ConvertKit vs MailerLite: creators versus SMB

Kit — still calling itself ConvertKit — publishes four contradictions about its own tiers

Kit — the company still calling itself ConvertKit in places — publishes four contradictions between its own pricing page and its own articles: the Creator tier costs $33 a month on one page and $39 on another, free-plan A/B testing appears in an article but not on the pricing page, unlimited automations sit on the pricing page while an article caps the free plan at one, and Creator Pro is required to invite teammates in one article while the pricing page already grants two seats on Creator. MailerLite, meanwhile, technically blocks non-compliant sends outright: the postal address and unsubscribe link cannot be removed, and a missing one stops the send. Scope compared, criterion by criterion. Checked 14 September 2026.

Book a call

Free Intro Call

Last Update:

2026

Kit

VS

MailerLite

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: scope compared, criterion by criterion — checked September 14, 2026
ConvertKit	MailerLite
What the tool answers
What it measures or produces
Kit ("formerly ConvertKit"): an email/newsletter platform built on a subscriber list, sent Broadcasts and Email Sequences, fed by hosted Forms and Landing Pages.	It produces email campaigns, automations, forms, landing pages and websites, then measures opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam complaints, orders and revenue per campaign and per subscriber.
The job it equips
Named roles: artists, authors, bloggers, coaches, course creators, marketers, musicians, podcasters, YouTubers. Positioned "creator-first", for solo operators.	The email marketing manager or independent creator who builds and mails their own list, designs the emails and tracks conversions without needing a developer.
What it cannot tell you
Daily snapshot backups, 15-day retention, "may not include" a deleted tag/email. Only "Confirmed" subscribers can be emailed from the tool.	It does not relay transactional email: MailerLite provides no SMTP infrastructure and routes that use case to MailerSend, a separate product with its own pricing.
Send, deliver, measure
Deliverability
Verified domain (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) via manual CNAME; warm-up advised, no automation. Dedicated IP absent as of 09/14/2026, no tier tied to it. "Advanced deliverability reporting" restricted to Creator Pro.	A dedicated IP requires fifty thousand weekly emails and one authenticated domain, with warm-up handled by the deliverability team; every new account must request approval before sending.
Editor and templates
Three template types (Starting point, Classic, HTML), Liquid personalization, snippets, media gallery. An "Email template marketplace" is named in the footer, but no library is described elsewhere.	Three editors coexist, drag-and-drop with over seventy content blocks, a simple editor and free-form HTML; over fifty pre-designed templates, restricted to the Comfort and Power plans.
Segmentation
Segmentation via tags and custom fields; automation conditions: tags, field values, advanced filters, email opened within a timeframe. No cap on conditions published.	Dynamic segments recalculate continuously, with filters on custom fields, groups and automation activity; no cap on the number of conditions is published by the vendor.
Automated journeys
Automations: max 5 entry points, no step cap. Contradiction: the pricing page reserves unlimited automations to Creator+, an article says the free plan includes "1 basic visual automation with 1 email sequence".	Seven standard triggers plus e-commerce triggers; three active automations on free, fifty on Comfort, unlimited on Power, which alone allows three triggers per workflow.
A/B testing
Subject A/B test: 2 versions on 15%+15%, 30-240 min (default 240), winner = open rate; 2+ lines needs Creator Pro. Contradiction: an article credits the free plan with A/B testing, the pricing page reserves it to Creator/Pro.	Subject line, content, sender name and send time are testable, up to five versions of one element; a slider sets the sample and the winner goes out automatically to the remainder.
Billing unit
Billed on confirmed subscribers, no per-send surcharge. Overage: automatic upgrade to the next tier (immediate proration on annual); downgrade is manual. Currency: USD.	Billing is per active subscriber in tiers, paired with a monthly sending cap; exceeding either subscribers or sends triggers an automatic tier increase charged pro-rata.
GDPR compliance
Double opt-in toggled on; EU/UK/Swiss boxes unchecked by default. DPA (kit.com/dpa) covering GDPR/CCPA, transfers via Data Privacy Framework/SCC/IDTA. Retention period absent; dpa/privacy unreadable (JS, 403).	Double opt-in is on by default on forms, the DPA is folded into the Terms with no separate signature, portability and erasure tools exist; no numeric retention period is stated.
CAN-SPAM and state-law compliance
Postal address required (CAN-SPAM), a free substitute provided (Seattle). Unsubscribe mandatory with no exception. Account closure possible with no notice or refund. Technical blocking and state laws beyond CCPA absent.	MailerLite technically blocks non-compliant sending: the postal address and unsubscribe link can't be removed, an error blocks send if absent, one-click unsubscribe on by default. No numeric deadline or state law is published.
What comes out of it
Export formats
Subscriber export in CSV, link valid 5 days. Chart export also CSV; engagement-distribution and deliverability charts restricted to Creator Pro. XLSX, PDF, Looker Studio absent.	Subscribers export as CSV or CSV for Excel; a campaign report downloads as CSV and can be produced as PDF through the print function.
Shareable reports
"Account summary" weekly/monthly by email, no tier restriction. Indexed public link or unindexed archive link. White-labeling = removing the "Built With Kit" badge from the first paid tier.	Custom dashboards can be built and saved inside the account; no public share link for a report is described on the dedicated reports help page.
API access
API included free on every tier (V3 legacy, V4 current). Quota: 600 req/60s via OAuth, 120/60s per API key (429 beyond); keys are for individual use only.	A REST API is included, using Bearer tokens on connect.mailerlite.com/api, capped at 120 requests per minute, and 5 requests per minute on subscriber import endpoints.
What it connects to
Native integrations
No total integration count published; 46 articles in the Apps collection. The three that matter: Shopify, Stripe, the official WordPress plugin. "Some apps require a paid plan".	The directory advertises more than 130 connections; the three that matter are Shopify for e-commerce, WordPress for capture, and Zapier for everything else.
Google tools it connects to
Google Analytics is the only Google tool named: UTM auto-added, no third-party connector. Search Console, Ads, Sheets and Looker Studio absent from the 46 integration articles as of 09/14/2026.	Google Analytics is enabled by automatically appending UTM tags to campaign links; Google Sheets, Google Forms and Google Docs appear in the integrations directory.
Bringing your existing data across
Takeover via CSV import, manual mapping (unmapped columns aren't imported). Dedicated importers for 6 platforms (ActiveCampaign, Beehiiv, GetResponse, Keap, Mailchimp, Drip). "Free migrations" advertised.	Migration runs through a CSV export at the competitor then an import with field mapping; forms, templates and automations have to be rebuilt by hand.
Getting started, and the fine print
Support
Support via email, chat and a knowledge base, "24/7". The tier sets priority: plain "24/7" on Creator, "priority" on Pro. No phone support and no support language named.	Email support is 24/7 from the Comfort plan, 24/7 live chat is reserved for Power, priority support sits on Enterprise; free accounts get fourteen days then fall back to the community.
Where the data is hosted
No hosting country/region named; only mention: "three separate data centers", not located. The only anchor published: the US as transfer destination. Key pages unreadable (JS, 403).	Hosting runs on Google Cloud Platform in data centers located in Germany and the Netherlands; the DPA nonetheless permits worldwide processing framed by Standard Contractual Clauses.
What happens if you leave
Refund within 30 days (same rule annually). Cancellation: account active until period end. Deletion within 24-48h (cancelable within 48h), export advised first. External accounts not deleted.	Cancelling downgrades the account to the free plan at the end of the cycle with data kept; deleting the account opens a twenty-five day grace period first.
Minimum seats billed
No minimum seats (billing is on subscribers); users included: 1 (free), 2 (Creator), unlimited (Pro). Contradiction: an article says inviting teammates needs Creator Pro, the pricing page grants 2 on Creator.	No minimum seat purchase applies: seats come bundled per plan, two on free, three on Comfort, unlimited on Power and Enterprise.
Data residency and regulated cloud
Residency: only the US is named, for transfer purposes. No cloud region or host named. FedRAMP, StateRAMP, AWS GovCloud, HIPAA BAA and SOC 2 absent from all pages tested as of 09/14/2026.	MailerLite does not host in the United States: its data sits with Google Cloud, in Germany and the Netherlands. The vendor holds its own ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification (its data centers are separately certified too) and states Data Privacy Framework compliance; SOC 2, FedRAMP, StateRAMP, GovCloud, and HIPAA/BAA are absent, with no tier published for any of them.
Interface languages shipped
No count or list of interface languages. Everything is served in American English (no switcher, /en/ only, developer docs not localized). No language setting in the 14 "Account Settings" articles.	MailerLite ships three interface languages: English by default, Spanish, and Polish, without distinguishing US from UK English. Spanish is switched self-service, Polish is enabled by contacting support.
What it costs
The entry price and what it includes
First paid tier: Creator at $33/month for 1,000 subscribers (pricing page). Free: $0, up to 10,000 subscribers. Contradiction: a help-center article states "$39/month" for that same tier.	The Comfort plan starts at 12 US dollars per month billed monthly, with three seats, fifty active automations, pre-designed templates, A/B testing and round-the-clock email support.
What pushes the bill up
Hidden costs: automatic tier escalation (immediate proration on annual); Kit Commerce fee 3.5% + $0.30/transaction (Stripe only); US tax varying by county. "Unlimited users" restricted to Pro.	Crossing the active subscriber tier triggers an automatic tier increase charged to the card, pro-rated against the time remaining in the billing cycle.
Sales tax and nexus
US tax charged on the subscription in a precise list of states + DC, rate varying by county; non-US customers add a Tax ID. For the creator's own Kit Commerce sales, only VAT is handled, the rest "in the future".	MailerLite collects and remits sales tax on its own fees, in 16 states plus DC, at a combined state-plus-county rate by zip code. MailerLite bears its own nexus determination; no calculation is offered for customer sales.
Procurement and invoicing
Only purchase path: credit-card self-service (Stripe), charged in advance, a $1 verification hold removed after 7 days. Invoice, purchase order, net-30, ACH and W-9 absent; no tier opens non-card billing.	MailerLite accepts only card, PayPal, Przelewy24, and Shopify payment (Shopify accounts) — no cash or checks — in EUR or USD by address. No non-card tier published: self-service only, even for Enterprise (100,000+ subscribers).

Key takeaways

Kit disagrees with itself on what its own starter tier costs

Kit’s pricing page lists the Creator tier at thirty-three dollars a month for one thousand subscribers, while a help-center article states thirty-nine dollars a month for that same tier; Kit publishes both figures and reconciles neither.

A/B testing is free in one article and gated in another

One Kit article credits the free plan with A/B testing, while the pricing page reserves subject-line testing — two versions on a fifteen percent and fifteen percent split, thirty to two hundred forty minutes before the winner ships — to the Creator and Pro tiers, with a second test line requiring Creator Pro specifically; Kit publishes both versions and reconciles neither.

Unlimited automations on one page, one automation on another

The Kit pricing page reserves unlimited automations to Creator+ and above, while a separate article states that the free plan includes one basic visual automation with one email sequence; Kit publishes both claims and reconciles neither, leaving a free-plan sender unable to tell in advance how many automations they actually get.

Two seats or zero, depending on which Kit page is open

The Kit pricing page grants two users on the base Creator tier at no extra charge, while a separate article states that inviting a teammate requires upgrading to Creator Pro specifically; Kit publishes both statements and reconciles neither.

MailerLite tools the block; Kit writes the rule

MailerLite makes non-compliance technically impossible on its own send path: the postal address and the unsubscribe link cannot be stripped out of a campaign, and sending halts with an error if either is missing, with one-click unsubscribe on by default. Kit instead states the requirement contractually — a postal address is required under CAN-SPAM, and Kit provides a free substitute address in Seattle for senders who lack one — without describing any technical block that would stop a send missing it.

MailerLite’s own tax nexus is not the customer’s

MailerLite collects and remits sales tax on its own subscription fee in sixteen states plus DC, at a combined state-and-county rate keyed to zip code, and states that it carries its own nexus determination — while offering no sales-tax calculation for what the customer’s own subscribers are charged. Kit charges US tax on its own subscription across a stated list of states plus DC, again by county, and asks non-US customers for a tax ID, while handling only VAT for a creator’s own Kit Commerce sales and naming everything else “in the future”.

Frequently asked questions

Can't find what you're looking for ? Contact us here

jordan@bulldozer-collective.com

What do MailerLite and Kit (ConvertKit) produce?

MailerLite produces email campaigns, automations, forms, landing pages and websites, then measures opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam complaints, orders and revenue per campaign and per subscriber. Kit, “formerly ConvertKit,” is an email and newsletter platform built on a subscriber list, sending Broadcasts and Email Sequences, fed by hosted Forms and Landing Pages.

What is the price of the first paid tier on MailerLite and on Kit?

MailerLite’s Comfort plan starts at $12 per month billed monthly, with 3 seats, fifty active automations, pre-designed templates, A/B testing, and round-the-clock email support. On Kit, the first paid tier, Creator, shows $33 per month for 1,000 subscribers on the pricing page (the free plan stays at $0 for up to 10,000 subscribers), but a help-center article states $39 per month for that same tier — both figures are published without being reconciled.

Is A/B testing included on Kit’s free plan?

MailerLite lets you test subject line, content, sender name and send time, with up to five versions of one element, a slider that sets the sample, and an automatic winner sent to the rest of the list. On Kit, subject A/B testing pits two versions against 15% plus 15% of the list for 30 to 240 minutes (240 by default), with the winner set by open rate, and two-plus lines requiring Creator Pro; but one article credits the free plan with A/B testing while the pricing page reserves it to Creator or Pro.