- Under about $25K a month in revenue, a specialist is usually a better fit than a done-for-you agency.
- When I take over from cheap freelancers, I usually find flows with no intention behind them, missing or broken flows, and campaigns sent to everyone with no segments.
- An in-house email hire has to cover strategy, design, copy and analysis, which is a lot to ask of one person.
- An agency's main edge is pattern recognition across many brands, so it can tell you what's normal and what's broken.
Klaviyo freelancer vs agency: what's actually different?
A freelancer is one person doing the work. An agency is a team, or at least a system, doing the work across several brands at once.
That sounds like a size difference. It's really a difference in what you're buying. With a freelancer, you're usually buying hands: someone to build the flows and send the campaigns you ask for. With an agency, you should be buying judgment too: what to build, in what order, and why.
Neither is automatically better. A great freelancer beats a lazy agency every time. But the failure modes are different, and you should know them before you hire.
When does a freelancer make sense?
A freelancer makes sense when you're early, your list is small and you mainly need the basics built right. If you're doing under about $25K a month, that's my honest recommendation: hire a specialist, not a done-for-you agency.
The catch is the word specialist. When I take over from a cheap freelancer, I usually see three things:
- Flows with no intention behind them. They're set up because a template said so.
- Flows that are missing or broken.
- Campaigns that go to everyone, with no segments, so nobody can analyze what worked.
If you hire a freelancer, ask them to explain why each flow exists and who each campaign is going to. If they can't, keep looking.
When does an agency make sense?
An agency makes sense when email is already a meaningful slice of revenue and the cost of getting it wrong is real. Across the brands I work with, email averages about 32% of total revenue. At that point, small leaks cost real money every month.
The best reason to hire an agency is the portfolio view. I work across a lot of brands at different sizes and in different categories, so I can see what's normal and what's broken. For example, across four consumable brands in my data, welcome email #1 earned about 30x what emails #2 to #5 earned. Only 2 of those 4 brands had a reorder reminder flow, which earned about 28x their best campaign. That kind of pattern is hard to spot from inside one account.
The worst reason to hire an agency is a big name. Plenty of agencies sell you the founder on the call and hand you to a junior account manager after you sign. Ask who will actually be in your account. With me, clients work with me directly, with no hand-offs.
If you want the numbers on what agencies charge and how they bill, I broke it down in how much a Klaviyo agency costs.
When does in-house make sense?
In-house makes sense when you have enough email work to keep someone busy full time, and enough going on elsewhere in retention that having them in the building pays off.
The hard part is the job description. A good email program needs strategy, design, copy and analysis. That's four skill sets, and very few people are great at all of them. Most in-house hires are strong at one or two and stretched on the rest.
There's also the salary. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for market research analysts and marketing specialists at $78,760 a year as of May 2025. Graphic designers came in at $62,960. Neither is an exact match for an email marketer, but they give you a feel for what one person costs before benefits, tools and the designer or copywriter they'll likely still need.
An in-house hire also only sees one account: yours. That's great for depth and bad for perspective. They won't know that your welcome flow is underperforming unless someone shows them what good looks like.
Klaviyo agency vs freelancer vs in-house, side by side
| Freelancer | Agency | In-house | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Under about $25K a month, basics first | Email is a real revenue line | Enough work to fill a full-time role |
| What you're buying | Hands to build and send | Judgment plus execution | Depth on one brand |
| Skills covered | Usually one or two | Strategy, design, copy, analysis | Whatever one person is great at |
| Perspective | One or a few accounts | Many brands, sizes and categories | Only yours |
| Common risk | No intention, missing flows, no segments | Hand-offs to junior staff | Stretched across too many skills |
| Questions to ask | Why does each flow exist? | Who's actually in my account? | Who checks their work? |
Is there a middle ground?
Yes, and it's often the best answer for brands that want to bring email in-house eventually.
One way I work with brands is a prepaid 90-day accelerator: I install my systems alongside your team, and they take it over after. You get the setup and the thinking from someone who's done it across many accounts, and your team keeps the keys.
Strategy calls are the lighter version. You keep doing the work and use the calls to make decisions. Either way, the goal is the same: someone on your side who understands why every flow and campaign exists.
Whichever route you pick, run my Klaviyo audit checklist first. It'll show you how much fixing you're hiring for.
FAQ
Should I hire a Klaviyo freelancer or an agency?
If you're under about $25K a month, hire a specialist freelancer. If email is already a big part of revenue and you need strategy as well as execution, an agency usually makes more sense. Either way, ask them to explain why each flow exists.
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house email marketer?
Not always. One person's salary is only part of it, since you'll likely still need design or copy help and the tools. The BLS median for marketing specialists alone was $78,760 a year in May 2025.
What's the biggest red flag when hiring for Klaviyo?
Anyone who guarantees results. Email results depend on your product, list and offer, and nobody honest can promise a number. Also watch for agencies where the person who sells you isn't the person doing the work.
Can I switch from a freelancer to an agency mid-year?
Yes. Have whoever takes over start with an audit, so you know what's live, what's broken and what's missing. Make sure you own the Klaviyo account and all the logins before anyone leaves.
Do I need an agency if my flows are already built?
Not necessarily. Built and working are different things, though. If revenue from email has been flat, check whether your flows are actually converting before you decide.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.