Side-by-side comparison · Marketing & Ads
Creatify vs Klaviyo vs Pencil
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Online stores and ad agencies that need a lot of short video ads to test without booking creators.
Pick it if: Online stores that want their email and SMS to run on real customer behaviour.
Pick it if: Brand and performance marketing teams that need lots of on-brand ad variations across many platforms.
Overview
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Turns a product link into video ads with AI presenters, ready for TikTok and Meta. | Email and SMS for online stores, with AI that writes, segments and predicts. | Makes on-brand image and video ads and launches them to ad platforms. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | $15/mo | From $20/mo | $14/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.0 | 4.3Winner | 3.7 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | No | Yes | No |
| Desktop app | No | No | No |
| Browser extension | – | No | – |
| API access | Yes | Yes | – |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | – | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | – | Yes |
| Makes images | Yes | – | Yes |
| Makes video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Writes code | No | No | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | – |
| Capabilities score | 11/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out before you pay. | Free Free New stores building their first flows. | CoreOur pick $14/mo, or $11/mo billed yearly A small team trying AI ads. |
Standard $15/mo, or $10/mo billed yearly A small store making a few ads a month. | EmailOur pick From $20/mo Most stores once they pass 250 contacts. | Growth $55/mo, or $44/mo billed yearly Teams making ads every week or for several brands. | |
ProOur pick $55/mo, or $38/mo billed yearly Brands testing ads every week. | Email and SMS From $35/mo Stores that want text messages in the same flows. | Pro Custom Large brands and agencies. | |
Max $95/mo, or $66/mo billed yearly Heavier users and small teams. | Enterprise Custom Large brands with many stores or markets. | ||
Business $195/mo, or $136/mo billed yearly Agencies and in-house teams. | |||
Enterprise Custom Large teams needing custom terms. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Pro is the plan that makes Creatify worth it, because ad cloning, competitor tracking and the ad agent start there. Try Standard or the free plan first to see how many credits your typical video uses. The API is priced separately, from $99 a month. | Start on Free and build your welcome and abandoned cart flows before you pay anything. Move to Email when you cross 250 contacts, and only add SMS once email is working, because text messages cost extra per send. | Core is cheap enough to test with real campaigns. Move to Growth when 50 generations a month runs out, which happens fast if you resize into many formats. Pro is for enterprise teams and is sold through a demo. |
Key features
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Creatify | Klaviyo | Pencil |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Creatify, Klaviyo or Pencil?
Klaviyo scores highest overall in our ratings (Creatify 4.0/5, Klaviyo 4.3/5 and Pencil 3.7/5). Creatify is best for UGC-style video ads from a product link and testing many hooks and versions of one ad. Klaviyo is best for abandoned cart recovery and segments from plain English. Pencil is best for making many ad variations from one brief and resizing ads for every platform.
Which is cheaper, Creatify, Klaviyo or Pencil?
Creatify: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $15/mo. Klaviyo: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $20/mo. Pencil: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $14/mo.
Which is easier to use, Creatify, Klaviyo or Pencil?
Creatify rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Online stores and ad agencies that need a lot of short video ads to test without booking creators.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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