Kit vs MailerLite: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers; MailerLite is free up to 250 but paid plans start at $12. We compare pricing, automation, free plans and selling fees.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-11T04:32:45+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-11T04:32:45+00:00
Kit vs MailerLite: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Kit gives you a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. MailerLite gives you a free plan for 250 subscribers. Kit's paid plans start at $39 a month. MailerLite's start at $12 a month. The choice turns on one question: is your list big and simple, or small and automated? This comparison uses verified 2026 prices.
Kit vs MailerLite at a glance
| Attribute | Kit | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan subscribers | Up to 10,000 | Up to 250 |
| Free plan emails | Unlimited broadcasts | 2,500 a month |
| Free plan automation | 1 automation, 1 sequence | 3 active automations |
| Paid plans from | $39 a month (Creator, 1,000 subs) | $12 a month (Comfort, 500 subs) |
| Annual billing | About $33 a month (Creator) | 10% saving |
| Sales fee | 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction | 0% commission on digital products |
| Built-in CRM | No | No |
| Best for | Creators growing an audience | Newsletters on a tight budget |
Pricing compared
Kit has three plans. Newsletter is free for up to 10,000 active subscribers. Creator costs $39 a month billed monthly, or about $33 a month billed annually, at 1,000 subscribers. Pro costs $79 a month monthly, or about $66 annually, at the same tier. Prices rise with list size: Creator costs $59 a month at 3,000 subscribers, $89 at 5,000 and $139 at 10,000. Pro costs $99, $139 and $189 at those same tiers.
MailerLite has three plans too. Free covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Comfort costs $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers, $19 for up to 1,000, $33 for up to 2,500 and $49 for up to 5,000. Power costs $25, $39, $49 and $69 at those same tiers. Paying yearly saves 10 percent.
The gap is widest at the bottom. A creator with 800 subscribers pays nothing on Kit and $19 a month on MailerLite Comfort. A creator with 5,000 subscribers pays $89 a month on Kit Creator and $49 on MailerLite Comfort. Kit's free plan is generous on size; MailerLite's paid plans are cheaper once you pay at all.
Free plans compared
Kit's free plan is the largest free tier in email marketing by subscriber count. You get unlimited email broadcasts, unlimited forms and landing pages, digital products and paid subscriptions, and one basic visual automation with one email sequence. Kit branding appears on forms and emails. One Recommendation slot stays enabled, and any paid recommendation earnings from that slot go to Kit rather than to you.
MailerLite's free plan is smaller but more complete on automation. You get three active automations, one website, one landing page and three signup forms, plus 2,500 emails a month. MailerLite branding appears on emails. Go over the subscriber limit and MailerLite pauses your campaigns and automations and stops accepting new subscribers until you upgrade or trim the list.
At 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, you can email a full MailerLite list about 10 times a month. That covers a weekly newsletter with room for automated mail. Kit's free plan covers a much larger list but only one automation, so a welcome sequence is the one flow you get.
Automation compared
Kit's automation builder is its strongest feature for creators. Paid plans unlock unlimited visual automations with conditions, tags and segments. Creators use it for welcome sequences, lead magnet delivery, course launches and paid newsletter onboarding. The free plan's single automation is the deliberate limit that pushes growing creators to pay.
MailerLite's automation builder covers the standard cases well: welcome sequences, drip campaigns, post-purchase follow-ups and birthday emails. You can start a workflow when someone joins a group, completes a form, clicks a link, updates a field or reaches a date. Connect a store and you also get abandoned cart and purchase triggers.
The split is in triggers. Comfort allows one trigger per automation. Power adds multiple triggers, so one workflow can start from a form signup or a purchase. Power also adds unlimited automations, unlimited seats and unlimited landing pages. Kit's paid automations are deeper for creators; MailerLite's are simpler and easier to learn.
Selling digital products
Both tools let creators sell, but the fees differ. Kit Commerce charges 3.5 percent plus $0.30 per transaction on every plan, including free. That fee applies to digital products, paid subscriptions and paid recommendations. Kit also offers the Sponsor Network and referral system on Pro, which help larger creators earn from their audience.
MailerLite takes 0 percent commission on digital products, paid newsletter subscriptions and bookings. Only Stripe's payment processing charges apply. That makes MailerLite cheaper for a creator selling a $20 ebook: Kit takes about $1.00 per sale, while MailerLite takes nothing beyond Stripe. MailerLite does not handle physical products, so sellers of goods still need a store platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce.
Ease of use and extras
MailerLite is the easier tool to learn. Every plan, including free, gives you three email editors: drag-and-drop with more than 70 content blocks, a simpler text editor and a custom HTML editor. It also includes a quiz maker, a survey builder and a simple website with a blog. An MCP server launched in July 2025 connects your account to AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT on every plan, including limited access on free.
Kit is easy too, but its strength is the creator ecosystem: landing pages built for creators, integrations with course and membership tools, and free migration from other platforms on paid plans. Kit's help centre lists Creator from $39 a month and Pro from $79, with prices rising as the list grows.
MailerLite has the stricter onboarding. New accounts need approval before the first send. You must send from your own domain, since emails from public addresses now get flagged. MailerLite also bans purchased, rented and third-party lists outright, and it prohibits affiliate marketing as a business model, along with MLM, gambling and forex content. That vetting ties to its deliverability record: independent tests have put MailerLite's delivery rate between 89.8 and 98 percent.
Deliverability and support
Deliverability decides whether any of this matters. An email that lands in spam earns nothing. MailerLite has the stronger published track record here: independent deliverability tests have put its rate between 89.8 and 98 percent since March 2021. Its strict approval process helps, since fewer spammy accounts share its sending servers. Your list quality and domain setup still decide a lot of the outcome.
Kit also reports strong deliverability, backed by its long history as a sender-first platform for creators. Both tools expect you to authenticate your domain. MailerLite requires it, and Kit recommends it. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC before your first campaign on either tool.
Support differs by plan on both sides. MailerLite gives every new account 24/7 email and live chat support for its first 14 days. After that, free accounts rely on community support and the knowledge base, Comfort includes 24/7 email support, and Power includes 24/7 email and live chat at all tiers. Kit offers priority support on Creator and Pro, with free migration from other tools on paid plans.
Bottom line
Pick Kit if your list is growing past 1,000 subscribers and you do not need deep automation yet. Its free plan carries you to 10,000 subscribers, which no competitor matches. Pick MailerLite if you send often, want real automations from day one and prefer the lowest paid price. Comfort at $12 a month is the cheapest honest paid plan in this pair, and Power at $25 removes the send cap. Creators who sell digital products should weigh Kit's 3.5 percent sales fee against MailerLite's 0 percent commission before choosing.