by Klaviyo, Inc.Email marketing and newsletters
Email marketing built on a customer data platform for online stores, priced by active profiles: $100 a month for 5,000 with 50,000 emails.
Email marketing on top of a customer data platform: store and order data drive segments and flows, with SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans.
Klaviyo keeps every contact's profile, store activity and message history in one place, so segments and automated flows can react to what people buy or browse without a separate data tool. Flows and segmentation are on every plan, the free one included, and SMS and other mobile messages run from the same account. Paid email plans add SAML SSO, custom roles and required multi-factor sign-in, and the trust center offers Klaviyo's SOC 2 Type II report and ISO 27001 certificate. For 5,000 active profiles the email plan costs $100 a month with 50,000 emails.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Email marketing and newsletters: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Klaviyo | Brevo | Mailchimp | Kit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeEmail marketing on top of a customer data platform: store and order data drive segments and flows, with SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans. | Worth the priceEmail marketing, SMS and automation priced by emails sent rather than contacts stored, with servers in the EU and an ISO 27001 certificate. | Easy to adoptAn all-round email marketing tool with forms, landing pages, automation flows and 300+ integrations, priced by how many contacts you store. | Built-in reachA newsletter and email platform for creators: free up to 10,000 subscribers, with paid newsletters, digital products and a recommendation network built in. |
| Overall score | 7.4Best | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.8 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $20/mo | $9/mo | $13/mo | $39/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Active profile tier, with a monthly email limit | Monthly email volume tier; contacts up to the plan limit | Contact tier, with a monthly email limit of 10 to 15 times the contacts | Confirmed subscriber tier; emails are not counted |
| Free plan | 250 active profiles, 500 emails/mo, flows included | 100,000 contacts, 300 emails a day, automation up to 2,000 contacts | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo (250 a day), no automation flows | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, no sequences or automations |
| Reference scenario (5,000 contacts, monthly) | $100/mo (3,501 to 5,000 active profiles, 50,000 emails) | $79/mo on Standard ($18 + $61 for 20,001 to 30,000 emails) | $100/mo on Standard (60,000 emails) | $89/mo on Creator (3,001 to 5,000 subscribers) |
| Annual billing | Not stated on the pricing page | About 10% off ($853 a year for the scenario, computed) | Through sales only (Premium, or Standard with 10,000+ contacts) | 10 times the monthly price a year (about 17% off) |
| Automation on the cheapest paid plan | Flows on every plan | Starter: limited to 2,000 contacts; unlimited from Standard | Essentials: flows of up to 4 steps | Creator: unlimited visual automations and sequences |
| Users on the scenario plan | Not stated; custom roles on all plans | 1 user; up to 3 at $12/mo each | 5 seats, 4 roles | 2 users (Admin or Editor); unlimited on Pro |
| SMS | Mobile messages billed by credits; $5 a month on the free plan | Every plan; credits sold separately by destination | Add-on from Essentials in select countries; credits billed separately | Listed on Creator; price not stated |
| Paid newsletters | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Every plan; 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 | ISO 27001:2022; SOC 2 not stated | SOC 2 reports (type not stated); ISO 27001 | Hosting providers' only (AWS, Cloudflare) |
| Data location | United States; Germany for new accounts (EU Residency) | Servers in the EU | United States | Not stated; transfers to the US under the DPF or SCCs |
| SSO | SAML on any paid plan | Add-on on Professional (price not published); included on Enterprise | Enterprise SSO on Premium | Not listed |
| Contact export | CSV export of lists and segments | Export button in the account; Export contacts API endpoint | CSV export of audiences, segments, tags and groups | CSV export of subscribers |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Klaviyo pairs email and SMS with a customer data platform, with flows on the free plan and SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans. Its user limit is not stated and its pages disagree on EU storage. | From its public pages, Brevo has the lowest price for our scenario and keeps data in the EU, with unlimited automation from Standard. It includes one user on Standard, and SSO and the Professional total need a conversation with sales. | From its public pages, Mailchimp is a broad, familiar email marketing tool with landing pages on every plan and seats with roles on Standard. Multi-step automations start on Standard, overage prices are shown only in the account, and data stays in the US. | From its public pages, Kit is a creator-first platform with the largest free plan in this group and paid newsletters on every plan. Automations start on Creator, and its compliance file relies on its hosting providers. |
Evidence: Klaviyo: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Brevo: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Mailchimp: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Kit: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Klaviyo's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Klaviyo's pricing page with its calculator and the US price table it loads, the trust page and trust center, the Data Processing Agreement, the sub-processor list, the privacy FAQ, and help center articles on upgrade preferences, free and paid plans, SSO, MFA, custom roles, landing pages, A/B tests, exports and migrating off Klaviyo on Oct 16, 2026; we did not sign up or call the API.
The calculator's price table is detailed: email plans move up in tiers (251 to 500, 501 to 1,000 and so on), each with its own email limit, and 3,501 to 5,000 active profiles cost $100 a month with 50,000 emails. The billing article explains what happens at a limit: profile tiers are upgraded when the billing cycle renews, and for messages you choose between auto-upgrade (on by default), a one-time 'flex' purchase at your current unit rate, or stopping sends.
A few points need a question. The page lists $5 of mobile messages a month on the free plan while its structured data says 150 SMS/MMS credits. The sub-processor list (Sep 11, 2026) offers a German data center to new accounts at creation as part of 'EU Residency services', while the privacy FAQ (updated June 16, 2026) says Klaviyo does not store data outside the United States. The pages do not say how many users a plan includes.
Flows, segmentation and web forms are available on the free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month.
vs Mailchimp: Mailchimp lists no automation flows on its Free plan, and Brevo caps free automation at 2,000 contacts.
The trust center lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and PCI DSS, with reports downloadable from the self-service trust center.
vs Mailchimp: Mailchimp states SOC 2 reports without the type; Kit names only its hosting providers’ certifications.
SAML SSO through your identity provider is available on any paid plan, and MFA is required for paid accounts.
vs Mailchimp: Mailchimp puts SSO on Premium; Brevo and beehiiv on their top plans.
Going over a tier moves you to the next published tier, or lets you buy one-time extra messages at your current unit rate.
The pricing page and help articles we read describe roles and permissions but do not say how many users a plan includes.
Workaround: Ask Klaviyo before buying if several people need their own logins.
The sub-processor list offers Germany to new accounts at creation as 'EU Residency services', while the privacy FAQ says data is stored only in the United States; how to get EU storage is not stated.
Workaround: Existing accounts stay in the US, so decide before creating the account.
The pricing page offers the free plan, not a trial of the paid plans.
Workaround: The free plan has flows and segmentation, so most features can be tried at 250 profiles.
Klaviyo bills a monthly email plan by active profiles, the contacts who can receive marketing, with an email limit per tier. For our scenario, 3,501 to 5,000 active profiles cost $100 a month with 50,000 emails, before tax. The free plan stops at 250 profiles and 500 emails a month, and going over stops sending until you upgrade or the month resets. Paid accounts are upgraded to the next tier when the profile count passes the limit at renewal, and message overages are auto-upgraded by default. SMS, WhatsApp and RCS are billed per send by destination, and Composer, the AI add-on, is $20 a month. The pricing page does not state an annual price.
Lists and segments can be exported to CSV, and the 'How to migrate off of Klaviyo' article walks through exporting contacts, suppression lists, templates and analytics, and porting an SMS number. The API supports private keys and OAuth with scoped permissions.
From its public pages, Klaviyo pairs email and SMS with a customer data platform, with flows on the free plan and SOC 2 Type II, SSO and MFA on paid plans. Its user limit is not stated and its pages disagree on EU storage.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Active profile tier, with a monthly email limit |
| Free plan | 250 active profiles, 500 emails/mo, flows included |
| Reference scenario (5,000 contacts, monthly) | $100/mo (3,501 to 5,000 active profiles, 50,000 emails) |
| Annual billing | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Automation on the cheapest paid plan | Flows on every plan |
| Users on the scenario plan | Not stated; custom roles on all plans |
| SMS | Mobile messages billed by credits; $5 a month on the free plan |
| Paid newsletters | Not offered |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 |
| Data location | United States; Germany for new accounts (EU Residency) |
| SSO | SAML on any paid plan |
| Contact export | CSV export of lists and segments |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Klaviyo yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Klaviyo yet.
Klaviyo lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Email (251 to 500 active profiles), costs $20/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: klaviyo.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages of three email marketing platforms on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 5,000 contacts with a welcome series cost, where automations, SSO and EU data sit, and who should pick which.
