The range in this category is enormous — a free tier at one end, $60,000+ a year at the other — for tools that all send lifecycle messages across email, push, SMS and in-app.
| Entry | Model | |
|---|---|---|
| OneSignal | free up to ~10k subscribers | usage-based, affordable paid tiers |
| Customer.io | $100/mo (5,000 profiles) | per-profile, technical-team-friendly |
| Braze | ~$60,000/year (~$5,000/mo) + $10–50k implementation | enterprise, quote-only |
OneSignal is the push-notification-first budget option: a free tier covering roughly 10,000 subscribers, then usage-based pricing that stays affordable. If your main channel is web or mobile push and you don't need deep cross-channel orchestration, it's the cheapest real option.
Customer.io does most of what Braze does — multi-channel messaging, behavioral triggers, sophisticated automation — at a fraction of the price, starting at $100/month for 5,000 profiles. The trade-off is that it assumes a technical team comfortable wiring up event tracking and building flows. For a startup with engineers, it's the sweet spot.
Braze is the enterprise platform: no published pricing, deals typically starting around $60,000/year with five-figure implementation costs on top. What that buys is scale, reliability, a full professional-services relationship, and the depth large consumer apps need. It's not a tool you evaluate against the other two on price — you land on Braze when your scale and requirements have outgrown them.
Push-first and cost-conscious: OneSignal, starting free. Startup with a technical team wanting real cross-channel automation: Customer.io at $100/month. Large consumer app that has outgrown both and needs enterprise scale and support: Braze.