Brevo vs Klaviyo: Which Tool Wins for Ecommerce Stores in 2025?
Choosing the right email platform for your ecommerce store is one of the highest-leverage decisions you’ll make. The right tool affects deliverability, automation power, customer personalization, cost as you scale, and — ultimately — revenue per recipient (RPR).
In 2025 two names come up again and again: Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and Klaviyo. Brevo is positioned as an all-in-one, cost-effective marketing platform. Klaviyo is the ecommerce-first heavyweight built for deep data, advanced segmentation and revenue attribution.
This guide compares both platforms across the exact dimensions ecommerce teams care about: features, automation, integrations, deliverability, analytics (RPR), pricing, and which businesses each platform best serves. I’ll give clear recommendations and migration notes so you can pick the right winner for your store — not the platform that looks best on paper.
TL;DR — Which wins?
- If you’re a small store or budget-conscious business that needs solid email + SMS, ease of use, and low cost per send: Brevo is usually the better fit. (Good for early-stage stores and omnichannel small teams.)
- If you run a mid-to-large ecommerce brand that needs advanced segmentation, revenue attribution, deep Shopify/Magento integrations and dynamic ecommerce automations: Klaviyo is the better investment — especially when email + SMS revenue matters. (Higher cost, higher return potential.)
Quick feature comparison (at a glance)
| Criteria | Brevo | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | Simple, clean UI; fast onboarding. | Powerful UI — more features, steeper learning curve. |
| Ecommerce automations | Good basic automations; suitable for most flows. | Deep ecommerce automations, dynamic coupons & predictive flows. |
| Segmentation | Solid segmentation; limited predictive capabilities. | Advanced segmentation, predictive customer profiles. |
| Integrations | Popular integrations, growing marketplace; CRM built in. | 350+ integrations, strong Shopify ecosystem. |
| Pricing model | Pay-per-email and contact options; generally lower cost at scale. | Profile-based (contacts) + SMS credits; cost increases quickly with list size. |
| Reporting & RPR | Good basic reporting. | Industry-leading RPR and benchmark reports for ecommerce. |
| Best for | Small–mid stores, tight budgets, simple stacks | Mid–large ecommerce brands, data-driven teams |
1) Product & automation: What each platform actually does for ecommerce
Brevo — simplicity with essentials
Brevo bundles email, SMS, a light CRM, landing pages and automation in a single interface. It’s designed to get teams sending welcome series, abandoned cart flows and promotional broadcasts quickly. Brevo’s automation builder is visual and easy to use, and it supports common ecommerce triggers and transactional emails. For early ecommerce brands that need to automate core flows without complexity, Brevo is efficient.
Klaviyo — deep ecommerce orchestration
Klaviyo’s strength is its ecommerce data model and automation depth. It ingests customer, product and event data (orders, product views, SKU interest) and exposes that data in segmentation and flows. Klaviyo’s ecommerce flows are rich: dynamic product recommendations, predictive churn and lifetime value modeling, and dynamic coupon generation (useful for targeted recovery and VIP offers). If you want fine-grained control over who sees which promotions when — Klaviyo wins.
Real-world impact: Klaviyo’s benchmarks show abandoned cart flows and welcome series produce meaningful RPR gains — data Brevo’s marketing teams also cite, but Klaviyo’s analytics make attribution and optimization easier.
2) Integrations & ecosystem — who plugs into what?
- Klaviyo boasts 300+ built-in integrations and particularly deep Shopify and ecommerce platform support. If your stack includes many third-party tools (rewards, subscriptions, PIMs, advanced analytics), Klaviyo usually has a native integration or mature connector. That reduces engineering friction and improves data accuracy.
- Brevo integrates well with major platforms and offers plugins and APIs, and it includes a built-in CRM which is handy for simple stores without a standalone CRM. For many small merchants, Brevo’s out-of-the-box integrations are sufficient.
Pro tip: If you rely on Shopify apps for product recommendations, loyalty, or subscriptions, check whether the specific app syncs natively with Klaviyo — that can unlock powerful automations without custom work.
3) Pricing: the practical truth (2025 snapshot)
Pricing changes often, but the core difference remains:
- Brevo: Known for budget-friendly plans and pay-per-email options. Small stores can start with lower monthly costs, especially if they send fewer emails but have many contacts. Brevo also offers free tiers and modest starter plans for marketing and transactional emails.
- Klaviyo: Pricing is profile/contact-based and includes SMS credits. It’s widely regarded as more expensive at scale because costs rise with active profiles (which matters for large contact lists). However, Klaviyo’s robust RPR tracking often justifies cost for brands that can optimize automated flows and attribute revenue. Typical short analyses and pricing calculators show Klaviyo starting low for tiny lists but increasing quickly for thousands of profiles.
Decision heuristic: If monthly software budget is a primary constraint and you don’t need advanced ecommerce segmentation, Brevo will usually be cheaper. If you can attribute meaningful incremental revenue to Klaviyo automations, the ROI often outweighs the higher cost.
4) Deliverability & analytics: who helps you get to the inbox and prove value?
- Deliverability: Both platforms invest in deliverability infrastructure; however, long-term inbox placement depends heavily on list quality and sending practices. Klaviyo’s detailed engagement reporting helps identify and suppress unengaged recipients to protect sender reputation. Brevo provides tools for authentication and deliverability checks and is fine for most stores.
- Analytics & RPR: Klaviyo leads here. Its benchmark reports and per-campaign RPR metrics make it easier to measure the true business impact of email flows (welcome series, abandoned cart, winbacks). If you want to optimize email as a revenue channel (not just a communication tool), the analytics difference matters.
Pro tip: If you choose Brevo but want stronger revenue tracking, combine it with server-side tracking and UTMs or use a BI tool to connect transactional data for better attribution.
5) Usability & team fit
- Brevo is approachable for non-technical teams and smaller marketing teams. The visual builders and bundled features (landing pages, CRM) help lean teams move fast.
- Klaviyo is feature-rich and rewards teams that can invest time in setup and data hygiene. It’s built for marketers who rely on data scientists and growth teams to squeeze incremental revenue from segments and flows.
6) Real-world recommendations by store size & goals
When to choose Brevo
- You’re a small or new store with limited budget.
- Your priority is sending professional emails, simple automations and managing transactional messages in the same dashboard.
- You want quick setup and a single tool (email + SMS + landing pages) without steep learning.
When to choose Klaviyo
- You’re a growing ecommerce brand (mid-market to enterprise) that needs: deep segmentation, dynamic product blocks, precise revenue attribution, and advanced multi-channel flows (email + SMS).
- Your GMV and team size justify the higher monthly cost because you’ll use advanced flows to increase RPR.
7) Migration & implementation notes
- Moving to Klaviyo: Plan for a data audit. Cleanse contacts, map events (orders, product views), and implement server-side tracking if you want accurate RPR. Expect a few weeks of setup and testing for complex stores.
- Staying or moving to Brevo: If you migrate later to Klaviyo, export clean lists and event histories (if available). Brevo can be a great starter platform; just plan for future data sync needs if growth is likely.
Pro tip: Run parallel tracking for 2–4 weeks during migration to validate that conversions and RPR match between the old and new stack.
8) Cost vs. value — a practical example
Klaviyo’s own benchmarks show abandoned cart flows and welcome series generate significant RPR (examples: abandoned cart generating multiple dollars of RPR depending on order value). If your store’s average order value is $100, an effective abandoned cart flow that generates $5–7 RPR can pay for higher platform costs many times over. That math is why many growing brands choose Klaviyo.
Final verdict & action plan
- Choose Brevo if: you’re starting, budget constrained, and want an all-in-one tool that’s easy to use. It will get you up and running quickly with welcome series, cart emails and SMS without heavy technical lift.
- Choose Klaviyo if: you are scaling, need advanced ecommerce automations, want best-in-class revenue attribution, and expect the increase in automation revenue to justify higher monthly costs.
If you want, I can:
- Draft a migration checklist from Brevo → Klaviyo (step-by-step)
- Build 3 high-converting email templates optimized for Klaviyo or Brevo (welcome + cart + post-purchase)
- Create a cost vs ROI calculator for your store using your average order value and estimated flow performance
