Klaviyo vs Brevo: 2026 Small Business Email Comparison
Klaviyo ($20+/mo, scales 20x) vs Brevo ($9/mo, 72% Gmail placement) for small e-commerce. Deliverability, scaling cost, and SMS integration compared.
EmailTool™ Score
How we scoreComposite score based on features, pricing, deliverability, and reported friction severity.
Cost Calculator
Estimated monthly cost based on your contact list size.
Klaviyo
$70/mo
Brevo
Free/mo
Brevo saves you ~$70/mo at 5,000 contacts.
Estimates based on published starting prices with proportional contact scaling. Actual pricing varies by plan tier and billing cycle. Check vendor sites for exact quotes.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Klaviyo | Brevo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price (paid tier) | $20/mo | $9/mo | Brevo |
| Free tier limits | 250 contacts, 500 emails/mo | Unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day | Brevo |
| Cost at 25,000 contacts | ~$400/mo (20x scaling) | ~$65/mo | Brevo |
| Gmail deliverability | Industry-average ~95% | 72% inbox (67.7% overall low Jun 2023) | Klaviyo |
| E-commerce integrations | Native Shopify/BigCommerce/Magento with revenue attribution | Basic Shopify + WooCommerce plugins | Klaviyo |
| SMS included | Yes, metered on top of email tier | Yes, separate credits | |
| Auto-suspension triggers | Standard review | 0.2% complaint rate = suspension | Klaviyo |
| Unsubscribed contacts billed | Yes (post-Feb 2025 active-profile billing) | No | Brevo |
| Phone support | None | None — 2-3 day ticket delays | |
| Predictive analytics | CLV, churn risk, next-order predictions | Basic segmentation only | Klaviyo |
Real Friction Points
Manually researched issues reported by actual users. Not AI-generated.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo pricing scales roughly 20× from 500 to 25,000 contacts ($20/mo → ~$400/mo), and the February 2025 shift to 'active profile' billing means unsubscribed contacts still count toward your bill per sender.net analysis. There is no phone support — live chat routinely refers users to self-help docs, and one G2 reviewer documented emailing success@klaviyo.com 14 times with zero response while trying to scale up usage. A 25% price-increase cap applies to existing customers post-2025, and SMS costs are metered on top of the already-inflated Email+SMS plan tiers.
Brevo
Brevo's Gmail inbox placement sits at just 72%, and June 2023 marked an all-time low of 67.7% overall deliverability per Encharge.io and emailtooltester tracking. Brevo auto-suspends accounts when complaint rates exceed 0.2% — Capterra reviewers report campaigns suspended even while maintaining 25-41% open rates. The free plan is capped at just 300 emails/day (too tight for most active lists), and Trustpilot complaints consistently describe 2-3 day support ticket delays with a meaningful share never getting a response at all.
The Verdict
Choose Klaviyo if you run an e-commerce store and revenue-per-email actually matters — its predictive analytics and Shopify integration are worth the 20× scaling cost at higher contact counts. Choose Brevo only if you're a service business (not e-commerce), budget matters more than deliverability tuning, and you can live with the 72% Gmail placement risk and 0.2% complaint-rate suspension trigger.
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