Drip vs Sendlane (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Sendlane grades higher than Drip: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Sendlane grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Sendlane
Email and SMS marketing for online stores, priced by sends
Which one is for you
Pick Drip if
- Fits if you run a Shopify store and want cart, back-in-stock and price-drop emails without building them
- Works for teams where several people work on marketing, since every plan has unlimited users
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're a small shop, at $39 a month before your list has grown
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as there's only a 14-day trial that rolls into a paid subscription
- Not for you if you like knowing next year's bill, since the price steps aren't published
- Watch out: free migration and personalized onboarding come only with some plans
- Too light for anyone who wants a phone or desktop app, as Drip is web only
Pick Sendlane if
- Fits if you run a Shopify or WooCommerce store and want pricing by sends, not contacts
- Makes sense if you want email and SMS from one account
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you send little: the cheapest step on the page is $100 a month for 50,000 emails
- Watch out: SMS costs a $10 monthly activation plus credit packs from $6.25
- Not for you if you want a free plan, as only a short trial of 100 contacts and 500 sends exists
- Watch out: a banner says Privy has acquired Sendlane, so plans and pricing may change
- Skip it if you want a success manager without an annual contract
How we grade them
| 2.0GPADripFair | 2.2GPASendlaneFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$39 a month to start, in the dearest tenth of what email tools charge and three times the middle. The price then rises with active people and emails sent, and Drip doesn't publish the steps. Unlimited users are included. | D$100 a month for up to 50,000 emails sits in the dearest tenth of this category, which starts at $80. Contacts are unlimited, but the entry step is the lowest price listed. |
| Free plan and trial | DNo free plan. The 14-day trial leads straight into the paid subscription, so cancel before it ends if Drip isn't for you. | CA 60-day free trial, limited to 100 contacts and 500 email sends. The listing does not say whether a card is needed, and there is no free plan. |
| Features | BStore-data segments that update live, ready-made welcome, cart, browse, back-in-stock, price-drop and win-back flows, pop-ups, quizzes, forms and A/B tests inside workflows. For a shop, that's the whole job. | BAutomations, segmentation, store integrations, forms and popups, with SMS as an add-on. The listing shows no gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. You connect your store, switch on flows and design pop-ups, and ready-made flow templates cover part of the building. | CA web app with no rating on record. Automations and store connections are yours to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Shopify, Judge.me, Junip, LoyaltyLion, Meta ads and Segment, an API, and Claude and ChatGPT able to run it for you. No desktop or phone app, so it stops at a B. | BWeb only, with Shopify, WooCommerce, ClickBank, Miva, Smile.io, Zapier and Facebook Custom Audiences. |
| Best for | email flows and pop-ups for Shopify stores | ecommerce stores that want email priced by sends |
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: Drip and Sendlane. How we grade
Price against what you get
Drip starts at $39 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Sendlane starts at $100 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Drip starts $61 a month lower. Of the other email marketing and newsletter tools on the chart, 3 score higher than Drip for less, and 3 score higher than Sendlane for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Drip also covers forms.
- Sendlane also covers sMS marketing, a/B testing and popups.
At a glance
| Drip | Sendlane | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $39 per month and up, by list size and email volume | $100 per month for up to 50,000 emails, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | 60-day free trial, limited to 100 contacts and 500 email sends |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Drip | Sendlane |
| Price read from | apps.shopify.com | sendlane.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Drip
- There is no free plan; the 14-day trial leads to a paid subscription.
- The price rises with active people on the list and emails sent, and the listing does not publish the steps.
- Free migration and personalized onboarding come only with some plans.
Sendlane
- The pricing page shows one email-send plan with a volume calculator; the 50,000-email entry step is the lowest it lists.
- SMS costs extra: a $10 monthly activation, and credit packs from $6.25 for 250 credits, with 1 credit per text.
- Dedicated support services, such as a success manager, are held for annual contracts, and the page ties higher tiers to contact counts.
- The site banner says Privy has acquired Sendlane, so plans and pricing may change.
Key features
Drip
- Store-data segments
- Groups customers automatically from Shopify order and browsing data, such as top spenders, and keeps segments updated in real time.
- Pre-built ecommerce flows
- Templates for welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, back-in-stock, price-drop and win-back emails, with A/B split tests inside workflows.
- Pop-ups, forms and quizzes
- On-site pop-ups including spin-to-win and exit intent, embedded forms and quizzes to collect email addresses.
- Run it from an AI assistant
- Connect Drip to Claude or ChatGPT to pull data and launch campaigns by asking, at no extra cost.
- Email editor with store branding
- Templates, AI-generated content and brand assets pulled from the store, with custom code and custom fonts.
Sendlane
- Automations
- Prebuilt automation funnels plus behavior-, trigger- and event-based flows, with multivariate testing of messages.
- Segmentation
- Multivariable segments on tags, custom fields and store data, with open-prediction scoring from machine learning.
- Store integrations
- Deep data links to Shopify, WooCommerce, ClickBank, Miva, Smile.io and OneClick, and 2,000+ apps through Zapier.
- Forms and popups
- Popups and forms for growing a list, with a drag-and-drop email builder and an HTML editor.
- SMS add-on
- Text messaging from the same automations, sold as credit packs on top of a monthly activation fee.
Plans
Drip
Subscription$39
per month and up, by list size and email volume
Email and automation builder, pop-ups and forms, A/B tests in workflows, AI access and unlimited users. Price rises with active people and emails sent.
Sendlane
Email sends$100
per month for up to 50,000 emails, billed monthly
Unlimited contacts. The calculator shows $150 at 75,000 emails and $200 at 100,000. Annual billing is $1,000 a year at 50,000.
Ways to pay less
Drip
No public discounts listed.
Sendlane
- Annual discount
Save about 16% with annual billing
Sendlane's pricing calculator lists $1,000 a year at the 50,000-email step against $100 a month, a saving it computes as 16%.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Drip or Sendlane?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Drip is cheaper to start with: $39 a month, against $100 a month for Sendlane. Drip starts at $39 per month and up, by list size and email volume, and Sendlane starts at $100 per month for up to 50,000 emails, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Drip or Sendlane?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Drip nor Sendlane has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.