Quick answer
Neither wins for every store. Attentive suits brands where text messages are a main sales channel and that want a managed, quote-based program with compliance tools built in. Klaviyo suits stores that want public tiers, email-led flows built on order and browsing data, and texts added to the same profiles. Work out your own monthly message volume before you ask either for a number.
| Attentive | Klaviyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Messaging platform built around SMS, with email, RCS and push | Customer data platform with email first, then text and push |
| How cost is set | Quote built from message volume, list size, channels and AI tools | Public tiers by active profiles; text on a separate committed spend |
| Public price list (Oct 2026) | No, demo-led | Yes, pricing page and calculators |
| Free option | Free trial offered on request | Free plan: 250 profiles, 500 emails, $5 of mobile messages |
| Support | Dedicated team with 24/5 service on every plan | Email support for the first 60 days on the free plan |
| SMS compliance tools | Built-in TCPA tools, double opt-in in standard flows, known-litigator suppression | Compliance Hub, marketing and transactional consent kept separate |
| Channels | SMS, MMS, RCS, email, push | Email, SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, RCS, push |
Attentive
- Starting point
- Messaging platform built around SMS, with email, RCS and push
- How cost is set
- Quote built from message volume, list size, channels and AI tools
- Public price list (Oct 2026)
- No, demo-led
- Free option
- Free trial offered on request
- Support
- Dedicated team with 24/5 service on every plan
- SMS compliance tools
- Built-in TCPA tools, double opt-in in standard flows, known-litigator suppression
- Channels
- SMS, MMS, RCS, email, push
Klaviyo
- Starting point
- Customer data platform with email first, then text and push
- How cost is set
- Public tiers by active profiles; text on a separate committed spend
- Public price list (Oct 2026)
- Yes, pricing page and calculators
- Free option
- Free plan: 250 profiles, 500 emails, $5 of mobile messages
- Support
- Email support for the first 60 days on the free plan
- SMS compliance tools
- Compliance Hub, marketing and transactional consent kept separate
- Channels
- Email, SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, RCS, push
Choose Attentive if…
- Texts are one of your top revenue channels
- You want a vendor team to run onboarding and compliance with you
- You are happy to get a quote instead of reading a price list
Choose Klaviyo if…
- Email flows built on orders and browsing drive most of your retention revenue
- You want to check costs on a public pricing page first
- You want one profile for email and text
The core Attentive vs Klaviyo difference is an SMS-first platform that sells by quote versus a data-and-email platform with public tiers. Decide by your own monthly message volume and the consent records behind your text list.
A note before we start: we set up and migrate Klaviyo accounts for online stores, so that is the platform we know best. This Attentive vs Klaviyo comparison uses each vendor’s own pages, dates every plan detail, and says plainly where Attentive is the better pick.
Attentive vs Klaviyo: what’s the real difference?
Attentive began as a text-message platform and has added email, RCS and push. Klaviyo began as an ecommerce data platform and builds email, text and mobile messaging on the same customer profiles.
Both send campaigns, run automated flows and connect to Shopify, so a feature grid makes them look closer than they are. In Attentive vs Klaviyo, the gaps that matter day to day are:
- How you buy: a quote from a demo on one side, a public pricing page on the other.
- Where SMS sits: at the center of Attentive’s pricing page, one channel among several on Klaviyo’s.
- Who helps: Attentive lists a dedicated support team with 24/5 service on every plan, as of October 2026.
- Integrations: Attentive lists 150+ pre-built integrations on its pricing page.
Start from your own business, not the grid. Write down how many customers have agreed to texts, how often you message them, and how much of last quarter’s repeat revenue came from email flows. Those answers settle most Klaviyo vs Attentive decisions, and most Attentive vs Klaviyo shortlists, before you look at a demo.
Attentive vs Klaviyo pricing: how does it differ?
Attentive builds a quote from message volume, list size, channels and AI tools; Klaviyo publishes tiers by active profiles and bills text messages as a separate spend, as of October 2026.
Attentive’s pricing page says its pricing is tailored to your message volume, subscriber list size, number of channels and the AI products you pick. It describes the model as usage-based with no credit system, offers discounts for bundling channels or AI products, and offers free trials through a form. It lists three channel packages (text; text and email; SMS, email, RCS and push) and a custom package, but no dollar amounts.
As of October 2026, Klaviyo’s pricing page shows a free plan for up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month and $5 of mobile messages. Its pricing explainer says unsubscribed and suppressed contacts don’t count toward billing, and that text messages sit on a separate plan: you commit to a spend that burns down as you send, and an MMS burns more than an SMS.
That is why list size alone misleads in Attentive vs Klaviyo. The figure both vendors really need is how many messages you send each month.
For Attentive vs Klaviyo, take an invented store with 1,100 text subscribers who get 6 texts a month: that is 6,600 texts. Its 3,200 email subscribers get 8 emails a month, or 25,600 emails. Bring those two figures, plus the channels you want, to each vendor and ask for the all-in monthly total, including texts, with the contract term in writing.
Attentive vs Klaviyo on SMS: how do they compare?
Attentive treats SMS as its core product and bundles compliance tools into it; Klaviyo adds SMS to an email-and-data platform and bills it separately. Both support marketing texts in the US.
Attentive’s compliance suite page lists double opt-in in its standard flows, a two-tap mobile sign-up with a reply-Y option for desktop, suppression of phone numbers known to be tied to text-message lawsuits, and support for the Reassigned Numbers Database. These are Attentive’s own statements about its product, so test them in a trial.
Klaviyo’s SMS page says marketing and transactional consent are collected separately, lists SMS in 20+ countries and describes a Compliance Hub for tracking SMS compliance health. Its cost calculator shows $15 for 1,000 US toll-free messages at the default setting. Treat that as a starting point only: rates vary by message type and country.
For a store that sends text campaigns every week, the Attentive vs Klaviyo question is mostly about support and cost at your volume. For a store that texts a few times a quarter, Klaviyo’s free mobile allowance and one shared profile may be enough.
Attentive vs Klaviyo email: how do they compare?
Both send campaigns and triggered flows. Klaviyo is email-led and built on store data; Attentive’s email builds on its text-first identity and support model.
Attentive’s pricing page lists email in two of its three packages (text and email; SMS, email, RCS and push), as of October 2026, and says deliverability onboarding comes with every plan. That is a vendor statement, and we didn’t test it. In practice, ask any vendor for the name of the person who will warm up your sending domain and what the plan is if the spam rate climbs.
Klaviyo’s email tools are the part of the stack most Shopify stores already know, with flows triggered by orders and browsing events, as its Shopify guide describes. If email flows drive most of your repeat revenue, this row of Klaviyo vs Attentive is where a switch needs the strongest reason.
Inbox rules don’t change with the vendor, so the email row of Attentive vs Klaviyo is mostly about support and flows. Google’s sender guidelines require anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail to authenticate their domain, keep the spam rate below 0.3% and support one-click unsubscribe. Yahoo’s Sender Hub sets the same 0.3% ceiling and asks senders to honor unsubscribes within 2 days. Our email deliverability service checks those settings on either platform.
Which consent rules apply on both platforms?
The same US rules apply whichever vendor sends: written consent for commercial texts, an easy way to opt out, and for email a working opt-out. The vendor supplies tools; you own the consent.
The FCC’s consumer guide says autodialed texts to a mobile number need the owner’s prior consent, that commercial texts require written consent (which can be electronic), and that a person may opt out at any time in any reasonable manner, even after agreeing. That is general information, not legal advice; ask a lawyer about your own program.
For email, the FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide says the opt-out mechanism must keep working for at least 30 days after you send, requests must be honored within 10 business days, and each email in violation can bring penalties of up to $53,088, as of October 2026.
Shopify’s subscriber guide makes the same point for email: send promotional email only to customers who agreed to receive marketing. What this means in Attentive vs Klaviyo: keep a record of each text opt-in with its date, source and the exact wording shown. Whichever side of Attentive vs Klaviyo you choose, that record is what you hand over in a dispute, and it is what you need in any move.
Can you use Attentive and Klaviyo together?
Technically yes for a short time, but each text subscriber then has consent records in two places. Pick one system as the source of truth for opt-ins and opt-outs, whichever way the Attentive vs Klaviyo choice goes.
Attentive and Klaviyo both connect to Shopify. Klaviyo’s Shopify guide says to disconnect a prior email provider from Shopify before integrating, because leaving it connected could send double opt-in emails to existing subscribers. It also recommends separate lists for email and SMS subscribers, and notes that SMS consent syncs from Shopify only when a person subscribes to SMS there for the first time.
We couldn’t confirm a native sync between the two from either vendor’s pages, so ask both for the supported route in writing before you rely on one. Running both for 2 to 4 weeks during a move is common; running both for a year means two sets of opt-outs to keep in step, and one missed STOP is a compliance problem, not a reporting one.
A third route is Shopify’s own Messaging app, which sends email, SMS and WhatsApp and prices by messages sent, as of October 2026. If you’re weighing email-only alternatives instead, see MailerLite vs Klaviyo.
When should you move from one to the other?
Move when the tool no longer fits how you sell: texts have become a main channel and you want hands-on support, or you pay for a platform whose depth you don’t use. Avoid moving in your busiest sales weeks.
In an Attentive vs Klaviyo move, going from Klaviyo to Attentive tends to make sense once texts drive a large share of campaign revenue and you want a vendor team to carry compliance and onboarding. Going the other way makes sense for a store that sends few texts, wants email flows on order data and prefers to check costs on a public page. An Attentive vs Klaviyo comparison from last year may be stale, so re-read both pricing pages in the month you plan to move.
When we move a store between messaging platforms, we follow that order: export every contact with its status and consent proof, rebuild the welcome, cart and post-purchase flows on the new platform, disconnect the old app from Shopify, then connect the new one and import into matching lists. Attentive’s API documentation says a legal disclosure is required when a user is opted in programmatically, so ask how imported subscribers are recorded before you move anyone. Old flows come off only after the new ones are live. Keep the old account readable for 4 to 6 weeks, so you can look up past consent records.
If you’re moving to Klaviyo, our Klaviyo migration service maps what has to move first, our Klaviyo email marketing team builds the flows, and our ecommerce SMS marketing work covers consent-first texting. Not sure which way to go? Start with a free audit of your current setup. More comparisons are in buying guides.