Iterable Pricing Review 2025: What It Actually Costs

If you’re looking into Iterable, you’re probably already past the “maybe we should try Mailchimp” phase. This is serious infrastructure—the kind of platform that enterprise marketing teams use when they’re managing millions of users across email, SMS, push notifications, and more. 

But here’s the thing: Iterable starts at around $20,000 per year for up to 50,000 monthly active users. So yeah, we’re not talking about pocket change.

The tricky part? They don’t publish their prices. Everything’s custom-quoted, which means you’ll be talking to sales before you see real numbers. That’s standard for enterprise software, but it makes planning harder.

This guide breaks down what actual buyers have paid, what drives the costs up, and whether there are better options if you’re not running a massive operation.

Iterable Pricing Overview

Let’s start with what we know. Iterable doesn’t offer a free plan or even a free trial. You’re committing before you test, which is a big ask. Their pricing is built around three main things: how many active users you have (they call them profiles), how many emails you send, and something called custom events—basically, all the different actions your users take that you want to track.

Real buyers report paying anywhere from $1,500 a month for 6 million emails to $10,000 monthly for 10 million profiles with 380 million custom events. That range is huge, and it shows how much your specific setup matters. Then there’s the implementation cost. Expect to spend between $5,000 and $20,000 just getting started, depending on how big your company is.

Iterable is built for companies that already know they need enterprise-level tools and have the budget to match.

Iterable Monthly Pricing

Here’s where it gets modular. You don’t just pay one fee—you’re paying for pieces. There’s a base subscription that covers things like in-app and mobile messages. Then you pay separately for email volume, for your profiles plus custom events, and for add-ons like text messaging. A typical setup might be the base subscription, email sends, profiles with custom events, and maybe an SMS connector on top.

The other thing about monthly pricing? It tends to creep up. Buyers report seeing 5-10% increases at renewal time, though you can push back by mentioning budget constraints or long-term partnerships. People have gotten those increases down or even scored 13% discounts by shopping around and showing competing quotes. It’s not automatic, but negotiation is expected here.

You might also need to fight for quarterly payments instead of annual ones. Iterable will try to lock you into a year upfront, but companies have held out for quarterly terms. That flexibility matters if you’re testing the waters or managing cash flow carefully.

Iterable Monthly Plans

Growth Plan (Entry-Level)

Iterable doesn’t officially name its tiers, but we can piece together what entry-level looks like from buyer reports. One company paid about $1,500 per month for 6 million email sends, plus another $480 monthly for 100,000 profiles and 10 million custom events. That’s roughly $24,000 a year before any add-ons. And honestly, calling this “entry-level” is generous—100,000 profiles means you’re already running a serious operation.

At this level, you get workflow automation, cross-channel campaigns across email and mobile push, and decent segmentation tools. But add SMS and you’re paying another $100 per month. Then there are integration costs and potential overage fees. The budget may be 30-40% above the base price to cover everything you’ll actually need.

Professional Plan (Mid-Tier)

This is where things scale up fast. We’re talking around $2,800 monthly for the base (which includes 250 million in-app, mobile, and web messages), plus $3,900 for 120 million emails, plus $10,000 for 10 million profiles with 380 million custom events. That’s over $200,000 a year before you add anything else.

What do you get for that? Advanced personalization, complex behavioral triggers, full multi-channel orchestration including SMS and in-app messaging, priority support with a dedicated success manager, and serious analytics. The profile and event capacity mean you can track incredibly detailed user behavior across every touchpoint.

At this spending level, you should absolutely negotiate overage rates and push for better renewal terms. Companies this size have leverage—use it. Compare what you’d pay elsewhere and don’t be shy about it during renewal talks.

Enterprise Plan (Top-Tier)

Everything’s custom at this level. Companies spending $300,000+ annually get dedicated infrastructure, white-glove onboarding, custom integrations, advanced security like HIPAA compliance, guaranteed uptime SLAs, and strategic consulting from customer success teams. Implementation alone can run $20,000 or more, with customization priced separately.

This covers migrating your data, building custom integrations with your existing systems, training your team, and strategic planning for your campaigns. I’ve read that one buyer got a 13% discount just by mentioning competitors.

At this level, you should be negotiating everything—rates, terms, what’s included, overage policies, support tiers. Get detailed breakdowns of all costs upfront.

Iterable Pay-as-you-go Plan

Here’s the short version: Iterable doesn’t do pay-as-you-go. Everything’s subscription-based with committed monthly or annual contracts. You decide upfront how many profiles, emails, and events you need, and you pay for that capacity whether you use it or not.

If your marketing is seasonal or unpredictable, this is a problem. You’re paying for capacity during slow months when you’re barely sending anything. Some companies have negotiated quarterly payments instead of annual contracts, which helps a bit, but it’s still not true flexibility.

Other tools, like Sender, offer pay-as-you-go credits that start at $29 and never expire. That’s a completely different approach—you pay for what you use, when you use it. For businesses that don’t send consistently every month, that difference matters a lot.

Iterable Transactional Emails Pricing

Transactional emails—order confirmations, password resets, shipping notifications—run on the same subscription model as marketing emails. There’s no separate per-message charge, which is different from dedicated transactional services like SendGrid that bill per message.

If you’re paying $1,500 monthly for 6 million emails, that has to cover both your marketing and transactional sends unless you specifically negotiate otherwise. For some companies, that’s convenient—one platform, one contract, unified management. 

You can use Iterable’s segmentation and personalization across both email types, which is powerful. You can build transactional templates with handlebar logic that pulls in transaction data and displays dynamic content based on things like spending thresholds.

But if you’re sending way more transactional emails than marketing ones—say, 50 million transactional versus 5 million marketing—you’re paying for 55 million total sends. A specialized transactional service might charge less per message at that volume. Something to consider.

Iterable SMS Pricing

SMS pricing has two parts: a connector fee and usage charges. The SMS connector costs $100 per month just to access the functionality. That’s before you send a single text. Then you pay per message sent, with rates varying by country.

SMS Pricing Tiers Comparison

Note: Iterable’s SMS pricing is competitive with a simplified structure and transparent invoicing.

The actual per-message cost is around $0.0045 for US texts, which is decent. But that $100 monthly base fee means you need volume to make it worthwhile. If you’re only sending a few thousand texts a month, pay-per-message services might cost less overall.

Iterable SMS works in a lot of countries, with different sender ID types depending on where you’re sending—short codes in Canada, New Zealand, UK, and US; long codes elsewhere; alphanumeric IDs for some international markets. Though some countries will automatically change your alphanumeric sender ID to a random number if you’re not registered, which can mess with your branding.

MMS only works in the US and Canada. For other countries, Iterable tries to convert your MMS into a link and sends it as a regular SMS. If you’re doing multimedia campaigns in supported markets, that’s included in your $100 connector fee, which is nice.

Do the math on your volume. Sending fewer than 10,000 texts monthly? The connector fee might eat up any savings from competitive per-message rates. Sending 50,000+? You’re probably getting a better deal, especially with everything integrated into your other channels.

Summary — Is Iterable Worth It?

Iterable is expensive. Let’s just say it. Starting around $20,000 a year for 50,000 monthly active users, it’s clearly built for enterprise operations with serious budgets. The custom quote system gives big companies negotiating room but leaves smaller businesses in the dark until they talk to sales.

The big costs to think about: base subscriptions, email volume, profiles, custom events, channel connectors like SMS; implementation running $5,000 to $20,000+ depending on company size; no free trial or free plan to test things out; mandatory annual or quarterly commitments with no pay-as-you-go option; extra charges for things like SMS connectivity and premium support.

If you’re a smaller operation, Sender makes way more sense. Plans start at $7 monthly for 1,000 subscribers—compare that to Mailchimp’s $45 for similar features. The free plan gives you 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails monthly with everything included. That’s not a stripped-down version—it’s the full platform.

Iterable works when you’re managing hundreds of millions of profiles, tracking millions of custom events across complex user journeys, orchestrating sophisticated campaigns across email, SMS, push, in-app, and web channels, and need AI-powered optimization with strategic support. If that’s you and you’ve got the budget, Iterable’s capabilities justify the cost.

If not? There are better options that’ll save you a lot of money.