Keeping a customer is cheaper than winning a new one, and customer engagement platforms exist to make that easier. They bring your customer data and messaging channels together so you can onboard, retain, and win back customers with less manual work. These five suit different business types, team sizes, and budgets.

1. Gleantap: Best for Multi-Location B2C Brands

Gleantap is an AI-powered customer engagement platform for B2C brands, combining CRM, marketing automation, AI agents, loyalty, and reputation management. Its omnichannel inbox handles emails, texts, Instagram DMs, phone calls, and live chats in one place.

Why it stands out:

• Marketing automation across email and SMS, driven by behavior and profile data
• A sales CRM with pipeline management and automated follow-ups
• An Agentic MCP Server that lets you run Gleantap from Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any MCP-compatible tool, with approval required before anything irreversible
• Customer data unified across locations, aimed at franchises and multi-location brands

Pricing: Engage costs $299 per month per location and includes 1,000 active contacts. Scale costs $499 per month per location and includes 10,000 active contacts, plus advanced analytics, loyalty, and HIPAA compliance. Enterprise is custom-priced with unlimited active contacts. Prices assume an annual commitment, month-to-month runs 15% higher, and SMS is pay-per-use. The Agentic MCP Server add-on is $49 per month per location.

Best for: Small businesses, franchises, and enterprises in fitness, healthcare, retail, spas and salons, family entertainment, sports clubs, and agencies.

Keep in mind: Pricing is per location, so multi-location costs add up. Discounts are available above 10 locations.

2. Klaviyo: Best for Ecommerce and Retail Brands

Klaviyo describes itself as an autonomous B2C CRM and AI marketing platform that unifies customer data and automates email, SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and mobile push. It offers Composer, an AI marketing agent where you approve every step, and Customer Agent for 24/7 service.

Why it stands out:

• 400+ pre-built integrations, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Salesforce
• Use cases such as abandoned cart recovery, win-back campaigns, and predictive lifetime value
• A free plan with core features

Best for: Retail and ecommerce brands. It also has pages for restaurants and fitness and wellness.

Keep in mind: Paid plans scale with contact counts and channel usage, such as email and SMS.

3. Braze: Best for Large Brands Running Cross-Channel Journeys

Braze became publicly traded in November 2021 and says it serves more than 2,000 global brands in over 70 countries. Its Canvas journey builder is a drag-and-drop, no-code tool for orchestrating journeys.

Why it stands out:

• Channels include email, mobile app messaging, web messaging, SMS/RCS, WhatsApp, LINE, and KakaoTalk
• BrazeAI, BrazeAI Decisioning Studio, and BrazeAI Agents
• A data platform for acting on customer data in real time

Best for: Large consumer brands and enterprises.

Keep in mind: Braze's pricing details weren't publicly available when this was written, so confirm them directly with Braze.

4. Mindbody: Best All-in-One for Fitness, Beauty, and Wellness Operations

Mindbody positions itself as an all-in-one platform for business management, with a large fitness and wellness marketplace and AI-powered tools.

Why it stands out:

• Unlimited users, so you can grow your team without paying for extra logins
• A listing on the Mindbody app, which Mindbody says reaches 3M+ consumers searching each month
• Growth features including dynamic pricing, intro offers, and ClassPass integration

Best for: Studios, spas, salons, and wellness businesses that want one system for operations and marketing.

Keep in mind: Its UK site lists plans from £89 per month. Both Gleantap and Klaviyo list Mindbody integrations, so many businesses pair it with a dedicated engagement tool.

5. Customer.io: Best for Behavior-Driven Messaging

Customer.io is a customer engagement platform for creating personalized journeys across email, push, SMS, and in-app messaging. It calls itself the platform for tech-savvy marketers and also triggers webhooks.

Best for: Product and lifecycle teams comfortable with data-driven setup.

Keep in mind: Check Customer.io's site for current pricing and detailed features before deciding.

How to Choose

1. Business model: Ecommerce points to Klaviyo, multi-location B2C to Gleantap, and appointment-based operations to Mindbody.
2. Team size: Enterprises can justify Braze's build-out, while smaller teams may prefer something simpler.
3. Existing systems: Check integrations first.
4. Channels: Confirm the platform covers the ones you use.
5. Budget: Compare pricing models, since per-location, per-contact, and usage-based billing scale differently.

Final Thoughts

There's no single best platform, only the best fit. Run demos or free trials, map your most important customer journeys, and pick the tool that makes them easiest to automate.