Drip vs Klaviyo: E-commerce Email Compared (2026 Prices and Setup)

For most online stores on Shopify, Klaviyo is the first platform to evaluate. It is built around shop data such as products, browsing and orders, and its Email plan starts at $20 a month for 500 active profiles. Drip is the stronger pick when you run a store on another platform or want a simpler workflow builder and unlimited email sends: its plan for 1 to 2,500 people is $39 a month. At 10,000 contacts the two monthly prices are only $4 apart ($154 for Drip, $150 for Klaviyo), so list size alone rarely decides the question. Platform fit, the depth of store data you need and how you plan to grow usually do.

This page compares the two tools for e-commerce email: what each does well, where each falls short, what each costs at realistic list sizes, and how to move from one to the other without losing automations or consent records. All prices below were read from each vendor's public pricing page on 7 October 2026. They are monthly figures. Check each vendor's pricing page for annual billing terms, because those are not shown in the price lists used for this page.

Who this comparison is for

This page is written for store owners and marketing leads who already sell online and now need a dedicated email platform, or who are unhappy with a general newsletter tool that cannot read order history. It assumes you care about abandoned-cart flows, post-purchase sequences, win-back emails and segmentation by buying behaviour. If you only send a monthly newsletter with no product data, both tools will feel heavier than you need, and a simpler sender may cost less.

It is not a guide to choosing an email service provider for transactional messages such as password resets or shipping confirmations. Both vendors can send those types of message in some setups, but a dedicated transactional service usually handles them better, and that is a separate decision.

Quick answer

Choose Klaviyo if your store runs on Shopify, you want product, browse and order data to drive segments from day one, and you can accept that the monthly price climbs faster as your profile count grows. Choose Drip if you want a visual workflow builder, unlimited email sends on the mid-size plans, and a lower entry price at small list sizes, or if your store runs on a platform where Klaviyo's Shopify depth does not apply to you.

Side-by-side comparison

The table below summarises the parts of each product that matter most when you choose between them. Prices are the entry points from each vendor's price list, and the limitation column names the trade-off you are most likely to hit after launch.

Klaviyo: what it does well for online stores

Klaviyo's main advantage is that it was built for shops. Its data model tracks products, browsing, carts and orders as first-class events, which means you can write segments such as "bought a product in the last 60 days but not in the last 14" without exporting anything. For Shopify merchants the connection is the main reason many stores choose it. Product catalogues sync, purchase history is available to flows and segments, and the templates and integrations ecosystem around the platform is large, so you are rarely the first store to ask a question about a given setup.

Klaviyo also puts a lot of weight on predictive features. Its positioning centres on forecasts such as expected next order date and customer value estimates, which can help you decide who should receive a re-engagement message and when. Treat these as features to test on your own list rather than as guaranteed results. Predictions depend on how much purchase history a contact has, so they are most useful for stores with several months of order data.

Where Klaviyo falls short is cost and complexity. Pricing is tied to active profiles, so a store that grows its list from 5,000 to 25,000 sees the monthly price move from $100 to $400 on the Email plan. The platform has many options, and a new team can spend weeks building flows before the first campaign goes out. SMS is available, but the price list does not show a monthly figure for Email+SMS plans, so you need a quote before you plan a budget around texting.

Price: the Email plan starts at $20 a month for 500 active profiles. It rises to $30 for 1,000, $60 for 2,500, $100 for 5,000, $150 for 10,000 and $400 for 25,000. The free plan covers up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Full details are on the Klaviyo pricing page.

Drip: what it does well for online stores

Drip is built around a visual workflow builder. You map a sequence of triggers, waits and conditions on a canvas, which suits stores that want to see the whole customer journey at once. Its e-commerce features include dynamic segments, onsite campaigns and up to 50 workflows on its standard plans, along with prebuilt e-commerce automations that save time when you launch. For a store that is not on Shopify, or that uses a platform where Klaviyo's native depth is not relevant, Drip is a straightforward way to run abandoned-cart and post-purchase flows without learning a large feature set.

Drip's pricing has a clear advantage for mid-size lists. On its plans from 1 to 2,500 people up to 22,501 to 25,000 people, email sends are unlimited, so you do not need to estimate monthly send volume to know what you will pay. For a store that mails frequently, such as a daily promotion calendar, this predictability matters. The largest brackets are different: the 37,501 to 40,000 plan lists 480,000 email sends and the 45,001 to 50,000 plan lists 600,000, so high-volume senders need to read the terms closely.

Where Drip falls short is depth of store data. Its Shopify integration works, but some features need more manual setup than Klaviyo's native connection, and you should expect to spend more time mapping purchase data to segments. Drip also has no ongoing free plan, only a 14-day trial with no credit card needed. That is enough to build and test a few flows, but you cannot keep a small list on Drip for free after the trial ends.

Price: the plan for 1 to 2,500 people is $39 a month, $49 for 2,501 to 3,000, $89 for 4,501 to 5,000, $154 for 9,001 to 10,000 and $369 for 22,501 to 25,000. Monthly usage pricing depends on active people and email volume, so check the Drip pricing page for the bracket that matches your current list.

Pricing at realistic list sizes

Because the two vendors count contacts differently (Klaviyo counts active profiles, Drip counts people in brackets), the table below matches each list size to the nearest tier. Read it as a guide to your monthly budget, not as a quote. Where a plan bracket has a range, the table shows the plan that covers the list size you chose.

A few derived figures make the table easier to use. At 2,500 contacts, Klaviyo costs $60 a month, which is $720 a year (12 × $60), against $39 a month or $468 a year (12 × $39) for Drip. At 5,000 contacts the gap is $11 a month, so the annual difference is $132 (12 × $11). At 10,000 contacts Klaviyo is $4 a month cheaper. At 25,000 contacts Drip is $31 a month cheaper, which is $372 a year (12 × $31). Those are the only numbers you need to check the arithmetic yourself, and they assume you stay on the monthly plan that matches your list size.

Two cautions apply to every row. First, the list you pay for is not always the list you email. Suppression rules, unsubscribes and bounced addresses change the active count, so review your plan each quarter. Second, the cost of Klaviyo SMS and any Drip add-on is not shown in the monthly price for these rows. If texting is part of your plan, request a quote from each vendor before you compare totals.

Free plans and trials

Klaviyo offers a permanent free plan. It covers up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, and includes $5 of mobile messages. That makes it realistic for a new store to build its abandoned-cart and welcome flows before paying anything. The limit to watch is the send cap: a store with 250 profiles that emails every day will hit 500 sends in under a month, so the free plan is best for a launch phase rather than a steady mailing schedule.

Drip has no ongoing free plan. Its trial is 14 days, with no credit card required. Use that window to import a sample of contacts, build your first two or three workflows and send test messages to your own addresses. Plan the trial around the three flows you will need on day one, because you will not be able to keep the account running for free afterwards.

Automation and workflows

Both tools can run the flows that most e-commerce teams need first: abandoned cart, browse abandonment, welcome series, post-purchase follow-up and win-back. The differences show up in how you build and maintain them. Drip's canvas makes each branch visible, which helps when a team of two or three people has to review a flow every month. Klaviyo's flows draw on store events and profile properties, so a flow can respond to a product that was viewed, a discount that was applied or an order that was refunded, provided the data arrives through the integration.

Plan automations around the customer's next action, not the calendar. A common mistake is to build a seven-email abandoned-cart sequence that keeps sending after the shopper has bought. Whichever tool you choose, add an exit condition that removes contacts who purchased, and test it with a real order before you launch. Keep flows short at first: three well-timed messages in a cart flow usually do more than a long sequence nobody reads.

Setup and migration checklist

If you are moving from one platform to the other, or setting up your first email tool, the steps below apply to both. The most common cause of a failed move is not the tool but the data: missing consent records, duplicate profiles and sending domains that were never authenticated.

How to choose

Start with the platform your store runs on. If you are on Shopify and you plan to build segments on product and order behaviour, the Klaviyo integration saves a lot of setup time, and that is worth paying for once your list grows past a few thousand profiles. If you are on another platform, compare the integration lists before comparing prices, because the price advantage of Drip only matters if the data reaches the tool.

Next, estimate your list size for the next twelve months, not today. Klaviyo's cost moves with active profiles, so a store that expects to double its list should compare the 5,000 and 10,000 rows of the table. Drip's bracket pricing rewards a list that grows inside a bracket, so check when your next bracket starts.

Last, decide how you will send. A store that mails several times a week benefits from unlimited sends on Drip's mid-size plans and should check the send allowance on the largest brackets. A store that mostly runs automated flows and sends occasional campaigns will mostly pay for profiles, which makes Klaviyo's per-profile model easier to plan around.

Common mistakes to avoid

The first mistake is paying for profiles you do not email. Unengaged contacts count towards the plan on both tools, so set up a suppression flow for contacts who have not opened or clicked in a long period, and remove them before the billing date. The second is treating the free plan or trial as a test of the full product. A 14-day Drip trial or a Klaviyo free plan will show you the workflow builder and the data model, but not how the tool performs at your list size, so run a parallel test with your real list before you commit.

The third mistake is copying a generic flow. Abandoned-cart timing that works for a fashion store with a low price point may not fit a store that sells expensive equipment with long research cycles. Write each flow for your own customers, and check the results after 30 days rather than after the first send.

Frequently asked questions

Is Klaviyo better than Drip for Shopify stores?

For most Shopify stores, Klaviyo is the stronger first choice because its connection to product, browse and order data is built in and widely used. Drip can run on Shopify too, but some features need more manual setup. Compare the cost at your expected list size before you decide.

What is the cheapest way to start with Klaviyo?

The free plan covers up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, plus $5 of mobile messages. Once you pass those limits, the Email plan for 500 active profiles is $20 a month on the vendor's price list.

Does Drip have a free plan?

No ongoing free plan is shown on Drip's pricing page. It offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. After the trial you need one of the paid plans, starting at $39 a month for 1 to 2,500 people.

Which tool costs less at 10,000 contacts?

On the price lists read for this page, Klaviyo's Email plan for 10,000 profiles is $150 a month and Drip's plan for 9,001 to 10,000 people is $154 a month, a difference of $4 a month or $48 a year. Compare total costs including any SMS add-ons, because Klaviyo's SMS prices are on request.

Can I move my automations from Drip to Klaviyo, or the other way round?

Automations do not transfer automatically between the two platforms. Export your contact list with consent data, then rebuild your core flows in the new tool. Start with abandoned cart, welcome and post-purchase flows, and test each one with a real order before you go live.

Does Klaviyo's SMS cost show up in the monthly price?

Not on the Email plan price. Klaviyo lists Email+SMS plans by profile count, but the price list does not show a monthly figure for them, so you need to request a quote before you add texting to your budget.

How often should I check my plan size?

Review your active contact count every quarter, and before any large campaign. Removing unengaged contacts and bounced addresses can move you into a lower bracket on either platform, which lowers your monthly bill without reducing the audience you actually email.

How current are the prices on this page?

Prices were read from each vendor's public pricing page on 7 October 2026. Vendors change their pricing, so confirm the current figure on the Klaviyo and Drip pricing pages before you buy. If you spot a figure that no longer matches, contact the editorial team through the site's contact page so it can be corrected.