Best Braze Alternatives in 2025

Braze is a popular CEP in the martech field and is renowned for its extensive range of features and high level of customization to optimize the customer journey.

But over the last few years, competition in this space has significantly intensified, and a plethora of alternate options to Braze have emerged.

Here's a short guide to help you decide between Braze alternatives right away:

• Choose Plotline if in-app engagement is crucial for you in addition to the regular push, email, and SMS capabilities. If you’re looking to deploy Stories, Videos, etc in your app without developer effort, Plotline is the best choice.
• Customer.io and OneSignal offer a self-serve approach that is ideal for SMBs and startups, making it easier to get started.
• Iterable is a recommended choice for mid-market or enterprise mobile-first companies as an alternative to Braze.
• Klaviyo is suitable for e-commerce startups and SMBs.
• CleverTap, MoEngage, and WebEngage have strong presence in India/APAC and have integrated with WhatsApp for enhanced engagement.

Get to know Braze: A quick overview

Braze is a CEP that assists businesses in collecting user data and providing personalized messaging across multiple channels. The platform incorporates AI capabilities that specifically concentrate on forecasting purchasing patterns and customer attrition. Braze's notable strength lies in its mobile functionalities, attracting primarily digital-first mid-market to enterprise-level businesses with a significant mobile presence.

Key features of Braze

• User segmentation and automated message triggers
• Omni-channel messaging
• Real-time analytics and comprehensive reports
• Campaign orchestration
• Advanced personalization for targeted message
• Basic in-app messaging (modals, carousels, in-app surveys)

Reasons some companies are looking to make a switch

• Push notifications, emails, or SMS don’t improve in-app adoption, activation rates, etc
• Brands want more options to communicate with users inside the app
• Stitching in-app and outside-app comms proves to be very difficult
• Popups appear at the wrong time (delays of 5-10s after event-fire)
• In-app communication lacks context - not specific to any feature

Now that we’ve had a short glimpse of Braze, listed below are some top alternatives and competitors of Braze.

Plotline

Admittedly, we're a little biased. Might have something to do with the fact that we work at Plotline.

Choose if: You are a mobile-first consumer tech company. By far, Plotline provides the best omni-channel capabilities especially if in-app is a crucial focus for you.

1. Multi-channel messaging: Aids in omnichannel engagement (In-app, push, SMS, email, Whatsapp). Helps stitch outside and inside-app comms together for a unified customer journey.‍
2. Strength/uniqueness: Best in-app engagement modules - stories, scratch cards, quizzes, videos, spotlights, tooltips, etc to drive feature adoption, retention, and LTV for your app.‍
3. Main geography of operations: US, South East Asia, MENA‍
4. Pricing: The Starter plan starts at $499. You can book a call for a free trial.

Customer.io

Choose if: You are a tech-savvy marketer or a developer in a SaaS startup or an SMB (these companies make up more than 80% of its customer base).

1. Multi-channel messaging: You can seamlessly integrate email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, and webhooks within a single workflow.
2. Strength/unique feature: Customer.io offers a flexible data model that allows easy ingestion and updates of data without concerns about losing valuable information during integration. Its inclusive pricing model, which includes unlimited events and attribute data, SMS, and deliverability monitoring, sets it apart.
3. Main geography of operations: Most of its customers are from US and UK.
4. Pricing: Customer.io will typically be in the same range as OneSignal. The availability of a free trial and flexible subscription options, including monthly, annual, and multi-year plans, make it more accessible and transparent for users.

Iterable

Choose if: You are a mobile-first mid-market or enterprise business looking for a comprehensive Customer Engagement Platform. Also, if price isn’t a concern for you. Iterable is the priciest of all available solutions.

1. Multi-channel messaging: Iterable functions as a comprehensive cross-channel marketing platform that allows you to send personalized messages across push, emails, SMS, and in-app messages.
2. Strength/unique feature: A distinctive feature of Iterable is its recently introduced "embedded message" functionality, which seamlessly integrates native message placements that dynamically adjust based on individual user data, all without the need for coding.
3. Main geography of operations: Iterable has most of its customers in the US.
4. Pricing: Iterable doesn’t have a free plan unlike OneSignal which has for unlimited mobile subscribers and up to 10k web subscribers. In general, Braze will be much more expensive than OneSignal.

Klaviyo

Choose if: You are an e-commerce startup or SMB.

1. Multi-channel messaging: Klaviyo functions as comprehensive cross-channel marketing across push, emails, and SMS. Also provides seamless integration with Facebook and Instagram
2. Strength/unique feature: Klaviyo allows you to send any number of messages without any volume limitations. This means you have the freedom to send SMS campaigns of any size, whether it's a small targeted campaign or a large-scale promotional blast.
3. Main geography of operations: Klaviyo has a presence in most countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and more.
4. Pricing: Klaviyo’s prices get progressively larger as you add new profiles to your contact list. If you have less than 250 contacts, you can’t upgrade to non-free tiers. And if you have more than 250 contacts at once time, you’ll be forced to upgrade to a paid plan.

CleverTap, MoEngage and WebEngage

Choose if: You have your customer base largely based out of India and APAC region. All 3 have largely similar capabilities.

1. Multi-channel messaging: Functions as comprehensive cross-channel marketing across push, emails, WhatsApp, SMS, and basic in-app messaging.
2. Strength/unique feature: These platforms have integrated with WhatsApp, given it is a relevant channel of communication in APAC.
3. Main geography of operations: India and APAC regions
4. Pricing: Offer MAU-based or event-based pricing. Typically have a startup package as well.

How to choose the right Braze alternative?

Ultimately, the best Braze alternative or competitor for your business will depend on your specific needs, goals, and preferences. Here are key some key takeaways:

1. Choose Plotline if in-app engagement is crucial for you in addition to the regular push, email, and SMS capabilities. If you’re looking to deploy Stories, Videos, etc in your app without developer effort, Plotline is the best choice
2. Customer.io and OneSignal have a self-serve motion which is easier to get started with, and suits most SMBs and startups
3. Iterable is a good alternative to Braze if you're a mid-market or enterprise mobile-first company
4. Klaviyo is a great choice for e-commerce businesses looking to deploy an engagement platform
5. CleverTap, MoEngage, WebEngage are more dominant in India/APAC, hence they've also integrated with WhatsApp

Final thoughts

By thoroughly researching and comparing the above options, you can make a well-informed choice that aligns with your customer engagement strategy in 2025 and beyond.

If you're interested in learning more about how you can engage your users outside as well as inside your app to help you drive activation, retention, and monetization metrics, start your free trial with Plotline.