- 1Privy's high scaling costs and generic popup formats lead many merchants to seek alternatives, prompting a need for a solution offering better value and differentiation.
- 2Boomio emerges as a strong alternative, providing gamified email capture that significantly enhances opt-in rates—averaging 8-12% compared to Privy's 2-5%.
- 3Switching to Boomio allows for a more engaging brand experience through real mini-games, aligning closely with merchants already using Klaviyo and focusing on email growth.
- 4Merchants currently paying $50+ for Privy with low opt-in rates will find better results and predictable pricing with Boomio, which offers a flat rate at $27.30/month.
- 5A successful transition involves starting with Boomio, creating a branded game, and seamlessly integrating it with existing email platforms to enhance engagement.
AI-generated, reviewed by Povilas Sumskas
The Best Privy Alternative for Shopify pop-up's in 2026 (Hint: It's Not Another Popup)
Privy is one of the most-used Shopify apps of all time. It's reliable, it works, and it does email + SMS capture well. But if you're searching for a Privy alternative, you're probably frustrated with one of these things: the price, the generic popup experience, or both.
This guide covers the best Privy alternatives, and makes the case that in 2026, the real upgrade isn't another popup tool. It's something entirely different.
Why Merchants Look for Privy Alternatives
Privy is a solid product, but it has a few friction points that send merchants looking elsewhere:
Pricing that scales fast Privy's pricing is based on your contact list size. As your list grows, so does your bill, significantly. Many merchants find themselves paying $100–$300+/month once they've been running for a year or two.
Generic popup formats Privy offers flyouts, banners, spin wheels, and embedded forms. These are fine, but they're the same formats your visitors see on every other Shopify store. There's no real differentiation.
Complexity for what it does Privy has a lot of features. If you're primarily using it for email capture, you're paying for (and navigating around) a lot of things you don't need.
Privy Alternatives at a Glance
| App | Email capture | Gamification | Klaviyo | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boomio | ✅ via games | ✅ Real mini-games | ✅ Native | $29/mo flat |
| Justuno | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | From $59/mo |
| Wisepops | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | From $49/mo |
| OptiMonk | ✅ | Basic | ✅ | Free–$249/mo |
| Klaviyo Forms | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ Native | Free with Klaviyo |
| Privy | ✅ | Basic spin wheel | ✅ | From $30/mo (scales) |
The Real Alternative: Games Instead of Popups
Here's the honest take: if all you want is a cheaper popup, switch to Klaviyo's built-in forms, they're free and they work.
But if you want to actually improve your opt-in rate, not just replace one popup with another, the answer is gamification. Specifically, real branded mini-games.
Here's why:
Popups interrupt. Games invite.
A popup says ""give me your email before you do what you came here to do."" A game says ""want to play something for 60 seconds and win a discount?"" One creates friction. The other creates anticipation.
The data backs this up:
- Average popup opt-in rate (including Privy): 2–5%
- Average gamified popup opt-in rate (spin wheels): 4–6%
- Average mini-game opt-in rate (Boomio): 8–12%
That's 2–4x more emails from the same traffic, without spending more on ads.
Boomio vs. Privy: Head to Head
| Privy | Boomio | |
|---|---|---|
| Email capture | ✅ Popups, flyouts, banners | ✅ Via branded mini-games |
| SMS capture | ✅ | Coming soon |
| Gamification | Basic spin wheel | 7 real game formats |
| Klaviyo integration | ✅ | ✅ Native |
| Pricing | Scales with list size | $27.30/mo flat |
| Brand experience | Generic | Fully branded |
| Avg. opt-in rate | 2–5% | 8–12% |
Where Privy wins: If you need SMS capture today, or you want a proven tool with years of case studies and enterprise support.
Where Boomio wins: Email capture rate, brand experience, pricing predictability, and novelty, your visitors haven't seen a Boomio game before.
Who Should Switch from Privy to Boomio
Boomio is the right Privy alternative if:
- Your main goal is growing your email list (not SMS)
- You're on Klaviyo or Mailchimp already
- You want a branded experience that reflects your store's personality
- You're paying $50+/month for Privy and not seeing proportional results
- Your Privy popup opt-in rate is under 5% and you want to improve it
Boomio is probably not for you if you need heavy SMS capture, complex popup targeting rules, or enterprise A/B testing across hundreds of variants.
How to Switch from Privy to Boomio
- Start your Boomio account
- Create your first game
- Connect Klaviyo or other Email platform: your existing flows continue working; Boomio passes emails to the same lists
- Customise your game: pick a format, apply your branding, set your reward tiers
- Pause Privy, go live with Boomio: run them in parallel for 48 hours if you want to A/B test first
The Bottom Line
Privy is a good tool. But in 2026, ""a popup"" is table stakes, everyone has one. The stores that are growing their lists faster aren't switching from one popup to another. They're switching from popups to games.
If your opt-in rate is stuck under 5%, a different popup won't fix it. A fundamentally more engaging experience will.
