Klaviyo Vs Sendinblue: which one is better ?

 Without any doubt, Klaviyo has been hailed as one of the better email marketing platforms currently available in the market. It shot to prominence immediately after Shopify terminated its contract with Mailchimp. Since then, rarely any platform has been able to challenge the presence of Klaviyo in terms of functionality. But, there is one platform that can go toe-to-toe in terms of capabilities. Sendinblue is the platform, launched the same year as Klaviyo, which has given it a run for its money ever since. Here is a detailed comparison of Klaviyo Vs Sendinblue to help you choose between two almost identical email marketing platforms. 

A Brief Comparison Of Klaviyo Vs Sendinblue

Klaviyo VS Sendinblue – What You Should Know

Pricing Plans

The free plans of Klaviyo and Sendinblue are highly potent and offer highly competitive features. With Klaviyo’s pricing plan (free), the email marketer gets access to all the advanced features available on the platform.

From then on, they only have to pay for the total number of contacts beyond 500. But, Sendinblue’s plan is the complete opposite of it. Email marketers can manage unlimited contacts with the free plan but are limited by the total number of emails sends. In the case of Sendinblue, it is capped at 300 emails per day. 

Sendinblue’s next tier is the Started pack which starts at around $25 per month for 20,000 transactional emails per month. You also get basic reporting and analytics features along with email support.

Brands subscribing to an annual package get an additional 10% off on their purchase. The price of the Starter pack can go all the way up to $69 per month for 100,000 emails per month. 

The Business package is the most popular package of Sendinblue and is priced at $65 per month. With this package, you get unrestricted access to email automation, advanced stats, phone support, send time optimization, and A/B testing tools.

But, the number of email sends stays capped at 20,000. You can increase it up to 1 million emails per month, and you will only have to $669 per month. In addition, you get 500 push notifications with this package. Lastly, you get the Enterprise plan where you have to contact customer support to get a custom quote. 

As mentioned earlier, the paid version of their email marketing plan starts at $45 per month which is a bit steeper than Sendinblue’s entry-level plan.

If you want to use both email and SMS marketing, you will have to fork out $60 per month. Now, remember these prices are only for accounts with less than 1500 contacts.

The prices gradually increase with the increase in total contacts. At the peak of 150,000 contacts, you have to pay $1955 per month for the Email only plan, and $1970 for the Email and SMS plan. Beyond this, you have to contact customer support to get a custom quote for your company. 

User Interface

More often than not, the accessibility of the user interface dictates the ease of use of any email marketing platform. And, Klaviyo follows this principle to the last letter.

The dashboard is highly intuitive and offers a brief overview of the campaign. In addition, it also contains drop-down and side-bar menus that provide easier access to other key features of email marketing platforms.

Lists and segments, email template library, email forms, flows, campaign manager, and customer profiles, can all be accessed with a few clicks. 

After the initial sign-up process, Klaviyo launches a mini onboarding guide that highlights all the buttons available to the user. Experienced email marketers can skip this step as they must already be well acquainted with the different aspects of email marketing.

Novice marketers can find more detailed and in-depth guides on Klaviyo’s resource page. New users only need a couple of hours to familiarize themselves with the dashboard. 

Similarly, Sendinblue has crafted its UI to be simple and more accessible. The dashboard layout carries a minimalistic design philosophy.

Sendinblue’s email marketing options provided in the dashboard are pretty straightforward to help the users easily navigate all the required tools. This uncluttered UI design is often praised by small and mid-sized business owners newly entering the email marketing segment. 

Just like Klaviyo, there is a top bar and a sidebar menu. The top menu houses the major email marketing tools, like automation, campaign manager, transnational emails, and contact management.

While the sidebar menu helps the user jump between different marketing systems, like email, SMS, and Facebook ads. You can also locate the settings and statistics options in the sidebar menu. 

Ease Of Use 

The dashboard is immensely user-friendly and enables the easy establishment of custom email campaigns. The simple UI environment of Klaviyo is conducive to learning and helps beginner email marketers get up to speed. 

Klaviyo also houses a utility-rich email editor. The best part of its email editor is the drag-and-drop feature. The no-code approach to email designing makes Klaviyo a popular choice amongst business owners with limited technical knowledge.

Of course, there are provisions that allow you to build emails from scratch using HTML coding. However, most new email marketers prefer using the extensive free template library hosted by Klaviyo. These email templates are optimized, and A/B tested. You only have to add your own email copy, product images, and CTA buttons.

In the same vein, creating automated email workflows is also comparatively easy. The flow builder also uses a setup wizard that guides the user through the entire process. However, amateur email marketers may struggle to extract the full potential of the automated workflow builder.

The availability of the dynamic conditions opinion makes Klaviyo one of the most powerful automation email marketing platforms. Of course, if you are struggling with setting up your automation, you can always contact email marketing agencies to help you out. 

On Sendinblue, you will find a new campaign button to set up new email templates. Here also, a setup wizard assists you throughout the email-building process.

The first prompt asks the users to enter the details about the email campaigns, including the subject line. Next, you enter the designing stage. Again, the intuitive and user-friendly template builder makes it a fun experience for designing emails for your campaigns. 

Once you get a satisfactory email design, send yourself a test email to check if it is displaying as intended. If not, you can use the opportunity to make slight tweaks to improve the appearance of your email. Finally, you can add the recipients using a comprehensive drop-down menu.

As soon as you launch your campaign, you can use Sendinblue’s in-built analytics tools to track the different metrics and measure the performance levels. 

Email Templates

Klaviyo sympathizes with the struggles of building emails from scratch. Consequently, it offers multiple optimized HTML templates to help you jumpstart your email campaigns.

Klaviyo’s library hosts hundreds of pre-built templates ranging from typical newsletters, marketing emails, promotional emails, birthday emails, educational emails, and holiday-themed emails. It is certain that you can find all the email templates in their library. 

Sendinblue also understands that designing email templates can be very challenging. Yes, it is easy to build one with design tools but it can become time-consuming and very taxing.

As a result, they, too, have an email template library that houses over 200 templates. Just like Klaviyo, Sendinblue also adopts a no-code approach to its email templates. 

On both platforms, you can directly select the template and start adding elements according to your preference. Sendinblue users can also access more email templates from popular marketplaces, like Litmus, EmailOnAcid, and Stripo.

Whereas, all the pre-built email templates on Klaviyo are highly customizable and responsive. With Sendinblue, you can also create your own or contact email marketing agencies to create highly interactive emails for you.

Email Design Capabilities

Klaviyo’s no-code philosophy can be felt in its email design tools. Klaviyo’s email design is heavily reliant on the drag-and-drop editor. The tool is also known as the WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get).

The acronym is a reference to the extremely detailed graphical user interface used by Klaviyo for its email design editor. Sendinblue also uses a drag-and-drop editor. But, on top of that, it offers a second email design tool for professional email marketers.

As mentioned above, Klaviyo’s email design tools are highly graphical. While it may not seem enticing for brands looking to create truly unique email templates, it does work wonders for the majority of email marketers.

Designers can promptly create truly eye-catching designs just by moving a few design blocks and elements. Finally, the copywriters can simply enter their email content to complete the template. 

In that sense, the most difficult aspect of the entire process is selecting the base layout. Choosing a suitable pre-built email template from the get-go makes it easier to make the changes and A/B test them.

Additionally, Klaviyo’s responsive designs are dynamic and will change their aspect ratios depending on the reader’s screen. The email editor is optimized for creating mobile-first designs. 

Sendinblue users also prefer using the drag-and-drop editor due to its responsiveness. You can add or remove elements for the templates with a single click.

If you add any images, you get the option to edit, resize and calibrate the colors. Lastly, you can also introduce texts and edit them to suit the aesthetics of the email. But, none of these features are as impressive as the ones available in the second Sendinblue editor.

The second email design editor is purely HTML driven. It allows the technical coders to take a closer look at the different elements of the email and makes extensive changes to them.

With this editor, you can create highly interactive email templates that cannot be easily replicated by your competitors. The only downside to this is that it is only accessible to professional coders.

Email Automation

According to seasoned email marketers, there is no other platform that comes close to Klaviyo in terms of email automation. To start with, in Klaviyo, automated workflows are simply referred to as Klaviyo email flows.

These functionalities offered by Klaviyo are specifically designed to create complex workflows. But, Sendinblue’s email automation is designed to make it more accessible for amateur email marketers. 

When you start creating automated workflows in Sendinblue, you will find 8 workflows for the most commonly used email sequences, such as welcome emails, cart abandonments, etc.

Plus, you get a couple of activity-based templates. Alternatively, Klaviyo offers a massive library for pre-built for multiple email sequences. You can use the search bar to find your favorite email automation. 

The pre-built workflows are highly customizable on both platforms. You are free to make changes to the flow template to create a more suitable version for your marketing strategy.

Klaviyo’s powerful analytics tool sets it apart from Sendinblue. The data collected from the email campaign is compiled and fed into the automation system to further refine it. 

Klaviyo Vs Sendinblue: Both enable the user to create custom workflows from scratch. In Klaviyo, first, you have to select the trigger that starts the workflow.

Next, you have to select the sequence of actions that takes place after the flow has been triggered. Use time delay between the actions create easily create an email sequence. 

Sendinblue users have to select the group of users that will act as the trigger for the automated workflow. After that, you have to enter the if/then statements to set up a workflow with dynamic content.

With these conditional statements, the user is instantly transferred to different workflows whenever they fulfill the defined conditions.

Contact Management

Subscriber management is one of the more crucial aspects of email marketing. After all, in most cases, the total number of subscribers dictates the amount that you have to spend on each email marketing platform.

In Klaviyo, subscriber profiles are referred to as contacts or customer profiles. And, Klaviyo offers a powerful contact management tool. You will find the option for contact management under the Lists and Segments heading. 

Klaviyo offers a sign-up form builder that can be added to your website. The sign-up forms prompt the website visitors to subscribe to the mailing list by entering their email IDs.

This strategy also generates a healthy amount of warm leads who have good chances of becoming customers in the future. Remember to use double opt-in forms to prevent any accidental sign-ups and bot accounts. Sendinblue also offers sign-up forms that can be directly embedded in your online marketplace. 

The email list curated by the sign-up forms can also be used to augment the capabilities of other lists, such as SMS marketing and social media customer profiles.

Klaviyo allows new users to migrate their contact lists from previous email marketing platforms. In addition, you are free to import contact lists from third-party email services.

But, a word of caution- do not use this technique to import pre-built email lists as it will only damage your sender’s reputation with your Email Service Provider (ESP). If the migration process is not supported, you have to manually transfer the customer profiles using the CSV file format. 

Sadly, Sendinblue does not support contact transfer from third parties and other email marketing platforms. It makes it for email marketers to set up their accounts as they have to manually transfers every single contact using the CSV transfer method.

Now, this method does prevent email marketers from buying email lists from the online markets, which is a good thing. But, this prevention method also penalizes the honest email marketers that created the mailing lists from scratch in other email marketing platforms. 

After successfully adding new subscribers or importing new contacts, Klaviyo generates extensive customer profiles for each subscriber loaded with personal information, like preferences and browsing activity.

The data is automatically updated as you use more Klaviyo tools to engage the customers. Moreover, Klaviyo adds another layer by utilizing its predictive analysis feature on each contact.

Expected churn rate, lifetime value, expected order date, etc., are some of the insights provided to email marketers after applying the predictive analysis feature. 

Lastly, Klaviyo uses a powerful segmentation tool to categorize the contacts into different lists. By default, it comes with a few standard lists that can be customized as per the email marketers’ requirements. 

On the other side, Sendinblue also uses all the necessary contact management tools. Using the Contacts sections, you can add new subscribers to your email marketing profile with a few clicks.

Following that, you can group them into similar folders or segment them into different lists using custom filters. Sendinblue uses a dynamic list function that automatically adds new subscribers if they match all the properties. Or, you can contact experienced email marketers to help you sort out your emailing list. 

The segmentation abilities of Sendinblue are on par with Klaviyo’s capabilities. For each segment, you can define your own parameters and rules. Accordingly, you can personalize your emails to make your campaigns more impactful for certain segments of your audience.

For example, you can use geographic segmentation and pair it up with the website activity of the customer base to automatically trigger email campaigns whenever they enter a certain location.  

Integrations

Klaviyo and Sendinblue are highly capable email marketing platforms and offer commendable integration capabilities. To start with, both platforms are compatible with WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magneto, enabling businesses to effortlessly sync their customer data. 

But, there are a few key differences between the two. Klaviyo shares a robust integration connection with Shopify. It is also one of the major reasons for its rise in popularity.

Since it caters to mostly eCommerce businesses, it leverages the customer information collected from CRMs and eCommerce websites to refine its personalized email marketing strategy.

It also improves the segmentation quality. Sendinblue also offers versatile capabilities with Shopware integration and WhatsApp campaign builder. The lead generation funnel is also stronger with Sendinblue as you can create effective landing pages for your business. 

Both Klaviyo and Sendinblue offer integrations with a massive range of third-party apps. It  allows businesses to expand their marketing capabilities beyond email campaigns.

Klaviyo integrations include popular tools like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SMS marketing platforms. While Sendinblue’s integrations include CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. It is also well-connected with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. These integrations can be a great way for businesses to establish an omnichannel marketing strategy and increase their ROI.

Reporting and Analytics

Klaviyo’s reporting dashboard is more intuitive and user-friendly compared to Sendinblue’s. Klaviyo provides a clear and concise overview of campaign performance, including key Email Kpi’s such as open rates, email click-through rates, revenue generated, and more.

Sendinblue’s users might find it harder to navigate the reporting dashboard due to its cluttered nature. 

When it comes to custom reporting, Sendinblue is more rigid than Klaviyo. Klaviyo users can create custom reports based on a variety of metrics, including engagement, revenue, and click-through rates.

The email marketing platform also provides real-time reporting, allowing users to track the performance of their campaigns live. Sendinblue also offers similar features but lags behind Klaviyo.

As mentioned earlier, Klaviyo and Sendinblue support a massive range of integration, including Adobe and Google Analytics. But, thanks to Klaviyo’s solid digital infrastructure, it can extract real-time data from these platforms.

Sendinblue can also achieve the same feat albeit with a significant time delay. Klaviyo report capability also enables it to present a more holistic view of the email campaign. 

Sendinblue offers a comprehensive A/B testing tool. However, it is only available to Business plan users. This put the users of the lower-tier plans at a significant disadvantage. Klaviyo, on the other hand, offers the advanced multi-variate testing feature right from the free plan. This makes Klaviyo the more viable of the two options. 

Customer Support 

Klaviyo vs Sendinblue: Both offer limited customer support to free plan users. Once the user upgrades their email marketing plan, they start getting priority customer support on both platforms.

However, according to users, the quality of technical support offered by Klaviyo is much better than the one provided by Sendinblue. Then, again, Sendinblue’s peer-to-peer community support is a better rate than Klaviyo’s community. 

Klaviyo’s customer support exclusively communicates in English. Bilingual speakers and business owners of other nationalities might face some difficulty communicating with the support executive of the email marketing platform.

Sendinblue customer service people are available in multiple languages to make it more accessible. 

Sendinblue is highly regarded for the technical expertise that they provide over the call. However, the response time of the Klaviyo support team is noticeably faster, and email marketers felt that they were more knowledgeable too.

Both Klaviyo and Sendinblue offer their support across multiple channels, like a phone call, email, and live chat support. 

Conclusion 

As you can see, the similarities between the two email marketing platform is a bit more overpowering than their difference. Hence, most email marketers are stumped when it comes to choosing between Klaviyo vs Sendinblue.

Ultimately, you have to lay down your requirements and check which platform fulfills them all without burning a hole in your budget. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Klaviyo offers better functionality in terms of email automation and reporting, but is priced higher than Sendinblue.

On the other hand, even though Sendinblue lacks some powerful features it is more economical for small and mid-sized businesses. It is absolutely okay to feel perplexed when it comes to choosing between the two. You can always contact us to help you make the correct decision for your brand.