Kit vs Substack
Pricing
Kit: Free up to 10,000 subscribers, Creator from $39/mo ($33/mo billed yearly)
Substack: Free, 10% of paid subs
Description
Kit: Email marketing (formerly ConvertKit) built for creators who want to grow an audience, not manage a CRM
Substack: The OG paid newsletter platform
Pros
- Visual automation builder that is actually understandable
- Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts
- Tagging system makes subscriber management simple and flexible
- Built-in audience discovery
- No upfront costs
- Simple and focused
Cons
- Visual automations and email sequences need a paid plan
- Pricing climbs quickly as your list grows: Creator costs $89/mo at 5,000 subscribers
- Landing page builder is basic compared to dedicated tools
- 10% cut is steep at scale
- Limited customization
Details
Kit, known as ConvertKit until its rebrand, was built by Nathan Barry specifically for creators: bloggers, podcasters, course creators, and indie founders who need to grow an email list. It strips away the complexity of tools like Mailchimp and focuses on what actually matters: collecting subscribers, tagging them based on behavior, and sending the right emails at the right time.
The free plan goes a long way, with tagging, segmentation and unlimited broadcasts for up to 10,000 subscribers. The real value is in the visual automations and email sequences, which only come with paid plans. Emails are built in a template-based designer with 40+ templates. If you need pixel-perfect HTML emails, look at MailerLite or Beehiiv instead.
Substack pioneered the paid newsletter model. Founded by Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie in 2017. Free to start, they take 10% of paid subscriptions. Over 5M paid subscriptions on the platform. Great for writers who want zero setup friction.
Verified
