# Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Review: Free to Sell, Billed as You Grow

> A measured Kit review: free to 10,000 subscribers with selling included, Creator from $39 a month, a 45-band price ladder hidden in the page script, automatic upgrades, a 30-day refund the terms contradict, and verification before sending.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/kit-review — The Professional's Toolkit · updated 2026-10-09_

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Kit, the email platform that was called ConvertKit until its rename, is built for creators who sell:
courses, ebooks, coaching, templates and paid newsletters. Its pricing and its product both follow
from that. The free plan already lets you sell. Automations and sequences, the tools that turn a list
into a launch, start on the first paid plan. And the price rises with your subscriber count,
automatically, while falling only when you ask it to.

Our composite score for Kit is 3.79, second of the eight email platforms we have scored, behind
Klaviyo (3.88) and ahead of MailerLite (3.71), Constant Contact (3.63), beehiiv (3.61), Brevo (3.58),
Mailchimp (3.46) and ActiveCampaign (3.44). Every figure below comes from Kit's own pages, read on 9
October 2026, or from our arithmetic on them, labelled as ours.

## What Kit is

Kit is an email platform with a store attached. You collect subscribers through forms and landing
pages, tag and segment them, send broadcasts, and run visual automations and email sequences. On the
same account you can sell digital products and subscriptions, earn from sponsorships placed in your
emails, and earn or spend through a recommendation network shared with other Kit creators. The
pricing page claims more than 550,000 creators [11]. It has no website builder beyond landing
pages and a newsletter site, and no podcast hosting.



> 💡 **undefined:** Send the verification link on the first day.

## The three plans

| Plan | Up to 1,000 subscribers | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, up to 10,000 subscribers | Forms, landing pages, broadcasts, tags, selling, API |
| Creator | $39 a month or $390 a year | Automations, sequences, custom domain, branding removed, 2 seats |
| Pro | $79 a month or $790 a year | Unlimited seats, engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, referrals |

The entry prices are stated in Kit's own plan comparison [3]. Annual billing is "12 months for
the price of 10" in the billing article's words [4], which is why the pricing page shows Creator at
$33 a month billed yearly: $390 divided by twelve, rounded up.

## How the price is set

"Your bill is based on your active subscribers, not on emails sent or features used." [4]. Kit
publishes 45 subscriber bands for each paid plan, from 1,000 to 500,000, but not on the visible page:
the slider shows one band at a time, and the full ladder sits in the page's script, which we read
[2].

| Subscribers, up to | Creator monthly | Creator yearly | Pro monthly | Pro yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $39 | $390 | $79 | $790 |
| 3,000 | $59 | $590 | $99 | $990 |
| 5,000 | $89 | $890 | $139 | $1,390 |
| 10,000 | $139 | $1,390 | $189 | $1,890 |
| 25,000 | $199 | $1,990 | $279 | $2,790 |
| 55,000 | $379 | $3,790 | $519 | $5,190 |
| about 100,000 | $679 | $6,790 | $879 | $8,790 |
| 500,000 | $2,499 | $24,990 | $2,799 | $27,990 |

From the pricing page's script [2]. The 100,000 row is the band from 95,001 to 105,000.



> 💡 **undefined:** Warn support before importing a large list.

## Up is automatic, down is your choice

When the list grows past a band, Kit moves you up without asking: "we automatically upgrade you to the
next tier." [5]. The difference is prorated. The help centre's own example: a Creator account on
$39 reaches 1,001 subscribers ten days before renewal, is moved to the $59 band, and pays $66 at the
next billing date, the new price plus $7 of prorated difference [5].

Going down is different. Kit shows a *Switch to a lower tier* link when your count qualifies, and the
lower price starts at the next billing date. The vendor explains why: "We leave this switch with you
rather than moving your plan automatically, since subscriber counts often dip and recover inside the
same month" [4].

This is the mirror image of beehiiv, where moving up is the optional step [45]. Kit never delays
a send because the list grew; it bills for it instead. Growth costs money.

## The free plan

"The Free plan costs $0 per month for as long as you stay under 10,000 subscribers." [6]. It
includes unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, A/B tests on
broadcasts, digital products and subscriptions, and API access [6]. That last pair is unusual: a
free Kit account can sell a product or run a paid newsletter from day one.

What Free leaves out is automation: visual automations, sequences, rules, RSS campaigns and AI
Connectors need a paid plan, and paid recommendations cannot earn [6]. Past 10,000 subscribers,
sending requires a paid plan.

Against the category, Kit's free plan is the largest that also allows selling. beehiiv's free plan
stops at 2,500 subscribers and sells one digital product but no subscriptions [44]; MailerLite's
and Mailchimp's stop at 250 [50] [49].



> 💡 **undefined:** Run separate audiences as separate accounts.

## Selling on Kit, in practice

Kit's commerce covers three shapes of sale. Single purchases, such as an ebook or a template.
Subscriptions billed monthly, quarterly or yearly, such as a paid newsletter or membership [26].
And payment plans, which split one price into instalments: "the minimum number of installments you can
offer is two" [42]. A paid newsletter is a subscription product whose broadcasts go only to the
people subscribed to it [26].

Three details matter more than they look:

- **Unsubscribing ends the payment.** If a reader unsubscribes from your list, they are no longer
  charged for paid subscriptions [27]. A reader who only wants fewer emails can end your revenue by
  accident; offer a preference page rather than a single unsubscribe link.
- **Refunds are all or nothing.** Kit refunds a purchase or a single subscription payment in full;
  "Only full refunds are supported at this time." [29].
- **VAT can be collected for you.** Once enabled, Kit works out the rate for each sale to EU and UK
  customers and sends a compliant receipt [43].

Purchases made elsewhere can also feed Kit: the Purchases feature reads sales from Shopify,
Squarespace Commerce, Stripe and Gumroad and tags the buyer [28].

## The Creator Network

Every Kit account joins the Creator Network, where creators recommend each other's newsletters at
sign-up. On Free you get five Smart Recommendation slots and can be featured by others; paid plans get
priority and more exposure [6]. Paid recommendations, where other creators pay you per subscriber
you send them, need a paid plan to earn and are processed through SparkLoop, which approves accounts
usually within 24 hours [31].



> ⚠ **undefined:** Upgrades between bands are automatic and prorated.

## Sponsorships

Kit matches newsletters with advertisers. Campaigns run in a set window, and the payout is per unique
verified ad click [33]. Only paid plans can express interest in a campaign [33]. Kit keeps
23.5% of ad revenue and pays 45 days after the month in which the ad ran [32].

**Worked example.** A campaign paying $1.50 per verified click earns $300 from 200 clicks. Kit keeps
$70.50 and pays $229.50 about six weeks after the month closes. *Our arithmetic* on the published fee.

## AI Connectors

Kit's AI Connectors use MCP to connect the account to "Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other
MCP-compatible AI assistants" [39]. They are a paid-plan feature: free creators can connect and see
the tools, but "running any tool will surface an upgrade prompt rather than executing the action"
[39]. Each tool is annotated as read-only, destructive, idempotent or open-world, so the AI client
can ask before acting [40]. Kit does not publish an in-editor AI allowance in its plan table.



> ⚠ **undefined:** The terms rule out refunds the help centre offers.

## What Kit takes when you sell

- **Products and subscriptions:** 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale, which the pricing page says is
  inclusive of card processing, so "Kit only takes 0.6% of the total fees" [2].
- **Sponsorships in your emails:** "we charge a fee of 23.5% of total ad revenue for running and
  maintaining this advertising service" [32]. Payouts arrive 45 days after the month in which the
  ad ran, with "no minimum threshold" [32].
- **Paid recommendations:** "We take a 20% service fee and a 3.5% transaction fee for each successful
  referral." [31].

Kit publishes its cut of sponsorship revenue. beehiiv, by comparison, publishes what each ad pays you
but not its margin.

## Refunds: the help centre and the terms disagree

The billing article is generous: "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]. It applies to annual plans too, and
excludes only payments older than 30 days. That is rare.

The Terms of Service say something different: if you cancel before the end of the period, "we will not
refund any Paid Services Fees already paid to us" [8]. The help centre describes the practice;
the terms are the contract. Request any refund within 30 days, in writing, and cite the billing
article.

The terms do protect current customers from price changes mid-term: a fee change "will not apply to
you until such time as your current Subscription Service expires or is renewed" [8].



> ⚠ **undefined:** Prices rose in October 2025 for existing customers.

## The 2025 price increase

In September 2025 Kit's founder announced the "first price increase in 12 years", effective for
existing customers from their first billing date after 15 October 2025 [4] [10]. Plan limits
and features did not change. One reviewer in our corpus says the increase was "nearly 3x" for their
account [9]; we cannot verify individual cases, but it explains why price appears among recent
complaints.

## Every account is verified before it can send

"We ask that all new accounts send us a link to their blog before we enable email sending." [7].
Kit wants to know you are a real person, that you own your domain, and that your content is something
people asked for. You can build forms, sequences and broadcasts while you wait; you cannot send. Kit
may also ask for historical open and click rates [7].

Large imports can trigger a temporary suspension: "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 Kit in advance.

## One audience per account

Kit has one list per account and one custom domain. It will let you run several businesses in one
account, but advises against it: "A fresh account for every distinct audience is the best practice
and our advice." [22]. Each account has its own plan and its own bill. Bills multiply. A creator with three
separate newsletters pays three tiers; on beehiiv the same three would share one bill [44].

## Support

Paid plans get 24/7 email and chat support [2]. Free accounts get support too, answered in order
within 24 hours [6]. In our Trustpilot corpus support is the dominant theme, 38 of 100 reviews, 26
positive and 12 negative [9]. The negative ones cluster after the 2025 price rise and describe long
exchanges on technical questions.

## What users say

Trustpilot shows 4.0 from 159 reviews on kit.com, and our sample of the 100 most recent averages 4.17:
67 five-star, 15 four-star, 1 three-star, 2 two-star and 15 one-star [9]. GetApp shows 4.63 from
244, and Kit's WordPress plugin 4.8 from 90. The company's old profile under convertkit.com still
shows 1.9 from 67, older complaints left behind under the old name.

## Our scores, axis by axis

| Axis | Kit | beehiiv | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.8 |
| Capability and depth | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.6 |
| Ease of use | 4.0 | 3.9 | 4.1 |
| Integrations | 3.9 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| AI | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.4 |
| Support and reliability | 3.6 | 3.1 | 3.5 |
| User sentiment | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| Docs and learning | 3.8 | 3.7 | 4.0 |
| Composite | 3.79 | 3.61 | 3.71 |

Kit leads beehiiv on value, integrations and support; beehiiv leads on capability, for its website,
podcast and community. MailerLite edges Kit on value and documentation for senders who do not sell.



**Our scorecard — 3.8/5**
- Value for money: 3.7/5
- Capability & depth: 3.8/5
- Ease of use: 4.0/5
- Integrations: 3.9/5
- AI: 3.5/5
- Support & reliability: 3.6/5
- User sentiment: 4.0/5
- Docs & learning resources: 3.8/5

## Three creators, priced for a year

**A course creator with 4,000 subscribers launching twice a year.** Creator at the 5,000 band: $890 a
year [2]. Launch sequences and automations included. On Free, the list fits but sequences do not.

**A paid newsletter with 8,000 subscribers, 300 paying $10 a month.** Creator at the 8,000 band:
$1,190 a year. Paid revenue $36,000; Kit's 0.6 points above processing cost $216 [2]. *Our
arithmetic.*

**A coach with two separate audiences of 2,000 each.** Kit advises two accounts [22]: two Creator
plans at the 3,000 band, $1,180 a year together. In one account, the 5,000 band would be $890, with
the unsubscribe and single-domain drawbacks Kit describes.

## Where Kit fits

**Choose Kit if** you sell products or courses, want automations and sequences for launches, have a
list under 10,000 and want to sell before you pay, or value a refund window.

**Look elsewhere if** you run several distinct newsletters on one budget (beehiiv), want a website
and podcast host in the same account (beehiiv), run a store (Klaviyo), or send to a large list that
never buys (MailerLite or Brevo).



## FAQ

**How much does Kit cost?**

Free up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator is $39 a month or $390 a year and Pro $79 or $790 at up to 1,000 subscribers, rising by band to $2,499 and $2,799 a month at 500,000.

**Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?**

Yes. ConvertKit renamed itself Kit; the old convertkit.com addresses now lead to kit.com.

**Does Kit take a cut of sales?**

Kit charges 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale including card processing, which it describes as taking 0.6%; 23.5% of sponsorship revenue; and 23.5% in total on paid recommendations.

## The verdict

Kit is the strongest creator commerce platform in our email category and second overall. Its free plan
is the most useful in the category for someone who wants to sell, its pricing is fair to about 25,000
subscribers, and its help centre explains billing better than any rival. What holds it below Klaviyo
is a price ladder hidden in a script, a refund promise the terms contradict, a verification gate
before the first send, and a one-account-per-audience model that multiplies bills.




## Sources

[1] Kit vendor pricing page — https://kit.com/pricing (2026-10)
[2] Kit help: creator vs pro choose the right plan — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4494683-creator-vs-pro-choose-the-right-plan (2026-10)
[3] Kit help: billing at kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502679-billing-at-kit (2026-10)
[4] Kit help: account upgrade downgrade faqs — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2537095-account-upgrade-downgrade-faqs (2026-10)
[5] Kit help: the kit free plan — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan (2026-10)
[6] Kit help: why do i need to get my account verified — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502678-why-do-i-need-to-get-my-account-verified (2026-10)
[7] Kit Terms of Service — https://kit.com/terms (2026-10)
[8] Trustpilot aggregate and review corpus for Kit — https://www.trustpilot.com/review/kit.com?languages=all (2026-10)
[9] Kit page: /pricing-updates-2025 — https://kit.com/pricing-updates-2025 (2026-10)
[10] Kit page: /pro — https://kit.com/pro (2026-10)
[11] Kit page: /ai — https://kit.com/ai (2026-10)
[12] Kit page: /ai/mcp — https://kit.com/ai/mcp (2026-10)
[13] Kit page: /features/commerce — https://kit.com/features/commerce (2026-10)
[14] Kit page: /features/commerce/paid-newsletter — https://kit.com/features/commerce/paid-newsletter (2026-10)
[15] Kit page: /features/newsletter-sponsorships — https://kit.com/features/newsletter-sponsorships (2026-10)
[16] Kit page: /features/paid-recommendations — https://kit.com/features/paid-recommendations (2026-10)
[17] Kit page: /features/recommendations — https://kit.com/features/recommendations (2026-10)
[18] Kit page: /features/automations — https://kit.com/features/automations (2026-10)
[19] Kit page: /features/deliverability — https://kit.com/features/deliverability (2026-10)
[20] Kit help: acceptable use policy — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/3038130-acceptable-use-policy (2026-10)
[21] Kit help: can i use one kit account for multiple domains or businesses — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502514-can-i-use-one-kit-account-for-multiple-domains-or-businesses (2026-10)
[22] Kit help: what type of affiliate marketing is and isn t allowed at kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4881296-what-type-of-affiliate-marketing-is-and-isn-t-allowed-at-kit (2026-10)
[23] Kit help: how to delete your kit account — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/11621148-how-to-delete-your-kit-account (2026-10)
[24] Kit help: how to export subscribers in kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502489-how-to-export-subscribers-in-kit (2026-10)
[25] Kit help: creating a paid newsletter — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4587009-creating-a-paid-newsletter (2026-10)
[26] Kit help: subscription product faqs — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/6027690-subscription-product-faqs (2026-10)
[27] Kit help: purchases feature setup and faq — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502675-purchases-feature-setup-and-faq (2026-10)
[28] Kit help: how to refund a purchase — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/4833813-how-to-refund-a-purchase (2026-10)
[29] Kit help: kit stripe — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2632323-kit-stripe (2026-10)
[30] Kit help: how to enable paid recommendations in the creator network — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/7973490-how-to-enable-paid-recommendations-in-the-creator-network (2026-10)
[31] Kit help: monetizing your emails with kit newsletter sponsorships — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/8532157-monetizing-your-emails-with-kit-newsletter-sponsorships (2026-10)
[32] Kit help: how to run kit newsletter sponsorships — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/11645396-how-to-run-kit-newsletter-sponsorships (2026-10)
[33] Kit help: viewing your programmatic ads performance and payout reports — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/8532151-viewing-your-programmatic-ads-performance-and-payout-reports (2026-10)
[34] Kit help: migrating from beehiiv to kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/10248340-migrating-from-beehiiv-to-kit (2026-10)
[35] Kit help: migrating from substack to kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/6393834-migrating-from-substack-to-kit (2026-10)
[36] Kit help: migrating from mailchimp to kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502565-migrating-from-mailchimp-to-kit (2026-10)
[37] Kit help: migrating from mailerlite to kit — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/6980365-migrating-from-mailerlite-to-kit (2026-10)
[38] Kit help: how to connect the ai connectors to your ai tools — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/14827557-how-to-connect-the-ai-connectors-to-your-ai-tools (2026-10)
[39] Kit help: ai connector tools — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/15072804-ai-connector-tools (2026-10)
[40] Kit help: kit glossary key terms explained — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16125614-kit-glossary-key-terms-explained (2026-10)
[41] Kit help: payment plans — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/6060884-payment-plans (2026-10)
[42] Kit help: how to collect vat on product and tips purchases — https://help.kit.com/en/articles/6631323-how-to-collect-vat-on-product-and-tips-purchases (2026-10)
[43] beehiiv help or pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing.md (2026-10)
[44] beehiiv help or pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/13092031997847.md (2026-10)
[45] beehiiv help or pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/13092084756631.md (2026-10)
[46] beehiiv help or pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/22435253930519.md (2026-10)
[47] beehiiv help or pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/support/article/14194737991319.md (2026-10)
[48] Mailchimp vendor pricing page — https://mailchimp.com/pricing/ (2026-09)
[49] MailerLite vendor pricing page — https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing (2026-10)
[50] Substack, going paid — https://substack.com/going-paid (2026-10)
[51] Klaviyo vendor pricing page — https://www.klaviyo.com/pricing (2026-10)
[52] Brevo machine-readable pricing reference — https://www.brevo.com/pricing.md (2026-10)
[53] Constant Contact vendor pricing page — https://www.constantcontact.com/pricing (2026-10)