Choosing the right email tool means knowing your needs and knowing the platform. Most businesses choose between Omnisend and Klaviyo since these two are the most popular choices in the market. They share similar basic features, but they serve different kinds of stores.
High-volume senders need a tool that grows easily and provides good value for the cost, and Omnisend gives businesses of any size the exact tools they need to maximize their revenue. You can manage workflows quickly and efficiently without the overly technical overhead that Klaviyo is often associated with.
Klaviyo is a more technical platform where you can utilize deep data tools and hyper-specific automation/segmentation, but it comes with a steep learning curve. If high-volume sending is all that you need, and you don’t plan on creating niche automations, then Klaviyo’s price doesn’t justify its benefits.
Let’s take a closer look at how these two platforms compare for high-volume email operations.
Creating email campaigns
Everyone wants to launch campaigns fast with minimal waiting time. The good news is that both platforms allow you to send emails quickly with template libraries and drag-and-drop email builders. The quality of templates in both platforms is fantastic, and all designs are mobile-friendly.
However, there’s a distinct difference when it comes to adding products to your campaigns. Omnisend has a convenient product picker feature that allows you to search and add items from your store right in the email builder interface without any extra steps. Omnisend automatically imports the product name, image, description, price, and purchase link. All that’s left to do is customize the information if needed and move on to sending the campaign.
Image via Omnisend
Klaviyo makes the process of adding products to your email more complicated. You need to create a product feed, name it, and select a catalog. Then, you choose dynamic conditions, set fallback conditions, and select categories, which demands more time and effort.
Image via Klaviyo
Both platforms also allow you to set up dynamic product blocks that show items based on chosen conditions, like best-sellers, most viewed products, newly added products, and more.
In short, when it comes to product addition, Omnisend provides the same level of power and takes half the time to get the end result.
Within the email builder you also get AI tools that can generate subject lines and email copy. If you want to try them before upgrading to a paid plan, you won’t be able to do so with Klaviyo. Omnisend, on the other hand, includes all AI tools in its free plan so you can check their potential. Klaviyo restricts most AI features to its paid plans.
Audience segmentation
Sending mass emails to everyone becomes a poor marketing strategy once you get to thousands of subscribers. High-volume senders definitely need segmentation and personalization to ensure the message is relevant to the person receiving it.
Both Klaviyo and Omnisend provide similar tools for segmentation. The main difference is the depth of the data tools. Klaviyo delivers advanced data models, complex paths in flows, and extremely detailed audience segments. You can build customer profiles with lifetime value and churn predictions, but this level of complexity only suits businesses with a staff of data scientists.
Omnisend provides powerful audience segmentation based on demographics, browsing behavior, purchase history, and more. It’s not as powerful as Klaviyo’s, but in reality, not many businesses need the niche capabilities. With Omnisend, you can also easily filter customers using the AI segment builder that generates segments in seconds. You type prompts like “VIP customers who haven’t bought lately”, and the system instantly creates the audience.
It allows you to skip the process of manually setting up filters to get specific audiences. It’s worth noting, however, that this AI feature is mostly useful for simple segments. For more complex audience builds, it’s recommended to do the setup yourself.
Around 95% of businesses can conveniently manage extensive contact lists using Omnisend’s user-friendly and intuitive interface. If you’re into high-volume sending, it means you don’t need hyper-specific audiences, so using Klaviyo would mean overpaying for the same power that Omnisend offers.
Before we move on to the next section, it’s also important to note that you can test out Omnisend’s segmentation capabilities completely on a free plan, including the AI segment builder. With Klaviyo, you wouldn’t be able to do so as most AI features are locked behind a paywall.
SMS sending
Text messaging helps high-volume senders reach customers directly on their mobile devices for those urgent, occasional messages. Both platforms allow you to send SMS, but the coverage and billing models are very different.
Klaviyo handles SMS marketing natively, and it supports two-way messaging in the US, Canada, and 16 other countries. It can process standard keywords like STOP, HELP, START, and more, automatically without charging credits for those responses. However, Klaviyo does require you to buy expensive blocks of SMS credits that expire monthly and don’t roll over to the next month.
Omnisend supports SMS sending on a global scale, so you can easily connect with international customers and global audiences. Aside from that, Omnisend provides flexible SMS billing that allows you to make small credit top-ups, which, if unused, roll over to the next month. As a result, you can manage your SMS budgets efficiently and not worry about losing your money.
What’s more, if you opt for the Pro plan, you’ll get bonus SMS credits equal to the price of your monthly plan. For example, if you’re paying $200 every month, you’ll get $200 worth of SMS credits every month, which allows you to save a significant amount of money every year.
One drawback for Omnisend is that it doesn’t natively support two-way messaging, and you’ll need to integrate Gorgias to leverage a two-way communication.
Customer support
Customer support is an integral part of any ESP platform, as things sometimes break and you need quick help to fix them. It’s especially true for more technical platforms like Klaviyo.
Omnisend provides 24/7 live chat and email support across all plans, including the free plan. You can get help from human support in minutes via live chat if you get stuck. Omnisend also gives you access to their Academy with more than 100 free tutorial videos and a help center consisting of hundreds of helpful articles. Additionally, dedicated account experts are available for users that reach a $400 monthly payment.
Klaviyo limits free users to just 60 days of email support, and live chat support is completely unavailable for free Klaviyo users. You regain access to support after you purchase a plan, but response times vary. If you’re on the cheapest plan, the response time is usually 1-2 days. Higher-tier users get faster email response times, but it comes at a significant cost.
Migration services also differ heavily between the two platforms. Omnisend provides a completely free migration service to customers who, upon switching to Omnisend, sign up for a plan that exceeds $250/month. Their in-house team of specialists will move your contacts, automations, audience segments, and more within 5 business days, and you won’t have to lift a finger.
Klaviyo gives you access to documentation so you can migrate yourself, or refer you to a list of agency partners who charge their own separate fees for migration.
Omnisend vs. Klaviyo: Verdict
Both Omnisend and Klaviyo are excellent tools for ecommerce marketing, but for high-volume senders the winner is Omnisend. It provides a more intuitive interface and comes at the same level of power as Klaviyo (in terms of your needs). Also, while we didn’t mention pricing details, Omnisend is generally more affordable as Klaviyo’s prices jump dramatically once you get into the tens of thousands of subscribers.
All in all, Omnisend provides a better balance between power and convenience for standard ecommerce businesses of any size. The setup is quick, adding products is easy, SMS reach is global, billing models are more user-friendly, and the customer support is superior. Unless you need niche functionality that’s irrelevant to most modern businesses, Omnisend is the top choice for high-volume senders.
