Klaviyo vs Attentive (2026): SMS Pricing, Features and Using Both

Klaviyo is the better choice for most ecommerce brands: email and SMS on one profile, published per-message pricing and one attribution model. Attentive is the better choice for large brands where SMS is the main retention channel and a quoted, service-heavy SMS program with strategic support is worth paying a premium for.

Plenty of brands run both: Attentive for SMS, Klaviyo for email. That works if the integration is set up deliberately, and this page covers exactly how it syncs. Left on defaults, it produces welcome messages that ignore each other, a cart text and a cart email two minutes apart, and two dashboards claiming the same order.

A note on where we stand: we’re a Klaviyo partner agency and our SMS marketing service builds on Klaviyo SMS. We still recommend Attentive when SMS genuinely leads, and this page says when.

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Klaviyo vs Attentive at a glance

	Klaviyo	Attentive
Started as	Email, with SMS added onto the same profile	SMS, now with email, RCS and push
Pricing	Published: monthly messaging plan priced per message, plus an email plan	Not published: quoted on messages sent, list size, channels and AI tools
1,000 US texts a month	$15, carrier fees included	Quote only
Free option	Free plan with $5 of messages a month	Free trial on request
Strategic support	Self-serve, or an agency	Strategic support included with all plans
List growth	Sign-up forms with SMS consent	Two-tap mobile sign-up included with all plans
AI tools	Included features, plus Composer as a paid agent	AI Essentials included; AI Pro, AI Grow and AI Journeys cost extra
Integrations	350+	150+
Email and SMS in one flow	Yes, with one attribution model	Yes if Attentive runs both; two systems if you pair it with Klaviyo email
Best fit	Brands where email leads and SMS supports it	Large brands where SMS is the main retention channel

As of 10 October 2026.

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Who should pick which

If you…	Pick	Why
Want email and SMS on one profile and one report	Klaviyo	One flow builder, one attribution model, no sync to maintain.
Want published SMS prices you can budget against	Klaviyo	Attentive quotes every account.
Earn more retention revenue from SMS than from email, at scale	Attentive	The specialist tooling and included strategic support earn their keep there.
Have no in-house SMS expertise and no agency	Attentive	Strategic support is included with every plan.
Run Klaviyo email well and want to add specialist SMS	Either, with care	Attentive works alongside Klaviyo through the integration below.
Sell CBD or cannabis in the US or Canada	Neither, until you check terms	Klaviyo prohibits CBD and cannabis on SMS and MMS there; check Attentive’s terms directly.

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Attentive is SMS-first; Klaviyo is email-first with strong SMS

Attentive was built for SMS from day one and has one of the deepest SMS feature sets in ecommerce: two-tap mobile sign-up, conversational and AI-driven messaging, and a service model with strategic support built into every plan. It now sends email, RCS and push as well.

Klaviyo’s SMS started as a feature inside the email platform and has grown into a competent product, architected as “email plus SMS” on one profile. For most ecommerce brands, Klaviyo SMS covers what they actually send: abandoned cart, post-purchase, back-in-stock and campaign texts. For brands where SMS is the primary channel, Attentive’s specialism may be worth a second platform.

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Klaviyo vs Attentive pricing (October 2026)

Attentive doesn’t publish prices. As of 10 October 2026 its pricing page is a sales form: packages for text, text and email, or SMS, email, RCS and push, each priced on messages sent and list size, with an enterprise package on custom pricing and premium AI tools on top. Our Attentive pricing guide explains the quote model.

Klaviyo publishes its rates. Its mobile messaging plan is priced per message by country, with carrier fees built in, on top of an email plan. Monthly cost from Klaviyo’s calculator, USD, October 2026:

Texts a month	US toll-free	Australia	UK
1,000	$15	$30	$70
5,000	$70	$130	$295
10,000	$125	$250	$575

How to compare an Attentive quote against those numbers:

• Get it per message. Ask for the effective rate per SMS and MMS at your forecast volume, and whether carrier fees are included. Klaviyo’s are.
• Ask about commitments. Minimum spend, term length and overage terms decide what you actually pay.
• Price the service. Attentive includes strategic support. If you’d otherwise pay an agency or an in-house SMS lead, count that, using what agency services cost as a benchmark.
• Price the stack. Klaviyo email plus Attentive SMS means paying for two platforms and the time to keep them in sync. Klaviyo email plus Klaviyo SMS is one bill. Full detail on Klaviyo’s side is in our Klaviyo SMS pricing guide.

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Where Attentive wins

SMS specialist features. Two-tap mobile sign-up, campaign builders, A/B testing and compliance tools come with every plan, and its AI products (AI Pro, AI Grow, AI Journeys) are built specifically for messaging.

Strategic support included. Every Attentive plan includes strategic support. For a brand without in-house SMS expertise or an agency, that is real value inside the price.

SMS-first operating depth. Attentive’s training, benchmarks and customer success are SMS-specific in a way Klaviyo’s are not. For a team learning SMS for the first time, that matters.

Where Klaviyo wins

One profile. A Klaviyo subscriber who opts into email and SMS has one profile with the full cross-channel history. Flows can send email or SMS from the same trigger. With Klaviyo email and Attentive SMS you run two databases, two consent records, two segmentation systems and two attribution models.

Published pricing. You can budget Klaviyo SMS from its calculator. Attentive needs a sales conversation.

Single-platform reporting. Klaviyo reports email and SMS revenue together. With two platforms, both credit themselves for the same order and someone has to reconcile them.

Flow architecture. A Klaviyo flow can fire a text as a step after an unopened email. With email in Klaviyo and SMS in Attentive, that needs triggers between two platforms.

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Klaviyo Attentive integration

If you keep both, the integration decides whether customers experience one brand or two. Attentive builds and maintains it. Everything below is from Attentive’s documentation, checked in September 2026.

How the integration works

You create a private API key in Klaviyo with full access, install the Klaviyo app in Attentive’s marketplace and choose a Klaviyo list. Attentive then sends email sign-ups and profile data into Klaviyo, keeps email opt-outs aligned both ways, and can pull Klaviyo segments into Attentive for SMS targeting. Per Attentive’s integration guide:

1. Generate a private API key in Klaviyo and choose Full Access Key as the scope.
2. In Attentive, go to Marketplace, then Klaviyo, then Install, paste the key and select the Klaviyo list for new email subscribers.
3. Add klaviyo_id as a link tracking parameter on links in your Klaviyo emails. Attentive says this helps it identify your email subscribers when they browse your site, which increases the volume of messages it can send. Most setups skip this step.

What syncs, and which way

Data	Direction	Timing and notes
Email sign-ups from Attentive sign-up units	Attentive → Klaviyo	Real time. Goes to your default list, or a specific list per sign-up unit
Sign-up source ($source)	Attentive → Klaviyo	Defaults to attentive. You can set custom values per sign-up unit (e.g. attentive_bfcm)
Default profile properties	Attentive → Klaviyo	creativeID, smsTimeStamp, sms_attentive_signup, timeStamp, url, $source
Custom attributes (e.g. product interest)	Attentive → Klaviyo	Optional setting
Coupon and offer codes	Attentive → Klaviyo	Optional. Codes can’t be posted from Klaviyo to Attentive
Phone numbers	Attentive → Klaviyo	Requires contacting your Attentive CSM or support
Email opt-ins and opt-outs	Both ways	Attentive → Klaviyo in real time. Klaviyo → Attentive at least every eight hours
Klaviyo segments	Klaviyo → Attentive	Available about 24 hours after adding, refreshed every 24 hours. No manual refresh

The opt-out rules, exactly

Attentive and Klaviyo manage email subscriptions differently, so the sync follows specific rules. Per Attentive’s documentation:

• An opt-out from a Klaviyo list selected in Attentive, or from Klaviyo’s global email list, opts the person out of Attentive’s email list.
• An opt-out from Attentive’s email list opts them out of all Klaviyo email lists.
• An opt-in to Attentive’s email list opts them into the selected Klaviyo list.
• A profile suppressed in Klaviyo (a hard bounce, for example) is opted out in Attentive, and opting them back in there needs Attentive support.
• Opt-in sync for international email isn’t currently supported.

If you also send email from Attentive, opt-out syncing switches on automatically. That matters because Attentive now sends email as well as SMS, so some brands end up with two email senders. If that’s you, decide which platform owns email and turn the other one off.

What the segment sync is good for

You add a Klaviyo segment to Attentive by pasting its URL into the integration settings. Segments over 100,000 profiles can take longer than 24 hours to appear, and profiles match by email or phone (Attentive’s segment guide).

Because of the daily refresh, use Klaviyo segments in Attentive for slow-moving audiences: VIPs by predicted lifetime value, lapsed customers, people who’ve engaged with a product category. Don’t rely on them for fast exclusions such as “ordered today”. Those need Attentive’s own purchase data, or someone gets a discount text an hour after paying full price.

Running Attentive SMS alongside Klaviyo email

1. One sign-up experience. If Attentive runs your pop-up and collects email and phone together, the email half lands in Klaviyo through the integration. Don’t also run a Klaviyo pop-up on the same pages. Two forms mean two offers and a messy source split.

2. Welcome flows that know about each other. Branch your Klaviyo welcome flow on sms_attentive_signup or $source. Someone who just joined SMS through Attentive and got a code by text doesn’t need the same code again by email in the first hour.

3. Cart and browse recovery timing. Decide which channel goes first, and hold the second back until the first has had time to work. A common pattern is email first, then SMS a few hours later only if there’s still no order.

4. Discount discipline. Coupon codes flow from Attentive into Klaviyo, not the other way. If your email flows issue unique codes, Attentive can’t see them. Keep one discount ladder across both channels.

5. Attribution you can reconcile. Each platform credits itself for orders inside its own window. Set comparable windows and judge SMS on incremental revenue (holdout tests where you can), not on the sum of two dashboards. Our email and SMS strategy guide covers the orchestration logic.

Keep both, or consolidate?

Situation	Our usual recommendation
SMS is a primary revenue channel, heavy use of Attentive-specific features, sync running cleanly	Keep both, tighten the coordination points above
SMS is secondary to email, team reconciling two dashboards every week	Consolidate onto Klaviyo SMS
Customers getting overlapping email and SMS	Fix coordination now. Consolidate if it keeps happening
Attentive also sending email alongside Klaviyo	Pick one email sender immediately

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Migration: Attentive to Klaviyo SMS

Many brands start with Attentive because SMS was a separate project with a separate budget. The case for consolidating is operational: one profile holding email and SMS consent, flows that branch between channels on the same trigger, one attribution model and no sync to maintain. As of September 2026, Klaviyo SMS is available in 24 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, per Klaviyo’s help centre.

Per Klaviyo’s Attentive migration guide:

1. Request the export early. Attentive requires you to ask your account representative for a CSV of SMS subscribers. You can’t export it yourself, so build the turnaround into your plan.
2. Set up Klaviyo SMS first, including a sending number for every country you’re importing. Klaviyo can’t add SMS consent for a country without one. In the US, a new number has to be registered with carriers before it can send, so start this alongside the export request.
3. Clean the consent columns. Anyone opted out in Attentive’s export must be marked Unsubscribed in the SMS consent column before import, and consent must stay TCPA-compliant.
4. Turn off SMS welcome flows triggered by Consented to receive SMS or by the list you’re importing into, then wait at least two hours after the import before switching them back on. Otherwise your whole imported list gets a welcome text.
5. Plan the number change. Klaviyo’s guide doesn’t cover bringing an Attentive short code across, so assume subscribers will receive texts from a new number. Make the first message clearly identify your brand and remind people how to opt out.
6. Cut over in one day. Pause Attentive journeys and switch Klaviyo SMS flows live together, then disconnect the integration once opt-outs have settled.

A typical Attentive to Klaviyo SMS migration runs 2 to 4 weeks. We handle these inside Klaviyo engagements or as a standalone project.

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Pros and cons

Klaviyo pros

• Email and SMS on one profile, in one flow builder, with one attribution model
• Published SMS pricing with carrier fees included
• 350+ integrations feeding one profile
• Free plan with $5 of messages a month to test on

Klaviyo cons

• Less SMS-specific tooling and service than a specialist
• No strategic support included; you bring the expertise or an agency
• Unused messaging spend expires each month
• CBD and cannabis are prohibited on SMS and MMS in the US and Canada

Attentive pros

• SMS-first platform with two-tap sign-up and specialist tooling on every plan
• Strategic support included with all plans
• SMS, email, RCS and push in one package if Attentive runs both
• Premium AI tools for teams that want them

Attentive cons

• No published prices; every account is quoted
• Paired with Klaviyo email, you run two platforms and a sync
• Klaviyo opt-outs can take up to eight hours to reach Attentive, and segments refresh daily
• Premium AI tools cost extra on top of the plan

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Klaviyo questions Attentive buyers ask

What are the weaknesses of Klaviyo?

Next to Attentive, Klaviyo’s SMS tooling is less specialised and no strategic support comes in the box: you bring the SMS expertise, or an agency does. Messaging is billed per message on a monthly plan and unused spend doesn’t roll over. CBD and cannabis brands can’t text from it in the US or Canada. And because it bills every profile you can email, a big unengaged list raises the email side of the bill. Our Klaviyo review covers each one and the workarounds.

Why is Klaviyo so expensive?

For SMS it usually isn’t the expensive option: it publishes its rates, from $15 a month for 1,000 US texts with carrier fees included, while Attentive quotes every account. The cost people notice is the email plan, which bills every profile you can email, and since February 2025 your plan must cover that whole count. Suppress profiles that never engage and the bill drops. The full tier table is in our Klaviyo pricing guide.

Who is Klaviyo’s biggest competitor?

For SMS it’s Attentive and Postscript: Attentive for enterprise brands on quoted pricing, Postscript for Shopify brands on published rates (see Klaviyo vs Postscript). For email it’s Omnisend and Mailchimp for small stores, and Braze and Iterable at enterprise scale. Our Klaviyo alternatives guide compares twelve by use case, and our best SMS marketing platforms guide covers the SMS tools.

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Practical recommendation

Most ecommerce brands at $1M to $30M: run Klaviyo for email and SMS. One profile, one report and published pricing outweigh Attentive’s specialist depth.

SMS-dominant brands at scale: Attentive may be worth it, particularly where SMS leads retention and the included strategic support replaces work you’d otherwise pay for.

Already running both: fix the coordination layer first (welcome branching, cart timing, one discount ladder), then decide.

The question we ask first is simple: what share of your retention revenue comes from SMS today, and how much will you invest in SMS over the next 12 months? If SMS is well behind email, the unified Klaviyo answer is almost always right. If SMS leads and you’re investing, Attentive’s case gets stronger. Book a free audit and we’ll show you what your current setup is costing you. For the rest of your stack, see our Klaviyo integrations guide.

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Sources

• Attentive, Pricing: packages, pricing basis, included features and AI tools (10 October 2026)
• Attentive Help Center, Klaviyo integration and Manage Klaviyo segments (September 2026)
• Klaviyo Pricing: mobile messaging calculator (1 and 10 October 2026)
• Klaviyo Help Center, Migrate from Attentive to Klaviyo
• Klaviyo Help Center, SMS country availability
• Klaviyo, Acceptable Use Policy (updated 9 April 2026)