--- title: "Reloop vs Customer.io (2026): Pricing, Features and Which to Choose" description: "Reloop vs Customer.io compared honestly: per-email vs per-profile pricing at 10k to 100k profiles, journeys vs automations, transactional API and SMTP, inbound inboxes, self-hosting, plus how to switch." canonical: "https://reloop.sh/blog/reloop-vs-customer-io" last-updated: "2026-10-25" --- # Reloop vs Customer.io (2026): Pricing, Features and Which to Choose > For the site documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Docs index: [llms-docs.txt](/llms-docs.txt). Marketing corpus: [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). Docs corpus: [llms-full-docs.txt](/llms-full-docs.txt). Product skill: [skill.md](/skill.md). Prefer markdown URLs (append `.md`) when available. > Reloop vs Customer.io compared honestly: per-email vs per-profile pricing at 10k to 100k profiles, journeys vs automations, transactional API and SMTP, inbound inboxes, self-hosting, plus how to switch. Source: https://reloop.sh/blog/reloop-vs-customer-io Published: 2026-10-25 **Customer.io is a customer engagement platform, and Reloop is email infrastructure.** Both can send onboarding sequences triggered by events from your app, broadcasts and transactional mail. They are built for different teams, and they charge differently. **Customer.io bills by the profiles you store, starting at $100 a month. Reloop bills by the emails you send, starting at $10.** At 50,000 profiles that's roughly $505 a month on Customer.io's entry plan versus $10 to $45 on Reloop for most sending patterns. Reloop also adds an SMTP relay, real inboxes for inbound mail, and an open-source license. Customer.io does far more than email: push, in-app messages, SMS, deep segmentation and data pipelines. If you need those, it's the stronger product. We build Reloop, so weigh this accordingly. Customer.io's prices below come from [customer.io/pricing](https://customer.io/pricing), and where Customer.io is the better pick, we say so. --- ## The 30-second comparison | | **Reloop** | **Customer.io** | |---|---|---| | Pricing basis | Emails sent | Profiles stored (people and objects) | | Free tier | 3,000 emails / mo, 100 / day | No free plan on the pricing page | | Entry paid plan | **$10** / mo (50,000 emails) | $100 / mo (5,000 profiles, 1M emails) | | Extra volume | $0.50 per 1,000 emails | $0.009 per extra profile, $0.12 per 1,000 extra emails | | Next plan | $20 / mo (100,000 emails, dedicated IP) | Premium, from $1,000 / mo billed annually | | Channels | Email | Email, push, in-app, SMS (SMS priced separately) | | Event-triggered automations | Yes | Yes (Journeys) | | Transactional API | Yes | Yes | | SMTP relay | Yes | No | | Inbound email / agent inbox | Yes | No | | Template language | `{{{variables}}}` | Liquid | | Open source / self-host | Yes (Apache 2.0) | No | Reloop's prices are on [reloop.sh/pricing](/pricing). Both change; check before you commit. --- ## Pricing: profiles vs emails **Customer.io charges for your audience.** The Essentials plan starts at $100 a month and includes 5,000 profiles and 1 million emails. Each profile beyond that costs $0.009, and profiles include objects (like companies or accounts) as well as people. A signup who never comes back still counts. **Reloop charges for sends.** Store as many contacts as you like. You pay for the emails that go out. Here's the Essentials list price against Reloop for a product that emails each contact about twice a month: | Profiles | Customer.io Essentials | Emails sent (2 per contact) | Reloop | |---|---|---|---| | 5,000 | $100 | 10,000 | **$10** | | 10,000 | $100 + $45 = $145 | 20,000 | **$10** | | 50,000 | $100 + $405 = $505 | 100,000 | **$20** | | 100,000 | $100 + $855 = $955 | 200,000 | $20 + $50 overage = **$70** | The Customer.io column is the published starting price plus $0.009 per profile over 5,000. Larger accounts usually move to Premium or negotiate, so treat it as a ceiling for Essentials, not a quote. Profile-based pricing grows with signups, not with value. A launch that adds 30,000 free users raises a Customer.io bill by $270 a month even if most of them never get past the welcome email. Model next year's list size before you choose. --- ## Automations: Journeys vs Reloop automations Customer.io's **Journeys** are its core product. The workflow builder is visual and cross-channel. One campaign can send an email, wait, branch on an attribute, push a mobile notification and update a profile. Segmentation is deep, with segments built from attributes, events and objects. Reloop's automations cover the email side of that: an **event trigger**, then **delays**, **conditions** and **email steps**. Your app tracks an event, and the contact enters every automation that listens for it. **Customer.io** ```javascript const { CustomerIO } = require("customerio-node"); const cio = new CustomerIO({ apiKey: process.env.CIO_API_KEY }); await cio.identify("user_123", { email: "ada@example.com" }); await cio.track("user_123", { name: "signed_up" }); ``` **Reloop** ```typescript const reloop = new Reloop({ apiKey: process.env.RELOOP_API_KEY! }); const { automationError } = await reloop.automations.start({ event: "user.signed_up", email: "ada@example.com", firstName: "Ada", properties: { plan: "trial" }, }); if (automationError) console.error(automationError); ``` Passing `email` creates the contact if it doesn't exist yet, so there's no separate identify call. Conditions can read event properties (for example `trigger.plan`), so trial and paid users can get different emails. Our [welcome sequence guide](/blog/welcome-email-sequences-that-convert) builds a four-email onboarding flow this way. | | Reloop | Customer.io | |---|---|---| | Event-triggered flows | Yes | Yes | | Delays and conditions | Yes | Yes | | Push, in-app, SMS steps | No | Yes | | Segments from events and objects | Groups and contact properties | Yes, much deeper | | Broadcasts | Yes | Yes | | Subscription preferences | Channels per contact | Subscription center | If your lifecycle program spans mobile push, in-app messages and SMS, Customer.io does that and Reloop doesn't. --- ## Transactional email Both send password resets, receipts and magic links from your code. Customer.io's transactional API sends a template you build in its dashboard. You call `https://api.customer.io/v1/send/email` with an App API key, a `transactional_message_id`, the recipient and `message_data` for the Liquid variables: ```javascript await cio.sendEmail({ to: "ada@example.com", identifiers: { id: "user_123" }, transactional_message_id: 5, }); ``` Reloop sends either raw HTML or a stored template: ```typescript const { response, emailError } = await reloop.mail.send({ from: "Acme ", to: "ada@example.com", subject: "Reset your password", html: `

Reset your password

`, }); ``` A few differences worth knowing: - **SMTP relay.** Reloop runs one at `smtp.reloop.sh` for frameworks, CMSs and tools that only speak SMTP. Customer.io doesn't offer one. - **Templates.** Customer.io uses Liquid (`{{customer.first_name}}`), which supports loops and filters. Reloop substitutes `{{{first_name}}}` placeholders and also accepts React Email components or your own rendered HTML. - **Errors.** Reloop's errors include `message`, `why` and `fix`, so a failed send tells you what to change. - **Webhooks.** Reloop signs delivered, bounced and complained events with HMAC-SHA256 in the `Reloop-Signature` header. --- ## Receiving email and agent inboxes Customer.io is outbound. It doesn't host mailboxes for replies. Reloop receives mail into **mailboxes**. Messages are stored, threaded and spam-scored, and readable through the API, the [MCP server](/docs/integrations/ai-tools/mcp-server) or IMAP. You can reply in-thread with one call. That matters for "just reply to this email" flows, support addresses, and AI agents that need their own address to read and answer mail. See [build an AI agent that reads and replies to email](/blog/build-ai-agent-sends-emails). --- ## Deliverability and data ownership Reloop runs its own MTA (KumoMTA), with per-domain throttling and automatic pauses when bounce or complaint rates spike. The Growth plan ($20/mo) includes a dedicated IP. Both products handle SPF, DKIM, bounces, complaints and suppression for you. The larger difference is where your data lives: - **Customer.io** is closed SaaS. Data warehouse sync is a Premium feature. - **Reloop** is Apache 2.0. Start on Reloop Cloud and later move to your own server with the [one-command installer](/self-host) or [Coolify](/blog/reloop-coolify-setup). Point the SDK's `baseUrl` at your instance and your code stays the same. Self-hosting means owning IP warm-up and uptime, so most teams should start hosted. The option is useful for data residency, security reviews and price protection. --- ## Where Customer.io is the better choice Being honest about it: - **You message users on more than email.** Push, in-app and SMS in the same journey is what Customer.io is built for. - **Your segmentation is complex.** Segments across people, accounts and event history, managed by a growth or lifecycle team, are Customer.io's strength. - **Marketers own the program.** The visual Journeys builder and Liquid templates let non-engineers run sophisticated campaigns without a developer. - **You need warehouse sync** and are already on a Premium-sized budget. ## Where Reloop is the better choice - **Email is your only channel**, and paying $100+ a month for a multi-channel platform doesn't make sense. - **Your list is large or growing fast.** Paying per email instead of per profile is usually far cheaper: $20 vs about $505 at 50,000 profiles. - **You want transactional mail, SMTP and lifecycle emails in one product**, with one domain setup and one suppression list. - **You need inbound inboxes**, email for AI agents, or open source and self-hosting. --- ## Switching from Customer.io to Reloop 1. **Add your sending domain** in Reloop and publish the DKIM record (`reloop._domainkey`). Merge `include:reloop.sh` into your existing SPF record rather than adding a second one. 2. **Export your people** from Customer.io as CSV and import them as Reloop contacts. Map attributes to contact properties, and keep unsubscribed people unsubscribed. 3. **Rebuild templates.** Paste in your HTML and change Liquid placeholders to triple braces: `{{customer.first_name}}` becomes `{{{first_name}}}`. Liquid loops and filters need to move into your code before the send. 4. **Recreate email Journeys as automations.** Create an event for each trigger (for example `user.signed_up`), then add the same delays, conditions and email steps. Push, in-app and SMS steps have no Reloop equivalent. 5. **Swap the calls.** Replace `identify` plus `track` with `reloop.automations.start`, and `sendEmail` with `reloop.mail.send`. 6. **Run both in parallel** for a week or two, then remove Customer.io's DNS records. --- ## FAQ Customer.io is priced by profiles stored, starting at $100 a month for 5,000 profiles, plus $0.009 for each extra profile. Reloop is priced by emails sent: $10 for 50,000 and $20 for 100,000, whatever the size of your list. For email, yes: event-triggered automations, broadcasts, transactional sends and SMTP. If your journeys also use push, in-app messages or SMS, Reloop doesn't cover those channels. No free plan is listed on its pricing page; paid plans start at $100 a month. Reloop's free tier sends 3,000 emails a month with no limit on contacts. Not directly. Reloop substitutes `{{{variable}}}` placeholders. Simple Liquid variables convert one-to-one; loops and filters should be rendered in your code, or with React Email, before you send. No. Customer.io is a hosted service. Reloop is Apache 2.0 and can run on your own server with the same API.