Omnisend Free Plan
What Is the Omnisend Pricing Plan?
Omnisend keeps things pretty straightforward with their pricing. You’ve got Free (obviously $0), Standard at $16/month, and Pro at $59/month. What’s kind of refreshing is that they don’t lock away half their features behind paywalls like some platforms do.
The free plan gives you access to almost everything. I mean, you can build automations, segment your audience, run A/B tests—stuff that other platforms charge for. The catch? Volume limits. It’s like getting a sports car but only being allowed to drive it around the block.
Their whole approach seems designed for ecommerce stores. While platforms like Mailchimp try to be everything to everyone, Omnisend laser-focuses on online shops. Makes sense when you see features like abandoned cart emails and product recommendation blocks built right in.
A Quick Overview of Omnisend and Its Features
Think of Omnisend as that friend who’s really good at juggling multiple conversations. It handles email, SMS, web push notifications, and even Facebook ads from one dashboard. Pretty handy when you’re trying to reach customers wherever they hang out.
The automation builder is probably their strongest feature. You can set up these complex workflows that trigger based on what customers do—or don’t do. Someone abandons their cart? Boom, automatic email. Customer hasn’t bought in 60 days? Time for a win-back campaign.
What I like is how it connects with ecommerce platforms without much fuss. Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce—they all play nice with Omnisend. The data flows both ways, so you can actually personalize emails with real purchase history instead of generic “Hi there” messages.
What Do You Get with the Omnisend Free Plan?
Here’s where Omnisend gets interesting. Most free plans are basically demos with training wheels. Omnisend’s free plan? It’s more like getting a full-featured car with a small gas tank.
You can store unlimited contacts, which is nice. But here’s the thing—you can only email 250 of them, and only 500 emails total per month. It’s like having a huge address book but being limited to sending birthday cards to just a few people.
The multi-channel stuff is included too. Sixty free SMS messages and 500 web push notifications each month. Not huge numbers, but enough to test whether your customers actually respond to texts or browser notifications.
Key Features of the Free Plan
Email Campaign Builder and Templates
The email builder is solid. Drag-and-drop interface that doesn’t make you want to throw your laptop out the window. They’ve got over 250 templates, and most are actually designed for ecommerce instead of generic “newsletter” layouts.
What’s cool is the dynamic content blocks. You can drop in product recommendations that automatically pull from someone’s browsing history. It’s like having a personal shopper, but automated. Though honestly, it takes some setup to get it working smoothly.
The big downside? That Omnisend watermark at the bottom of every email. Can’t remove it on the free plan. For some businesses, that’s no big deal. For others, it’s like wearing a t-shirt with someone else’s logo to a business meeting.
Automation Workflows and Triggers
This is probably where you’ll spend most of your time. The workflow builder lets you create these branching sequences that respond to customer behavior. Someone clicks but doesn’t buy? Send them a discount. VIP customer makes a purchase? Different follow-up entirely.
The pre-built templates cover the basics—welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase follow-ups. You can customize them or build from scratch. Either way, you’re not starting with a blank canvas, which is nice when you’re figuring this stuff out.
Cross-channel automation is where things get interesting. A customer ignores your email? The system can automatically send an SMS instead. Or a push notification. It’s like having multiple ways to tap someone on the shoulder.
SMS and Web Push Notifications
Sixty SMS credits isn’t much, but it’s enough to test whether your customers actually read text messages. Some do, some don’t. Worth finding out before you commit to a bigger SMS plan.
Web push notifications are hit or miss depending on your audience. Younger customers might engage with browser notifications. Others probably have them turned off entirely. But hey, 500 free notifications let you experiment without spending money.
The compliance stuff is handled automatically, which is helpful. Nobody wants to accidentally spam people or run into legal issues because they didn’t understand TCPA rules.
What’s Missing in the Omnisend Free Plan?
Let’s be real about the limitations. The 500 email limit hits fast if you’re sending regular newsletters or promotional campaigns. Do the math—that’s like 16 emails per day if you spread it evenly across a month.
Restricted or Limited Features
The contact limit is probably the bigger issue. You can store thousands of contacts, but you can only email 250 of them. So you end up playing favorites with your customer list, which feels weird.
Compared to something like Sender, which gives you 15,000 emails per month on their free plan, Omnisend looks stingy. But Sender doesn’t have the same ecommerce focus or automation capabilities. Trade-offs.
Hidden Costs and Limitations
Those SMS overages add up quickly. Once you burn through your 60 free credits, you’re paying about 1.5 cents per message in the US. Doesn’t sound like much until you’re sending hundreds of texts.
The reporting on the free plan is pretty basic. You’ll see open rates and click rates, but forget about revenue attribution or customer lifetime value analysis. That stuff requires the Pro plan, which starts at $59/month.
Managing contacts gets tricky as you grow. You have to create segments under 250 people just to send campaigns. It works, but it’s clunky. Like trying to organize a party when you can only invite people from certain zip codes.
Who’s the Omnisend Free Plan Perfect For?
Small ecommerce stores just getting started, basically. If you’re selling handmade jewelry on Etsy or running a local coffee roasting business, the free plan probably covers your needs for a while.
It’s also great for testing. Maybe you’re on Mailchimp or Klaviyo and wondering if Omnisend’s automation is worth switching for. The free plan lets you import some contacts and play around without commitment.
Seasonal businesses might love this setup. Use the free plan during slow months, upgrade for holiday seasons. Though you’d need to be pretty organized about managing those contact limits.
Honestly, if you’re doing more than $10,000 per month in revenue, you should probably just pay for email marketing software. The free plan works, but you’ll outgrow it quickly if your business is actually growing.
How Does the Omnisend Free Plan Compare to Paid Plans?
The jump from free to Standard is mostly about volume and removing that watermark. From 500 emails to 6,000 emails per month, and from 250 to 500 contacts. Plus you get live chat support and can finally remove the Omnisend branding.
The Pro plan is where things get interesting for bigger stores. Unlimited emails and you get SMS credits equal to whatever you pay monthly. So if you’re paying $99/month, you get $99 worth of SMS credits included. Pretty good deal if you’re heavy on text marketing.
All the core features—automation, segmentation, A/B testing—stay the same across plans. Omnisend doesn’t pull the classic move of hiding important features behind higher price tiers. Refreshing, honestly.
When It Makes Sense to Upgrade
When you hit those limits consistently, basically. If you’re bumping into the 500 email ceiling every month or need to email more than 250 people, it’s time to upgrade. Fighting with artificial limits gets old fast.
The watermark thing depends on your business. If you’re selling premium products or B2B services, having someone else’s branding on your emails probably isn’t ideal. For casual ecommerce stores, it might not matter as much.
SMS costs are where the Pro plan math gets interesting. If you’re buying SMS credits anyway, the Pro plan bonus credits often work out cheaper than paying separately. Plus you get unlimited emails, which is nice peace of mind.
Bottom line: Omnisend’s free plan is legitimately useful, not just a tease to get you paying. The limits will push most growing businesses toward paid plans eventually, but you can actually accomplish real email marketing with the free version. For small ecommerce stores testing the waters, it’s honestly hard to beat.
