Klaviyo vs listmonk: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Klaviyo and listmonk to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Klaviyo
6.9/10
Klaviyo is an email, SMS and customer data platform for ecommerce brands, priced by active profiles and built around store data and automated flows.
listmonk
6.6/10
listmonk is a free, open-source, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager. Technical teams use it to send high-volume email campaigns and transactional email through their own SMTP providers.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.9/10 | 6.6/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 3/10 |
| Cost | 4/10 | 10/10 |
| Integration | 9/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 9/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $20/mo Email | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free | Free Self-hosted (open source) |
| Features | ||
| Email Marketing | ||
| Segmentation | ||
| SMS Marketing | ||
| E-commerce Features | Not listed | |
| Landing Pages | Not listed | |
| Webinars | Not listed | |
Klaviyo vs listmonk cost by team size
Klaviyo and listmonk cost the same at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Klaviyo | listmonk |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | FreeSelf-hosted (open source) |
| 5 users | FreeFree | FreeSelf-hosted (open source) |
| 10 users | FreeFree | FreeSelf-hosted (open source) |
| 25 users | FreeFree | FreeSelf-hosted (open source) |
| 50 users | FreeFree | FreeSelf-hosted (open source) |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Klaviyo
- Higher Integration score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Analytics score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for e-commerce (10/10 vs 3/10)
- Better fit for marketing teams (9/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose listmonk
- Higher Cost score (10/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Scalability score (9/10 vs 8/10)
- Better fit for startups (8/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
Klaviyo
Pros
- Deep native integration with Shopify and other stores lets marketers segment on real purchase and browsing data.
- A free plan with 250 profiles and a 20 USD entry plan make it cheap to start.
- Since July 2026, SMS uses dollar-based plans with over 70 tiers, so gaps between plans are smaller and larger plans get lower per-message rates.
- A broad product suite covering reviews, helpdesk, personalization and AI agents can replace several separate tools.
Cons
- Billing by active profiles and uneven tier steps cause cost jumps, for example from 150 USD at 10,000 profiles to 350 USD at 15,000 on the Email plan.
- Many features, such as Reviews, Helpdesk, Personalization and Composer, are separately priced add-ons that raise the total bill.
- Free accounts get email support only for the first 60 days, and reviewers on G2 and Trustpilot report slow or hard-to-reach support.
- New users report a learning curve with segments, event triggers and flow logic.
listmonk
Pros
- The software has no licence or per-subscriber fees. A reviewer estimates 100,000 subscribers on weekly sends costs about 45 USD a month in hosting and SES fees.
- Reviewers report it handles hundreds of thousands to millions of subscribers on modest hardware.
- Multi-SMTP queues with rate limiting let you mix providers such as SES, Postmark or Mailgun.
- SQL-based segmentation and Go templating give developers very fine control.
- It includes a transactional API, OIDC SSO, role-based permissions and scoped API tokens.
Cons
- You must set up and run Docker or the binary, PostgreSQL, a reverse proxy and SMTP yourself.
- Support comes only from the community on GitHub, with no SLA.
- It has no behavioural automation or drip sequences.
- Deliverability and list cleaning depend on your own DNS and provider configuration.
- Reviewers say it has fewer integrations, templates and tutorials than commercial platforms.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Klaviyo scores higher on our Marketing criteria: 6.9/10 against 6.6/10 for listmonk. The largest gap is in Cost: 4/10 for Klaviyo and 10/10 for listmonk.
Both are free for 10 users.
Yes, both Klaviyo and listmonk have a free plan.
Klaviyo is the better fit for e-commerce: we rate it 10/10 for them, against 3/10 for listmonk.
