# Alternatives to Customer.io

Customer.io is a customer engagement platform, founded in 2012, for building automated, behavior-triggered messaging campaigns across email, SMS, push, in-app, and WhatsApp. It includes a visual drag-and-drop workflow builder, a customer data pipeline (CDP) with reverse ETL, a Design Studio content editor, and an AI Agent. Plans are subscription-priced, starting at $100/month for the Essentials tier.

Customer.io ranks #7 of 8 in Marketing automation, with an Alt Score of 59. It is proprietary and sold by subscription from $100/mo. 10 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/customer-io/
Category: Marketing automation

## Where Customer.io stands out

- **Salesforce integration** — 4 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this
- **SMS and mobile push** — 4 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Product-led growth, marketing, lifecycle, and engineering teams that need event-driven, cross-channel customer messaging at scale, across industries including SaaS, fintech, and healthcare.
- **What you get**: A visual drag-and-drop workflow builder for email, SMS, push, in-app, WhatsApp, and webhook campaigns, plus data pipelines (CDP) with reverse ETL, a Design Studio content editor, an AI Agent, and analytics dashboards.
- **How it works**: Campaigns are triggered by behavioral events, segments, dates, relationships, or webhooks, then branch through a visual workflow builder with A/B testing, time delays, and last-touch goal attribution across channels.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Pricing model**: Subscription (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Starts at**: $100/mo (verified 2026-08-03)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Mautic](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mautic.md) | 89 | GPL-3.0 | Web |
| 2 | [Klaviyo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/klaviyo.md) | 78 | Proprietary | Web |
| 3 | [Adobe Marketo Engage](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/marketo.md) | 74 | Proprietary | Web |
| 4 | [ActiveCampaign](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/activecampaign.md) | 70 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 5 | [Braze](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/braze.md) | 70 | Proprietary | Web |
| 6 | [Keap](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/keap.md) | 70 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 7 | [Iterable](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/iterable.md) | 51 | Proprietary | ? |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Marketing automation checklist | Customer.io | Mautic | Klaviyo | Adobe Marketo Engage | ActiveCampaign | Braze |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | Subscription | Subscription | Usage-based |
| Starts at | $100/mo | Free | $20/mo | ? | $15/mo | ? |
| License | Proprietary | GPL-3.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | ? | Web | Web | Web | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Visual journey builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email campaigns | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS and mobile push | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Lead scoring | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Landing page builder | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Form builder | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in CRM | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
| A/B testing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Behavioral event triggers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Salesforce integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Self-hostable | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Free tier | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |

## Sources

Sources for Customer.io. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: Proprietary — <https://customer.io/legal/terms-of-service/> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Pricing model**: Subscription — <https://customer.io/pricing> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Starts at**: $100/mo — <https://customer.io/pricing> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Visual journey builder**: Yes — <https://customer.io/features/visual-workflow-builder> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Email campaigns**: Yes — <https://customer.io/features/email-marketing> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **SMS and mobile push**: Yes — <https://customer.io/features/sms-marketing> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Form builder**: Partial — <https://docs.customer.io/messaging/channels/in-app/forms/overview/> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Built-in CRM**: No — <https://customer.io/llms.txt> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **A/B testing**: Yes — <https://customer.io/features/visual-workflow-builder> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Behavioral event triggers**: Yes — <https://customer.io/features/visual-workflow-builder> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Salesforce integration**: Yes — <https://customer.io/integrations> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Self-hostable**: No — <https://customer.io/security/> (verified 2026-08-03)
- **Free tier**: No — <https://customer.io/pricing> (verified 2026-08-03)

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/