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Attentive vs. Klaviyo: Comparison and better option

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Key takeaways

Attentive excels in SMS marketing with RCS capabilities, while Klaviyo stands out for its comprehensive CRM features, making each platform suitable for different business needs.

Omnisend offers a unified approach to email and SMS marketing with cost-effective plans, extensive pre-built automations, and global SMS reach, making it a strong alternative to both Attentive and Klaviyo.

Pricing for both Klaviyo and Attentive can escalate significantly as your contact list grows, so understanding total cost of ownership is crucial before choosing a platform.

Klaviyo provides advanced analytics and customer segmentation, while Omnisend simplifies the user experience with lower learning curves and 24/7 support across all plans.

Reveal key takeaways
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Attentive vs. Klaviyo has a few parallels. Both do global email, SMS, and automation, but only Attentive offers RCS, and only Klaviyo has CRM features. They suit different use cases, even though, on paper, they appear similar.

Your search thus far has probably been frustrating, with most articles picking Attentive for SMS and email as a secondary channel, and Klaviyo for the opposite. If only it were that easy.

There’s also Omnisend to consider, which unifies your email and SMS automations in flows and lets you create standalone campaigns for all channels.

Of course, features and toolkits are not your only consideration. Klaviyo vs. Attentive pricing is on the higher side, and you need to know about premium features, usage limits, and any factors that might increase your TCO and reduce your ROI, such as limited SMS coverage.

This article provides a complete guide to all of that and will help you pick between Klaviyo vs. Attentive, with nods to Omnisend, based on your business requirements.

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Attentive vs. Klaviyo: Quick comparison

Our comparison of Attentive vs. Klaviyo considers their features, pricing, learning curves, integrations (crucial for your existing tech stack), SMS coverage, and migration complexity. Plus, we’ll reveal when Omnisend provides better ecommerce features and value.

At-a-glance comparison table

The table below provides a comparison of Klaviyo vs. Attentive:

CategoryKlaviyoAttentive
Primary focusAll-in-one CRM for marketing + customer serviceMobile-first marketing platform
Channels coveredEmail, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile push, web formsSMS/MMS, RCS, email, push notifications
Customer service toolsAI Customer Agent, Customer Hub, helpdesk with ticket managementNone
Pricing modelBundled tiers: Based on active profiles, Plus mobile message credits, Starting at $20/month (email only) or $35/month (email + mobile), Customer service tools sold separatelyModular/pay-per-use: Subscriber list size, Messages sent, Channels selected, AI tools are add-ons, Custom pricing based on volume
Free tier500 emails + 150 SMS credits for up to 250 profiles30-day free trial only, and it requires a demo request
Support modelEmail support included with all paid plansDedicated support team, 24/5 service, hands-on onboarding
Integrations350+ pre-built integrations100+ integrations
Ideal business sizeSmall to mid-size businessesMid to large businesses (enterprise-focused)

Who Attentive, Klaviyo, and Omnisend are best for

Klaviyo is a CRM with customer service and marketing features via email, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile push, and web forms. It’s best for small- to mid-size businesses with complex customer journeys that want one tool and plan to handle everything.

Attentive is an AI-first marketing tool for SMS, RCS, and email, with SMS as the core channel. It requires building a custom plan from channels to AI feature selection and is best for mid to large businesses needing marketing only.

Attentive vs. Klaviyo: Feature comparison for email, SMS, and automation

Klaviyo and Attentive are enormously capable email, SMS, and automation tools for your ecommerce store. They could be the best fit if you need either a complete CRM with customer service capabilities (Klaviyo) or an SMS platform (Attentive).

Our complete feature comparison, below, reveals what you need to know:

Email marketing capabilities

Klaviyo and Attentive both let you create scheduled and one-time email campaigns, but Klaviyo offers more features and capabilities.

Klaviyo’s strengths:

  • 160+ customizable templates with a drag-and-drop editor
  • Send to up to 15 segments or lists in one campaign
  • AI Smart Send Time
  • AI-generated content for subject lines and email content
  • Personalized product recommendations
  • 350+ integrations to sync your email marketing with other tools

Klaviyo’s limitations:

  • Template customization has a learning curve
  • Costs increase substantially as your contact list grows

Attentive’s strengths:

  • Unified composer for email and SMS campaigns
  • Dynamic personalization, including subscriber names, product recommendations, and discount codes
  • Conditional logic to show or hide content based on subscriber attributes
  • Custom HTML editing for advanced users
  • AI-driven send time and audience optimization (requires AI Pro add-on)

Attentive’s limitations:

  • Email is secondary to SMS, so it has fewer useful features than Klaviyo’s offering
  • No free tier for testing email features

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend has 250+ pre-built email templates and AI brand assets that apply your logo, colors, and fonts to all the templates you pick by default. Additionally, its plans are cheaper than Klaviyo’s and provide complete access to all standard email features.

G2 reviewer Miguel M says that Omnisend has been a game-changer for its email marketing. “We’re using it every day now. It’s super user-friendly, easy to implement, and the powerful automation features for welcome emails and abandoned carts have saved us so much time.”

SMS and text marketing features

Attentive is an SMS-first platform, so it’s no surprise that it offers significantly more capabilities than Klaviyo across this channel.

Klaviyo’s strengths:

  • SMS available in 20+ countries
  • Two-way automated conversations for FAQs and preference collection
  • Separate consent management for transactional vs. marketing messages
  • Channel affinity coordinates SMS with email and push for optimal delivery
  • Multi-channel attribution (last-touch)
  • K:AI Customer Agent for 24/7 conversations

Klaviyo’s limitations:

  • No RCS capabilities
  • Smart Send Time for SMS is “coming soon”

Attentive’s strengths:

  • SMS, MMS, and RCS support
  • Two-tap signup technology for faster list growth
  • RCS features include rich media, product carousels, verified brand messaging, tap-to-reply, and multiple CTAs
  • Attentive Concierge combines conversational AI with live agents
  • Dynamic personalization with conditional logic
  • Keywords and numbers for two-way conversations
  • Custom HTML editing

Attentive’s limitations:

  • RCS features depend on device compatibility
  • Concierge and AI Pro features are additional costs beyond base pricing

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend lets you create standalone SMS campaigns for one-time and scheduled sends, as well as multichannel automations that include SMS. You can set SMS frequency caps, quiet hours, and personalize texts with dynamic tags to make them tailored for all customers.

Automation and customer journeys

You can automate email and SMS in Klaviyo or Attentive, with both catering to ecommerce customer journeys. However, with Klaviyo being a CRM, it has deeper customer profiles and more scope for complex automation targeting.

Klaviyo’s strengths:

  • 60+ pre-built flow templates with drag-and-drop builder
  • Flows AI creates automations from text descriptions
  • Cross-channel flows combine email, SMS, and push
  • Webhooks for external app integrations
  • Real-time customer profiles with a unified view across all channels
  • AI-powered predictive analytics (churn risk, CLV, next order date)

Klaviyo’s limitations:

  • Flow complexity takes significant time to learn
  • Conditional flow logic requires expertise in customer data structure

Attentive’s strengths:

  • Triggered journeys based on subscriber behavior (opt-in, browsing, cart activity)
  • Branching with if/else logic for personalized paths
  • Pre-built journey templates available
  • Transactional journeys for Shopify users (order confirmations, shipping updates)
  • Dynamic personalization using subscriber attributes

Attentive’s limitations:

  • AI Journeys is a separate pay-per-click add-on (not included in base pricing)
  • Fewer pre-built templates than Klaviyo
  • No comprehensive CRM with predictive analytics like Klaviyo

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend’s drag-and-drop flow builder has a smaller learning curve than Klaviyo’s and lets you combine email, SMS, and push notifications in a single flow. Another helpful feature is customer breakdown, under Audience, which groups your contacts by lifecycle stage to help you target them with appropriate retention tactics.

Segmentation and personalization

Segmenting your audiences and personalizing your email and SMS is a relatively intuitive process in either Attentive or Klaviyo. If you have an ecommerce store, Klaviyo has more filters, but Attentive’s dynamic segments are fantastic for SMS.

Klaviyo strengths:

  • Dynamic segments update in near real-time based on customer behavior
  • Define with AI creates segments from text descriptions
  • Segment on any customer action, behavior, or profile property
  • Conditional statements (if/elif/else) for dynamic content
  • Can use segments for campaigns, flows, analytics, forms, and social media ads

Klaviyo’s limitations:

  • Only top-level properties can be segmented (basic customer data like name, purchase count, total spent)
  • Manual segment updates take up to 15 minutes

Attentive’s strengths:

  • Dynamic segments update automatically as subscribers meet conditions
  • Pre-built segment templates for common groups
  • Segment by activity, for example, subscribed, received messages, clicked links
  • Segment by characteristics, including location and device type
  • Liquid templating for personalization with variables, conditional logic, and loops
  • Dynamic content, including variables, links, discount codes, and product images

Attentive’s limitations:

  • Cannot segment by total cart value or aggregate lifetime value
  • No AI-powered segment creation or predictive analytics

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend includes its AI segment builder in all its plans, letting you create complex segments with nothing more than prompts. You can then refine your segment in the intuitive builder. Alternatively, pick from 30+ pre-built segments.

Ashry B, CEO of a small business, said of Omnisend on the reviews platform G2, “Customer segmentation helped me generate more than 130,000 EGP in sales within a year. It really made email marketing simple and effective for my business.”

Analytics, reporting, and testing

Comparing Attentive vs. Klaviyo for analytics reveals that both provide a complete overview of your campaign and automation performance. Klaviyo is more capable overall because it offers industry benchmarking and predictive analytics integrated into reporting.

Klaviyo’s strengths:

  • Campaign reports with overview, conversions, and deliverability
  • List growth reports tracking profile acquisition and attrition by source
  • Engagement reports for lists and segments
  • Signup form analytics with views, submits, submit rates, and A/B test results
  • Industry benchmark reports to compare your performance to others
  • Custom reports for single metric deep dive, multi-metric, and campaigns
  • A/B testing for campaigns (up to four variations), flows, and signup forms
  • Domain engagement analysis to diagnose deliverability issues

Klaviyo’s limitations:

  • Custom reports have a two-year maximum time range
  • Only owners, admins, managers, and analysts can access reporting tools

Attentive’s strengths:

  • Billable spend reporting with message type and category breakdowns
  • Back-in-stock waitlist enrollment tracking
  • Scheduled automated report delivery via email with CSV downloads
  • Journey reports with aggregate and message-level performance
  • Side-by-side period comparisons (previous period or same time last year)
  • Revenue tracking by channel and message type
  • A/B testing for campaigns and journeys

Attentive’s limitations:

  • No benchmarking against industry standards or similar companies
  • Limited pre-built report templates

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend provides channel-by-channel dashboards in addition to campaign and automation overviews, form analytics, back-in-stock reports, and deliverability breakdowns. These ensure you can monitor marketing performance across all activities.

Pricing and total cost of ownership (TCO)

Klaviyo vs. Attentive pricing shows that both platforms offer decent value at most active profile tiers, provided you have good list hygiene. Both use contact-based pricing that’ll hit you hard if you have loads of inactive profiles. 

As Capterra reviewer Meral P says of Klaviyo, “The recent price increases have come unexpectedly, where they now charge for x amount of profiles, this wasn’t something we expected when we renewed our contract.”

Another reviewer, Alec B, uses Attentive and cites pricing as its disadvantage. “No real downside to Attentive other than it being more expensive compared to some of their competitors.”

How Attentive pricing works

Attentive vs Klaviyo: Four feature sections for The Attentive Platform: Strategic Support, Data Platform, Marketing Suite, and Enterprise-Grade, detailing services like 24/5 support, integrations, patent technology, and industry security.
Image via Attentive

Attentive uses modular pricing, where you select and pay for each component separately based on your needs. It requires contacting sales for a quote, and though a 30-day free trial is available, it requires a demo request first.

Pricing is based on:

  • Subscriber list size
  • Number of messages sent/month
  • Channels selected (SMS only, SMS + Email, or SMS + Email + Push)
  • AI features chosen as add-ons

AI tools have separate costs:

  • AI Pro, flat monthly fee for send time optimization and audience segmentation
  • AI Grow, flat monthly fee for personalized sign-up experiences
  • AI Journeys, pay-per-click for automated 1:1 messaging

How Klaviyo pricing works

Attentive vs Klaviyo: Three pricing plans for an email marketing service: Email + mobile messages at $35/month, Email at $20/month, and Free. Each plan lists features such as AI content creation, segmentation, and credits.
Image via Klaviyo

Klaviyo’s tier-based plans have disclosed pricing (unlike Attentive’s), and its free forever plan is suitable for testing most features before upgrading.

Pricing is based on:

  • Number of active profiles (contacts who have engaged recently)
  • Mobile message credits for SMS and WhatsApp

Plan tiers:

  • Free: Up to 250 profiles, 500 emails/month
  • Email only: $20/month, for up to 500 profiles and 5,000 emails/month
  • Email + mobile messages: $35/month for the same email sending caps as email only, plus 1,250 SMS credits/month

Additional paid features:

  • Reviews, priced by monthly orders
  • Marketing Analytics, priced by active profiles
  • Advanced Klaviyo Data Platform, priced by total profiles
  • Customer service tools sold separately (Customer Agent, Customer Hub, Helpdesk)

Hidden costs and contact-based inflation

Neither Klaviyo nor Attentive has hidden costs, but both get more expensive with list growth and have leaps in pricing to consider as you change your sending habits:

  • Klaviyo prices by active profiles, meaning your costs rise automatically as your list grows, even if you’re not sending more emails or SMS.

Example scenario, you have 52,000 active profiles and send 9,000 SMS per month. You’d pay $1,195/month for Klaviyo’s email + mobile plan. If your list grows to 55,001 profiles, you jump to the next tier and pay more, even though your sending amount is the same.

Additionally, Klaviyo’s purpose as both a marketing and CRM tool only checks out if you’re willing to pay for additional tools. These include Customer Agent ($140/month), Customer Hub ($20/month), and Helpdesk ($185/month).

  • Attentive prices by subscriber list size and message volume, meaning your costs increase as both grow. However, pricing is custom and requires contacting sales for quotes, so there isn’t any consistency across what you and others pay.

Like Klaviyo, it also has extra costs for its best features. AI Pro, AI Grow, AI Journeys, and Concierge with AI + Live Agents add costs to base plans.

How Omnisend’s pricing and ROI compare

Omnisend uses contact-based pricing like Klaviyo but offers better value, with access to all standard features across all plans at lower prices. At scale, Omnisend has a lower TCO, making it more cost-effective for growing stores.

G2 reviewer Christian D backs Omnisend’s value. “The affordability is a standout, allowing me to send information to all my email subscribers without incurring high costs.”

The table below provides working examples:

PlatformMonthly costAnnual costClaimed ROIWhat's included
Klaviyo email + mobile$880$10,560$63 for every $1 spent550,000 emails + 10,000 SMS credits
Omnisend Pro$784$9,408$68 for every $1 spentUnlimited emails + $784 SMS credits/month + advanced reporting + personalized content
AttentiveCustom pricingDepends on what you addNo publicized ROIRequires a sales quote for exact pricing

Ease of use and learning curve

Getting started is straightforward with both platforms, though mastering advanced features takes time.

Onboarding and time-to-first-campaign

Attentive takes a demo and onboarding approach to new sign-ups, requiring you to request a demo and discuss plan options with a salesperson.

Klaviyo lets you create an account and start testing its platform immediately, and offers 1:1 onboarding as part of its highest-tier plans.

The table below compares Attentive vs. Klaviyo vs. Omnisend:

PlatformOnboarding processTime-to-first campaign (estimate)
AttentiveDemo required, guided setup with support teamOne to two days (includes demo scheduling, account setup, and assisted first campaign creation)
KlaviyoSelf-serve account creation, guided setup wizard, 1:1 onboarding for highest-tier plans onlyOne to three hours (complete setup wizard, import contacts, connect store, create first campaign)
OmnisendInstant self-serve account creation, no feature restrictions on the free plan30-60 minutes (import contacts, verify domain, create campaign with pre-built templates)

Day-to-day usability for marketers

You’ll primarily use either platform for email and SMS campaigns and automations. Both offer prebuilt templates to accelerate setup, though their workflow approaches differ.

Klaviyo:

  • 60+ prebuilt flow templates handle common scenarios like welcome series and abandoned carts
  • Campaigns follow a guided wizard from recipient selection through content design to scheduling
  • Flows feel more technical with visual canvas building, where you configure triggers, filters, and time delays between steps

Attentive:

  • Its Campaign Composer puts message name, audience selection, send time, and content on one screen
  • Prebuilt journeys do the heavy lifting on workflow logic, with trigger configurations in place, so you focus on writing messages
  • Less clicking between settings, but fewer options for customizing automation behavior

Omnisend’s advantage

Omnisend provides immediate account creation with unrestricted access to generative AI and multi-channel segmentation on its free plan. Pre-built flows, email templates, and segments let you launch campaigns without technical configuration or learning complex workflow logic.

For instance, Omnisend provides a pre-built flow for abandoned checkout value split, a traditionally difficult flow to master. It lets you send different messages based on basket value:

Attentive vs Klaviyo: A workflow editor for abandoned checkout emails, showing trigger and channel settings, delay options, and a flowchart with steps for sending emails to customers who abandon their shopping carts.
Image via Omnisend

G2 reviewer Chris D believes Omnisend is the best. “I’ve been using Klaviyo like forever, we switched to Omnisend due to pricing, but wow, what a far superior experience. What used to take me 4 to 5 hours, I can now do in an hour.”

Technical resources and skills required

Technical needs for either platform vary by how deeply you customize automations and integrate with external systems. The lowdown:

Klaviyo:

  • Non-technical marketers can handle basic campaigns and use pre-built flows
  • Advanced features (custom HTML, complex segmentation, and conditional logic) require understanding triggers, filters, and workflow branching
  • Mastering automation requires investment in learning the platform via Klaviyo’s support documents and videos

Attentive:

  • Non-technical marketers can manage campaigns and pre-built journeys independently
  • Journey templates come with wait steps and branching logic already configured
  • Custom Event API integrations require developer resources, with Attentive providing lots of documentation to get started

Integrations and using Attentive with Klaviyo together

Both platforms offer extensive integrations, though Klaviyo’s 350+ apps dwarf Attentive’s 100+ connections, particularly for advertising channels like Google and Meta.

Attentive’s ecommerce and marketing integrations

  • Attentive offers 100+ integrations, including 12 for ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, and WooCommerce.
  • If you have an existing CRM, it connects to 16 natively. Salesforce, SAP Emarsys, Endear, and Blueshift are among the most popular options.
  • Marketing integrations are limited, with no Google Ads or Facebook integration.
  • The API allows custom connections. For instance, Omnisend integrates with Attentive, letting you sync Attentive subscribers to your Omnisend audience.

Klaviyo’s integration ecosystem

  • Klaviyo has 350+ apps and a much wider selection of marketing integrations.
  • Meta Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Audiences, and TikTok audiences sync via apps, letting you pile in all your data.
  • Ecommerce integrations include Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, OpenCart, PrestaShop, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
  • Klaviyo’s API lets your developers create connections to other systems.

Klaviyo–Attentive integration: Why some brands use both

Klaviyo Attentive integration is possible if you need Attentive’s specialized RCS messaging, AI-powered send time optimization, and white-glove support, but need Klaviyo’s superior email marketing and CRM features.

However, using both platforms leads to problems, such as:

  • Doubling subscription costs
  • Managing multiple dashboards
  • Data duplication
  • Data siloes for unshared information
  • Incorrect sales and revenue attribution

Additionally, neither Attentive nor Klaviyo has native apps for the other, so any connections between them require API access and development.

Most brands end up using one or another, although some customers say Attentive is difficult to deal with. Reddit user Chezziz says that Attentive “basically refused to give us our own customer data when we moved away from them.”

How Omnisend’s ecommerce integrations differ

  • Offers 160+ integrations and natively connects to 11 ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, SureCart, and Wix.
  • Its integrations have more ecommerce focus across email capture, loyalty and rewards, shipping and logistics, and automations and middleware.
  • Your favorite ecommerce apps, such as Smile, Yotpo, Recharge, Loop, Ninja Forms, Gorgias, Make, GemPages, and OptiMonk, have native apps.
  • There’s an Attentive app, letting you import and share data between both tools.

For a lightweight and revenue-focused tech stack, Omnisend is perfect because it integrates with what you already use and lets you create advanced multichannel automations without the steep learning curve of Klaviyo.

Support, onboarding, and self-serve resources

Attentive and Klaviyo provide email and live chat support following initial demos and onboarding. Here’s what you need to know:

Attentive support model

Attentive offers email, live chat, and web form submission support across all plans. You get:

  • Email support for login issues
  • Web form submissions, 24/5 available Monday to Friday
  • Live chat within Attentive UI, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 9 PM ET
  • A Resources Hub, including webinars and a video training library, and a Help Center, containing high-quality guides for settings and features

Additionally, it offers:

  • Onboarding and demos for new customers
  • Customer success managers for higher-tier customers

Klaviyo support model

Klaviyo provides tiered support based on plan level:

  • Email support available 24/7 for paid accounts
  • 60-day email access for free customers
  • Live chat 24/5 for paid plans (weekend hours vary by region)
  • Virtual assistant (Kira) for initial queries and resource direction

Only the highest-tier accounts receive onboarding, and unlike Attentive’s offering, there are no demos. Instead, you must learn on the go and via its online resources hub, split across two different areas:

The quality of Klaviyo’s documentation is extremely high, more so than Attentive’s, and its hub makes finding information easy.

Omnisend’s 24/7 support for every plan

Omnisend’s support is more available than either Klaviyo or Attentive, with 24/7 live chat and email options across all plans, including its free forever one. Additionally, its experts are happy to help ecommerce stores of all sizes get started.

With Omnisend, you can:

  • Request a 1:1 demo to learn everything you need to know within 30 minutes
  • Chat with Omnisend support within your dashboard
  • Request migration support via its 24/7 support team
  • Ask your dedicated Account Expert to assist with setting everything up (requires >$400/month minimum spend)
  • Learn how to market your business effectively via the Marketing Resources hub and find fast answers to all your questions in the Help Center

G2 user Milena P appreciates Omnisend’s support, “Their support was outstanding — kind, patient, and truly caring. They made sure everything was taken care of and followed up until it was perfect. I’m very impressed with their service.”

International capabilities and compliance

Klaviyo and Attentive offer global email and SMS reach, albeit with significant SMS coverage limitations versus Omnisend.

Email deliverability and compliance basics

You get built-in infrastructure to ensure deliverability and protect your sender reputation with either  Klaviyo or Attentive. However, they take different setup approaches:

Klaviyo:

  • Set up a branded sending domain with DMARC/SPF/DKIM authentication
  • Warm new domains by gradually increasing send volume (guided notifications in-platform)
  • Use Deliverability Hub to monitor sender reputation score
  • Create sunset flows to remove subscribers unengaged for 90-180 days

Attentive:

  • Set up a branded sending domain with DMARC/SPF/DKIM authentication
  • Warm new domains over two weeks during migration (volume ramps gradually)
  • Monitor open rate, click rate, and bounces via the Campaigns page
  • Create tiered engagement segments (7/14/30/60/90/180 days) and sunset journeys to remove unengaged subscribers

Both require DMARC/SPF/DKIM authentication and branded sending domains for Gmail/Yahoo compliance. Unsubscribe links and consent collection tools help you meet GDPR and CAN-SPAM requirements.

SMS coverage: Domestic vs. global reach

Klaviyo offers broader EU coverage than Attentive, but Attentive covers more of Latin America.

Klaviyo:

  • 22 countries: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, plus 16 EU (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland)

Attentive:

  • 20 countries: US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, UK, plus 13 EU (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Poland)

Both tools comply with TCPA and CASL with proper configuration. For instance, you can use built-in opt-outs to automatically unsubscribe people from text messages.

How Omnisend supports global ecommerce brands

Omnisend connects you to customers globally via email and SMS, with SMS available in 200+ countries, exceeding both Attentive and Klaviyo’s reach.

With Omnisend, you get:

  • Per-message SMS pricing that varies by destination
  • Dedicated phone numbers for the US and Canada, with sender name display when it’s available
  • TCPA compliance tools for US recipients
  • MMS for the US and Canada
  • Self-service setup, segment your audiences by country code, and schedule by timezone for appropriate delivery

Decision framework: Which platform fits your brand?

Consider these factors when considering Attentive vs. Klaviyo:

By business size and growth stage

  • Klaviyo works for small to mid-size ecommerce stores that want marketing and customer service in one platform. Pricing starts at $20/month with a free tier for testing.
  • Attentive targets larger businesses, including ecommerce and service-based ones, with SMS as the priority, but requires a sales call for custom pricing.

If you’re going by growth stage:

  • Steady domestic growth: Klaviyo’s transparent pricing scales predictably as your list grows
  • Rapid scaling: Both charge by list size, but Klaviyo’s costs jump at tier thresholds, while Attentive’s custom pricing may allow volume negotiation
  • International expansion to the EU: Klaviyo covers more countries via SMS (22 vs. 20), including Austria, Finland, Hungary, and Luxembourg
  • International expansion to Latin America: Attentive’s SMS covers Mexico and Brazil

Both charge by list size, so expect costs to climb as you grow. Klaviyo gets you sending faster with self-serve setup, and Attentive provides hands-on onboarding via demos.

By channel priority

  • Email: Klaviyo wins here with 160+ templates, AI-generated content, and deeper automation logic
  • SMS: Attentive is the better choice, offering two-tap signup and conversational AI that Klaviyo lacks
  • RCS: Only available through Attentive, with rich media, product carousels, and verified brand messaging
  • Multichannel: Klaviyo adds WhatsApp and mobile push to workflows, Attentive adds RCS

By technical resources and team structure

  • Small teams without developers: Klaviyo’s self-serve setup and pre-built flows get you running without technical help
  • Teams with onboarding support: Attentive requires a demo and walks you through implementation
  • Teams with developer resources: Attentive’s 100+ integrations may need API work, Klaviyo’s 350+ connect natively
  • Teams building complex workflows: Klaviyo lets you configure triggers, filters, and conditional logic, while Attentive’s pre-built journeys handle wait steps and branching for you

Decision table to help you pick the right tool

The table below recaps the key differences between Attentive and Klaviyo to help you determine which is a better fit for your business:

KlaviyoAttentive
Business sizeSmall to mid-size ecommerce, pricing from $20/month with a free tierMid to large businesses, custom pricing via sales call
Email priority160+ templates, AI content, deeper automation logicSecondary to SMS, fewer features
SMS priority22 countries, no RCS20 countries, RCS support, two-tap signup, conversational AI
MultichannelEmail, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile pushEmail, SMS, RCS
Small teamsSelf-serve setup, pre-built flowsDemo required, guided implementation
Dev resources350+ native integrations100+ integrations, more API work needed
Complex workflowsConfigure triggers, filters, conditional logicPre-built journeys handle wait steps and branching
Steady growthTransparent pricing scales predictablyCustom pricing, less predictable due to no published prices
InternationalBetter SMS EU coverage (22 countries)Better SMS Latin America coverage (Mexico, Brazil)

Omnisend: The better alternative to Attentive and Klaviyo

Omnisend is a fantastic fit for your growing ecommerce store because it optimizes your customer journey from welcome series to follow-ups and winback campaigns. 

You can target customers across email + SMS with sales attribution to calculate ROI, and connect with Google Ads, Meta Ads, and even Attentive to share data. Additionally, it connects with popular ecommerce apps, such as Buy with Prime.

Why “specialist vs. generalist” is a false choice

Attentive specializes in SMS and RCS marketing and happens to do email. Klaviyo specializes in email and CRM, and happens to do SMS. Either way, you’re paying for one channel’s depth while the other lags.

Omnisend does email and SMS without one being secondary to the other. Both channels sit in the same automation builder, same contact profiles, same reporting, helping you master ecommerce marketing without paying for CRM tools or RCS features you won’t use.

Unified email + SMS purpose-built for ecommerce

Omnisend combines email and SMS on a single platform built for ecommerce, with multichannel automations and standalone campaigns. 

Plus, it:

  • Costs less at scale than Klaviyo
  • Has pre-built flows for the most common ecommerce scenarios
  • Provides customer breakdowns with lifecycle stage maps
  • Reaches more countries via SMS than both (200+ versus 22 and 20)
  • Includes bonus SMS credits equal to the price of your Pro plan
  • Provides 24/7 customer support across all plans
  • Offers 1:1 demos to help with early mastery and get your campaigns started quickly

Real ROI data and performance benchmarks

On average, Omnisend customers achieve a $68 ROI for every $1 spent, with ecommerce stores of all sizes using its email and SMS automations.

Here are some examples:

  • Hand-casting kit brand Pasignia grew revenue 25% after migrating to Omnisend. Open rates reached 55%, and the team launched campaigns 50% faster than before.
  • Rockin Royalty, a baby hairbow brand, generated over 1,000 first-time orders in 12 months from a single welcome automation with a 7.5% conversion rate in collaboration with CLVmaxers.
  • 360cycles achieved a huge ROI alongside agency MDigital. It reactivated 422 lapsed customers before the holidays through automated winback flows in Omnisend. A single upsell automation generated €1,202 in 14 days.

The image below depicts a table covering key industry verticals and their metrics among Omnisend customers in 2024:

Attentive vs Klaviyo: A chart from Omnisend compares email marketing metrics—open rate, click rate, conversion rate, and click-to-conversion—across various industry verticals in 2024, including adult, apparel, beauty, fitness, and more.
Image via Omnisend

When to switch to Omnisend

Consider Omnisend when you:

  • Run multichannel automations covering email, SMS, and push
  • Need global SMS reach in hundreds of countries
  • Want SMS credits included in your plan, not charged on top (Pro)
  • Require 24/7 support across all plans
  • Don’t use predictive analytics, customer service tools, or RCS
  • Prefer transparent pricing over custom quotes and sales calls
  • Want ecommerce-focused segments, flows, analytics, and testing tools

G2 reviewer Marion M switched from Klaviyo to Omnisend and found it intuitive. “We love how smooth the migration from Klaviyo was. The whole process is clearly well thought out, you can tell the team put real effort into removing friction. Everything was easy to follow.”

Migration timelines, costs, and risks

Here’s what you need to know about Attentive Klaviyo migration:

What it takes to move off Attentive

Omnisend has an integration for Attentive that syncs contact details captured via Attentive forms into Omnisend. So, you can connect them and use them together (Omnisend for multichannel automations, and Attentive for RCS).

If you wish to migrate to Omnisend from Attentive, that involves:

  1. Exporting your subscriber details and importing them into Omnisend
  2. Rebuilding your Attentive forms, flows, and campaigns using Omnisend’s tools
  3. Generating a new phone number for SMS or using the self-service TFN transfer process

You need to follow similar steps when migrating to Klaviyo from Attentive:

  1. Export SMS contacts from Attentive, separating by country and opt-in status
  2. Import contacts via CSV, mapping phone numbers and consent timestamps
  3. Upload opted-out contacts separately and mark them as unsubscribed
  4. Rebuild forms, flows, and campaigns using Klaviyo’s tools
  5. Port your toll-free number or short code (allow up to 4 weeks) or generate a new number

What it takes to move off Klaviyo

Omnisend has a migration tool that automatically syncs contacts, properties, tags, segments, and engagement stats from Klaviyo without manual exports or imports.

Migrating requires these steps:

  1. Connect your ecommerce store via one-click integration (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix)
  2. Use the migration tool to sync contact data automatically
  3. Pick from pre-built workflows to get automations running quickly
  4. Rebuild campaigns using Omnisend’s templates and AI content tools
  5. Plans at $250+/month get premium migration support included

If you’re moving from Attentive to Klaviyo, Attentive provides hands-on migration support with a dedicated team. The steps go like this:

  1. Kickoff call with CSM and Product Specialist to plan the migration
  2. Connect the Klaviyo integration to sync subscriber lists and engagement data
  3. Upload opted-out subscribers separately to maintain suppression
  4. Set up your dedicated sending domain
  5. Recreate forms and journeys in Attentive
  6. Launch call to go live and deactivate Klaviyo automations

How Omnisend reduces migration risk

Omnisend’s support and migration tools reduce data entry errors and speed up your time-to-first campaign. Here’s how it reduces risk:

  • Migration tool syncs Klaviyo contacts, segments, and engagement data automatically, reducing manual errors
  • Pre-built workflows let you launch automations without rebuilding logic from scratch
  • No downtime on contact data, with syncs happening in the background while you set up
  • 24/7 support available during migration, not just business hours
  • Plans at $250+/month include hands-on migration support from Omnisend’s team
  • Your ecommerce store will connect in one click via an app, so order and customer data syncs immediately

Conclusion

Klaviyo has customer service, CRM, and multichannel capabilities that Attentive lacks, making it a superior tool if you want to connect your marketing with customer data. Attentive has RCS and more SMS features for targeting your customers. 

Omnisend works for ecommerce stores of all sizes that want email and SMS together, with pre-built automations, lifecycle reporting, and SMS to 200+ countries at a lower cost than either.

Pick based on what you’ll use when comparing Attentive vs. Klaviyo vs. Omnisend:

PlatformBest forPricingWatch out for
OmnisendEmail and SMS automation without CRM extrasFree forever plan with access to all standard features, paid plans from $16/month, bonus SMS credits equal to the price of your monthly Pro planNo CRM features, no discounts for annual plans
KlaviyoEmail, SMS, and customer service in one platformFrom $20/month for email only, from $35/month for email + SMSExtra costs for crucial features, such as Customer Agent ($140/month), Helpdesk ($185/month), Customer Hub ($20/month)
AttentiveSMS-first with RCS and conversational AICustom pricing via sales callAI features charge flat monthly fees on top of usage
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FAQs

Is Attentive or Klaviyo better?

Klaviyo is the better CRM and marketing tool-in-one, but Attentive is superior for SMS with RCS support and demo onboarding to help you start immediately.

Who competes with Attentive?

Attentive competitors include Omnisend and Klaviyo. Klaviyo pitches itself heavily as a CRM and marketing tool, whereas Attentive and Omnisend are purely for marketing.

Who does Klaviyo compete with?

HubSpot on the CRM side, Omnisend for ecommerce multichannel marketing, and Attentive for AI-driven marketing, which Klaviyo is rolling out more and more of. Mailchimp also competes, but more so within the small to mid-sized business market.

What are the cons of Klaviyo?

Steep learning curves for automation flows require an understanding of triggers, filters, and conditional logic. Pricing increases significantly as your contact list grows, based on the number of active profiles. Customer service features like Customer Agent, Helpdesk, and Customer Hub cost extra beyond base marketing plans.

Is there a better alternative to Attentive and Klaviyo?

Omnisend is a top Klaviyo alternative for ecommerce stores, with customers achieving a $68 return for every $1 spent. Its pre-built flows, segments, email templates, and Pro plan with bonus SMS credits, which equal the price of your monthly plan, make it a fantastic investment.

Can I use Klaviyo and Attentive together?

Yes, with a few use cases making sense since you can sync email subscribers, segments, and opt-in statuses between them. You might find that Klaviyo’s proprietary customer service tools (Customer Agent, Helpdesk, Customer Hub) and more advanced email automations improve the ROI of Attentive’s RCS feature.

How hard is it to migrate from Klaviyo or Attentive to Omnisend?

Omnisend has a Klaviyo Data Import Tool for contacts, segments, and custom fields, which effectively handles 80% of your migration on the fly. If you’re on a $250+ plan, you get premium migration support included. As for Attentive, Omnisend integrates with it to sync subscribers but doesn’t offer direct migration tools.

Aistė Jočytė
Article by

Aiste is a Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend. When she's not searching for the perfect synonym or refining her latest copy, you can find her curled up with her cat, binge-watching yet another TV series.


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