Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools based on independent, research-grounded comparisons.
The core difference here isn’t which tool sends better emails — both do email marketing. It’s what world they were built for. Mailchimp positions itself as a broad marketing platform for businesses of all sizes, layering in SMS, social ads, CRM, and content tools alongside email. ConvertKit (now rebranded as Kit) positions itself squarely around creators — people running newsletters, paid subscriptions, digital products, and sponsorships. That framing shapes nearly every decision below.
Pricing
Both tools offer a free tier, which is a good starting point for comparison. But they diverge quickly in structure.
Mailchimp’s pricing scales with your contact count, which is the critical thing to understand. The prices below are floor prices at each plan’s minimum audience tier — your bill rises as your list grows.
ConvertKit’s pricing is listed at a flat rate across all tiers, though your actual price will also vary with subscriber count in practice.
Side-by-Side Pricing Table
| Plan | Mailchimp | ConvertKit (Kit) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month (up to 250 contacts) | $0/month (Newsletter plan) |
| Entry paid | $13/month (Essentials, from 500 contacts) | $33/month (Creator) |
| Mid tier | $20/month (Standard, from 500 contacts) | $66/month (Pro) |
| Top tier | $350/month (Premium, from 10,000 contacts) | — |
What the numbers tell you: Mailchimp’s entry point is lower — $13/month vs. $33/month — but Mailchimp’s contact-count scaling means costs can climb quickly as your list grows. ConvertKit’s three-tier structure tops out at $66/month at the captured prices, while Mailchimp’s Premium tier starts at $350/month (and is only available from 10,000 contacts). If you’re building a large list and want predictable costs, the pricing structures here tell meaningfully different stories worth modeling against your expected audience size.
Features
What Mailchimp Does
Mailchimp describes itself as a platform offering email marketing, automation, SMS, social ads, landing pages, and more. Its captured features include:
- Email marketing with an email builder, email templates, A/B testing, and marketing automation flows
- SMS marketing
- Social media marketing and social ads
- Landing pages
- AI marketing tools, including generative AI and a subject line helper
- Audience management with behavioral targeting, a marketing CRM, and predictive demographics
- Dynamic content and a content studio
- Reporting and analytics
- Lead generation tools
- Forms & surveys
- Booking & scheduling
- Subscription management
- Transactional email
- Developer tools, including a marketing API and transactional API
What ConvertKit (Kit) Does
Kit describes itself as offering everything creators need to grow, from email marketing and automation to landing pages, analytics, and digital product sales. Its captured features include:
- Email marketing with an email designer and email templates
- Visual automations
- Landing pages
- Analytics and Subscriber Signals
- Paid newsletter support (earn recurring income with newsletter subscriptions)
- Newsletter sponsorships
- Paid Recommendations
- Kit App Store (connecting creator tools directly to Kit)
- Kit MCP (listed as new)
- Kit + AI
- Free migrations
- Kit University and knowledge base resources
- Kit Studios (professional recording studios for Kit creators)
Where They Differ
The clearest feature-level difference is what sits outside email. Mailchimp captures SMS marketing, social media marketing, a marketing CRM, behavioral targeting, predictive demographics, transactional email, and booking and scheduling — none of which appear in Kit’s captured features. Kit, on the other hand, captures paid newsletter infrastructure, newsletter sponsorships, and paid recommendations — monetization tools aimed at creators that don’t appear in Mailchimp’s captured features. Kit also explicitly lists free migrations as a feature, which Mailchimp does not.
User Experience and Friction
Both tools have third-party review signals worth noting. Some Mailchimp users report friction around customer support, price/value, invoicing and payments, the mobile app, and reliability and bugs. Some ConvertKit users report friction around customer support, price/value, ease of use, features and functionality, and invoicing and payments. Customer support and price/value appear as friction points for both — not a differentiator between them.
Who Each Is Built For
Mailchimp’s captured positioning explicitly names small business, professional services, mid-market, and entertainment and leisure as target segments. Its feature set reflects that breadth: SMS, social ads, a marketing CRM, behavioral targeting, and transactional email suggest a tool aimed at businesses running multi-channel marketing programs.
ConvertKit’s captured positioning is built around creators specifically — the features capturing paid newsletters, newsletter sponsorships, paid recommendations, and Kit Studios all point to people who publish as their primary business model, rather than businesses that use email as one marketing channel among many.
Choose Mailchimp If…
- You need SMS marketing alongside email (captured in Mailchimp, not in Kit)
- You want social media marketing tools in the same platform
- You need a marketing CRM, behavioral targeting, or predictive demographics
- You need transactional email (captured in Mailchimp, not in Kit)
- You want a lower entry price point ($13/month vs. $33/month at the first paid tier)
- Your business fits the small business, professional services, or mid-market segments Mailchimp names
Choose ConvertKit (Kit) If…
- You’re a creator running a newsletter, digital products, or a paid subscription
- You want built-in paid newsletter infrastructure and newsletter sponsorship tools (captured in Kit, not in Mailchimp)
- You want paid recommendations as a monetization feature
- You value free migrations as a named offer when switching from another platform
- A three-tier pricing structure that tops at $66/month fits your budget better than Mailchimp’s scaling model
Pricing captured July 2026. Both tools scale pricing with audience/contact size — use the exact tiers above as a floor, not a ceiling, and check each vendor’s site for your specific list size before committing.