MailerLite vs Kit: Which Email Tool Fits a Small List on a Budget?
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The problem: both look right, for opposite reasons
MailerLite and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) end up on the same shortlists constantly, and on paper they seem to contradict each other. Kit's free plan covers 10,000 subscribers; MailerLite's covers 250. MailerLite's first paid plan is $12 a month; Kit's is $39. If one number decided it, the comparison would already be over — in one direction or the other.
The real difference is what each tool charges you for. Kit gives you a huge free home and charges when you want automation and creator selling tools. MailerLite gives you a small free start and charges gently, by list size, for the full toolset from day one. Which shape fits depends on what you actually do with your list. This comparison walks through the numbers and the trade-offs; the detailed verdicts live in the MailerLite review, the Kit review, and the MailerLite pricing breakdown.
The free plans, honestly compared
Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends, unlimited forms and landing pages, and the ability to sell digital products (Kit takes 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale). That is an enormous allowance. The catch, since September 2026, is automation: the free plan includes no visual automations and no email sequences at all. You can write and send a newsletter to thousands of people for free — but a welcome series that runs by itself requires a paid plan.
MailerLite's free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month — small numbers. But inside that small allowance you get the machinery Kit charges for: up to 3 automations, a website and landing page, and signup forms. You can run a real welcome sequence on day one, for free, as long as your list is still small.
So the free plans are not better and worse. They are generous about different things: Kit is generous about audience size, MailerLite is generous about features.
What each costs once you pay
| MailerLite Comfort | Kit Creator | |
|---|---|---|
| First paid step | $12/month (up to 500 subscribers) | $39/month (up to 1,000 subscribers) |
| At 1,000 subscribers | $19/month | $39/month |
| At 10,000 subscribers | $89/month | $139/month |
| Sending limits | 10x your subscriber tier per month | Unlimited on every plan |
| Automation | Included (up to 50 automations) | Included, unlimited — this is what the paid plan is for |
| Selling digital products | Yes (up to 5 on Comfort) | Yes, with a 3.5% + 30c fee per sale |
Two patterns matter more than any single row. First, MailerLite is cheaper at every comparable list size — at 10,000 subscribers the gap is $50 a month. Second, the reason you start paying differs. With Kit, most people pay because they want automations and sequences, and the bill then grows with the list. With MailerLite, you pay because the list outgrew a tier, and the features were already there. Yearly billing narrows both bills: 10% off at MailerLite, and Kit's annual price works out to about $33 a month at the 1,000-subscriber tier.
Where each one is genuinely better
Choose MailerLite if your list is small or mid-sized, your budget is real, and you want the full toolset — automations, landing pages, a small website — working from the start. A freelancer sending a monthly newsletter and a welcome sequence to a few hundred people gets everything they need for $12 a month, and the steps up are gradual. It is also the more natural fit for small businesses and client work, not just newsletters.
Choose Kit if you are a creator whose newsletter is the business. If your list is growing into the thousands but you only send broadcasts, Kit's free plan can carry you at $0 for a long time — no other major tool matches that. And when you do pay, you are buying a creator's toolkit: unlimited sequences, tagging built around buyers and readers, paid newsletters, and a recommendation network for growing your list. Creators selling digital products every week will feel at home faster in Kit than anywhere else.
Who should skip both
- You need a sales CRM. Pipelines and deal tracking live in a different category of tool; neither of these is built for it.
- You send transactional email. Receipts and password resets belong in a dedicated sending service.
- Your list is huge and price-sensitive above all. Past roughly 50,000 subscribers, both tools get expensive and the self-hosted and infrastructure-grade options start to deserve a look.
The honest conclusion
For a small list on a budget — the reader most of this site is written for — MailerLite is usually the safer first step: the full toolset at $12 a month, with pricing that climbs slowly and predictably. Kit earns its higher price in a specific situation: a creator with a growing audience who sells to it, and who can ride the free plan's 10,000-subscriber allowance until automation becomes worth $39 a month. Neither choice is a trap. Pick the one whose free plan matches what you do today, and whose first paid step matches what you will do next.