Kit (ConvertKit) vs Mailchimp in 2026

Creator platform against generalist ESP, with the 2026 tier math and the billing fine print both pricing pages skim.

ConvertKit has been Kit since October 2024, and most comparison tables for it are stale: they still quote the $29 entry price that died in the October 2025 increase. If you searched for ConvertKit, you are in the right place; the product is the same, the prices are not. Here is the current match against Mailchimp, with every number dated.

The verdict

At 5,000 subscribers Kit's Creator plan is $89 a month and Mailchimp's Essentials is $75, both monthly billing as of August 2026, so at typical list sizes the price gap is small and the decision is the model. Pick Kit if you are a creator selling your own work: paid newsletters, digital products, tip jars, and the Creator Network cross-promotion engine are built in, and only unique active subscribers count toward your bill. Pick Mailchimp if you run a store: 200-step journeys, predictive segmentation, and 300+ integrations are the part Kit cannot match, though unsubscribed contacts stay on your bill until you archive them by hand. If what you actually want is a newsletter plus a real inbox on your own domain for one flat price, that third lane is LetterDuck at $50 per domain; do not pick us for creator commerce or store automations, because we have neither, and we are in waitlist mode.

The rebrand, for everyone still typing ConvertKit

ConvertKit completed its rebrand to Kit in October 2024. Same product, same company, new name. The rename matters here because the pricing literature never caught up twice over: first the name, then the October 2025 increase that took Creator from $29 to $39 a month at 1,000 subscribers, a 34% jump applied with no grandfathering (new signups from September 8, 2025; existing customers on their first bill after October 15). Many 2026 roundups still print the pre-hike table, $29 at 1,000 subscribers and $79 at 5,000. The Kit numbers on this page were pulled from the price arrays inside Kit's own pricing-page code on August 7, 2026, not from third-party tables.

The tier math at 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000

Monthly cost at	Kit (formerly ConvertKit)	Mailchimp	LetterDuck
500 subscribers	$32.50	$13	$50 flat
1,000 subscribers	$32.50	$26.50	$50 flat
5,000 subscribers	$74.17	$75	$50 flat
10,000 subscribers	$115.83	$110	$50 flat

Public list prices, August 2026, annual billing where offered. Kit (formerly ConvertKit): Creator plan on annual billing, which costs ten times the monthly price. On monthly billing the same list sizes cost $39, $39, $89 and $139. Mailchimp: Essentials on monthly billing, the cheapest paid tier. Standard runs $20 to $135 across the same contact counts. First-year promotional discounts are excluded. LetterDuck is $50 per domain, flat, unlimited addresses and subscribers.

One billing-basis note before comparing: the table uses annual-billing effective prices where a provider publishes them. Kit's annual price is exactly ten times monthly (two months free), so Creator works out to $32.50 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $74.17 at 5,000, and $115.83 at 10,000. Mailchimp publishes no per-tier annual prices ("for qualified customers" is its entire disclosure), so its figures are plain monthly billing: Essentials at $26.50, $75, and $110 at the same three sizes. On monthly billing Kit runs $39, $89, and $139. Mailchimp's Standard tier, the one with the full automation suite, runs $45, $100, and $135.

The shape of the steps differs more than the totals. Kit's tiers are cliffs: subscriber 1,001 takes Creator from $39 to $59, a 51% jump. Mailchimp ramps through more tiers, but crossing one triggers overage charges or paused sending until you upgrade.

Then there is the question of who counts. Mailchimp bills subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts alike, and it never archives anyone automatically; unless you prune by hand you keep paying for people you are not allowed to email. Kit counts only unique, active subscribers, so an unsubscribe leaves your bill the moment it happens.

Free tiers: 10,000 versus 250

Kit's free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages, forms, tagging, and digital product sales. What it withholds is the automation engine: one basic automation, no sequences, no integrations, and the Kit badge stays on your emails until you pay.

Mailchimp cut its free plan in January 2026 (effective February 17) from 500 contacts and 1,000 sends to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, capped at 250 a day, one seat, Mailchimp branding on everything. For testing an idea, Kit's free ceiling is forty times higher.

Feature by feature

	Kit	Mailchimp
Free tier	Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts	250 contacts and 500 sends/month since February 17, 2026
Who counts toward the bill	Unique, active subscribers only	Subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts
Automation depth	Unlimited visual automations and sequences on Creator	Up to 200-step journeys, multivariate testing, predictive segmentation
Integrations	Paid plans only; none on the free tier	300+ integrations plus e-commerce store connections
Creator commerce	Paid newsletters, digital products, tip jars, Creator Network	Store connections rather than built-in creator monetization
Send allowance	Unlimited sends on every plan, including the free one	Chained to contact count: 10x on Essentials, 12x on Standard
Team seats	Unlimited users on Creator Pro only	3 seats on Essentials, 5 on Standard, unlimited on Premium
Sending track record	Long-standing creator deliverability reputation	Mature sending infrastructure with benchmarking analytics

The traps on each side

Kit's traps are the cliff and the Pro tier. The 1,000-subscriber jump is 51%, and Creator Pro roughly doubles the bill for analytics and team features: $189 against $139 at 10,000 subscribers on monthly billing. The October 2025 increase also proved Kit will reprice existing customers without grandfathering.

Mailchimp's traps are the meter. The 50%-off promo on the pricing page lasts twelve months and then standard tier prices apply, dead contacts stay billable until you archive them, and the send allowance is welded to contact count, so a small list that mails often gets pushed up-plan anyway. If the meter is what is pushing you out, the Mailchimp alternatives list ranks the escape routes with the same dated math.

Choose Kit if

You sell your own work. Paid newsletters, digital products, and tip jars are native, and the Creator Network recommendation engine recruits real subscribers from adjacent newsletters.
Your list is under 10,000 and you want to publish free with unlimited sends while you find your footing.
You refuse to pay for unsubscribed contacts on principle. Kit does not bill them, full stop.

Choose Mailchimp if

You run e-commerce. Store connections, 200-step journeys, and predictive segmentation are the point, and Kit has no answer at any price.
Your stack runs on integrations: 300+ against Kit's paid-only list.
You want cheap seats early: 3 users on the $13 Essentials tier, while Kit reserves unlimited users for Creator Pro money.

The third option

Both of these are outbound-only tools. Neither gives you an inbox; hello@yourdomain still needs a mailbox product on top, and replies to your campaigns land wherever that other tool lives. LetterDuck closes that loop for $50 per domain, flat, at any list size: every address on the domain feeds one threaded team inbox, anyone can reply as any address, and the newsletter composer sends from the domain you own with deliverability handled, meaning SPF, DKIM, DMARC, a warm-up throttle, automatic suppression, and RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe stamped on every campaign. The case for owning the whole loop is laid out in our guide to starting a newsletter on your own domain, and the fit for working publishers at newsletter creators. Do not pick LetterDuck for Kit's commerce stack or Mailchimp's store automations; we have neither, and seats currently open from a waitlist.

Common questions

Is Kit the same company as ConvertKit?

Yes. ConvertKit finished rebranding to Kit in October 2024; the product, plans, and infrastructure are continuous. Search results still split across both names, which is why so many stale price tables survive. Check any Kit table you find against a date after October 2025, when the entry price rose from $29 to $39.

Which is cheaper at 1,000 subscribers?

Mailchimp Essentials at about $26.50 a month against Kit Creator at $39, both monthly billing as of August 2026. On annual billing Kit drops to $32.50 effective. But the scope differs: Essentials caps sends at 10x your contact count and automations at 4 steps, while Creator includes unlimited sends, sequences, and visual automations. Cheaper is a different product, not a discount on the same one.

Does Mailchimp really bill for unsubscribed contacts?

Yes. Subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts all count toward the plan limit, and Mailchimp never archives automatically; multiple 2026 pricing analyses confirm it. Archive dead contacts by hand on a schedule, or your tier creeps upward on people you cannot legally email.

Is Kit's free plan actually usable?

For broadcasting, yes: 10,000 subscribers, unlimited sends, landing pages, forms, and digital product sales at $0. The catch is that sequences, integrations, and all but one basic automation sit behind the $39 Creator tier, so the moment you want a welcome sequence you are paying. It is a real publishing tool and a deliberate on-ramp at the same time.

Do I still need a separate tool for regular email?

With either, yes. Kit and Mailchimp send campaigns; neither hosts your day-to-day mailbox, so hello@yourdomain means paying Google, Microsoft, or Zoho per seat on top of the subscriber meter. That two-bill stack is the problem LetterDuck exists to collapse into one flat $50 per domain.

Every price here was last verified on August 7, 2026: Kit's from the price arrays in its own pricing-page code, Mailchimp's from its live pricing page cross-checked against three independent 2026 teardowns. Recheck both before you commit; each company repriced within the last twelve months.