Skip to content
fromHello
Best · Alternatives

Braze alternatives (2026)

The main Braze alternatives are Customer.io, Iterable, OneSignal, Ortto, and fromHello. Braze publishes no list price, so start with how you buy: Customer.io and OneSignal publish theirs and sell without a sales call, Iterable is quote-only on annual contracts, Ortto withdrew its public pricing page in June 2026, and fromHello is in early access.

Updated 10 Aug 20269 min readBy fromHello
Join the waitlistStar on GitHub
Key takeaways
  • Leaving Braze is a downgrade you choose on purpose. You give up proven scale, SLAs, enterprise security review, a dedicated CSM, and mobile tooling nothing on this list fully replaces. You get a price you can read and a purchase you can complete yourself.
  • Purchase model is the real decision axis. Customer.io and OneSignal publish prices and sell self-serve; Iterable is quote-only and its pricing URL returns a hard 404; Ortto stopped publishing any price in June 2026; fromHello self-hosts free, with hosted pricing announced at general availability.
  • Iterable is the like-for-like peer, not a downgrade — same sales cycle, same annual contract. Its own AWS Marketplace listing is the only published enterprise price in the category: $115,000 for a 12-month contract covering 5M users, 75M emails, 2 IPs, and 750K US SMS. That is one packaged offer, not a per-contact rate.
  • If push is why you bought Braze, OneSignal is the closest match and the cheapest way to keep it. Everything else is a rebuild — Canvases, catalogs, connected content, and SDK instrumentation — measured in days of work, except the mobile SDK, which waits on an app release and on users upgrading.

Braze bills on three dimensions at once: the platform edition (Go, Select, Pro, or Enterprise), monthly active users, and a pool of Action Credits spent across email, SMS, in-product messaging, and BrazeAI Agent Console tasks. None of it carries a published figure. So this page starts with the thing you can check before the call — whether the vendor publishes a price, and whether you can buy without one.

How we chose

Every price, channel, and AI claim below was read off the vendor's own pricing page, docs, or changelog on 10 August 2026 — no review sites, no listicles. Tools are ordered by use-case fit, not preference: the closest capability match at a published price first, then the like-for-like enterprise peer, then the mobile specialist, then the widest all-in-one. A channel counts as native only where the vendor documents it as native. Where a vendor has stopped publishing a number, we date the last one rather than pass a stale figure off as current. We build fromHello, so it goes last and takes the same watch-outs as everyone else.

The shortlist
  1. 01
    Customer.ioProprietary (SaaS)

    Best for: Teams that want the closest thing to a like-for-like Braze replacement they can buy with a card — most of the same channels, at a price on a public page.

    Strengths
    • Essentials is the entry paid tier at $100/mo: 5,000 profiles, 1 million emails a month, 2 object types, with overages printed on the pricing page at $0.009 per extra profile and $0.12 per extra 1,000 emails.
    • Channel coverage close to Braze's core — email, SMS, mobile push, web push, in-app, WhatsApp, webhooks, live notifications on the iOS Lock Screen and Android, plus Meta and Google Customer Match audience sync. SMS is no longer Twilio-only: Sinch, Infobip, and Vonage were added on 30 July 2026.
    • The Agent works inside the operator's own permissions with approval before it acts — building automations, drafting email, running scheduled deliverability and segment audits.
    Watch-outs
    • The priciest of the published, self-serve options here, and it climbs with your data, not your sends: billing counts the maximum number of uniquely identified people and objects on the account.
    • No permanent free plan. Evaluation runs on a trial, and the docs are explicit that AI credits are unavailable on trial accounts, so the AI layer is the one part you cannot try before you pay.
    • Cloud-only in a US or EU region, with no self-host option. LLM actions are metered separately in AI credits at $10 per 100,000, and the burn rate varies by model.
    Compare in depthVisit site
  2. 02
    IterableProprietary (SaaS)

    Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that want a different vendor rather than a smaller one — this is the lateral move, not the escape, and it still needs someone to sign an annual contract.

    Strengths
    • The broadest channel set here: email, SMS and MMS, mobile and web push, in-app, embedded messaging, native WhatsApp, plus Meta and real-time Google Ads audience sync added in the Spring 2026 release.
    • Nova Intelligence is the AI layer. Nova Agent creates and edits templates, campaigns, and experiments, and its Review, Experimentation, Handlebars, and Analytics sub-agents audit work before it ships. The core layer is included for all customers; extra agents and advanced decisioning are add-ons.
    • Operational maturity the cheaper options do not carry — SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA on the trust center, default SMS quiet hours from 8:00 PM to 9:00 AM local on new campaigns, and an open-source MCP server shipped in November 2025.
    Watch-outs
    • Commercially this is Braze again. There is no public pricing: iterable.com/pricing returns a hard 404, the sitemap index carries no pricing path, and the only route the site offers is contact sales.
    • The one price Iterable publishes anywhere is its AWS Marketplace listing — $115,000 for a 12-month contract specified as 5M users, 75M emails, 2 IPs, 750K US SMS, 250M push, and a Gold Setup package, with $1.00 per-unit overages and a non-refundable policy. Treat it as one packaged offer, not a rate card.
    • No free plan and no self-serve trial, so evaluation runs through a demo and a quote rather than a weekend.
    Compare in depthVisit site
  3. 03
    OneSignalProprietary (SaaS)

    Best for: Mobile-first teams. If push and in-app are why the Braze invoice was ever justified, this is the one option here that matches that depth at a published rate.

    Strengths
    • Published, self-serve, and metered: a $0 plan, Growth from $19/mo plus mobile push at $0.012 per monthly active user with unlimited sends, web push at $0.004 per subscriber, and 20,000 email sends a month before $1.50 per 1,000. Billed monthly, no long-term commitment.
    • Push is the category benchmark — iOS and Android push, web push, in-app messages included at no extra cost on the push rate, iOS Live Activities, and SMS and RCS on Professional.
    • OneSignal AI and a 31-tool MCP server are in open beta on every account, including Free, with an org-level opt-out and a human confirmation step before anything sends.
    Watch-outs
    • The free plan is being restructured: from 1 September 2026 for new accounts and 1 October 2026 for existing ones, you must stay under 1,000 monthly active users to send mobile push and in-app messages. As of 10 August 2026 that cap is not yet in force.
    • The integrations directory lists no ad-audience sync, so paid-media retargeting stays outside the platform. Client SDKs are open source under a modified MIT license, but the platform itself is proprietary and cloud-only.
    • Growth caps you at 3 active Journeys of up to 6 message steps, 10 segments, and 10 data tags, and self-serve email is capped at 500,000 sends a month. SMS, RCS, SSO, HIPAA, and a dedicated CSM all sit behind quote-only Professional and Enterprise annual contracts.
    Compare in depthVisit site
  4. 04
    OrttoProprietary (SaaS)

    Best for: Small teams that want marketing, a customer data platform, live chat, and a help center under one login, and can trade journey depth for surface area.

    Strengths
    • The widest surface area on this list — email, SMS to 180+ countries, MMS, web push, in-app, popups, forms and surveys, plus mobile push, landing pages, and transactional sending on Professional and above.
    • Native Meta and Google Ads audience sync, a built-in customer data platform with reporting and funnel analysis, and Ortto Talk for live chat, calls, and a self-serve knowledge base.
    • An MCP server lets Claude or ChatGPT query campaign reports, contacts, and audiences in plain language, and an account owner can switch off every AI feature in the account — a kill switch shipped in release 1.29 on 3 March 2026.
    Watch-outs
    • Ortto no longer publishes any price. Both ortto.com/pricing and ortto.com/plans return a hard 404, and the Pricing item in the nav now points at the login page. Last published, on 14 May 2026: Starter from $169/mo paid annually, $237/mo at 10,000 contacts, Professional $509/mo. Read those as historical, not current.
    • No free-forever plan. The trial is 14 days, capped at 10,000 contacts and 100 email sends with SMS excluded, and an account that does not convert is deleted after 90 days and cannot be recovered.
    • Canva acquired Ortto in April 2026 and the public cadence has gone quiet since — the newest changelog entry is release 1.30, dated 25 May 2026. Ortto says plan, pricing, and data stay as they are; it does not say how long the product stays available standalone.
    Compare in depthVisit site
  5. 05
    fromHelloAGPLEarly access · waitlist

    Best for: Small teams that lost the growth org along with the enterprise contract and want the work done rather than another platform to staff — with the caveat that this one is still on a waitlist.

    Strengths
    • Eight AI specialists — Growth Lead, Growth PM, Growth Engineer, Performance Marketer, Lifecycle Marketer, CRO Specialist, Data Analyst, and Copywriter — coordinated by an Orchestrator. They run the work rather than assist with it: they propose, and you approve, edit, or auto-ship.
    • A complete platform underneath rather than a chat layer over one: email, SMS, in-app, web push, ad audiences, a 16-node visual journey builder, real-time segments, GDPR consent tracking, and a first-party JS/TS SDK.
    • AGPL-licensed and self-hostable on Postgres + Redis, so your customer data stays on your own infrastructure. Self-hosting is free.
    Watch-outs
    • The hosted product and the agents are in early access. Customer.io, Iterable, OneSignal, and Ortto are generally available today; fromHello is a waitlist, and that asymmetry is the whole risk. Hosted pricing is announced at general availability, so there is no number to budget against yet.
    • It is the least proven option here — no public scale record, no SLA, and no enterprise security review your customers' procurement teams have already cleared. If those are what you were paying Braze for, this is not the trade.
    • It does not replace Braze's mobile-specific surfaces: LINE, KakaoTalk, Content Cards, and feature flags are not part of the platform. And self-hosting changes where your data lives without changing the obligation — you remain the data controller.
    Join the waitlist
FAQ

Common questions

  • What does Braze cost, and why can't I find a price?

    Braze publishes no dollar figure for any edition. Its pricing page describes three billing dimensions — the edition (Go, Select, Pro, or Enterprise), monthly active users, and Action Credits spent across email, SMS, in-product messaging, and BrazeAI Agent Console tasks — and routes you to sales for the number. The only self-serve entry is a 14-day trial. Braze does publish one discount: four months free for VC-backed startups whose investor is a Braze partner. Anyone quoting you a Braze list price is guessing.

  • What do you actually give up when you leave Braze?

    Four things, and they are real. Proven scale and uptime at very high message volumes. Contractual SLAs and an enterprise security review your customers' procurement teams have already accepted. A dedicated CSM and named support. And mobile channels almost nobody else carries natively — LINE, KakaoTalk, Content Cards, and feature flags. If your business depends on any of those, the honest answer is to stay.

  • Which Braze alternatives can I buy without a sales call?

    Customer.io and OneSignal. Both publish rates and sell self-serve: OneSignal from $19/mo on Growth plus metered usage, Customer.io on its Essentials tier at $100/mo for 5,000 profiles and 1 million emails a month. Iterable is quote-only — its pricing URL returns a 404 and the site's only pricing route is contact sales. Ortto pulled its public pricing page in June 2026, so prices now sit behind a login. fromHello is on a waitlist during early access; self-hosting the open-source platform is free today.

  • We're mobile-first. Which alternative matches Braze's push?

    OneSignal, and it is not close. Mobile push is metered at $0.012 per monthly active user with unlimited sends, in-app messaging is included at that rate, and iOS Live Activities are native. Customer.io covers mobile push, web push, and in-app credibly and adds live notifications on the iOS Lock Screen. Iterable matches Braze on breadth but on Braze's commercial terms. Ortto gates mobile push to Professional and above. Watch the OneSignal free-plan change: from 1 September 2026 for new accounts, mobile push needs fewer than 1,000 monthly active users.

  • How long does implementation take compared with a Braze rollout?

    Braze and Iterable are both multi-week programs, and Iterable bundles a named setup package into the contract rather than selling it separately. Customer.io and OneSignal are self-serve — you can be sending on day one. The work that actually takes time is not the tool: re-instrumenting the mobile SDK, rebuilding Canvases as journeys, porting catalogs and connected content, and re-checking every trigger. On a small stack that is days — except the mobile SDK, which waits on an app release and on users upgrading. Our guide to switching email platforms covers the migration sequence.

  • What happens to an annual Braze or Iterable contract if we move mid-term?

    Assume you pay it out. Braze, Iterable, and OneSignal's Professional and Enterprise tiers are all annual; Ortto's annual commitments cannot be downgraded mid-term and need 30 days' notice, and Iterable's AWS Marketplace listing is explicitly non-refundable. The practical route is to run the new platform in parallel for the tail of the term — move one channel first, keep the incumbent sending until the new domain is warm, then let the contract lapse. Budget for the overlap before you sign anything new.

Sources

See the platform the team runs.

Join the waitlistStar on GitHub
Related comparisons
Related guides
Best-of & alternatives
Switching tools
How to switch email platforms without losing deliverability
Early access

Put your growth teamon autopilot.

Early access opens gradually, so the team tunes to real use cases. Small teams with big ambitions go first.

Not ready to share an email? It's open source. Run it yourself today. View on GitHub

No spam. One email when your spot opens. Unsubscribe at any time.