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Did you know that a study by Litmus indicated that consumers believe email is more likely to be around in 10 years than Facebook, Twitter, and cable television?
That statistic alone should be enough to convince you that email marketing is here to stay in the long-run and fully taking advantage of it will guarantee the longevity of your business!
A couple of weeks ago, when I was doing my research on the best email marketing tools of 2020 I came across these two email marketing platforms, ConvertKit and Mailerlite. Both of these tools were interesting and clearly legends at their craft.
I then decided that I would do an in-depth review of both ConvertKit and Mailerlite. After I completed these reviews I noticed quite a number of differences between the platforms.
It was at this point that I knew I had to build a Mailerlite vs ConvertKit comparison article. In this article, we will be taking a deep look at both of these email tools, see what makes each of them tick, and then determine if they are worth your dollar!
By the end of this comparison, you will know exactly which tool is right for your business.
So without further ado, buckle up, and let’s dive straight into this article!
Table of Contents
Mailerlite vs ConvertKit
Now before we dive into what really makes each of these email marketing tools different and which one is the best for your business let’s take a look at what these tools really are.
What is ConvertKit?
In a nutshell, ConvertKit is an email marketing tool that was designed for the creators. So if you have a blog, you own a Youtube channel, you write poetry, or even if you’re a chef then ConvertKit would be perfect for you.
ConvertKit was built in order to give creatives a platform where they can easily monetize their craft and create a reliable long-term business.
Moreover, every tool and feature offered by ConvertKit was designed with the creator in mind in order to produce an even better quality of performance and an increased return-on-investment.
Founded recently in 2013 by David Wheeler and Nathan Berry, ConvertKit quickly grew to become an industry leader with over 19,000 customers worldwide, backed by a strong team of 58 team members across 48 different cities.
Fun Fact: ConvertKit has no investors and they refuse to go public! They do this with the goal of creating a better overall experience for their creators.
Related: The Full In-Depth Review of ConvertKit
What is Mailerlite?
Mailerlite is an email marketing tool designed to help anyone who wants to build amazing email marketing campaigns.
Now Mailerlite is a bit older than ConvertKit, the former was founded in 2010 and quickly grew to become an industry with a team of 96 dedicated employees working in 16 different countries.
Today over 800,000 different businesses, startups, and freelancers worldwide trust Mailerlite with the execution of their email marketing campaigns. Moreover, to date, they send a whopping ONE BILLION (YES, I said BILLION) emails every single month!
They have even helped some of your favorite brands like BMW, GoPro, and Typeform.
Fun Fact: In Mailerlite’s first year they generated revenue of $1652 EUR. It took them 3 years to hit their first million!
Here’s what Rob Ford, Founder, and Principal of the FWA have to say about Mailerlite:
“What really impresses me with MailerLite is how they seem to be one step ahead of the competition. Their software is incredibly progressive and works perfectly across all devices.”
Related: Click Here To Read The Full In-Depth Review of Mailerlite
Pricing: Is ConvertKit Cheaper Than Mailerlite?
Pricing is not the only factor that you need to consider when purchasing an email marketing software but it is extremely important when it comes to choosing the right email marketing tool.
Let’s take a look at ConvertKit’s pricing and Mailerlite’s pricing.
ConvertKit Pricing
When it comes to pricing Convertkit is extremely straight-forward. In fact, they only have 2 plans to choose from! I found this really interesting since the majority of other email marketing tools have a wide range of different plans that you can take advantage of.
The two plans are the Free plan and the Complete plan.
The Free plan comes with :
- Unlimited landing pages
- Unlimited customizable CTAs & signup forms
- 30+ premium landing page templates
- Unlimited traffic
- Customizable Domain Setup
- Mobile Responsive Designs
- Manage up to 1,000 subscribers
- Email broadcasts
- Subscriber tagging
- Integration with Unsplash
- Creator community
The Complete plan starts at $29 per month and goes higher depending on the number of subscribers that you have. For example, if you have 20,000 subscribers you will be charged $179 per month.
The Complete plan comes with everything listed in the Free plan as well as:
- Visual automation funnels
- Automated email sequences
- Reporting
- Integrations & API
- Premium Support
- Free migration
They also have a 14-day free trial so you can try these features completely risk-free!
Mailerlite Pricing
Mailerlite’s pricing is super straightforward and is in fact one of the cheapest email marketing tools on the market. This is due to the fact that the amount you pay is dependent on the number of subscribers that you have.
For example, if you have up to 1000 subscribers you will be charged NOTHING, however, you can only send up to 12,000 emails every month. If you want to send unlimited emails to these 1000 subscribers then you would be charged $10 per month.
On the other hand, if you have 10,500 subscribers you will be charged $50 per month.
You will also be given access to a free 14-day trial so you can test out the email marketing software and see if it is worth your hard-earned dollar.
Who has the better price?
When it comes down to a price I must say that Mailerlite is a winner. So if you are looking for an affordable email marketing tool that still gets the job done at the end of the day then Mailerlite is definitely your best bet.
Let’s say you have 25,000 contacts, you will be charged $120 per month at Mailerlite. On the other hand, if you have the same 25,000 contacts you will be charged $199 per month at ConvertKit.
Email Design
The overall design of your email determines whether or not one of your newsletter users takes action and follows through with the call-to-action.
Let’s take a look at the overall email design of Mailerlite and ConvertKit.
Mailerlite Email Design
Mailerlite has a user-friendly drag and drop editor that makes it incredibly easy to create newsletters in record-time! This is all thanks to the pre-built design blocks!
With Mailerlite you are given full creative freedom to do whatever you would like with your emails. You can customize everything about your emails so you can give your own personal touch.
You are also given the option to create plain text-based emails with the full formatting capabilities of HTML.
Needless to say, it’s responsive across any device so your emails would look great regardless of if your users use a mobile device or a desktop computer.
ConvertKit Email Design
ConvertKit truly embraces simplicity. I say this because the email marketing software only allows text-based emails so you don’t get a wide range of templates or drag and drop editors like other email marketing tools would provide.
In other words, you can only make changes to the text that’s in your emails, for example, making it bold, italic, or changing the text color.
The only downside is the fact that ConvertKit also only offers 3 options for email designs, these are text-only, classic, and modern.
This makes the overall design of your emails not only simple but also incredibly effective as it gets straight down to the point!
However, if you’re a super creative type who loves to see incredibly designed visual templates then ConvertKit may not meet your expectations.
Which tool has a better email design?
Well, that actually depends on your goals and your personality.
If you want a straightforward and efficient text-based email then I would suggest that you take full advantage of ConvertKit with no hesitation.
However, if you want an email marketing tool that has some incredible design features then I would definitely recommend MailerLite. Moreover, Mailerlite also offers an option for strictly text-based emails as well so you can essentially kill two birds with one stone!
Ease of Use
Who likes to use a platform that isn’t easy to use and navigate. This is definitely a major factor that I take into consideration when I do a review on any email marketing tool.
Let’s take a look at the ease of use of Mailerlite and ConvertKit.
Mailerlite Ease of Use
Mailerlite has a very clean interface, in fact, it has one of the cleanest interfaces I have ever seen. It not only looks great but the functionality is top tier, which means everything works pretty fast.
Everything from setting up a campaign to seeing the progress and reports of your campaigns is easy to do which makes Mailerlite one of the best beginner-friendly email marketing tools on the market.
Needless to say, the drag and drop editor makes it super easy and straightforward to build your emails in no time at all!
ConvertKit Ease of Use
Given the fact that ConvertKit mainly utilizes text-based emails, I would say that it’s very easy to grasp. I would go as far as saying it was made with the beginner in mind.
Setting up segmentation and getting that up and running is also fairly straightforward which in itself takes the usability to a whole new level.
ConvertKit also offers easy migration from other email marketing tools, they even give you the option of having someone from their team handle the entire migration process for you! It’s also FREE!
Based on my in-depth look at ConvertKit I can say without a shadow of a doubt that they believe in simplicity while still getting the job done in the best way possible!
Is Mailerlite easier to use than ConvertKit?
In my opinion, I would have to say ConvertKit is easier to use given the fact that the entire process is straight-forward and every feature is incredibly user-friendly.
On the other hand, Mailerlite has a phenomenal drag and drop editor that makes building emails just as easy, however setting them up from scratch would cause you to face a slight learning curve.
List Management
List management refers to the process by which your contacts are organized.
Let’s take a look at the list management at both ConvertKit and Mailerlite.
MailerLite List Management
MailerLite’s intuitive email list management interface makes it incredibly easy to add and organize your subscribers all from one central location.
This is where you can get up close and personal, you can segment of everything from the subscriber’s previous engagement to their location! You can even take it a step further and create different interest groups based on their various interests and behaviors.
The whole subscriber management system is completely streamlined, from filtering all your subscribers to editing different subscriber profiles.
ConvertKit List Management
Unfortunately, ConvertKit does not give you the option to have a list. Whenever you upload your subscribers they all go in the same batch of contacts, but you can still organize them by assigning the different subscribers to a form, sequence, or tag as a way in the best way that you see fit.
You can also create different segments of contacts that have the same characteristics.
All in all, this will provide you with an extremely simple way of managing contacts and directly avoids any complications that are presented with other email marketing tools on the market.
Who has the better list management?
If you are looking for the least complicated way to manage your lists then ConvertKit is the winner as they provide a straightforward and simple method to managing your subscribers.
Marketing Automation
This is where the fun begins, email marketing automation allows you to build a system where you can basically set the email and then forget it.
Think of email automation as a tour guide that takes your contacts to various small destinations before they make one last stop at the gift shop.
Thanks to email automation you can walk your customers through the entire customer journey from the point where they know nothing about your business to the point where they are loyal life-time customers to your brand.
Let’s take a look at the email marketing automation features that Mailerlite and ConvertKit offer.
Mailerlite Email Marketing Automation
Mailerlite provides you with everything you need in order to set up the email automation. You can send out welcome emails, anniversary emails and automate all subscriber updates and that’s just to name a few!
You can also get up close and personal in your email marketing campaigns. To do this all you have to do is tag subscribers to segments and based on the actions that they took you can send out personalized emails.
For example, you can send out a special discount code to a customer who you knew purchased from your website 5 times in the last week!
Building workflow automation can also be done in minutes thanks to the step by step guides and the intuitive layout.
Needless to say, you can track the entire progress of your workflow directly from inside Mailerlite’s dashboard. This gives you all the data that you need in order to make your next email campaign even more effective than the last one.
ConvertKit Email Marketing Automation
It’s no secret that email automation is ConvertKit’s pride and joy and I can see why. They equip you with all the necessary tools and guides that you need in order to begin setting up automation as soon as possible.
When you first embark on the email marketing automation process you will be given access to templates that were designed to make your life a whole lot easier. Some of these templates include the Evergreen Newsletter, the Evergreen Product Pitch, and the Product Launch.
Which tool has better email automation?
Both ConvertKit and Mailerlite provide amazing visual automation workflows. They both provide the basics that you need in order to start automating your emails efficiently and effectively.
However, ConvertKit has templates that make the overall process of building a workflow extremely straight-forward and simple.
That being said, in order to take full advantage of the workflow automation at ConvertKit you have to be on one of the paid plans, however, at Mailerlite, you can get a feel of the automation features as a part of the free plan.
Reporting & Analytics
This is where all the magic happens. This is where all the major decisions that are going to impact your business in the long-run are made. So it would make sense that you choose an email marketing tool that has a robust reporting feature wouldn’t it?
Let’s take a look at the reporting features offered by Mailerlite and ConvertKit.
Mailerlite Reporting
Mailerlite offers excellent reporting capabilities. You are given the ability to track your entire email campaign activity and subscriber engagement so you can make proper data-driven decisions.
You can track anything such as:
- Email open rate and click-through rate
- The Devices that your users are using
- The ability to track your link activity
- Geolocation tracking – This tells you the location your emails are being opened.
You are also equipped with Click Maps which tracks exactly how your audience is interacting with your newsletters. Click Maps show you exactly where on your email your users are clicking. For example, you may find that your users are clicking on buttons more than images so you might place more attention on the buttons you have in your email.
You can even collect feedback from your subscribers by simply embedding a survey into your email.
ConvertKit Reporting
When it comes to reporting ConvertKit also allows you to track everything that you will need to make smart decisions about your campaign. These include:
- Tracking signup and click-through rate
- The subscribe and unsubscribe rate and much more!
You can see all the information on the success of your campaign directly from ConvertKit’s intuitive dashboard.
Who has better reporting and analytics?
In my opinion, Mailerlite offers more in-depth reports on the success of your campaigns. I also like the fact that you are given access to features such as click-maps and the ability to embed surveys.
On the other hand, ConvertKit also provides great statistics that get the job done and provides you with enough data in order to understand how you can continue to create amazing content.
All in all, MailerLite wins this round.
Integrations
Integrations play a crucial role in the success of your online business, they create seamless connectivity among all of the apps that are a part of the growth of your business.
Mailerlite has 98 different integrations that you can choose from including some of your favorite platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and Zapier!
ConvertKit also has a ton of different integrations that you can take advantage of as well, however, I don’t know the exact number. A major advantage is a fact that it also integrates with Zapier which instantly gives you access to hundreds of different apps.
Furthermore, both Mailerlite and ConvertKit offer API for developers who would like to take it a step further and create their own integrations.
Customer Support
Regardless of if you are highly-skilled at email marketing or a complete beginner, there will come a time where you may need some form of assistance.
Let’s take a look at the options Mailerlite and ConvertKit offer when it comes to customer support.
Mailerlite Customer Support
I must say when it comes to customer support the team Mailerlite are truly legends. They have a fantastic knowledge base that has answers to any question that you may have on your journey with the email marketing tool. 
If this knowledge base isn’t enough, you are also given access to a whole library of video tutorials! Moreover, if you want any additional help you can always submit a ticket and the team at Mailerlite will get back to you asap.
Anyone that knows me knows that I love live chat options and unfortunately if you want to take advantage of the live chat then you need to have the premium plan. Thankfully, taking advantage of the premium is not expensive at all!
There’s also the option to take advantage of the add-on called Mailer Pro which allows you to skip the support queue and get priority support 24/7 by email or live chat whenever you need it!
This will also give you your personal account manager that will walk you through everything from creating campaigns to analyzing metrics. This add-on costs an additional $100 per month.
ConvertKit Customer Support
At ConvertKit you get access to email support and a live chat between 8 am and 8 pm eastern every day.
Getting in contact with support is actually pretty simple, all you have to do is submit a ticket and you will hear from one of the support representatives as soon as possible.
ConvertKit also has an incredible knowledge base that has over 100 articles that were designed to help answer any questions that you may have along your journey with ConvertKit.
If this knowledge base isn’t sufficient enough there are also workshops that you can take full advantage of where you can learn the basics of building your email campaigns through ConvertKit.
Who has better customer support?
After taking an in-depth look at both of the customer support teams at each of these email marketing tools I can confidently say that we have a tie. Both platforms offer insanely good customer service and there is no clear winner.
Related: This Email Marketing Tool Has Award-Winning Customer Support
Mailerlite vs ConvertKit: Pros and Cons
Like every other email marketing tool out there Mailerlite and ConvertKit have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Mailerlite and ConvertKit.
Mailerlite: Pros & Cons
Here we have the pros and cons of Mailerlite.
Pros:
- No need for credit card information if you want to be apart of the free trial
- One of the cheapest email marketing tools on the market
- Great Customer Support!
- Over 90 different integrations to choose from
Cons:
- The system to get approved can be very rigorous and time-consuming
ConvertKit: Pros & Cons
Here we have the pros and cons of ConvertKit.
Pros:
- It was made with the content marketer in mind
- It’s incredibly user-friendly
- You don’t need to input your credit card information in order to access the free trial
- Great Customer Support!
- Migration from other email marketing tools is FREE!
Cons:
- Can be a bit on the pricier side
Related: The Best Email Marketing Tool for Ecommerce
The Verdict: Which one is perfect for your business?
Well, this all comes down to what kind of business you operate.
If you are a creator at heart then it’s no secret that ConvertKit should no doubt be your first option. However, if you are looking for an affordable option that still has a wide range of features then Mailerlite would definitely be your best bet!
Both of these email marketing tools provide exceptional service and are truly great at what they do and are both worth the long-term investment.
Personally, for my blog, I would go with ConvertKit since I’m a content marketer but for my digital marketing agency I would choose to go with MailerLite as it is the cheaper option.
The best part is that both Mailerlite and ConvertKit have 14-day free trials so you can try them out risk-free so you can make an informed decision on which one is best suited for your business personally.
This concludes our entire Mailerlite vs ConvertKit comparison review! Still, looking for the perfect email marketing tool for your business? Then I suggest you check out our article on the 9 best email marketing tools of 2020!
