Choosing the right email marketing platform is a significant responsibility that will affect your communication with customers and subscribers for the foreseeable future. You want an intuitive yet powerful tool that supports business growth without complicated settings or slow customer support if something comes up.

Omnisend and Klaviyo are two of the biggest names you’ll see when you look for email marketing platforms. They both have a lot to offer, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each, including customer support, so you can decide which one fits your business goals best.

Quick pros and cons overview

To be more specific and provide actionable advice instead of listing out general comparison points, we’ll focus on pros and cons for medium-to-large businesses that require standard ecommerce solutions for revenue growth and retention.

Omnisend pros

Omnisend is built to be powerful without feeling clunky. It allows you to create both basic and advanced flows without bothering you with the technical side. Another huge advantage is its global reach: Omnisend supports SMS sending on a global scale, which is a big deal if you have customers all over the world.

Next, Omnisend handles SMS billing in a way that’s beneficial for you. You can top up your SMS credits for just $10, and those credits roll over to the next month. This way, you get to keep what you paid for instead of wasting money on unused SMS credits.

Finally, Omnisend doesn’t restrict AI features, automation builders, and multichannel tools on its free plan. You can check out how everything works before you spend anything. And if you have a small contact list, you can stick with the free plan until your list grows and not worry about losing access to any of the features.

Omnisend cons

Omnisend is not as good as Klaviyo in terms of advanced segmentation, complex conditional branching in flows, and predictive analytics. You can build segments based on many different criteria, and build advanced automation workflows with splits and filters, but they don’t provide as much depth as Klaviyo does. It does, however, respond to most business needs, regardless of size, but if you need niche, hyper-tailored capabilities in segmentation and automation, Omnisend is not the best choice for you.

Klaviyo pros

Klaviyo is known for its data capabilities. It allows for very deep segmentation and has strong reporting features. Whether it’s overkill or not for most modern businesses is another discussion, but it’s a fact that Klaviyo has more power and control in terms of segmentation and analytics.

Also, Klaviyo allows you to build more complex automation workflows. If you have an idea to build an automation flow that consists of thousands of subscribers, but reaches highly specific audiences via conditional branching and splits to improve engagement, you probably can do it with Klaviyo. It will definitely take time, patience, and expertise, but it’s most likely possible.

Klaviyo cons

Some downsides to Klaviyo are that it’s best for advanced users who can fully leverage its potential, it has a steep learning curve, and it gets expensive. You often pay more for features that you might not even use. For example, their SMS reach is limited to only 18 countries, which is a major limitation if you want to grow globally.

Also, their credit system for SMS is rather rigid. You have to buy expensive blocks of credits that expire every month. If you have a slow month, you lose that money. 

Generally speaking, the biggest cons of Klaviyo are that it comes with a higher price than Omnisend while providing fewer essential features at the same time. They focus more on niche complexity, which is unnecessary for most modern businesses, but irreplaceable for those who need it.

Customer support channels compared

Speaking of support, the difference between Omnisend and Klaviyo is incomparable. One provides unrestricted support for everyone, whereas the other limits free users and categorizes paid users.

Omnisend prioritizes customer support and is available 24/7 for both free and paid users. If you ever feel stuck, you can access live chat easily, ask your question, and a human support agent will be there for you in a few minutes. If the support agent is unable to fix your problem, they will escalate the issue to their tech team, who will then inform you via email about the status of your ticket. You can also use email support, if you prefer.

Omnisend also provides a vast amount of clearly organized in-depth resources like step-by-step tutorials, feature explanations, YouTube videos, and more. If your business gets to the point where you’re paying $400 a month, you’ll also be able to get a dedicated account expert to help with any issues you face.

Klaviyo, on the other hand, makes it more difficult to get help, and the support system depends heavily on how much you pay. They generally offer email and live chat support, but it’s not as accessible as Omnisend’s 24/7 model.

Free plans are limited to 60 days of email support, after which the line is cut off. On the flip side, 60 days is more than enough to learn how the platform works. Going into paid plans, however, still doesn’t necessarily give you as much accessibility toward support as Omnisend does.

You do get 24/5 access to customer support for live chat, and 24/7 for email, but the waiting time depends on the plan you’re on, and it varies from several minutes for live chat, and 1-2 days for email. Also, weekend support is not initially included unless you upgrade your plan further.

If support is no longer available to you, you can use Klaviyo’s help center to find information about the issue you’re facing. If text is not your preferred choice, you can also check their YouTube videos.

Migration support

Moving your contacts and data from one platform to another is no one’s favorite activity. You might worry about losing subscribers, messing up your segments, breaking automations, and the list goes on.

Omnisend understands this pain and offers a solution called the Kickstart service, which simplifies the migration process to the point where you don’t need to do anything. If, upon signing up for Omnisend, your paid plan exceeds $250/month, Omnisend provides migration services at no charge, and the process is completed within 3-5 business days.

They do all the heavy-lifting for you by transferring your contacts, automations, segments, forms, templates, and more. It allows you to stay in your comfort zone while migrating, and you don’t need to worry about something accidentally getting lost.

Klaviyo doesn’t have a comparable migration service. They do offer one, but it’s either expensive or guided. If you choose the guided way, they provide you with extensive migration guides, but you have to do it yourself. Otherwise, you can hire an agency to help you move everything over, but once again, it’s at an extra cost.

Omnisend vs. Klaviyo: Verdict

After looking at the features, support, and costs, the choice becomes quite clear. Klaviyo is a strong choice if you need extreme automation and segmentation capabilities, but be prepared to pay for it both in terms of time and money. Also, the limits on global SMS and inferior support for free users are significant downsides.

Omnisend, on the other hand, offers a more complete package for brands of all sizes that want to get live fast and launch campaigns. It combines email and global SMS in a way that’s easy to manage but still very effective. You get 24/7 support regardless of your plan, and if you want to migrate, Omnisend covers everything completely if you match the aforementioned conditions.