Customer.io vs Encharge
We give Customer.io a 2.2 GPA and Encharge a 2.4, out of 4.0. Encharge grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Customer.io
Data-driven email, SMS, push and in-app messaging for product teams
Encharge
Behavior-based email automation for SaaS and subscription businesses
How we grade them
| 2.2GPACustomer.ioFair | 2.4GPAEnchargeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$100 a month for 5,000 profiles, many times what email tools start at and well into the dearest tenth. It does include 1 million emails, unlimited users and unlimited push and in-app messages. Premium jumps to $1,000 a month billed yearly. | CNo price on record, as Encharge's pricing page turned automated readers away. What we do know is that Growth and Premium are priced by subscribers, and crossing a tier moves you up automatically at the next bill. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but there's a 14-day trial with up to 5,000 messages across every channel. Startups that raised under $10 million can get up to a year of Essentials free, which is a real deal if that's you. | CNo free plan, but there's a 14-day trial for up to 1,000 subscribers with no card needed. Long enough to connect Stripe and switch on an onboarding flow. |
| Features | BVisual journeys across email, SMS, push, in-app, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks, custom objects, an AI segment builder, warehouse syncs, transactional email and a design studio with version history. It covers the job across more channels than most, built around product data. | BVisual flows triggered by sign-ups, segments, events and billing, segments on tracked behavior, newsletters in drag-and-drop or text builders, companies and custom objects, and transactional email through an API. That's the whole job. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. Before the first message your product has to send people and events through the API, SDKs or a warehouse sync, and every account is checked by hand before it can send. | CNo App Store rating on record and no phone app. The flows only come alive once your product is sending events and your billing tool is connected, and that setup is real work. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Segment, Snowflake, Salesforce, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Twilio, Google Ads and Facebook Lead Ads, an API, mobile SDKs and an MCP server. There's no desktop app, so B is the top. | BWeb only, with Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle, HubSpot, Salesforce, Segment, Facebook Ads and Zapier, plus an API. No desktop or phone app keeps it at a B. |
| Best for | product teams messaging users from app data | behavior-based emails for SaaS companies |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Customer.io and Encharge. How we grade
Where they differ
- Customer.io also covers business texting.
- Encharge also covers forms.
At a glance
| Customer.io | Encharge | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $100 per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly | Not published |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial with up to 5,000 messages across all channels | 14-day free trial for up to 1,000 subscribers, no card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Peaberry Software, Inc. | Encharge |
| Price read from | customer.io | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Customer.io
- Software and app companies sending messages from product data
- Teams wanting transactional and marketing messages in one tool
- Startups under $10 million raised, through its free-year program
Encharge
- SaaS teams onboarding trial users with behavior-based emails
- Subscription businesses acting on Stripe or Chargebee events
- Agencies running automation for clients who use HubSpot or Salesforce
Worth knowing
Customer.io
- Usage beyond the plan costs extra: $0.12 per 1,000 emails on every plan, and AI credits at $10 per 100,000 on Essentials and Premium.
- Every account is reviewed by hand before it can send messages.
- SMS volume is priced on request on every plan.
- Chat support, onboarding help and custom roles start with Premium, which is billed yearly from $1,000 a month.
Encharge
- Prices could not be confirmed: the pricing page and the main site refused automated readers when checked.
- Plans are Growth and Premium, priced by subscribers; passing a tier upgrades you automatically at the next billing date.
- Each plan caps monthly events at 50 times the subscriber tier on Growth and 100 times on Premium; past the cap, events stop arriving.
- There is no push notification channel yet; Encharge lists it on its roadmap.
Key features
Customer.io
- Journeys and workflow builder
- Cross-channel campaigns built in a visual workflow builder, with send-time optimization, LLM actions and API-triggered broadcasts.
- Many channels
- Email, transactional email, SMS, push, in-app messages, WhatsApp, LINE and webhooks from one account; push and in-app are unlimited.
- Profiles and custom objects
- Store people and objects such as accounts or courses with unlimited attributes, then segment on them, including an AI segment builder.
- Data in and out
- Unlimited API calls, mobile SDKs, reverse ETL from a data warehouse and an MCP server; warehouse destinations need Premium.
- Design Studio
- Drag-and-drop and code editors with reusable components, version history, AI translation and 25 inbox previews.
- AI Agent
- A beta agent that carries out tasks in the account, with scheduled routines: one weekly task on Essentials and five daily on Premium.
Encharge
- Flows
- A visual builder for automated sequences triggered by sign-ups, segments, events and billing activity, with templates for onboarding, churn and upsells.
- Behavior-based segments
- Group people by attributes, tags, custom fields and tracked events such as page visits; event-based segments need the Premium plan.
- Broadcasts and email builders
- One-off newsletters built in a drag-and-drop or a simple text builder, with reusable blocks, custom HTML and Liquid personalization.
- Billing and CRM integrations
- Native syncs with Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly and Chargify; HubSpot, Salesforce and Segment need Premium.
- Companies and custom objects
- Store companies and custom objects linked to people, and use those links in segments and flows.
- Transactional email API
- Send transactional emails from templates, custom HTML or plain text through an API.
Plans
Customer.io
Essentials$100
per month for up to 5,000 profiles, billed monthly
1 million emails a month, unlimited users, 2 object types, visual workflows and the AI Agent. Extra profiles cost $0.009 each and extra emails $0.12 per 1,000.
Premium$1,000
per month and up, billed yearly
Custom profile and email volume, 10 object types, chat support, 90-day onboarding, managed deliverability and HIPAA compliance at extra cost.
EnterpriseCustom
Dedicated hardware, audit logging, a customer success manager, priority technical support and a shared Slack channel.
Encharge
Pricing could not be confirmed. See encharge.io.
Ways to pay less
Customer.io
- Startups
Up to 12 months free for startups
Startups new to Customer.io that have raised less than $10 million can get up to 12 months of Essentials features free, with up to 30,000 profiles.
Encharge
No public discounts listed.
