When it comes to email marketing software, MailerLite and ConvertKit are two of the most popular choices on the market. In this comprehensive comparison guide, we evaluate MailerLite vs ConvertKit across several important criteria to help you determine the best solution for your business’s unique needs and budget.
We compare these two leading providers across eight key categories: market position and popularity, ease of use, design and customization capabilities, features and integrations, deliverability, analytics and reporting functionality, customer support availability, and pricing options.
By exploring where each platform excels—and falls short—in these areas, you’ll gain clarity on which platform pairs best with your goals, technical abilities, and resources at each stage of your business’s lifecycle.
1. Understanding the Basics
MailerLite was founded in 2010 by Ignas Rubezius and is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. Over the past decade, it has grown into one of the most popular email marketing platforms on the market today. ConvertKit was launched in 2013 and was founded by Nathan Barry. The company is based in Idaho, USA.
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit have strong market positions. MailerLite has over 1 million users signed up on its email marketing platform. ConvertKit has over 26,000 active subscribers.
2. Features and Functionality
Automation
MailerLite
MailerLite provides users can leverage the visual automation builder with drag-and-drop functionality to create workflows and sequences without coding. Users can trigger email automation based on actions like email opens, link clicks, date-based triggers, conversions, abandoned cart events, and more.
With automation, MailerLite users can send welcome emails when contacts subscribe, create sequences that send a series of emails over time to onboard subscribers, send happy birthday messages, trigger bulk emails based on form submissions, and more. These automations all help businesses boost engagement with email lists.
Some key automation features of MailerLite include if/then conditional logic, tags for segmenting contacts based on behaviors, automation templates, A/B testing email content, sending SMS messages within automation, adding waiter timers between automation emails, linking automation to pop-ups and landing pages, goal tracking to see ROI of sequences, and unlimited contacts and automation.
Overall, MailerLite has a highly capable automation builder for list segmentation, personalized messaging, and driving conversions through sequences tailored to contact interactions. The drag-and-drop workflow builder makes it easy for less technical users to set up powerful automations without coding.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit gives users an automated workspace to build sequences through an intuitive visual editor for successful email marketing campaigns. Users can create automation based on triggers like form submissions, tags, dates and times, certain contact behaviors, custom JavaScript scripts, and more.
With this email marketing automation tool, users can leverage sequences to drive conversions and revenue like sending automated welcome series when a contact signs up, creating weekly or monthly digest-style emails to re-engage cold contacts, driving webinar or course registrations, recovering abandoned carts with targeted email offers, and much more.
Notable ConvertKit automation features include if/then conditional logic, adding delays between automation emails, dynamic content powered by liquid tags, goal tracking to optimize revenue, segmentation with tags, sending SMS messages within sequences, A/B testing email copy and send times within automation, seeing open and click tracking stats, and the ability to get creative with custom app integrations using Zapier and the ConvertKit API.
In summary, ConvertKit gives substantial abilities to leverage automation for creating highly personalized, targeted, and conversion-focused email sequences matched to subscriber behaviors and journeys. The automation builder makes complex workflows accessible for less experienced users through the easy drag-and-drop visual editor.
Winner: ConvertKit
ConvertKit wins for best email marketing automation features due to more advanced segmentation and personalization capabilities powered by liquid tags, a wider array of conversion-focused email triggers, and deeper integration options to connect automation workflows across your entire martech stack for maximum impact.
Email Templates
MailerLite
MailerLite provides users with hundreds of professionally designed email template options that can be fully customized to match brand needs. Template categories span headers, footers, calls-to-action, product announcements, digests, promotions, and more.
The template editor makes customizing these design templates simple through a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor. Users can easily edit elements like text, colors, fonts, spacing, add/delete sections, tweak buttons, and more all visually. There are also many templates optimized for mobile devices.
The email marketing tool lets users build responsive templates, leverage dynamic content and personalization with merge tags for individual subscriber targeting, quickly swap templates between campaigns, access images, and custom CSS in the template library, preview designs across devices, and set up template permissions so the team members get access to brand and design guidelines.
With the template editor, there is substantial design flexibility while still being beginner-friendly. The large template library also removes headaches for less design-savvy users through access to quality templates covering most major email campaign needs out-of-the-box.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers a solid email template editor with a collection of professionally made templates spanning categories like welcome emails, storytelling designs, digests, minimalist looks, and templates matching specific industries. Users can fully customize these templates to reflect branding and aesthetics through the simple drag-and-drop editor.
Customizing is easy for less design-adept users thanks to toggling on/off different content blocks like text, images, icons, buttons, dividers, and more with a click. Users can also edit fonts, colors, padding, and all styling visually. Personalization is available using liquid merge tags based on subscriber data and behaviors.
ConvertKit enables previewing email designs across mobile, desktop, and web platforms for responsive testing. There are also options to save customized templates, duplicate existing templates to make new versions, access images, and custom CSS files in the library, collaborate with team members on templates, use pre-built templates for landing pages and pop-ups paired with emails, and embed video into template designs.
The unified visual editor provides expected email templating features to create, save, and customize responsive email layouts without needing designer skills. The template workflow mirrors the automation builder in terms of UX.
Winner: Tie
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer excellent versatility for easily customizing professional email templates through intuitive drag-and-drop editors.
They provide comparable features around templating like media library access, using images/CSS files, responsive design testing/previewing, dynamic content via merge tags and liquid, extensive template categories and layouts, and design collaboration tools. For these reasons, MailerLite and ConvertKit tie for the best email marketing templates.
Segmentation
MailerLite
MailerLite enables users to leverage segmentation to target subscribers based on a range of attributes and behaviors. Segmentation options include location, gender, age, interests, email client, email activity like opens and clicks, conversion events, custom field data, and more.
Key segmentation features include tag-based segmentation to dynamically group contacts, real-time segmentation based on field changes or activity tracking in emails, segmentation rules combining multiple parameters like filters and conditions, static and dynamic segments, seeing the number of subscribers matched per segment, and the ability to segment within automation for super targeted sequences.
With MailerLite’s segmentation, users have expansive options for zeroing in on hyper-targeted groups for personalized messaging aimed at driving conversions and revenue based on granular user attributes and actions. Powerful behavioral segmentation improves the relevancy of emails.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit comes with an intelligent tagging system for subscriber segmentation in automation, broadcasts, and journeys. Users can create unlimited segments using tags that dynamically group users based on attributes like demographics, geography, email metrics such as open and click rates, conversion metrics like purchases and content views, and custom tag criteria.
Key features include automatically removing contacts from segments when criteria change, combining multiple tags for complex segment definitions, seeing segment matching contact counts, segment browsing behavior on landing pages, segment by signup forms, excluding contacts from segments using “not” operators, and leverage segments for personalization with liquid merge tags.
In summary, ConvertKit provides robust tag-based segmentation paired with a customizable criteria rules builder for targeting subscriber groups. Segmentation works seamlessly with other modules like automation and journeys for executing complex, multi-branch workflows tailored to user subgroups.
Winner: ConvertKit
ConvertKit wins for best email marketing segmentation thanks to more granular auto-tagging abilities, complex segmentation rule combinations, and deeper connectivity with personalization tools across automation, landing pages, and email campaigns for maximizing targeting.
Analytics
MailerLite
MailerLite comes with strong email analytics to inform campaign optimization. Users can access inbox placement and spam testing tools right from the app dashboard. Dedicated analytics reports provide insights including opens, clicks, unsubscribes, future subscriber projections, popular links, subscriber engagement and trends over customized date ranges, and more.
Key analytics tools include A/B testing email components like subject lines, tracking traffic sources by integrating UTM parameters and seeing conversions by source/medium, access to granular metrics like click heatmaps and scroll data, goal conversion tracking, real-time campaign analytics, comparing stats across campaigns, segmenting reports by custom filters, exporting reports, an engagement score measuring subscriber responsiveness, Gmail tab stats, and more.
The analytics offer optimization data both at the campaign level and holistically across subscriber behaviors over longer periods to spot trends. Complete click trail tracking provides data to refine content and messaging for increased interaction and conversions.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit has robust analytics with actionable data and clear visualizations of email campaign performance. Users get insights like subscriber growth, clickthrough rates, conversion numbers, top-performing emails, activity trends, sales revenue directly in ConvertKit, email client/platform data like Gmail tab stats, geolocation metrics, and more.
Key reporting features include A/B testing email components to statistically determine improvements, heatmaps for subscriber on-page behavior insights and pinpointing popular elements, and easy creation of custom reports with multiple metrics and filters for analyzing whatever data you need.
You also get goal tracking to gauge conversion impact, tagging key links to monitor engagement deeper, exportable and shareable reports to analyze offline or collaborate, CSV raw data exports, campaign comparison reports to see what copy and creatives perform best, and segmentation within reports.
The metrics available through ConvertKit provide deep visibility from high-level subscriber growth and revenue down to individual users on page scrolls and clicks. Segmentation takes insights to further precision.
Winner: ConvertKit
ConvertKit wins for best email marketing analytics thanks to the direct revenue visibility matching email and landing page performance, breadth of built-in reports mixing campaign and holistic stats, fluid segmentation within reports, and click-level behavioral data like heatmaps and scroll tracking for serious optimization.
Unique Features
MailerLite
MailerLite has a few unique features that set it apart from other email service providers. One is more advanced pop-up capabilities, allowing users to not only embed pop-ups in campaigns but also use pop-up automation based on certain subscriber behaviors thanks to a dedicated pop-up builder tool.
Some other distinctive MailerLite features include sending SMS text messages directly within campaigns and automation at pay-as-you-go rates, accessing curated stock photos through an integrated library with over 1 million images, and leveraging built-in tools like poll forms for data collection.
You can leverage past campaign templates for inspiration, automating and customizing push notifications to drive engagement on websites and mobile apps, as well as dynamic web forms and landing pages for capturing subscriber data on websites.
With capabilities beyond just email, the multi-channel integrated pieces like landing pages, forms, pop-ups, push notifications, and SMS texts provide complete subscriber engagement options for MailerLite users.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit has branded itself as engineered for creators through unique features tailored specifically to serving digital course creators, online influencers, authors, musicians, and other artists.
Some one-of-a-kind ConvertKit capabilities include the Capture tag for dropping onto any webpage to gather lead intelligence on traffic, multi-purpose forms ranging from emails to content locker forms, donations, coupons, giveaways, and more.
You also get membership platform abilities like managed access content sites and member-exclusive email courses and webinars, dripped content sequencing over time, an all-in-one online course builder with hosting, course authoring tools, and marketing backend, as well as deep WordPress integration via the ConvertKit plugin for lead capture and email integration.
For creators monetizing their work through digital content and communities, specialized tools in these areas give ConvertKit an advantage in catering to this audience. Segmented features drive traffic and revenue for users.
Winner: ConvertKit
Thanks to purpose-built tools for creators like content locking capability, membership site building, branded form versatility, and deep WordPress integration, ConvertKit wins for best unique features focusing on the right niche tools that set it apart in the market.
3. Ease of Use
MailerLite
MailerLite has a clean, modern user interface that is intuitive for most users. The dashboard layout enables getting set up for your first campaign quickly, with core modules visible upfront like creating an email, building subscriber forms, and establishing automation.
Visual guides help introduce basic features and flow for actions like creating signup forms, organizing subscriber data, designing email templates, building automation, and launching campaigns. For those migrating from another provider, detailed guides walk through how to safely transfer existing lists and data into MailerLite as well.
The UI provides clear prompts to help beginners build fundamental workflows for collecting subscriber data, segmenting based on attributes, establishing automatic welcome and onboarding sequences, sending broadcasts, and tracking engagement analytics without complexity. Users can leverage pre-built templates and best practice frameworks early on for added simplicity.
While powerful under the hood for advanced users, MailerLite doesn’t overwhelm but instead simplifies email execution for novices through thoughtful UI/UX design choices. The platform is easy to gradually master.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers a clean dashboard presenting core modules in a digestible way, enabling users unfamiliar with email marketing to orient quickly. Clear paragraphs introduce capabilities instead of tech jargon early on while setting up initial account items.
For critical workflows, ConvertKit guides users whether creating an email sequence from scratch or importing existing contacts through a step-by-step sequence with visuals instead of walls of help documentation text. Templated sequences also allow leveraging the ConvertKit team’s expertise in effective onboarding and automation messaging frameworks out the gate.
The intuitive UI remains consistent across different modules like email designers, landing pages, forms, automation, and sequences in terms of layout, reducing the learning curve. Thoughtful touches like hover tooltips provide embedded assistance. While offering plenty of advanced functionality, the platform doesn’t overwhelm beginners.
Winner: Tie
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit are nearly equal when it comes to simplicity and ease of use for email marketing beginners. They each offer intuitive, clean interfaces that quickly orient users on getting set up through helpful visuals, clear writing, and pre-built templates guiding effective executions for critical workflows. For these reasons, MailChimp and ConvertKit tie for the best email marketing ease of use.
4. Email Deliverability
MailerLite
MailerLite has strong email deliverability and inbox placement rates thanks to advanced deliverability features and ongoing optimization. To protect the sender’s reputation, MailerLite enables domain authentication via SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Accounts get dedicated IP addresses for improved deliverability through positive sender credentials.
Additional email deliverability tools include access to advanced analytics on inboxing and spam test rates, automatic list cleaning through rigorous bot detection, bounce handling and inactive subscriber management, granular mailbox provider deliverability reports, proper message identification and compliance with CAN-SPAM/CASL regulations, and ongoing ISP relationship building for whitelisting.
For new accounts starting email marketing, MailerLite provides deliverability guidance on recommended sending limits by volume and frequency to maintain optimal health metrics long-term as you scale your subscriber base. Overall, the company is transparent about its strong <>99% average deliverability rate.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit invests heavily in optimizing email deliverability through advanced inbox placement tools and partnerships with major ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and more to enable sender reputation and trust for getting to the primary inbox. Sender scoring provides visibility on how leading ISPs rate your account.
Core deliverability features include full DMARC/SPF/DKIM authentication for security, dedicated IP addresses to control deliverability independently, granular ISP-level analytics on spam complaints, and blocks for isolation and improvement.
You also get automatic list cleaning of risky addresses negatively impacting sender score, earning IP certifications like Google Postmaster to preemptively maximize inboxing, and one-click address list validation removing outdated contacts.
For new users, ConvertKit guides proper list building, recommended send limits, tools improving engagement metrics long-term, and best practices for structuring compliance policies like passable unsubscribe links, address lists, and content. The company maintains strong <>98%+ average deliverability rates.
Winner: ConvertKit
Thanks to granular inbox placement analytics, advanced authentication protocols by provider, and deep ISP relationship building, ConvertKit wins for best-in-class email deliverability, ensuring sent campaigns reliably reach subscriber inboxes and avoid spam or promotion tabs filtering engagement.
5. Customer Support and Community
MailerLite
MailerLite provides multiple customer support channels including email ticketing, live chat, phone support, and an extensive self-serve knowledge base with tutorials, guides, and FAQs. Support is available 24/7.
The company also cultivates an active user community on Facebook through the MailerLite Success Community group, which has over 25,000 members. This group allows subscribers to interact with MailerLite experts and peers to ask questions, troubleshoot issues, share best practices, and participate in community discussions.
Between responsive direct support and a large public community facilitating idea exchange around email marketing success, MailerLite users have access to substantial resources for getting assistance.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers email, chat, and phone customer support with some availability 24/7 for urgent inquiries. Average response times are under 30 minutes for a quality experience. They also provide an extensive library of self-help articles exploring topics and how-tos in depth.
For the community, the ConvertKit User Community Facebook group has over 26,000 members. Here users can engage with fellow customers and ConvertKit team members, learning through asking questions, sharing feedback, and participating in broader email marketing dialogue. An ideas forum also exists on the official ConvertKit blog for suggesting potential product enhancements.
Between quality direct support and community channels facilitating peer knowledge sharing, ConvertKit provides solid options for customer assistance via self-service or 1-on-1 interactions.
Winner: Tie
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer reliable customer support via multiple direct channels like email, phone, and chat alongside established user community groups on Facebook numbering over 25,000+ members each for added assistance. With comparable help resources, MailerLite and ConvertKit tie for best overall customer support and community experience.
6. Integrations
MailerLite
MailerLite offers over 1,000 native integrations with popular third-party apps and services to expand functionality. Integrations span several categories including email marketing, website and landing pages, e-commerce, CRM and analytics, social media and ads, events and appointments, surveys, and productivity tools.
Some notable MailerLite integrations include WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, Facebook, YouTube, Zapier, Google Analytics, Trello, Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, Calendly, ActiveCampaign, and more.
With Zapier, users can also connect MailerLite workflows with thousands of other web apps leveraging pre-built zaps or creating custom automation. Developers can leverage MailerLite’s APIs to build custom solutions. Between the extensive native integrations and flexibility of Zapier and APIs, MailerLite offers versatile expansion.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers over 800+ direct integrations with popular marketing, e-commerce, and analytics platforms including WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Gumroad, Squarespace, Facebook, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, Zapier, and more.
The platform also has a Webhooks API and Zapier integration enabling connecting with thousands of other solutions to pass data and trigger customized automations when certain events occur. Some unique integrations include GitHub, Slack, YouTube, MailChimp, Stripe, and iTunes for syncing key workflows.
While the native integration library has common essentials, Zapier expands possibilities substantially. Users can integrate ConvertKit forms and landing pages for lead capture, build custom sequences and automation between platforms based on various triggers, and pass subscriber data to CRMs or support desks. This automation leverages strengths across tools.
Winner: MailerLite
MailerLite wins for best email marketing integrations thanks to the larger native integration library spanning over 1,000 apps and services out the gate as well as the expansive flexibility to plug into niche platforms using Zapier and developer APIs for the most custom use cases.
7. Pricing
MailerLite
MailerLite has three pricing plans for users of different levels. The pricing structure is as follows:
- Free Account – MailerLite’s free plan allows 1 user and up to 12,000 emails sent per month.
- Growing Business – $9/mo for 3 users, unlimited subscribers, and advanced automation tools.
- Advanced – $18/mo for unlimited users and monthly emails.
The features are relatively consistent across paid plans. Core capabilities like email design, automation, and basic analytics are included.
For the features provided, MailerLite offers more competitive pricing than Mailchimp at lower email volumes. But React’s capabilities become limited for larger lists, while Mailchimp’s grow more robust, making it ideal for scaling your email marketing campaigns.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, and three paid plans which are as follows:
- Creator Plan – $9/month with unlimited forms, landing pages, and broadcasts for up to 300 subscribers.
- Creator Pro Plan – $25/month for up to 300 subscribers. It comes with additional features to sell digital products and subscriptions, as well as audience tagging and segmentation tools.
Additional subscribers can be added for a per-subscriber rate. Features like landing pages, automation, and integrations are included at all plan levels.
ConvertKit pricing offers a generous free trial and transparent pricing without surprise fees. The platform is affordably priced for creators and small businesses, which simplifies the work of choosing email marketing software for your business.
Winner: MailerLite
Thanks to more generous send limits on free and entry-paid plans alongside transparent pricing as limits scale across plans, MailerLite wins for providing the most value-optimized email marketing pricing for early-stage and growing businesses. ConvertKit proves better for product creators and studios.
8. Reviews and Reputation
MailerLite
MailerLite earns strong reviews from industry experts and user testimonials for its versatility in accommodating email marketing needs for diverse business sizes and use cases. Positive feedback cites the platform’s ease of use for beginners, quality and breadth of email campaign features, automation capabilities, and solid support resources.
Some negative MailerLite reviews mention occasional deliverability hiccups, complex workflow building in the automation tool, and a steeper learning curve once applying more advanced features. However, most reviews rate MailerLite as a leading email service provider in its class across criteria like value, features, and usability.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit garners excellent reviews especially from digital creators like bloggers, influencers, and info product businesses who heavily leverage email courses, member portals, webinars, and sophisticated conversion funnels.
Most reviews cite ConvertKit as the best-in-class solution tailored specifically to monetizing audiences and platforms through intuitive email marketing courses, sequences, and automation.
Some negative ConvertKit comments cite the Gumroad acquisition as potentially signaling less specialization in supporting creators specifically long-term. However, most industry experts applaud innovations like the course builder tool as cementing ConvertKit’s positioning as the platform purpose-built to boost online business revenue through email followership building.
Winner: Tie
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit earn strong appraisals from users and experts, albeit catering to slightly different specializations. MailLite wins for versatility in supporting general email marketing use cases while ConvertKit leads for audience monetization capabilities for digital creators specifically. The two tie for top reputation.
9. FAQ’s
MailerLite FAQs
- Does MailerLite have free plans?
Yes, MailerLite has a free plan including unlimited contacts, campaigns, basic reporting, some automation, popups, and access to core email functionality. - Is MailerLite easy to use?
Yes, MailerLite has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface ideal for email marketing beginners but it also with more advanced functionality. It’s easy to learn with a reasonable learning curve for new users. - What integrations work with MailerLite?
MailerLite offers over 1,000 native integrations with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Facebook, Zapier, Google Analytics, and more. Custom API integrations are also available. - How scalable is MailerLite’s pricing?
MailerLite scales from free plans for early businesses up through customizable enterprise plans, with tiered pricing based on subscriber counts and features expanding across plans. Overall pricing is affordable.
ConvertKit FAQs
- Does ConvertKit have free plans?
Yes, ConvertKit offers a free plan supporting up to 1,000 subscribers with basic email marketing features to get started. - Is ConvertKit easy to use for beginners?
Yes, ConvertKit has an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and workflow builder that makes critical functions simple for new users. Some more advanced features involve more complexity. - What are some ConvertKit integrations?
ConvertKit offers 800+ native integrations with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Zapier, Facebook, Gumroad, and more. The Zapier integration expands possibilities further. - How does ConvertKit pricing scale?
ConvertKit starts with affordable pricing for email creators but scales up to mid-market rates on higher plans for expanded contacts and features, with options to negotiate custom enterprise pricing. The pricing matches the robust tools provided across plans.
Final Thoughts
Choose MailerLite if…
MailerLite is the best choice for generalized email marketing needs across diverse business types and sizes. From affordable plans for startups to enterprise-scale offerings, MailerLite can accommodate subscriber lists both small and large.
Prioritize MailerLite if you want intuitive core email features coupled with powerful segmentation tools, automation, and integrations to streamline complex workflows. The platform scales with your business.
Choose ConvertKit if…
ConvertKit offers the most value-focused specifically on digital creators and influencers like bloggers, course creators, online experts, authors, and media publishers monetizing engaged internet audiences.
With tailored tools for membership sites, digital goods management, webinars, and multi-channel engagement, ConvertKit provides the all-in-one home base for fans and revenue. The specialization makes it the perfect growth engine for online influencer ecosystems.
Determining the best email marketing platform depends hugely on your specific business model, preferred workflows, pipeline, and monetization strategies. Consider where each solution excels in terms of critical capabilities and target customer scenarios.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section if you need any guidance determining what’s right for scaling your operations!