Key takeaways
  • Omnisend rates 4.8 stars from 3,096 Shopify App Store reviews, with Free, Standard ($16/mo), and Pro ($59/mo) tiers.
  • The Free plan covers 250 contacts with unlimited list uploads, but excludes SMS entirely.
  • SMS is priced as a volume-based add-on rather than bundled into a flat plan fee — check Omnisend's pricing page for current rates.
  • Email sending volume on paid plans scales with your contact count, so list growth affects your effective send budget too.
  • Omnisend is generally the cheaper option versus Klaviyo at comparable contact volumes, but Klaviyo wins on advanced segmentation and predictive analytics for larger, data-driven stores.

Install Omnisend. At 4.8 stars across 3,096 Shopify App Store reviews, a free plan that actually covers 250 contacts with unlimited list uploads, and a $16/month Standard tier that undercuts most rivals, it's the strongest all-around email marketing pick for small-to-mid Shopify stores. The exception: if you need deep predictive analytics or heavy multi-channel segmentation as you scale past a few thousand contacts, Klaviyo is the better tool — and Omnisend's SMS is priced as a volume-based add-on rather than bundled flat into every plan, so it's worth checking current rates on Omnisend's pricing page before you build a campaign around it.

01 What Omnisend Is (and Who Makes It)

Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS is a combined email and SMS automation platform built specifically for ecommerce, with a dedicated Shopify integration that syncs customer, order, and product data for segmentation and automation triggers. It's one of the most-reviewed marketing apps in the Shopify App Store, currently holding a 4.8-star average across 3,096 ratings.

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Who this is for: Shopify stores under roughly 5,000 contacts that want email and SMS automation (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase flows) running within days, without hiring a lifecycle marketer or paying enterprise pricing to start. It's a weaker fit for stores that have outgrown basic segmentation and need predictive analytics, complex branching flows, or heavy custom reporting.

02 Pricing Breakdown: Free, Standard, Pro

Omnisend runs three tiers, and the entry point is genuinely usable rather than a crippled trial. The Free plan covers up to 250 contacts with unlimited list uploads, plus core automation and signup tools — but no SMS. Standard starts at $16/month for up to 500 contacts, with email sending volume that scales with your contact count. Pro starts at $59/month for up to 2,500 contacts and includes unlimited email sends, advanced reporting, and an AI product recommender.

PlanStarting PriceContacts IncludedSMS Access
Free$0250 (unlimited uploads)Not included
Standard$16/month500Add-on, volume-based pricing
Pro$59/month2,500Add-on, volume-based pricing

03 Core Features: Email, SMS, and Unified Customer Profiles

The core feature set is what you'd expect from an ecommerce-focused platform: pre-built automation workflows (welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase), unified customer profiles that combine email and SMS activity, popups and signup forms, and a built-in AI writer for campaign copy. SMS is available as a volume-based add-on rather than bundled flat into a specific plan — check Omnisend's own pricing page for current per-message rates before you budget for it as a core channel, since plans scale with order volume and messaging needs vary a lot store to store.

  • Free plan ceiling — 250 contacts with unlimited uploads is enough to build and test full automations before paying anything.
  • Email scaling on Standard — sending volume scales with contact count, which works well for active lists but means growth changes your effective email budget, not just your contact fee.
  • SMS is an add-on — priced separately and by volume, so confirm current rates on Omnisend's pricing page rather than assuming a flat allotment.

04 Ease of Setup, Support, and What 3,096 Reviews Say

With 3,096 Shopify reviews and a 4.8-star average, Omnisend has one of the stronger review track records among ecommerce email tools on the App Store. Reviewers consistently point to ease of setup and responsive support as strengths of the platform. As with any app at this review volume, a portion of ratings are critical — worth a skim on the App Store listing before you commit a list, but not enough to move the overall picture.

05 Omnisend vs. Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp

Omnisend is consistently positioned as the cheaper option compared to Klaviyo at comparable contact volumes, though the two win on different strengths. Klaviyo is the stronger choice for stores that need advanced segmentation, predictive analytics (like predicted lifetime value or churn risk), and complex multi-branch automation flows — it's built for teams with a dedicated lifecycle marketer. Mailchimp is a broader, more general-purpose tool that tends to lag both on ecommerce-specific automation and native SMS depth, and it shows up less often as the pick in head-to-head ecommerce comparisons.

For a Shopify store choosing its first real email/SMS platform, that split is straightforward: Omnisend gets you to a working, reasonably priced automation setup faster; Klaviyo is the upgrade path once your list and reporting needs outgrow what Omnisend's dashboards show you.

06 Verdict: Is Omnisend Worth Installing?

Yes — install Omnisend. A 4.8-star rating from 3,096 reviews, a free plan generous enough to run real automations before paying anything, and a $16/month entry price make it the easiest low-risk starting point for Shopify email marketing. Just go in with SMS pricing checked ahead of time — it's a volume-based add-on rather than a flat allotment, so confirm current rates on Omnisend's pricing page before you plan a campaign around it. If your store is past the point where basic segmentation and automation templates are enough, that's the signal to look at Klaviyo instead; for everyone else, Omnisend's free tier costs nothing to try.

07 Frequently asked questions

Does Omnisend's free plan include SMS?
No. The Free plan covers up to 250 contacts with unlimited list uploads but doesn't include SMS. SMS is available as a volume-based add-on on paid plans — check Omnisend's pricing page for current rates.
How much does Omnisend SMS cost?
SMS is priced as a volume-based add-on rather than a flat monthly allotment. Rates vary by message volume, so check Omnisend's current pricing page before budgeting for an SMS-heavy strategy.
Is Omnisend or Klaviyo better for a Shopify store?
Omnisend is generally cheaper at comparable contact volumes and faster to set up, making it the better default for small-to-mid stores. Klaviyo pulls ahead for larger stores that need advanced segmentation, predictive analytics, and complex automation flows.
Does Omnisend's price go up as I grow?
Yes — paid plans are priced by contact count, and email sending volume scales with your list size, so both your contact fee and your effective email budget grow as your list does.
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Sources & verification. Ratings, review counts, and pricing verified 2026-09-03 against: Omnisend on the Shopify App Store · Omnisend Pricing
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Alex Mashkovtsev
Founder · Eng Lead at INSO

Alex leads engineering at INSO, an AI-native product & commerce studio. He's shipped custom Shopify apps, checkout redesigns, and theme architecture for brands across the US and EU.