Guides / Comparisons

Mailchimp vs Kit (ConvertKit): Which Email Tool Should You Use?

Mailchimp vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit) compared: free plans, pricing as of October 2026, automations, selling products and who each suits best.

Mythex Team · 2026-10-22 · 5 min read

Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you're a creator, newsletter writer, coach or course seller who wants to grow a list, automate welcome sequences and sell digital products, with a free plan that covers up to 10,000 subscribers as of October 2026. Pick Mailchimp if you're a business that wants a broad marketing toolkit with templates, segmentation and campaigns for customers, and you're starting small: its free plan covers 250 contacts. On paid plans Kit Creator starts at $390 a year for 1,000 subscribers, while Mailchimp Standard starts at $20 a month.

Mailchimp vs Kit at a glance

Sources: Mailchimp pricing and Kit pricing, checked October 2026.

How we compared

We compared plans, prices and limits on Mailchimp's and Kit's own pricing pages as of October 2026, in US dollars. Both price by audience size, so we quote starting prices and the tier they apply to where the page says. Mailchimp's page didn't tie its starting prices to a specific contact count in the text we captured, so we don't guess one. We didn't measure deliverability or run send tests. We looked at the free plan, automations, selling, team seats and cost as your list grows.

Pricing as of October 2026

Mailchimp

• Prices rise with the number of contacts you choose.
• Essentials and Standard come with a 14-day free trial.
• Mailchimp's marketing automation flows (which replaced its Customer Journey Builder in June 2025) aren't included on Free; Essentials allows up to 4 flow steps.

See Mailchimp pricing.

Kit

• Free: $0 for up to 10,000 subscribers. Unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and selling digital products and subscriptions.
• Creator: $390 billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers (about $33 a month). Adds unlimited visual automations and email sequences, A/B testing of subject lines, removing Kit branding, SMS marketing, apps and integrations, RSS campaigns, and 24/7 support.
• Pro: $66 a month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers. Adds subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, unlimited users, a newsletter referral system, and the ability to edit links in sent emails. Kit was running a first-year discount on Pro when we checked.
• Kit says paying yearly saves 17%, and paid plans have a 14-day free trial.

See Kit pricing.

What that means in practice: a creator with 3,000 subscribers who mainly sends a weekly newsletter can stay on Kit Free. On Mailchimp, 3,000 contacts is beyond the free plan, so they would pay for Essentials or Standard. A local shop with 200 customers and one monthly email fits Mailchimp Free comfortably.

Ease of use

Mailchimp has a drag-and-drop email builder with many templates, which suits businesses that want designed, image-heavy emails such as product launches, sales and event announcements.

Kit leans toward simple, text-first emails that look like a personal note, which is what many newsletters want. Its visual automation builder makes sequences like "welcome series, then pitch a course" easy to map out on paid plans.

Automations

On Kit, visual automations and sequences are unlimited from Creator. That's the core of how creators sell: a subscriber joins through a form, gets a welcome sequence, and is tagged by what they click.

Mailchimp has automation flows from Essentials, but with a 4-step limit on that tier, and more on Standard and Premium. If automation is central to your business, compare the tier you'd actually need, not just the cheapest one.

Selling products and paid newsletters

Kit includes selling digital products and subscriptions even on its free plan, along with paid newsletter features. For creators, having the list and the checkout in one tool is simpler.

Mailchimp is built more for marketing a business that sells elsewhere, such as through an online store. If you sell physical products, you'll likely pair Mailchimp with your store platform; see Shopify alternatives for store options.

Team seats

Mailchimp gives 3 seats on Essentials, 5 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. Kit's Pro plan includes unlimited users. For a team of marketers working on the same account, check seat limits early.

Where a custom app fits

Email tools are excellent at sending campaigns, and you shouldn't build your own sender. But some businesses outgrow "newsletter plus checkout": a membership site where members log in to see content, a course with progress tracking, or a community directory.

That's where building your own site or app makes sense, while still using Kit or Mailchimp for email. With Mythex you describe the site in chat, and it builds it with sign-in, a database and file storage when needed, with a live preview, and publishes to a URL in one click. Transactional emails, like sign-up confirmations, go through an email API in your code; see how to send emails from your app and how to build a newsletter website.

For the newsletter itself, Kit or Mailchimp will deliver better and faster than anything you build.

Switching between them

Moving an email list is easier than people fear, but plan for a few things:

1. Export your contacts with their tags or groups, not just email addresses, so your segments survive the move.
2. Rebuild your automations by hand. Sequences and flows don't transfer between tools, so write down each step first.
3. Replace your signup forms on your website, or new subscribers will keep going to the old tool.
4. Warm up gradually. Send to your most engaged subscribers first after switching, then the rest.
5. Keep the old account for a month in case you need to check past campaigns or reports.

Kit's pricing page also mentions free migrations, which is worth asking about if your list is large.

Who should pick which

• Newsletter writer, creator, coach or course seller: Kit.
• Growing a list past 250 people without paying yet: Kit Free.
• Selling digital products and paid subscriptions from your list: Kit.
• Small business sending designed promotional emails: Mailchimp.
• Very small list (under 250) and occasional emails: Mailchimp Free.
• Marketing team that needs many seats: Mailchimp Premium or Kit Pro.

For more options, see our Mailchimp alternatives and our guide to building an audience before launch.

Verdict

Kit is the better choice for creators: its free plan is far more generous, automations are unlimited from Creator, and selling is built in. Mailchimp is the better choice for businesses that want a broad, template-rich marketing tool and start with a small list. Price both at the list size you expect in a year, not today.