Are you wanting to build your business via email marketing but are unsure of what email software to pick?
Maybe you’re not satisfied with your current email service provider.
And want to switch to something that’s easier to use…
If so, in this review I’ll be taking a look at the two software ConvertKit and MailerLite.
Both have their pros and their cons.
But, by the end of this review, you’ll know which one is best for you. So, let’s begin.
CONVERTKIT VS MailerLite: QUICK SUMMARY
Here’s the bottom line:
ConvertKit is your best option out of these two. Not only is it the software that I use for my email list, but it also has a whole host of other benefits like:
- Easy to use and get to grips with.
- Has a decent free plan for the first 300 subscribers.
- Excellent deliverability rates.
- A very affordable email software.
So, if you want to start sending out your emails with ConvertKit – then just click here.
Table of Contents
About ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a powerful email marketing platform created by Nathan Barry.
It’s designed for people like content creators, bloggers, and online business owners.
It provides you with a simple yet effective way to grow your email list, engage with your subscribers, and ultimately convert them into paying customers.
About MailerLite
MailerLite is an easy-to-use email marketing tool that offers you a wide range of features to help your businesses create and manage effective email campaigns.
And with MailerLite, you can easily create email newsletters, automation workflows, and landing pages, all without needing any technical skills or coding knowledge.
Perfect for any beginners out there that want to leverage the power of email marketing.
How Is ConvertKit Unique?
One of the unique things about ConvertKit is that it caters to a hyper-specific audience.
As it says on their website –
ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease.
And the whole software is built around this.
Helping you easily monetize your audience with your email list.
And because of this, it makes it a cut above the rest of the email software out there that also tries to help you sell digital products, services, and memberships.
How is MailerLite Unique?
MailerLite has one of the best free options out there when it comes to email marketing software.
Its free plan is amazing and then the first plan is only $10 per month.
And it’s ideal for anyone who may not have much experience with email marketing as it’s easy to use and free so you can get to grips with it without having to spend a penny.
Pricing
The majority of email software pricing works on a sliding scale. Meaning that the more subscribers you have, the more you’ll be paying.
And ConvertKit and MailerLite both work like this.
However, there are a few differences in their pricing, let’s take a look.
ConvertKit Pricing
Overall, ConvertKit is the more expensive and even though it does have a free plan, it’s not that great in my opinion.
For example, ConvertKit’s free plan is only for 300 subscribes and it has a limited number of features.
And if you want to fully take advantage of ConvertKit, you do need to have the paid version.
Here’s what the free plan looks like:
One of the key features that you’re not allowed is automated email sequences which is an integral part of any email marketing setup.
This is what the pricing looks like for 300 subscribers if you were to be paying monthly:
Then, for the pricing for up to 1,000 subscribers, this is what it’s looking like:
As you can see in the screenshot above, this pricing is to be paying monthly.
You do have the option to pay yearly and it works out as slightly cheaper on the whole.
If you have more than 1,000 subscribers and you want to see how much you would be paying –
It will take you to the ConvertKit pricing calculator and you’ll be able to see how much you’ll be paying.
MailerLite Pricing
One of the best things about MailerLite is its free plans.
MailerLite has a free plan that you can use for up to 1,000 subscribers and be able to use all of the basic features.
This is what it looks like:
As you can see there are 4 different plans.
- The free plan (Free for first 1k subscribers)
- Growing Business ($10/ month)
- Advanced ($21/month)
- Enterprise Plan (Custom pricing)
And as you can see, the above pricing is if you’re paying per month.
You do have the option to pay annually, which makes it slightly cheaper (See screenshot below):
Also, the prices you see above are for 1,000 subscribers.
And if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, the price will increase.
If this is you – follow this link by clicking here
It’ll take you to the MailerLite pricing calculator so you can see specifically how much you’ll be paying.
MailerLite Pricing Calculator
Customer Service - What is it like?
ConvertKit:
From my personal experience, ConvertKit’s customer service is amazing.
It has a live chat and a typical response time of a few hours, but from experience, it’s usually a lot shorter than this.
Whenever I’ve had a problem with the software or I don’t know how to work something out, customer service always resolves the issue.
Not only that, but ConvertKit has extensive blog posts and articles that help you figure out the issues you might be dealing with.
MailerLite
One thing I don’t like about MailerLite customer service is that it has a ticket system and not just a live chat:
Personally, I think this makes the whole process a lot longer and can be particularly frustrating when you’re trying to resolve a problem as quickly as possible.
Features
In this section, we’ll be going over the main features of each software and how they compare with each other.
ConvertKit Email Campaigns
ConvertKit email campaigns are pretty easy to use.
They provide you with a number of different templates you can choose from and reuse again and again.
As you can see from the image above, if you’ve used something like Google docs before, then you’ll definitely be able to use the ConvertKit email campaign creator.
MailerLite Email Campaign
Although the MailerLite campaign editor is very similar to ConvertKit, I would say that the MailerLite one is slightly less intuitive.
It feels a little more clunky and difficult to get to grips with.
And more difficult to format copy the way you want it to.
Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:
Email Automation Features
ConvertKit
One thing I love about ConvertKit is its visual automation builder when creating email sequences.
This is what it looks like below:
One of the benefits of this visual automation builder is that It allows you to easily plan out your email sequences.
And not only that but you can also create triggers and tags based on subscribers’ behavior.
If they clicked on a specific link or if they signed up for a specific lead magnet, they can receive a specific email sequence.
Allowing you to create a super personalized email experience for your subscribers.
MailerLite
A cool feature of MailerLite is that it gives you a wide range of different templates that you can use for your email automation.
This includes:
> Welcome sequence
> Subscriber win-back emails
> Webinar invitation
> Membership renewal
And a whole lot more that you can see in the screenshot below.
Having these just makes it a whole lot easier when creating automation if you don’t have too much experience with it.
MailerLite also has a visual automation builder, but it’s not as clean and sleek as ConvertKits.
But after a couple of minutes of clicking around, you can get to grips with it pretty quickly.
Landing Pages
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer landing page templates on their free versions.
They’re pretty extensive and offer a wide range of different options for different circumstances.
Let’s take a closer look:
ConvertKit Landing Pages:
With ConvertKit, you’re given two options for your landing pages –
Either a form or a landing page.
The form is if you have a WordPress for example and you want to embed a sign up on there, you would use a form.
But if you want to host your whole landing page or ConvertKit, you can do this with the landing page option.
For this example, we’ll look at the landing page options.
As you can see, you’re given many options based on your specific needs.
MailerLite Landing Pages
MailerLite is similar to ConvertKit as you’re given the options for a form and a landing page.
One cool thing about MailerLite as well is that you have the option for a website and a landing page:
And similar to ConvertKit, you’re given a wide range of templates for your landing page:
Integrations
Integrations are important for email service providers.
Because the chances are, you’ll most likely be using other software with it, meaning you’ll need a lot of them to integrate with each other.
And the integrations make your whole life a lot easier…
You don’t have to be adding snippets of code, mess around with the back end of the software…
So, let’s take a look at what ConvertKit and MailerLite integrate with.
ConvertKit Integrations
After taking a look at Convertkit, it has around 114 available integrations.
With all these email software, a lot of them have the same integrations…
Instead of listing all of them, I’ll just link you to the ConvertKit page about them.
Click here to access it.
Another cool thing about ConvertKit is that you can actually send a request to the support team if there is software that doesn’t integrate and they can look to add it.
MailerLite Integrations
MailerLite has 139 integrations and has most of the main integrations that you need including:
• WordPress
• Shopify
• Zapier
• Stripe
• HubSpot
And many more.
So, if you’re using any other software or websites like WordPress or Shopify (Or any of the other big software in the online space) the chances are, MailerLite will integrate with it.
Who is ConvertKit best for?
ConvertKit is perfect for anybody who owns an audience and has products, services, memberships, or any kind of coaching they want to sell.
As it says on its homepage:
“ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease.”
So, if you’re any of the following:
- Course creator
- Author
- Blogger
- Musician
- Podcaster
- Youtuber
- Influencer
- Coach
Then ConvertKit would be the perfect option for you.
Who is MailerLite Best for?
I would consider MailerLite to be the ideal tool for beginners.
If you have little to no email marketing experience, MailerLite would be a good option for you.
Here’s why:
• MailerLite has an amazing free plan:
MailerLite has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and on this free plan, you have everything you need to get started.
As you can see in the screenshot below:
• Easy to get to grips with:
Even if you have little to no experience with email marketing software, MailerLite is pretty easy to use, and the learning curve
• Has everything you need to get started:
If you don’t want all the bells and whistles that come with email software and just want something simple that does the job – then this is for you.
MailerLite has all of the above on its free plan (as you can see in the screenshot) so you don’t need to shell out $50 a month for software that you only use a fraction of.
If this sounds like you, MailerLite would be a perfect option for you.
Pros and Cons
ConvertKit Pros And Cons
MailerLite Pros and Cons
Final Thoughts:
Both are solid options when it comes to email marketing software.
But for me personally, being a creator and having services and products to sell, ConvertKit comes out on top.
If I was a beginner on a budget and didn’t know too much about email marketing, then MailerLite would be the perfect option.
It provides you with everything you need, has one of the best free plans out there, and is perfect to get started.
So, if you want to get started with either of the software, you can get started by clicking on one of the buttons below.
If you have any questions, make sure you leave a comment below.
FAQ
MailerLite is the cheaper of the two. MailerLite has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and its cheapest plan is $10/month while ConvertKit’s free plan is only up to 300 subscribers and its cheapest paid plan is $15.
In my opinion, ConvertKit. It has everything I need, the customer support is 10 out of 10 and it’s easy to use.
Yes, it’s slightly more expensive, but I’m willing to pay for the extras that it comes with.
But if I were you, I would scroll up to the ‘Who is it best for?’ section to get the best answer for yourself.
Both MailerLite and ConvertKit do allow affiliates, however, there are some rules that you need to be mindful of.
ConvertKit: They do allow affiliates in your emails. But, your content must consist of 60-70% worth of your own content and the remaining can be affiliates.
MailerLite: MailerLite’s rules are extremely confusing and misleading – as it says affiliate marketing is prohibited.
However, you’re allowed affiliate links (Both statements contradict one another) but from what I’ve seen, you’re allowed to use affiliates but you must disclose that it’s an affiliate and it must be related to your brand and messaging.
Yes, both do. ConvertKits’ free plan is up to 300 subscribers (With limited features) while MailerLite’s free plan is up to 1,000 subscribers.
Before you go…
If you haven’t already seen it, I recently put together a guide on how I create emails for myself and my clients.
It’s everything I’ve learned over the past couple of years distilled into a simple and easy-to-consume guide.
You can get it by clicking here.
And, if you have any questions that I haven’t mentioned, either send me an email at jamie@Emailmaximalist.com
Or Just send me a DM on Twitter @EmailMaximalist
