo subscription online. Although this might seem obvious, some email marketing companies like Constant Contact (Constant Contact review) have a more difficult cancellation process.

Refunds

According to Klaviyo’s terms of service policy, they don’t provide refunds.

The number of contacts (subscribed vs unsubscribed)

According to this page on Klaviyo’s website, they will never charge you for suppressed profiles, i.e., contacts unsubscribed from your email list. Remember that some email tools, like MailChimp (Mailchimp review) and AWeber (AWeber review), charge you for the ones that unsubscribe from your email list. In other words, if you have 5,000 subscribed contacts and 2,000 unsubscribed contacts, Mailchimp and AWeber charge you for 7,000 contacts. To be clear, Klaviyo will only charge you for the 5,000 subscribed to your list.

Email credits

Email credits might make the most financial sense if you are an infrequent email sender. For example, some companies like MailChimp (Mailchimp review) and Sendinblue (Sendinblue review) offer email credit packages where you pay $60 for 10,000 email credits.

Klaivyo offers SMS/MMS credits but doesn’t provide email credits besides its monthly subscription package.

Klaviyo Review: Free plan

The cool thing about Klaviyo’s free plan is that you get access to all its features. For more information about the differences between its paid and free plan, check this page on Klaviyo’s website.

Does Klaviyo offer the best free plan compared to other email marketing tools? The short answer is no – you can find a more detailed explanation here, where we compare the best free email marketing tools.

Forever free plan	✔️
Maximum subscribers/contacts	250 contacts
Maximum monthly emails	500
Maximum monthly SMS credits	150
Email automation	✔️
Support	❌ (Email support first 60 days)
Remove branding	❌
Maximum signup forms	Unlimited
Landing pages	❌ (Klaviyo doesn’t offer landing pages)
Email scheduling	✔️

Klaviyo Review: Newsletter Features

This section only covers Klaviyo’s newsletter features and not its automation features

In this newsletter features section, I’ll discuss the topics below. Just click on […] to skip to that part.

Maximum contacts & monthly emails […]
Google Analytics UTM builder […]
Newsletter […]
Segmentation […]
Email Scheduling […]
Audiences / Email lists […]

Maximum contacts & monthly emails

When subscribed to Klaviyo’s paid plan, you can send up to 10X your contact number, i.e., if you are on the 5,000 subscriber tier, you can send 50,000 emails per month. This includes regular newsletters and automated emails (flows). Once you reach the threshold, your emails will stop sending automatically. You can enable auto-upgrade so you won’t run out of email credits. For more information on Klaviyo’s billing, see this page on its website.

Then there’s a daily sending limit of 4X your contact number, e.g., if you have 1,000 subscribers, you can send up to 4,000 emails daily (see screenshot below).

*https://community.klaviyo.com/accounts-and-settings-2/flow-campaigns-sending-limit-3293*

Warning: If you send many emails, Klaviyo can become costly. The table below shows the sending limitations of other email marketing companies. As you can see, some of them offer unlimited email sending.

N/a = the platform doesn’t allow you to choose that particular plan on higher contact numbers; see, for example, MailerLite’s Business plan.
Unknown = the platform doesn’t provide details. You have to contact them for custom pricing.

		20,000	50,000	100,000	200,000	300,000	500,000	700,000	900,000	1,200,000	1,500,000	2,000,000	2,500,000	3,000,000	4,000,000	5,000,000
MailerLite	Growing Business	Unlimited	Unlimited	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
MailerLite	Advanced	Unlimited	Unlimited	12X	12X	12X	12X	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Mailchimp	Essentials	10X	10X	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mailchimp	Standard	12X	12X	12X	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mailchimp	Premium	15X	15X	15X	15X	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Klaviyo	Email	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X
HubSpot Marketing Hub	Starter	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X	5X
HubSpot Marketing Hub	Professional	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X
HubSpot Marketing Hub	Enterprise	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X	20X
GetResponse	All tiers	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
ConvertKit	All tiers	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Constant Contact	All tiers	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X	24X
AWeber	All tiers	Unlimited	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
ActiveCampaign	All tiers	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X	10X

Google Analytics UTM builder

Klaviyo allows you to add UTM parameters automatically to your emails, which would be a requirement for me when choosing an email marketing platform. Remember that some email marketing tools don’t offer this feature, i.e., you have to manually add UTM parameters to HTML links in your emails, which is error-sensitive and time-consuming. To better understand how UTM tracking works with Klaviyo, check out this page on their website.

First, to clarify, what I mean by newsletters in this context is regular newsletters, not automation builders or emails. Want to read my thoughts on its automation features? Check this part of this Klaviyo review.

Secondly, in terms of newsletter builders, while some may have more flexibility than others, I have not had a bad experience with any of the email marketing tools I tested. For instance, GetResponse’s newsletter builder may offer more features than ConvertKit’s, but that doesn’t necessarily mean ConvertKit’s builder is poor quality.

That said, Klaviyo’s newsletter is one of the easiest to use. As you can see in the screenshot below, it offers a clear overview of the process of creating a newsletter, which not every newsletter has. It allows you to go back and forth between the different creation stages quickly.

When creating your newsletter, you can use the drag-and-drop builder, the text-only builder, or code the newsletter yourself. It offers 100+ pre-designed templates (see five examples in the screenshot below). What’s good to know is that you can change the design of every pre-designed template to your liking with their easy-to-use builder.

An example of Klaviyo’s user-friendliness is that you can easily change the template despite already choosing one. To the ones that haven’t tested other email marketing tools, this example might sound silly but trust me; many email tools don’t allow you to change the email template, i.e., you have to create an entirely different email if you want to change the design/template. Keep in mind that there are many more examples, and these little things add up, making it one of the most user-friendly email marketing tools.

Know that when creating a newsletter with Klaviyo’s builder you can basically tweak everything what you see, i.e., they offer one of the most feature-rich newsletter builders.

Segmentation

Like every email tool, Klaviyo also offers segmentation options when sending a newsletter. You can create segments, use tags, custom fields, etcetera. However, it differentiates itself by providing multiple extra features, one of which is the Skip recently emailed profiles, i.e., Smart Sending. As the name implies, it allows you to not send another newsletter to the ones that already have received an email from you in a specific timeframe.

Another thing worth mentioning is its A/B testing feature. It allows you to test headlines, including email content. You can then select a winning metric; open rate, click rate, or placed order rate. You can also test different send times. All-in-all, Klaviyo’s A/B testing feature offers more functionalities than most other email tools (some don’t even offer it).

Aside from the above examples, Klaviyo’s segmentation feature has more sophisticated functionalities than most email marketing tools. The only email tool that offers similar functionalities is MailChimp (Mailchimp review) with its Advanced Segments feature, which is only available in its Premium tier (more expensive than Klaviyo).

The screenshot below shows an example of what you can do with this segmentation feature. The parts where I added an arrow are where Klaviyo differentiates itself from other email tools. Remember that this is just one of the infinite possibilities for segmenting your audience with Klaviyo.

I added a screenshot below of MailerLite’s segmentation feature to give you some perspective. As you can see MailerLite (review) doesn’t allow us to select a timeframe like Klaviyo, nor does it offers nested conditions like in the Klaviyo example where I filter on campaign name.

Email Scheduling

Every email tool allows you to schedule your emails, but not every email marketing software tool lets you schedule the email in the recipient’s local timezone. Klaviyo is one of those email tools that offer this feature, which might be helpful when you have a worldwide audience in different timezones.

Audiences / Email lists

Klaviyo allows you to create up to 1,000 lists and segments. Do note you should use Klaviyo’s lists functionality to segment your audience and not to maintain different businesses in one Klaviyo account. Also, if you’re an agency, don’t use one Klaviyo account to set up email marketing campaigns for various clients. Instead, every single Klaviyo account should only be for one business.

MailChimp (review) is the only tool that offers features to create separate Audiences, i.e., lists, in one account. Within Mailchimp, you can set a default from name, default sender’s email address, and physical address for each audience/list. For example, Mailchimp published a case study of a tattoo shop that offers tattoo services and educational products, i.e., educating other tattoo artists. As you can imagine, these are entirely separate audiences, and therefore Tattoo guru Russ uses two audiences instead of creating two accounts. Read the full story here.

Klaviyo Review: Email Marketing Automation

In this section, I’ll discuss the features below. Just click on […] to skip to that part.

Email marketing automation possibilities […]
Automation templates […]
Ecommerce automation […]
Dynamic content […]
Universal and saved content […]

Email marketing automation possibilities

Triggers

Every email marketing tool works with triggers, and so does Klaviyo. The screenshot below shows the different triggers you can use for your automation. For example, the basic triggers most email tools use are a contact subscribing to a list, submitting one of your forms, or clicking a link in one of your emails.

However, there are a few downsides of Klaviyo’s triggers: you can’t change the trigger once you’ve chosen one, i.e., if you change your mind, you can’t go back and change the trigger of the flow. Instead, you have to delete the entire flow and start from scratch, which is annoying and time-consuming. Most other email tools I’ve tested offer you the option to change the trigger of your automation.

Another thing I’ve tested is adding a trigger for a sign-up form I created, which is a cumbersome process compared to other email marketing tools. You can’t simply select the form you create as a trigger. Instead, there are numerous steps you have to take before you can finally choose the sign-up form as a trigger for your automation.

Add an action

Once you’ve selected the trigger for your automation/flow, you can add actions, e.g., sending an email, adding a time delay, or adding a conditional split. Like most other email tools, you can drag and drop the actions into the automation flow you’re building.

Automation templates

Klaviyo offers +- 50 automation templates (Klaviyo calls it flows). Most email marketing software tools nowadays offer automation templates, which you can easily import into your account and use/edit to your liking. The difference between Klaviyo’s templates and competitors is that Klaviyo’s are heavily focused on ecommerce, as shown in the screenshot below. Templates allow beginners to get a grasp on what’s possible.

The screenshot below shows a simple browse abandonment automation (i.e., flow).

Ecommerce automation

In this section, I’ll discuss the features below. Just click on […] to skip to that part.

Unique discount/coupon codes […]
Back-in-stock notification […]

Unique discount/coupon codes

Firstly, not many email tools offer this functionality to create unique coupon codes for your store automatically. Secondly, I’ve tested the unique coupon code generation with my Shopify store, which works perfectly.

You can use it in automated emails (i.e., flows) or regular newsletters. Automatic unique coupons are a great way to increase your sales because you can add an expiration date. For example, if subscriber X has been on your list for seven days and hasn’t purchased anything yet, you could send an automatic email with a coupon code that will expire in X hours or days after they receive the email. As you can imagine, you can’t do this manually for every new subscriber. For more information, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

Back-in-stock notification

Although I’m not a die-hard shopper, I occasionally use the back-in-stock notification on some of the products I like. A feature like this makes Klaviyo stand out from other email tools that aren’t necessarily focused on serving ecommerce businesses since I haven’t come across another email tool offering the back-in-stock notification functionality.

Klaviyo created documentation on how to set up a back-in-stock notification form on Shopify and BigCommerce.

In the screenshot below, you can see an example of one of Klaviyo’s pre-built flows you can use to notify them when a particular product is back in stock. In addition, you could add a so-called conditional split to notify your VIP customers immediately while others receive a notification 2 hours later.

Dynamic content

Klaviyo offers different functionalities to personalize your emails. I’ll discuss the features below. Just click on […] to skip to that part.

Template tags […]
Conditional logic (show/hide logic) […]

Django template language (template tags)

Klaviyo supports most of the filters used by the Django template language.

You can use the Django template language to create dynamic template tags in your emails (see screenshot below). Remember that not all email marketing software tools offer dynamic template tags, i.e., if this is a must for you, ensure to double-check.

The most simple example of dynamic tags is this: Hi {{ first_name|default: “my friend”}}. If the first_name field of a subscriber isn’t empty, i.e., we know their first name, the output will be Hi Robbin. If the first_name field is empty, the output will be: Hi my friend. Note that there are infinite possibilities when using dynamic template tags in your emails, allowing you to personalize your emails.

Another quick addition to the above example is: Hi {{ first_name|title|default: “my friend”}}. As you can see, I now added the tag title in between. The title tag ensures the capitalization of the first letter, and all others are lowercase. For example, some people, when they enter their contact information in your sign-up forms, they write it in all caps, which is a bit weird when you write them an email and always use CAPS; it’s like you’re screaming at them.😅

For more information and examples for using dynamic template tags in your emails, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

You can also use these template tags in fields like Sender email address, buttons, etcetera. In the screenshot below, you can see an example where the email address will change when the contact is in your loyalty program, i.e., when they are in the loyalty program, they can reply. If they aren’t in the loyalty program, the default email address is no-reply@…com. In other words, you’re rewarding your most loyal customers with an extra service to reply to your emails with questions.

You can find another example in the screenshot below. For example, when a subscriber needs to spend $50 to receive free shipping and a pair of socks, you can use a mix of custom properties and Django syntax to work it out.

Conditional logic (show/hide logic)

Let’s say your sign-up forms have a question on them asking why they use your product (see example in the screenshot below).

You can then use that data to personalize the images you use in your newsletters by only showing the outdoor image to the ones that chose outdoor. Remember that you can use the show/hide logic on every block you add to your Klaviyo newsletters, not only images.

For more information regarding the conditional logic, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

The downside of the conditional logic feature is that there’s no easy way to see all the possible logic elements you can add. Furthermore, there’s no feature where I can click a button to create the show/hide logic code. So without a simple button, it’s the learning curve to start with this is way higher.

MailerLite (MailerLite review), one of the cheapest email tools, has a more beginner-friendly and user-friendly approach to using show/hide logic in your emails. In the screenshot below, you can see that I can select who I want to show this specific block to, and I don’t have to use any coding to accomplish this as I do with Klaviyo.

So, all-in-all, Klaviyo’s conditional logic feature could use massive improvements in user-friendliness.

Universal and saved content

You can select the star icon with every block you add to your newsletters (see first screenshot below), which allows you to save that particular block to your universal content section (see second screenshot below). And an important and handy thing to remember; changes to universal content will apply to all templates containing that content. You can use it for newsletter headers, footers, or a block of content with a seasonal promotion that you use in multiple emails.

Klaviyo Review: Opt-in Form Features

I’ll discuss the features below. Just click on […] to skip to that part.

Different types of sign-up forms […]
Multi-step forms […]
Adding a teaser […]
SMS sign-up forms […]
Add coupon codes to form success messages […]
A/B testing […]
Opt-in form templates […]
GDPR […]
Double opt-in setup […]

When creating a sign-up form, you can choose four different types.

When choosing the popup, full page, or flyout, you get extra options like the display timing and display frequency (see screenshot below).

Multi-step forms

A neat feature I haven’t seen at other email marketing tools is the option to add extra steps in the sign-up process. For example, when your website visitor sees your popup, it might only ask for their email address. The next step could be to ask for their phone number or other profile information like their birthday or preferences (e.g., male or female clothing updates).

Adding a teaser

Another cool feature I haven’t seen at other email tools is the option to add a teaser, as Klaviyo calls it. In the screenshot below, you can see an example of the teaser. You can set it up in multiple ways, but one way is to show the teaser once your website visitor closes your popup form without opting in. They will constantly see the 15% off teaser in the bottom left corner, which teases them to click on it and subscribe to your newsletter.

Since Klaviyo offers SMS marketing features, you can add a phone number input field to your sign-up forms. For example, you can add the phone number directly below the email input field, like in the screenshot below. Or you can add an extra step (multi-step form) for the phone number input field.

Add coupon codes to form success messages

As explained earlier in this review, Klaviyo allows you to create unique and automatically generated coupon codes. One example is to create a sign-up form where you allow people to opt-in by entering their email addresses in return for a 10% discount on their purchase. The success message after opting in will be the coupon code.

A/B testing

Klaviyo’s process of creating A/B tests for your sign-up forms is easy. Remember, not every email tool offers A/B testing for sign-up forms.

Opt-in form templates

Klaviyo offers 50+ pre-designed templates you can use to grow your email list. You can tweak these templates to your liking.

Klaviyo offers an easy way to add checkboxes, which you can use to get GDPR consent. You can tweak the content of the checkboxes, add more checkboxes, and choose whether to make it required. You can also tweak the text below the consent checkboxes to your liking or delete it altogether.

Double opt-in setup

Double opt-in ensures everyone signing up for your newsletter confirms their subscription before receiving it.

For every list with Klaviyo, you can individually change the opt-in settings to single or double opt-in. And remember, you can create up to 1,000 lists and segments.

You can easily change the content and subject line of the double opt-in email, as seen in the screenshot below.

When distributing coupon codes to your audience to gain more newsletter subscribers, you might want to create different lists for every coupon promotion you do. Why? You probably want to alter this confirmation email content to match the coupon code people sign up for.

Klaviyo Review: Support

You’ll receive email support for the first 60 days when signing up for a free plan. You also have the opportunity to use its community to ask questions. I’ve tested it, and asking questions to the community works fine. Often I received an answer within a couple of days.

If you sign up for a paid plan, you can contact them by email and live chat. The drawback is that no 24/7 live chat makes it more challenging for those not in Eastern Time (ET). For example, I’m from Europe, six hours ahead of ET, i.e., when Klaviyo’s chat support starts, my work day almost ends (I like to start early in the morning). Another drawback is that there’s no live chat on Saturday and Sunday.

Klaviyo Review: Reporting

The bottom line is that many email marketing tools offer terrible reporting features.

Yes, they all provide reports of individual campaigns, automation sequences, etcetera. But not that many offer an excellent overview of all these things combined. For example, I prefer to see how ALL my campaigns performed over time. Similar to my automation campaigns, sign-up forms, list growth, etcetera.

Klaviyo reporting features are the best I’ve encountered while testing dozens of email marketing tools.

Keep track of subscriber growth

When reporting to yourself, your manager, or your client, you want to share monthly reports and compare them with each other to determine whether your list is growing. Klaviyo offers an excellent reporting feature to keep track of your subscriber growth. You can easily see your total list size and the number of unsubscribers, and you can add a custom timeframe to see the performance of earlier months.

Email reporting

Every email tool offers individual campaign reporting features, i.e., showing you the performance of individual newsletters. Although it’s essential to know how your campaigns are performing, what is as equally (if not more) important is having a clear overview of the performance of all your campaigns in any given period.

Klaviyo offers the best reporting features of all the email marketing tools I’ve tested. The list below refers to the numbers in the screenshot below.

You can select a custom timeframe, which enables you to create whatever report you want (e.g., monthly reports).
I added the campaign performance card to my dashboard of the campaign results for February 2023. It shows the number of emails I’ve sent and my open and click rate.
An example card I added to my dashboard of the number of conversions my campaigns generated. You can add up to 10 cards per dashboard and create multiple dashboards inside your Klaviyo account.
Another cool feature not many email tools offer is the comparison feature, where you can compare two different periods with one another.
When you click on Add card, it offers a wide range of options on what metric/report you want to add to your dashboard.

Automation reports

You can add multiple flow performance metrics to your dashboard, including the two in the screenshot below. The bottom line is that Klaviyo offers a great way to see how your flows perform over a more extended period instead of just seeing the results of individual flows/automations.

Remember, most email marketing tools don’t offer excellent automation reporting features.

Sign-up form reports

You can add multiple sign-up form performance metrics to your dashboard, including the two in the screenshot below.

The bottom line is that Klaviyo offers a great way to see how your sign-up forms perform over a more extended period instead of just seeing the results of individual forms.

Remember, most email marketing tools don’t offer great sign-up form reporting features.

Transactional emails

The short answer is yes; you can use Klaviyo for sending transactional emails.

Examples of transactional emails are an order confirmation, a shipping confirmation, an account created confirmation email, etcetera. The screenshot below shows six examples of ready-to-go templates you can import into your account for transactional email purposes. For more information on how this works with Klaviyo, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

Klaviyo’s History

In 2012, Klaviyo co-founders Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen founded Klaviyo. The screenshot below is from Klaviyo’s website on May 13, 2013. As you can see, the core message of helping ecommerce businesses with email marketing didn’t change a dime. A decade later, they still focus 100% on helping ecommerce businesses. If you want to hear their story, listen to this podcast episode.

Frequently asked questions

In what countries is Klaviyo SMS features available?

Sadly, Klaviyo’s SMS features aren’t available worldwide. You can only use its SMS features in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. For more information, see this page on Klaviyo’s website.

What is Klaviyo used for?

Klaviyo is an email marketing tool designed for ecommerce businesses that offer email marketing features and SMS functionalities.

Does Shopify own Klaviyo?

No, Shopify doesn’t own Klaviyo; however, Shopify did invest a substantial amount in Klaviyo, making it one of the more prominent Shopify investors.

Is Klaviyo better than Mailchimp?

Klaviyo offers more advanced features than Mailchimp, so yes, in my opinion, it’s better than Mailchimp.

Why is Klaviyo best for Shopify?

Klaviyo integrates seamlessly with Shopify. Once you enable the integration, you’ll access new automation flows, especially for Shopify stores. Also, inside your newsletters, you can add a product box that displays Shopify’s product feeds, which no other email marketing tool offers. Klaviyo also allows you to automatically create unique coupon codes by integrating their software with Shopify.

Is Klaviyo B2B or B2C?

Although you can use Klaviyo for both B2B and B2C, I think Klaviyo’s software is more tailored for business-to-consumer companies because it doesn’t offer CRM features.

Is Klaviyo hard to use?

Sending a simple newsletter and setting up a simple flow (i.e., automation) isn’t hard. But remember that Klaviyo has more features than a simple newsletter and flow. Understanding all the ins- and outs and how it can and could benefit your business isn’t something you learn overnight.

How many companies use Klaviyo?

According to Klaviyo’s about page, they currently have 100,000 paid users.

How many emails can Klaviyo send?

Suppose you subscribe to Klaviyo’s paid plan. In that case, you can send up to 10 times the number of contacts you have, meaning that if you are on the 5,000 subscriber plan, you can send up to 50,000 emails every month, including regular newsletters and automated emails (flows). If you exceed this limit, your emails will automatically stop sending, but you can turn on auto-upgrade to keep sending emails to your audience.
Additionally, there is a daily sending limit of 4 times the number of contacts you have. For instance, if you have 1,000 subscribers, you can send up to 4,000 emails daily.

How many employees does Klaviyo have?

According to Klaviyo’s about page, they currently have 1,500 employees worldwide.

How old is Klaviyo?

They founded Klaviyo in 2012, which is now over a decade ago.

What is Klaviyo’s free limit?

Free plan users are limited to 250 contacts/subscribers and can send up to 500 monthly emails and a maximum of 150 monthly SMS credits. You’ll get email support for the first 60 days, and you can’t remove its branding on your newsletters. Other than that, Klaviyo offers all its features to its free plan users, i.e., there are no other limitations for free plan users, which is generous compared to other email marketing tools.

Is Klaviyo easy to learn?

Klaviyo has a user-friendly interface and offers a range of resources, including tutorials and customer support, to make it easier for users to learn and use the platform.

Why is Klaviyo so good?

Klaviyo has one of the best personalization and segmentation capabilities, which allows you to send targeted and relevant messages to your customers. Remember that Klaviyo is best suited for ecommerce businesses, i.e., it’s not necessarily ideal for every other industry. Random example; I don’t suggest real estate agents use Klaviyo.

Is Klaviyo for ecommerce only?

Although everyone can use Klaviyo, it’s particularly well-suited for ecommerce businesses due to its advanced ecommerce features. In other words, there are better or cheaper alternatives if you aren’t an ecommerce business.

Who owns Klaviyo?

Andrew Bialecki is the co-founder and CEO of Klaviyo. Although Klaviyo raised nearly $800 million, I’m unsure who holds most of its shares.

Is Klaviyo a CRM platform?

Although it does offer some CRM features, Klaviyo doesn’t have the best CRM features. So if you’re looking for a great email marketing tool offering great CRM features, read my ActiveCampaign review.

What is similar to Klaviyo?

Keep in mind that every email marketing tool offers ecommerce integrations, so in a sense, every email tool is similar to Klaviyo. However, Klaviyo isn’t alone in providing an email tool tailored to ecommerce (see: email tool Drip).

Is Klaviyo worth the price?

According to case studies on their website, it is. The bottom line is that if you have many products in your store and focus on generating more repeat customers, Klaviyo can do an excellent job for you. On the other hand, if you sell a handful of products and most of your customers don’t return after their initial purchase because there aren’t other products to sell them, Klaviyo is probably a bit of an overkill for your business.

What kind of platform is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that helps ecommerce businesses with email and SMS marketing.

Where is Klaviyo’s headquarters?

Klaviyo has three offices around the world, starting in Boston in 2012, and now have offices in the United Kingdom (since 2019) and in Australia (since 2022).

How does Klaviyo billing work?

Klaviyo only offers a monthly subscription and no annual subscription. For more information on how its billing works, see this page.

Does Klaviyo charge per user?

They have a policy of not charging you for suppressed profiles, which refers to the contacts who unsubscribed from your email list. It’s worth noting that some other email tools like MailChimp (Mailchimp review) and AWeber (AWeber review) charge you for unsubscribed contacts, meaning that if you have 5,000 subscribed contacts and 2,000 unsubscribed contacts, Mailchimp and AWeber would charge you for 7,000 contacts. Klaviyo only charges you for the 5,000 contacts currently subscribed to your list.

Klaviyo alternatives

Remember, mainly all email tools offer ecommerce integrations. The difference is that Klaviyo’s features are on a higher level compared to most others. Why? Well, some email tools like MailChimp (Mailchimp review) focus on helping EVERY business with their email marketing, i.e., they try to help everyone. Klaviyo, on the other hand, only has one focus: helping ecommerce businesses.

Click here to sign up for a free Klaviyo account.

So, if you’re looking for a Klaviyo alternative, you are probably looking for a cheaper email tool since there’s no better alternative for ecommerce businesses. A great option would be MailerLite (MailerLite review), one of the most affordable email tools, which also offers ecommerce features. MailerLite also offers a generous free plan.

If you’re still unsure, look at my roundup comparison post, where I review the most popular email marketing tools. Also, check out the video below.