ConvertKit (Kit) vs Mailchimp 2026: Creator Tool vs Business Tool

In September 2024, ConvertKit rebranded to Kit. The product is the same. The pricing is the same. But if you’re searching for “ConvertKit pricing” or “ConvertKit vs Mailchimp,” you’re looking for Kit. We’ll use both names here because that’s what people actually search.

The rebrand wasn’t cosmetic. It signals what Kit has always been: a tool built specifically for the creator economy: newsletters, digital products, paid subscriptions, and audience building. Mailchimp, meanwhile, has evolved into a general-purpose marketing platform aimed at small businesses with e-commerce.

That difference in focus explains every pricing decision both companies make.

Who are these tools actually for?

Before comparing prices, it’s worth understanding the audiences these tools serve. Choosing the wrong one means you’ll be fighting the tool instead of using it.

Kit is built for individual creators:

• Newsletter writers and bloggers
• Podcasters growing an audience
• Course creators and digital product sellers
• YouTubers and content creators monetizing an email list
• Anyone who thinks in terms of “subscribers” not “contacts”

Mailchimp is built for small businesses:

• E-commerce stores (Shopify, WooCommerce integration)
• Local businesses running promotions
• Marketing teams managing multi-channel campaigns
• Businesses that need CRM-like contact management
• Anyone who thinks in terms of “campaigns” and “customer journeys”

If you’re a solo creator writing a newsletter and selling a course, Mailchimp’s feature set will feel bloated and confusing. If you’re running a Shopify store and need product recommendation emails, Kit simply doesn’t do that.

The free plan gap is enormous

This is the single most important comparison point. It’s not even close.

Feature	Kit Newsletter (Free)	Mailchimp Free
Subscribers/contacts	10,000	250
Monthly email sends	Unlimited broadcasts	500
Landing pages	Unlimited	Limited
Forms	Unlimited	Limited
Email sequences	1	None
Automation	No	No
E-commerce	Digital products, tips	Basic

Kit’s free plan supports 40x more subscribers than Mailchimp’s. For a creator building an audience, this means you can grow to 10,000 subscribers before paying a cent. On Mailchimp, you hit the paywall at 250 contacts, before you’ve even validated your idea.

Mailchimp gutted its free plan in recent years. It used to be the gold standard for “start free, pay later” email marketing. Now the 250-contact limit and 500-email cap make it a trial, not a real free tier. Kit’s free plan is a genuinely usable product for years, not weeks.

Paid plan comparison

Here’s what you pay when you outgrow free, which on Mailchimp happens almost immediately:

Kit pricing (monthly billing, annual rates in parentheses)

Plan	1K subs	5K subs	10K subs	25K subs
Newsletter (Free)	$0	$0	$0	N/A (10K limit)
Creator	$39/mo ($33)	$89/mo ($75)	$119/mo ($100)	$179/mo ($150)
Creator Pro	$59/mo ($50)	$111/mo ($93)	$159/mo ($133)	$279/mo ($233)

Mailchimp pricing (monthly billing)

Plan	500 contacts	5K contacts	10K contacts	25K contacts
Free	$0 (250 cap)	N/A	N/A	N/A
Essentials	$13/mo	$69/mo	$100/mo	$230/mo
Standard	$20/mo	$87/mo	$135/mo	$270/mo
Premium	$350/mo	$350/mo	$350/mo	$350/mo

The cost at scale

At 10,000 subscribers, a milestone many serious creators hit, here’s the real comparison:

• Kit Creator: $119/mo (monthly) or $100/mo (annual)
• Mailchimp Standard: $135/mo
• Kit Creator Pro: $159/mo (monthly) or $133/mo (annual)

Kit is cheaper at every list size above 5K when comparing equivalent feature tiers. And Kit’s free plan means you paid nothing to get to 10K, while Mailchimp started billing you at subscriber #251.

What Creator gets you that Free doesn’t

Kit’s free plan is generous, but the paid tiers add meaningful upgrades:

Creator ($39/mo at 1K subs):

• Visual automation builder (the big unlock)
• Unlimited email sequences (free gets 1)
• 70+ third-party integrations
• Automated funnels and tagging rules
• Third-party integrations (Teachable, Shopify, Zapier)
• Priority support

Creator Pro ($59/mo at 1K subs):

• Subscriber scoring (identify your most engaged readers)
• Newsletter referral system (built-in, no SparkLoop needed)
• Advanced reporting and deliverability insights
• Facebook custom audiences integration
• Priority live chat support

The visual automation builder on Creator is the main reason to upgrade. If you need “when someone buys my course, tag them and start a 5-email onboarding sequence,” that’s a Creator feature.

Where Mailchimp wins

Kit isn’t the right choice for everyone. Mailchimp genuinely excels in areas Kit doesn’t touch:

E-commerce integration. Mailchimp’s Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce integrations are deep: product recommendations, abandoned cart emails, purchase-based segmentation, and revenue tracking. Kit has basic e-commerce support for digital products but nothing close to Mailchimp’s retail toolkit.

Multi-step automation at lower price points. Mailchimp Standard ($20/mo at 500 contacts) includes customer journey builder with branching logic, predictive segmentation, and send time optimization. Kit’s comparable automation requires the Creator plan at $39/mo.

Template variety. Mailchimp has hundreds of email templates designed for businesses: product launches, sales announcements, newsletters with product grids. Kit’s templates are intentionally minimal (creator-focused, text-forward design).

Integration breadth. Mailchimp connects to virtually every business tool. Kit has 70+ integrations focused on creator tools (course platforms, membership sites, webinar software) but can’t match Mailchimp’s ecosystem.

Where Kit wins

Simplicity as a feature. Kit’s interface is deliberately simple. You won’t spend hours figuring out settings or navigating nested menus. For creators who want to write, hit send, and get back to creating content, that simplicity saves real time.

Subscriber-centric model. Kit counts subscribers once, even if they’re on multiple forms or sequences. Mailchimp counts contacts, and unsubscribed contacts still count toward your limit until you manually archive them.

Creator Commerce. Kit has built-in tools to sell digital products and paid newsletter subscriptions directly, no Shopify or Gumroad needed. You can sell an ebook from your landing page with Kit handling payments and delivery.

The free plan. 10,000 subscribers for free. This alone makes Kit the obvious starting point for any creator who doesn’t need automation yet.

Tag-based organization. Kit uses tags instead of lists to organize subscribers. One subscriber, one record, multiple tags. Mailchimp’s list-based system means a subscriber on 3 lists counts as 3 contacts in your billing.

The hidden cost traps

Mailchimp’s contact counting

Mailchimp counts all contacts, including unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, toward your plan limit. If 1,000 people signed up and 300 unsubscribed, you’re billed for 1,000. Over time, this inflates your bill by 20-40%.

Kit counts active subscribers only. If someone unsubscribes, they stop counting.

Kit’s subscriber scaling

Kit’s prices jump at subscriber milestones. The Creator plan goes from $39/mo at 1K to $89/mo at 5K to $119/mo at 10K. These jumps are predictable but can surprise creators in a growth phase. Gaining 1,000 subscribers in a month means your bill could jump $20-50.

Mailchimp’s gutted free plan

Mailchimp still markets heavily around “start for free.” But 250 contacts and 500 emails is not a usable free plan. It’s a demo. Budget for the Essentials plan ($13/mo) from day one if you choose Mailchimp.

Pick the right tool for your work

Choose Kit if:

• You’re a creator (writer, podcaster, course creator, YouTuber)
• You want to start free and grow to 10K subscribers without paying
• Simplicity matters more than feature depth
• You sell digital products and want payments built in
• You think in terms of “subscribers” not “marketing campaigns”

Choose Mailchimp if:

• You run an e-commerce store and need product-based email automation
• You need deep integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, or similar platforms
• Your team needs multi-step customer journey builders
• You already use Mailchimp and switching isn’t worth the disruption
• You need a broad integration ecosystem for your existing tech stack

Choose neither if:

• You need advanced automation at scale, so look at ActiveCampaign instead
• You need a CRM with email built in, so look at HubSpot instead

The verdict

These tools aren’t really competing with each other. They’re built for different people doing different work.

If you’re a creator building an audience, Kit is the obvious choice. The free plan alone, with 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages, and email sequences, removes any reason to start elsewhere. When you need automation, the Creator plan delivers it without complexity.

If you’re a small business with an e-commerce store, Mailchimp’s ecosystem wins. Product recommendations, abandoned cart flows, and deep platform integrations make it the tool your store needs.

The mistake is choosing Mailchimp because you’ve heard of it and then fighting its complexity when all you need is a newsletter. Or choosing Kit because it’s trendy and then discovering it can’t send product recommendation emails.

Match the tool to your work. Everything else follows.

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Pricing sourced from Kit’s official pricing page and Mailchimp’s pricing page. Last checked February 2026.