The 10 Best ConvertKit Alternatives for a Killer Email Marketing Strategy

ConvertKit isn’t your average email marketing platform.

It caters to a specific niche: content creators who want to reach, engage, and build their audiences through email newsletters. So if you’re a coach, an author, a podcaster, a musician, or any other type of content creator, ConvertKit feels like an obvious fit.

But just because it’s obvious, that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice.

There are tons of ConvertKit alternatives out there; all-rounders and niche tools that offer cheaper prices and/or more comprehensive feature sets.

To help you find the best email marketing platform for your needs, we’ve collated 10 of the best ConvertKit alternatives and compared them across the following criteria:

• Price
• Product features
• Customer support
• Pros and cons
• Target audience

Let’s get into it…

What Are the Best ConvertKit Alternatives?

1. Drip

Forgive us for starting on home turf…

Drip is our thing.  We’re a marketing automation platform built for ecommerce brands and those selling experiences and services. So not technically content creators. But here’s the thing: if you’re trying to sell something—anything—to your audience, our ecommerce functionality could give you the edge.

What Makes Drip the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Advanced ecommerce tools. ConvertKit offers basic ecommerce functionality for creators looking to sell digital products. But what about merch? Physical albums? Or anything else non-digital? That’s not an issue with Drip, which is designed to help you promote any type of product (within reason). Plus we integrate with all the major ecommerce platforms (ConvertKit doesn’t).
• Craft ultra-personalized messaging with dynamic segmentation. ConvertKit’s segmentation tools are pretty limited because they’re based on static elements like location and custom form fields. On the flip side, Drip offers dynamic segmentation. Our segments update in real time, so your website visitors will be automatically added to relevant segments based on their actions (like viewing a specific product page or reaching a certain spending threshold).
• Enterprise-grade customer support (at startup prices). However much you pay us, our customer support team will pull up a metaphorical chair and provide personalized recommendations to help you smash your email marketing goals. With ConvertKit, priority live chat and email support is only offered to top-tier Creator Pro-level subscribers.
• Cheaper premium features. ConvertKit has a fantastic free tier, whereas we don’t offer any free functionality beyond a 14-day trial. However, once you outgrow the free plan, ConvertKit gets expensive, fast. For instance, if you’ve got 5,000 subscribers, you’ll have to pay $93/month for Creator Pro (vs. $89 for Drip), and you still won’t get any of our advanced ecommerce features.
• Integrate with more tools. Drip integrates with 150+ other tools, including all the major ecommerce platforms—BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce. ConvertKit currently has approximately 120 integrations (and doesn’t integrate with BigCommerce).

How Does Drip Compare to ConvertKit?

2. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is another sophisticated, ecommerce-friendly email and marketing automation platform. It differs from Drip because it requires access to advanced technical skills to fully leverage its features, meaning it’s best suited to brands with in-house dev teams or an external full-service agency partner. At first glance, Klaviyo isn’t a natural fit for content creators, but let’s see how it stacks up against ConvertKit…

What Makes Klaviyo the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Predict your customers’ next move. Klaviyo’s predictive analytics allow you to—guess what?—predict when individual customers will perform certain actions, such as placing an order or churning. You won’t find anything like that at ConvertKit.
• Advanced reporting and analytics. ConvertKit’s reporting is pretty limited; if you need to know much more than how many people opened or clicked-through from your email broadcasts, you’ll be disappointed. Klaviyo, meanwhile, offers a wealth of revenue-focused reporting and analytics tools. Plus it’ll pull in lifetime store data alongside data from other platforms, like customer review and loyalty software.
• Sophisticated A/B testing. Again, ConvertKit offers limited A/B testing; you can only test two subject line variants against one another. And that’s it. With Klaviyo, you can split-test CTA styles, body content, send times, and more besides.
• More generous paid plans. ConvertKit’s free plan blows Klaviyo’s out of the water. But if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan—and those plans generally offer poorer value for money than Klaviyo’s (albeit you may need to factor in the cost of a full-service agency to take full advantage of Klaviyo).

How Does Klaviyo Compare to ConvertKit?

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the first name most people think of when it comes to email marketing. It has a huge customer base, thanks in part to its all-round functionality; everyone from individuals to startups to enterprise-level organizations can benefit from Mailchimp’s tools. But is it really the best alternative to ConvertKit?

What Makes Mailchimp the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Sophisticated email design testing. Mailchimp offers (limited) access to email testing tool Inbox Preview in all its free plans, allowing users to see how their designs look across different devices and clients. ConvertKit, on the other hand, doesn’t offer any built-in email testing.
• Advanced reporting tools. This one barely seems like a fair comparison. Mailchimp offers some of the most sophisticated reporting functionality on the market, whereas ConvertKit’s analytics tools are limited to basic email engagement metrics.
• More integration options. Mailchimp integrates with over 300 external apps, tools, and platforms, whereas ConvertKit “only” has about 120. Sure, there aren’t too many obvious omissions from ConvertKit’s integrations library, but this is ultimately a numbers game—and Mailchimp is the clear winner.
• Engage your audience through more channels. Mailchimp offers built-in social media management, allowing you to post to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—and track the results—without leaving the platform. ConvertKit doesn’t do any of that.
• AI-powered ideation. Mailchimp’s GPT-3 AI tool can generate subject lines, headlines, body copy, and more at the click of a button. At time of writing, ConvertKit doesn’t offer any generative AI capabilities.

How Does Mailchimp Compare to ConvertKit?

4. GetResponse

GetResponse is another big-name all-round platform, helping everyone from solopreneurs to global brands like Ikea and Red Bull engage their audiences through email marketing. Customers use it to send approximately 765 million emails every single week. 

What Makes GetResponse the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Cheaper email marketing. You might start to notice a repeating theme here: ConvertKit’s free plan is more generous than GetResponse’s. But once you upgrade to higher tiers, ConvertKit struggles to compete. For instance, for $44/month, GetResponse lets you send unlimited emails to up to 5,000 contacts. That’ll cost you a cool $66 from ConvertKit.
• In-platform website builder. ConvertKit’s landing page tools are pretty solid (and available free of charge). But GetResponse customers can leverage an entire website builder—even on the platform’s free plan.
• AI email generator. GetResponse is another marketing automation platform to hop on the generative AI bandwagon, allowing users to quickly craft subject line and body content using nothing more than a simple prompt. ConvertKit doesn’t currently offer this (although you can always get ChatGPT to do it for you, of course).
• Host webinars within the platform. This is a pretty niche use case, but potentially useful nonetheless: with GetResponse, you get built-in webinar hosting. ConvertKit doesn’t do this as standard, although it does integrate with several webinar tools (including Crowdcast and WebinarJam).

How Does GetResponse Compare to ConvertKit?

5. Brevo (FKA Sendinblue)

If Brevo sounds unfamiliar, that’s because it used to be called Sendinblue. Whatever the name, it’s a low-cost—yet highly sophisticated—marketing automation platform used by over 500,000 businesses across 180 countries.

What Makes Brevo the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Target unlimited contacts for free. Finally, we’ve come across a free plan that competes with—and, arguably, outshines—ConvertKit’s. Brevo lets you send up to 300 emails a day to unlimited contacts, all without spending a cent. That’s incredible value.
• Cheaper for large list sizes. Because all Brevo plans include unlimited contacts, it’s a fantastic choice for brands and content creators with large marketing lists. With ConvertKit, the costs add up fast when you exceed 1,000 contacts.
• Bolt-on SMS marketing. With Brevo, you can add SMS marketing to any plan on a low-cost, pay-as-you-go basis. For instance, you can send 1,000 SMS messages to customers in the US for just $10.90. You’ll need an integration with a third-party tool like Textiful to run SMS campaigns through ConvertKit.
• Send transactional emails. Brevo’s plans offer inclusive transactional emails—vital for ecommerce, and also for things like password resets. ConvertKit doesn’t do transactional emails, so again, you’ll need to integrate with an external tool (and you’ll have to pay for the privilege).
• Advanced reporting. As we’ve already noted, ConvertKit’s reporting is pretty basic. Brevo’s is far more sophisticated, offering device and domain-based data, conversion tracking, and even heat mapping for email clicks.

How Does Brevo Compare to ConvertKit?

6. Omnisend

Omnisend—like Drip and Klaviyo—is a marketing automation platform built predominantly for ecommerce brands. But as we’ve already seen, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s a poor fit for content creators. More than 100,000 businesses use Omnisend to engage and convert their audiences through email and SMS campaigns.

What Makes Omnisend the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Run SMS & push notification campaigns. With Omnisend, you can target customers through SMS messages and push notifications—even on the free product tier. You’ll need a third-party integration to run SMS or push campaigns through ConvertKit. 
• Free marketing automation. To be clear, ConvertKit’s free plan is more generous than Omnisend’s. However, it doesn’t offer any marketing automation functionality, whereas all Omnisend customers can access the platform’s pre-built automations and workflows.
• Better value for larger list sizes. As we’ve already noted, ConvertKit gets pretty expensive when you get beyond the 1,000-subscriber free tier. For instance, Omnisend charges $1/month less for 3,000 contacts—as well as offering a ton of extra functionality, like SMS and push campaigns.
• Actionable reporting. Omnisend’s reports give you access to a world of data, helping you identify workflows with the highest open rates, campaigns generating the most revenue, top-performing segments, and much more besides. ConvertKit’s reporting suite is far more basic; it’s pretty much limited to email engagement metrics.

How Does Omnisend Compare to ConvertKit?

7. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is another all-round marketing automation platform, but its wealth of features adapt to the needs of marketers in a diverse range of niches. It’s one of the more expensive tools in our roundup of ConvertKit alternatives, which might put it beyond the reach of some content creators. But if you need heavyweight automation functionality, ActiveCampaign is a real contender.

What Makes ActiveCampaign the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Predictive action-based optimization. With ActiveCampaign, you can optimize campaigns based on machine learning-driven predictive actions (such as optimizing email send times around when they’re most likely to be opened). ConvertKit doesn’t do this.
• More (and higher-quality) email templates. ConvertKit offers a couple dozen professionally designed templates. But ActiveCampaign has over 150—and, for the most part, they look more professional.
• Integrate with everything. ConvertKit integrates with about 120 third-party tools (and thousands more through Zapier), but it can’t compete with ActiveCampaign, which has 870+ native integrations.
• Advanced automations. ConvertKit’s automation builder is simple to use, but it’s more limited than ActiveCampaign, which delivers automatic behavior-based segmentation, abandoned cart recovery campaigns, order- and event-triggered follow-ups, and more.
• Insightful reporting. If you need to access anything more than basic email engagement metrics, ConvertKit’s not the platform for you. ActiveCampaign, by contrast, provides a whole world of insights, from real-time order data to tracked shopper activity across all touchpoints in the user journey.

How Does ActiveCampaign Compare to ConvertKit?

8. AWeber

AWeber used to be a low-cost, no-frills email marketing platform, but it’s added a ton of premium features in recent years to help it compete with the likes of ActiveCampaign and GetResponse. As one of the cheaper tools on the market, it’s traditionally proved popular with solopreneurs and content creators, but is it better than ConvertKit?

What Makes AWeber the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Buy and connect domains. With AWeber, you can buy a website domain and set it up without ever leaving the platform. ConvertKit doesn’t do that (although it does offer a handy landing page builder).
• Integrate with more tools. AWeber offers a bunch more integrations than ConvertKit (750+ vs. about 120). And it integrates with Google Analytics, whereas ConvertKit doesn’t.
• Phone-based support. Unlike a lot of marketing tools, AWeber lets you pick up the phone to reach its support team—even if you’re only on its free plan. ConvertKit only offers live chat and email support (but you only get community support through the free plan).
• More comms channels. As well as sending emails, AWeber lets you reach your audience through push notification campaigns. Even free users can send web push notifications to up to 50,000 subscribers. You’ll need an integration to send push campaigns through ConvertKit.
• Build custom email templates in seconds. One of AWeber’s most interesting features is its smart designer, which automatically creates email templates based on your website or Facebook page URL. ConvertKit doesn’t do this (although it does offer a decent library of email templates).

How Does AWeber Compare to ConvertKit?

9. Constant Contact

At first glance, Constant Contact is just like AWeber: both are traditional email marketing tools that have recently bolted on a bunch of extra features. Even their websites look kind of similar. But how does Constant Contact measure up against ConvertKit?

What Makes Constant Contact the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• In-platform social scheduling. Constant Contact is one of relatively few email marketing tools to offer built-in organic social scheduling and ad management. You can’t do this through ConvertKit.
• Built-in event marketing. Perhaps Constant Contact’s most interesting feature (for some users, at least) is its inclusive event marketing functionality, which allows users to create registration forms, send invites via email, sell tickets, and more. ConvertKit doesn’t do this, although it does integrate with event management and ticketing platform Eventbrite.
• Phone-based customer support. All Constant Contact customers can access phone-based customer support, whereas ConvertKit only offers support through live chat and email (and if you’re a free user, you’ll have to make do with community support).
• More advanced reporting. We don’t want to sound like a broken record, but honestly, ConvertKit’s reporting is pretty limited. Constant Contact is much better here, offering useful data and insights like click segmentation and click-tracking heat maps. You can even access reports on the go through the Constant Contact app.
• Discounts for nonprofits. With Constant Contact, nonprofits and charities can save up to 30 percent on standard prices. ConvertKit doesn’t offer any such discount.

How Does Constant Contact Compare to ConvertKit?

10. HubSpot

HubSpot and ConvertKit are like chalk and cheese: HubSpot is an enterprise-grade sales and marketing platform, whereas ConvertKit is aimed at individual creators. However, HubSpot does offer a wealth of lower-cost functionality. So is it a viable ConvertKit alternative?

What Makes HubSpot the Best ConvertKit Alternative?

• Wide-ranging free plan. Sure, it’s not the cheapest tool on the market, but HubSpot does offer an intriguing free plan that incorporates some of the platform’s superb automation and segmentation features. ConvertKit’s free tier offers more contacts and email sends, but it doesn’t include marketing automation.
• Superb CRM (and it’s free). HubSpot has built one of the best CRMs on the market—and it’s available free of charge. ConvertKit doesn’t offer a CRM, although it integrates with JetpackCRM and Monday.com.
• Powerful (yet accessible) analytics. There’s really no comparison here. HubSpot offers some of the most advanced reporting and analytics tools of any email platform, acting as a single source of truth for all your marketing, sales, and service data. By contrast, ConvertKit only provides basic email engagement metrics.
• More integrations than you could ever need. HubSpot has 1,000+ native integrations—almost 10 times as many as ConvertKit.

How Does HubSpot Compare to ConvertKit?

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

If you’re just getting started as a content creator or only have a small email list (i.e. no more than 1,000 contacts), ConvertKit is the perfect platform for you.

But don’t be surprised if you outgrow it, fast.

When that happens, you’ll need a platform with sophisticated audience segmentation and automations, in-depth reports, and the ability to track every last cent generated by your email campaigns. 

Drip is exactly that platform.

Best of all, our intuitive user interface makes it simple for content creators to leverage our more advanced features.

But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself by signing up for your 14-day free trial today!