Klaviyo vs Omnisend vs Mailchimp for a New Online Store

For a brand-new online store with fewer than 250 contacts, you do not need to pay for email marketing. Both Klaviyo and Omnisend give you free plans with up to 500 emails per month and pre-built ecommerce automations. The right choice comes down to whether you prioritize Klaviyo’s deep Shopify data flows, Omnisend’s built-in 24/7 live chat and push messaging, or Mailchimp’s broad brand familiarity.

The breakdown below compares real plan limits, entry pricing, and monthly running costs across common store growth stages. All vendor pricing and plan terms are US rates checked on 2026-10-03.

The three in one table

Worked example: what a month costs at 200 and 500 contacts

These two stores are hypothetical, but the rates and plan rules are sourced directly from each provider. Both sell a physical product online with an average order value of $40, sending targeted automations and regular campaigns.

Store A: a new launch with 200 contacts and 2 monthly broadcast campaigns

Store A has 200 subscribers. Each month it sends 2 broadcast newsletters (400 sends) plus roughly 80 triggered automated emails (welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders), for a total of 480 sends.

Because Store A stays below 250 contacts and under 500 monthly emails, it fits within the free plans:

At 200 contacts, your software cost is zero on all three. Omnisend gives you 24/7 live chat support on this tier. Klaviyo gives you email support for the first 60 days plus $5 in mobile messaging credits. On Mailchimp, sending pauses if you exceed 250 contacts or 500 monthly sends.

Store B: a growing store crossing 500 contacts

Now assume the store reaches 500 contacts and sends 4 emails per contact each month (2,000 monthly sends). It crosses the 250-contact free ceiling and must move to a paid tier.

Here is what the confirmed paid entry plans cost at the 500-contact level:

Omnisend Standard at $16 a month includes up to 6,000 emails for 500 contacts, unlimited web push, and 24/7 live chat. Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts with a 5,000-send cap (10× contacts). Mailchimp Standard starts at $20 a month with 6,000 sends (12× contacts) and 90 days of personalized onboarding.

Tier jumps and contact thresholds

Unlike transaction fees that scale smoothly with every dollar sold, email marketing software charges in stepped tiers:

• Crossing 250 contacts: Forces an immediate move from $0 to paid plans. Omnisend jumps from $0 to $16 a month. Mailchimp jumps from $0 to $13 or $20 a month.
• Klaviyo automatic tier upgrades: Klaviyo charges by billable active profiles. When your list grows past a tier boundary, the upgrade takes effect immediately. Downgrading requires you to reduce your active profiles below the lower tier limit at least 24 hours before your billing cycle renews.
• Mailchimp overage charges: Mailchimp lets you set a stored contact limit. If you exceed your contact or send ceiling, Mailchimp automatically charges for additional contact blocks (add-on contacts).
• The 10,000-contact threshold: For larger lists reaching 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp offers a 15% discount for the first 12 months on Standard. Omnisend provides a dedicated Account Expert for customers spending $400 or more per month.

Run it with your own numbers: check that contacts × emails per contact stays under your plan’s monthly send limit, then add the plan price and any SMS (texts × per-message rate). A plan pays for itself when the orders its emails bring back keep more than its fee: at $20.54 profit on a $40 order (after $12 product, $6 postage, $1.46 card fee), Omnisend Standard’s $16 needs one recovered order a month. To see how marketing costs affect your unit economics alongside payment processing and shipping fees, run your product margins through the profit per order calculator and review our breakdown in the monthly cost guide.

Klaviyo: for deep ecommerce data and Shopify automations

Klaviyo is built specifically around ecommerce customer profiles and behavioral event tracking.

Its integration with Shopify connects via a two-way sync app in the Shopify App Store, supporting Shopify Markets, one-page checkout, and custom profile properties. When you enable the behavioral events setting, Klaviyo tracks Added to Cart events alongside Started Checkout. This lets you build separate automations for visitors who add an item to their cart versus those who initiate checkout.

Its pre-built flow library includes a welcome series, browse abandonment, abandoned cart, customer thank you, and winback flows. Klaviyo’s flow builder lets you split customer journeys using conditional logic, profile filters, and time delays. For example, its pre-built abandoned cart template includes a 4-hour delay before the first reminder, and Klaviyo recommends delivering the first message between 2 and 4 hours after a customer starts checkout, followed by a second message 20 to 48 hours later.

Klaviyo’s free plan allows up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends per month. It also bundles $5 of mobile messages (150 SMS/MMS credits) and $5 of Composer usage per month. This allows a first-time store to test SMS welcome offers without entering a credit card or signing a telecom agreement. Billable profiles include any active contact that can receive marketing and is not suppressed or unsubscribed.

Omnisend: for multi-channel workflows and round-the-clock support

Omnisend combines email, SMS, and web push notifications inside a single drag-and-drop workflow canvas.

Unlike platforms that limit live support on free tiers, Omnisend includes 24/7 live chat and email support on all plans, including its $0 Free tier. The Free tier supports up to 250 contacts, 500 emails per month, and 500 web browser push notifications without requiring a credit card.

Omnisend provides 15+ pre-built automations, covering welcome series, abandoned cart, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, order confirmations, shipping updates, cross-sells, and customer win-back. Its workflow builder allows conditional splits across channels. For instance, you can send an initial abandoned cart email, check if the customer opened it, and send a browser push notification or SMS reminder if they did not.

For SMS, Omnisend offers US text messaging starting from $0.009 per text for lower volumes ($10 to $49.99), scaling down to $0.007 per text for high volume ($10,000+). On Omnisend Pro, bonus SMS credits equal to the monthly subscription price are included. Note one setup rule: for new contacts, Omnisend syncs phone numbers only after the customer places their first order. First-time cart abandoners who have not completed a previous purchase receive emails rather than text messages.

Outside Shopify, Omnisend also supports BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix, Shoplazza, and Ecwid.

Mailchimp: for traditional list marketing and brand familiarity

Mailchimp is one of the most recognizable names in newsletter software and connects to almost every major ecommerce and website tool.

Its pricing page lists integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Stripe, and Zapier. If you connect Mailchimp to Shopify, note that any existing abandoned cart automations associated with your audience must be recreated after linking the integration. In June 2025, Mailchimp rebranded its Customer Journey Builder to Marketing Automation Flows.

Mailchimp’s free plan allows up to 250 contacts with a send limit of 500 emails per month and a daily cap of 250 emails. If you cross the 250-contact limit or monthly send limit, sending pauses until your next monthly billing cycle or until you upgrade.

Paid plans use a contact-tier selector starting at 0 to 500 contacts:

• Essentials ($13/month): Includes 3 user seats, email and chat support, and a monthly email send limit of 10× your contact count (5,000 sends at the 500-contact tier).
• Standard ($20/month): Includes 5 user seats, personalized onboarding for your first 90 days, custom-coded templates, and a monthly send limit of 12× your contact count (6,000 sends at the 500-contact tier).
• Premium ($350/month): Geared toward high-volume brands with 10,000+ contacts, unlimited seats, phone and priority support, and 15× send limits (up to 150,000 sends per month).

SMS marketing on Mailchimp is not included in standard subscription fees. Text messaging is an add-on restricted to paid plans in select countries, requiring an application and compliance review before activation.

Who should pick something else

• Stores that want built-in free email inside Shopify: If you run a simple Shopify catalog and want basic order follow-ups without learning a separate platform, look at Shopify Email. It includes 10,000 free emails each month directly inside Shopify admin.
• Content creators and bloggers with no physical products: If your business is primarily an editorial newsletter or digital publication rather than an online product catalog, general email tools like ConvertKit or Substack offer simpler writing workflows without ecommerce overhead.
• High-volume newsletter senders with small margins: If you have 20,000 readers but low sales conversion, paying per contact on Klaviyo or Mailchimp can become expensive quickly. Consider self-hosted options or platforms with flat-rate delivery pricing.
• Stores selling products with strict SMS restrictions: Federal and carrier regulations strictly govern SMS marketing in the US. If you cannot manage opt-in consent records or quiet-hours rules, stick to email.

Common mistakes when choosing an email tool

1. Paying for a paid subscription before having 250 subscribers. Both Klaviyo and Omnisend give you functional automations and 500 free monthly sends. Do not pay $13 to $20 a month while building your initial audience. Start free and upgrade only when your subscriber volume demands it.
2. Ignoring contact counting rules. On Klaviyo, every active profile that can receive marketing counts toward your tier limit. On Mailchimp, archived and cleaned contacts do not count toward your billable total, but unengaged subscribed contacts do. Regularly clean unengaged contacts before you cross into a higher pricing tier.
3. Running overlapping abandoned cart automations. If you turn on an abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo or Omnisend while leaving Shopify’s native checkout recovery emails active, customers will receive duplicate recovery emails. Always turn off your ecommerce platform’s default abandoned cart emails before turning on third-party flows.
4. Expecting SMS to send on first-time cart abandonment. On Omnisend, phone numbers for new shoppers sync only after their first completed order. If a first-time visitor types their phone number into a checkout field and abandons, the system cannot trigger an SMS cart recovery text.
5. Upgrading tiers for a higher send cap instead of trimming dead weight. When Mailchimp or Klaviyo alerts you that your list is approaching a tier threshold, delete bounced contacts and unsubscribe inactive buyers first rather than immediately paying for a larger tier.

How to decide in 10 minutes

1. Check your current subscriber count. If you have fewer than 250 contacts, sign up for either Klaviyo or Omnisend on their free tier. You will pay $0 until your store gains traction.
2. Match the platform to your primary cart. If you run on Shopify and want event tracking (like browse abandonment and items added to cart), pick Klaviyo. If you want a visual workflow builder that mixes email, SMS, and push notifications with 24/7 live support, pick Omnisend.
3. Decide if you will send text messages. If you want to test SMS without paying extra, use Klaviyo’s $5 monthly free credit. If you want pay-as-you-go text pricing, Omnisend starts at $0.009 per text in the US.
4. Turn off native store notifications. Before activating your welcome series or cart recovery flows, check your store settings (such as Shopify Checkout notifications) and disable default recovery messages to prevent duplicate emails.
5. Review our setup walkthroughs. Follow our step-by-step guides on abandoned cart and welcome emails setup and email marketing basics for an online store to configure your first automated customer sequences.

General information, not legal or tax advice.

Sources (checked 2026-10-03)

• Klaviyo: pricing, free plan limits, profile rules, mobile messaging, AI composer, and support
• Klaviyo Help: getting started with Shopify, Shopify integration and behavioral events
• Klaviyo Help: flows, flow library, filters, time delays, and conditional splits
• Klaviyo Help: email welcome series, welcome series structure and SMS consent split
• Klaviyo Help: abandoned cart, Added to Cart vs Started Checkout, delays, and turning off default platform emails
• Klaviyo Help: billing and profiles, billing cycles, active profiles, upgrades, and downgrade rules
• Omnisend: pricing, free plan limits, paid plan starting price, SMS pricing, Pro plan credits, and Account Expert threshold
• Omnisend: automation features, pre-built automations and multi-channel visual builder
• Omnisend: Shopify integration, Shopify app sync and supported platforms
• Omnisend Help: abandoned cart and checkout automations, contact identification rules, frequency caps, and first-order phone sync
• Omnisend Help: pre-built automation workflows, 15+ preset workflows
• Mailchimp: marketing pricing, plan pricing, contact tiers, monthly send limits, SMS add-on terms, and 10,000+ contact discount
• Mailchimp Help: connect Shopify, Shopify integration and abandoned cart recreation note
• Mailchimp Help: additional charges, contact limits, add-on contacts, and clean/archived contact rules