MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Which Is Best for You in 2025?

Last updated on February 21st, 2025 at

When I first started my business, I knew I needed to keep in touch with my audience, but choosing the right email platform was tricky. Should I go with MailerLite, which seemed super simple and affordable, or ConvertKit, which everyone said was perfect for creators? I kept hearing about how both platforms were great, but I wasn’t sure which one would actually help me grow.

If you’re feeling the same way, you’re not alone. Picking the right email platform is a big decision, and it can make a huge difference in how well you connect with your customers and grow your business. That’s why I decided to dig deeper into these two platforms: MailerLite vs ConvertKit.

In this post, I’m going to share what I learned from trying both, giving you a clear comparison to help you choose the right one for your needs. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your email marketing, you’ll know exactly which platform fits your business best. Ready to find out which one could be your perfect match? Let’s get started!

MailerLite vs ConvertKit – Overview

MailerLite:

MailerLite is a popular choice for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. It’s perfect if you’re just starting out and need an easy-to-use email marketing tool that won’t break the bank. One of the best things about MailerLite is how simple it is. You don’t have to be an expert to get started—it’s straightforward and user-friendly.

MailerLite focuses on the most important features for email marketing, like sending newsletters, setting up email automations, and creating simple landing pages. It keeps things simple and doesn’t overwhelm you with too many complicated options. Plus, it’s affordable, making it a great choice if you’re on a budget or just want a no-hassle platform to send emails and connect with your audience.

ConvertKit:

ConvertKit, on the other hand, is made specifically for creators—like bloggers, YouTubers, and online entrepreneurs. If you create content and want to build a stronger relationship with your audience, ConvertKit is built for you. It has advanced features that allow you to set up automated email sequences and funnels, making it easier to nurture your audience and grow your business over time.

One of ConvertKit’s biggest strengths is its focus on personalization. It helps you create a more tailored experience for your subscribers, whether you’re sending them helpful tips, a course, or special offers. While it’s a bit more advanced than MailerLite, it’s still designed to be easy to use for creators who want to stay connected with their audience in a meaningful way.

Mailerlite vs Convertkit – Key Features Comparison

Email Campaigns:

• MailerLite:

MailerLite is really easy to use. It lets you build emails by dragging and dropping things around, plus you can pick from lots of ready-made templates. If you don’t have much experience with email design, this is a great choice.

• ConvertKit:

ConvertKit keeps things simple with a basic text editor. It’s less about design and more about writing personalized emails that connect with your readers. It’s easy to use, but if you want more design options, it’s not the best choice.

Verdict:
If you want a simple way to design your emails, MailerLite is the better choice. But if you’re focused on writing personal, content-based emails, ConvertKit is the way to go.

Automation and Workflows:

• MailerLite:
  MailerLite has basic automation tools. You can set up simple rules that make things happen automatically, like sending a welcome email when someone joins your list. It’s good for beginners but doesn’t have many advanced options.

• ConvertKit:
  ConvertKit is much stronger when it comes to automation. You can create detailed email sequences that send based on what people do or don’t do. It lets you set up more personalized, targeted emails that work really well for building relationships.

Verdict:
If you just need simple automations, MailerLite works well. But if you want more advanced, personalized automation, ConvertKit is the winner.

c. Landing Pages and Forms:

• MailerLite:

MailerLite lets you create landing pages and sign-up forms with ease. There are lots of templates to choose from, and it’s perfect if you just need the basics.

• ConvertKit:

ConvertKit also has landing pages and forms, but they come with fewer templates. However, you can customize them a lot more, so they can really match your brand and what you’re offering.

Verdict:
If you need something quick and easy, MailerLite is better. But if you want more control over how your pages look, ConvertKit is the better option.

d. Subscriber Management:

• MailerLite:
  MailerLite helps you organize your email list by allowing you to sort your subscribers into groups and use simple tags. It’s easy to use but doesn’t have many advanced options.
• ConvertKit:
  ConvertKit gives you more control over how you organize your subscribers. You can use detailed tags and segments, and even see how people move through your email sequences. This is especially helpful for content creators who want to manage their audience more closely.

Verdict:
If you only need a simple way to manage your subscribers, MailerLite will do the job. But if you want more advanced tools to manage your audience, ConvertKit is the better choice.

Ease of Use and Editor

When it comes to email marketing tools, ease of use is key—especially if you want to quickly get your emails out without getting bogged down in complicated features. Both MailerLite and ConvertKit aim to be easier to use than platforms like Mailchimp, and while both do a good job, one stands out more when it comes to actually creating emails.

Setting Up and Dashboards:

Both MailerLite and ConvertKit have clean, simple dashboards that are easy to navigate. Once you log in, you’ll find that you can access all the main features right away without confusion.

MailerLite

MailerLite has a jargon-free dashboard, which means you won’t be faced with technical terms that can confuse beginners. Everything is clearly labeled and easy to find, making the setup process quick and straightforward.

ConvertKit (Kit)

ConvertKit also offers a simple dashboard, but it might feel a little bit less detailed since it has fewer features. However, for those who don’t need many options, it can still be effective.

Creating Emails:

When it comes to actually creating emails, MailerLite wins hands down. Here’s why:

MailerLite

MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor, which means you can literally drag things like images, text blocks, and buttons into place. This makes designing emails much easier and more fun. You don’t need any coding skills—just pick and place items where you want them. If you want to make your emails look great without any hassle, MailerLite is the way to go. It’s so simple that we actually consider it our favorite email editor out of all the tools we’ve tested.

ConvertKit (Kit)

ConvertKit, however, doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop editor. Instead, it uses a text-based editor, which can feel clunky and less intuitive. You have to write your email and then adjust the layout manually. It doesn’t give you as much flexibility to make your emails look exactly the way you want them, especially if you’re not familiar with how email design works. This can be frustrating, especially when ConvertKit markets itself as being for creators—people who often need creative and visually appealing emails.

Verdict:

In this comparison, MailerLite takes the win for ease of use and the email editor. Its drag-and-drop editor makes creating emails super simple and intuitive, while ConvertKit’s text-based editor can feel a little awkward and limiting.

Winner: MailerLite

Design and Flexibility

When it comes to designing your emails, the ease and flexibility of the tool can make all the difference. Both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer customization options, but they approach design in very different ways.

MailerLite

MailerLite gives you a smooth, drag-and-drop editor. This means you don’t need to be a designer to create beautiful emails. You simply drag elements like images, buttons, and text boxes into place and adjust them to your liking. It’s quick, easy, and perfect for anyone who wants to create visually appealing emails without any hassle.

MailerLite also offers 74 pre-designed templates that are ready for use, covering things like event promotions or product launches. You get these templates with their paid plan or a 14-day premium trial. Once you pick a template, customizing it to fit your brand is easy, thanks to the rich text editor. You can change colors, fonts, and layout, and if you have some basic knowledge of HTML or CSS, you can take things further. But it’s not required—MailerLite is designed to make it simple, even for beginners. Plus, you can create templates from scratch using the drag-and-drop editor, which gives you total creative freedom.

ConvertKit

On the flip side, ConvertKit keeps things much simpler. It sticks to plain-text email templates, which means there’s less flexibility in terms of design. The idea behind this is that simpler emails tend to perform better when it comes to deliverability—meaning they’re more likely to land in your reader’s inbox. You can change basic things like colors, fonts, and button styles, but that’s about it. If you want to add images or videos, or adjust the layout more specifically, you’ll need to know HTML/CSS. So, while it’s fine for people who prefer a no-frills approach, it can feel limiting if you want more design freedom.

Verdict: If you’re someone who likes to have flexibility and creative control when designing your emails, MailerLite is the clear winner. Its drag-and-drop editor and wide variety of templates make it easy to create emails that look professional, no matter your design experience. On the other hand, ConvertKit sticks to simplicity, but that means fewer options for customization.

Winner: MailerLite

Spam and Design Testing

When it comes to ensuring your emails look good and land in your subscribers’ inboxes, both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer some basic tools, but they fall short in certain areas.

MailerLite

MailerLite allows you to preview your emails both on desktop and mobile, which helps you see how your emails will appear on different devices. However, that’s about as far as it goes. While this gives you some insight into how your email looks, it doesn’t offer much beyond that for design testing.

On the spam testing side, MailerLite doesn’t have a built-in feature to check if your emails might land in the spam folder. However, it does check for certain links—like PayPal links or short URLs—that might trigger spam filters. This can help avoid some of the common mistakes that cause emails to get flagged.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is even more limited when it comes to testing. You can only preview your emails on desktop, so you can’t see how your emails will appear on mobile devices. This is a drawback if you want to make sure your emails look good on all screens.

Like MailerLite, ConvertKit doesn’t have spam testing either. It does check and flag emails for certain links that may cause issues, like PayPal links or short URLs, but overall, spam and design testing are both pretty basic in ConvertKit.

Verdict:
There’s no clear winner here. Both platforms are lacking when it comes to spam and design testing features. If this is important to you, you might want to look for other tools that offer more robust testing options.

Winner: No winners here

Reporting

When it comes to tracking how your emails are performing, both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer basic reporting tools, but there are some differences.

MailerLite

MailerLite provides useful data like opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and devices. This gives you a good idea of how your emails are performing and how your audience is interacting with your content. If you use Shopify or WooCommerce, you can even track purchases, which is great for online stores looking to see how email campaigns lead to sales. However, MailerLite doesn’t offer social media or email client stats, so you won’t be able to track things like which platforms your audience uses to read your emails.

ConvertKit

On the other hand, ConvertKit’s reporting is much more basic. It only gives you data on open rates, click rates, and unsubscribes, and you have to view stats for each individual email campaign. There’s no dashboard that shows you all of your stats at once, which can make it harder to get an overall picture of how your campaigns are performing.

Verdict:
In this category, MailerLite clearly wins. Its reporting offers more detailed insights, including purchase tracking for e-commerce users, and it makes it easier to see all your important stats. ConvertKit’s reporting is quite limited and doesn’t give you a simple way to view all your data in one place.

Winner: MailerLite

Deliverability

When choosing an email marketing tool, deliverability is one of the most important factors to consider. If your emails don’t make it to your subscribers’ inboxes, all the time and effort you put into creating your campaigns will be wasted.

We’ve been tracking the deliverability of various email marketing platforms over the years, and we’ve tested both MailerLite and ConvertKit over the last few rounds of testing (from March 2021 to January 2023).

Here’s how they stacked up:

• MailerLite has an overall deliverability rate of 95.24%, which is quite high. This means that most of your emails will land in your subscribers’ inboxes, making MailerLite a solid choice for those who want to ensure their emails are delivered properly.
• ConvertKit, on the other hand, has a deliverability rate of 88.16%. While still decent, it’s lower than MailerLite’s, meaning that there’s a slightly higher chance that your emails could end up in spam folders or be missed by your audience.

Verdict:
When it comes to deliverability, MailerLite takes the lead with a higher overall deliverability rate. If getting your emails to your audience is crucial for your success, MailerLite is the more reliable choice.

Winner: MailerLite

Integrations and Extras

When you’re using an email marketing tool, it’s important that it works well with the other tools you’re already using. Both ConvertKit and MailerLite offer lots of integrations, but they have some key differences.

ConvertKit offers around 90 integrations, including big names like Shopify, Stripe, WooCommerce, SumoMe, ConvertPlug, Wix, and WordPress. It also integrates with Zapier, which allows you to connect to even more apps and automate tasks. However, one surprising downside is that ConvertKit doesn’t integrate with many major CRM systems, which might be a deal-breaker if you rely on a CRM for your business. Additionally, some of the integrations mentioned on ConvertKit’s website are not very seamless—you might have to copy and paste HTML code to make them work, which can be a bit of a hassle.

MailerLite, on the other hand, also offers plenty of integrations, including popular platforms like Shopify and WordPress. It works with Zapier, just like ConvertKit, and also gives you access to a developer API. This means if you’re comfortable with coding, you can integrate MailerLite with other apps in more advanced ways, giving you even more flexibility.

Both platforms are also listed among the best email marketing tools for Shopify, so if you use Shopify for your online store, both can be great options.

Verdict:
Both ConvertKit and MailerLite offer solid integration options. However, MailerLite has the edge, especially for people who want more flexibility through its developer API. ConvertKit is great if you want something simple and easy to use with major tools, but its lack of CRM integrations and the need for manual HTML code in some cases could be limiting.

Winner: MailerLite

Support

When you need help, the quality of customer support can make a big difference. Both ConvertKit and MailerLite offer support through email and chat, but there are a few differences in how they handle it.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit has been known for offering responsive and knowledgeable support. You can reach out to their team via chat or email, and they usually get back to you quickly with helpful answers. If you prefer to figure things out on your own, ConvertKit also provides tutorials and help articles to guide you.

MailerLite

MailerLite also has strong customer support. They have a dedicated team with a few agents who provide thoughtful and detailed responses. While ConvertKit is quick and helpful, MailerLite’s agents tend to give more in-depth answers, which can be really useful for solving more complex issues. Like ConvertKit, MailerLite offers help articles and tutorials for self-help.

Verdict:
Both platforms offer great support, but MailerLite takes the slight lead because of its more detailed responses and a better knowledge base. If you prefer getting really thorough answers, MailerLite might be a better fit.

Winner: MailerLite

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer good options, but there are a few key differences in what you get at each level.

Both platforms offer a free plan for users with fewer than 1,000 subscribers. However, ConvertKit has recently made its free plan more generous by allowing up to 10,000 subscribers. On ConvertKit’s free plan, you can send unlimited emails, create landing pages and forms, and access many essential features.

MailerLite, on the other hand, also offers a free plan, but it limits you to 12,000 emails per month and allows you to have only 10 landing pages. This is still very generous, though, especially if you don’t need a huge number of landing pages.

When you upgrade to the paid plans, both platforms offer some nice extras. MailerLite’s paid plan gives you access to landing page and email templates, unlimited emails, priority email support, and the option to remove MailerLite’s branding from your emails. However, these templates and extras aren’t available on the free plan.

For ConvertKit’s paid plans, the free plan allows you to sell digital products and subscriptions (a feature that’s only available on MailerLite’s paid plans). ConvertKit’s paid plans also come with extras like API integrations, automated email sequences, funnels, link corrections for sent emails, deliverability reporting, and free migration from other tools.

Let’s compare the pricing of their lowest-level plans:

Verdict:
Overall, MailerLite is the better choice for value for money and affordability. It gives you a lot more for your budget, especially on the free plan and lower-paid plans. ConvertKit has a higher price point, but it does come with more advanced features for users who need them.

Winner: MailerLite

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: Which One Is Best for You?

Best for Small Businesses:

If you’re a small business owner just starting out or looking for an affordable and easy-to-use email marketing tool, MailerLite is your best bet. It offers great value with a solid set of features at a price that won’t break the bank. Its free plan and drag-and-drop editor make it a simple choice for anyone on a budget.

Best for Content Creators and Bloggers:

For content creators, bloggers, or anyone focused on building a relationship with their audience, ConvertKit is the clear winner. It offers advanced automation and segmentation, so you can personalize your emails and manage your audience more effectively. If you’re looking to create an email funnel or manage complex email sequences, ConvertKit has you covered.

Best for Advanced Email Marketers:

If you’re an advanced marketer who needs powerful automation tools and integrations, ConvertKit provides the most flexibility and control. With features like email funnels, advanced segmentation, and the ability to connect to other tools, it’s perfect for marketers who want to take their campaigns to the next level.

Mailerlite vs Convertkit – Pros and Cons

MailerLite:

Pros:

• Great value for the price.
• User-friendly interface.
• Offers templates for emails and landing pages.
• Unlimited emails on the free plan.
• Good customer support.

Cons:

• Limited advanced features for bigger businesses.
• Basic reporting tools.
• Fewer integrations compared to ConvertKit.
• Limited segmentation options.

ConvertKit:

Pros:

• Advanced automation and segmentation.
• Ideal for creators and bloggers.
• Great integrations with creator tools.
• Powerful email funnels for personalized sequences.
• Good deliverability.

Cons:

• Expensive as your list grows.
• Limited design options for emails.
• No landing page templates on the free plan.
• Basic support for lower-tier plans.

Final Verdict: MailerLite vs ConvertKit for 2025

MailerLite is the clear choice if you’re a beginner, running a small business, or working with a tight budget. It offers affordable pricing, a great free plan, and an easy-to-use interface that’s perfect for getting started with email marketing. Its simplicity and solid feature set make it a strong contender for anyone looking to grow without breaking the bank.

On the other hand, ConvertKit is designed with content creators in mind. It’s perfect for bloggers, YouTubers, and online entrepreneurs who need advanced automation, segmentation, and tools to build a relationship with their audience. If you’re looking for a tool to help you scale your email marketing and are willing to invest in a platform that supports complex workflows, ConvertKit is the way to go.

Conclusion:

So, which one should you choose? It all comes down to your needs and where you’re at in your email marketing journey:

• If you’re a small business owner, just starting out, or working with a tight budget, MailerLite is a fantastic choice. With its simple setup, affordable pricing, and solid features, it gives you everything you need to grow your email list and connect with your audience without breaking the bank.
• But if you’re a content creator looking to take your email marketing to the next level, ConvertKit is your best friend. It’s packed with advanced automation tools, detailed segmentation, and all the features you need to build deeper relationships with your audience and grow your brand.

The best part? You don’t have to decide right away! Both platforms offer free plans, so you can test them out yourself and see which one feels like the perfect fit for your business.

We’d love to hear your thoughts—have you tried MailerLite or ConvertKit? Share your experience in the comments!

Ready to take the next step?

• Sign up for MailerLite
• Sign up for ConvertKit

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