Why Bento?
I didn’t pick Bento for its templates. I picked it because it let my team and I build the exact logic we wanted, and it costs a fraction of the alternatives at our size.
What can Bento do that the others can’t?
Liquid inside the flow, not just the email
Bento lets you write Liquid in flow steps. Our replenishment flow reads an order once, the moment it arrives, labels it consumable or durable, and every later step reads that one word.
See the brushes decisionFlows that hand customers to each other
Any flow can fire an event that starts another. That is how our flows wait their turn, step aside for a purchase, and keep a customer in one conversation at a time.
See the lifecycleEvents from anywhere
Our own delivery tracker tells Bento when a parcel arrives, and a tiny daily job tells it who is due. Bento treats those exactly like its own events.
See delivery-timed post-purchaseTo be fair, Klaviyo can approximate some of this with its own filters and splits. The difference for us was how directly Bento let us write the logic, and the price.
What does it cost?
| Platform | Plan | At 10,000 | Billed on | Where the price came from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bento | Marketing | $79 | active users | Their pricing page$29 covers up to 5,000. No seat fees. |
| Klaviyo | $150 | active profiles | From review sites | |
| Mailchimp | Essentials | $110 | contacts | From review sitesFlows are limited to a few steps on this plan. |
| Omnisend | Standard | $132 | contacts emailed | From review sites |
| Shopify Email | Pay as you send | Depends on sends | emails sent | Their pricing page10,000 emails a month free, then $1 per 1,000. |
Prices checked on 7 November 2026. Prices change; check each pricing page before you decide.
What fought us, and how did we get around it?
None of these stopped us. I list them because you will probably meet them too, and because a tool is easier to trust when someone tells you where it is rough.
The date trigger never entered anyone.
What we did: A tiny scheduled job sends Bento a daily “due” event, and the date-based flows start from that.
What would fix it: A date trigger we could watch fire, with a log of who it matched.
Sequences can’t read the details that came with an event.
What we did: We kept that logic inside workflows, where event details are available.
What would fix it: Event details available in sequences too.
Integer division in Liquid drops the paise.
What we did: Divide by 100.0 and round, never by 100.
What would fix it: A note in the Liquid docs would save everyone the surprise.
Scheduled triggers run on UTC.
What we did: We convert every time to UTC by hand.
What would fix it: A time zone setting per account.
Bulk actions only reach the 25 people on the visible page.
What we did: Tags added by CSV import, which don’t start flows, are our way to seed a group.
What would fix it: Bulk actions across a whole search.
The Liquid editor auto-closes braces as you type.
What we did: We paste Liquid in, never type it, and re-read before saving.
What would fix it: An option to turn auto-closing off.
There is no node to jump back to an earlier step.
What we did: A shared clean-up step, or a wait followed by a re-check.
What would fix it: A jump-back node.
Bento’s revenue figure counts carts and checkouts, not just orders.
What we did: We track email clicks to real orders ourselves.
What would fix it: A revenue view that only counts placed orders.
The Shopify app sends purchases, and not much else yet.
What we did: Shopify Flow and a small relay send the other events.
What would fix it: Cart, checkout and fulfilment events from the app.
SMS and WhatsApp need the separate Bento Chat add-on.
What we did: We send WhatsApp through our own system, triggered from Bento flows.
What would fix it: Messaging inside the flow builder.
Who should pick something else?
If you want dozens of ready-made e-commerce flows, predictions like a customer’s next order date, or SMS in the same builder, Klaviyo is the stronger fit, at a higher price. If you are a small Shopify store sending a newsletter and a cart reminder, Shopify’s own email may be all you need for now.
If you want to build journeys that think for themselves, Bento is where I’d start.
Try Bento freeQuestions people ask about Bento?
Is Bento good for e-commerce?
For stores that want to build their own logic, yes. Bento lets you run Liquid inside flow steps and send events from anywhere. It has fewer ready-made e-commerce templates than Klaviyo, so you build more yourself.
How much does Bento cost?
When we checked in November 2026, Bento’s marketing plan was $29 a month for up to 5,000 active users and $79 for 10,000, with no seat fees. Check Bento’s pricing page for today’s numbers.
What are Bento’s weaknesses?
A few things fought us: a date trigger that never fired, sequences that can’t read event details, Liquid integer division, UTC-only schedules and a thin Shopify app. Each one had a workaround, listed on this page.