Privy vs Klaviyo for Shopify: One Pop-Up, Email and SMS Plan or a Broader CRM

Privy vs Klaviyo comes down to how much you want in one account

This comparison is about Privy the Shopify marketing app at privy.com and Klaviyo the B2C CRM. Both connect to Shopify, both send email and SMS, and both grow a list with on-site forms. They differ in how much else they put in the same account and in what they count when they bill you.

Privy sells a consolidated program. Its Email + SMS plan gives full access to Displays (its pop-ups), Email and SMS, priced on mailable contacts with unlimited sends (Privy billing help). Its Shopify page describes pop-ups such as spin-to-win, exit intent and quizzes, pre-built flows to recover carts and cross-sell, segments built from Shopify order and browsing data, and one-to-one help from ecommerce strategists (Privy for Shopify).

Klaviyo sells a wider set of products priced on active profiles. Beyond email, campaigns, flows and segmentation, its pricing page lists mobile messaging, social marketing, reviews, Customer Hub, Composer, Customer Agent, Helpdesk and mobile app push, with a custom plan for very large or multi-brand accounts (Klaviyo pricing).

If your team wants one tool that captures shoppers and runs the campaigns, with little to configure beyond that, Privy is designed for that store. If you expect to add reviews, a customer hub or AI service on the same customer profiles, Klaviyo sells them in one account. For how Klaviyo compares with an SMS-first platform, see Attentive vs Klaviyo, and for other options, our Klaviyo alternatives guide.

What each entry plan includes, and why the prices are not the same size

Laying the two starting prices next to each other is tempting and misleading. Privy's $30 covers up to 1,500 mailable contacts with unlimited email. Klaviyo's $20 covers 500 active profiles and 5,000 emails a month. Those are different audiences with different send limits, so the cheaper looking figure says nothing about which costs less for your store.

To compare cost, enter your own count in both calculators. On Privy, the published scale takes the price from $30 at 1,500 contacts to $45 at 2,000 and $90 at 5,000 (Privy billing help). On Klaviyo, move the active profile slider to your number and read both the price and the email allowance for that tier.

Active profiles vs mailable contacts, and the send limits that come with them

Each vendor bills on its own definition of who counts, and the definitions behave differently when your list changes.

The send allowance matters most for stores that email often. On Privy, more campaigns to the same list do not change the price. On Klaviyo, the tier you choose has to cover your sends as well as your profiles. For stores that email rarely but keep large lists, the question flips: ask Klaviyo how unsubscribed or suppressed contacts are treated, and ask Privy exactly which contacts count as mailable.

Texting on Privy vs Klaviyo: credits that expire or a monthly spend that resets

Privy sells texting in credits. The Email + SMS plan includes 250 a month, which expire 30 days from the start of each subscription period. Paid monthly packages expire 60 days from the period start, so they can roll into the next cycle once, and one-time top-ups expire 60 days after purchase. The credits a message uses depend on whether the recipient is in the US or Canada, its length and whether it carries an image (Privy billing help). If credits run out, SMS campaigns and SMS steps in flows stop sending until you top up.

Klaviyo sells texting as a monthly spend. On per-message pricing, each SMS segment to each recipient is charged at a rate that varies by country, channel and number type, with carrier fees included. A segment is 160 characters, or 70 for Unicode text, such as a message containing an emoji. Inbound texts from shoppers are free, while outbound replies, campaigns and flows are billed. Plan spend renews monthly and unused spend does not roll over. Your account's billing settings show the exact rates and the cost of each mobile plan (Klaviyo mobile messaging).

So a store that texts in bursts, quiet for months and busy at a launch, gets a little carry-over from Privy's paid packages and none from Klaviyo's monthly spend. A store that texts steadily will care more about the per message cost of its own messages, which both vendors' tools calculate.

Using Privy pop-ups with Klaviyo email

The choice does not have to be all or nothing. Privy sells a Displays plan for pop-ups only, starting at $24 a month for up to 10,000 monthly pageviews, without email or text features. Privy says contacts collected by Displays sync automatically to Shopify, BigCommerce or Wix and to select third party platforms, Klaviyo included (Privy pricing).

A store that likes Privy's spin-to-win, exit intent, quiz and cart saver pop-ups but wants Klaviyo's CRM can price the two together: the Displays plan on pageviews, and Klaviyo on active profiles. A store that would rather have one bill and one login keeps everything on Privy's Email + SMS plan, which already includes Displays.

Klaviyo Customer Agent and Helpdesk, and what their starting quotas mean

Klaviyo sells two products that answer shoppers rather than market to them. Customer Agent is Klaviyo's AI agent for shopper inquiries on web chat, email, SMS and WhatsApp. It can track orders, answer product and policy questions, recommend products, process returns and exchanges, manage subscriptions and hand off to a person (Getting started with Customer Agent). Helpdesk is Klaviyo's ticketing product, and Customer Agent can escalate into it with the conversation transcript.

The pricing page lists them with starting quotas: Customer Agent with 10 resolutions a month and Helpdesk with 10 tickets a month, shown on the free plan and on the Email plan card, with more available as add-ons (Klaviyo pricing). On SMS, Customer Agent needs an active SMS plan and a two-way sending number, Shopify is recommended for order tracking and recommendations, and SHAFT brands cannot use it. Each resolved conversation uses a resolution, and its text replies use SMS segments from the same mobile budget as your campaigns (Customer Agent on SMS).

Ten resolutions is a quota for trying the product. A store that expects dozens of shopper questions a week should price the add-on and the extra SMS spend before counting on it.

Compare both plans for a 1,200-contact store

Take a Shopify store with 1,200 contacts it can email, a welcome pop-up, a weekly newsletter and a two message cart reminder by text. The owner wants to answer product questions by text as well.

On Privy, 1,200 mailable contacts sits inside the first tier, so the Email + SMS plan is $30 a month with unlimited email, Displays and 250 included credits. Weekly newsletters cost nothing extra. The included credits have to cover the cart texts within 30 days of each period start, or the store adds a paid package.

On Klaviyo, 1,200 active profiles is above the 500 profile figure on the plan cards, so the store moves the slider to 1,200 and reads the price and the email allowance, which has to cover roughly four or five newsletters to 1,200 people a month plus flows. Texting comes from the mobile messaging budget. For the product questions, the store could switch on Customer Agent for SMS, starting with 10 resolutions a month.

The comparison the owner should actually run is three numbers on each side: monthly price at 1,200 contacts, cost of the month's texts, and what it takes to have someone or something answer the replies. SMS vs email helps decide which messages belong on which channel, and the checkout reply policy template helps settle who answers.

Where Zobi fits beside Privy or Klaviyo

Privy and Klaviyo both start the cart conversation with a pop-up, a flow and a reminder. Klaviyo's Customer Agent can answer the replies once you have set up its knowledge, guidance and handoff. Zobi is for the store that wants that whole conversation run as one personal thread, from the first cart message to the reorder.

Zobi texts shoppers like someone from your team. Its concierge reads the cart and writes the message for that shopper, and you approve it before it goes out, on iMessage where possible and on RCS, SMS, WhatsApp or email when needed. Replies come back into the same thread, and Zobi answers them with the cart, the last reply and past orders in view. Weeks later the same thread carries the where is my order question, a nudge to reorder before the customer drifts, and the add-on that finishes the setup. Every conversation is on record for you to read (how Zobi works).

Keep Privy or Klaviyo for pop-ups, list growth, newsletters and flows. Add Zobi when the cart recovery and the follow-up conversations are the job you want handled for you. If you already run Customer Agent and it resolves the questions your shoppers ask, test both on one recent abandoned cart before changing anything, and make sure only one tool sends the cart reminder. Texting any shopper needs their consent.

Apply to have Zobi run your shopper conversations. Free to apply.

Sources

Privy, Pricing

Privy Help, 2025 Billing, Payments, and Refunds

Privy, Privy for Shopify

Klaviyo, Pricing

Klaviyo Help, Understand Klaviyo's mobile messaging system

Klaviyo Help, Getting started with Customer Agent

Klaviyo Help, Guide to using Customer Agent on SMS

Zobi, Zobi for DTC brands