Mailchimp Alternatives for Shopify Stores

Mailchimp is no longer a poor fit for Shopify by default. Its current integration syncs customers, orders, subscription status and events such as product views, cart activity and completed checkouts, and it offers ecommerce automation, segmentation, product recommendations and revenue tracking. So the useful question is not whether Mailchimp works with Shopify, because it does, but whether it is still the best email platform for the way your store now operates.

For some stores the answer is yes; others will benefit from a platform built more tightly around ecommerce behaviour, deeper flows, different pricing or Shopify's own customer data. This guide compares Klaviyo, Shopify Messaging (formerly Shopify Email), Omnisend, MailerLite and Brevo on Shopify data, flows, segmentation, pricing and reporting, with prices checked on 1 October 2026. Disclosure: Why Matters is a Klaviyo Partner, and Klaviyo is not the right choice for every store.

Key Takeaways

• Mailchimp still has a free plan, for up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends a month, and its Shopify integration is far more capable than its old reputation suggests.
• Klaviyo is our usual choice for established stores that want detailed Shopify events, segmentation and lifecycle flows; its free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month.
• When we moved five clients from Mailchimp to Klaviyo, what they liked most was building complex flows from the many triggers its store and app integrations provide.
• Shopify Messaging is the best simple value option, with 10,000 emails a month included on eligible Shopify plans, while Omnisend is the closest ecommerce focused alternative to Klaviyo, from $16 a month.
• MailerLite is cheap and capable for simple programmes but has no Shopify abandoned cart trigger, and Brevo suits stores that care about send volume and wider channels.
• Only switch when you can name the limitation, and migrate carefully: keep consent and suppressions, rebuild revenue critical flows first and protect your sending domain.

Quick Answer

The strongest Mailchimp alternatives for Shopify are Klaviyo, Shopify Messaging and Omnisend, with MailerLite and Brevo worth considering for simpler or more price sensitive needs. We usually choose Klaviyo for its Shopify data and lifecycle flows, which is also what five clients we moved from Mailchimp valued most, rather than because we are a Klaviyo Partner. Shopify Messaging is hard to beat for a small store that mainly needs campaigns and simple automations, and Omnisend is a strong middle ground. Mailchimp remains viable if it is working, so migrate only when a replacement solves a real problem.

Table of Contents

• Why Do Shopify Stores Move Off Mailchimp?
• What Should You Look for in an Email Platform?
• How Do the Main Mailchimp Alternatives Compare?
• Klaviyo
• Shopify Messaging
• Omnisend
• What Other Options Are There?
• How Do You Switch Email Platforms Safely?
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

Why Do Shopify Stores Move Off Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is often criticised as if it barely integrates with Shopify, which is no longer fair. Its Shopify sync brings in customers, orders, company data, subscription status and customer tags in near real time, plus events including product viewed, search submitted, added to and removed from cart, cart viewed, checkout started and completed and collection viewed, and its site tracking pixel feeds segmentation and automation. Stores move for other reasons.

The first is wanting ecommerce behaviour at the centre of the platform: in Klaviyo, events such as Viewed Product, Added to Cart, Checkout Started and Placed Order are the building blocks of flows and segments. The second is automation depth, which in Mailchimp depends on the plan: its pricing table shows no Marketing Automation Flows on the Free plan, flows of up to four steps on Essentials and up to 200 flows on Standard. The third is pricing as a list grows, because each platform charges for something different, and the last is wanting email and SMS built around the same journeys, or fewer systems between Shopify and your emails.

Our own clients show which of these matters most in practice. We have moved five clients from Mailchimp to Klaviyo, and when we asked what they liked most, they pointed to the ability to build complex flows from the wide range of triggers Klaviyo's integrations with their store and apps make available, rather than price or the editor.

What Should You Look for in an Email Platform?

Comparing email editors is the wrong place to start, because almost every serious platform makes a professional newsletter. For Shopify, compare these instead:

• Shopify data: customers, consent, products, orders, cart, checkout and browsing events, Markets data and tags, and how quickly they update.
• Flows: whether it can build welcome, browse, cart and checkout recovery, post purchase, replenishment, win back, VIP and sunset flows, with branching, filters, A/B tests and email and SMS together.
• Segmentation: groups such as bought product X, spent over £500, three or more orders or no order for six months, without exporting spreadsheets.
• Deliverability: domain authentication, suppression, bounce handling and engagement segments, because moving platform does not fix a poor sender reputation; see our guide to stopping emails landing in spam.
• Reporting: attributed revenue, flows, campaigns and segments, and how attribution works, since platforms credit the same orders differently; see our guide to Shopify email revenue benchmarks.
• Price: the cost at your list size, next year's growth, real send volume, automation level, SMS and users, not just the entry price.

How Do the Main Mailchimp Alternatives Compare?

Several platforms price in US dollars even for UK stores, so pound figures here use the mid market rate on 1 October 2026 of $1 = £0.755484, the same rate as our Klaviyo pricing guide; your card charge will vary. Starting prices are not directly comparable, because limits and features differ:

Klaviyo

Best for: stores where email and retention justify a specialist ecommerce platform. Disclosure: Why Matters is a Klaviyo Partner. Klaviyo is usually the first platform we consider for an established Shopify store because of how its Shopify data and automation fit together: with onsite tracking switched on, events such as Active on Site, Viewed Product, Viewed Collection, Submitted Search, Added to Cart, Checkout Started, Placed Order and Ordered Product arrive in real time and drive flows and segments directly.

Klaviyo's free plan covers 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month, and paid email plans rise with active profiles: $20 at 500, $30 at 1,000, $100 at 5,000 and $150 at 10,000, about £15, £23, £76 and £113 a month before VAT. Plans are billed monthly, accounts that outgrow their tier can be moved up automatically, and suppressed profiles do not count, so list hygiene cuts the bill. Its strengths are ecommerce events, flows, segmentation, email and SMS together, revenue attribution, Shopify Markets support and integrations with subscription, review and loyalty apps.

The drawbacks are price, which grows with your active profiles even if many receive few campaigns, and more capability than every store needs: with 1,000 subscribers, one campaign a month and a simple welcome email, you may pay for sophistication you never use. So our view is not that every Shopify store should use Klaviyo, but that stores running serious retention programmes should compare it carefully; see our Klaviyo pricing UK guide for how the bill grows.

Shopify Messaging

Best for: new and smaller stores wanting straightforward email without another big software bill. Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, now covers email, SMS and WhatsApp inside Shopify, and its biggest advantage is that it already lives where your store data lives, with no third party integration needed. It offers campaigns, Shopify customer segments, branded templates using your products, personalisation, automations, UTM tracking, scheduled sends, custom HTML and reporting built on your store data.

Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans include 10,000 marketing emails a month, then $1 per 1,000 up to 300,000, $0.65 above that and $0.55 above 750,000, and abandoned checkout automation emails are free and do not count towards the allowance. You pay for sends rather than contacts, which makes it very cheap for small stores. It is not a specialist retention platform, so very detailed behavioural segmentation, complex lifecycle flows and a big integration ecosystem are easier elsewhere, but for campaigns, basic segments and simple automations, paying far more for another platform may not yet solve a real problem.

Omnisend

Best for: stores wanting an ecommerce first email and SMS platform as an alternative to Klaviyo's pricing or interface. Omnisend is the most direct Klaviyo alternative here: its Shopify integration syncs customers, products and orders in real time and powers welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post purchase workflows, alongside email, SMS, web push, forms, segmentation by purchase history and engagement, revenue attribution and Shopify Flow.

Its Shopify App Store listing shows a free plan for 250 contacts and 500 emails a month with forms, pre built automations and 24/7 live support; Standard from $16 a month (about £12) for 500 contacts and 6,000 emails; and Pro from $59 a month (about £45) for 2,500 contacts with unlimited emails, advanced reporting and product recommendations. Like Klaviyo, the price rises with contacts, so the question is the same: are you using enough ecommerce functionality to justify a specialist platform? If yes, but Klaviyo does not suit you, Omnisend is where we would look first.

What Other Options Are There?

MailerLite

Best for: smaller stores wanting cheap campaigns and simple automation. MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with campaigns, automation, forms and a landing page, and Comfort starts at $12 a month. Its Shopify integration syncs subscribers both ways, sends product and revenue data across and supports triggers for abandoned checkout and purchases by product, category or frequency, but MailerLite says it does not support the Abandoned Cart trigger for Shopify, and its abandoned checkout workflow only fires for returning customers. That does not make it poor software; it shows why integration detail matters more than a feature list that says both platforms have automation.

Brevo

Best for: stores that care about send volume, multichannel marketing or CRM as much as Shopify retention. Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day, stores up to 100,000 contacts and includes automation for up to 2,000 contacts, with Starter from $9 a month for 5,000 emails and Standard from $18 adding multi step automation, A/B testing, advanced reporting and event tracking. For Shopify specifically, Brevo PushOwl combines email, SMS, web push, pop ups, abandoned cart recovery, back in stock and price drop alerts, with a free plan and Plus from $19 a month, though for retention built on granular lifecycle events we would still compare Klaviyo and Omnisend first.

How Do You Switch Email Platforms Safely?

Changing email platform is not like swapping an image app, because email runs daily automated revenue, subscriber growth, sender reputation and consent records, and a careless move can break them all at once. Use a controlled process:

1. Audit the account: lists, segments, tags, fields, forms, campaigns, templates, flows, domains, SMS consent, integrations and suppressions, noting which flows earn money.
2. Export everything: Mailchimp exports subscribed, unsubscribed, cleaned and non subscribed contacts, campaigns, templates, reports and SMS data, plus opt in times and IPs where it captured consent.
3. Preserve consent and suppressions: unsubscribes and bounces must move too; Klaviyo's Mailchimp migration carries them into suppression, but check tags and custom fields by hand.
4. Connect Shopify first: then view a product, add to cart, start checkout and place an order to confirm events arrive.
5. Rebuild revenue flows first: welcome, cart or checkout recovery, post purchase, browse abandonment, replenishment and win back, switching each old flow off only when its replacement works, to avoid duplicates.
6. Move forms and pop ups: or subscribers keep flowing into the old platform.
7. Authenticate and warm your domain: set up SPF, DKIM, DMARC and branded sending, then start with engaged subscribers and build volume gradually, never with fake engagement services.
8. Avoid peak dates: do not migrate just before Black Friday, Christmas or a major launch.
9. Check attribution: platforms credit revenue differently, so compare Shopify revenue before celebrating a jump in reported email sales.
10. Keep the old account: until subscribers, suppressions, flows, forms, events and reports are verified.

Why Matters Perspective

Being a Klaviyo Partner does not make Klaviyo our automatic answer. For a new store with a few hundred subscribers we would seriously consider Shopify Messaging first, for simple newsletters MailerLite may be enough, and for a store already using Mailchimp well we would not recommend moving unless we could name what the replacement improves. Mailchimp is not simply worse: it has a native integration, ecommerce events, segmentation, automation, SMS and recommendations, and everyone says Klaviyo is better is not a reason to migrate.

Klaviyo becomes our usual recommendation when the programme itself becomes sophisticated, coordinating campaigns, flows, segments, email, SMS and repeat purchasing from customer behaviour, which is exactly what our five migrated clients said they valued most. At that point the question is not which tool is cheapest, but which lets you build the retention programme properly, because failing to build welcome, recovery, post purchase, replenishment, win back and VIP flows costs more than any subscription. Our Shopify email marketing agency audits what already works before rebuilding it, so a migration keeps the good parts rather than erasing them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mailchimp good for Shopify?

Yes. Its current Shopify integration syncs customers and orders and receives events such as product views, cart actions and completed checkouts, so a store already using Mailchimp well does not need to move just because alternatives exist.

What is the best email platform for Shopify?

For sophisticated retention, Klaviyo is usually our first choice, Shopify Messaging is the best value for simpler needs, and Omnisend is a strong ecommerce focused alternative. Why Matters is a Klaviyo Partner, which you should weigh alongside our view.

Is Klaviyo better than Mailchimp?

It depends on the store. When we moved five clients from Mailchimp to Klaviyo, what they liked most was building complex flows from the many triggers its store and app integrations provide; Mailchimp can still suit stores that do not need that.

Is Shopify Email free?

Shopify Email is now Shopify Messaging. Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans include 10,000 email sends a month, then Shopify charges by volume, so it is an included allowance on a paid Shopify plan rather than a standalone free tool.

How hard is it to switch email platforms?

Connecting the software is quick, but a proper migration means keeping consent and suppression records, reconnecting Shopify data, rebuilding flows and forms, authenticating your domain and testing tracking before you switch anything off.

Will I lose subscribers when I switch?

Not if the migration is done properly, but consent and suppression status must move with them. Mailchimp exports subscribed, unsubscribed and cleaned contacts separately, and Klaviyo's migration tool carries unsubscribes and bounces across.

Which email tool is cheapest for a small store?

For many small Shopify stores, Shopify Messaging, because 10,000 emails a month are included on eligible plans. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Omnisend and MailerLite all have free plans, but their contact and send limits differ.

Final Thoughts

Choose by stage rather than brand recognition. A very small or new store should start with Shopify Messaging, because 10,000 emails a month are included and it handles campaigns and simple automations. A growing store that needs stronger ecommerce automation should compare Omnisend, with its lower starting price, and Klaviyo, which becomes compelling when customer behaviour and complex flows sit at the heart of retention. MailerLite suits simple, budget conscious programmes once you have checked its Shopify limits, Brevo suits high volume or multichannel businesses, and if you are happy with Mailchimp, stay until you can explain why you are moving.

Whichever you choose, the value comes from what you build on it: good campaigns, welcome and recovery flows, post purchase communication, useful segments, strong deliverability and consistent measurement. The platform enables the work but does not replace it. If you want help choosing, migrating or improving your setup, see our email marketing agency page.

Related Articles

• Klaviyo Pricing UK: What You Will Pay as Your List Grows
• Email Marketing Campaigns for Shopify: Types, Examples and Timing
• SMS Marketing for Shopify Stores: Rules, Tools and Examples
• How to Optimise Your Shopify Email Marketing
• How to Benchmark Your Shopify Email Revenue
• Klaviyo Flows Every Shopify Subscription Brand Should Build
• How to Stop Your Shopify Emails Landing in Spam
• Why Matters Email Marketing Agency