MailerLite vs ConvertKit (Kit): Which Fits Affiliate Emails?

MailerLite vs ConvertKit: the short answer

The choice in mailerlite vs convertkit (now Kit) turns on list size and whether affiliate content is allowed. MailerLite’s Free plan offers a more generous feature bundle at 250 subscribers, but it does not permit “affiliate marketing” ^[2]. Kit allows affiliate links when roughly 70–80% of your email content is your own ^[4].

If that second sentence surprised you, you're in the right place. You're building a small list, you want to put affiliate links in it, and your real worry isn't which drag-and-drop editor looks nicer — it's a suspension email from your email provider three weeks in, or a warning that your newsletter broke a rule you never read. That is the comparison this article does.

Every number and policy line below comes from the two vendors' own pricing and help pages, listed as numbered sources at the end. The vendor pages were checked for this article on 18 November 2026. Both companies change limits and terms without much warning, so treat this as a map to the pages you must read yourself before you enter a card number.

Free plans compared: limits, seats and what's included

MailerLite's Free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails ^[1], so a new list fits on it until it passes those caps; it's worth knowing exactly where each one stops.

Two things to notice. First, the caps run out in different places: MailerLite limits both people and sends, while Kit's headline free limit is people. Second, those 2,500 monthly emails go faster than you'd think — that's ten sends to a 250-person list, or two and a half sends to a 1,000-person list, except you'd hit the 250-subscriber ceiling first anyway ^[1].

Both vendors also offer a 14-day trial with no card required, and Kit advertises free migrations ^[1][3]. A trial is useful for testing the editor; it does nothing to answer the affiliate-content question, which is the next section.

The rule that actually decides it: affiliate content

Read this part twice before you sign up anywhere.

MailerLite

MailerLite's help centre lists "Affiliate marketing" among the content types not permitted under its Terms of Use, in the same list as MLMs, "make-money-fast" plans, gambling, loans and credit products, and buying or selling email lists. The page also says violating these rules "can lead to account suspension or termination" ^[2]. The help page we read is dated 14 August 2026 ^[2]. Separately, MailerLite's pricing FAQ says it reserves the right to monitor the lists, content and response data of all accounts to enforce its terms and anti-spam policy ^[1].

Notice what the page doesn't do: it doesn't carve out an exception for a blog that mentions a product occasionally. That's why the useful next step isn't a blog post (including this one) but a support ticket. Describe your newsletter in three sentences — what you write about, how often you send, how many sends contain affiliate links — and ask, in writing, whether your setup is allowed. Keep the reply and its date.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Kit takes a different approach: some affiliate marketing is allowed, and the test is proportion. You need your own business or content outside affiliate marketing. Kit's guidance is that roughly 70–80% of your email content should be about your own products, services and who you are, with only about 20–30% related to affiliate marketing ^[4]. You should also say that a link redirects subscribers to another site, and avoid implying the products are yours ^[4]. For Kit on its own, see the ConvertKit review and ConvertKit affiliate program.

There are hard exclusions whatever your mix: affiliate links related to education, loans, online pharmacies or "make-money-fast" software aren't allowed ^[4]. And if you have no business or content outside affiliate marketing, Kit says that content isn't a fit for the platform ^[4].

For a beginner, that last line matters more than any feature table. If your plan is "start a list, mail other people's products", neither vendor's published rules describe that as a good fit — one prohibits the category, the other wants a creator underneath it. Build the content first. Both companies publish these terms live and can change them, so the version that applies is the one on the page the day you sign up; our guide to the 12 clauses to read in an affiliate program's terms covers the same habit for the programs you join.

What you pay once the free plan doesn't fit

Kit's paid plans

Kit's Creator plan is listed at $33/month with $390 billed yearly, described as saving $78 per year, for 1,000 email subscribers, with a 14-day trial and no card required ^[3]. The arithmetic behind that $33: $390 ÷ 12 = $32.50, rounded to $33. So the figure you see is the yearly-billing view — if you want the month-to-month number, switch the billing toggle on the pricing page, because the page's own "save $78" line implies a higher monthly rate ^[3].

Kit's Pro plan is shown at $66 reduced to $50/month with $593 billed the first year, saving $355 in year one, after which it renews at the standard rate ^[3]. Same pattern: $593 ÷ 12 = $49.42, rounded to $50. Pro adds engagement analytics, deliverability reporting, unlimited users and priority support ^[3].

MailerLite's paid plans

MailerLite's Comfort plan "starts" at $12/month, with Power and Enterprise above it, and paid prices scale with subscriber count — the page uses a slider, so $12 is the floor, not the price at 1,000 subscribers ^[1]. Paid plans include a 14-day trial of premium features, and MailerLite states that none of your data, including subscribers and automations, is removed when the trial ends ^[1]. Nonprofits receive 30% off paid plans ^[1].

A worked example with the arithmetic shown

Illustrative example — arithmetic only, not typical earnings, not a quote, not advice about what you'll earn. Say you have 1,000 subscribers and send four emails a month, which is 4,000 emails.

• Kit Creator billed yearly: $390 ÷ 12 = $32.50/month, and $32.50 ÷ 1,000 subscribers = about 3.3 cents per subscriber per month ^[3].
• MailerLite: at 1,000 subscribers you're past both Free limits (250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails), so you'd be on Comfort ^[1]. Comfort starts at $12/month, but your real figure depends on list size — read the slider at 1,000 rather than assuming $12 ^[1].
• Money isn't the only cost of switching: on Kit you'd also be committing to the 70/20 content mix ^[4]; on MailerLite you'd want a written answer about affiliate content first ^[2].

Run that sum with your own numbers and both billing toggles. A $20/month gap is $240 a year — real money, but smaller than rebuilding a list on a new platform after a suspension.

A five-minute decision checklist

Open both pricing pages and both content pages, then work down this list. Each item changes the answer for a different reader.

• My list size today: under 250, 250–1,000, or over 1,000. That alone decides whether a free plan is even relevant ^[1][3].
• Clearance: have I read the vendor's own affiliate-content page this month, and do I have a written support answer if my content sits near a line? ^[2][4]
• My mix: can I honestly say 70–80% of my emails would be my own material? If not, Kit's rules and my plan don't match yet ^[4].
• Restricted categories: do the offers I want to promote touch education, loans, online pharmacies, "make-money-fast" software, MLMs, credit or gambling? Those are excluded on one or both platforms ^[2][4]. In the make-money-online niche, that rules out a lot of the obvious offers.
• Price at my size: the number on the slider at my subscriber count, on the billing cycle I'd actually choose ^[1][3].
• Exit route: can I export subscribers and content if I leave? Ask before you build, not after.

Then record what you found so next year's version of you doesn't repeat the research. Copy this into a note and fill it in:

Tool: ____________________ Page I read (URL): ____________________ Date checked: __________ Exact wording on affiliate content: "____________________" Support reply saved? Y / N, dated __________ Free-plan limits: ______ subscribers / ______ emails per month Price at my list size: $______ per month, billed monthly / yearly Decision and why: ____________________

If you fill that in for both tools and the answer is still "maybe", ask support. A dated email is worth more than any comparison post, including this one.

How to run an affiliate newsletter that survives either platform's rules

Whichever tool you pick, these six habits keep you on the right side of the rules above.

1. Only email people who asked. MailerLite requires consented subscribers and explicitly bans buying or selling email lists ^[2].
2. Put your own content first, by design. Kit's 70/20 guidance is easier to hold when your best email of the month contains no affiliate links at all ^[4].
3. Say where the link goes. Kit asks you to tell subscribers a link will redirect them to another site and not to imply the products are yours ^[4].
4. Disclose clearly. MailerLite prohibits false or misleading content ^[2], and Kit asks you not to imply affiliate products are yours ^[4]; the wording itself is a separate job, covered line by line in our FTC affiliate disclosure examples for blogs, email and video.
5. Keep the offer list clean. Skip make-money-fast software, loan and credit offers, and anything resembling recruitment ^[2][4].
6. Write your compliance basics down once. MailerLite requires you to follow CAN-SPAM ^[2]; our guide to affiliate links in email: program rules and CAN-SPAM basics covers what belongs in every send.

Your first three emails after someone subscribes matter more than any single campaign, so build them before you add a single offer — our welcome email sequence for affiliate newsletters writes out five of them. After that, if deliverability becomes the worry (MailerLite says it monitors accounts to protect the reputation of its shared IPs ^[1]), start with SPF, DKIM and DMARC for small senders.

A four-email monthly pattern that fits a 70/20 mix

Kit's guidance is about the proportion of your content, not a fixed calendar ^[4]. Here's a working pattern that lands at 75% your own material and 25% affiliate across four sends a month.

Three of four sends carry no affiliate links: 3 ÷ 4 = 75% your own material and 25% affiliate, which sits inside Kit's 70–80% / 20–30% description ^[4]. If you send twice a month, one affiliate send in every four sends holds the same ratio over two months. If you send daily, keep a running tally — proportions are easy to lose at volume.

Two honest caveats. This pattern is a way to plan content; it isn't a promise that any platform will approve your account, and it doesn't change MailerLite's published position ^[2]. And the ratio is Kit's rule — on MailerLite the question is whether your content fits at all, which is why step one is still a support ticket. For cadence beyond the mix, see how often you can email affiliate links: a monthly pattern.

Where the two tools differ beyond price and policy

If both are viable for you, these are the practical differences from the vendors' own pages.

• Website and pages: MailerLite's Free plan includes one website, one landing page, up to three active forms and one digital product or booking ^[1]. Kit's Free plan lists unlimited landing pages and forms plus the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions ^[3].
• Automation depth: MailerLite includes free automations on Free and 50 automations on Comfort ^[1]; Kit reserves unlimited visual automations and unlimited email sequences for Creator ^[3].
• Paid-plan extras: MailerLite Comfort adds unlimited templates, multivariate testing, an AI writing assistant and smart sending ^[1]; Kit Creator adds SMS marketing, RSS campaigns, branding removal and 24/7 email and chat support ^[3].
• Data location: MailerLite stores data in the EU and states it is GDPR compliant ^[1]. Kit's pricing page doesn't cover this in the text we read — check its privacy documentation if you sell to EU subscribers.

If you're still comparing providers, our AWeber vs MailerLite and AWeber vs ConvertKit (Kit) breakdowns use the same evidence-first approach, and our email marketing software comparison puts current free-plan limits side by side.

How we compared them, and how this site makes money

You asked the fair question: how do you know this isn't just pushing whichever tool pays more? Here's the honest answer.

We did not run a live newsletter on both platforms for this article, and we won't pretend otherwise. What we did is read each vendor's own pricing page and its own help-centre page on affiliate content, quote the wording, show the arithmetic behind every price, and tell you where to double-check ^[1][2][3][4]. Where a number is missing — Kit's monthly-billing rate, MailerLite's Comfort price at exactly 1,000 subscribers — we say it's missing instead of guessing.

This site earns commissions when readers sign up to tools through some of our links. In this article, the only vendor links are the numbered sources, so you can audit every figure yourself. If you'd rather not use an affiliate link, type the vendor's address in directly; the published prices are the same.

What we'd skip in your position: paying for either platform before you have a lead magnet and about 100 real subscribers; choosing annual billing on a tool whose content rules you haven't confirmed in writing; and building a newsletter whose only content is other people's products ^[4]. Start free, get a written answer, and pay when the free limits actually pinch.

If what you want is the surrounding workflow — landing page, disclosure, first five emails — rather than one more tool opinion, work through our affiliate marketing checklist first.

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.