Lumail vs Shopify Email
Lumail
Shopify Email
Ecommerce email and SMS inside Shopify
Lumail and Shopify Email pricing and feature comparison
Free emails / month
Lumail
3,000
Shopify Email
10,000
Unlimited subscribers · $0
$0
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
$1 per 1,000 emails after the free 10,000
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Pay per email sent, unlimited contacts; needs a paid Shopify store
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
Prebuilt abandoned cart, welcome, post-purchase, and win-back automations
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
Shopify's Sidekick AI helps write and lay out emails in the editor
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Order and shipping emails are separate Shopify notifications
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Your Shopify store plus pop-up and inline signup forms
Choose Lumail if…
- You need email without running a paid Shopify store
- You want agents to run campaigns and workflows through MCP, CLI, SDK, and API
- You want transactional email by API or SMTP next to marketing email
Choose Shopify Email if…
- You already sell on Shopify and want campaigns next to your orders
- You need cart and browse recovery tied to store events
- You want SMS and your store in the same admin as email
Where Shopify Email is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, is Shopify's built-in email and SMS app for store campaigns and automations, billed by emails sent. People pick Shopify Email when they need shopify merchants who want email and SMS inside their store admin.
- Products, prices, segments, and checkout live next to your campaigns
- 10,000 free emails a month; abandoned checkout emails don't count
- Commerce automations and SMS in the same app
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Shopify Email, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Shopify Email?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Shopify Email's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Shopify Email?
Choose Shopify Email if you run a Shopify store and want campaigns and checkout automations inside the admin. Choose Lumail for a standalone email platform with unlimited subscribers, graph workflows, transactional email, and agent access.
Can I migrate from Shopify Email to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.