Merchant Stack Daily
Shopify app picks and stack advice for lean merchants

Best Shopify email marketing apps for beginners

For a new store, start with Shopify Email: it is built in, free for the first 10,000 sends per month, and pulls your products and branding automatically. When you outgrow it, Klaviyo is the standard upgrade for automation and segmentation, and Omnisend is the friendlier middle option with SMS included.

Shopify Email: the free starting point

Shopify Email sits inside your admin, needs no integration, and templates already match your store. It covers newsletters, simple automations like abandoned checkout emails, and basic reports. For most stores under a few thousand subscribers it is genuinely enough.

Klaviyo: the upgrade for automation

Klaviyo earns its price once you want behavior-based flows: browse abandonment, winback series, and segments built from purchase history. Setup takes a weekend, not an hour, so move when your list and revenue justify the learning curve.

Omnisend: email plus SMS in one place

Omnisend bundles email, SMS, and push notifications with prebuilt ecommerce workflows. It is simpler than Klaviyo and pricier than Shopify Email, which makes it a good fit for a one-person store that wants automation without a steep setup.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify Email really free?
The first 10,000 emails per month are free on any paid Shopify plan. Past that it bills per send at a low rate, which is still cheaper than most standalone tools at small list sizes.
Can I move my subscriber list between apps?
Yes. Export subscribers as CSV from one app and import into the next. Carry over consent status, and expect to rebuild automations and templates by hand.
How many email apps should a store run?
One. Running two email platforms splits your list, breaks unsubscribe sync, and risks sending duplicates. Pick one and migrate fully.