Kit (ConvertKit)

This ConvertKit review covers what Kit is used for, its key features, Kit pricing and the free plan, selling digital products, where it shines and falls short, and how it compares with other email marketing tools. Kit is the same company and product as ConvertKit. Nathan Barry founded ConvertKit in 2013, announced the new name at the Craft + Commerce conference in June 2024, and moved the product to kit.com on 1 October 2024 (Domain Name Wire). The company says the rename reflects a wider goal: to be "the operating system for the creator economy" (Kit). Your old ConvertKit account, forms and sequences carry over; only the name and domain changed.

What is Kit used for?

Kit is an email marketing platform built for creators: writers, podcasters, coaches, course creators, YouTubers and small businesses that run on an audience. You use it to collect subscribers with forms and landing pages, send a regular newsletter, and run email automation such as a welcome sequence or a course delivered by email. Subscribers are organised with tags and segments rather than separate lists, so one person can sit in several groups without being counted twice.

Kit also handles simple commerce. You can sell digital products, paid newsletter subscriptions and tip jars from the same account, and recommend other creators through Kit's Creator Network. For many creators it replaces two tools: an email service plus a small online store. As a newsletter tool for a small business with an audience, it is simpler than most platforms built for sales teams.

Key features

• Forms and landing pages: unlimited forms and landing pages on every plan, built in a landing page builder with more than 50 templates, according to Email Tool Tester.
• Broadcasts and email templates: send one-off campaigns to the whole list or a segment. Kit favours clean, text-first emails that read like personal messages, and the editor is block-based rather than full drag and drop. The email template choice is small; Email Tool Tester counts about 15 email templates (Email Tool Tester).
• Email automation: visual automations and sequences with tag-based triggers and conditions, on paid plans only.
• Tags and segments: one subscriber list, organised by tags, so pricing counts each person once.
• Digital products and paid subscriptions: sell downloads, courses and paid newsletters, with a 3.5% + $0.30 transaction fee per sale.
• Creator Network and recommendations: recommend other creators at signup and get recommended back. Kit's Creator Network is free; paid recommendations carry a 23.5% fee.
• Integrations and App Store: apps and integrations on paid plans, plus API v4 for developers, launched with the rename.
• Advanced reporting: subscriber scoring, engagement analytics and deliverability reporting on the Pro plan.

Kit pricing

Kit prices by list size: the more subscribers you have, the more you pay. The prices below come from Kit's pricing page as of September 2026, at 1,000 subscribers.

• Free plan (Newsletter): $0 for up to 10,000 subscribers. Unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and digital products and paid subscriptions. No automations or sequences, and Kit branding and recommendations stay on.
• Creator plan: $390 a year (about $33 a month), or $39 billed monthly. Adds unlimited automations and sequences, A/B testing of subject lines, polls, SMS, apps and integrations, RSS campaigns, removal of Kit branding and 24/7 support.
• Pro plan (Creator Pro): $790 a year (about $66 a month), or $79 billed monthly. Adds subscriber scoring, engagement analytics, deliverability reporting, unlimited users, a newsletter referral system, Facebook audiences and advanced A/B testing.

Paid plans come with a 14-day free trial without a credit card, and Kit migrates your list for free. Monthly prices come from Email Tool Tester's pricing guide, updated 3 September 2026 (Email Tool Tester).

The cost surprise to check is how fast the paid plan grows with your list. On monthly billing the Creator plan is $39 at 1,000 subscribers, $89 at 5,000, $139 at 10,000 and $199 at 25,000. Every confirmed email address counts toward the limit; bounced contacts do not. Clean out cold subscribers regularly, because inactive people still cost money. Transaction fees of 3.5% + $0.30 apply on the free plan and on paid plans alike.

Digital product sales, paid tiers and the Creator Network

Kit's commerce features are built in, not an add-on. You create a product page, set a price or a pay-what-you-want amount, and Kit delivers the file or grants access after payment, then tags the buyer for follow-up emails. Paid newsletters work the same way: a subscription product with one or more paid tiers gives paying subscribers access to paid-only posts. Kit's Creator Network adds growth on top: free recommendations send new subscribers between creators at signup, and paid recommendations let you pay per new subscriber or earn from recommending others. This makes Kit a good fit for creators who sell a guide, a template pack or a small course, and less so for a full online store with stock and shipping, where a store platform such as Shopify or a course platform is the better base.

Is the free plan enough, or do you need a paid plan?

For a new newsletter, often yes. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, which is more generous than most email marketing platforms. What it leaves out is automation: no welcome sequence, no automated course and no tag-based flows. Some competitor round-ups still say the free plan includes one basic automation, but Kit's current pricing page lists automations only on paid plans, and Email Tool Tester noted the change in September 2026. Upgrade to the Creator plan once you need automated email or want to remove Kit branding.

Email automation and reporting on Kit

Kit's email automation runs on a visual builder: a trigger such as a form signup, a tag or a purchase starts a sequence of emails, waits and conditions. Most creators start with a welcome sequence for new users on their email list, then add a sales sequence after a digital product purchase. Every plan shows open rates and click rates per email. Advanced reporting on the Pro plan adds subscriber scoring, engagement analytics and deliverability reporting, and Kit offers custom HTML emails for teams that want full control over the design, at no extra cost.

Where Kit shines — and where it falls short

Strengths:

• A free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited emails.
• Tag-based subscriber management that is quick to learn and counts each person once.
• Built-in digital products, paid subscriptions and tip jars.
• Creator Network recommendations to grow a list through other creators.
• Deliverability is consistently good in Email Tool Tester's tests.

Trade-offs:

• Pricing rises quickly past the first few thousand subscribers, so it becomes less affordable than MailerLite at the same list size.
• Few email templates and limited design options; no custom fonts in emails, according to Sender.
• No revenue attribution per link or product-level reports, which ecommerce teams expect.
• Email Tool Tester reports that click data includes bot clicks.
• Automations need a paid plan.
• Kit is not a full CRM: there are no deals, pipelines or sales tasks.

How Kit compares

• MailerLite: the closest like-for-like option, usually cheaper at the same list size, with more design templates.
• Mailchimp: the established all-rounder for small business marketing, with stronger ecommerce reports.
• Flodesk: design-first email for creators with visual templates.
• ActiveCampaign: deeper automation and CRM for businesses with sales teams.
• Klaviyo: email and SMS built for online stores, with revenue attribution.
• Substack: free paid-newsletter publishing that takes a share of subscription revenue.
• Ghost: an open-source publishing platform with members and newsletters.
• GetResponse, AWeber and Brevo: broader email marketing tools with webinars, transactional email or classic newsletters.

Is Kit worth it?

Kit is worth it for creators who want one place to grow a newsletter, automate emails and sell digital products, and who value simple subscriber tagging over design freedom. The free plan lets you start at no cost with up to 10,000 subscribers, and the Creator plan adds the email automation most creators need. It is less of a fit for design-heavy brands, for online stores that need revenue reporting, or for large lists on a tight budget, where MailerLite or Klaviyo cost less or report more. The ability to test Kit on the free plan before you pay is a real advantage. If you want help setting up automations, a sales funnel or a migration to Kit, email marketing and low-code developers on LowCodeDevs can take it on.

Sources

• Kit pricing: plans, prices at 1,000 subscribers, features, trial and fees.
• ConvertKit to Kit, Kit: the rename and what launched with it.
• ConvertKit officially becomes Kit at Kit.com, Domain Name Wire: the domain switch on 1 October 2024.
• Kit review, Email Tool Tester: templates, deliverability tests and bot clicks.
• Kit pricing, Email Tool Tester: monthly prices by list size and what counts as a subscriber.
• Kit alternatives, Sender: design and reporting criticism (written by a competitor; its note that the free plan includes one basic automation is out of date, since Kit's pricing page lists automations only on paid plans).