AWeber vs ConvertKit (Kit): Which Fits an Affiliate?

AWeber vs ConvertKit: the 60-second answer

In an aweber vs convertkit comparison, Kit (formerly ConvertKit) offers the longer free runway, with a $0 plan for up to 10,000 subscribers ^[3]. AWeber is cheaper once you pay: Lite costs $15/month for 500 subscribers and 5,000 sends ^[2]. Neither is universally best; choose based on list growth speed and whether affiliate content fits Kit’s rules ^[4].

Most AWeber vs ConvertKit comparisons open with a feature grid. For a first affiliate list, that is the second question, not the first.

Two things decide this one:

1. When a cap stops you mid-send. AWeber Free is limited by both subscribers and monthly sends: up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 sends each month ^[2]; Kit's free plan page lists up to 10,000 subscribers but does not give a monthly send figure in the block we read ^[3].
2. Whether your emails are allowed at all. Kit publishes rules on affiliate content and lists restricted topics ^[4]. AWeber's pricing documentation does not set out affiliate rules, so its terms are a separate read ^[2].

Everything below comes from the two vendors' own pricing pages and help centre. Each figure carries a citation so you can re-verify it before you buy — and you should, because plans change.

Free plans compared: subscriber caps, send caps and the catch

Both vendors offer a genuinely usable free tier, but they limit different things, and that difference decides who stays free longer.

Illustrative example. You have 400 subscribers and send eight emails in a month. 400 × 8 = 3,200 sends, which is 200 more than the 3,000 included in AWeber Free ^[2] — so two newsletters a week plus a welcome sequence can push you into an upgrade while you are still 100 subscribers short of the cap. Subscriber count alone never tells you when you will pay.

One caution on Kit's numbers: the same pricing page shows a $0 "Free — up to 10,000 subscribers" block and a "for 1,000 email subscribers" label beside it ^[3]. Read the current page and the compare-plans table before you assume a limit; if the two disagree, ask support and keep the reply.

If automations are the backbone of your onboarding, price the paid tier rather than the free one — our five-email welcome sequence you can copy shows why beginners lean on automations so early.

AWeber vs ConvertKit pricing once your list grows

Here are the published numbers, without editorialising:

• AWeber Lite: from $15/month, or $12.50/month billed annually at $150; monthly sends equal 10× your subscriber tier. At 500 subscribers that is 5,000 sends for $15/month ($150/year); at 1,000 subscribers, 10,000 sends for $25/month ($250/year) ^[2].
• AWeber Plus: from $30/month, or $20/month billed annually at $240; monthly sends equal 12× your subscriber tier. At 500 subscribers that is 6,000 sends for $30/month ($240/year); at 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 sends for $45/month ($450/year) ^[2].
• Kit Creator: $33/month, or $390 billed yearly, shown for 1,000 email subscribers ^[3].
• Kit Pro: $66/month standard, with a limited-time $50/month first year and $593 billed for the first year, then renewal at the standard rate ^[3].
• Pausing: AWeber sells a Hold Package at $4.99/month that preserves subscribers, automations and landing pages while the account is paused ^[2].

AWeber's send allowances are tier-based: if you use all the sends in your tier, the account moves up to the next subscriber tier automatically and sending continues without interruption ^[2]. Convenient, and a quiet cost increase to watch if you send often.

Illustrative example. A 1,000-subscriber list sending four emails a month uses 4,000 sends — inside AWeber Lite's 10,000 sends at that tier ^[2]. Over 12 months that is $250 on Lite's annual rate against $390 on Kit Creator's yearly billing, so $390 − $250 = $140 more per year for the same 1,000 subscribers ^[2][3]. Neither figure includes a lead magnet, design help or paid traffic; it is software cost only.

Comparing more than these two? Our email marketing software comparison puts the wider shortlist side by side on the same basis.

Affiliate links in email: what Kit allows, and what to check at AWeber

This is the part that matters most for an affiliate list, and the part most comparisons skip entirely.

Kit's rules, in its own terms

Kit's help centre says affiliate marketing is allowed, but only alongside your own business or content. The stated guide is that roughly 70–80% of your email content should be about your own products, services and who you are, with around 20–30% related to affiliate marketing ^[4]. For Kit on its own, see the ConvertKit review and ConvertKit affiliate program.

Two further conditions come from the same page:

• You must make clear that an affiliate link sends subscribers to another site, and you must not let readers believe those products are yours ^[4].
• Some affiliate topics are restricted regardless of your own business: education, loans, online pharmacies, and software in the fast-wealth category ^[4].

Kit is blunt about the case it will not accept: if you have no business or content outside affiliate marketing, that content "wouldn't be a fit" for the platform ^[4]. If your plan is simply to build a list and send deals, that is the sentence to read twice.

Where AWeber's rules live

AWeber's pricing page and its "how much does AWeber cost" article document plans, limits and features ^[1][2]; they do not set out affiliate-content rules. So the honest answer is that you have to read AWeber's current Acceptable Use Policy and terms yourself, on the date you sign up — search the page for "affiliate", save a copy, and get any ambiguous case confirmed in writing by support. Do not take a two-year-old blog post's word for it, this page included.

What this means in practice

If your newsletter is a curated bargain roundup with almost none of your own material, Kit's stated policy points you elsewhere ^[4]. If you write your own tutorials and add the occasional tool recommendation — the pattern in can you put affiliate links in emails — you are inside the shape Kit describes ^[4]. Niche matters too: a course, coaching or "earn online" angle sits near two of Kit's restricted categories, so check before you build the list, not after.

A copyable decision table for a first affiliate list

Work down the left column until a row describes you, then copy the table into your notes with today's date beside it.

Pre-signup checklist

• ☐ Write down your expected list size and monthly send volume for the next six months — rough guesses are fine.
• ☐ On the day you buy, open the vendor's pricing page and note which cap you hit first: subscribers or sends ^[2][3].
• ☐ Search the vendor's Acceptable Use Policy for "affiliate" and save the page as a PDF with the date.
• ☐ Check your niche against Kit's restricted list: education, loans, online pharmacies, fast-wealth software ^[4].
• ☐ Draft your content mix so affiliate mentions stay the minority of what you send ^[4].
• ☐ Confirm the migration route: AWeber lists free migration on its plans ^[1] and Kit advertises free migrations ^[3].
• ☐ Put your disclosure into the email template before your first send — FTC affiliate disclosure examples for blogs, email and video has paste-ready wording.

Staying inside the rules: permission, disclosure and deliverability

Picking the provider is the easy half. Keeping the list is the other half, and it is where beginners lose everything they built.

We are not lawyers, and this page is general education rather than legal advice. Check the email-marketing rules that apply where your subscribers live — read the official guidance at source before your first send, note the date you read it, and ask a qualified professional if your situation is unusual.

Three habits do most of the work:

1. Label affiliate links plainly. Kit's guidance says affiliate links should be clearly labeled and that you should tell subscribers when a link will redirect them to another site ^[4]. Our disclosure examples give you copy to paste above the fold and in the footer.
2. Send only to people who asked. A bought or scraped list is the fastest route to a complaint and a suspension, whatever the vendor's terms say.
3. Set up authentication before you scale. SPF, DKIM and DMARC decide whether your carefully written email arrives at all; our deliverability basics walk through the setup, and lead magnets that don't attract dead addresses reduce the problem at the source.

It also helps to have a sending rhythm rather than a promotion whenever you feel guilty about not emailing. How often to send affiliate emails gives you a monthly pattern you can copy and adjust.

How this comparison was built, and how we make money

A fair question by now: why trust this page over the last one you read?

Here is exactly what this article is. It is a documentation comparison — we read AWeber's pricing page and its own cost article ^[1][2], Kit's pricing page ^[3], and Kit's help-centre article on affiliate marketing ^[4], then wrote down what those pages say with a citation beside each figure. We did not buy subscriptions, run side-by-side campaigns, or measure deliverability or support response times, and we will not pretend otherwise. Where a vendor does not publish what you need — AWeber's affiliate-content rules, for example — we say so rather than fill the gap with a guess.

We do earn commissions when readers sign up to tools through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. That is how the site is funded, and we would rather say it plainly than bury it in a footer. It does not buy a verdict: two rows in the decision table above resolve to "neither, yet" and "read the policy first", which is not the answer an affiliate would prefer to sell you.

One standing rule: if a number here disagrees with the vendor's page on the day you read it, the vendor's page wins. Plans change, promotional rates expire and free-tier limits get adjusted. Re-check, date your notes, and you will not be the person quoting a stale pricing table a year from now.

This guide is general education. Program terms and tools change; check the linked official pages for the current version. How we write: editorial policy. This page has no affiliate links.