Klaviyo vs Braze 2026: Features, Pricing, ROI for Shopify

Klaviyo vs Braze comes down to fit and billing. Klaviyo, an agent-first B2C CRM by its own description, fits Shopify brands wanting a self-serve start and prices email on active profiles, with a free plan. Braze, a customer engagement platform, fits brands with apps and many channels and prices on monthly active users plus Action Credits.

We build the autonomous option, so read this as an informed-but-interested guide. The comparison below is fair to the incumbents; the reframe at the end is ours.

Where Klaviyo wins

• Shopify-native ecommerce data. The Shopify app brings in “customer profile and order data”, and Viewed Product and Active on Site tracking start once the app embed is on.
• Prebuilt flows. A library of pre-built flow automations and email templates, so a store starts from a template rather than a blank build.
• Agency ecosystem. Klaviyo cites 6,000+ agency partners and runs an agency directory.
• Self-serve start. A free plan and a published price list, so a small store can sign up without a sales call.

Where Braze wins

• Enterprise scale. Braze’s top edition, Braze Enterprise, is written for “enterprises running engagement at massive scale”.
• Cross-channel breadth. Push, in-app messages and content cards sit beside email and SMS in every tier, for apps as well as web.
• Journey orchestration. Canvas, its journey builder, creates “multi-step, cross-channel experiences”.
• Data depth. SDKs, APIs, cloud data ingestion and zero-copy segmentation, for brands whose customer data lives in a warehouse.

The rule of thumb: a Shopify brand that wants to start self-serve, on a published price list, fits Klaviyo; a brand that also messages inside an app, across several channels, and is ready for a quoted contract is where Braze fits.

Klaviyo vs Braze features

• What each says it is: Klaviyo calls itself “The Agent-first B2C CRM”; Braze titles its site “Braze Customer Engagement Platform”.
• Channels: Klaviyo lists email, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile push, RCS, reviews and social marketing; Braze lists email, push, SMS, MMS and RCS, WhatsApp, KakaoTalk and LINE, plus in-app messages, banners and content cards, among the features included in every tier.
• Journeys: Klaviyo builds flows and campaigns, with 80+ pre-built flow automations; Braze builds Campaigns and Canvases with “drag-and-drop components for branching, delays, audience syncs, and messaging”.
• AI decisioning: Klaviyo says its models “decide who to reach, what to say, where to send, and when for every customer, on every channel”, sold as Personalization; Braze lists BrazeAI Decisioning Studio Go among the features included in every tier and says it personalizes “at the individual customer level with AI decisioning”.
• AI agents: Klaviyo’s Composer “plans and launches personalized campaigns across every channel”, and “You approve every step”; Braze lists BrazeAI Operator and BrazeAI Agent Console among the features included in every tier.
• Shopify connection: Klaviyo installs from its Integrations tab, brings profile and order data in and can sync profiles back to Shopify; Braze offers a standard integration “tailored for Shopify online stores” and a custom integration for Shopify Hydrogen or headless stores.
• Customer data: Klaviyo Data Platform “resolves it into one accurate profile per customer”; Braze Data Platform lists cloud data ingestion, data transformation and zero-copy segmentation and personalization.

Klaviyo vs Braze pricing

Klaviyo publishes its prices. Its email plan is billed on active profiles, which its billing help article defines as any profile that can be emailed through Klaviyo, regardless of consent status. The free plan covers up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month and $5 of mobile messages a month, and the first paid email tier is $20 a month for 251 to 500 active profiles. Since July 13, 2026, SMS and other mobile messages are billed in dollars per message instead of credits, with carrier fees built into the rate and the mobile plan bought upfront as a dollar amount; an SMS is billed per segment, per recipient. Existing paid mobile plans move at their first billing date after August 13, 2026. How each billing lever moves the bill is in our breakdown of Klaviyo pricing.

Braze does not publish a price list. Its pricing page sells four Platform Editions (Braze Go, Braze Select, Braze Pro and Braze Enterprise) behind a “Get pricing” button and says “Pricing scales with your Monthly Active Users (MAU)”: anyone who records a session on a Braze-connected app or website in a calendar month. A contract, in Braze’s words, is made of “a Platform Edition tailored to your business needs, Monthly Active Users and Profiles, an allotment of Action Credits to power messaging and AI features, and CX Services to support your use of the platform”. Action Credits are one pool spent across channels: in Braze’s example, “sending an SMS may cost 1 credit, while a WhatsApp message may cost 5”. “Braze does not offer a free plan at this time”; it offers trials and startup programs instead.

So the two bill on different things: Klaviyo on the profiles a brand can email, Braze on the people who show up in a month plus the credits their messages use. Relvino’s pricing is one monthly plan by the size of the consented list. Brands that switch pay 90 to 95% of their old Klaviyo or Attentive bill.

Klaviyo vs Braze: which offers better ROI?

Neither vendor publishes a like-for-like ROI figure for the same store, so the honest answer depends on what each one charges for and how each one proves what it earned. On cost, Klaviyo counts every profile it can email, and its pricing page recommends suppressing profiles “so that you aren’t paying for profiles that are no longer providing value”; Braze bills on monthly active users and says that lets a brand keep its whole audience “without paying for dormant profiles”, with messages and AI features drawn from Action Credits. On proof, Klaviyo’s platform page offers attribution “for every interaction across channels, segments, and seasons”, while Braze’s impact reporting shows “incremental conversions using global holdout groups”.

Relvino’s figure is 2–6× ROI in 30 days, and the 14-day pilot is how a brand checks it on its own store before cancelling anything. Orion Sleep, which replaced its Klaviyo flows with Relvino, saw 50% higher revenue than Klaviyo’s flows.

What both share: AI decisioning inside journeys a team builds

Both platforms now sell AI that decides per customer. Klaviyo says its models decide “for every customer, on every channel”, and Braze says BrazeAI Decisioning Studio picks the “channel, product, financial offer, creative, timing & frequency for each individual customer”. In Klaviyo, that AI works inside flows and campaigns a team operates, where Composer’s plans wait for approval. In Braze, Decisioning Studio Go works inside the Braze platform beside Campaigns and Canvases assembled from drag-and-drop components, and Braze says Decisioning Studio Pro “can integrate into any martech stack as a decisioning layer”.

The option that replaces both: autonomous decisioning

The alternative is not another tool to operate. Relvino runs a different loop, Observe → Decide → Act: it reads live shopper signals, decides the offer, timing, and channel for each individual in ~80ms, and executes across email, SMS and pop-ups. There are no flows to build. You set guardrails - margin floors, channels, brand voice - and the system runs cart abandonment, browse abandonment, and win-back on its own.

The engine is a Large Retail Model trained across 10,000+ retailers and 7M+ data points (1.78M shoppers). It arrives already knowing what works in your category. Brands leaving Klaviyo see up to 4× year-over-year revenue uplift, with 80% less spam.

Klaviyo vs Braze vs Relvino at a glance

• Built for · Klaviyo: B2C brands, Shopify stores included · Braze: Early-stage growth teams to global enterprises · Relvino: Shopify ecommerce, autonomous
• Core model · Klaviyo: Flows and campaigns, with Composer plans you approve · Braze: Campaigns and Canvases, with BrazeAI agents · Relvino: Autonomous decisions, no flows to build
• Personalization · Klaviyo: Models decide per customer (Personalization) · Braze: AI decisioning per individual (Decisioning Studio) · Relvino: 1:1 per shopper in ~80ms
• Pricing unit · Klaviyo: Active profiles, plus mobile messages in dollars · Braze: Monthly active users plus Action Credits, by quote · Relvino: One monthly plan by consented list size
• Learning · Klaviyo: Your customer data and 9B+ profiles · Braze: Your first-party data · Relvino: 10,000+ retailers, 7M+ data points

So which should you choose?

If you are staying with a journey platform, pick Klaviyo for Shopify ecommerce depth and a self-serve start, or Braze for apps and cross-channel scale on a contract - both are strong at what they are built for. But if you are a $20–100M GMV Shopify brand with a lean team and plateaued results, the more useful question is whether a hand-built journey is the right way to run lifecycle at all. Start with Klaviyo vs Relvino or see the wider Klaviyo competitor landscape. If Braze is the tool you are leaving, our guide to Braze alternatives for ecommerce brands compares what to move to.

Frequently asked questions

Who are Braze's main competitors?

Braze competes with enterprise engagement platforms such as Iterable, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Airship, and MoEngage, and with Klaviyo at the ecommerce end. The newer category is autonomous decisioning: rather than orchestrating journeys a team designs, Relvino decides each shopper's offer, timing, and channel in ~80ms and executes on its own.

What are the top 3 email marketing tools?

There is no fixed top three. For Shopify ecommerce, a common shortlist is Klaviyo, Omnisend and Mailchimp, with Braze in the picture when a brand also messages inside an app and across many channels. Relvino compares Klaviyo with each in Klaviyo vs Omnisend and Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify. Autonomous decisioning is the category that replaces the flow work rather than competing feature for feature.

Who competes with Klaviyo?

Klaviyo competes with Omnisend, Mailchimp, Brevo, Attentive, and Constant Contact among flow-based tools, and Braze at the enterprise end. The newer competitor is autonomous decisioning, where Relvino replaces the flow and campaign stack outright. Brands leaving Klaviyo see up to 4× year-over-year revenue uplift after switching.

What are the weaknesses of Klaviyo?

Buyers usually raise cost and work. Klaviyo's email plan is priced on active profiles, which Klaviyo defines as any profile that can be emailed, regardless of consent status, so the bill rises with the list, and suppressing profiles lowers it only once the brand picks a lower plan: Klaviyo's billing article says the plan "does not automatically downgrade just because you reduce profiles". And even with Composer drafting campaigns and flows, a person still reviews them: Klaviyo's line for Composer is "You approve every step". Per-customer Personalization is a separate product priced on the same active profiles.

How much does Klaviyo cost?

Klaviyo is free up to 250 active profiles, then priced by active-profile tier. Its pricing calculator lists the email plan at $20 a month for 251 to 500 active profiles, $150 for 6,501 to 10,000, $400 for 20,001 to 25,000 and $720 for 45,001 to 50,000. As a list grows, Klaviyo moves the account up to a plan that covers the new active-profile count automatically. Mobile messages are a separate dollar plan bought upfront, and Personalization is an add-on priced on the same active-profile count. Our Klaviyo pricing guide covers what pushes the bill up and how to lower it.

How long does it take to migrate from Klaviyo to Relvino?

About 30 minutes for the technical migration: connect DNS, install the Shopify app, and your data ingests automatically. Flows are turned off, not rebuilt. After that it is a 14-day pilot - pause your current tool rather than cancelling it, and compare revenue side by side.

Where does Relvino host customer data?

Privately, on Relvino's own infrastructure. Each brand's data stays separate; the cross-retail model learns from aggregated patterns, never another brand's customers. We're working toward SOC 2, targeted for mid-November 2026.

How reliable is Relvino's AI?

It works inside your global brand guardrails and each campaign's or flow's own guardrails. A non-AI QA layer scores every AI output before anything is sent, across email, SMS and pop-ups.