MailerLite vs Kit (2026): Your First Automation Decides

Before you open either pricing page, write down one month: the month you expect to send your first automated email. A welcome series counts. So does a five-day course that starts when someone signs up. A weekly newsletter you write and send by hand doesn't.

That month decides this comparison more than any price on either page, because the two free plans stop being free for different reasons. MailerLite's free plan ends at your 251st active subscriber, or at the fourth email of a welcome series. Kit's free plan carries 10,000 subscribers but runs no automations at all, so it ends the day you want your first sequence, whatever size your list is.

I modelled two years of a growing list on both, at three growth rates, with the first sequence starting at different points.

Where I land: Kit costs the same as MailerLite or less over two years only if your first automated sequence starts around month 14 to 18, or never. Start it sooner and MailerLite is cheaper at every growth rate I modelled, by $574 to $961 if you automate from the first month.

• Newsletter only, no sequences planned: start on Kit Free. It costs nothing until 10,000 subscribers.
• Welcome series from day one: start on MailerLite. Free covers a three-email series up to 250 subscribers, and Comfort starts at $12 a month.
• Automation planned for "later": pick the month honestly. Before month 14, MailerLite; after month 18, Kit.

Two free plans, two different walls

Here are the free plans as each vendor lists them in October 2026. Kit's column is taken from its pricing page and its Free plan help article; MailerLite's from its pricing page and automation feature page.

Kit's help center describes its plan plainly: "The Free plan is built around growing your list." Visual automations, email sequences, rules and RSS campaigns "live on the Creator and Creator Pro plans." Downgrade to Free from a paid plan and anything you built stays in the account, but the sequences pause until you upgrade again. Above 10,000 subscribers, the same article says, you can't send again until you're on a paid plan.

Several comparisons still give Kit Free an automation. One August 2026 page says "You get one basic Visual Automation and one Email Sequence on the free plan." MailerLite's own Kit comparison page says Kit's free plan "is extremely limited since you get just 1 basic automation." Kit's pricing table shows neither on Free, and EmailToolTester's changelog dates the change: "04 Sep 2026 - Kit removed free plan from automation."

MailerLite Free does run automations, with a ceiling that's easy to miss. Each automation can have five steps, and waits count. MailerLite's help center calls the Delay step "the most commonly used automation step after an Email step and a vital part of any automation that contains more than one email." So five steps buys an immediate welcome email, a wait, a second email, a wait, and a third. A fourth email, a branch for people who didn't open, or a tag step pushes you to Comfort, which allows 100 steps.

Past 250, the free plan doesn't shrink; it stops. MailerLite's pricing FAQ says "sendings will be locked (campaigns + automation)" until you pay or remove subscribers. I've covered what stops working on MailerLite Free at subscriber 251 separately, including what keeps running.

So each plan suits one kind of starter. Kit Free fits someone who'll grow a big list by hand-sent newsletters and freebies, since it delivers a lead magnet without an automation. MailerLite Free fits someone with a small list who wants a short welcome series from the first signup.

The head-start ledger

Neither free plan lasts, so compare totals over time, not one month's price. Kit's free months are a head start. Once Kit starts billing, its higher price spends that head start down. Does it run out before your two years do?

The setup: the list starts at zero and grows by the same number of subscribers every month for 24 months. You send one newsletter a week and pay monthly. On MailerLite you're on Free while you're under 250 and your automation fits in five steps, then on the Comfort tier that covers your list. On Kit you're on Free until you start a sequence (or pass 10,000), then on the Creator tier that covers your list. Prices are the October 8, 2026 lists.

Two-year cost, MailerLite / Kit, monthly billing:

The first column is where Kit is clearly ahead: a newsletter with no sequences never pays Kit anything below 10,000 subscribers, while MailerLite bills from the month the list passes 250. The second and third columns flip it. Kit's smallest paid tier is $39 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, so automating from day one costs $39 a month from the first signup, against $0 and then $12 on MailerLite.

The last column is where it gets close. Wait a year for the first sequence and Kit is only $25 behind at 150 new subscribers a month.

The month that tips it

I reran the model with the first sequence starting in each month from 1 to 25, and noted the earliest start at which Kit's two-year total matches MailerLite's or comes in lower.

That's the line I'd plan around: month 14 to 18. The yearly column is approximate because I spread each yearly price evenly over twelve months, and real upgrades mid-year are prorated.

Here's one run in full, at 150 new subscribers a month with the first sequence in month 14. MailerLite bills from month 2, when the list reaches 300: $12, then $19 from month 4, $33 from month 7, $49 from month 17. Kit bills nothing until month 14, then $59 for 2,100 subscribers and $89 from month 21, when the list passes 3,000. After 13 months, MailerLite has charged $312 and Kit $0. Kit's paid months then cost $10 to $40 more than MailerLite's, and by month 24 the totals are $803 and $769. Start the sequence one month earlier and Kit ends up $25 behind.

The line sits latest for slow lists (month 18 at 50 a month), because Kit's $39 floor is large next to MailerLite's $12 and $19 tiers. Kit's steps matter too: 3,001 subscribers takes Creator from $59 to $89. And timing matters in another way, covered in why waiting on Kit can make its first upgrade cost more than GetResponse: the first sequence can land in a stretch where Kit's tier is expensive.

Before looking at a single price, write the month of the first automated email next to the list forecast. A plan that says we'll add a welcome series once we have some subscribers puts the first sequence wherever "some" falls. If "some" means 250, that's month 2 at 150 new subscribers a month, and it points to MailerLite.

Once both bills arrive

Past the free plans, at fixed list sizes:

Three things in that table are easy to miss in the comparisons I read.

The gap shrinks as the list grows. Comfort is 51% cheaper than Creator at 1,000 subscribers and 10% cheaper at 25,000. One comparison updated two weeks ago says "MailerLite costs 59% less than Kit at every subscriber tier." No tier in today's lists comes to 59%. That page also gives MailerLite Free "up to 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 monthly email sends," which MailerLite's free-plan FAQ says went from 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails to 250 and 2,500 on June 16, 2026. Another lists "MailerLite: $73/month for 10,000 subscribers on the Growing Business plan." Growing Business is now Comfort, and Comfort at 10,000 is $89.

Yearly billing helps Kit more. Kit's yearly price is ten months of the monthly price (about 17% off). MailerLite's is 10% off. At 25,000 subscribers the yearly gap is $57 for the year.

Sending often moves MailerLite up, and Kit doesn't move. Comfort's monthly email allowance is ten times the top of your subscriber tier. MailerLite's pricing FAQ: "Comfort gives you 10× the ceiling of your subscriber tier each month." A list that fills its tier gets roughly ten emails per subscriber each month, so weekly and twice-weekly newsletters fit, and daily ones don't. When you hit the cap, MailerLite's help center says the plan moves to the next tier automatically; the pricing FAQ adds that "you can upgrade to Power for unlimited sending, or wait until your next billing cycle when your allowance refreshes." For a daily sender the cheaper of those is Power. Power costs the same as Kit Creator at 1,000, $10 more at 3,000, $20 less at 5,000, $10 less at 10,000, and $40 more at 25,000. Kit's pricing page sets no broadcast cap on any plan.

Kit's own MailerLite comparison page shows MailerLite's email sends as "Unlimited." That's true of Power, not Comfort. MailerLite's Kit page has its own tilt: it puts MailerLite Power against Kit's Pro plan and concludes "MailerLite gives you all the email marketing tools you need for up to 68% less than Kit." Against Creator, Kit's cheaper paid plan, the gap at the same sizes is far smaller.

Comfort also caps features: 50 active automations, 10 forms, and 10 websites and landing pages combined. Kit Creator lists no cap on automations, forms or landing pages. If your build is wide (a form for every freebie), how Comfort's feature caps stack up against GetResponse shows where that pushes you to Power.

One more billing rule cuts against MailerLite for lists that churn. Its FAQ says it uses "a cumulative count within each billing cycle," so an address that was active once in a cycle is billed for that whole cycle, even if you delete it before the cycle ends. Kit's pricing page says subscribers "are only counted if they are unique and active." I couldn't find a Kit document on how it counts a subscriber who leaves mid-cycle.

What users and reviewers on each side say

The paywall in my first table shows up in public posts. In July an X user who "wanted to send ~100 people a 7-day email campaign" named Kit and beehiiv as the tools that got in the way: sign up, start the trial, try to build the sequence, then "oops it's only on paid plan now you need to pay $40/mo." The post doesn't say which of the two quoted that bill; $40 sits next to Kit's $39 floor. That's the day-one column: on Kit, a list of about 100 people pays $39 for one automation, where MailerLite Free would carry a three-email version at no cost. Some Kit customers say paying from day one was worth it. One titled a five-star Trustpilot review "I Paid for Kit Before I Even Had an Email List," and wrote of having "immediately jumped in and starting paying for a teenie tiny list" for the tagging and automations, back when Kit had no free plan. Seven years on, they still credit it with most of their income.

A user who knows both free plans drew the same line in a July 2026 r/selfpublish thread on MailerLite's changes: "Kit is good but they don't let you do much on the free tier (e.g. automations) at least with Mailerlite you can do three automations on the free tier."

Kit's free plan is what its users praise when they don't need sequences. One user who moved from Mailchimp to Kit "a few years ago" wrote in September that they "really love the flexibility just with the free plan." Another, replying to a thread in October, posted: "I Saved $360 by downgrading to the kit free plan lol." That's the never-automate column: an account with no sequences to keep running loses nothing on the way down.

Kit's paid steps get the complaint I'd expect from per-subscriber pricing, even from happy customers. A Kit customer who rated it four stars in August 2026, and called the way it tags what buyers purchased "that part is genius!", wrote that "when it goes from 3000 to 3001, my monthly subscription automatically goes from 59$ to 89$ a month." About the free plan they added: "Yet on the free tier you get 8000 contacts????" (Kit's current figure is 10,000.)

On MailerLite, the 250 limit is the sore point. "Was 1000 subscribers, then dropped to 500 and now dropped again to 250. Wish I'd never used them," one MailerLite user posted at the end of June while planning a move to another sender. For a free list that needs no sequences, Kit Free is the cheaper home.

If neither fits

Moosend has no free plan, but its Pro plan is $9 a month at 500 subscribers, and its comparison table includes automation workflows on Pro. A trial account for Moosend lasts 30 days with no card, for lists of up to 1,000 contacts. I've priced Moosend against MailerLite tier by tier too.

GetResponse gives you a free plan that takes up to 500 contacts, and Starter is $19 monthly at 1,000 contacts with one custom automation workflow. If a single welcome workflow is all you need, GetResponse Starter costs the same as MailerLite Comfort at that size and half of Kit Creator.

What my ledger leaves out

• Lists don't grow in straight lines. A launch or a giveaway can add a year's subscribers in a week, and that moves both bills. Rerun the arithmetic with your own forecast.
• Taxes and currency. All prices are in US dollars before tax.
• The Kit prices come from its pricing slider. I read the Creator ladder from Kit's pricing page on October 8, 2026, where a slider shows one tier at a time.
• Downgrades. I assumed nobody drops a tier. MailerLite applies downgrades when the current billing cycle ends; I didn't model Kit's downgrade rules.
• Inbox placement. I don't test it, and nothing here says one tool lands in more inboxes.
• Kit's Creator Network. Kit Free enrolls you in recommendations from other creators, which can add subscribers, and on a paid plan every added subscriber counts toward your tier. You can turn it off, according to Kit's help center.

Which one, by the month you automate

• Never, or after month 18: Kit. Start on Free and stay there until you need a sequence or pass 10,000.
• Month 14 to 18: close to a tie over two years. Choose on features: Kit for selling and creator recommendations, MailerLite if you'll keep the tool well past two years, since its monthly bill is lower once both charge.
• Before month 14, or day one: MailerLite. Use Free while a three-email series covers it, then Comfort.
• Daily newsletters, any time: compare Kit Creator with MailerLite Power, not Comfort.

Start at MailerLite or Kit directly; both have free plans and 14-day trials of paid features.

Coming to Kit from Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign? This walkthrough of the move shows which parts Kit transfers and which you set up again.

FAQ

Is MailerLite's free plan still 1,000 subscribers?

No. MailerLite cut it from 500 to 250 active subscribers on June 16, 2026 (long-time users say it held 1,000 before an earlier cut). The same update lowered sending to 2,500 emails a month; Free runs 3 automations of up to 5 steps each.

Does Kit's free plan include automations?

Not anymore. Kit's help center lists visual automations, sequences, rules and RSS campaigns as paid features. Free includes broadcasts, forms, landing pages, tagging and lead-magnet delivery for up to 10,000 subscribers.

Which is cheaper, MailerLite or Kit?

On paid plans, MailerLite Comfort is cheaper at every size in my table, by 10% to 51%. Over the first two years from zero, Kit is cheaper if you can go without automated sequences until about month 14 to 18.

Can I sell digital products on both free plans?

Yes. Kit Free sells products and paid newsletters at 3.5% + 30¢ per sale. MailerLite Free allows one digital product or booking. I worked through what Kit's 3.5% selling fee works out to in another comparison.

Which is better for a daily newsletter?

Kit's pricing doesn't change with how often you send. MailerLite Comfort caps emails at ten times your tier's top, so daily senders end up on Power, which runs from $20 less to $40 more than Kit Creator at the sizes in my table.

What happens to my Kit sequences if I drop back to Free?

Kit's help center says anything you built stays in the account, but sequences pause until you upgrade again. Above 10,000 subscribers, Free can't send at all until you're on a paid plan.