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From Braze

Migration Guide

Braze→AlpacaRelay

Switch from Braze to AlpacaRelay

Complete migration in under 30 minutes — saves ~$400-1,125/month in labor (8-15 hrs/month at $50-75/hr you currently spend managing Braze). Your contacts, templates, and automations transfer with quality scoring added. The 7-step expertise chain takes over from day one.

30 minutesEasy — no developer needed

What Transfers from Braze

FromToStatus
Contacts & listsContacts with all tags & segments — AI auto-maps fields and cleans duplicatesFull transfer
Email templatesTemplates re-scored by EQS — AI identifies weak dimensions and suggests upgrades worth ~$200-600/month in improved performanceFull transfer
Automation workflowsAI recreates and upgrades sequences — welcome email becomes scored 3-email sequence, manual newsletter becomes AI-optimized, nonexistent cart recovery becomes one-click Tier 1 (~$800-2,000/month revenue lift)Rebuild
Campaign historyAnalytics archive (read-only) — AI analyzes historical performance to calibrate future sendsPartial
Audience segmentsAI recreates segments from contact data and optimizes segment boundaries for revenue impactFull transfer
Landing pagesNot transferred (use PageKiss) — AI focuses on email, where the highest ROI livesManual

From Braze to AlpacaRelay

Step-by-Step Migration

1

Export Your Contacts from Braze

Log into Braze and navigate to Audience > User Import to access your contact database. Select all segments or choose specific ones, then export as CSV format. This exports subscriber lists, custom attributes, and engagement history — typically 5-15 minutes depending on list size. You're moving data ownership to AlpacaRelay's AI system, which will immediately begin profiling each contact for optimal send timing and personalization. Exporting a 50,000-contact list saves you approximately 8-10 hours of manual data organization that you'd otherwise handle in-house.

2

Create Your AlpacaRelay Account

Sign up at AlpacaRelay and complete onboarding. During setup, you'll configure your sending domain, define your industry vertical (Technology), and connect your first data source. This step activates the AI expertise chain — from this moment forward, every contact, template, and send decision routes through AlpacaRelay's Email Quality Scoring system. The onboarding wizard stores your API keys securely in Account Settings > API Keys, where you can retrieve them for integration with your tech stack. Setup takes 10-15 minutes and requires only your domain name and business email.

3

Import Contacts with Automated Tag Mapping

Upload your Braze CSV into AlpacaRelay via Audience > Import Contacts. The system auto-detects column headers (email, first_name, custom_attributes, engagement_tier) and maps them to AlpacaRelay fields. You review the mapping in one screen, approve, and AI handles the rest: deduplication, invalid email removal, and re-engagement scoring. AlpacaRelay's data-cleaning engine flags 3-8% of typical lists as non-compliant with 2025 Gmail/Yahoo sender requirements (Google, 2025), removing undeliverable addresses automatically. This saves 6-12 hours of manual list hygiene work that Braze requires you to manage manually.

4

Transfer & Score Your Email Templates

Export templates from Braze by navigating to Templates > select template > Export as HTML. Download each template and upload into AlpacaRelay's Template Library via Campaigns > Templates > Import HTML. AlpacaRelay immediately runs each template through its 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework (Deliverability, Mobile Render, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Visual Hierarchy, Copy Effectiveness, Brand Consistency, Structural Compliance), assigning an Email Quality Score (EQS) to each. Templates typically score 65-78/100 on first import; AI suggests upgrades that lift scores to 88-94/100. You no longer manually review mobile responsiveness, CTA contrast, or copy length — AI audits all eight dimensions and flags issues in seconds. This eliminates 4-8 hours of template QA per month.

5

Rebuild Key Automations (Cannot Export, So Recreate with AI)

Braze automations cannot be exported as JSON or workflow files — you must rebuild them in AlpacaRelay. Document your top automations (Welcome sequence, Abandoned Cart, Re-engagement) with their triggers and delays. In AlpacaRelay, go to Automations > Create Workflow and rebuild each one using AI-assisted flow builder. Here's the upgrade: AlpacaRelay scores every email in each automation individually. Your 3-email Welcome sequence in Braze might have been: Day 1 intro (no scoring), Day 3 value prop (no scoring), Day 7 CTA (no scoring). In AlpacaRelay: Day 1 intro (EQS 89/100), Day 3 value prop (EQS 92/100), Day 7 CTA (EQS 94/100) — AI recommends copy tweaks and subject line variants that improve each step. Rebuilding 5-8 automations takes 4-6 hours; the EQS improvements typically yield 5-10% open rate lifts (Knak, 2026), worth $150-400/month in recovered engagement.

6

Update DNS & Authentication (DKIM/SPF to AlpacaRelay)

Go to Account Settings > Email Authentication and generate your DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records. Copy these records into your DNS provider (Route53, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, etc.) and point them to AlpacaRelay's mail servers. This step transfers deliverability monitoring from Braze's infrastructure to AlpacaRelay's AI-powered system. Expect a 2-4 week warm-up period during which ISPs build trust with AlpacaRelay's sending IPs (Validity, 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report). Your inbox placement may dip 3-5% in week 1-2, then recover as AlpacaRelay's reputation engine warms. We recommend running Braze and AlpacaRelay in parallel during this period — send your most engaged 10% through AlpacaRelay first, measure performance, then migrate the rest. Authentication update takes 15-20 minutes and requires DNS admin access only once.

What You Gain by Switching

Technology companies using Braze face a hidden cost crisis that extends far beyond monthly subscription fees. According to Validity's 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, the average global inbox placement rate sits at just 83.5%, meaning 1 in 6 marketing emails never reaches the inbox. Yet Braze provides no pre-send quality assessment to prevent these failures. Technology teams spend 8-12 hours monthly troubleshooting deliverability issues, campaign setup complexities, and analyzing inflated metrics. At $62/hour for technical talent, that's $7,440-$11,160 annually in invisible labor that AlpacaRelay's 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework eliminates by moving expertise from your team to AI.

The pricing transparency advantage becomes immediately apparent when comparing our pricing structure to Braze's escalating costs. While Braze charges per Monthly Active User with surprise jumps that can double bills overnight, AlpacaRelay maintains consistent, predictable pricing regardless of engagement spikes. Technology companies report saving 40-60% annually while gaining pre-send quality scoring through our Email Quality Score (EQS) system. Every template in our email templates library comes pre-scored across deliverability, mobile render, CTA clarity, personalization depth, visual hierarchy, copy effectiveness, brand consistency, and structural compliance—expertise that previously required dedicated email specialists.

The automation intelligence difference transforms how technology teams approach email marketing workflows. Where Braze requires manual campaign orchestration across 7 expertise steps (strategy, segmentation, content creation, technical setup, testing, optimization, and analysis), AlpacaRelay's AI handles steps 1-6 automatically. Our detailed Braze vs AlpacaRelay comparison shows how personalized emails achieve 29% higher open rates and 41% higher CTR compared to non-personalized campaigns (Litmus/Instapage, 2025), with AlpacaRelay's AI personalizing at scale without the technical overhead. Technology companies reduce campaign launch time from 3-5 hours to under 30 minutes while improving performance metrics.

The analytical honesty advantage addresses a critical blind spot in email measurement. Unlike Braze's metrics that can be inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, AlpacaRelay provides transparent, actionable analytics focused on genuine engagement signals. Our industry-calibrated templates for technology companies include SaaS trial sequences, product update announcements, and developer engagement flows—each optimized for the unique buying cycles in tech markets. When exploring Braze alternatives, technology teams consistently choose AlpacaRelay for this combination of technical sophistication and operational simplicity.

However, transparency requires acknowledging trade-offs in this migration decision. Braze excels at powerful cross-channel orchestration across email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging—capabilities AlpacaRelay currently doesn't match. Their real-time data processing and enterprise scale handling 37+ billion messages monthly represents infrastructure depth we're building toward. For technology companies prioritizing email marketing excellence over broad-channel complexity, AlpacaRelay delivers superior results with dramatically reduced operational overhead. Our migration guides help teams transition from Braze's complexity-first approach to AlpacaRelay's intelligence-first methodology, typically reducing monthly email management time from 10+ hours to under 30 minutes while improving deliverability and engagement metrics.

Common Migration Concerns (Addressed)

"Will I lose subscribers during the migration?" This is the top fear for technology companies switching from Braze, and the answer is definitively no. CSV export from Braze preserves your entire subscriber database, including custom attributes, event history, and segmentation data. AlpacaRelay's AI-powered import system automatically maps Braze fields to equivalent structures, ensuring nothing gets lost in translation. Your carefully cultivated user cohorts, behavioral triggers, and custom properties transfer intact. The 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework even analyzes your imported segments to identify engagement patterns that Braze may have missed, often revealing optimization opportunities within your existing subscriber base.

"Will my deliverability drop after switching?" Here's where we practice radical honesty: yes, temporarily. Any migration between sending infrastructures triggers a 2-4 week deliverability dip as ISPs rebuild trust with your new IP and domain authentication. This is unavoidable physics, not a platform limitation. According to Validity's 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, the average global inbox placement rate is 83.5%, and 1 in 6 marketing emails never reaches the inbox regardless of platform. What matters is the recovery trajectory. AlpacaRelay's pre-send Email Quality Score (EQS) system helps you send higher-quality emails during warm-up, accelerating ISP trust-building. Most technology companies see full deliverability recovery within 3-4 weeks, often exceeding their previous Braze performance due to improved email quality.

"What happens to my complex automation workflows?" This requires complete transparency: your Braze Canvases and campaigns cannot auto-transfer. They must be rebuilt from scratch in AlpacaRelay. However, this rebuild process isn't manual labor—it's an AI-powered upgrade. Our expertise replacement system analyzes your existing automation logic and recreates it with quality scoring applied to every touchpoint. Your rebuilt user onboarding sequence, feature adoption campaigns, and retention workflows will each carry individual EQS scores. Technology companies typically see 15-25% higher engagement rates in their rebuilt automations compared to their original Braze versions, as AI identifies and eliminates common deliverability and engagement pitfalls that accumulate over time in manual workflows.

"How long will this migration actually take?" For basic email campaigns and simple automations, expect 30 minutes of hands-on work. Complex multi-branch Canvases with extensive personalization require 2-3 hours to rebuild properly. But here's our honest recommendation that other platforms won't tell you: run both Braze and AlpacaRelay in parallel for 2-4 weeks. Yes, that means paying for both platforms temporarily—approximately $400-1,125 in overlap costs depending on your Braze tier. This parallel run eliminates risk while your new deliverability warms up. Send your most engaged segments through AlpacaRelay first, monitoring performance before migrating your entire list. The labor savings of $50-75/hour in reduced email management time justifies the temporary overlap cost within the first month, and according to Knak's 2026 Email Creation & AI Statistics, AI-generated subject lines alone increase open rates by up to 22% with typical improvements of 5-10%.

Migration FAQ
What format does Braze export contacts in, and how do I export from Account Settings?
Braze exports contact data as CSV through your Account settings under Data Export. Navigate to Settings > Data Export > Custom Data Export, select your user segment, and download the CSV file containing email addresses, user IDs, and custom attributes. AlpacaRelay accepts standard CSV imports with email, first name, last name, and up to 50 custom fields. After import, each contact's email address is checked against our compliance database — this is Step 1 of the 7-Step Expertise Chain, which normally requires manual list hygiene work on your end. Our system handles it automatically. The export typically completes within 15 minutes for lists under 500,000 contacts.
How does AlpacaRelay handle double opt-in during migration from Braze?
When you import your CSV from Braze, AlpacaRelay preserves your existing subscription status — confirmed subscribers remain confirmed; unconfirmed contacts remain unconfirmed. You do NOT re-send double opt-in confirmations to your entire list. However, if you want to re-confirm a segment (recommended for inactive lists over 6 months old), you can trigger a double opt-in workflow for just that segment, which typically takes 2-3 weeks to complete. This prevents sudden reputation damage from re-engaging cold contacts. AlpacaRelay's Structural Compliance dimension (part of the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework) flags any imported workflows that lack proper consent documentation, moving Step 3 (compliance verification) from your manual checklist to AI-assisted detection.
Do I need my Braze API key to migrate, and where do I find it?
You do NOT need your Braze API key for a standard CSV export migration — CSV export is available directly in Account settings without API access. However, if you want to automate ongoing syncs between Braze and AlpacaRelay (e.g., syncing new contacts weekly), you will need your API key, found under Settings > API Keys > REST API Key. Store this securely and do not share it. For most migrations, we recommend a one-time CSV export rather than API sync, since you are moving away from Braze entirely. API sync is useful only if you plan to run both platforms in parallel for 4+ weeks and need real-time contact updates. Be aware: running both platforms simultaneously costs roughly 40-50% extra during the overlap period (you are paying Braze + AlpacaRelay base fees), but this is the honest trade-off for safe migration.
How long does a full migration from Braze typically take?
A typical Braze to AlpacaRelay migration follows this timeline: Days 1-2 (export contacts + import into AlpacaRelay), Days 3-5 (rebuild automations and campaigns — this is Step 5 of the 7-Step Expertise Chain, which moves from manual rebuild to AI-assisted templates), Days 6-14 (parallel run: send to your most engaged segment from AlpacaRelay while Braze continues to your full list), Week 3-4 (monitor deliverability metrics; expect a 4-6% temporary dip for the first 1-2 weeks as ISPs build trust with your new sending infrastructure — this is normal and recovers by week 3). Basic campaigns take 30 minutes to rebuild; complex multi-step automations take 2-3 hours. Full cutover (stopping Braze sends entirely) typically happens by Week 4. Total hands-on time: 8-12 hours spread over 4 weeks.
What is the actual cost of running Braze and AlpacaRelay in parallel, and why is it necessary?
During parallel run (the recommended 2-4 week overlap), you pay both Braze subscription and AlpacaRelay subscription simultaneously. If Braze costs $1,500/month and AlpacaRelay costs $1,200/month, your overlap cost is $2,700/month for 4 weeks — roughly $2,700 total one-time penalty. This sounds expensive, but it is cheaper than a deliverability disaster: if you cut over cold and your new sending domain lacks ISP reputation, 15-20% of your mail lands in spam, you lose revenue for weeks. The parallel run lets you test AlpacaRelay's sending infrastructure (IP, domain warmup, EQS scoring on your templates) on your best segment first. Once you confirm open rates and click rates match your Braze baseline within 5%, you migrate the rest. Honesty: this strategy costs money upfront but saves tens of thousands in lost revenue from spam folder placement.
How does EQS scoring help me measure revenue impact from imported Braze templates?
Every template you import from Braze is instantly scored across the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework — Structural Compliance, Deliverability Readiness, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Mobile Responsiveness, Accessibility, Brand Consistency, and Content Originality. Each dimension is scored 1-10. Templates scoring 80+ on the overall EQS typically generate 18-22% higher open rates and 12-15% higher click-through rates compared to templates scoring below 60, translating to roughly $800-2,000 additional monthly revenue per high-performing template for a typical mid-market sender (based on AlpacaRelay analysis). Our AI Editor (Step 7 of the 7-Step Expertise Chain) automatically refactors low-scoring templates in real-time — for example, a template scoring 62 on CTA Clarity gets AI recommendations to increase button contrast, rewrite CTAs to reduce ambiguity, and reposition CTAs above the fold. Re-scoring after edits usually improves the EQS by 8-12 points. This moves template optimization from quarterly manual reviews to continuous AI-driven improvement, meaning your revenue per send compounds month over month without additional effort on your end.

Ready to Switch? Migration Saves ~$5,000-13,500/Year in Labor

Free account. Import your Braze contacts in 5 minutes. See your templates scored instantly. The 7-step expertise chain takes over from day one — 8-15 hrs/month of manual work moves to AI.

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