The email tool question is one of the first decisions a writer makes — and one of the most overthought. ConvertKit (now Kit), MailerLite, or Substack. Three different philosophies, three different price points, three very different assumptions about what a writer needs. I've sent thousands of emails across all three platforms over the past few years, and the answer to "which one should I use?" is less obvious than the comparison posts would have you believe.

This is the convertkit vs mailerlite breakdown I wish someone had given me before I spent months on a platform that wasn't right for my workflow. Plus Substack, because for most writers in 2026, it belongs in the conversation.

The Quick Version

If you want the short answer before the long one:

Substack if you're starting from zero, want a built-in audience, and don't need advanced automation. Free to start.

MailerLite* if you want full control over your email marketing, need landing pages, automations, and integrations, and you're price-sensitive. Free up to 1,000 subscribers.

Kit (ConvertKit) if you're an established creator selling digital products, running complex funnels, and need the most sophisticated automation. Free up to 10,000 subscribers on the limited plan, paid plans from $29/month.

Now let me explain why.

Substack — The Writer's Default

Substack is not technically an email marketing platform. It's a publishing platform that happens to send emails. That distinction matters more than you'd think.

When you publish on Substack, every post goes to your subscribers' inboxes automatically. There's no email builder, no template designer, no drag-and-drop editor. You write a post, you hit publish, it becomes both a web page and an email. That simplicity is Substack's greatest strength and its most significant limitation.

What Substack does well for writers: it removes every barrier to starting. You can have a newsletter live and collecting subscribers within fifteen minutes. The built-in recommendation network means other Substack writers can recommend your publication to their audience — free, organic growth that no standalone email tool offers. Substack Notes gives you a social feed for discoverability. And the reading experience is clean and focused.

I run my newsletter on Substack and the audience growth from recommendations alone has been meaningful. For a writer who just wants to write and build an audience, Substack is hard to argue against.

What Substack lacks: automation beyond the basics. You can't create complex email sequences. You can't segment your audience beyond free vs. paid. You can't A/B test subject lines. You can't design custom email templates. You don't get advanced analytics. And critically, the moment you want to sell digital products, run a course launch, or build a sophisticated funnel — you've outgrown Substack.

If you're trying to understand the broader landscape of where to publish, my newsletter platform comparison covers the full picture.

MailerLite — The Best Value in Email

Here's where the convertkit vs mailerlite comparison gets interesting, because MailerLite has quietly become the best value email marketing tool for writers who need more than Substack offers but don't want to pay ConvertKit prices.

MailerLite* gives you a proper email marketing platform: visual automation builder, landing page creator, A/B testing, subscriber segmentation, e-commerce integrations, and a website builder. The free plan covers up to 1,000 subscribers with most features included. Paid plans start at $10/month for up to 500 subscribers and scale reasonably from there.

I used MailerLite for over a year before switching part of my workflow to Substack. What impressed me most was the automation builder. You can create sequences that trigger based on subscriber behavior — someone clicks a link, they get tagged, that tag triggers a new email sequence. This is the foundation of any product launch, course funnel, or segmented content strategy.

The landing page builder is surprisingly capable. Not as flexible as a dedicated tool like Carrd, but good enough for lead magnets, opt-in pages, and simple product pages. For a writer who needs a landing page for a free guide or an email course, MailerLite handles it without requiring another tool.

Where MailerLite falls short: the editor can be finicky. Formatting emails sometimes requires fighting with the drag-and-drop builder. The template selection is limited compared to ConvertKit. And while the automation builder is powerful, it's not as intuitive as ConvertKit's — there's a learning curve.

The biggest practical difference in the convertkit vs mailerlite comparison is price. At 5,000 subscribers, MailerLite costs roughly $39/month. ConvertKit costs $79/month. At 10,000 subscribers, MailerLite is $73/month vs ConvertKit at $119/month. Over a year, that difference funds a significant portion of your writing tools budget.

Kit (ConvertKit) — The Power Tool

ConvertKit rebranded to Kit in 2024, but most writers still call it ConvertKit, so I'll use both names. Kit is the email platform that was purpose-built for creators — and it shows. The feature set assumes you're not just sending newsletters but building a business around your content.

Visual automations in Kit are best-in-class. The visual automation builder lets you create complex sequences with conditional logic, time delays, branching paths based on subscriber actions, and integrations with payment processors. If you sell digital products — courses, ebooks, templates, coaching packages — Kit's commerce features are built in. You can sell directly from your emails without a separate storefront.

Tagging and segmentation are where Kit separates itself from both MailerLite and Substack. You can tag subscribers based on what they click, what they buy, which forms they signed up through, and what content they engage with. Those tags let you send precisely targeted emails to exactly the right segment of your audience. For a writer with a diverse audience — some interested in craft, some in marketing, some in tools — this level of targeting dramatically improves open rates and conversions.

Kit also has a creator network for cross-promotion, similar to Substack's recommendation system. And the deliverability is consistently excellent — emails land in the primary inbox more reliably than many competitors.

The downside is cost. Kit's paid plans are meaningfully more expensive than MailerLite. And for a writer who just wants to send a weekly newsletter, most of Kit's advanced features go unused. You're paying for a jet engine when a bicycle would get you there.

The Decision Framework

After using all three, here's how I'd decide:

Use Substack if: you're starting from scratch, you want built-in discoverability, you publish writing-first content (essays, newsletters, commentary), and you don't need advanced email features. Substack's network effect — recommendations, Notes, the Substack app — is a genuine growth advantage that no email-only tool can match. If building an audience from zero is your primary challenge, start here.

Use MailerLite* if: you already have traffic from a blog, Medium, or social media and need a professional email tool at a reasonable price. MailerLite is the sweet spot for writers who need automations, landing pages, and segmentation but aren't running a complex product business. It does eighty percent of what ConvertKit does at fifty percent of the cost.

Use Kit (ConvertKit) if: you sell digital products, run launches, need sophisticated automations, and are willing to pay for the best tooling in the space. Kit is the right choice when email is a revenue engine, not just a communication channel. If your email list directly generates income through product sales or sponsorships, Kit's features justify the premium.

What I Actually Use and Why

I use Substack for my primary newsletter. The recommendation network drives organic growth that would cost significant money on any other platform. The writing experience is clean. My audience engages with it. For the kind of content I publish — essays, guides, personal takes on the writing life — Substack is the right fit.

But I keep a MailerLite* account for specific automation sequences — welcome series, product launch emails, and lead magnet delivery. These are use cases where Substack's simplicity becomes a limitation. MailerLite handles them at a fraction of what Kit would cost.

This two-tool approach sounds more complicated than it is. Substack handles the regular newsletter. MailerLite handles the automated sequences. Each tool does what it's best at. Total cost: free for Substack, $10/month for MailerLite's base plan. That's the entire email infrastructure for a writing business.

If you're just getting started with list building, my guide on how to build an email list as a writer covers the strategy side — what to offer, where to promote, and how to convert readers into subscribers regardless of which platform you choose.

The Convertkit vs Mailerlite Bottom Line

The convertkit vs mailerlite decision comes down to this: are you paying for features you'll actually use?

At the beginning, most writers need exactly three things from an email tool: a way to collect subscribers, a way to send them emails, and basic automations for welcome sequences. Both MailerLite and Substack do this well. Kit does it too, but at a higher price point.

As your business grows, you'll know when you need more sophisticated tooling — because you'll hit a specific wall. You'll want to segment your audience and can't. You'll want to run a product launch with a timed sequence and can't. You'll want to tag subscribers based on behavior and can't. When that happens, you'll know exactly what you need, and the decision will be obvious.

Until then, pick the simplest tool that works and spend your energy on what actually grows your list: writing things worth reading and giving people a compelling reason to subscribe. If you want to see what that looks like in practice, subscribe to my newsletter* — it's the live example of everything I've described here.

A writer is nothing without a reader. If you found this helpful, consider becoming my dear email friend. Nothing would make me happier.