Kit Buyer's Checklist: What to Check Before You Pay

Use this checklist before you sign up for Kit, and again before you move from the free plan or trial to a paid one. It is built from Kit's help centre, terms and pricing data, read on 9 October 2026, and from 100 recent Trustpilot reviews.

1. Send the verification link early

"We ask that all new accounts send us a link to their blog before we enable email sending." ^[7]. You can build forms, sequences and broadcasts first, but nothing sends until Kit approves the account. Kit may ask for historical open and click rates or your plans for email marketing ^[7].

What to do: send the link on day one, with your site, your list source and your sending plans, so approval is not the step that delays a launch. Do it first.

## 1a. Decide whether Free already covers you

Many creators never need to pay Kit. Free covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes selling products and subscriptions, A/B tests on broadcasts, the API and the Creator Network ^[6]. Pay only when you need sequences or automations, a custom domain, branding removed, more than one seat, or the AI Connectors.

2. Count confirmed subscribers, not contacts

Kit bills on confirmed subscribers: "Your bill is based on your active subscribers, not on emails sent or features used." ^[4]. Unconfirmed sign-ups do not count. Every other feature is included in the plan price.

## 3. Check which band you land in

Up to	Creator monthly	Pro monthly
1,000	$39	$79
3,000	$59	$99
5,000	$89	$139
10,000	$139	$189
25,000	$199	$279

From the pricing page's script ^[2]. A list of 1,050 pays the 3,000 band. Pruning 51 inactive subscribers before you upgrade saves $20 a month. Prune first.

4. Know that growth is billed automatically

"we automatically upgrade you to the next tier." ^[5], with the difference prorated. On annual plans the difference is charged immediately ^[5]. There is no setting to stop it, so watch the count before a giveaway or a big launch. Watch closely.

5. Warn Kit before a large import

"If you are importing a new list of subscribers (from a giveaway or live event, for instance), your account may be temporarily suspended." ^[5]. Tell support in advance, and import only people who opted in to hear from you.

6. Decide whether Free is enough

Free covers 10,000 subscribers with forms, landing pages, broadcasts, tags, A/B tests on broadcasts, digital products, subscriptions and the API ^[6]. It does not include automations or sequences. If your plan depends on a welcome sequence or a launch sequence, budget for Creator.

7. Understand the trial and the free plan

The trial and the free plan are different things, and reviewers say the difference is easy to miss. One reviewer reports that a support rep "did acknowledge the trial-versus-free-plan distinction was unclear and refunded a charge" ^[9]. If you switch from a trial to Free, paid features end at once; from a paid plan, at the end of the period ^[6].

8. Read both refund texts

The help centre: "We have a 30-day refund policy, so if you cancel, you can request any funds paid in the last 30 days to be refunded in full." ^[4]. The terms: on cancellation, "we will not refund any Paid Services Fees already paid to us" ^[8]. Request refunds within 30 days, in writing, citing the help centre. Keep the email.

8a. Know when a paid plan ends

When you cancel, the account "will remain active until the last day of your billing period." ^[4]. Moving from a paid plan to Free keeps paid features to the end of the period; from a trial, they end at once ^[6]. Automations and sequences built on a paid plan stay in the account but stop running on Free, and return if you upgrade ^[6].

8b. Check sales tax and invoices

Kit adds sales tax in many US states based on your billing address, and outside the US you can add a VAT number so it appears on invoices ^[4]. A temporary $1 charge appears whenever you add or change a card; it is a Stripe verification and drops off within seven days ^[4].

9. One account per audience

Kit advises "A fresh account for every distinct audience" ^[22]. One account holds one list and one custom domain; a subscriber in two audiences can unsubscribe from both at once ^[22]. Price each account separately if you run more than one business.

10. Check the seats

Creator allows two team members; Pro unlimited ^[3]. A team of three needs Pro: $79 instead of $39 at 1,000 subscribers. Count your people.

10a. Compare Kit Free with Substack before choosing either

For a paid newsletter under 10,000 subscribers, Kit Free charges 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale with card processing included ^[2]; Substack keeps 10% and passes on card fees ^[51]. On a $10 monthly subscription that is $0.65 against $1.00 plus fees. Kit's trade-off is no discovery network of Substack's kind and no automations on Free.

10b. Check what your readers see when they cancel

When a reader cancels a recurring product, they are not charged again and keep receiving the paid newsletter until the next billing date; a confirmation email follows at the end of the period ^[27]. You can ask Kit to notify you of each cancellation ^[27]. If you delete a subscriber, check the subscription FAQ first: removing a paying reader from the list has billing consequences ^[27].

10c. Decide on monthly, quarterly or yearly prices

Subscriptions can bill monthly, quarterly or yearly, and one product can carry several prices ^[26]. Card fees weigh most on small monthly charges: on a $5 charge Kit's 3.5% plus 30 cents is 9.5%, on a $50 yearly charge 4.1% ^[2]. Offering a yearly price is the simplest way to keep more of each reader's payment.

11. Check the fees on what you sell

• Products and subscriptions: 3.5% plus 30 cents, processing included ^[2].
• Sponsorships: 23.5% of ad revenue, paid 45 days after the month ends ^[32].
• Paid recommendations: 20% service plus 3.5% transaction fee ^[31].

12. Connect Stripe before you sell

Kit's commerce runs on Stripe; payouts for sponsorships also go to your Stripe account ^{[32] [30]}. Paid recommendations run through SparkLoop, which must approve your account first, usually within 24 hours ^[31].

12a. Protect paid subscribers from the unsubscribe link

If a reader unsubscribes from your list, Kit stops charging them for paid subscriptions ^[27]. A paying reader who only wanted fewer emails can cancel your revenue with one click. Use tags and a preference page so readers can reduce frequency without leaving, and keep the paid newsletter as a separate product they can manage.

12b. Know the refund mechanics for your own customers

Refunds for products are issued from the subscriber's profile, and "Only full refunds are supported at this time." ^[29]. Purchases made on other platforms must be refunded there ^[29]. If you sell courses with a partial-refund policy, process those refunds in Stripe, not in Kit.

12c. Turn on VAT collection before selling to Europe

Kit can calculate VAT for each EU and UK sale and send a compliant receipt once collection is enabled and your jurisdictions are added ^[43]. Each product then needs a product type and tax code. Do it before the first sale, not after.

12d. Offer payment plans for higher-priced products

Payment plans split a product's price into at least two instalments, monthly, quarterly or yearly ^[42]. A $600 coaching package can be sold as four payments of $150. Payment plans are different from subscriptions: the number of charges is fixed ^[42].

13. Price the annual plan honestly

Annual billing is twelve months for the price of ten ^[4]. The Pro first-year offer in October 2026 was 25% off up to 65,000 subscribers, ending 7 November 2026 ^[2]; the second year is at list price. Switching from annual to monthly takes effect only at the end of the annual term ^[4].

13a. Check the sponsorship terms if you will sell ads

Only paid plans can express interest in sponsorship campaigns ^[33]. Each campaign has a window you must send within, and pays per unique verified click ^[33]. Kit keeps 23.5% and pays 45 days after the month ends, with "no minimum threshold to start receiving payouts" ^[32]. Plan cash flow around a six-week delay.

13b. Prune twice a year

Kit's own advice: pruning about every six months keeps the list engaged "and can even lower your email bill" ^[5]. After pruning, look for the Switch to a lower tier link in Account & Billing; Kit does not move you down on its own ^[4].

14. Plan the exit

Subscribers export as CSV ^[25]. Account deletion is requested from Account & Billing, done within 24 to 48 hours, and only the account owner can request it ^[24]. When you cancel a paid plan, it "will remain active until the last day of your billing period." ^[4].

14a. Migrating in? Read the guide for your old platform

Kit publishes migration guides for beehiiv, Substack, Mailchimp, MailerLite and others ^{[35] [36] [37] [38]}, and advertises free migrations on its pricing page ^[2]. The beehiiv guide starts with a vocabulary table: beehiiv posts are Kit broadcasts, beehiiv automations are Kit visual automations or rules, and beehiiv paid subscriptions are a Kit paid newsletter ^[35]. Map those first; the rest of the move follows.

15. Check the AI Connectors if you use AI tools

AI Connectors, Kit's connection to AI assistants, need a paid plan ^[6]. Every tool is annotated as read-only, destructive, idempotent or open-world, so your AI client can ask before acting ^[40]. Review every proposed change before approving it, as Kit itself advises, because AI assistants can misunderstand a request and some tools are destructive ^[39].

16. Weigh what recent reviewers report

Our 100 most recent Trustpilot reviews of Kit average 4.17, above the 4.0 badge ^[9]. Support is the largest theme, in 38 reviews, 26 positive and 12 negative. The negative ones describe long exchanges on technical questions after the 2025 price rise; one reviewer writes that the price "increased nearly 3x for me" while service went the other way ^[9]. Lists and contacts come up in 14 reviews, billing in 8, and an account closed as not the right fit in 3, all negative.

What to do: test support during the trial with one real technical question, such as triggering a sequence from a tag, and judge the answer before paying annually.

## The checklist in one table

Check	Where
Verification link sent	Support
Confirmed subscriber count and band	Subscribers, pricing page
Automatic upgrades understood	Billing article
Large import announced	Support
Free versus Creator features	Free plan article
Refund window noted	Billing article and terms
One account per audience	Help centre
Seats needed	Plan comparison
Stripe connected	Settings
Export habit	Subscribers