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The core difference between these two tools comes down to who they’re built for and how they frame what email can do for you. ConvertKit (now rebranded as Kit) positions itself as a growth engine specifically for creators — people running paid newsletters, online courses, and sponsorship businesses. MailerLite positions itself as an advanced email marketing platform for anyone who wants to collect subscribers, automate workflows, and monetize an audience without handing over a commission cut. Both overlap heavily in the middle, which is exactly why the choice is genuinely hard. Let’s dig into the real differences.
Pricing
This is the first place the two tools diverge in a meaningful way.
ConvertKit offers three plans — Free ($0/month), Creator ($33/month, billed monthly), and Pro ($66/month, billed monthly). The pricing is flat across all subscriber counts at those stated tiers, which is refreshingly simple.
MailerLite structures its pricing differently: a MailerLite plan at two tiers, Comfort (starting at $12/month, billed monthly, up to 500 subscribers) and Power (starting at $25/month, billed monthly, up to 500 subscribers). Note that these are starting prices — MailerLite’s pricing scales with subscriber count, so what you pay grows as your list does.
Side-by-Side Pricing
| ConvertKit | MailerLite | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | $33/month | $12/month (Comfort, up to 500 subscribers) |
| Mid-tier plan | $66/month | $25/month (Power, up to 500 subscribers) |
| Free option | $0/month | 14-day free trial (not a permanent free plan) |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly | Starts low, scales with subscriber count |
A few things worth noting honestly: ConvertKit’s $0 free plan is a permanent tier, not a trial. MailerLite advertises “14 days for free” to unlock everything, but there is no captured permanent $0 plan in the data — just that 14-day window. If you’re starting from zero and want to stay free indefinitely, that’s a concrete difference. On the other hand, MailerLite’s paid entry point of $12/month is meaningfully lower than ConvertKit’s $33/month if you’re ready to pay from day one.
Some users of both tools report friction around price and value, so it’s worth going in with clear expectations about what each tier actually gets you.
Features
Where ConvertKit Focuses
ConvertKit’s feature set is built around the creator economy. The platform combines email marketing, visual automations, landing pages, and an email designer with a distinct layer of creator-specific monetization tools: a paid newsletter feature for earning recurring income through subscriptions, newsletter sponsorships, paid recommendations, and tools specifically called out for course creators and newsletter creators. There’s also the Kit App Store for connecting creator tools, Subscriber Signals, Analytics, and Kit + AI — plus Kit MCP, a newer addition. On the support and migration side, ConvertKit lists free migrations, a Kit University, a knowledge base, and the option to hire a Kit Expert.
Some users report friction with ease of use and features and functionality, which is worth factoring in if you’re evaluating the platform’s learning curve.
Where MailerLite Focuses
MailerLite’s feature language is broader and more explicitly email-marketing-centric. Core capabilities include drag & drop, simple, and custom HTML editors, unlimited automation workflows (with the number of visual automations varying by plan), A/B testing, paid newsletters, RSS campaigns, an AI writing assistant, a subject line generator, sign-up forms & pop-ups, landing pages & websites, and digital products & bookings. The platform also highlights comparative reporting and calls out 150+ integrations. Higher tiers add features like a dedicated IP, dedicated account manager, deliverability consultation, automation strategy consultation, and a customized email marketing strategy — signals that MailerLite has built infrastructure for teams and heavier senders, not just solo operators.
Some users report friction with reliability and bugs, onboarding and setup, and customer support — worth keeping in mind during evaluation.
Feature Themes Compared
| Theme | ConvertKit | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Email automation | Visual Automations | Unlimited visual automations (plan-dependent count) |
| Monetization | Paid newsletter, sponsorships, paid recommendations | Paid newsletters, digital products & bookings |
| AI tools | Kit + AI, Kit MCP | AI writing assistant, subject line generator, MCP server |
| Landing pages | Landing pages | Landing pages & websites |
| Forms | (listed as feature item) | Sign-up forms & pop-ups (count varies by plan) |
| A/B testing | Not captured | A/B testing |
| Deliverability support | Not captured | Deliverability consultation (higher tiers) |
| User seats | Not captured as tiered | 2–3 seats on lower tiers, unlimited on higher |
| Email support | Get support, knowledge base | 24/7 support (live chat/email depending on plan) |
| Creator-specific tools | Course creators, newsletter creators, sponsorships, Kit Expert network | Not captured |
A few observations from the captured data: A/B testing is explicitly listed for MailerLite but not captured in ConvertKit’s feature items. ConvertKit lists creator-specific positioning — course creators, newsletter sponsorships, paid recommendations — that doesn’t appear in MailerLite’s captured features. MailerLite explicitly lists dedicated IP and deliverability consultation for higher-tier customers, which ConvertKit’s captured data doesn’t mention.
Who Each Is For
ConvertKit is squarely positioned for people building creator businesses — specifically those running or planning paid newsletters, selling courses, or monetizing an audience through sponsorships and recommendations. If “earn recurring income with newsletter subscriptions” sounds like your business model, ConvertKit’s feature vocabulary is designed for you. The flat pricing (not subscriber-scaled at the plan level) may also appeal to creators who want pricing predictability.
MailerLite is positioned for email marketers who want advanced features — automation, forms, A/B testing, reporting, and digital product sales — without paying a commission. Its language suggests it serves both solo operators (Comfort tier, $12/month starting) and teams with heavier sending needs (Power tier, with more seats, automations, and higher-tier support including dedicated account managers and deliverability consultations). The starting price is lower, but factor in that it scales with your list size.
Friction Worth Knowing
Both tools surface recurring user complaints worth a brief mention:
- ConvertKit: Some users report friction with customer support, price/value, ease of use, features and functionality, and invoicing and payments.
- MailerLite: Some users report friction with price/value, features and functionality, customer support, reliability/bugs, and onboarding and setup.
Neither tool is exempt from the usual growing pains. Reliability and onboarding complaints appear in MailerLite’s signal but not ConvertKit’s; invoicing and payments friction appears in ConvertKit’s signal but not MailerLite’s — the latter worth noting if you plan to use ConvertKit’s paid newsletter or digital product features.
Choose ConvertKit If…
- You’re a creator building around paid newsletters, course sales, or newsletter sponsorships — these are named features in ConvertKit’s captured data and are central to its positioning.
- You want a permanent free plan rather than a time-limited trial.
- Flat pricing (not subscriber-scaled at the published tier level) matches how you prefer to budget.
- The Kit Expert network, Kit University, and free migrations are useful to your onboarding.
Choose MailerLite If…
- You want a lower entry price and the $12/month Comfort tier fits your starting list size.
- A/B testing is a must — it’s explicitly captured in MailerLite’s features but not ConvertKit’s.
- You need higher-tier deliverability support: dedicated IP, deliverability consultation, and a dedicated account manager are captured in MailerLite’s data.
- You need multiple user seats at an accessible price — MailerLite’s plan structure explicitly addresses this.
- You want unlimited visual automations and unlimited landing pages and websites as you scale up tiers.
Neither tool is a clear universal winner — they genuinely serve overlapping but distinct use cases. If your work centers on the creator economy and monetizing an audience through newsletters and courses, ConvertKit’s positioning aligns more directly. If you want broad email marketing features, team seats, and a lower entry price with room to scale, MailerLite’s structure gives you more to work with at the low end. Check both pricing pages directly before committing, especially MailerLite’s, since its pricing scales with subscriber count and the captured figures are starting prices only.