PushEngage vs CleverTap:
MAU pricing or subscriber pricing?
CleverTap is an engagement and analytics platform billed on monthly active users. PushEngage is web push, app push, in-app, WhatsApp, and chat billed on the subscribers who can receive them. CleverTap publishes Core pricing only, up to 100,000 MAU, so here are the numbers and where each one wins.
75,000+ businesses Prices published for every tier 14-day money-back guarantee
Reliability and trust
What a retention team needs before it switches tools.
A new vendor still has to pass the security review and the budget meeting. Here is what you can check today, without a sales call.
Prices you can put in the budget today
Every public tier is on the pricing page, billed on active subscribers, web and app combined. The number in the proposal is the number on the invoice.
- Published tiers from 1,000 to 250,000 subscribers
- No per-message fees on push; each plan includes a monthly sending volume
- Inactive Subscriber Cleanup on every plan
- Enterprise quoted above 250,000
Send controls that protect the channel
Browsers now throttle senders who over-message. Cap how often each subscriber hears from a triggered campaign and send in their timezone.
- Daily and weekly frequency caps on triggered campaigns, Growth and above
- Quiet hours inside Workflows
- Subscriber-timezone sending on Premium and above
GDPR and CCPA in the defaults
Every subscription is a browser or device permission grant. Add a pre-permission consent overlay where your audience needs one.
- Configurable pre-permission overlay per site
- One-click unsubscribe at the device level
A dashboard for marketers, an API for engineers
Your team runs campaigns from the dashboard. When you would rather hand it off, an MCP server lets Claude or Cursor work the account.
- AI Copywriter through AI-powered campaigns (add-on on paid plans)
- First-party MCP server for Claude, Claude Code, and Cursor
- REST API, SDKs, and Zapier on every plan, webhooks on Growth
- Open-source Agent Skills for SDK integration
Support that scales with the plan
Standard email support on Business, priority email and chat on Premium, VIP onboarding with your first campaign set up on Growth, and a dedicated success manager on Enterprise.
A 14-day money-back guarantee
Over the next 14 days, if PushEngage isn’t the best fit, simply reach out. We’ll refund 100% of your money. No questions asked.
Built by Awesome Motive, the team behind WPForms, AIOSEO, OptinMonster, and MonsterInsights.
Trusted by 75,000+ businesses
The 30-second version
Two different meters, two different jobs.
CleverTap is built to analyze app and web users and message them on every channel. PushEngage is built to run the retention channels a marketing team owns, at a price tied to its push audience. Pick on the job, not on the logo.
You pay for who can receive push
PushEngage bills on active subscribers. CleverTap bills on monthly active users, and its startups page counts a user as active after one tracked event in the month.
Web push without a developer
Plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify, or one snippet. CleverTap web push starts with VAPID keys and a service worker file at your site root.
Analytics sit at the center of the plan
Funnels, cohorts, trends, session analytics, and uninstall tracking come with CleverTap. If product analytics and engagement in one tool is the brief, that matters.
Email, SMS, RCS, and app inbox too
CleverTap lists push, in-app, app inbox, web push, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS, some as add-ons. PushEngage does not send email or SMS.
Side by side
CleverTap and PushEngage, row by row.
Every CleverTap cell comes from CleverTap’s own pricing page and documentation, checked on September 30, 2026. Where CleverTap is stronger, the table says so.
| CleverTap | PushEngage | |
|---|---|---|
| How it describes itself | An all-in-one platform for “data, decisioning, orchestration” with CleverAI built in. Plans: Core, Pro, and Ultimate. | Web push, app push, in-app, WhatsApp, and a chat widget for marketing teams at eCommerce stores, publishers, and SaaS products that want retention channels without an engineering queue. |
| Published prices | Core only: $85/mo up to 5,000 MAU, rising to $1,300/mo up to 100,000 MAU. Taxes apply and add-ons are excluded. Pro, Ultimate, and Core above 100,000 MAU go to a demo. | Yes, every public tier. Free, Business, Premium, and Growth are priced on /pricing/, up to 250,000 subscribers. Enterprise is quoted. Priced to 250,000 |
| What the bill is based on | Monthly active users or data points, depending on the commercial model. CleverTap’s startups page says billable users are the higher of your selected MAU tier or actual MAU, and a user counts as active after one tracked event in a calendar month. | Active subscribers on a fixed tier, web and app combined. No per-message fees on push; each plan includes a monthly sending volume. Inactive Subscriber Cleanup keeps dormant devices off the bill. |
| Free plan or trial | A 30-day trial on Core, with billing after the trial. Discounted pricing for eligible startups through the CleverTap Leap Community. | Free forever for 1 site, 200 subscribers, and 30 campaigns. No trial on paid plans; a 14-day money-back guarantee instead. |
| Channels | Push, in-app, app inbox, web push, web pop-up, web inbox, and webhooks. Email and WhatsApp as add-ons on all plans; SMS Connect listed on all plans, with SMS Direct as an add-on on Pro and Ultimate; RCS on Pro and Ultimate. Broader | Web push, app push, in-app messaging (Business plan and up, Android SDK first), WhatsApp automation (Growth plan and up), and a chat widget with 21 channels plus custom links. No email or SMS sending. |
| Journeys and send controls | Journeys, message A/B tests, and messaging frequency caps. Send-time and channel optimization from Pro. | Workflows on every plan (Free: 1 active workflow, up to 5 steps; Business: 5 active workflows, 10 steps, wait and decision nodes). Split Path and Workflow Chaining on Premium and up. Daily and weekly frequency caps on triggered campaigns (Growth and up), timezone sending (Premium and up). |
| Analytics and AI | Funnels, cohorts, events, trends, session analytics, uninstall tracking, and pre-built boards, with 3 years of data retention on Core and Pro and 10 on Ultimate. CleverAI tokens for copy, images, and segments. Deeper analytics | Campaign and workflow reports, goal tracking with revenue on Premium and up, AI Copywriter through AI-powered campaigns (add-on on paid plans), AI opt-in timing, and a first-party MCP server for Claude and Cursor. |
| Web push setup | Generate VAPID keys and upload them, host clevertap_sw.js at your document root, then call the permission prompt from your site’s JavaScript. Card-popup and bell-icon soft prompts are configured in the dashboard. | Plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify, or one snippet on any site, with a no-code opt-in prompt builder. No developer needed |
| Shopify | A CleverTap app in the Shopify App Store that its docs describe as a no-code integration, with web push, web pop-ups, exit intent, and web native display. | A Shopify and Shopify Plus app, a WooCommerce plugin, and ready cart abandonment, browse abandonment, price drop, and back-in-stock campaigns on Growth. |
| SDKs | Android, iOS, Web, React Native (with an Expo plugin), Flutter, Cordova, Unity, and KaiOS. | Web, iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native, all five on every plan, with the REST API and Zapier. Webhooks on Growth. |
| Security and support | ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27017, SOC 2 Type II, and CSA STAR Level 2, per its pricing FAQ. Self-serve support on every plan; the plan table lists a dedicated success manager from Pro. | GDPR and CCPA tooling and a pre-permission consent overlay. Email support on Business, priority email and chat on Premium, VIP onboarding on Growth, and a dedicated success manager on Enterprise. |
CleverTap details checked on clevertap.com/pricing and the CleverTap documentation on September 30, 2026. CleverTap MAU and PushEngage subscribers are different counts, so the price rows are not like-for-like. Features and packaging change, so confirm with CleverTap before you buy. PushEngage details are from the live pricing page and developer hub.
Pricing
Core prices are public. The meters differ.
CleverTap publishes Core pricing only, per month by monthly active users up to 100,000 MAU. PushEngage is priced by active subscribers, shown here at the standard annual renewal rate you pay from year two. MAU and subscribers are different counts, so read the figures below as a range, not a like-for-like quote. First-year pricing is lower, from $8 a month billed yearly.
The growing store
20,000 active subscribers, web and app combined
up to 20,000 MAU at $275/mo, listed monthly price × 12$3,300/yr
lowest plan that fits, standard annual renewal, billed yearly$1,020/yr
adds cart, browse, price drop, back in stock$1,828/yr
Core’s price includes CleverTap’s analytics, in-app, and app inbox. MAU and subscribers are different counts, so read this as a range, not a like-for-like quote.
The established brand
50,000 active subscribers, web and app combined
next tier up is 60,000 MAU at $825/mo, listed monthly price × 12$9,900/yr
lowest plan that fits, standard annual renewal, billed yearly$1,920/yr
adds cart, browse, price drop, back in stock$3,489/yr
CleverTap’s tiers jump from 40,000 to 60,000 MAU. PushEngage Business covers up to 50,000 subscribers.
The multi-site retailer
100,000 active subscribers, web and app combined
up to 100,000 MAU at $1,300/mo, listed monthly price × 12$15,600/yr
lowest plan that fits, standard annual renewal, billed yearly$4,412/yr
adds cart, browse, price drop, back in stock$6,258/yr
Above 100,000 MAU CleverTap moves to a demo. PushEngage publishes tiers to 250,000 subscribers.
CleverTap figures are the Core plan’s listed monthly price in US dollars at the MAU tier that covers each size, times 12, from clevertap.com/pricing on September 30, 2026, before taxes and add-ons. PushEngage prices are the standard annual renewal rate from the live plans API on the same day, taxes excluded. The pricing page has the calculator and the current first-year offer.
Where we will not pretend
Three things a fair CleverTap comparison says out loud.
- CleverTap does more. Email, SMS, RCS, app inbox, product analytics, and long data retention are real capabilities PushEngage does not have. If analytics and every channel in one tool is the goal, CleverTap is built for it.
- The meters are not the same. A CleverTap MAU is anyone who records an event that month. A PushEngage subscriber is someone who opted in to push. Check your own MAU and subscriber counts before you compare the two lines above.
- Two tools can be the right answer. Keeping CleverTap for analytics and adding a dedicated push tool is a valid setup. If you are weighing more than two options, our CleverTap alternatives roundup covers seven.
What the published price includes
Everything a push program needs, run from one dashboard.
Every paid tier includes web and app push on one subscriber profile, Workflows, behavior-based segmentation, and Inactive Subscriber Cleanup. Premium adds goal tracking and timezone sending. Growth adds triggered campaigns with frequency caps and the eCommerce automations.
One composer for the browser and the lock screen
Write it once and send it to Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, and to iOS and Android, from the same screen. One audience, one report.
- Native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter on every plan
- Live preview per platform, plus AI-powered campaigns (add-on on paid plans)
- Scheduling and recurring sends, with timezone delivery on Premium and above
eCommerce automations you switch on
Order received, on hold, cancelled, shipped, plus cart abandonment. Each is a ready campaign behind a toggle, and each reports the revenue it brought back.
- Cart and browse abandonment, price drop, and back in stock on Growth
- Order and shipping updates that answer where-is-my-order before the ticket
- Goal tracking on Premium and above ties revenue to the campaign that earned it
Workflows: wait, decide, act
A drag-and-drop canvas for welcome series, cart recovery, and win-backs. Wait, branch on behavior, then send or move the subscriber to a segment. Higher plans add split paths, starting another workflow, and HTTP requests.
- The builder is on every plan: Free runs 1 active workflow of up to 5 steps
- Business: 5 active workflows, 10 steps each, with wait and decision nodes
- Split Path and Workflow Chaining on Premium and above; HTTP request actions on Growth
Trigger rules your team sets without a ticket
On Growth and above, start a campaign on any event your site or app fires, stop it on another, and cap how often one subscriber hears from you.
- Custom start and stop events from the SDK or REST API
- Daily and weekly frequency capping on triggered campaigns
- UTM parameters added to every click URL
Segments built on active subscribers
Send to everyone, to a saved audience group such as active subscribers, or to a segment by URL, geography, device, or purchase behavior. Groups update themselves.
- Dynamic segments and audience groups without a developer
- Attributes set from the SDK or API for one-to-one copy
- Inactive Subscriber Cleanup keeps the count and the bill honest
A/B tests that pick their own winner
Test two headlines, images, or calls to action on a sample. After the delay you set, the better click rate goes to everyone else.
- Sample size and delay under your control
- Winner chosen on click-through rate
- On Premium and above
Opt-in prompts that earn the Allow click
When the prompt fires matters more than what it says. Trigger it by time on page, scroll depth, or a click, match it to your site, and segment subscribers as they join.
- Popup templates with desktop and mobile previews
- Triggers by time on page, scroll depth, or button click
- Segment on subscribe so the first campaign is already targeted
Start from a template, not a blank field
Broadcast templates by category, each tagged with its own UTM so you can see which style earns the click. Pick one, swap the copy, send.
- Templates for sales, launches, content, and win-backs
- UTM tracking per template for clean attribution
- Blank template when you want full control
Also in the product
The tools you would otherwise brief an engineer to build.
Templates, timing, alerts, compliance, and agent access come with the product.
Goal tracking and revenue analytics
Tie orders and signups to the notification that drove them, per campaign and per workflow. Premium and above.
See goal trackingTimezone delivery
Every subscriber gets the campaign at their own 9 AM, not yours. Premium and above.
See timezone deliveryBrowse abandonment
Catch the shopper who looked but never added to cart, while the intent is warm.
See browse abandonmentPrice drop alerts
Shoppers subscribe to a product and the alert fires itself when the price falls.
See price drop alertsBack in stock alerts
Turn a sold-out page into a waitlist that converts the moment stock returns.
See back in stockPersonalization and attributes
Merge tags for name, product, price, and any attribute you store on a subscriber.
See personalizationGDPR and CCPA tooling
Consent controls and data handling designed into the product, not bolted on.
See complianceChrome and Firefox extension
Draft, schedule, and send a push from any browser tab, with UTM fields filled in.
See the extensionMCP server and Agent Skills
Let Claude or Cursor build segments, run campaigns, and pull analytics, on top of the REST API.
See the developer hubChannels
Web push, app push, in-app, WhatsApp, and chat. One subscriber profile.
CleverTap covers more channels, email and SMS included. PushEngage covers the channels a retention team uses to bring a shopper back in seconds, in the same dashboard and reports.
Web push notifications
Browser notifications on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, including home-screen web apps on iOS 16.4+, with plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify.
See web push notificationsMobile app push notifications
Native SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native, on the same subscriber profile and reports as web push.
See mobile app push notificationsIn-app messaging
Top banner, bottom banner, center modal, or full screen, triggered on real events. From the Business plan, shipping first in the Android SDK.
See in-app messagingWhatsApp automation
Abandoned-cart, order-update, and post-purchase campaigns on the Meta Cloud API. Connect your WhatsApp Business account inside PushEngage, with no BSP contract. Growth plan and above.
See WhatsApp automationChat widget
Routes visitors to WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, email, or SMS: 21 channels plus custom links, with no hosted inbox to staff.
See the chat widgetPWA push notifications
Push for progressive web apps installed to the home screen, including home-screen web apps on iOS 16.4+.
See PWA push notificationsSetting up push for a progressive web app? Read the PWA push notifications guide.
Switching or adding
Run it next to CleverTap first, then decide.
You do not have to rip anything out to find out. Install PushEngage alongside your current setup, move one program, and compare on real traffic.
One installer for every platform you run
Pick your platform, paste one snippet or install the plugin, and you are live. Mobile follows the same path with the native SDKs.
- WordPress, Shopify, HubSpot, AMP, PrestaShop, Wix, or any site
- iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native SDKs for app push
- Service worker and install code generated in the dashboard
Pick the program to move
Start where the meter or the setup hurts most. For most teams that is web push, cart recovery, or app push campaigns waiting on a developer.
- Keep analytics, email, and in-app where they are
- Map the segments you need to recreate
- Book a demo to scope it with our team
Install alongside, not instead
PushEngage runs next to your existing setup. Ship the PushEngage SDK in an app update and run both while subscribers register. For iOS apps moving from FCM, our migration guide has the steps.
- WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, and Shopify Plus plugins
- iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native SDKs
- REST API and Zapier for your engineers, webhooks on Growth
Compare on real traffic, then cut over
Run both for a few weeks, compare clicks and attributed revenue, then decide what moves. Paid plans carry a 14-day money-back guarantee.
- Goal tracking on Premium and above
- Frequency caps on triggered campaigns (Growth)
- Our team walks through Android and web subscriber moves with you
The short version
Priced on the people who can get your push.
CleverTap meters every active user. PushEngage meters the subscribers who opted in, with published tiers to 250,000 and the setup in a plugin.
Keep comparing
Other comparisons, same honest format.
PushEngage vs OneSignal
Two usage meters against one fixed tier, with a calculator and worked examples.
Compare with OneSignalPushEngage vs Braze
An enterprise customer engagement suite against push, in-app, and chat your marketing team runs itself.
Compare with BrazePushEngage vs MoEngage
An agentic customer engagement platform on a quoted contract against published push pricing.
Compare with MoEngagePushEngage vs Airship
Enterprise mobile app engagement against web and app push on one published plan.
Compare with AirshipPushEngage vs iZooto
Web push for publishers, with ads in push, against retention push for stores and publishers.
Compare with iZootoPushEngage vs Klaviyo
Email and SMS first for eCommerce, and where browser and app push fit next to it.
Compare with KlaviyoPushEngage vs PushOwl
A Shopify web push app against push for Shopify, WooCommerce, any site, and your app.
Compare with PushOwlPushEngage vs Firebase Cloud Messaging
Free delivery infrastructure against the marketing layer that runs on top of it.
Compare with FCMCleverTap alternatives
Seven other tools teams weigh against CleverTap for push notifications.
Read the roundupPush notification service
The push notification service built for eCommerce retention teams.
See the servicePush notification software
A buyer’s checklist for evaluating push notification software.
Read the checklistFAQ
Questions, answered.
Is PushEngage a CleverTap alternative?
For web push, app push, in-app, WhatsApp, and chat, PushEngage covers the job for many mid-market retention teams, without a developer for web push. It is not a replacement for all of CleverTap: PushEngage does not send email or SMS and does not have CleverTap’s product analytics. For a wider roundup, see our CleverTap alternatives guide.
How much does CleverTap cost?
CleverTap publishes prices for its Core plan: $85/mo up to 5,000 monthly active users, $275/mo up to 20,000, and $1,300/mo up to 100,000, with taxes and add-ons extra. Pro, Ultimate, and Core above 100,000 MAU are priced through a demo. Prices are from clevertap.com/pricing on September 30, 2026.
How is a CleverTap MAU different from a PushEngage subscriber?
CleverTap’s startups page counts a monthly active user as someone who performs at least one tracked event in a calendar month, and bills on the higher of your selected tier or actual MAU. PushEngage counts active subscribers: people who opted in to push and can still receive it. A site can have many more monthly active users than push subscribers, or the reverse.
Can we run PushEngage alongside CleverTap?
Yes. Keep CleverTap for analytics, email, and in-app and run web push and app push from PushEngage, or the reverse split. Set frequency caps in both tools so one customer does not hear from you twice for the same cart. In PushEngage, caps apply to triggered campaigns on Growth and above.
Which is faster to set up for web push?
On PushEngage, install the WordPress, WooCommerce, or Shopify plugin, or paste one snippet, then design the opt-in prompt in the dashboard. CleverTap’s developer guide has you generate and upload VAPID keys, host clevertap_sw.js at your document root, and call the permission prompt from your site’s JavaScript. On Shopify, CleverTap has an app that its docs describe as a no-code integration.
How does PushEngage pricing scale?
By active subscribers, web and app combined. At standard annual renewal, 20,000 subscribers is $1,020 a year on Business, 50,000 is $1,920, and 100,000 is $4,412 on Premium. First-year pricing is lower, from $8 a month billed yearly. Above 250,000 subscribers the Enterprise plan is quoted.
Does CleverTap have a free plan?
CleverTap’s pricing page offers a 30-day trial on Core, with billing after the trial, and discounted pricing for eligible startups. PushEngage has a free plan for 1 site, 200 subscribers, and 30 campaigns, and every paid plan carries a 14-day money-back guarantee.
What does CleverTap do that PushEngage does not?
Email, SMS, RCS, app inbox, web inbox, funnels, cohorts, session and uninstall analytics, loyalty and rewards, and up to 10 years of data retention on Ultimate. If those are on your list, keep CleverTap or evaluate it. If your list is push, in-app, WhatsApp, and chat, PushEngage is built for that job.
Retention channels your marketing team can run this week.
See every tier on the pricing page, or book a demo and we will map your CleverTap push programs to PushEngage. If it is not the best fit within 14 days, we refund 100%. No questions asked.
Prices published for every tier 14-day money-back guarantee One subscriber profile for web and app