Moving to Kit From Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign (2026)

Kit's pricing page lists "Free migrations" above its plans, and the migration page says it plainly: "Migration is included with every paid Kit plan." What that migration covers depends on one number, the size of your list.

Under 10,000 subscribers, Kit's Essentials migration moves your audience: subscribers, tags, lists and segments, in two to five business days. From there the forms, the automated emails and the automations are yours to rebuild. At 10,000 subscribers and over, the Concierge migration does all of that plus a rebuild of your email setup: forms, automation emails, email templates and integrations such as Zapier, Kajabi or ClickFunnels.

So your list size decides who does the rebuilding. Your automations decide the plan. Kit's Free plan has no email sequences and no Visual Automations, so anything you're moving that sends on its own needs Creator or Pro to run. This guide starts with that count, then follows the order Kit's help center gives for Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign. Everything here comes from Kit's help center, its migration page and its pricing page, all read on October 9, 2026.

Before you start: write down what sends on its own

Kit's migration page asks for the same things whether its team or you do the work: your login, where your forms sit on your website, your essential integrations, and links to your automations. Make that list before you open Kit.

Go through your current account and note every email that goes out without you pressing send: the welcome series, a course delivered by email, a birthday or anniversary email, anything started by a tag or a purchase. Then note every signup form and where it's embedded. If the first list is empty, you're moving a newsletter, and the Free plan may be enough (more on that below). If it has even one entry, you're moving an automation, and that needs a paid plan.

Kit's names for things

Kit calls familiar things by different names, and its migration guides start there. The ones that matter for a move:

The row that changes how you organize is the second one. Mailchimp lets you keep several audiences and ActiveCampaign several lists. Kit gives you one list for every subscriber in the account and does the sorting with tags and segments.

Who does the move: Kit's team or you

When Kit's team does the move, it asks for access to your current platform, finds out which forms and automations matter most, and maps the move. You approve that plan before they start building. In the page's words, "Nothing changes until you say so," so you keep sending from your old platform in the meantime.

If you're under 10,000 subscribers, the help center's own guides cover the rebuild well, and the sections below follow them.

Bringing your subscribers across

Kit has dedicated importers for Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Beehiiv, GetResponse, Keap and Drip. In Kit, go to Subscribers, click Add Subscribers, then Other provider, pick your platform and paste its API key.

• From Mailchimp, your merge fields come across as custom fields, and Kit builds tags from your audience names, your existing Mailchimp tags and each audience-and-interest pairing. A "Newsletter" audience with a "Tech" interest group becomes a tag called "Newsletter:Tech", so the way you sorted people survives the move to a single list.
• From ActiveCampaign, your subscribers come across with all their tags.

Any other platform works through a CSV file: a column for email address at least, a column per field, and a "Tags" column with tags separated by commas, mapped to Comma-separated list of tags. Kit creates any tag that doesn't exist yet.

Kit's import FAQ opens with one question before anything else: do you have permission to email these people? Knowing them personally isn't enough. If you can't say yes, those addresses stay behind.

Import before you switch anything on

This is the step that decides whether your existing subscribers get a welcome email they've already had. Kit's import help is direct about it: adding subscribers to tags or forms "may activate Visual Automations or Rules that have these Tags or Forms as triggers." Importing straight into an email sequence starts them on its first email.

So import your list first, into a tag of its own. Kit's import FAQ recommends a tag as the most flexible choice, and the CSV route offers one named "Imported" with the date and time, which you can rename. Only then build and switch on your welcome automation, triggered by your new form, so it catches only people who sign up from now on.

If an automation is already live when you import, Kit's FAQ gives a workaround: swap the import tag out of the automation's entry points for a temporary placeholder tag, import, then swap it back. For a Rule, disable it, import, and enable it again.

Two more import behaviors are worth knowing. Subscribers imported into a form are confirmed automatically, even when that form uses double opt-in. And a later CSV import overwrites existing data, including with blank cells, so if you top up names after the first import, leave out the columns you don't want touched.

Sequences first, then automations

Kit's guides rebuild in this order because one feeds the other.

Email Sequences. Under Automation, open Email Sequences and click + New sequence. Copy each email from your old automated campaign and set its timing to match: a first email "as soon as possible" if the old one went out on signup, the next one seven days later, and so on. From ActiveCampaign, a Date-Based campaign becomes a sequence email plus a Delay until a custom date action in the automation.

Visual Automations. Under Automation, open Visual Automations and click + New automation. Your old trigger becomes an entry point, such as a subscriber joining a form or buying a product. Your old actions become steps: events, actions and conditions. The simplest welcome looks like this:

• Entry point: subscriber joins your signup form
• Step: add the subscriber to your welcome sequence

The ActiveCampaign guide notes that a sequence on its own doesn't send. It goes out once you add it to a Visual Automation. It also says Kit's automation screen resembles ActiveCampaign's, so the rebuild tends to feel familiar.

Forms, templates, then a test run

Forms and landing pages. Under Audience growth, open Landing Pages & Forms, pick the template closest to your old form and adjust it. Kit's guides are honest that the builders differ, so the result may not match the old design exactly. Then replace the old embed codes on your website with the Kit ones.

Email templates. Under Broadcasts, open Templates and set up the parts that stay the same from email to email: logo, section headings, body font.

Test. Subscribe to your own form from your website. Check that the right tag lands on you, that the automation picks you up and that the first sequence email arrives. Preview the rest of the sequence from its editor or send yourself test emails.

Once all that works, send your first broadcast from Kit.

What people who moved reported

The Trustpilot reviews from people who came to Kit from these platforms bear on three of the points above. On the done-for-you route, Salome Schillack thanked Kit in August 2026 for "the easy way you helped me migrate", which is the team migration that comes with Creator and Pro. On why people leave ActiveCampaign, Kaywanda Lamb named price in March 2026: it "was getting too pricey". And on the plan line, Eva Keller, on the Free plan in May 2026, wrote: "I've been wanting to upgrade so I can build out more welcome sequences". That's the rule in the next section seen from the user's side: the list sits on Free, and the welcome series is the part that needs a paid plan.

Reddit is less glowing, and it's worth reading before you move a large list. In an r/Emailmarketing thread from October 2024, a creator with a 15,000-subscriber list, No-Spam-, wrote that Kit had "asked me for 7 things to verify my account." Leave room for that kind of check before your old platform's renewal date. And in r/Newsletters, about a month before capture, Tricky_Trifle_994 explained a move away from Kit: "kit gets more expensive once your newsletter starts to grow and scale." The price table below shows how fast each step climbs.

Which plan the move needs

On Free, sequences and Visual Automations can be opened and looked at but not created. Kit's comparison table also marks "Free migration from another platform" for Creator and Pro only. So if anything on your list from the first section sends on its own, the move needs at least Creator.

Each tier covers lists up to that size, so 1,001 subscribers prices at the 3,000 row. For someone moving a welcome sequence and a handful of automations, Kit's Creator plan is the one. It runs sequences and Visual Automations, includes the free migration, and allows two users. Paid yearly, it costs the same as ten months. If you're still choosing between Kit and another platform, my comparisons of MailerLite and Kit and GetResponse and Kit price both sides at each list size.

When Free is enough

If your first list came back empty (no welcome series, no automations, just a newsletter) and your list is below 10,000 subscribers, Kit's Free plan takes the move. Its help article says you can bring your subscribers with you and should keep the total under 10,000 to stay on Free. Use the importer or a CSV yourself, rebuild your forms, and send broadcasts. You can upgrade later, and anything you build stays in your account.

When Pro is worth it

Creator allows two users. If three or more people need to log in, Pro removes that cap, and it adds engagement scoring, deliverability reporting and a newsletter referral system. Kit's site shows an offer on Pro annual that ends November 7, 2026: 25% off the first year, which at 1,000 subscribers comes to $593 for that year against a regular $66 a month. The discount covers the first year only, and Pro renews at the standard rate after that.

FAQ

Does Kit migrate my list for free?

Yes, on Creator or Pro. Under 10,000 subscribers, Kit's team moves subscribers, tags, lists and segments. At 10,000 and over, it also rebuilds forms, automation emails, email templates and integrations.

Can I move to Kit on the Free plan?

Yes, by importing your list yourself. The free migration service and automated emails need a paid plan: on Free, sequences and Visual Automations can be opened and looked at but not created. So a list that only gets newsletters can move to Free as it is, while anything that sends on its own, such as a welcome series, has to be rebuilt on Creator. Kit's comparison table also limits the free migration service to Creator and Pro.

What happens to my Mailchimp audiences?

Kit has one list per account. Its Mailchimp importer turns audience names, tags and audience-and-interest pairings into tags, such as "Newsletter:Tech".

Will my imported subscribers get my welcome emails?

They will if you import them into a tag, form or sequence that starts an automation. Import first and switch the welcome automation on afterwards, or use Kit's placeholder-tag workaround described above.

Should I test the import before I pay for a year?

It's a good idea. My guide to checking a moved list before paying for a year covers that order across platforms.

Will Kit check my account before I can send to an imported list?

It can. One creator on Reddit with a 15,000-subscriber list described being asked for seven items to verify the account. Start the move well before your old plan renews so a review doesn't leave you without a sender.