Interactive Kit Demo
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is email marketing software built for creators. Writers, course sellers, and independent makers use it to grow an email list with landing pages and forms, then send broadcasts and automated sequences to subscribers.
What is Kit?
Kit, the platform formerly known as ConvertKit, is email marketing built specifically for creators rather than traditional businesses. The whole product is shaped around the way an individual maker grows an audience: capture email addresses with forms and landing pages, organize subscribers with tags rather than rigid lists, and send both one-off broadcasts and automated email sequences. It launched in 2013 and rebranded to Kit in 2024.
The distinctive idea is the tag-based subscriber model. Instead of duplicating someone across multiple lists, Kit keeps one subscriber record and applies tags and segments based on what they did, like which form they signed up through or which link they clicked. That keeps your audience clean and makes targeting straightforward. Automations let you trigger sequences off those actions, such as sending a welcome series when someone joins.
Kit also leans into the creator economy with features like Kit Commerce for selling digital products and a recommendation network where creators promote each other's newsletters. The editor is deliberately plain-text friendly, reflecting a belief that personal-feeling emails outperform heavily designed ones for creators. Pricing scales with subscriber count and includes a free tier for getting started, which is part of how it attracts people early in building an audience.
How to get started with Kit
- 1
Set up your account and sender details
Create your Kit account and configure your sender name and email address, then authenticate your sending domain so your emails land in inboxes rather than spam. Getting authentication right early protects your deliverability before you start sending to a real list.
- 2
Create a form or landing page
Build a signup form to embed on your site or a hosted landing page if you do not have one. This is how subscribers get into Kit. Connect each form to a tag so you know where every subscriber came from, which pays off later when you want to target by interest.
- 3
Build a welcome sequence
Set up an automated sequence that sends when someone subscribes, starting with a welcome email and a few that introduce you and your best work. This runs on its own for every new subscriber, so the effort you put in once greets everyone who joins from then on.
- 4
Send your first broadcast
Write and send a one-off broadcast to your subscribers, using Kit's plain-text-friendly editor. Segment it with tags if you only want part of your audience to receive it. Sending that first broadcast shows you the full flow from writing to the open and click data that comes back.
- 5
Use tags and automations to target
As subscribers interact, apply tags based on what they click and join, then build automations that respond to those tags. This is where Kit's model earns its keep, letting you send relevant emails to the right segment rather than the same message to everyone. Refine it as you learn what your audience responds to.
Who is Kit most useful for?
Kit is most useful for creators who make a living or build an audience through email: newsletter writers, course creators, coaches, authors, podcasters, and independent makers. For these people the email list is the business asset, and Kit is designed around growing and earning from it. The tagging model and creator-focused features fit how an individual thinks about their audience better than tools built for company marketing departments.
It suits someone who values getting emails out and growing a list over pixel-perfect design. The plain-text-leaning editor and straightforward automations let a solo creator run a real email operation without a marketing team. Selling a digital product through Kit Commerce or running a welcome sequence are things one person can set up in an afternoon. A creator onboarding subscribers to a paid course could pair a sequence with an interactive Supademo that walks through the product.
It is less of a fit for large e-commerce operations or enterprise marketing teams that need heavy visual templates, deep CRM integration, and complex multichannel campaigns. Those teams are usually better served by a broader marketing platform. Kit makes a deliberate tradeoff toward simplicity and the creator use case, which is its strength for the right user and a limitation for the wrong one.
Email tools for creators and small businesses differ in how much they emphasize design, audience growth, or all-in-one marketing, so the right choice depends on whether you are a creator focused on a list or a business running campaigns.
Mailchimp is a broad marketing platform with strong visual email templates, automation, and a wide feature set aimed at businesses and e-commerce. It does more than Kit but is less tailored to the creator workflow. Businesses that want designed campaigns and an all-in-one marketing suite tend to prefer it, while creators often find it heavier than they need.
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beehiiv was built by former Morning Brew operators specifically for newsletters, with strong tools for growth, referrals, and ad-based monetization. It overlaps heavily with Kit for newsletter creators and competes on its growth and revenue features. Writers focused squarely on scaling and monetizing a newsletter often compare it directly with Kit.
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MailerLite offers email campaigns, automations, and landing pages with a clean interface and pricing that undercuts many competitors. It sits between creator and small-business use, appealing to people who want capable email marketing without complexity or high cost. It is a frequent budget-conscious alternative to Kit for those who do not need its creator-specific features.
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Substack combines newsletter publishing with paid subscriptions and a built-in discovery network, taking a percentage of paid revenue rather than charging by subscriber count. It is more of a publishing platform than a flexible email tool, with less control over forms and automations. Writers who want the simplest path to a paid newsletter lean to Substack; those who want control over their list and tooling prefer Kit.
FAQs on Kit
Commonly asked questions about Kit. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
What does the rebrand from ConvertKit to Kit mean?
ConvertKit rebranded to Kit in 2024. It is the same company and product lineage, with the name change reflecting a broader positioning around the creator economy rather than just email. Existing accounts and features carried over. If you have used or read about ConvertKit, you are looking at the same tool, now called Kit.
Why does Kit use tags instead of lists?
Kit keeps one record per subscriber and applies tags and segments rather than putting people on separate lists. The benefit is that someone on three of your topics is one subscriber with three tags, not three duplicated contacts you might email three times. It keeps your audience count accurate and makes targeting a specific group, based on what they signed up for or clicked, much cleaner than juggling overlapping lists.
How does Kit compare to Mailchimp?
Kit and Mailchimp serve different audiences. Mailchimp is a broad marketing platform with rich visual templates, aimed at businesses and e-commerce. Kit is built for creators and leans toward simpler, personal-feeling emails and audience-growth tools. A small business wanting designed campaigns often prefers Mailchimp, while a newsletter writer or course creator usually finds Kit's model fits how they work.
Can I sell products through Kit?
Kit includes Kit Commerce, which lets creators sell digital products like ebooks, courses, and downloads directly, collecting payment without a separate store. It is built for the kinds of products creators typically sell rather than physical inventory. For someone whose business is their email audience, keeping selling and emailing in one tool removes a layer of integration work.
Is Kit free to start?
Kit has a free plan that supports a capped number of subscribers and core features like forms, landing pages, and broadcasts, which is enough to begin building a list. Paid plans raise the subscriber limit and add automations and other features. Pricing scales with how many subscribers you have, so the cost grows as your audience does, which is the normal pattern for creator email tools.