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E-Commerce · head to head

Drip vs Heartland Retail

Drip logo

Drip

E-Commerce

Ecommerce email marketing and automation priced purely on contact count

From
$39/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Heartland Retail logo

Heartland Retail

E-Commerce

Cloud point of sale and inventory management sold alongside Heartland card processing

From
$150/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Drip drip SMS is closed to new accounts and was US-only when it was open, so the multichannel positioning that competitors offer is not actually available to a new customer.; Heartland Retail the software is sold as part of a card processing relationship, so the monthly licence understates the real cost and the processing rate is the number that determines what you pay over a year.
  • They diverge on capability: Drip covers Ecommerce data sync, Heartland Retail covers Multi-store inventory.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Drip and Heartland Retail actually diverge.

Attributes where Drip and Heartland Retail differ
AttributeDripHeartland Retail
Starting price$39/month$150/month
Pricing modelPer month by contact countsubscription
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
FoundedUnknown1997

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Drip

  • Ecommerce data sync
  • Visual workflow builder
  • Behavioural segmentation
  • Onsite forms and popups
  • Unlimited sends
  • No feature gating
  • Product recommendations
  • A/B testing

Only in Heartland Retail

  • Multi-store inventory
  • Cloud point of sale
  • Purchasing and receiving
  • Customer records
  • Sales and stock reporting
  • Integrated card processing
  • E-commerce integrations

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Drip

  • A Shopify retailer wants abandoned cart, winback and post-purchase automation without the tier-by-tier feature gating that makes Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign quotes unpredictable.not Heartland Retail
  • A store with a mid-sized list finds Klaviyo expensive for the volume it sends and wants a comparable ecommerce data model at a lower monthly cost.not Heartland Retail
  • A marketer needs onsite capture forms and popups included rather than paying separately for a popup tool alongside the email platform.not Heartland Retail
  • A team sends high email volume to a modest list, such as daily deals or frequent restocks, where unlimited sends on a contact-based price is materially cheaper than send-metered plans.not Heartland Retail

Heartland Retail

  • A specialty retailer opening a third or fourth site that needs one stock position across all of themnot Drip
  • Replacing a legacy on-premise till system that requires a server in the back office of every storenot Drip
  • A retailer whose buying team needs purchase orders and receiving rather than just a cash registernot Drip
  • An existing Heartland processing customer consolidating software and payments under one suppliernot Drip

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Drip

  • Drip SMS is closed to new accounts and was US-only when it was open, so the multichannel positioning that competitors offer is not actually available to a new customer.
  • Pricing scales on total contacts regardless of engagement, so an unpruned list of lapsed subscribers costs the same as an active one and list hygiene becomes a direct budget item.
  • Analytics and revenue attribution are thinner than Klaviyo, with no predictive lifetime value or churn scoring, so a data-led ecommerce team hits the ceiling on measurement before it hits it on sending.
  • The integration catalogue is far smaller than Klaviyo or Mailchimp, and outside the main ecommerce platforms and Zapier you will often be writing against the API yourself.
  • It sits inside Leadpages rather than being an independent company, and as the smaller of the two products its roadmap is subject to a parent whose primary business is landing pages rather than ecommerce email.

Heartland Retail

  • The software is sold as part of a card processing relationship, so the monthly licence understates the real cost and the processing rate is the number that determines what you pay over a year.
  • Leaving means changing till software and merchant account together, and since the payment terminals, the reporting history and the staff training are all tied to the same supplier, the switching cost is far higher than a software migration alone.
  • It is not an online store platform, so a merchant selling on the web still buys and maintains a separate e-commerce platform, and the stock and order integration between the two is an ongoing operational dependency rather than a one-off setup.
  • Historical sales and customer purchase history rarely migrate cleanly out of a point of sale system, so a retailer who switches typically starts with an empty history and keeps the old system read-only, paying for it, for years.
  • Heartland sits within Global Payments, a group that has repeatedly restructured its portfolio through acquisitions and divestitures, so which entity owns and invests in this specific product is not stable over a long contract term.

Pricing, plan by plan

Drip

$39/month
  • Up to 2,500 contacts$39/month
    • Unlimited email sends
    • All workflows and segmentation
    • Onsite forms and popups
  • Up to 5,000 contacts$89/month
    • Identical feature set
    • Unlimited email sends
  • Up to 10,000 contacts$154/month
    • Identical feature set
    • Unlimited email sends
    • Price continues to scale with contact count above this

Heartland Retail

$150/month
  • Core$150/month
    • POS system
    • Inventory management
    • Customer management
  • Professional$350/month
    • All Core features
    • Omnichannel
    • Advanced analytics

Which should you pick?

Choose Drip if

  • You need ecommerce data sync.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want visual workflow builder.
Drip review

Choose Heartland Retail if

  • You need multi-store inventory.
  • You also want cloud point of sale.
Heartland Retail review

Questions people ask

Is Drip or Heartland Retail better?
Neither clearly leads. Drip starts at $39/month and Heartland Retail at $150/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Drip or Heartland Retail?
Drip starts at $39/month and Heartland Retail at $150/month.
Does Drip or Heartland Retail run on more platforms?
Drip runs on Web, API. Heartland Retail runs on Web.
What is Drip best used for?
Drip is most often used for a shopify retailer wants abandoned cart, winback and post-purchase automation without the tier-by-tier feature gating that makes mailchimp and activecampaign quotes unpredictable., a store with a mid-sized list finds klaviyo expensive for the volume it sends and wants a comparable ecommerce data model at a lower monthly cost., a marketer needs onsite capture forms and popups included rather than paying separately for a popup tool alongside the email platform., a team sends high email volume to a modest list, such as daily deals or frequent restocks, where unlimited sends on a contact-based price is materially cheaper than send-metered plans.. Of those, a shopify retailer wants abandoned cart, winback and post-purchase automation without the tier-by-tier feature gating that makes mailchimp and activecampaign quotes unpredictable. and a store with a mid-sized list finds klaviyo expensive for the volume it sends and wants a comparable ecommerce data model at a lower monthly cost. are not what Heartland Retail is typically brought in for.
What can Drip do that Heartland Retail cannot?
Drip covers Ecommerce data sync, Visual workflow builder, Behavioural segmentation, Onsite forms and popups. Heartland Retail covers Multi-store inventory, Cloud point of sale, Purchasing and receiving, Customer records.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Drip: Does Drip do SMS?

Not for new customers. Drip SMS is closed to new accounts and was only ever available in the United States, so treat Drip as an email and onsite platform.

Heartland Retail: Can I use it as my online store?

No. It manages the shop floor and stock. Selling online means a separate e-commerce platform and an integration to keep the catalogue and stock aligned.

Drip: How is Drip priced?

Entirely by contact count, from 39 US dollars a month for 2,500 contacts. Email sends are unlimited and no features are held back on lower tiers.

Heartland Retail: Do I have to use Heartland for card processing?

The product is sold as part of a payments relationship, and that is where the supplier's margin sits. Ask explicitly what the software costs standalone before assuming you have a choice.

Drip: Who owns Drip?

Leadpages, which acquired it in 2016. Drip retains its own name, site and product.

Heartland Retail: What should I negotiate hardest on?

The card processing rate and the contract term, not the software subscription. Ask for interchange-plus pricing in writing rather than a blended rate.

Drip: How does it compare to Klaviyo?

Cheaper at small and mid list sizes with a similar ecommerce data model, but weaker on analytics, predictive segmentation and the breadth of its app ecosystem.

Heartland Retail: What happens to my sales history if I leave?

Assume products and current stock export cleanly and that years of transaction history do not. Budget for keeping the old system available read-only during any transition.

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