Privy vs Sumo
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Editorial assessmentSumo compared with Privy
Privy is built for Shopify first and bundles email and SMS sending as a genuine channel, not a convenience layer. Sumo is platform-agnostic with a stronger WordPress and Showit story, and its ecommerce features (discount codes, cart abandonment, order value prompts) come in at $19 rather than climbing with contact count. A Shopify store planning to run its whole email program in one tool should look at Privy; a WooCommerce or content site that only needs capture is better served by Sumo.
Choose Privy if
Small and growing Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix stores that want list capture, email, and SMS from one vendor at a predictable low starting price, and that value a fast setup over deep segmentation or branching automation logic.
Choose Sumo if
Bloggers, creators, course sellers, and small WordPress or Showit sites that want a capable opt-in popup and form tool with a real free plan and a flat, low, non-traffic-scaled price when they outgrow it.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Privy | Sumo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Lead Capture | Lead Capture |
| Starting price | $24 per month for the Pop Ups and Displays plan (10,000 monthly pageviews); $30 per month for the Email plan (up to 1,500 contacts) (15 days trial) | Free forever; paid plans from $19 per month billed annually ($228 per year) (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Two independent meters. Email plans are priced by the number of mailable contacts and include unlimited sends, popups, displays, campaigns, and automations. A Pop Ups and Displays only plan is priced by monthly pageviews for merchants who want lead capture without Privy's messaging. SMS is an optional add-on sold in monthly credit packages that roll over. Billing is monthly with no annual contract. | Flat monthly subscription by plan, with limits on number of sites, pageviews per site, and emails sent per month rather than on subscriber count. Annual billing is meaningfully cheaper than monthly. A permanently free plan exists and paid plans carry a 14-day free trial. |
| Free plan | No | One site, 100 conversions, 500 emails per month, opt-in forms with customizable design, social sharing, basic visitor targeting, and analytics, with BDOW! branding on forms |
| Free trial | 15 days, no credit card required | 14 days on paid plans, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee |
| Best for | Small and growing Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix stores that want list capture, email, and SMS from one vendor at a predictable low starting price, and that value a fast setup over deep segmentation or branching automation logic. | Bloggers, creators, course sellers, and small WordPress or Showit sites that want a capable opt-in popup and form tool with a real free plan and a flat, low, non-traffic-scaled price when they outgrow it. |
| Setup time | Under an hour to install and publish a first display on Shopify, since the app handles the script and pulls store data automatically. A complete setup with several displays, a welcome series, and an abandoned cart flow is typically one working day. | Under an hour. Create a free account, install the WordPress plugin or paste the script into the site template (or enable the native Showit or Shopify connection), pick a template, set display rules, and connect an email provider. A first live form in fifteen minutes is realistic. |
| Learning curve | Low. The editors are template-first and the flow builder ships pre-built sequences, so most merchants never build an automation from a blank canvas. The skill that takes longer is restraint: deciding which displays not to run so a visitor does not meet three overlays in one session. | Low. The builder is conventional and the display rules read in plain language. The part that takes longest is not the tool but the discipline of testing one variable at a time and matching each offer to the page it appears on. |
| Platforms | Shopify (primary), BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress.org, Web (JavaScript snippet) | Web (JavaScript snippet), WordPress plugin, Showit, Shopify, WooCommerce, Google Tag Manager |
| Compliance | GDPR, CCPA, TCPA (SMS consent, quiet hours, opt-out handling), CAN-SPAM | GDPR |
| Founded | 2011 | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, United States | Austin, Texas (Sumo Group); Formilytics LLC now operates the product |
| Ownership | Independent (Privy Operations) following divestment from Attentive in 2023 | Acquired by Showit (December 2023) and operated by Formilytics LLC |
Strengths and limitations
Privy
Strengths
- One vendor covers popups, email, and SMS, which removes the coupon and handoff breakage that plagues stitched-together stacks.
- Genuinely fast setup: a working exit-intent popup with a discount code and confirmation email is an afternoon's work with no developer involved.
- The strongest display format library in the small-store segment, including spin-to-win, mobile flyouts, and cart savers that other popup tools charge extra for.
- Standalone Displays pricing lets Klaviyo and Mailchimp users buy just the capture layer without duplicating their email spend.
Limitations
- The free plan is gone. Privy historically offered a free tier for small lists and now offers only a 15 day trial, which removes the on-ramp that built its reputation.
- Segmentation stays basic: new versus returning, location, device, and purchase history, with no predictive scoring and no deeply nested conditions.
- Automation flows are largely pre-built sequences rather than the branching, conditional logic available in Klaviyo or Omnisend, so complex lifecycle programs hit a ceiling.
- Billing after cancellation is the most common complaint in negative reviews: merchants report charges continuing after uninstalling the app, because removing the Shopify app does not always end the Privy subscription.
Sumo
Strengths
- A genuinely usable free plan with no time limit, which is why Sumo became the default popup tool for a generation of bloggers.
- Flat pricing that does not escalate with subscriber count, unusual in a category where list growth normally raises the bill every year.
- The full catalogue of form types (popup, welcome mat, smart bar, scroll box, click trigger, inline, countdown, social proof) in one dashboard rather than split across products.
- Deep targeting rules for the price point, including cookie and query-parameter conditions that many cheaper tools omit.
Limitations
- A small, dated template library that reviewers repeatedly single out; layouts, buttons, and mobile views are hard to alter beyond the presets.
- No personalization or product recommendation logic, so every visitor matching a rule sees the same manually configured offer.
- Paid plans cap at 25,000 pageviews per site and three sites total, which rules out high-traffic publishers and agency portfolios.
- Public WordPress.org reviews over several years report broken logins, incompatibility with current WordPress versions, and unresolved support tickets; the most recent reviews on that listing are poor.
Pricing compared
Privy
Two independent meters. Email plans are priced by the number of mailable contacts and include unlimited sends, popups, displays, campaigns, and automations. A Pop Ups and Displays only plan is priced by monthly pageviews for merchants who want lead capture without Privy's messaging. SMS is an optional add-on sold in monthly credit packages that roll over. Billing is monthly with no annual contract.
- Pop Ups & DisplaysFrom $24
- EmailFrom $30
- Email and SMSFrom $45
For a store under roughly $50k a month in revenue, $30 buys capture, email, and automation from one vendor, which is genuinely hard to beat on capability per dollar; the abandoned cart flow alone usually clears the cost. The value proposition weakens in two directions. Below it, the loss of the free plan means the smallest stores now pay from day 16, and dedicated popup tools start cheaper. Above it, contact-based pricing climbs steadily while the segmentation and automation depth does not, so by the time you are paying several hundred dollars a month you are paying Klaviyo money for less than Klaviyo capability. Privy is priced well for its intended band and poorly for anyone who sits outside it.
Sumo
Flat monthly subscription by plan, with limits on number of sites, pageviews per site, and emails sent per month rather than on subscriber count. Annual billing is meaningfully cheaper than monthly. A permanently free plan exists and paid plans carry a 14-day free trial.
- Free$0
- Pro$19 annually, $25 monthly
- Plus$39 annually, $49 monthly
On price per capability BDOW! is one of the better deals in lead capture: $19 a month buys exit intent, A/B testing, branding removal, webhooks, and a full ecommerce offer layer that OptinMonster and Privy gate behind higher tiers or usage bands. The catch is the ceiling. Twenty-five thousand pageviews per site, three sites at the top, a small template library, and no personalization mean the tool stops scaling well before the price becomes the problem. Judged as a cheap, flat-priced opt-in tool for a WordPress, Showit, or small WooCommerce site, it is good value; judged as a conversion platform, it is underpowered next to the current leaders.
Editorial verdict on each
Privy
Privy is one of the few tools that does list capture and lifecycle messaging properly at a small-store price, and the reason is architectural rather than promotional: the popup that issues a discount code and the email that delivers it are the same system, which removes the most common failure point in a stitched-together stack. The display library is the best in its price band and the standalone Displays plan is a smart, honest option for merchants who already pay for Klaviyo. The reservations are real and specific. The free plan is gone, so the on-ramp that built the brand no longer exists. Segmentation and automation depth stop where a serious lifecycle program starts, which makes Privy a stage rather than a destination. And the persistent reports of billing continuing after uninstall are a support problem the company has been slow to fix, so cancel inside Privy rather than through Shopify. Judged against what a store under roughly $50k a month actually needs, it remains a strong buy; judged against where that store will be in two years, plan the exit at the same time you plan the install.
Read the full Privy profileSumo
Sumo's history is more interesting than its present. It normalized the free email capture popup, made list building a default habit for a generation of bloggers, and then changed hands and names twice, arriving as BDOW! under the website builder Showit. What is left is a decent, cheap, honest tool: every form type in one dashboard, targeting rules deeper than the price suggests, one-click A/B testing and an ecommerce offer layer both included at $19 a month, and a free plan that still does real work. What is also left is a small template library that reviewers keep flagging, a 25,000 pageview per site ceiling, a three-site maximum, and a support reputation that has not recovered. Buy it if you are a creator, a WordPress or Showit site, or a small store that wants capture working this afternoon for close to nothing. Look at OptinMonster, Poptin, or a Klaviyo-native form if design control, scale, or responsive support is the thing you cannot compromise on.
Read the full Sumo profilePrivy profile last reviewed 2026-08-23; Sumo last reviewed 2026-08-23. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.