Kit vs MailerLite (2026): Which Email Tool Fits a New Creator?

Short answer: Kit's free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers. MailerLite's free plan stops at 250, but it already includes 3 active automations, a landing page and a small website. At 1,000 subscribers on paid plans, MailerLite Comfort costs less than Kit Creator.

How we wrote this: every price and limit below comes from Kit's and MailerLite's official pricing pages (and Kit's free-plan help article for automation limits), checked live October 26, 2026, in USD. We have not run a list on either tool for this comparison, so we don't make claims about deliverability or support quality. UiSynce is an independent affiliate of MailerLite only; Kit links are plain.

Free plans side by side

Sources: kit.com/pricing, Kit help on the Free plan and mailerlite.com/pricing, checked October 26, 2026.

Kit lets a free list grow forty times larger. MailerLite gives you working automations sooner, like a welcome series that runs on its own, but you'll outgrow the free plan at 250 subscribers.

Paid pricing

Prices are USD. Kit figures are at 1,000 subscribers. MailerLite shows Comfort and Power at 1,000 / 5,000 / 10,000. Yearly columns are the per-month price when you pay yearly. Sources: kit.com/pricing and mailerlite.com/pricing, checked live October 26, 2026.

Kit Creator yearly at 1k is $33/mo ($390/yr); the page's "save $78 per year" line matches $39 monthly. Kit Pro rows use regular list prices ($79 monthly / $66 yearly). When checked, kit.com/pricing also showed a limited-time first-year Pro offer; we left that promo out of the table so the comparison stays on list rates. Comfort's monthly email limit is 10 times your subscriber tier; Power has unlimited emails subject to fair use. MailerLite says yearly billing saves 10%. Kit says paying yearly saves 17%.

Both prices rise as your list grows, so check each slider at your own list size before you choose.

Automations

This is where the two free plans differ most. MailerLite Free includes 3 active automations with up to 5 steps each, which is enough for a welcome sequence and a lead-magnet delivery. Kit's free plan has no visual automations or email sequences; those start on Creator, which lists unlimited visual automations and sequences. If an automated welcome series matters on day one and your list is small, MailerLite covers it for free.

Selling to your list

Both tools let you sell from your account. Kit's pricing page lists commerce and paid newsletter features. MailerLite's Power plan lists unlimited digital products and bookings; Comfort lists 5. We compared what each pricing page lists, not how the checkouts work in practice.

Limits and gotchas

• MailerLite's FAQ says that if a free account goes over the 250 active subscriber limit, sending is locked (campaigns and automations) until you upgrade or reduce the list.
• MailerLite's Comfort plan ties monthly emails to your subscriber tier: its FAQ gives the up-to-1,000 tier 10,000 emails a month.
• Kit counts only unique, active subscribers, according to its pricing page.

What we didn't cover

We haven't tested deliverability, support response times or moving a list between the two. This comparison uses each tool's own pricing pages and help docs.

FAQ

Is MailerLite free? Yes, up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with 3 active automations, checked October 26, 2026.

Kit or MailerLite for a newsletter? For a list you expect to grow past 250 without paying, Kit's free plan lasts longer. For a small list that needs automations now, MailerLite.

What about Mailchimp? See our beehiiv vs Mailchimp guide and the email marketing roundup for the tools we've checked.

Bottom line

Pick Kit if free headroom matters most and you can wait on automations. Pick MailerLite if you want automations, a site and a landing page for free while your list is under 250, and a lower price than Kit at 1,000 subscribers when you upgrade. Or open Kit's pricing page to check the free plan at your list size.