Kit vs MailerLite vs Mailchimp for Creators (2026): Pricing, Automations, and Which to Choose
Affiliate disclosure: SaaS Compass may earn a commission if you click a Kit link in this article and later buy a qualifying plan, at no extra cost to you. That is a material connection under the US Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides. We are not employees or official partners of Kit, MailerLite, or Mailchimp. This is research-based editorial, not a personal-use review or a testimonial, and it is not a statement by any of those companies.
MailerLite and Mailchimp links below go to official sites and are not affiliate links in this draft. Only the Kit links are affiliate placeholders, because Kit is the shortlist program this article is written to support.
Pricing and features are as of November 2026. Verify every figure on the official site before you buy.
About the author: Written by Mia, SaaS Compass. Prepared with AI assistance from official product, pricing and help pages. We did not invent performance stats or claim to have run a creator business on these tools.
Creators usually need to collect subscribers, send newsletters, automate a welcome or launch sequence, and sometimes sell a digital product. Kit (formerly ConvertKit), MailerLite, and Mailchimp all do that, but official free plans, send limits, and paid-feature gates differ.
Quick comparison
| Kit (affiliate link) | MailerLite | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official free plan | Up to 10,000 subscribers; unlimited forms, landing pages, and broadcasts (official help, 23 Sep 2026) | 250 active subscribers; 2,500 monthly emails (official pricing.md, updated 8 Sep 2026) | 250 contacts; 500 sends/month and a 250/day cap (official help) |
| Automations on the free plan | Official help: visual automations, email sequences, rules, and RSS campaigns need a paid plan | Official help: 3 automations on Free | Official help: marketing automation flows are not included on Free |
| Paid plans | Creator and Pro, priced by subscriber tier; official 14-day trial, no card required to start | Comfort and Power, priced by active subscribers; Enterprise is custom above 200,000; official 14-day trial of paid features | Essentials, Standard, and Premium, priced by contact tier; official 14-day trial on Essentials and Standard for eligible customers |
| Sending on paid plans | Official FAQ: no sending limits on any Kit plan | Comfort: 10x the ceiling of your subscriber tier per month. Power: unlimited, subject to fair use | Essentials 10x contact limit; Standard 12x; Premium 15x (official help) |
| How contacts are counted | Official billing help: billed on confirmed subscribers | Official help: active subscribers; unsubscribed and bounced do not count, but a cumulative in-cycle rule still counts addresses that were active during the cycle | Official help: subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts all count toward the contact total |
If you click the Kit link above and later buy, SaaS Compass may earn a commission.
Official pricing
Kit
The Kit pricing page is interactive and did not render a full subscriber-tier grid in a static fetch. Official help and product pages that stated numbers:
- Free: US$0 for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited forms, landing pages, and broadcasts; tagging and segmentation; digital products and subscriptions; A/B tests on broadcasts; and API access (official Free plan article, 23 September 2026).
- Creator starting example: Official upgrade FAQ uses US$39/month for up to 1,000 subscribers, then an automatic move to US$59/month for up to 3,000 subscribers. Treat these as official examples and confirm every other tier on kit.com/pricing.
- Pro: Official Pro page states Pro “costs between US$150–US$300 per month depending on your list size.” Pro adds Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, revenue attribution, engagement scoring, unlimited team seats (Creator is limited to two users, per official plan comparison), Growth Concierge, and other Pro-only features.
- Trial and refunds: Official pricing FAQ: 14-day Creator or Pro trial, no credit card required to start; you can remain on Free after the trial. Official billing help: annual plans are 12 months for the price of 10; refunds are available within 30 days of the first payment, with no refunds after that on the policy described there.
- When you pass a paid tier’s subscriber limit, official help says Kit automatically upgrades you to the next tier.
Sequences, visual automations, rules, RSS campaigns, paid apps, and Paid Recommendations are officially paid-plan features, not Free features — the main caveat if you assume “free up to 10,000” includes a full automation suite.
MailerLite
Official pricing.md (updated 8 September 2026; plan names changed on 16 June 2026 from Growing Business/Advanced to Comfort/Power) lists every USD tier. Entry prices at 500 subscribers:
- Free: US$0; 250 active subscribers; 2,500 monthly emails; 2 seats; 3 automations; 1 website and 1 landing page; 1 digital product or booking; 3 signup forms.
- Comfort: from US$12/month (US$10.80/month billed annually). At 1,000 subscribers: US$19/month. At 5,000: US$49/month. At 10,000: US$89/month. Includes 10x-tier monthly sends, 3 seats, 50 automations, 10 sites/pages, 5 digital products, 10 forms, and logo removal.
- Power: from US$25/month (US$22.50/month billed annually). At 1,000: US$39/month. At 5,000: US$69/month. At 10,000: US$129/month. Unlimited monthly emails subject to fair use, unlimited seats, unlimited automations, sites, products, and forms, plus live chat support.
- Enterprise: custom pricing above 200,000 subscribers.
- Annual billing officially saves 10%. Official help (updated 9 November 2026) confirms Comfort send caps and the cumulative active-subscriber counting rule.
Mailchimp
The main Mailchimp pricing page is interactive. Official About Mailchimp Pricing Plans and the compare-plans page provided these facts as of November 2026:
- Free: US$0; up to 250 contacts; 500 sends/month or 250/day, whichever the official cap describes; 1 audience; 1 seat; limited templates; sending pauses if you exceed the contact or send limit.
- Essentials: official help: starting tier up to 500 contacts, maximum 50,000, sends at 10x. An official upgrade page and the compare-plans page start Essentials at US$13/month, shown on compare as US$13/month for 12 months, with later rates in offer terms. Treat US$13 as a starting or promotional entry price, not the rate for every list size.
- Standard: official help: starting tier 500 contacts, up to 100,000, sends at 12x, 5 audiences, 5 seats. The official Standard landing page states “Starting at US$20/month. For up to 500 contacts. Pricing varies by contact tier.”
- Premium: official help: base 10,000 contacts, up to 200,000, sends at 15x, unlimited audiences and seats, phone support. The official Premium landing page states “Starting at US$297.50/month for the first 12 months. Then, starts at US$350/month. For up to 10,000 contacts. Pricing varies by contact tier.”
- Official 14-day trial terms apply to eligible Free accounts signing up for Essentials or Standard; payment details are required. Read the live offer terms.
Resolved: official landing pages confirm Standard’s start (US$20/month up to 500 contacts) and Premium’s intro then standard start (US$297.50/month for 12 months, then US$350/month, up to 10,000 contacts). Still unverified: the full contact-tier grid and later Essentials rate.
Automations and creator features
Kit is officially positioned for creator businesses. Free includes broadcasts and selling digital products or subscriptions, but official help is explicit that visual automations and email sequences require Creator or Pro. A newsletter-only list under 10,000 may fit official Free; a welcome or launch sequence needs a paid plan — confirm the current Creator price for your tier.
MailerLite officially includes some automations on every plan, including three on Free, 50 on Comfort, and unlimited on Power. It also includes websites, landing pages, and digital products, with stricter caps on Free and Comfort. That makes MailerLite a broader “email plus small site” tool on official feature lists, at the cost of a much smaller official free list than Kit (250 versus 10,000).
Mailchimp officially leaves automation flows off Free. Essentials includes flows with up to 4 steps. Standard and Premium officially include up to 200 flows, plus a large integration list and ecommerce features on higher plans. Official help’s contact definition matters: unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts still count, which can raise the bill versus a tool that bills only confirmed or active subscribers. Official pages reviewed here do not provide an independent deliverability score, and this article does not invent one.
Pros and cons
Kit
Pros: Official free plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited broadcasts. Official paid plans have no send cap. Official trial needs no credit card. Creator-focused features (digital products, Creator Network recommendations) are documented on official help. Annual billing is officially 12 months for the price of 10.
Cons: The official free plan does not include visual automations or sequences. Exact Creator/Pro prices for every tier live on a dynamic pricing page; only some official examples were confirmed here. Pro is a documented jump into the US$150–US$300/month range. Automatic paid-tier upgrades mean your bill can rise when the list grows.
MailerLite
Pros: Official pricing.md publishes a full USD grid, which is easier to budget from. Comfort starts at US$12/month at 500 subscribers. Automations exist even on Free (with a cap of three). Official Power plan removes the send cap (fair use applies) and lifts feature caps. Annual billing is a clear 10% official discount.
Cons: Official Free is limited to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails — far below Kit’s official free list size. Comfort still caps monthly sends at 10x the tier and limits automations, forms, and sites. The cumulative in-cycle subscriber rule can keep deleted addresses counting until the cycle resets.
Mailchimp
Pros: Official Free plan is a low-risk way to try campaigns, forms, and landing pages. Official paid plans include a large template and integration set, with more automation on Standard and Premium. A Pay As You Go option is officially documented for infrequent senders (features aligned with Essentials).
Cons: Official Free caps are tight (250 contacts, 500 sends/month). Paid send caps use a multiplier, unlike Kit’s official unlimited sending. Official contacts include unsubscribed and non-subscribed people. Starting prices are confirmed only at the entry tier. Essentials automations are officially limited to four steps.
Who should choose which?
Consider Kit first (affiliate link) if you are a creator who wants the largest official free list for newsletters and broadcasts, and you can move to Creator when you need sequences. We may earn a commission if you buy after clicking.
Consider MailerLite first if you want published official prices at every tier, some automation on a paid plan that still starts at US$12/month (500 subscribers), or a small website and digital-product set in the same tool.
Consider Mailchimp first if you already rely on its official integrations, want Pay As You Go, or prefer its template ecosystem — after checking official contact-counting and send caps. For CRM-style automation, see HubSpot CRM vs ActiveCampaign and the ActiveCampaign automation tutorial. For a free funnel plan, see the systeme.io free plan review.
FAQ
Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?
Yes. Official Kit pages describe the product as formerly ConvertKit. Confirm current plan names on kit.com.
Which official free plan is largest?
Kit’s official Free plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers. MailerLite and Mailchimp officially cap free accounts at 250 active subscribers or contacts, with tight send caps.
Can I automate a welcome sequence for free?
Not fully on official Kit Free (sequences and visual automations are paid). MailerLite officially allows three automations on Free. Mailchimp officially does not include automation flows on Free.
Will my price jump as the list grows?
Yes, on official paid plans for all three: Kit and MailerLite price by subscriber tier (Kit can auto-upgrade), and Mailchimp prices by contact tier with send multipliers. Confirm the next-tier price before a launch that will add many subscribers.
Sources
- Kit pricing and help: https://kit.com/pricing — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502679-billing-at-kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2537095-account-upgrade-downgrade-faqs — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4494683-creator-vs-pro-choose-the-right-plan — https://kit.com/pro
- MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing.md — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/plan-and-billing
- Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/ — https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/compare-plans/ — https://mailchimp.com/landers/pricing/standard/ — https://mailchimp.com/landers/pricing/premium/
- FTC Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR Part 255