What the interviews show. These interviews do not establish an overall winner, and buyers describe the two serving different organizations. Emarsys buyers range from mid-market brands to large multinationals, several of them multi-brand or already on SAP: they praise its segmentation and its reach across channels and brands, and complain about a clunky interface, Shopify integration some describe as difficult or not native enough, features they call dated and a high price. Klaviyo is particularly prominent among the Shopify brands in these interviews, whose marketers often run email and SMS themselves: buyers praise its Shopify fit, ease and pace of updates, and complain that cost climbs with list size. Where buyers compare the two directly, the decisions run toward Klaviyo: companies describe moving from Emarsys to Klaviyo, or weighing it, and none describes the reverse. Emarsys is discussed by far fewer buyers, so its side rests on fewer accounts. The split is breadth across brands and systems versus a Shopify-native tool marketers run themselves.
| Strongest contrast in these interviews | Commentary centres on segmentation and audience data, and on how hard the platform is to use | Commentary centres on Shopify fit and marketer self-service, and on cost at scale |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer pattern in these interviews | Includes multi-brand and multi-country companies, several of them on SAP | Shopify DTC and mid-market brands with a marketer owning retention |
| Most-discussed job | Email and marketing automation | Ecommerce email |
| Also does | Audience management shared with other platforms, across several channels | SMS in the same tool, on a large integration ecosystem |
| Praised most | Segmentation and audience management | Shopify fit and the integration ecosystem — the platform others build for |
| Top complaint | A clunky interface, then Shopify integration that some buyers describe as difficult or insufficiently native | Cross-channel orchestration beyond email and SMS is a relative weakness |
| Relative cost | Considerably more expensive than Klaviyo, buyers who compare say | Climbs with list size and sends, and still the cheaper of the two here |
| Where buyers say it fits | A company running several brands, markets or SAP systems on one platform | An ecommerce brand whose programme is email and SMS, owned by marketing |
What buyers say about each platform
Every buyer interview spends its minutes somewhere — praising the thing that won the deal, or flagging the thing that still stings. Map where those minutes go for Emarsys and Klaviyo, and the chart below shows where each platform's praise and complaints concentrate in these interviews — not a ranking of what either can do:
Relative share of buyer commentary by theme in Alium's verified interviews, praise vs. complaint, through October 2026. Widths compare themes within this pair — they are relative, not counts. Each vendor's widths are normalized to its own commentary, because Klaviyo appears in far more interviews; an empty side means too few accounts raise the theme to chart.
In their own words
The phrases buyers reach for, verbatim, when they describe each platform:
Emarsys
“the segmentation is excellent” segments
“pretty intuitive, easy to use” sends
“deliverability is off the charts” inbox
“very clunky to use” ease
“not natively integrated” Shopify
“a dinosaur of a system” innovation
“they are pretty expensive” cost
Klaviyo
“without requiring technical expertise” self-serve
“seamless” with Shopify e-commerce
robust email “automation” lifecycle
email + SMS one tool
“expensive” at scale
Where Emarsys buyers concentrate their praise
Emarsys buyers concentrate their praise on segmentation and on managing audiences across channels and brands. “I think the segmentation is excellent,” says one, describing automated emails for very specific segments and results from paid channels and CRM in one place; a company that has used it for about ten years says “Emarsys is very good at managing all of the data from the audiences and connecting to other platforms.” Its complaints concentrate on a clunky interface — “It's just very clunky to use, very much so like an enterprise feel to it,” says one buyer — on integration work, which some Shopify brands describe as harder and less native than they expected, on features buyers call dated, and on cost, which no Emarsys buyer here praises. Several also describe a long, difficult implementation and support that is hard to reach when something breaks.
Where Klaviyo buyers concentrate their praise
Klaviyo buyers concentrate their praise on a Shopify-native platform marketers run themselves: deep ecommerce email automation and SMS in one self-serve tool, on a large integration ecosystem, with a steady pace of new and AI-driven features. A buyer who moved off Emarsys puts the contrast plainly: “Klaviyo integrates easily with Shopify and other systems.” Its complaints concentrate on cost that climbs as the list and the sends grow, and on orchestration beyond email and SMS, which buyers describe as a relative weakness against enterprise suites.
Among the direct Emarsys–Klaviyo decisions described in these interviews, the direction favors Klaviyo. Some companies have completed moves from Emarsys to Klaviyo, while another team still under an Emarsys contract identifies Klaviyo as its leading replacement. A separate company plans to leave Emarsys for a more Shopify-native platform but has not settled on a destination. No company here describes a completed move from Klaviyo to Emarsys; the nearest is a Klaviyo brand that has spoken with Emarsys among several email platforms. Companies leaving Emarsys go elsewhere too — to Braze, MoEngage and Zeta — and some buyers stay on it deliberately, among them a long-time multinational user and SAP companies that rate it well.
Emarsys vs. Klaviyo on cost
Neither price is published here, and contracts vary — what the interviews give is where buyers place the two against each other:
Where buyers place the two against each other on what an email programme costs to run. Positions are relative within this pair, not a price scale, and they say nothing about a third platform.
Buyers who compare the two put Emarsys well above Klaviyo. One describes Klaviyo as “quite cheap in my opinion as well because I had other solutions like Emarsys or Marketo, and they're way more expensive and much more clunky.” Another, on Emarsys only because it once had to serve two very different businesses, says that in an ideal world they “would have used something a lot cheaper with a lot better functionality and a more direct integration with Shopify, i.e. Klaviyo.” Other Emarsys buyers raise its pricing model and the size of the contract. Klaviyo's bill climbs as the list and the sends grow, and buyers raise it as the trade for the platform and the ecosystem.
What buyers wish they'd known
Before picking Emarsys
Buyers describe implementations that took many months and a platform that needs an experienced team to run. Some Shopify users report integration work that required more development and maintenance than expected. Several describe support that is hard to reach when something breaks, and features they call dated against newer platforms. Our recommendation, not a practice buyers describe: confirm who will run it, and what each integration you need will take, before you sign.
Before picking Klaviyo
Buyers report cost climbing with list size and sends, and describe orchestration beyond email and SMS as a relative weakness. One larger company raises a limit on how many customer records it can hold. Our recommendation, not a practice buyers describe: price it at your projected list size, and check whether one platform has to serve brands or markets that are not on Shopify.
Four questions the interviews raise
One company chose it because it could serve two businesses on different commerce systems.
Its native Shopify integration is the most-cited reason buyers moved to it from Emarsys.
Buyers describe a clunky builder and triggers that take longer to set up, and a team with seniority to run it.
Buyers cite marketers running it without technical expertise.
Two SAP companies rate it well and count the fit an advantage; another wants out of the SAP bundle.
Its buyers describe Shopify and the apps around it, not SAP, as the centre of the stack.
Considerably more expensive than Klaviyo, buyers who compare say.
The cheaper of the two, though the bill climbs with list size.
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Book mine →How the operating conditions differ
Recurring situations in the corpus, and where the evidence concentrates in each:
Pressures visible in these interviews
The complaints these interviews carry sit on both sides: Emarsys's are a clunky interface, integration work some Shopify brands found heavy, features buyers call dated, a hard implementation and its price; Klaviyo's are cost at scale and orchestration beyond email and SMS.
Emarsys buyers are split rather than in retreat. Those who praise it describe segmentation and audience management worth the weight; its sharpest critics are Shopify brands, for whom a simpler, native tool now exists. SAP comes up both ways: some companies choose Emarsys and rate it well because they already run SAP, one is moving to it because its SAP agreements require it, and another wants out of the SAP bundle altogether.
The purchasing question, as we read it rather than as buyers state it, is whether one platform has to serve brands, markets or systems beyond a Shopify store, and whether you have the team to run a heavier platform if it does. Emarsys is discussed by far fewer buyers than Klaviyo, so its side of this page rests on fewer accounts.
For Klaviyo against other platforms, see Klaviyo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Klaviyo vs. Bloomreach and Klaviyo vs. Braze; for the wider category, why companies switch email platforms and what email-platform buyers wish they'd known.
Common questions
Emarsys vs. Klaviyo: which is better?
Neither is better for every company, and buyers describe them serving different organizations. Emarsys buyers praise its segmentation and its reach across channels and brands, and complain about a clunky interface, Shopify integration some describe as difficult or not native enough, features they call dated and a high price. Klaviyo buyers praise a Shopify-native platform marketers run without engineering, and complain that cost climbs with list size and that orchestration beyond email and SMS is a relative weakness. The fit depends on your commerce platform, how many brands and markets one platform has to serve, and who will run it.
What's the difference between Emarsys and Klaviyo?
Emarsys is SAP's customer engagement platform: email and automation with audience management, used in these interviews by companies from mid-market brands to large multinationals, several of them multi-brand or already running SAP. Klaviyo is an ecommerce email and SMS platform built around Shopify, used mostly by direct-to-consumer and mid-market brands whose marketers run it themselves. Buyers describe Emarsys as the heavier platform to implement and use, and Klaviyo as the cheaper of the two.
Why do companies switch from Emarsys to Klaviyo?
Buyers moving from Emarsys to Klaviyo describe an interface they found clunky and dated, triggers and flows that took too long to build, and integration with Shopify that Emarsys did not provide natively. Klaviyo's native Shopify integration, its segmentation and its pace of updates are what they describe moving toward. Companies leaving Emarsys in these interviews also go to Braze, MoEngage and Zeta, and no company here describes moving from Klaviyo to Emarsys.
Is Emarsys more expensive than Klaviyo?
Yes, according to the buyers in these interviews who compare the two: they describe Emarsys as considerably more expensive than Klaviyo, and no Emarsys buyer here praises its price. Klaviyo has cost complaints of its own, mostly that the bill climbs as the list and the sends grow.
Is Emarsys good for Shopify brands?
Shopify brands in these interviews are the buyers most critical of Emarsys. Several describe its Shopify integration as insufficiently native, with connections they had to build and maintain by hand, and several are moving or planning to move to a more Shopify-native platform, two of them to Klaviyo. Buyers who praise Emarsys point to its segmentation and audience management, and one company chose it because it could serve two businesses on different commerce systems.
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