12 Best Braze Alternatives

Our Pick for SaaS Companies

Sequenzy

Email marketing for SaaS with AI content generation and native Stripe integration. Not mobile-first like Braze, but purpose-built for SaaS email marketing at a fraction of the price.

Sequenzy focuses exclusively on email — no push notifications, no in-app messaging — but does it exceptionally well for SaaS use cases. The AI generates entire email sequences from a description of your goals, and native Stripe integration means your subscription events automatically trigger the right campaigns. At $49/mo for 10k subscribers vs Braze's $5,000+/mo, it's a completely different price tier for teams whose primary channel is email.

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Best for

SaaS teams needing email marketing with Stripe sync

Pricing

$49/month for 10k subscribers

Pros

Purpose-built for SaaS email marketing
AI generates entire email sequences
Native Stripe integration
100x+ cheaper than Braze
Unified transactional + marketing
Self-serve setup, no sales calls

Cons

No push notifications
No in-app messaging
No mobile SDKs
Email only - not multi-channel
Newer platform

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Iterable

The most direct Braze competitor. Enterprise cross-channel marketing with similar capabilities.

Less mobile-focused but strong on email and automation. Iterable handles email, push, SMS, in-app messaging, and WhatsApp from one platform with a journey builder that rivals Braze's Canvas. Their AI Suite optimizes send times, channel selection, and content personalization across all touchpoints. Implementation is still a significant project, but Iterable tends to start at a lower price point than Braze — typically around $20k/year vs Braze's $60k+. It's the natural evaluation partner when you're doing an enterprise RFP alongside Braze.

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Best for

Enterprise companies wanting Braze's main competitor

Pricing

~$20,000+/year (custom quotes)

Pros

Multi-channel (email, push, SMS, in-app, WhatsApp)
Enterprise-grade scale
Strong email and journey capabilities
AI Suite for personalization
Comparable to Braze features

Cons

Still enterprise pricing
Less mobile-first than Braze
Requires implementation team
No self-serve trial
Complex setup

Customer.io

Behavioral messaging for PLG companies. Multi-channel with strong automation. More affordable than Braze for mid-market companies.

Customer.io triggers messages based on user behavior events — feature usage, page views, subscription changes — across email, push, SMS, and in-app channels. The visual workflow builder is powerful for mapping complex user journeys, and the event-driven architecture gives you fine-grained control over who gets what message and when. At $100/mo for 5k profiles, it's dramatically more accessible than Braze while covering similar multi-channel needs for mid-market companies. The main gap is it lacks Braze's real-time data streaming and sophisticated mobile SDK capabilities.

Visit

Best for

PLG companies with complex behavioral automation

Pricing

$100/month for 5,000 profiles (Essentials)

Pros

Multi-channel (email, push, SMS, in-app)
Powerful behavioral automation
Event-driven architecture
Excellent API
More affordable than Braze

Cons

Less sophisticated than Braze mobile
Steep learning curve
Enterprise features add up
No real-time streaming like Braze
Requires engineering resources

OneSignal

Push notification pioneer with email added. Strong mobile SDKs. Best Braze alternative if push notifications are your primary need.

OneSignal started as a push notification service and expanded into email, SMS, and in-app messaging, so push is where they truly excel. The mobile SDKs are well-maintained, the delivery infrastructure is solid, and the free tier is generous enough for many startups. They've added email and SMS capabilities that are decent but not best-in-class — think of it as a push-first platform with multi-channel additions. For teams where push notifications drive the majority of engagement, OneSignal delivers most of what Braze offers at a fraction of the cost.

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Best for

Mobile apps prioritizing push notifications

Pricing

Free tier, then $9+/month based on usage

Pros

Excellent push notifications
Good mobile SDKs
Generous free tier
Email + push + SMS + in-app
Much more affordable than Braze

Cons

Less sophisticated than Braze overall
Push-first, email secondary
Simpler workflows
Less enterprise features
Basic personalization

MagicBell

In-app notification UI components. Pre-built notification bells and feeds. Good for in-app focus but less comprehensive than Braze.

MagicBell provides drop-in React, Vue, and vanilla JS components for notification bells, feeds, and preference centers — the kind of in-app notification UI that takes weeks to build from scratch. It handles multi-channel delivery (in-app, email, push, Slack, SMS) with intelligent routing based on user preferences. The developer experience is clean with good documentation and SDKs. It's more of a notification infrastructure tool than a marketing platform, so it fills a different niche than Braze's engagement-focused approach.

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Best for

Teams needing in-app notification UI

Pricing

Free up to 100 MAU, usage-based after

Pros

Pre-built in-app notification components
React, Vue, vanilla JS support
Multi-channel support
Good developer experience
More affordable than Braze

Cons

Less comprehensive than Braze
Usage-based pricing unpredictable
Smaller company
Less enterprise features
No mobile push expertise like Braze

CleverTap

Mobile marketing platform with strong analytics. India-based competitor to Braze.

Good for mobile engagement at lower price point. CleverTap combines customer engagement with real-time analytics, offering cohort analysis, funnel tracking, and behavioral segmentation alongside push, email, SMS, and in-app messaging. The platform is popular in Asia-Pacific and emerging markets where mobile-first engagement is critical. It typically comes in at lower price points than Braze, making it accessible for growing mobile apps that need sophisticated engagement but can't justify enterprise-tier pricing. The acquisition of Leanplum added stronger experimentation capabilities to the platform.

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Best for

Mobile-first companies wanting analytics focus

Pricing

Custom pricing (typically lower than Braze)

Pros

Strong mobile engagement
Good analytics and cohort analysis
Multi-channel support
Often cheaper than Braze
Good for emerging markets

Cons

Less polished than Braze
Smaller US presence
Enterprise features vary
Implementation still significant
Less brand recognition

Leanplum (CleverTap)

Mobile marketing platform now part of CleverTap. Strong A/B testing and experimentation.

Good alternative for mobile-focused teams. Leanplum was known for its strong mobile A/B testing and experimentation capabilities before being acquired by CleverTap. The platform lets you test different messaging strategies, timing, and content variations to optimize engagement metrics. Multi-channel support covers push, email, in-app, and app inbox. The acquisition means Leanplum's experimentation features are being integrated into CleverTap's broader platform, which adds capability but also creates some transition uncertainty for existing customers.

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Best for

Mobile apps wanting strong experimentation

Pricing

Custom pricing

Pros

Strong A/B testing
Good mobile engagement
Now part of CleverTap
Multi-channel support
Experimentation focus

Cons

Acquired by CleverTap (platform changes)
Less comprehensive than Braze
Custom pricing only
Transition period uncertainty
Less enterprise support

Airship

Enterprise mobile engagement platform. Strong push notifications with long history.

Competitor to Braze for large mobile apps. Airship has been in the push notification business since 2009, making them one of the most experienced players in mobile engagement. They've expanded into multi-channel (email, SMS, in-app, web notifications) and offer a feature called "Scenes" for creating rich in-app experiences without app updates. The platform is particularly strong for regulated industries like finance and healthcare where compliance and deliverability are critical. It feels less modern than Braze but compensates with deep expertise and enterprise reliability.

Visit

Best for

Enterprise mobile apps with push focus

Pricing

Custom enterprise pricing

Pros

Long history in push (since 2009)
Enterprise-grade scale
Strong deliverability
Multi-channel support
Good for regulated industries

Cons

Enterprise pricing
Older platform feel
Less modern than Braze
Complex setup
Push-focused over holistic engagement

Knock

Notification infrastructure for product teams. Multi-channel with in-app UI components.

More developer-focused than Braze. Knock provides APIs and pre-built UI components for building notification systems — notification feeds, preference centers, and multi-channel routing — so product teams don't have to build this infrastructure from scratch. It supports email, push, SMS, Slack, and in-app channels with a workflow engine for defining notification logic. The developer experience is clean with well-designed SDKs and good documentation. It's notification infrastructure, not a marketing platform — think product notifications (new comments, mentions, status updates) rather than marketing campaigns.

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Best for

Product teams building notification systems

Pricing

Free up to 10k messages, then $250/mo

Pros

In-app notification UI components
Multi-channel notifications
Developer-focused
Good API design
More affordable than Braze

Cons

Not marketing-focused like Braze
Notifications only, not engagement
Jump from free to $250/mo
Less sophisticated than Braze
Smaller scale

#10

Novu

Open-source notification infrastructure. Self-hostable alternative. Multi-channel with growing feature set.

Novu lets you self-host your notification infrastructure, which means no vendor lock-in and full control over your data. It supports email, push, SMS, in-app, and chat channels with a visual workflow editor for defining notification logic. The open-source community is growing, contributing integrations and improvements. The cloud-hosted option starts at $30/mo for teams that don't want to manage infrastructure. Like Knock, it's focused on product notifications rather than marketing engagement — a different use case than Braze but one that many teams bundle together.

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Best for

Teams wanting open-source notification platform

Pricing

Free (open-source) or $30/mo cloud

Pros

Open-source and self-hostable
Multi-channel support
Very affordable
No vendor lock-in
Growing community

Cons

Not marketing-focused
Less mature than Braze
Self-hosting requires resources
Fewer enterprise features
Notifications only

#11

ActiveCampaign

Mid-market marketing automation with CRM. Email-focused but has SMS. No mobile push but good automation for less.

ActiveCampaign's visual automation builder is one of the most powerful in email marketing, letting you create complex workflows with branching logic, wait conditions, and goal tracking. The built-in CRM bridges marketing and sales with deal pipelines and lead scoring. At $79/mo for 10k contacts, it's a fraction of Braze's cost for teams whose engagement is primarily email-based. It doesn't touch mobile (no push, no in-app, no SDKs), but for B2B SaaS and SMBs where email is king, it delivers excellent value.

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Best for

SMBs wanting automation + CRM

Pricing

$79/month for 10,000 contacts (Plus plan)

Pros

Strong automation builder
Built-in CRM
More affordable than Braze
Good deliverability
SMS add-on available

Cons

No push notifications
No in-app messaging
No mobile SDKs
Email-focused, not mobile
Less enterprise-grade

#12

HubSpot Marketing Hub

All-in-one marketing platform with CRM. Strong ecosystem but limited mobile capabilities.

Good for marketing + sales alignment. HubSpot is the enterprise all-in-one play — Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub in one ecosystem with a free CRM at the core. The integration between marketing automation and sales pipelines is its strongest differentiator, making it ideal for companies with a sales-assisted motion. The ecosystem of third-party integrations is massive, and content management tools (blogs, landing pages, SEO) are included. However, it has zero mobile engagement capabilities — no push, no in-app, no mobile SDKs — so it's strictly a web and email platform at $890/mo for 10k contacts.

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Best for

Companies wanting marketing + CRM integration

Pricing

$890/month for 10,000 contacts (Professional)

Pros

Full marketing suite
CRM included
Strong ecosystem
Good content management
Sales + marketing alignment

Cons

No push notifications
No in-app messaging
No mobile SDKs
Expensive at scale
Not mobile-first

Why Consider Alternatives to Braze

Enterprise pricing is prohibitive

Braze starts around $60k/year (~$5,000/mo) with $10-50k+ implementation costs. Most companies under $50M ARR can't justify this investment, regardless of feature quality.

You're not mobile-first

Braze's best features are push notifications, in-app messaging, and mobile SDKs. If your product is primarily web-based, you're paying for mobile capabilities you won't use.

Email is your primary channel

Braze is multi-channel with mobile focus. If you primarily need email marketing, dedicated email platforms are 50-100x cheaper and often better suited.

No self-serve option

You can't just sign up and try Braze. Sales cycles, contracts, SDK integration, implementation projects. For teams wanting to move fast, this is months of friction.

Feature

Braze

Sequenzy

Iterable

Customer.io

OneSignal

Knock

Push

In-app

SMS

Free trial

10k free

Self-serve

Price at 10k

~$5,000/mo

$19/mo

~$4,000/mo

~$150/mo

$9+/mo

$250/mo

When to Use Each Platform

Choose Sequenzy if...

You primarily need SaaS email marketing
Your product is web-based, not mobile
Native Stripe integration is valuable
$19/mo sounds better than $5,000+/mo

Choose Stay with Braze if...

Mobile engagement is critical to your business
You're enterprise scale with millions of users
The $60k+/year investment is justified
You need best-in-class mobile SDKs

Choose Iterable if...

You need Braze-level features but email-focused
Enterprise budget but want to compare options
Cross-channel but less mobile-centric
Slightly lower price point acceptable

Choose Customer.io if...

You need multi-channel at mid-market budget
PLG company with behavioral automation
Technical team available for setup
Can't justify enterprise pricing

Choose OneSignal if...

Push notifications are your primary focus
Mobile app but not enterprise budget
Simple multi-channel needs
Want to start free and grow

Why people look for Braze alternatives

Braze is excellent enterprise mobile engagement, but it's not right for most companies. With minimum annual contracts around $60k and implementation costs that can reach $50k+, the total first-year investment puts it firmly in enterprise territory. If your product is primarily web-based, or email is your primary engagement channel, you're paying a premium for mobile capabilities you won't fully utilize. Here's why teams look elsewhere.

The enterprise-only pricing

Braze typically starts around $60k/year (~$5,000/month) with $10-50k+ implementation costs on top. That's $70-110k in year one before you fully utilize the platform. Most companies under $50M ARR can't justify this investment, regardless of how sophisticated the features are. Read our Braze comparison page for a detailed breakdown.

You're not mobile-first

Braze's crown jewels are push notifications, in-app messaging, and mobile SDKs. If your product is primarily web-based - like most B2B SaaS - you're paying premium prices for mobile capabilities you won't fully use. Email-focused platforms are 50-100x cheaper.

Email is your primary channel

If you primarily send email campaigns and marketing sequences, Braze is massive overkill. Dedicated email platforms like Sequenzy, Customer.io, or ActiveCampaign do email better for most use cases, at dramatically lower cost.

No self-serve option

You can't sign up and try Braze. The process: request demo → sales qualification → contract negotiation → SDK integration → implementation project → months later, finally go live. For teams wanting to move fast, this is significant friction.

The alternatives, honestly

For SaaS email marketing: Sequenzy

If you're a B2B SaaS founder who primarily needs email, why pay $5,000/month for mobile capabilities you won't use? Sequenzy is purpose-built for SaaS email marketing with AI-generated sequences and native Stripe integration. At $19/mo vs Braze's $5,000+/mo, it's 100x cheaper.

The catch: email only. No push notifications, no in-app messaging, no mobile SDKs. If you're building a mobile-first consumer app, Sequenzy isn't the answer.

For enterprise multi-channel: Iterable

If you actually need Braze-level capabilities, Iterable is the main competitor. Similar enterprise features: email, push, SMS, in-app, WhatsApp. Starting around $20k/year (vs Braze's $60k+), it's somewhat more accessible while still being enterprise-grade.

The difference: Iterable is stronger on email and cross-channel journeys. Braze is more mobile-first. Both require significant investment.

For mid-market multi-channel: Customer.io

Customer.io offers multi-channel capabilities (email, push, SMS, in-app) at a fraction of Braze's price. Starting at $100/mo for 5k profiles, it's accessible for mid-market companies without enterprise budgets.

Trade-off: less sophisticated than Braze's real-time personalization and mobile SDKs. But for companies that don't need billions-of-messages scale, it's often the right choice.

For push-focused mobile apps: OneSignal

If push notifications are your primary need, OneSignal delivers excellent push at a fraction of Braze's cost. Free tier up to 10k subscribers, then affordable usage-based pricing. Good mobile SDKs without enterprise complexity.

Trade-off: less sophisticated marketing automation, simpler workflows, basic personalization. But for straightforward mobile push needs, it's dramatically more accessible.

The pricing comparison

At 10,000 contacts/MAU:

Braze: ~$5,000/mo (estimated, custom quotes only)
Iterable: ~$4,000/mo (estimated)
Customer.io: ~$150/mo (Essentials)
Knock: $250/mo
OneSignal: ~$9+/mo (usage-based)
Sequenzy: $19/mo (email only)

Note: Braze and Iterable prices are estimates since they don't publish pricing. Actual quotes vary significantly. Check our pricing page for Sequenzy's transparent pricing.

When Braze is still the right choice

Braze wins if:

Mobile engagement is core to your business (consumer app with mobile-first UX)
You're enterprise scale with millions of users
You have the budget and team to fully utilize the platform
Real-time personalization at massive scale justifies the ROI

Don't switch just to save money if you genuinely need enterprise mobile engagement. The time to rebuild sophisticated mobile journeys elsewhere isn't worth it. But if you're paying Braze prices primarily for email marketing, the alternatives are 50-100x cheaper. Use our email validator tool to ensure list quality when evaluating any platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

All Pricing Tiers

0-100 subscribers: Free (Free annually) - 3k emails/month

101-1,000 subscribers: $19/month ($205/year annually) - 15k emails/month

1,001-5,000 subscribers: $29/month ($313/year annually) - 60k emails/month

5,001-10,000 subscribers: $49/month ($529/year annually) - 120k emails/month

10,001-25,000 subscribers: $99/month ($1069/year annually) - 300k emails/month

25,001-50,000 subscribers: $199/month ($2149/year annually) - 600k emails/month

50,001-100,000 subscribers: $349/month ($3769/year annually) - 1.2M emails/month

100,000+ subscribers: Custom pricing (Custom annually) - Unlimited emails/month

Yearly billing: All plans offer a 10% discount when billed annually.

Feature	Braze	Sequenzy	Iterable	Customer.io	OneSignal	Knock
Push
In-app
Email
SMS
Free trial						10k free
Self-serve
Price at 10k	~$5,000/mo	$19/mo	~$4,000/mo	~$150/mo	$9+/mo	$250/mo

12 Braze Alternatives Worth Considering

TL;DR

12 Best Braze Alternatives

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Why Consider Alternatives to Braze

Feature Comparison

When to Use Each Platform

Why people look for Braze alternatives

The enterprise-only pricing

You're not mobile-first

Email is your primary channel

No self-serve option

The alternatives, honestly

For SaaS email marketing: Sequenzy

For enterprise multi-channel: Iterable

For mid-market multi-channel: Customer.io

For push-focused mobile apps: OneSignal

The pricing comparison

When Braze is still the right choice

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best Braze alternative for SaaS?

Why is Braze so expensive?

Is Iterable cheaper than Braze?

Does Sequenzy have push notifications like Braze?

Can I migrate from Braze to Sequenzy?

Does Braze have a free trial?

Braze vs Iterable: Which is better?

Is OneSignal a good Braze alternative?

What's the cheapest Braze alternative with push?

Does Braze integrate with Stripe?

How do I cancel my Braze account?

What is Braze's pricing structure?

How do I export my data from Braze?

Is Braze worth the cost?

What is Braze's refund policy?

Ready to try Sequenzy?

Sequenzy vs Braze: Direct Comparison

More Alternatives

Iterable Alternatives

Customer.io Alternatives

OneSignal Alternatives

Sequenzy - Complete Pricing Guide

Pricing Model

All Pricing Tiers

Free Plan Features (2,500 emails/month)

Paid Plan Features (1,000 - 100,000 subscribers)

Enterprise Plan Features (100,000+ subscribers)

Important Pricing Notes

Contact