ConvertKit vs Mailchimp Pricing: Full 2026

Two Email Giants With Opposite Philosophies

ConvertKit (now rebranded as Kit) was built for creators: bloggers, YouTubers, and course sellers who live on simple automations and landing pages. Mailchimp started as the friendly newsletter tool for small businesses and has grown into a full marketing platform with websites, ads, and CRM features.

Both price primarily on audience size, which means your bill grows as your list grows. That makes understanding the tier structure essential: the cheapest option at 500 subscribers is often not the cheapest at 10,000. This breakdown compares every pricing layer for 2026.

How Each Platform Structures Pricing

ConvertKit uses subscriber-count tiers: a free plan for small audiences, then paid tiers that step up as your subscriber count crosses thresholds. Mailchimp uses contact-based tiers across Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium plans, with the monthly cost rising as your contact count grows and varying by which feature tier you choose.

List Size	ConvertKit / Kit (typical)	Mailchimp (typical)
Under 1,000	Free plan available for small audiences	Free plan available with sending limits
1,000 - 5,000	Paid tier, price steps with subscriber count	Essentials or Standard, price steps with contacts
5,000 - 10,000	Mid paid tier	Standard tier typically most popular here
10,000 - 50,000	Higher paid tier, annual billing discounts help	Standard or Premium depending on features needed
50,000+	Top tier, custom quotes at very high volumes	Premium tier, costs scale steeply

Email pricing changes often and both companies run promotions, so always check current rates. The pattern that matters: ConvertKit's pricing is simpler with fewer feature gates between tiers, while Mailchimp's cost depends on both your contact count and which of its four feature tiers you need.

Free Plans: What You Actually Get

Both offer free plans, but they serve different purposes. ConvertKit's free plan is aimed at creators just starting out: you can collect subscribers and send broadcasts up to a limit, which is enough to validate an audience. Mailchimp's free plan includes its famous drag-and-drop builder and basic templates, but with tight monthly send limits and Mailchimp branding on emails.

The catch with both free plans is the same: they are starter ramps, not long-term homes. Send limits, missing automations, and branding restrictions push growing senders to paid tiers quickly. Budget for the paid tier you will need in six months, not the free tier you qualify for today.

Where the Costs Diverge as You Grow

• Automation depth: ConvertKit includes its visual automation builder on paid plans without forcing you into the top tier. Mailchimp gates its best automation and segmentation features behind Standard and Premium, which can force an upgrade earlier.
• Extra contacts: Both charge overage-style pricing as you cross thresholds. Mailchimp's jumps between feature tiers can be steep if you need Standard features at a large list size.
• Landing pages and extras: ConvertKit bundles landing pages and its creator network. Mailchimp bundles websites, social posting, and a broader marketing suite, which adds value if you will use them and bloat if you will not.
• Deliverability tooling: Both offer the standard authentication and list-cleaning tools. Neither charges extra for the basics,

  Deliverability: The Cost Nobody Puts in the Pricing Table

  The cheapest email plan is worthless if your emails land in spam. Both ConvertKit and Mailchimp provide the standard authentication tools, but your sender reputation depends mostly on list hygiene: removing hard bounces promptly, suppressing chronic non-openers, and never buying email lists. Here pricing and deliverability intersect directly, because both platforms charge by contact count, so every dead contact costs you twice: once in the subscription, and again in the engagement rates that mailbox providers use to judge you.

  Make list cleaning a quarterly habit. Export your least engaged segment, run a genuine re-engagement campaign with your best content, and remove whoever stays silent. Senders routinely cut 10 to 20 percent of their contact count this way, which can drop them into a cheaper pricing tier while simultaneously improving open rates. It is the rare optimization that lowers cost and improves performance at the same time.

  When trialing either platform, send to your real list rather than a tiny test segment, and watch inbox placement across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail for the first month. Strong deliverability on your actual audience matters more than any feature checklist, and it is the one metric neither pricing page will quote you.

  which is what matters most.

Which Is Cheaper for You?

For creators who mainly need email and automations, ConvertKit is often cheaper at equivalent list sizes because you are not paying for a marketing suite you will not use. For small businesses that want email plus landing pages, social tools, and a CRM in one bill, Mailchimp's bundle can be the better value even at a higher sticker price.

Map the pricing to your own growth: estimate your list size twelve months from now and price both platforms at that size, not today's. For more on how tiered SaaS pricing like this is designed, read our guide to SaaS pricing models, and use our SaaS pricing calculator to model subscription costs against your revenue.