Shopify Email vs Klaviyo (2026)

Start with Shopify Email if you run one Shopify store, send a few campaigns a month and want the standard store flows for little or nothing. Move to Klaviyo when email is a large share of your revenue and you need deeper segments, predictive data and reporting that Shopify’s app doesn’t have. Shopify charges by emails sent. Klaviyo charges by profiles. That one difference decides most of the bill.

Shopify Email is now called Shopify Messaging. Shopify renamed it in December 2025 when it added SMS. It is the same app inside the Shopify admin, and the help center describes it as “formerly known as Shopify Email.”

Quick answer

Shopify Messaging gives every paid Shopify plan 10,000 free emails a month, then charges $1 per 1,000. Abandoned checkout emails are free and don’t count. Klaviyo starts at about $30 a month for 1,000 profiles and reaches about $720 at 50,000. For most small stores Shopify Messaging costs less. Klaviyo earns its price when its data and flows add revenue that Shopify’s app can’t.

Price

What a store pays for email alone, sending four campaigns a month to the whole list. Prices checked October 2026.

Subscribers Emails a month Shopify Messaging Klaviyo Email
1,0004,000$0$30
10,00040,000$30$150
50,000200,000$190$720

Shopify Messaging is not a separate subscription. It comes with the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and extra emails go on your Shopify bill. Past 300,000 emails in a month the rate drops to $0.65 per 1,000, and past 750,000 to $0.55. Unused free emails don’t roll over. Source: Shopify Messaging email pricing.

Klaviyo prices come from EmailToolTester’s Klaviyo pricing breakdown (updated August 2026). Klaviyo bills on active profiles, anyone who can receive marketing email, whether you email them that month or not. The full table is on our Klaviyo pricing page.

The billing model changes the answer. A store with a big list it emails rarely pays Klaviyo for every profile anyway. On Shopify Messaging the same store pays only for what it sends. A store that emails a large list every day closes the gap, because Shopify’s per-email price adds up.

Side by side

  Shopify Messaging Klaviyo
Billed byEmails sentActive profiles
Free tier10,000 emails a month on any paid Shopify plan250 profiles, 500 emails a month
Store platformsShopify onlyShopify and other ecommerce platforms
AutomationsAbandoned checkout, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, welcome, win-backThe same flows, with more triggers, branching and filters
AnalyticsCampaign and automation reports in the Shopify adminRevenue attribution, predicted lifetime value and other predictive data
SMSYes, in 12 countries; $0.012 per US messageYes, on the Email and SMS plan
Where you workInside the Shopify adminA separate app connected to your store

Shopify Messaging also runs WhatsApp campaigns. SMS countries and US pricing are from Shopify’s SMS pricing page. Spain and Austria are paused as of autumn 2026.

Where Shopify Messaging is enough

It lives in the admin you already use. Products, discounts and customer segments come from your store without a sync. The abandoned checkout email costs nothing and doesn’t count toward your allowance.

For a store with a few thousand subscribers, a monthly newsletter and the standard flows, it does the job. Paying Klaviyo $30 to $150 a month to send the same emails is hard to justify.

Where Klaviyo pulls ahead

Klaviyo is built around customer data. It segments on purchase history, browsing and predicted behavior, and it reports which flow or campaign produced each sale. It also connects to store platforms other than Shopify.

That depth matters once email drives a real share of revenue, because a small lift in flow revenue can cover the price difference. A store sending one newsletter a month won’t see that lift.

Which to pick

New or small Shopify store: Shopify Messaging. It is free at your size and covers the flows that matter.

Store where email is a main revenue channel: Klaviyo. Test it against your Shopify Messaging numbers before you commit, because the bill grows with every profile.

Store that mostly sends newsletters and cares about cost or where data lives: you may not need either for that part. Broadcast, which we make, is self-hosted email marketing for $250 once, sending through Amazon SES at about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. It has no Shopify integration and no cart flows, so keep Shopify’s checkout email and use Broadcast for newsletters and sequences. See connecting Shopify to Broadcast for what works today.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify Email still free?

Yes, up to a point. Shopify Email is now called Shopify Messaging. Every store on a paid Shopify plan gets 10,000 free emails a month. After that it costs $1 per 1,000 emails. Abandoned checkout emails are always free and don’t count toward the 10,000.

Is Shopify Messaging the same as Shopify Email?

Yes. Shopify renamed Shopify Email to Shopify Messaging in December 2025 when it added SMS. It is the same app in the Shopify admin.

Is Klaviyo better than Shopify Email?

For segmentation, predictive data and reporting, yes. For a small store that needs campaigns and the standard flows, Shopify Messaging does the job for much less.

Can I use Shopify Messaging and Klaviyo together?

You can install both, but running the same flows in two places sends customers duplicate emails. Most stores pick one for marketing email. If you keep Shopify Messaging for the abandoned checkout email only, turn off Klaviyo’s version of that flow.

How much does Shopify Messaging cost for 10,000 subscribers?

Sending four emails a month to 10,000 subscribers is 40,000 emails. The first 10,000 are free and the other 30,000 cost $30. Klaviyo’s email plan for 10,000 profiles is about $150 a month.

Still deciding?

Comparisons cover the tradeoffs. How To covers whether Broadcast does the specific thing you need, organized by what you are trying to accomplish rather than by feature name. If the answer is no, it says no.

Browse How To Segment subscribers Branch a sequence Bring an existing list