ConvertKit Review 2024: Unpacking the Pros, Cons, and Costs
ConvertKit is an email marketing tool for bloggers and content creators. It started in 2013 because the founder wanted a way to market his book via email. Now, it’s a favorite among writers, podcasters, and creatives for sending out emails, selling digital products, running paid newsletters, and connecting with sponsors.
One thing that worries people, though, is how much ConvertKit costs as their list of subscribers gets bigger. There’s a free tier for beginners, but as you get more subscribers, the price goes up fast.
So, is ConvertKit worth your time and money? In this 2024 ConvertKit review, we’re here to help you decide. We’ll give you an unbiased review and talk about other options you might consider.
A Quick Look at What ConvertKit Offers
You can think of ConvertKit as an email marketing toolbox for content creators. It gives you the tools to connect with and monetize your audience.
As a ConvertKit user, you can:
- Use templates to make your emails look appealing.
- Send mass personalized emails to keep your audience engaged.
- Automate email sequences to save time.
- Create sign-up forms to grow your email list.
- Sell digital products directly to your subscribers.
- Set up paid newsletters for exclusive content.
- Track your emails and measure your results with analytics.
- Find sponsors to support your content.
Starting with ConvertKit is pretty straightforward, even if you’re not great with computers. You can create good-looking emails and check how they appear on various devices.
However, if you’re new to this, the bells and whistles might seem too much at first. Learning to use all the tools well, especially if you’re new to automating your email marketing, might take a little time.
ConvertKit’s Essential Features
Check out the table below for a rundown of the ConvertKit features you’re likely to use most often:
| Feature | Description | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Automations | A drag-and-drop builder to map out subscriber interactions and build automatic sales funnels. | ★★★★☆ |
| Email Designer | A tool to easily drag and drop design blocks and customize emails without needing to code. | ★★★★★ |
| Email Templates | A collection of pre-designed templates for different purposes, such as newsletters and sales pitches. | ★★★★☆ |
| Sign-Up Forms | Forms you can tailor and add to your website or social media to attract more subscribers. | ★★★★☆ |
| Landing Pages | Templates you can personalize to capture potential customers and deliver lead magnets. | ★★★★★ |
| A/B Testing | A feature to try out different subject lines and see which one attracts more email opens. | ★★★☆☆ |
| ConvertKit Commerce | A set of tools to assist in selling and delivering digital goods and handling payments. | ★★★★☆ |
| Creator Network | A platform to connect with fellow creators to promote each other’s work. | ★★★★★ |
| Sponsor Network | A networking feature for establishing connections with high-value sponsors. | ★★★★☆ |
| Marketing Analytics | Tools to help you gain insights on which email strategies work best. | ★★★★☆ |
| Integrations | Simplify your workflow by connecting ConvertKit with other apps you use. | ★★★★★ |
What Do the Users Say?
People have different things to say in their ConvertKit reviews. Some like how easy it is to use because of its clear design. But others aren’t happy about how much it costs and certain bugs in the system.
This user is super pleased with how the newsletter and landing page tools work, saying ConvertKit has “the best UI.”
In contrast, this user doesn’t like how ConvertKit functions. She’s also not pleased with the cost and the kind of help she got from customer service.
ConvertKit’s free plan doesn’t seem to impress many users either. Although ConvertKit is among the few companies that still have a free plan, you can’t expect much from that free plan.
You can capture leads through landing pages, segment your leads, and send out emails. But you won’t get to automate anything, connect with other apps, or have access to customer support. Plus, the limit is 1,000 subscribers only.
Check out this user’s ConvertKit review, which mentions the limited free plan.
To help you understand what people think of ConvertKit, we’ve put together the main points in the table below.
| Positive aspects | Negative aspects |
|---|---|
| User-friendly design | Expensive pricing |
| Lots of features | Limited free plan |
| Multiple ways to earn money | Limited automation capabilities |
| Extensive integrations | Inconsistent deliverability |
| Template variety | Lack of scalability |
Who Should Choose ConvertKit? And Who Shouldn’t?
To summarize our review of ConvertKit and help you make up your mind, we’re laying out our top suggestions for you.
Go with ConvertKit if:
- You’re planning to run paid email newsletters.
- You want to automate your email sequences and sales funnels.
- Selling digital products directly to your audience is key for your business model.
- Finding and collaborating with other creators is a priorityfor your business.
Choose a ConvertKit alternative if:
- You’re on a tight budget and worried about rising costs.
- You need more advanced automation from the start.
- You’re looking for more in-depth customer support.
- You have more than 1000 subscribers but aren’t ready to pay yet.
- You need near-perfect deliverability to make sure your emails consistently reach your subscribers’ primary inboxes.
ConvertKit Pros
Let’s talk about the strong points that make ConvertKit a favorite for lots of users.
Multiple Ways to Make Money
ConvertKit’s numbers show that in 2023, about 35,000 creators made some money using their platform. Although about 12 percent hit the impressive $100,000 mark, more than half of the creators earned less than $10,000 in the entire year — not quite enough to make a living.
ConvertKit users can generate an income by:
- Selling ebooks, courses, and other digital products directly through email.
- Setting up subscription services for exclusive content through paid newsletters.
- Connecting with sponsors interested in partnering with your content.
- Setting up affiliate marketing within your emails to earn commissions.
According to the stats, selling courses and getting sponsorships were the top methods for making money, each bringing in 40 percent of all income in 2023.
Ads and affiliate marketing added another 10 percent to the pot. Meanwhile, product sales and guest speaking opportunities each contributed 5 percent.
Simple Sales Funnels
ConvertKit makes it easy to create simple funnels for gathering email leads and making direct sales. Its main feature is setting up email sequences that automatically guide potential customers step by step. However, it’s not as complex or versatile as tools like ClickFunnels or ActiveCampaign.
It’s great for beginners and those not deeply into marketing because it makes the sales funnel concept easy to grasp. You can quickly put together landing pages or sign-up forms and link them to a sequence of emails to keep subscribers interested.
One handy feature is ConvertKit’s ability to automatically leave out people who’ve already bought your product. This way, you don’t annoy subscribers by sending them offers they’ve already used, reducing the risk they’ll mark your messages as spam.
However, ConvertKit doesn’t offer options to upsell or cross-sell to your customers through its sales funnel feature.
Intuitive User Interface
ConvertKit has a user-friendly interface that many people find welcoming. It’s easy to get started with everyday tasks like building a valid email list, launching a campaign, or crafting an HTML email.
That said, more advanced concepts like segmenting your audience or setting up automated emails might take a bit more time to learn.
A satisfied user shared their thoughts on how beginner-friendly the interface is.
As soon as you log in, you’re greeted by a dashboard that highlights key information, such as your email performance, the number of new subscribers, and learning opportunities.
On the top, there’s a menu that houses all the tools you might need. This is where you can kick off new campaigns, see your reports, and manage your email list. It divides the features you can into five submenus with clear descriptions and appealing visuals.
Take a look at this screenshot to see what ConvertKit’s dashboard looks like.
You can segment your subscribers into categories using different factors, like when they signed up. You can also tag each subscriber based on how they interact with your content. You can add these tags automatically or set them up by hand.
The screenshot below shows the segmentation interface, where you can set multiple conditions to find a subgroup of your subscribers.
Professional Templates
Email templates give you a pre-made design for your emails, so you can easily keep a consistent style in your messages while cutting down on design time.
ConvertKit has a modest selection of templates for emails, landing pages, and sign-up forms.
They might not offer as many options as ConvertKit alternatives, but what they have looks modern and appealing. Plus, you can easily tweak them to fit your brand’s style.
Take a peek at a few of these templates in the screenshot below.
ConvertKit Cons
Despite its advantages, there are drawbacks to ConvertKit that might lead users to consider other options. Let’s cover some of the most significant ones.
Less-than-Stellar Deliverability
ConvertKit claims its deliverability is 99.8 percent. But independent research over the last five years suggests that this rate actually varies from 81% to 92%, with the most recent figure being 91.3% as of June 2023.
If we break down the numbers, we’ll get a clearer picture:
| Main inbox | Promotions tab | Spam folder | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85.2% | 6.0% | 5.3% | 3.5% |
To understand these percentages better, imagine sending an email to 1,000 people.
This is what typically happens:
- 852 of those people will find your email right in their inbox.
- 60 people will have to check their promotions tab to see it.
- 53 people might miss your email altogether because it lands in spam.
- 35 people won’t get your email at all.
So, as you can see, ConvertKit’s numbers aren’t as impressive as they first seem.
Limited Analytics
To really understand what your audience enjoys and refine your strategy, you need a platform that presents the key email marketing metrics to help your business grow.
While ConvertKit’s analytics cover the basics, there’s room to provide deeper insights and more detailed data analysis.
The platform tracks the usual metrics using tracking pixels. It offers a straightforward dashboard with a neat design that shows you how many people opened your emails, clicked on links, bounced, and converted, using both numbers and charts.
The sales dashboard is also pretty minimal. You can see your earnings from different sources and get a snapshot of your sales funnel’s performance.
Limited A/B Tests
Running an A/B test in email marketing isn’t essential, but it’s helpful. It lets you create different versions of an email to see which one gets the best results. You can change up things like the subject line, images, colors, and more to see what works best.
ConvertKit does let you do A/B testing, but only with your email subject lines. This is a basic feature compared to what other services offer.
This is what happens when you do an A/B test with ConvertKit for subject lines:
- The platform sends each version of your subject line to 15% of your list (30% of your total list getting tested).
- After four hours, it picks the subject line that got more people to open the email.
- It automatically sends the email with the winning subject line to the other 70% of your list who didn’t get the test emails.
ConvertKit Pros and Cons Overview
Here’s a balanced look at what ConvertKit has to offer:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| User-friendly interface | Lackluster deliverability rates |
| Professional templates | Limited free plan features |
| Simple segmentation | Can be costly for larger lists |
| Extensive integration options | Limited A/B testing capabilities |
| Email automation features | Inconsistent customer service |
| Phone support only on the premium plan |
ConvertKit Pricing
Wrapping up our ConvertKit review for 2024, let’s talk about the costs.
ConvertKit’s prices change based on how many people are in your contact list. It’s free to start, but once your list grows to 1,000 people, you’ll need to start paying.
There are two paid options:
- The Creator plan includes most of what ConvertKit offers, like the ability to set up automated email campaigns, access all the design templates, and send custom emails.
- The Creator Pro plan gives you more, with detailed reports, a way to score your subscribers based on their engagement, and a system to grow your newsletter through referrals.
If you have a list of 25,000 contacts, this is how much each plan would cost you:
| Tier | Monthly commitment | Annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | $199 | $166 per month |
| Creator Pro | $279 | $233 per month |
ConvertKit Alternatives
So, let’s assume you’re among the growing number of users who find that ConvertKit doesn’t quite meet your needs or expectations.
What are your options?
Beehiiv
With Beehiiv, you get the essentials for managing your email list, understanding your audience with analytics, and designing your emails. It’s a decent choice if you’re focusing on a straightforward newsletter, maybe with some ads and a paid version.
However, if you’re aiming to sell digital products or find unique ways to make money from your list, Beehiiv might fall short.
Beehiiv is less expensive than ConvertKit and comes with a more generous free tier. It supports up to 2,500 subscribers and lets you send unlimited emails, though it sticks to the basics.
Paid plans kick off at $49 a month, with a 30-day trial to start. Opting for a yearly subscription gets you a nice 18% discount.
Brevo
Brevo, which used to be called Sendinblue, is a straightforward email marketing and CRM tool aimed at small businesses.
Brevo lets you reach out through email, SMS, and WhatsApp. It also has a robust CRM system as well as a sales platform which lets you tailor your sales pipeline, monitor deals at various stages, and pull together reports on your earnings.
Other perks of using Brevo include:
- Flexible email workflows you can customize,
- Tools for marketing automation,
- Options for sign-up forms and creating landing pages,
- Automated campaigns for welcome emails, nurture series, and drip campaigns,
- Campaigns to re-engage your audience,
- The ability to send transactional emails and SMS messages.
Campaign Refinery
At Campaign Refinery, our main goal is simple: to make sure your emails land right in the primary inbox.
We don’t pack our service with every feature under the sun, and there’s a good reason for that.
We’ve found that by concentrating on essential email marketing features, we can more effectively help you grow your audience faster and see better engagement.
Joining Campaign Refinery gives you:
- Top-notch deliverability.
- Easy-to-use tag-based segmentation.
- A straightforward Branch & Rule editor for building automations.
- Exclusive standard operating procedures (SOPs) and learning materials.
- A clean email list that’s all valid addresses.
- Ready-to-use email campaign templates to spark your creativity and save time.
- A chance to be part of a special community of trusted, high-volume email senders.
Looking for more? Integrations have got you covered!
With support for over 1,000 integrations, either directly or via Zapier, you can seamlessly tie in and upgrade your email campaigns with the other tools you already prefer.
Campaign Refinery Guides You to the Primary Inbox
Say goodbye to the excess that comes with ConvertKit. We keep it lean by offering just what you need, but with top-tier deliverability.
Apply to become a Campaign Refinery customer today and see your email success rates take off!
