Comprehensive Attentive vs Klaviyo Comparison Guide
September 1st, 2025
Ground Team
Keeping customers after the first sale is where most e-commerce stores make their profit; yet, picking the right ecommerce customer retention tool can feel like guesswork when comparing SMS and email specialists. Which platform handles segmentation, automation, deliverability, pricing, and real ROI better: Attentive or Klaviyo? This Attentive vs. Klaviyo guide compares key features, including SMS marketing and email marketing, lifecycle campaigns, behavioral triggers, analytics, and integrations with Shopify, to help you determine which aligns with your goals and team. To confidently choose between Attentive and Klaviyo by understanding their differences in features, pricing, and value, so they can invest in the platform that drives the highest ROI for their business.
To help with that choice, Ground's eCommerce personalization platform brings customer profiles, A/B testing, unified reporting, and seamless integrations together, so you can test channels, reduce churn, and increase lifetime value without additional technical work.
Table of Contents
What are Klaviyo and Attentive, and What do each Do?
Klaviyo: Email and SMS Automation Built for eCommerce
Klaviyo is an all-in-one email and SMS marketing automation platform focused squarely on eCommerce. It centers on audience segmentation, message personalization, and deep integrations with storefronts and back-end systems. You can build detailed segments based on customer behavior, then combine those segments with scheduled campaigns and automated flows to deliver tailored messages via email, SMS, or mobile push at the right moment. Want to target recent purchasers, high-value lapsed buyers, or browsers who abandoned a cart? Klaviyo makes it easy to create and act on those audience lists.
Klaviyo’s Global Reach and SMS Growth in the Omnichannel Market
Founded in Boston in 2012, Klaviyo has grown into a prominent vendor in email marketing automation. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2023. Its platform serves more than 130,000 e-commerce sites and has seen rapid SMS adoption since launching its SMS product in November 2022, now supporting approximately 13,000 SMS clients. Klaviyo connects with over 300 platforms, which helps retailers fold email, SMS, and CRM data into a single workflow. The company employs approximately 1,500 people and operates in over 100 countries. Its SMS channels run across:
The United States
Canada
The United Kingdom
Australia
New Zealand
Klaviyo as the Hub of Lifecycle Marketing and Revenue Automation
Klaviyo’s feature set includes:
Advanced segmentation
Dynamic personalization
Campaign scheduling
Multi-step automated flows
It also supports:
Mobile push notifications
Site forms
Tools for collecting reviews and on-site data
These capabilities position Klaviyo as a central hub for:
Lifecycle marketing
Subscriber growth
Abandoned cart recovery
Win-back campaigns
Revenue-driven automation
Attentive: SMS First, Conversational Messaging, and Real-Time Engagement
Attentive launched in 2016 with a focus on automated SMS marketing and conversational messaging. The product emphasizes two-way text conversations, rich media via MMS, and real-time customer engagement after a shopper opts in. Marketers use Attentive to capture attention with on-site prompts and to continue the conversation using:
Targeted SMS campaigns
Transactional messages
One-to-one conversational threads
Attentive’s Growth as a Dedicated SMS Marketing Platform
Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Attentive grew rapidly as one of the early pure-play SMS marketing platforms. The company remains privately funded, backed by 22 investors, and supports approximately 8,000 customers. Attentive maintains over 100 integrations with major e-commerce platforms, CMS systems, and marketing tools, and employs approximately 1,300 people. Its service footprint includes primary markets in:
The United States
Canada
The United Kingdom
Australia
Attentive’s Core SMS Capabilities and Expansion into Multichannel Marketing
Attentive’s strengths include conversational SMS, MMS for images and audio, fast subscriber capture and segmentation, and tools for running time-sensitive campaigns and real-time offers. The platform now offers an email component to expand into multichannel marketing, while maintaining SMS as its core. Expect features that:
Capture flows
Manage subscriber consent
Facilitate two-way messaging
Automate campaigns
Support enterprise-grade SMS needs
Onboarding assistance
Questions about deliverability, compliance, or two-way conversational flows are common when teams evaluate Attentive for focused SMS programs.
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• Customer Retention KPIs
Comprehensive Attentive vs Klaviyo Comparison Guide
Automation Approaches: SMS First versus Multi-Channel Orchestration
Attentive centers its automation strategy on SMS. The product positions text messaging as the primary channel and builds automation around timely, behavior-based SMS flows. That makes onboarding, consent capture, and campaign setup fast for teams focused on mobile conversions. Klaviyo takes a broader approach. It unifies email and SMS in a single interface, treating automation as cross-channel orchestration with a customer data platform that feeds real-time triggers into flows. Which approach matters more for your brand’s conversion goals and channel mix?
SMS Marketing Capabilities: Two-Way Texting and Mobile Focus
Attentive’s strengths lie in SMS. Two-way messaging, automated SMS sequences for cart recovery and browse reminders, and detailed behavior-based targeting are core features. Reporting is tuned to SMS KPIs, allowing marketers to view conversion, click-through, and revenue attribution by message. Klaviyo supports SMS as part of its suite. It provides segmentation-driven messages, dynamic content in texts, and cross-channel coordination with email. Klaviyo’s SMS tooling falls short in terms of compliance automation, onboarding assistance, and enterprise-scale sending partners. Do you need advanced two-way SMS and white glove setup, or a single platform that ties SMS to email flows?
Email Marketing Features: Depth, Deliverability, and Builders
Attentive added email more recently and offers:
Basic templates
Drag-and-drop builders
Simple automation
The email product works as a companion to SMS but lacks advanced features:
Deliverability tools
A/B testing depth
Predictive personalization
Klaviyo delivers mature email capabilities:
Powerful segmentation
Smart Sending to manage cadence
AI-assisted content and subject line tools
Robust A/B testing
For teams that rely on sophisticated email sequences, deliverability insights, and rich product feeds, Klaviyo offers a more comprehensive toolkit.
Segmentation Styles Compared: Action-Based Versus Deep Profiles
Attentive segments around immediate actions such as:
Site visits
Sign-ups
Cart abandonment
The interface favors simple, timely segments with fewer simultaneous conditions. That simplicity speeds up execution for SMS campaigns, but limits the construction of multi-variable audiences. Klaviyo builds rich customer profiles from:
Purchase history
Lifetime value
Browsing data
Demographics
Predictive analytics
Segments update in real time and support complex conditions and nested logic. Which matters more: speed and immediacy or nuanced audience modeling?
Personalization and Dynamic Content: Immediate Relevance Versus Historical Depth
Attentive personalizes messages to reflect recent behavior and short-term context. It excels at time-sensitive offers and cart recovery, where rapid relevance drives conversion: Klaviyo layers historical purchase patterns, predicted preferences, and dynamic content blocks across email and SMS. The platform utilizes custom attributes and predictive analytics to deliver personalized product recommendations and lifecycle messaging. Do you prioritize instant, behavior-driven personalization on mobile or deeper lifecycle personalization across channels?
Automation Capabilities: Managed Setup versus Custom Flow Complexity
Attentive offers strong SMS automation with pre-built templates, and it often pairs this with a white-glove onboarding service. That reduces technical lift for non-technical teams but can constrain custom engineering of flows. Klaviyo’s flow builder supports multi-step automation with conditional splits, branching logic, and cross-channel switches between email and SMS. Teams can create sophisticated customer journeys and run A/B tests inside automations. Which balance of managed service and configurability best suits your organization?
Event Trigger Workflows: Linear SMS Paths versus Branching Multi-Channel Journeys
Attentive ships pre-built SMS workflows for:
Welcome series
Abandoned carts
Post-purchase follow-ups
These workflows are quick to deploy and focused on immediate outcomes. Klaviyo enables richer event-triggered sequences that combine time delays, conditional splits, and channel switching based on engagement. Klaviyo workflows handle complex decision trees for lifecycle marketing and lead nurturing. Does your roadmap require straightforward, high-impact SMS flows or branching journeys that integrate email, SMS, and push notifications?
Email Automation Systems: Flow Builders and Integration Depth
Klaviyo’s Flow Builder supports complex, real-time branching for multi-touch campaigns and connects to over 350 integrations for data enrichment. Attentive introduced email automation in 2022 and offers basic automated campaigns, but its integration set and advanced sequencing remain limited. If you need sophisticated branching and deep ecommerce platform data, Klaviyo gives more functional control.
Customer Targeting Options: Real-Time Data Versus Simpler Conditions
Klaviyo processes data in real time and supports an effectively unlimited set of segmentation conditions. It builds detailed profiles and uses predictive analytics to refine targeting. Attentive’s data model focuses on engagement signals and uses up to three simultaneous segmentation conditions in many workflows, reflecting a more straightforward approach to targeting. Which targeting model reduces friction for your marketers and increases relevance for your customers?
Email Performance and Design: Deliverability Tools and Creative Flexibility
Klaviyo invests in deliverability insights, subject line assistance, and AI content features. Its builder supports responsive layouts, product feeds, and advanced personalization. Attentive supplies functional templates and essential personalization options that work well for simple campaigns. For teams concerned about inbox placement, deliverability benchmarks, and sophisticated creative testing, Klaviyo offers a more comprehensive toolset.
SMS Marketing Tools: Compliance, Onboarding, and Sending Infrastructure
Attentive automates SMS setup, provides built-in compliance tools, and gives brands premium onboarding with strategy development and technical support. It also maintains a broader network of sending partners and enterprise-focused delivery features. Klaviyo requires manual configuration for sender numbers and country settings and relies on fewer sending partners. If regulatory compliance, high-volume delivery, and fast subscriber capture are priorities, Attentive’s tooling and support model reduces risk.
SMS Rules and Setup: Ease of Use and Compliance Safeguards
Attentive streamlines opt-in capture with pre-configured sign-up units and consent flows that integrate into Shopify and other platforms. Klaviyo offers more manual control over SMS setup but requires additional configuration steps. Brands that need fast, low-friction consent capture and robust compliance automation will find Attentive faster to implement.
SMS Performance Tracking: Granular Analytics and Case Studies
Attentive provides detailed SMS analytics and real-time campaign reporting. Brands such as Rebecca Minkoff utilized Attentive sign-up units to grow their mobile lists rapidly, and Oak Essentials reported high average conversion rates for campaign and cart messages. Klaviyo captures SMS metrics alongside email performance, but its SMS reporting depth is less extensive. If you value rich SMS KPIs and conversion level attribution for text messages, Attentive’s analytics offer more granularity.
Email and SMS Combined: Cross-Channel Attribution and Cohesive Journeys
Klaviyo tracks email and SMS together, which helps with precise attribution, A/B testing across channels, and multi-channel orchestration using a customer data platform. Attentive emphasizes SMS-driven revenue and offers strong mobile-first workflows, which can yield a high ROI for brands that prioritize text as a primary touchpoint. Which outcome matters more: single-platform attribution across channels or near-term impact via SMS?
Platform Integration and Data: Number of Integrations and Data Depth
Klaviyo offers over 350 pre-built integrations, pushing real-time and historical data into its CDP for seamless segmentation and analytics. Attentive integrates through native connectors and often utilizes Zapier to extend connectivity; documentation for complex integrations is less extensive. If you rely on deep ecommerce platform telemetry and multiple data sources, Klaviyo’s integration set reduces engineering work.
eCommerce Platform Setup: Shopify Friendliness and Onboarding
Both platforms work well with Shopify, but Klaviyo’s extensive ecosystem and native Shopify integration simplify access to order and product data. Attentive offers guided setup for merchant stores and quick sign-up unit deployment for mobile capture. Teams must weigh whether they prefer rapid mobile subscriber growth or deeper data syncs for lifecycle automation.
Results Tracking Tools: Attribution Windows and Benchmarks
Klaviyo provides customizable last touch attribution, deliverability insights, and peer benchmarks across channels. Attentive’s default attribution window can overstate SMS revenue if not adjusted, and its benchmark set focuses on SMS KPIs. Companies that require precise cross-channel ROI modeling will find Klaviyo’s attribution tools more flexible.
Testing and Results: Real World Outcomes and Case Evidence
Klaviyo case studies show substantial multi-channel gains: Frances Valentine reached a 21.8x ROI after switching to Klaviyo SMS, Linksoul increased flow revenue by 82 percent, and Leonisa achieved a 45.6x ROI with combined email and SMS. Attentive case studies highlight exceptional SMS outcomes: APL reported a 78x ROI with an SMS first strategy, and Oak Essentials saw high conversion rates for cart and browse reminders. Which kind of case evidence aligns with your expected channel mix and target metrics?
Attentive Strengths: SMS Mastery and High Touch Support
Attentive specializes in SMS marketing for high volume and enterprise use. The company pairs advanced mobile features with:
Premium customer support
24/7 availability
White-glove onboarding
Users benefit from two-way messaging, robust compliance, and templates optimized for mobile customers. Brands that need rapid SMS results and a high-touch partner often prefer this fit.
Attentive Limitations: Email Depth and Channel Coverage
Attentive’s email product remains basic relative to mature email platforms. It also does not natively support channels beyond email and SMS, requiring additional tools for:
Push notifications
WhatsApp
On-site personalization
For teams seeking a single vendor for omnichannel campaigns, Attentive will likely sit alongside other systems.
Klaviyo Strengths: Email Power, CDP Capabilities, and Public Pricing
Klaviyo delivers:
Strong email automation
A built-in customer data platform
A broad channel mix including:
Mobile push
Reviews
Forms
Its real-time segmentation, predictive analytics, and public pricing model make it accessible for teams that want data unification and precise cost estimates. Small businesses and eCommerce brands seeking a single platform for email and broader marketing workflows find Klaviyo attractive.
Klaviyo Limitations: Support Consistency and Enterprise SMS Features
Klaviyo’s customer support quality has varied, and the learning curve for advanced features can be steep. Free plan users face limited support windows, and Klaviyo’s SMS infrastructure and compliance tooling may feel lightweight for enterprise-scale messaging. Organizations that require white-glove onboarding and enterprise SMS delivery assurances may prefer a platform built primarily for mobile-first marketing.
Related Reading
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SMS
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