Teams look past Braze when a quote-only contract tied to monthly active users and message credits is more than the program needs, or when the work is B2B lead management rather than consumer app engagement. They go to Customer.io and Ortto for data-led journeys, to Zoho and Brevo for lower entry prices, and to Klaviyo or HubSpot for commerce or CRM-led marketing.
Visibility in our rankings can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within
the shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review or of this page. The first three alternatives
go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the
established names follow in their ranked order. How it works:
placement disclosure · editorial process.
What each alternative does differently
1. Zoho Marketing Automation
Low-cost journeys and scoring inside the Zoho family · India
A tiered suite on a 14-day trial without a card. Standard allows 10 users, Professional 15 and adds contact scoring, A/B testing and landing pages, and Enterprise allows 25. WhatsApp marketing is listed from Standard. It has no push or in-app channel on the pricing page.
Switch from Braze if you send email, SMS and WhatsApp for a small team and want published tiers.
Pricing: Published plans priced by contact count at a low entry point, with lead scoring from the Professional plan; also included in Zoho One. (free trial)
Full review: #1 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Zoho Marketing Automation →
2. Customer.io
Product-event messaging for software companies · United States
The closest match on the app side. Essentials starts at $100 a month for 5k profiles and Premium at $1,000 a month billed yearly. Push and in-app messages are unlimited on every plan, mobile SDKs are included, and Enterprise adds dedicated hardware, audit logging and migration support.
Switch from Braze if you send event-triggered email, push and in-app messages and want a published entry price.
Pricing: Published plans from $100 a month for Essentials, priced by profiles with an email allowance; reverse ETL on every plan, warehouse destinations and data replay from Premium. (free trial)
Full review: #4 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Customer.io →
3. Ortto
Customer data platform with journeys and analytics · Australia
Journeys, a customer data platform, analytics and lead scoring sit in one product, with email, SMS, push and in-app messages. Data can be hosted in the EU, USA or Australia. A 14-day trial is offered. We could not load a pricing page, so check current plan terms.
Switch from Braze if you want journeys, customer data and analytics in one tool with regional hosting choices.
Pricing: Published plans priced by contact count, with higher tiers for advanced data and analytics features. (free trial)
Full review: #3 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Ortto →
4. Klaviyo
Ecommerce email and SMS automation on purchase data · United States
Built around commerce data. A free plan covers up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, and the free tier lists mobile app marketing and $5 of mobile messages. Paid tiers are priced by active profiles, with SMS billed on top.
Switch from Braze if you run an online store and want revenue attribution and a free starting tier.
Pricing: A free plan for up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, then tiers priced by active profiles, with SMS and other mobile messages billed separately. (free plan)
Full review: #15 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Klaviyo →
5. HubSpot Marketing Hub
Inbound marketing suite tied to HubSpot's CRM · United States
Marketing sits on a shared CRM, so leads, deals and campaigns use one record. The product page offers a 14-day trial and lists WhatsApp and SMS messaging beside email, forms and AI agents. It is weaker than Braze for in-app and push engagement inside a mobile product.
Switch from Braze if you sell through a sales team and want marketing and CRM on one record.
Pricing: Free tools, then Starter, Professional and Enterprise editions priced by seats plus marketing contact tiers; workflows begin at Professional. (free plan)
Full review: #5 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit HubSpot Marketing Hub →
6. Brevo
Email, SMS and WhatsApp automation from Paris · France
Volume-priced rather than quote-only. A free plan exists, Standard adds unlimited multi-step workflows and A/B testing, and Professional adds WhatsApp, popups, mobile and web push, contact scoring and 10 seats from 150,000 emails a month. SMS credit is sold separately.
Switch from Braze if you want a free plan and published tiers that include push and WhatsApp.
Pricing: A free plan with a daily sending cap, then paid tiers priced mainly by monthly email volume rather than stored contacts; SMS and WhatsApp messages are bought as credits. (free plan)
Full review: #13 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Brevo →
7. ActiveCampaign
Flexible journey builder for small marketing teams · United States
Email-first automation with published tiers by contact count. The pricing page lists a Plans tab for email, WhatsApp or both. Enterprise adds SSO, custom objects, attribution and a dedicated account team with five users. Push and in-app messages are not listed there.
Switch from Braze if you run email and WhatsApp automations for a business team without engineers.
Pricing: Published plans priced by contact count; attribution and split testing inside automations start at Pro, while lead scoring and the deals pipeline come with a paid CRM add-on. (free trial)
Full review: #2 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit ActiveCampaign →
8. Keap
Small-business CRM with built-in campaign automation · United States
A small-business CRM with automation, invoicing and appointments in one account, now part of Thryv. Pricing is published and its nav shows the acquisition. Built for owner-run service firms, it has no mobile SDK story and suits far smaller audiences than Braze.
Switch from Braze if you are an owner-run service business that wants CRM, billing and follow-up together.
Pricing: One published plan priced by contact count, from $299 a month billed annually with two users included, extra users at $39 each and a required paid implementation package; limited free trial. (free trial)
Full review: #14 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Keap →
9. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
B2B marketing automation built for Salesforce CRM · United States
B2B marketing automation priced per org. The pricing page lists Growth+ at $1,250 a month and Plus+ at $2,750, billed annually, up to Premium+ at $15,000. Plans carry lead nurturing and scoring, and the higher ones add account-based analytics and business units.
Switch from Braze if your leads and pipeline already live in Salesforce and sales needs scoring and handoff.
Pricing: Org-level editions with published list prices starting above a thousand dollars a month, billed annually, plus add-ons. (none)
Full review: #7 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement →
10. Oracle Eloqua
Enterprise B2B marketing automation from Oracle · United States
Enterprise B2B automation from Oracle with campaign orchestration, lead management, account-based marketing and native SMS beside email. Oracle shows no prices on its product page, so this is another quote. It targets revenue teams, not consumer app lifecycle programs.
Switch from Braze if you need account-based B2B campaigns at enterprise scale and accept another quote-only contract.
Pricing: Quote-only enterprise contracts, typically multi-year. (none)
Full review: #12 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Oracle Eloqua →
11. Adobe Marketo Engage
Enterprise B2B marketing automation from Adobe · United States
Established B2B automation sold as quote-only Select, Prime and Ultimate packages by contacts, per the category file. We could not load an Adobe page this session, so we say less here. Like Braze it needs a sales conversation and implementation work.
Switch from Braze if you run B2B demand generation in the Adobe stack and accept another quote.
Pricing: Quote-only Select, Prime and Ultimate packages priced per thousand contacts; Marketo Measure attribution is included only in Ultimate, and account management is an add-on. (none)
Full review: #6 of 15 in our ranking ·
Visit Adobe Marketo Engage →
Questions and answers
Can I export my user data from Braze?
Yes, the REST API has an export by identifier endpoint that returns user profiles, up to 50 external IDs or aliases per request. Currents also streams engagement events to a warehouse or partner, if the package includes the entitlement.
Does Braze publish its prices?
No, the pricing page shows four editions (Go, Select, Pro, Enterprise) and a Get pricing button, with no figures. Pricing scales with monthly active users, and Action Credits cover messages across channels.
What happens to my Currents event stream if I leave?
The stream stops with the connector, and past events stay wherever you stored them. Currents sends data in Avro files to storage such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage or Azure Blob Storage, so keep those buckets when you cancel.
Is there a free Braze plan?
No free plan is listed, but the pricing page offers a free trial and the site has a program for startups. Customer.io lists a year free for early-stage companies that raised under $10M, and Klaviyo and Brevo have free plans.
Can another tool replace Braze push and in-app messaging?
Yes, in part. Customer.io lists unlimited push and in-app messages with mobile SDKs, Ortto lists push and in-app messages, and Brevo Professional lists mobile and web push. Check SDK support for your platforms before committing.
Do Braze users move to a B2B automation tool?
Only if the program is really B2B. Salesforce Account Engagement, Oracle Eloqua and HubSpot are built around leads, scoring and sales handoff, not app lifecycle messaging, so they replace a different job from Braze.
