Email marketing Read the blog...
January 21st, 2021
Mailerlite vs Kit – Which is the best email marketing platform in 2026?
This site uses affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you use my links and make a purchase without incurring additional fee yourself. Many thanks for supporting this website. Please see my legal page for more details.
Updated May 2026
Choosing the right email marketing platform for your blog or online business is so important as not all of our businesses look the Choosing the right email marketing platform matters more than most people realise. It’s not just about sending newsletters – it’s about whether your automations actually work, whether your subscribers get tagged correctly and whether your sales sequences run smoothly without you having to babysit them.
I’ve used both MailerLite and Kit (formerly ConvertKit, rebranded in 2024) at different stages of my business. I started on Mailchimp, moved to MailerLite, then switched to Kit – and I’ve never looked back. So while I do have a clear favourite, I’ll give you an honest picture of both.
A lot has changed for both Kit and Mailerlite in the past few years. Both platforms have new features, both have changed their pricing and both now have MCP integrations that let you connect your AI tools directly to your account. More on all of that below.
Before you read any further, ask yourself a few questions…
- What do you actually want to do with your email list?
- Are you selling products, promoting affiliate offers, or just keeping in touch with your audience?
- Is budget the main concern right now, or is it features?
- And are you planning to grow this into a serious email marketing strategy, or do you want something simple and low-maintenance?
Your answers will shape which platform makes most sense.
An overview of the differences between Kit and Mailerlite
Let’s compare the key features side by side…
| Kit | MailerLite | |
| Free plan | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited emails, 1 automation | Up to 500 subscribers, 12,000 emails/month, basic automation |
| Paid plans from | $33/month (annual) or $39/month for up to 1,000 subs | $10/month for up to 500 subs (Growing Business plan) |
| Segmentation | Tags – fast, flexible, done in seconds | Groups – slower, more steps involved |
| Automation | Visual, logical, reusable sequences | Functional but gets clunky for complex setups |
| Sell digital products | Yes, natively | Yes, natively |
| Creator Network / Referrals | Yes – built in | No |
| Sponsor / Ad income | Yes – Kit Ads (Creator Pro) | No |
| Polls in emails | Yes | No |
| MCP integration | Yes – native Kit MCP | Yes – MailerLite Labs MCP |
| Customer support | Chat + email (business hours) | 24/7 email support |
| Best for… | Online business owners, course creators, coaches, affiliate marketers – anyone serious about list monetisation | Beginners, hobby bloggers, simple newsletters on a tight budget |
In general, Kit is the more powerful platform – better for segmentation, more reliable automations, and now a whole suite of monetisation tools baked in.
MailerLite is cheaper and has a better drag-and-drop email editor if you like beautifully designed newsletters. But the gap in pricing has narrowed significantly, and what you lose in Kit’s basic plan you make back through better conversions.
If email marketing is an important part of your business strategy then I would recommend Kit every time. If you just want a very simple newsletter and are not too worried about monetising your emails, then Mailerlite is a valid option and in some instances could be cheaper (depending on the size of your list!)
In this Kit vs Mailerlite comparison, I will review each platform side by side across 14 key areas including pricing, ease of use, reliability, deliverability, segmentation, workflows, customer support, newsletter design, analytics, opt-in form design, landing page design, integrations and features.
Why I Switched From Mailerlite to Kit
I moved over to Kit right before I launched a course – which, yes, everyone told me was a terrible idea. Switching email platforms mid-launch, potentially destroying deliverability, possibly losing subscribers. Great plan, Leanne.
But it worked. With Kit, I got 50% open rates and a 4% conversion rate on that launch, earning $5,600 from an email list of just 900 subscribers.
I’d spent months battling MailerLite’s automations before that – setting things up the exact same way I had before and having them fail for no obvious reason. The support team would suggest adding extra conditions as a workaround, which meant every automation was slightly different and I had no confidence any new one would actually work without extensive testing. As a free platform, it served me well. But it wasn’t built for what I needed.
As my business and email list grew, I needed an email marketing platform that could grow with me. As my funnels became more complex, I needed a platform which was both simple and powerful to let me achieve my goals without getting tied up in knots.
Once I was in Kit, it was all pretty straight forward. I figured out the tagging system in about 30 minutes – I found it much more user friendly than Mailerlite. And I’ve been using Kit ever since.
The migration itself was straightforward – I exported CSV lists from MailerLite and imported them into Kit under a new tag. The fiddly bit was tracking down all my old sign-up forms and updating them. If I did it again I’d either do it much earlier (before the forms multiply) or hire a VA for a day to help.
I’m very happy I chose to switch. However, I recognise that everyone has different requirements for their email platform and Mailerlite remains one of the better low cost email service providers in 2026.
So let’s compare Convertkit and Mailelerlite side by side and decide which is best for you…
A Quick Summary of Kit Pros and Cons
Kit Pros
- Generous free plan – 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends
- Tagging system makes segmentation incredibly fast and easy
- Reusable email sequences – set up once, use across multiple funnels
- Reliable automations that work the way you set them up
- Visual automation builder that’s actually intuitive
- Creator Network for list growth via recommendations
- Kit Ads for passive newsletter income (Creator Pro)
- Polls in emails
- Native MCP integration with Claude and other AI tools
- Free migration assistance when you switch
Kit Cons
- More expensive than MailerLite (though I’d argue you’d easily make up the difference due to how easy Kit makes running your business and therefore making sales!)
- Plainer email templates – some people prefer fancier email designs but keep in mind that too much HTML can reduce your emails deliverability. Plain is often better for email marketing.
- Customer support only during business hours
Share this Image On Your Site
Read Next | Flodesk vs Convertkit Comparison Guide
MailerLite Pros and Cons
MailerLite Pros
- Cheaper
- Beautiful drag-and-drop email editor
- 24/7 email support
- Good A/B testing flexibility
- MailerLite Labs MCP for AI tool integration
MailerLite Cons
- Free plan cut from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in 2025
- Groups-based segmentation is slower and more cumbersome than tags
- Can be glitchy – automations sometimes behave unexpectedly
- No Creator Network, no sponsored email income, no polls
- Reusing sequences is more limited – risk of subscribers receiving same email twice
Share this Image On Your Site
Kit & Mailerlite Free Plans: What’s Changed (and What Hasn’t)
Both platforms overhauled their free plans in 2025, and the changes went in opposite directions.
Kit’s free plan
Kit’s free Newsletter plan now covers up to 10,000 subscribers – which is very generous.
You get unlimited emails, landing pages, and forms, and you can even sell digital products and set up paid subscriptions.
The main limitation is that you only get 1 automation sequence. That’s fine if you just want a basic welcome series. But once you want separate sequences for different lead magnets, affiliate funnels, or product launches, you’ll need to upgrade.
MailerLite’s free plan
MailerLite’s free plan took a hit in September 2025 when they cut the subscriber limit from 1,000 down to 500.
If you were on the free plan with more than 500 subscribers when that happened, your account was locked and you couldn’t email anyone until you either cut your list or paid. The email send limit of 12,000/month stayed the same.
If you’re just starting out and have under 500 subscribers, it’s still a reasonable starting point. But you’ll hit the ceiling sooner now.
Bottom line: for most people starting from scratch, Kit’s free plan is actually the better deal now – more subscribers allowed, and more functionality included. MailerLite’s lower threshold means you’re paying sooner.
Pricing Comparison: Kit vs MailerLite in 2026
This is where things have changed the most since I first wrote this post.
Kit raised its prices significantly in September 2025 – the old $25/month Creator plan is gone. And MailerLite restructured too, adding a cleaner tiered system with ‘Growing Business’ and ‘Advanced’ plans.
Here’s what paid plans currently look like:
| Subscribers | Kit Creator (monthly) | Kit Creator (annual) | MailerLite Growing Business |
| Up to 1,000 | $39/month | $33/month | $10/month |
| Up to 3,000 | $59/month | $49/month | $17/month (approx) |
| Up to 5,000 | $89/month | $75/month | $25/month (approx) |
| Up to 10,000 | $119/month | $100/month | $50/month (approx) |
MailerLite is cheaper at every subscriber tier – there’s no getting around that. At 10,000 subscribers you’d be paying roughly double on Kit.
But here’s the thing. Kit’s tagging and automation tools make it significantly easier to send the right email to the right person at the right time. That level of targeting is what drives real sales.
My best affiliate marketing weekends have come from tagging subscribers based on link clicks and following up with targeted sequences – something that takes about 10 seconds to set up in Kit and requires multiple extra steps in MailerLite.
Creator Pro (Kit’s top tier) starts at around $66/month (annual) for 1,000 subscribers.
It includes Facebook custom audiences, the Kit Sponsor Network for paid newsletter ads, and subscriber engagement scoring. Most people won’t need it to start with – but if you’re running a large list with serious ad spend, it’s worth knowing about.
Winner: MailerLite (on price). But Kit is better value for money if you’re serious about monetisation.
Kit vs Mailerlite- Which is Easier to Use?
Kit, hands down.
I know some people find MailerLite’s drag-and-drop interface more familiar, especially if they’ve come from Mailchimp. But familiarity isn’t the same as ease of use.
With MailerLite, I’d set up an automation the same way I had last time and it just wouldn’t work. Their support team would sometimes suggest adding extra conditions for no obvious reason to get it to fire correctly. I found it to be unpredictable.
Kit’s visual automation builder is logical and clean. You can see your whole sequence laid out, follow the flow, and understand exactly what happens when. I figured it out in about 30 minutes when I first switched.
Winner: Kit
Reliability – Is Kit or Mailerlite More Reliable?
Everything in Kit runs smoother. If I set a funnel up and test it, it works the way I set it up. Full stop.
MailerLite was inconsistent. Not broken, exactly, but unpredictable enough that I’d always have a slight knot in my stomach when setting up a new automation.
I sent emails to the wrong people more than once because of unexpected automation behaviour. The ‘oops’ emails that follow are not fun to write.
Winner: Kit
Which Has Better Email Deliverability – Mailerlite or Kit?
Both platforms have solid deliverability – I don’t want to overstate the gap here. But Kit does have the edge. Independent testing has consistently shown Kit landing in the primary inbox at a slightly higher rate. This was certainly my experience too, after switching.
Kit’s simpler, plainer email templates also contribute to this. Plain text-style emails look like they came from a real person, which means Gmail is more likely to land them in the primary inbox rather than the Promotions tab.
MailerLite’s prettier, more design-heavy emails can be more likely to be sorted into Promotions – which most people rarely check.
Winner: Kit
Segmentation in Kit & Mailerlite: Tags vs Groups
This is one of the biggest practical differences between the two platforms – and where Kit wins most clearly for anyone serious about monetising their list.
Kit uses tags. MailerLite uses groups. On the surface, same thing. In practice, very different.
Here’s an example. Say you want to tag anyone who clicks a link in your email as interested in a specific product – maybe because you’re going to follow up with them tomorrow about that product specifically. In Kit: you click the link in your email editor, tick a box, type your tag name, done. 10 seconds.
In MailerLite: you create a new page on your website for that product. You create a new group. You create a new automation with a page visit as the trigger. You link to that page in your email. That’s at least 30 minutes.
Because it’s so easy to tag in Kit, you actually do it. And the more you tag, the more targeted your emails become, the higher your conversions. This is why although Mailerlite is cheaper, I personally think Kit is better value for money.
I wrote more about this in my post on ConvertKit tags and segments if you want to go deeper on what’s possible.
Winner: Kit – and it’s not close.
Automation in Kit and Mailerlite
Kit’s automation workflows are visual, logical and reusable.
You can build a sequence once and drop it into multiple automations – and if someone has already been through that sequence elsewhere, Kit automatically skips the emails they’ve already had. That’s a massive time-saver for anyone running multiple funnels or promoting multiple products.
MailerLite’s automations (called workflows) are functional for simple setups. But they get clunky fast once you want to do anything more complex. You can reuse individual emails but not whole sequences, and there’s nothing stopping someone from receiving the same email multiple times across different funnels – which gets annoying.
Winner: Kit
Kit’s New Features Worth Knowing About
Kit has added a lot of new features over the years – there seems to be a new feature every time I log in these days. Some I use, others I’ll probably try at some point!
Creator Network
Kit’s Creator Network lets you recommend other newsletters to your subscribers and get recommended in return – with the option to earn a commission when someone joins through your recommendation. It’s an interesting list growth tool and completely opt-in. You can find out more about it here.
Kit Sponsor Network
On Creator Pro, you can join Kit’s Sponsor Network and have brands placed in your newsletters automatically. You review and approve the placements, they pay you directly. It’s early days but it’s a passive income stream for larger lists. Probably not the first thing you’ll use, but good to know it’s there.
Polls
You can now add interactive polls directly into your emails. Great for engagement, great for learning about your audience, and honestly just a fun way to get people clicking on something that isn’t a sales link.
Improved A/B testing
Kit’s A/B testing used to be limited to a fixed 4-hour test window, which I always found restrictive. They’ve improved this since – you now have more control over test duration and split percentages. MailerLite’s A/B testing options were always more flexible, so this is Kit catching up to where it should have been.
Digital products and paid subscriptions
Kit has had digital product selling built in for a while, but it’s become more polished. You can run paid newsletter subscriptions too, accepting payments for a premium version of your newsletter. Useful if that’s a direction you want to go.
MCP Integration with Kit and Mailerlite: Connecting Your AI Tools to Your Email Platform
This is one of the most exciting things happening in email marketing right now – and both platforms have rolled it out.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is essentially a way to give your AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) a live connection to your email marketing account. Instead of your AI working only from its training data, it can actually look at your real subscribers, your real campaign performance, your real automations – and act on them.
Kit MCP
Kit launched its MCP in May 2026. Once connected, you can ask Claude (or other AI tools) to do things like…
- Analyse your last 10 broadcasts and tell you which subject lines performed best
- Draft a new welcome sequence and set it up in your account
- Tag contacts based on a custom criteria
- Review your automation workflows and suggest improvements.
It connects to Claude directly – which if you’re using Claude for your business content already, is a really smooth workflow. You can connect via this link.
MailerLite MCP
MailerLite launched their own MCP server a little earlier, via MailerLite Labs.
It does similar things – connects your AI tools to your subscriber data, campaign stats, and account. They’ve also added ChatGPT integration specifically, so if you’re a ChatGPT user, MailerLite’s setup might feel more native to you.
Both platforms’ MCP connections are opt-in and you control what the AI can access.
Which MCP is better?
Kit’s feels more polished and the documentation is clearer. But honestly, both work. The bigger factor is which platform you’re already on and which AI tool you’re using day-to-day.
If you use Claude for your business (and if you’re in my world, there’s a good chance you do), Kit’s MCP connects very naturally. If you’re more of a ChatGPT person and already on MailerLite, their native ChatGPT integration is useful.
Mailerlite vs Kit for Customer Support
MailerLite offers 24/7 email support, which is an advantage.
Kit’s support runs on chat and email within business hours.
In practice, Kit’s responses are fast and useful – I’ve never had to wait long. But if you’re worried about having a crisis at 2am on a Sunday, MailerLite’s round-the-clock support is worth knowing about.
Winner: MailerLite
Which Has Better Email Design and Templates – Kit of Mailerlite?
MailerLite wins this one on visual polish. Their drag-and-drop editor is good and lets you create beautifully designed emails with images, columns and all the bells and whistles.
Kit’s templates are simpler – more plain text, less visual. And I’d actually argue this is a feature, not a bug. Plain text emails land in the primary inbox more reliably. They look like they came from a person, not a company. And in my experience, they convert better.
That said, there are niches where beautiful design genuinely matters – photography, Etsy sellers, visual artists. If that’s you, MailerLite’s editor is the better tool.
Winner: MailerLite (though I’d argue Kit’s restraint is actually an advantage for most online business owners).
Mailerlite vs Kit Analytics
Both platforms give you the fundamentals – open rates, click rates, unsubscribes.
MailerLite’s campaign reports are clean and comprehensive on one page.
Kit’s standout is the daily sign-up tracking, which shows you exactly which form or landing page each subscriber came through. That’s pretty useful for knowing what’s working.
Winner: Tie
Opt-In Forms and Landing Pages
Kit has better opt-in form templates – more variety, better designs, and a nice minimalist option called the Clare form that blends seamlessly into sales pages. MailerLite’s form builder is more limited and I found the templates quite restrictive.
For landing pages, both offer decent templates. Kit organises them by purpose (webinar, waitlist, product) which makes finding the right starting point much quicker.
If you want to go beyond the built-in forms anyway, ConvertBox integrates brilliantly with Kit and gives you much more control over pop-ups, sticky bars, and embedded forms. I wrote about 21 creative ways to use ConvertBox if you want some ideas.
Winner: Kit
Selling Digital Products in Kit Vs Mailerlite
Both platforms now let you sell digital products directly. Kit’s been doing it longer and the integration feels more polished – you can sell ebooks, templates, courses, or paid newsletter subscriptions without leaving the platform.
That said, for serious funnel building with order bumps, upsells, and affiliate tracking, most online business owners (me included) use a dedicated checkout platform alongside their email provider. ThriveCart is what I use and recommend.
Winner: Kit (though both work for basic digital product sales).
Ok So How Do They Stack Up? Mailerlite vs Kit – The Scorecard
| Category | Kit | MailerLite |
| Free plan | WIN | |
| Pricing | WIN | |
| Ease of use | WIN | |
| Reliability | WIN | |
| Deliverability | WIN | |
| Segmentation | WIN | |
| Automations | WIN | |
| Customer support | WIN | |
| Email design | WIN | |
| Analytics | TIE | TIE |
| Opt-in forms / landing pages | WIN | |
| Digital products | WIN | |
| New features (Creator Network, polls, sponsor) | WIN | |
| MCP integration | TIE | TIE |
Kit wins in 9 categories and ties 2. MailerLite wins 3.
So Which Should You Choose?
If budget is your absolute priority right now, MailerLite.
It’s a solid platform and the paid plans arecheaper at every subscriber level. If you’re a complete beginner with under 500 subscribers and you just want to send a simple newsletter, start there, learn the ropes.
But if email is going to be a real part of how you make money – selling products, promoting affiliate offers, running automated funnels – then Kit is worth the extra monthly cost.
The tagging system alone will save you enough time and drive enough extra sales to justify it. And now with Kit’s MCP, you can connect Claude directly to your account and manage your email marketing through AI, which if you’re anything like me, is a workflow you’ll use constantly.
My personal take: if you’re a course creator, coach, digital product seller, or affiliate marketer, start with Kit. Even if you choose the free plan to begin with, you’ll be building on the right foundation from day one instead of having to migrate later (and migration, as I can tell you from experience, is a pain).
Though regardless if your choose Kit or Mailerlite, both of good choices. I just think Kit has the edge.
Check out Kit here: Kit free plan or Kit pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions About MailerLite vs Kit
Is Kit better than MailerLite?
For anyone serious about growing and monetising an email list – yes. Kit is more reliable, easier to use, and has significantly better segmentation tools.
MailerLite is cheaper, which is why beginners on a tight budget often start there. But for course creators, coaches, digital product sellers, and affiliate marketers, Kit wins.
Which is cheaper – MailerLite or Kit?
MailerLite is cheaper at every subscriber tier. MailerLite’s paid plans start at $10/month, while Kit Creator starts at $33/month (annual billing) or $39/month (monthly). Kit’s free plan is more generous though – 10,000 subscribers vs MailerLite’s 500.
Has Kit’s pricing changed recently?
Kit raised prices significantly in September 2025. The old Creator plan at $25/month no longer exists. Paid plans now start at $33/month (annual) or $39/month (monthly) for up to 1,000 subscribers. Kit did expand the free plan to 10,000 subscribers at the same time, which is a genuine upgrade for people who can stay on free for longer.
Did MailerLite change their free plan?
Yes – in September 2025, MailerLite cut their free plan subscriber limit from 1,000 down to 500. Existing accounts with 500+ subscribers were immediately locked until they upgraded or reduced their list. The email send limit of 12,000/month stayed the same.
Can I switch from MailerLite to Kit without losing my subscribers?
Yes – you export your subscriber list from MailerLite as a CSV and import it into Kit under a tag. That bit takes about 30 minutes. The time-consuming part is finding and updating all your sign-up forms, especially if you have them spread across lots of blog posts. Do it sooner rather than later – the more forms you have, the more hassle the migration.
What’s the Kit MCP and do I need it?
Kit’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets you connect AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT directly to your Kit account. Once connected, you can ask your AI to analyse your campaigns, draft and set up email sequences, tag subscribers, and review your automation workflows – all from your AI chat interface. It’s not essential but if you use AI regularly in your business, it’s a time-saving workflow you’ll use a lot.
Does MailerLite have an MCP?
Yes – MailerLite launched their MCP server via MailerLite Labs. It works with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools. They also released a specific ChatGPT integration in April 2026. Both platforms’ MCP connections are opt-in and you control what the AI can access.
Which has better email automation – MailerLite or Kit?
Kit. MailerLite’s automations work for simple sequences but get frustrating when you want to do anything more complex. Kit’s visual automation builder is logical and reusable – you can drop the same email sequence into multiple funnels, and Kit automatically skips emails that a subscriber has already received. That alone makes it worth it for anyone running multiple offers.
Which is better for affiliate marketers?
Kit. The tagging system makes it easy to send hyper-relevant emails to the right people based on what they’ve clicked on or shown interest in. That level of targeting is what drives affiliate sales without your emails feeling spammy. I wrote more about this approach in my post on affiliate marketing by email.
Can you do A/B testing on both platforms?
Yes. Kit has improved its A/B testing significantly – you now have more control over test duration and split percentages. MailerLite has traditionally had more flexible A/B testing options. Both will let you test subject lines.
What’s the Kit Creator Network?
The Creator Network is Kit’s built-in recommendation system. You can recommend other newsletters to your subscribers (and earn a commission if they sign up), and other Kit users can recommend your newsletter to theirs. It’s a list growth tool that’s unique to Kit and has already paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to creators.
Is MailerLite good for beginners?
It’s a reasonable starting point if budget is the main concern. The interface is familiar if you’ve used any visual email builder before, and the lower tier plans are affordable. The caveat is that if you plan to build a serious email marketing strategy, you’ll likely want to switch to Kit eventually – and migration takes time. Worth considering whether starting on Kit’s free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers) might save you that hassle later.
I hope this article has helped you decide between Convertkit or Mailerlite.
Either way, you will have access to a good tool to help you grow your email list. And if you do decide on the wrong platform, you can always switch down the line!
Any questions about Kit or Mailerlite, just pop them in the comments!
Read Next
Flodesk vs Kit – Which is Best?
Kit Free Plan vs Paid Plan – Which is Right for You?
Email List Building for Online Business Owners
Affiliate Marketing by Email – Is It Legit?
Pin it for later!
This is a really great, detailed round up, thank you! I haven’t used either of these (I’m with Constant Contact) but I do like the sound of Convertkit and your advice of switching sooner while you have a smaller list, rather than later is invaluable.
I’m glad you found it helpful!