Research · Decision guide · Living page
How to choose an email marketing platform
Short version: The platform choice comes down to four questions: What is your budget? Do you send affiliate links as your primary model? How big is your list now? Are you leaving Substack? Kit's free plan supports 10,000 subscribers with no card required, which makes it the default starting point for most creators. MailerLite's paid tiers cost roughly half of Kit's and suit cost-conscious operators who are not running affiliate marketing as their primary business model. If affiliate marketing is how you primarily make money, only Kit has written permission in its acceptable-use policy; MailerLite prohibits it. If you are migrating from Substack, the fee math determines which platform saves more money at your paid-subscriber volume.
Situation 1: Starting from zero, no budget
The answer: Kit free plan.
Kit's free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers with no credit card required and no time limit. It includes unlimited broadcast sends, one basic Visual Automation, landing pages, and digital product sales.
The main free-tier alternatives are beehiiv (2,500 subscribers free, no automations) and MailerLite (250 active subscribers free as of July 2026, after a cut from 500). At zero budget, Kit's 10,000-subscriber free ceiling gives substantially more headroom before you face a pricing decision.
The one thing Kit's free plan does not include: API access. If your workflow requires automated subscriber management or third-party integrations at launch, that is a reason to evaluate paid tiers from the start. For most new newsletter operators it is not a day-one requirement.
Full breakdown: Kit free plan limits (2026) and email newsletter free plan comparison across platforms.
Situation 2: Affiliate marketing is your primary model
The answer: Kit. MailerLite and Mailchimp both prohibit it.
The platform choice for affiliate marketers is decided by acceptable-use policy before pricing or features. The policies differ materially.
Kit's acceptable-use policy explicitly permits affiliate links in email with one restriction: sends cannot be 100% affiliate-based content.
MailerLite permits individual affiliate links in brand-aligned content but prohibits using the platform when affiliate marketing is your primary business model.
Mailchimp explicitly prohibits affiliate marketing as an industry in its Terms of Use.
Picking the wrong platform does not just limit features; it risks account suspension without refund. The policy question comes before the pricing question.
Full breakdown with exact policy clauses: email marketing for affiliate marketers (2026) and MailerLite vs Kit: the affiliate-policy split.
Situation 3: You're ready to pay and cost matters most
The answer: MailerLite, unless you need affiliate permission.
If you do not run an affiliate marketing business model and you are comparing paid tiers, MailerLite Comfort costs roughly half of Kit Creator at the same subscriber count.
| Subscriber count | MailerLite Comfort | Kit Creator |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $19/month | $39/month |
| 5,000 | $49/month | $89/month |
The pricing gap is consistent across tiers. MailerLite Comfort caps monthly sends at 10x your subscriber count; Kit Creator has no send limit. For a list of 1,000 subscribers sending weekly, MailerLite's 10,000-send cap covers you at 10 sends per subscriber per month. If you send more than that, or need unlimited automations rather than MailerLite's 50-automation cap on Comfort, Kit Creator's unlimited model is the reason to pay more.
Full breakdown: MailerLite vs Kit: pricing, free tier, and affiliate policy and email newsletter pricing at scale (Kit, beehiiv, MailerLite).
Situation 4: You're leaving Substack
The answer: Kit or MailerLite, with fee math as the deciding factor.
Substack charges 10% of paid subscription revenue. Kit charges 3.5% + 30 cents per transaction on any plan, including the free plan. The break-even point is roughly $4.62 per paid subscriber per month: below that, Substack's 10% fee is lower than Kit's 3.5% + 30 cents; above it, Kit costs less per transaction.
MailerLite does not have a native paid-subscription model. If paid subscriptions are your primary revenue source, the comparison is between Substack and Kit, not MailerLite.
Beyond the fee math: when you leave Substack, your subscriber list exports as a CSV. Automation sequences, engagement history, and sender reputation do not travel. Expect two to six weeks of IP warm-up at the new platform before inbox placement stabilizes.
Full breakdown: Substack vs Kit: fee math and when each is right and what breaks when you switch email platforms.
Routing summary
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Starting from zero, budget $0 | Kit free plan | 10,000 subscribers free, no card, no expiry |
| Affiliate marketing is primary business model | Kit | Only platform with written permission in AUP |
| Cost-conscious, no affiliate-primary model | MailerLite | Roughly half the price of Kit at paid tiers |
| Leaving Substack, list above 2,500 | Kit or MailerLite | Fee math on paid subs decides; MailerLite if no paid subs |
What not to optimize for when choosing
Most comparison roundups lead with feature lists. Three features that are poor primary selection criteria for new newsletter operators:
Automation depth. Kit's free plan has one basic automation sequence. That is enough for a welcome series at launch. Most early-stage newsletters do not exhaust one sequence before they face a different constraint (list growth, send frequency). Optimizing for automation breadth before you know what automations you will actually run is premature.
Template libraries. Email template libraries matter less than they appear to. Most readers interact with email in plain text or minimal HTML. Deliverability and list quality outperform design at every stage before a list is large enough to run A/B tests.
Integrations. Integration depth is a real criterion for businesses with an existing CRM or e-commerce stack. For a newsletter starting from scratch, it is rarely the first constraint. Evaluate integrations when you know which specific tools you need to connect.
The criteria that actually gate the decision: policy fit (affiliate marketing), free-tier headroom (budget), paid-tier cost (at your projected subscriber count in 12 months), and paid-subscription fee structure (for Substack migrants).
How the recommendation is made
We run Kit ourselves (affiliate link; we earn a commission if you start a paid plan, at no extra cost to you). Every number on this page is cited from a primary source retrieved in 2026. For platforms we do not operate, the data is provenanced research: pricing pages, acceptable-use policies, and fee structures fetched directly from each platform and labeled with retrieval dates. No number is copied from another comparison site without independent verification.
The four situations above cover the most common forks we see in reader questions and community discussions. If your situation does not map to any of them, the full 16-tool comparison and research library have the data to make a more specific call.