MailerLite vs ConvertKit

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: 1 minute summary

MailerLite and ConvertKit are very much alike. In a nutshell, if you’re looking for the cheapest email tool and/or best free email software choose MailerLite. If you don’t mind paying a bit more for one of the most user-friendly email marketing tools go with ConvertKit.

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

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ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Pricing

• ConvertKit’s Creator plan is $435 more expensive on average annually (including discounts) than MailerLite’s Growing Business plan
• ConvertKit’s Creator Pro plan is $658 more expensive on average annually (including discounts) than MailerLite’s Advanced plan

These averages are calculated based upon below’s pricing table up to 20,000 subscribers. The prices below are annual prices, including discounts. Although, it might not seem that much of a higher price it’s often a price increase of more than 100% when choosing ConvertKit over MailerLite. You can scroll to the right yourself to see prices for the higher number of subscribers.

	Company	Tier	500	1,000	1,500	2,000	2500	3,000	4,000	5,000	6,000	7,000	8,000	9,000	10,000	15,000	20,000
	MailerLite	Growing Business	$108	$108	$180	$180	$180	$348	$348	$348	$372	$372	$372	$564	$564	$924	$1,260
	MailerLite	Advanced	$228	$228	$228	$228	$324	$420	$420	$420	$564	$564	$564	$924	$924	$1,260	$1,500
	ConvertKit	Creator	$290	$290	$490	$490	$490	$490	$790	$790	$990	$990	$990	$1,190	$1,190	$1,490	$1,790
	ConvertKit	Creator Pro	$590	$590	$790	$790	$790	$790	$1,110	$1,110	$1,390	$1,390	$1,390	$1,670	$1,670	$2,090	$2,510

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MailerLite different plans

1. Free
2. Growing Business (starting from $10/mo)
3. Advanced (starting from $21/mo)
4. Enterprise (custom pricing)

ConvertKit different plans

1. Free
2. Creator (starting from $15/mo)
3. Creator Pro (starting from $29/mo)

Discounts

• ConvertKit offers two months (+- 17%) for free when paying yearly
• MailerLite offers 15% discount when paying yearly and non-profit organizations receive 30% discount

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Free plan

Want to know the differences between both Free plans?

Features	ConvertKit	MailerLite
Forever free plan	✔️	✔️
Maximum monthly emails	Unlimited	12,000
Email automation	❌	✔️
Maximum subscribers	1,000	1,000
Can add custom domain	✔️	❌
Remove branding	❌	❌
Deliver free ebook	✔️	✔️
Drag & drop builder	❌	✔️
Support	❌	Email
Maximum forms/pop-ups	Unlimited	Unlimited
Maximum landing pages	Unlimited	10
Create a website	❌	✔️
Maximum websites	N.A.	1
Maximum traffic	Unlimited	unk.
Linktr.ee template	✔️	❌
Multiple users	❌	❌
Facebook custom audiences	❌	❌
Email design templates	Limited	❌
HTML newsletter	✔️	❌
Email A/B testing	✔️	✔️
Resend campaigns	✔️	❌
Timezone sending	❌	✔️
Reusable content	✔️	❌
Dynamic email content	✔️	❌
RSS	❌	❌
Email support	❌	✔️
Live chat support	❌	❌
Paid newsletter	✔️	❌
Sell subscription	✔️	❌
Sell digital products	✔️	❌
Tip jar	✔️	❌
Integrations & API	❌	✔️

Winner: MailerLite

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Email Marketing

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Maximum monthly emails

ConvertKit offers unlimited emails in the free and paid plans no matter how many subscribers you have. MailerLite on the other hand has a limit of 12,000 monthly emails in the free plan. It does offer unlimited emails in its paid plans with up to 60,000 subscribers. After 60K subs, MailerLite limits you to 12X your subscriber number. So, if you have 100,000 subscribers you can send 1.2 million monthly emails.

Winner: ConvertKit

Newsletter editor

MailerLite has a drag-and-drop builder and ConvertKit hasn’t. ConvertKit more or less feels like using Google Docs; straightforward and fast pace. And although some believe that having a drag-and-drop builder is a plus it isn’t as user-friendly as ConvertKit’s email building’s functionalities. The biggest reason might be that ConvertKit shows you far fewer options than MailerLite email builder.

Winner: ConvertKit

Newsletter functionalities

Features	ConvertKit	MailerLite
Add images	✔️	✔️
File hosting, e.g. PDF	✔️	❌
Countdown timer	✔️	✔️
Liquid Objects	✔️	❌
Video, e.g. YouTube	✔️	✔️
Social icons	✔️	✔️
HTML editor	✔️	✔️
Email Templates	7	76
Quizes	❌	✔️
Layout/design options	Very minimal	Many
RSS feed	❌	✔️
Accordion	❌	✔️
Table	❌	✔️
Different footer designs	❌	✔️
Survey functionality	❌	✔️
Social posts	❌	✔️
Reusable content	✔️	❌
Timezone delivering	❌	✔️
Dynamic email content	✔️	✔️

Email Design Templates

MailerLite offers way more designer options to edit the look and feel without having to code while ConvertKit offers more or less a clean text editor.

Liquid Object

Note that some email marketers like to work with Liquid Objects and ConvertKit is the only one of these 2 tools that support it. Liquid allows you to use if/then statements inside your email. Using Liquid does have a steep learning curve and there isn’t a great manual available for using Liquid with ConvertKit.

Countdown timer

One extra note on the countdown timer: ConvertKit’s countdown timer’s language is English and there’s no option to change the language. MailerLite does have the option to change the days, hours, minutes, and seconds into a different language.

Winner: MailerLite

Email A/B testing

• ConvertKit allows you to A/B test the email subject line
• MailerLite allows you to A/B test the email subject line, from name, and email content
• Both tools allow A/B testing in their free plan

Winner: MailerLite

Coding emails from scratch (HTML)

• ConvertKit allows you to code your emails from scratch in its free plan
• When you plan to code your emails you need MailerLite’s 2nd paid plan, Advanced

Winner: ConvertKit

Reusable content (Snippets)

ConvertKit has a feature called Snippets, which allows you to create a piece of content that you might use again and again in the future or automated emails. For example, you can create snippets that you constantly update with your new blog posts. You can use that single snippet in multiple automated emails and instead of updating all those emails with the info on your latest blog posts, you can simply update that single snippet. Or maybe you want to add a time-sensitive deal in all your automated emails. You can update that single snippet weekly instead of updating every email.

MailerLite doesn’t have such a feature where you can create reusable content blocks.

Winner: ConvertKit

Layout/design options

MailerLite’s newsletter editor offers way more design/layout features than ConvertKit. Features such as an Accordion functionality that you often see in blogs, a spreadsheet table, different footer designs and survey functionality, etcetera.

Winner: MailerLite

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Email marketing automation

Adding emails to an automated workflow

Obviously, both tools allow you to create an automated workflow with unlimited emails. The difference is that ConvertKit’s tool is way more user-friendly. Why is that? Well:

• MailerLite is slower
• With MailerLite it’ll cost more mouseclicks to accomplish the same thing
• ConvertKit reduces options, i.g. making the process faster and easier to understand
• ConvertKit’s email editor is easier to use

Winner: ConvertKit

Jump to here when X happens

ConvertKit allows you to jump to a specific part in your workflow when something happens such as the contact purchases a product, a tag is added/removed, a custom field changes, etcetera. This is a neat feature because it allows you to, i.e. stop sending promotional emails if the subscriber already purchased the product. MailerLite doesn’t offer such a feature. However, there’s a workaround with MailerLite but it means you need to create a separate workflow. In other words, ConvertKit is more user-friendly in this case.

Winner: ConvertKit

Swap emails in an automated workflow

When you create your workflow and you’re almost ready to publish you change your mind and want to swap emails 4 and 5. MailerLite doesn’t allow you to swap emails in a workflow while ConvertKit does. There’s a workaround with MailerLite and for that, you need to add a new email and choose the same email design. The thing is, it is just more user-friendly with ConvertKit.

Winner: ConvertKit

Multiple automation triggers

A trigger is how the automation starts. For example, you can trigger an automation when a subscriber is added to a tag, when a subscriber enters a form, or when a subscriber purchases one of your products. Both tools offer dozens, if not hundreds of ways to automatically start an automation. ConvertKit offers multiple triggers in its first paid plan, Creator. However, to use multiple triggers with MailerLite you need its second paid plan, Advanced.

Winner: It’s a draw

Email automation conditions

Both tools offer you to add a condition, i.e. an if/then statement, in an automated workflow. With MailerLite you can add up to 5 conditions. ConvertKit only allows you to add 1 condition. An example is that you add a condition that you only want to send the next email in the workflow if the contact opened or clicked the link in the previous email. Such a condition as this isn’t possible with ConvertKit but it is in MailerLite.

Winner: MailerLite

Choose an action

Inside your automated workflows, you can choose what you want to happen next. For example, you can add a wait period, send an email, unsubscribe the contact, update a custom field, etcetera. Both tools offer pretty much the same functionality.

Winner: It’s a draw.

Adding team members

When you plan to outsource your email marketing tasks you preferably don’t want to share you login details of your entire account.

MailerLite allows you to have up to 3 users in your account including the master user with its 1st paid plan, Growing Business. For unlimited users, you have to upgrade to its 2nd tier plan, Advanced. ConvertKit on the other hand allows you to add 1 team member in its 1st paid plan. To have the option to add unlimited team members you have to upgrade to Creator Pro.

Do note that ConvertKit only has 2 permissions options: Admin and editor while MailerLite gives you way more flexibility. You can even create a custom user where you can select exactly the permissions you want to give your newest team member.

Winner: MailerLite

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Segmentation

Creating segments of your email list

ConvertKit and MailerLite both allow us to create segments of our subscribers. MailerLite’s segment feature does come with way more functionalities and customization options, though. 

For example, one of its features I use regularly is to segment my subs on the number of days they were inactive. MailerLite allows me to self-select the number of days (I prefer 30) whereas ConvertKit doesn’t allow me to change that number (ConvertKit uses 90 days.)

This is just one example of many.

Winner: MailerLite

When X happens do Y

A great email marketing tactic is to segment your audience based on interests so you send them relevant emails. For example, I own one of the popular puppy training websites and I used to segment my audience into 4 groups: (1) not sure if I’m ready for a puppy, (2) I do want a puppy but am unsure about the breed, (3) I’m waiting to pick up my puppy from the breeder, (4) My puppy is home. As you can imagine people that aren’t sure if they are ready for a puppy need different tips than the ones that already have their puppy at home.

When I sent an email I ask my subs in what situation they’re in and to click the link of one of the four situations.

I used ConvertKit’s feature Automation Rules to update a custom field based upon a link click in an email, which is very neat! If they click group 4 the custom field will automatically change to group 4 so I know what emails to send them.

Not many email marketing tools offer such a feature, including MailerLite.

Winner: ConvertKit

Groups, Tags, Custom Fields

MailerLite uses Groups to segment while ConvertKit calls it Tags. Although these features are much alike the big difference is what I mentioned earlier; you can add a tag to a contact that clicks a link in an email which you cannot do with MailerLite and many other email tools.

Winner: It’s a draw

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Landing pages, Forms, Websites

Features	ConvertKit	MailerLite
Landing page templates	54 templates	52 templates
Sign-up form templates	10 templates	37 templates
Clickable link pop-ups	✔️	✔️
Deliver free ebook	✔️	✔️
Custom domain forms	✔️	❌
Custom domain pages	✔️	✔️
Custom CSS	✔️	❌
Exit intent popup	✔️	✔️
Welcome intent popup	✔️	✔️
Countdown timers	✔️	✔️
Survey pop-up	❌	✔️
A/B testing landing page	❌	✔️
A/B testing forms	❌	❌
Changing favicon	❌	✔️
Facebook pixel	✔️	✔️
SEO settings	✔️	✔️
No index page	❌	✔️
Google Analytics	✔️	✔️
Clicks heatmaps	❌	✔️
Social share settings	✔️	✔️
Already subscribed setting	✔️	❌
Google Tag Manager	✔️	❌
<header>, <body> code	❌	✔️

Landing page templates

ConvertKit gives you access to its templates the moment you sign up for its free plan. MailerLite on the other hand doesn’t. To access MailerLite’s templates you have to sign up for its paid plan, Growing Business. ConvertKit and MailerLite both have 50+ landing page templates available.

The most striking difference between the two landing page templates is that ConvertKit’s pages are 100% focused on getting more newsletter subscribers whereas MailerLite’s templates are more like regular website pages with a menu bar, contact us button, etcetera. Obviously, with MailerLite you can add opt-in forms too, but in most of its templates, it isn’t the default.

Moreover, the steps and process of creating a landing page with ConvertKit make more sense to me. When you click ConvertKit’s landing page feature you can immediately start the design process whereas MailerLite first requires you to do some initial settings like naming the page, etcetera. Although saying this sounds a bit silly but in my opinion, its goal should be to reduce the number of mouse clicks as much as possible making it easier for us to do our jobs. Naming a page shouldn’t be required. ConvertKit just gives a random name automatically to a landing page and you can change it if you want but it doesn’t require me to change it.

Where MailerLite uses a drag-and-drop editor ConvertKit limits how much you can change. Having more freedom can be nice it also makes the learning curve steeper and therefore it’s a personal preference.

My personal preference is ConvertKit because of its user-friendliness.

Winner: ConvertKit

Clickable link pop-ups

A clickable link pop-up is a hyperlink in, e.g. a blog post, that opens a popup when you click on the link. An example can be a line that says: Click here to download my free report on the best-performing stocks for the upcoming week. Note that not every email tool offers a clickable link pop-up but luckily both ConvertKit and MailerLite do have this feature.

Winner: It’s a draw

Deliver free ebook

Both tools allow you to deliver a free ebook with their free plans. The only difference is that ConvertKit’s functionality is more user-friendly. ConvertKit allows you to upload a PDF document to a link in an email while MailerLite doesn’t. When delivering a free ebook with MailerLite you need to use a third-party hosting like Google Drive to host your ebooks.

Winner: ConvertKit

Sign-up forms

Both tools allow you to create forms, e.g. between the lines of a blog post, a pop-up form, a slide-in from the bottom right corner, left, etcetera, or a top bar. What makes MailerLite’s Forms feature unnecessarily confusing is that it’s divided into 3 different tools: Pop-ups, Embedded forms, and Promotions. It gets worse: when you’ve chosen one of the three you can’t go back nor can you change the template of the form after. What is weird is that there aren’t any designs available for the embedded forms that you add in blog posts. 

ConvertKit on the other hand does allow you to change the form type and template after you’ve chosen one.

Other than that, the sign-up forms of both tools work just fine. I’ve used both and collected many email addresses.

Winner: ConvertKit

Custom Domain

Preferably you want to use your brand name for your landing pages/forms instead of a default URL generated by the tool you’re using. Using your domain will increase your conversion rate since it has higher trustworthiness than a random URL. What is more, both tools allow you to add and use subdomains, e.g. free.domain.com, and root domains, e.g. domain.com. Furthermore, you can also create URLs like free.domain.com/landing-page-1, free.domain.com/landing-page-2, etcetera.

The biggest difference between the two is that ConvertKit allows you to add a custom domain the moment you’re on the free plan. To add a custom domain with MailerLite you need to be on its first paid plan. Secondly, MailerLite doesn’t allow you to add a custom domain to its sign-up forms when sharing a direct URL to your form. ConvertKit does allow you to use a custom domain for sign-up forms and landing pages.

Winner: ConvertKit

Noindex your landing page

MailerLite offers you the option to discourage search engines, e.g. Google, from not indexing your landing page, which I most often prefer. ConvertKit on the other hand doesn’t have this option. The result is that your landing page will be found on Google, which isn’t always desirable.

Winner: MailerLite

Already subscribed contact setting

If you often create new freebies, i.e. give away free reports/ebooks, a handy feature is that already subscribed contacts won’t have to go through the hassle of confirming their email address to receive the freebie. A way more convenient way is to directly send already subscribed contacts to the freebie when they enter their email. ConvertKit has a feature for this whereas MailerLite hasn’t. 

Winner: ConvertKit.

Creating a website

More and more email marketing tools allow you to create a website. The difference between a landing page and a website is that you can easily add more pages to a website, like a contact page, about page, etcetera, and add a navigation menu at the top. MailerLite allows you to create a website where ConvertKit doesn’t. MailerLite has 22 website templates available while also having the option to start your website from scratch by using its drag-and-drop builder.

ConvertKit only offers you to create landing pages but you can’t start a landing page from scratch. It offers you 50+ landing page templates.

What’s the bottom line?

MailerLite’s website feature isn’t anyway near comparable to Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress’s website features. Therefore I feel it’s more used by people or businesses, e.g. non-profits or small local businesses, where the website is used for information purposes like an about us page, opening hours, contact information, etcetera.

Winner: MailerLite

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Reporting

If you’re an online marketing beginner you can manage just fine with ConvertKit’s and MailerLite’s reporting features. At the start, you’re probably only interested in seeing your list grow or knowing what percentage opened your last email.

But here’s the kicker: if you’re a more experienced marketer both tools are terrible with their reporting functionalities.

• Want to compare last month’s data with the same month last year? Not possible.
• Want to see at a glance what campaign generated the highest order value? Not possible.
• Want to see how many new eyeballs you’ve reached versus returning subs? Not possible.
• Etcetera.

Winner: Both lost

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Making Money

Sell products online

Both ConvertKit and MailerLite offer features to create a product page where people can buy your products. They both use Stripe for their payment gateway.

What are my thoughts on selling products through ConvertKit or MailerLite?

Well, if selling these products are a small side project of your core business, i.e. it’s only 5% or so of your monthly income, I don’t see any issues with using these features. But if you’re planning to make selling products online your core business you should look elsewhere, e.g. Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, or Squarespace. Stick to what you know, right?

Winner: It’s a draw

ConvertKit’s Tip Jar

ConvertKit allows you to add a Tip Jar product. It will be hosted on your custom domain or on ConvertKit’s default URL. It’s not meant to be for everyone but if your business requires you to share valuable information online for free adding a Tip Jar could be worthwhile for you to test to see if it makes sense financially. MailerLite doesn’t have a feature similar to ConvertKit’s Tip Jar.

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Integrations

Facebook custom audiences

Both tools allow you to sync your contacts with Facebook custom audiences so you won’t have to manually export and import CSV files into Facebook. This feature is only available in MailerLite’s Advanced plan and ConvertKit’s Creator Pro plan.

Winner: It’s a draw

Other integrations

Both offer dozens if not 100+ integrations with other software tools. And if you can’t find your integration you can use Zapier. Please refer to its integration pages if you’re looking for a specific integration.

MailerLite & ConvertKit alternatives

• MailChimp
• HubSpot
• Sendinblue
• GetResponse
• Constant Contact
• ActiveCampaign
• AWeber

What is the best email marketing software? I’ve thoroughly tested the 10 most popular email marketing tools. Read out my FULL roundup review here or watch the video below.

Frequently asked questions

ConvertKit vs MailerLite: Conclusion

Now:

What email marketing tool is better? My answer: ConvertKit understands the email marketing game better than MailerLite. Furthermore, its software is just way more user-friendly.

But here’s the deal:

ConvertKit is more expensive than MailerLite. In the beginning, it’s an annual difference of a couple of hundred dollars. Keep in mind that the more subscribers you have the more you pay extra for ConvertKit in comparison to MailerLite. It can be a 7,000 to $8,000 difference annually when you reach the 300,000 subscriber mark.

In a nutshell, if you plan to spend multiple hours every month inside your email marketing tool you should go with ConvertKit because of its user-friendliness. On the other hand, if you are on a budget and/or don’t plan to spend lots of time doing your email marketing go with MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for MailerLite.

Click here to sign up for ConvertKit.

Also read:

• MailerLite review
• ConvertKit review