A MailTimers alternative for Klaviyo countdown timers

If your timer only has to count to one sale date and you send fewer than 100,000 views a month, MailTimers' free plan will probably do. The questions start with flows, where every subscriber needs their own deadline, and with Apple Mail, which Klaviyo itself warns about.

Why Klaviyo users start with MailTimers

Klaviyo's article on countdown timers opens by saying Klaviyo doesn't have one, then shows the steps with MailTimers: make the timer there, copy the HTML, paste it into an HTML block. MailTimers also lists Klaviyo as a partner and has its own guide for it. When someone asks an AI assistant which timer to use with Klaviyo, the answer often cites that same help page.

None of that says MailTimers is the best timer for your store. Klaviyo needed one working example, and MailTimers is it. Any timer that gives you an image tag works in Klaviyo the same way, BrandTimer's included.

What MailTimers' free plan covers

The free plan gives 100,000 views a month, which is the most of any free plan we've compared. A view is one open of an email with the timer in it, so a 20,000-person list can send several timer campaigns a month for free.

The limits are elsewhere. On its pricing page, free timers run for 30 days at most. The same page lists evergreen timers and background pictures under Free, but its upgrade notes say evergreen timers need a premium plan and background images need Startup+. Motion timers start at Business. Paid plans start at $7.99 for 150,000 views, and if you go over, MailTimers says the timers keep working and it bills the extra views or suggests a bigger plan.

From MailTimers pricing and its timer page, checked October 26, 2026. Its pricing page does not show a price for every plan.

Timers in Klaviyo flows

A campaign goes out once, so one end date works for everyone. A flow sends the same email to each person on a different day. A welcome email with a "3 days left" code needs a deadline that starts when that person opens it. An abandoned-cart email needs one that starts from their cart.

There are two ways to do this, and both cost money at both tools:

• Start at first open. The timer remembers when each person first opened the email and counts from there, so reopening it later doesn't restart the clock. On BrandTimer it comes with Pro.
• A date from the profile. If Klaviyo has the date (a trial end, a birthday, a reservation), the timer reads it from a merge tag in the image address. BrandTimer's editor writes the tag for Klaviyo for you.

After the deadline, the timer should say so instead of sitting at 00:00:00. In BrandTimer every plan includes a message after the deadline, and on Business the button's link can change too, so a late click lands on a current offer and not an expired code.

The Apple Mail problem Klaviyo warns about

Klaviyo's article points this out itself: Apple Mail Privacy Protection downloads images, timers included, when the email arrives. Apple's servers fetch the timer before the person reads the email, so the GIF they see can be hours old.

For timers with one date, BrandTimer can recognize Apple's request and send a card with the end date instead of a clock. A card that says "Ends Sunday, 11:59 PM" is correct whenever the email is read. On a list where many people read on iPhones, this decides whether their timer is right.

Making it look like your email

Klaviyo emails are usually designed with care: brand fonts, set colors, product photos. MailTimers lets you change colors, upload a font file, add a background picture and build timers from Photoshop files. That covers a lot.

BrandTimer goes further on design. The timer is HTML and CSS you can edit, so layout and spacing are yours too. If you'd rather not touch code, paste your store's address and the colors and fonts come from your site. If you keep brand kits for several stores, save one per store and apply it to any template.

Adding a timer in Klaviyo

The steps are the same for any timer tool, and they follow Klaviyo's own article:

1. Make the timer and copy its HTML code.
2. In Klaviyo, open the template, campaign or flow email and drag in an HTML block where the timer should go, ideally right above the button.
3. Delete what's in the block, paste the code and click the back arrow to apply it.
4. Send yourself a preview and open it in Gmail and Apple Mail.
5. Write the deadline in the email text as well, with the time zone. Klaviyo recommends this for readers whose timer doesn't load.

A BrandTimer code is one image tag. On Business, when the button's link should change after the deadline, the image is wrapped in a BrandTimer link:

<a href="https://brandtimer-img.com/l/k3f9q2m7xa" target="_blank" style="display:block">
  <img src="https://brandtimer-img.com/t/k3f9q2m7xa.gif" width="600" height="190"
       alt="Countdown" style="display:block;border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto">
</a>

When MailTimers is enough

• You only run campaigns with one end date, each shorter than 30 days, and under 100,000 views a month.
• Your designer already makes timers in Photoshop and is happy with the result.
• You need a repeating "order by Friday" timer and don't want to pay for it. On BrandTimer that is a Business feature.

Pick BrandTimer if you run timers in flows, if Apple Mail opens matter to you, or if the timer has to match a designed email without someone building it by hand.