Shopify Stores: ActiveCampaign vs Klaviyo Email – Worth $19 More a Month?

The extra money gets you ActiveCampaign Plus, its first plan with ecommerce integrations, per EmailTooltester. A Shopify store with 1,000 contacts pays about $19 a month more for Plus than for Klaviyo Email, per ActiveCampaign’s pricing page and Klaviyo’s pricing page (read 2026-10-20). Pay it only if you’ll use ActiveCampaign’s deeper automation or its sales customer relationship management (CRM) tools. If your sales depend on store data, Klaviyo already syncs it in real time for less.

Klaviyo Wins for Online Stores; ActiveCampaign Wins for Sales-Led Businesses

Verdict: Klaviyo is the pick for a store that sells through checkout, and ActiveCampaign is the pick for a business that closes deals through a sales team. The deciding difference is store data: Klaviyo’s Shopify integration offers “real-time sync of customer and order data,” according to Hustler Marketing.

Each tool’s real flaw, with its fix:

• Klaviyo: EmailTooltester lists “basic marketing automation features” and “only around 300 integrations.” Fix: if you need branching flows (automated email sequences that a customer’s action starts) across many apps, buy ActiveCampaign.
• ActiveCampaign: the same review lists no free plan, a learning curve, and ecommerce integrations “available only on the higher-tiered Plus plan and up.” Fix: budget for Plus at minimum, or start on Klaviyo’s free plan.

Strengths: Klaviyo runs email and text message (SMS) campaigns in one system and reports revenue per campaign and per flow, per Hustler Marketing. ActiveCampaign adds deal pipelines, sales stages and lead scoring (rating leads by their behavior). The same source ties those tools to business-to-business (B2B), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and service businesses.

• Pick Klaviyo if you run a Shopify or WooCommerce store and want cart and post-purchase flows working out of the box.
• Pick ActiveCampaign if a sales team qualifies leads before anyone buys.
• Skip ActiveCampaign if you’re new to email → buy Klaviyo. InboxArmy calls ActiveCampaign’s learning curve “pretty steep for beginners.”
• Skip Klaviyo if you track deals or score leads → buy ActiveCampaign. Hustler Marketing says Klaviyo “isn’t built for that.”

ActiveCampaign Plus Costs $228.00 More a Year Than Klaviyo Email at 1,000 Contacts

At 1,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Plus costs $228.00 more over 12 months than Klaviyo Email, or $19 a month. Every figure below is a 12-month list total from ActiveCampaign pricing and Klaviyo pricing, read 2026-10-20. Plus is the fair match for a store, because EmailTooltester says store integrations start on that plan.

Plan at 1,000 contacts	12-month cost	Versus Klaviyo Email ($360.00)	Store integrations
ActiveCampaign Starter	$180.00	$180.00 less	No (Plus and up only)
ActiveCampaign Plus	$588.00	$228.00 more	Yes
ActiveCampaign Pro	$948.00	$588.00 more	Yes

Starter is cheaper than Klaviyo Email, but it only suits a list that doesn’t need store data.

The $19 gap is measured at 1,000 contacts only. ActiveCampaign’s own prices climb with your list, per its pricing page (read 2026-10-20):

List size	ActiveCampaign Plus (12 months)	ActiveCampaign Pro (12 months)	Pro emails per month
At 1,000 contacts	$588.00	$948.00	12,000
At 10,000 contacts	$2,268.00	$4,500.00	120,000
At 50,000 contacts	$7,308.00	$11,628.00	600,000

Compare these with Klaviyo’s price at your own list size before you budget. For Klaviyo’s larger tiers in detail, see the Klaviyo cost breakdown at 10k and 50k contacts.

ActiveCampaign Pro Sends 12 Emails per Contact a Month; Klaviyo Bills Every Active Profile

ActiveCampaign Pro allows 12,000 emails a month at 1,000 contacts, per its pricing page. That works out to 12 sends per contact, or about three emails a week to everyone on the list.

Klaviyo’s free plan caps you at 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, per Klaviyo’s pricing page, and it adds $5 of mobile messages a month. If you pass either cap, you must upgrade or your sending may be paused.

Klaviyo’s billed list can also be larger than your subscriber list. Jellyreach notes that Klaviyo bills on active profiles, which include customers who checked out without subscribing. Fix: suppress profiles you never mail before you work out which band you pay for.

Landing pages are a second cost to check. ActiveCampaign includes landing pages on Plus and above, according to its own comparison page. That page also claims Klaviyo has no native builder and prices Unbounce at $72–$300 a month. Treat this as a competitor’s claim and check it before you set a budget.

ActiveCampaign Has Deeper Automation; Klaviyo Reports Revenue per Flow

ActiveCampaign wins on automation, and EmailTooltester finds that it “provides more powerful automation, segmentation, reporting, and integration capabilities.”

ActiveCampaign’s comparison page lists 75+ native triggers against under 25 for Klaviyo, where a trigger is the event that starts an automation. ActiveCampaign allows up to 5 triggers per automation; Klaviyo allows only 1 trigger per automation. That’s a vendor claim, but InboxArmy also says Klaviyo workflows can’t take multiple triggers.

Reporting splits by job rather than by winner. ActiveCampaign covers sales and lifecycle analytics, while Klaviyo reports revenue per campaign, per flow and by customer lifetime value. In ActiveCampaign, revenue tracking “exists, but it’s not the core,” per Hustler Marketing.

Integration counts differ by source:

1. ActiveCampaign claims 1,000+ integrations against Klaviyo’s 350+ on its own page.
2. InboxArmy, updated April 2026, counts more than 900 for ActiveCampaign.
3. EmailTooltester counts around 300 for Klaviyo.

The vendor page is the more direct source for ActiveCampaign’s own count, and every source puts ActiveCampaign ahead.

Klaviyo Syncs Shopify Orders in Real Time; ActiveCampaign Needs Plus or Higher

Klaviyo wins for store workflows. Its Shopify integration syncs customer and order data in real time and tracks activity at product level without a third-party connector, per Hustler Marketing. The same source says abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase and back-in-stock flows work out of the box.

Jellyreach adds that Klaviyo’s prebuilt welcome and win-back flows start from synced Shopify or WooCommerce data.

ActiveCampaign connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Square and others, per its comparison page, which helps if you sell on more than one platform. The catch is the plan floor from the cost section: store integrations start at Plus.

See also: email marketing platforms for Shopify compared by yearly cost.

Pick Klaviyo for a Store, ActiveCampaign for a Sales Pipeline

• Shopify store, under 250 profiles: start on Klaviyo’s free plan.
• Store with email and SMS: both tools send SMS; ActiveCampaign combines email, SMS and WhatsApp, per its comparison page. Pick Klaviyo for shared customer profiles and unified attribution across both channels, per Hustler Marketing.
• B2B, SaaS or a service business: pick ActiveCampaign for pipelines and lead scoring.

If a CRM drives the choice, run the 8-point CRM buyer’s checklist before you sign up for either tool.

How We Evaluated

We compared both platforms on 12-month cost, monthly send allowance, automation depth, reporting and store data sync. Prices come from each vendor’s pricing page, read 2026-10-20, and feature claims come from the vendors and from independent reviews by EmailTooltester, Hustler Marketing, InboxArmy and Jellyreach.

You can check one cell yourself: open Klaviyo’s pricing page and find “Up to 250 profiles” and “500 emails/month” under the free plan highlights.

Next step: compare 12-month costs for more tools in Shopify email tools at 50k contacts.

Next step: read more in Comparisons on MarketingRating, or check the figures in Email marketing pricing: the true 12-month cost at 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 contacts.

FAQ

Can I try ActiveCampaign before paying? Yes. ActiveCampaign offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee, per its comparison page.

Will ActiveCampaign move my data from Klaviyo? EmailTooltester lists a free migration to ActiveCampaign as a plus when you come over from another provider.

Does Klaviyo work outside Shopify? Yes. Klaviyo syncs products, carts and orders from WooCommerce as well, per Jellyreach.