Startup alternatives guide
ConvertKit Alternatives for Startups: Cheapest Plans and Free Tiers by List Size
Free tiers, paid price at each list size, and the job each tool fits best.
Prices are the public list prices on each vendor's pricing page as of 7 October 2026. Written by the editorial team; see the about page.
For most early-stage SaaS startups leaving ConvertKit, Customer.io is the strongest first pick when product events should drive onboarding. Its Essentials plan is $100 a month for 5,000 profiles, and its event and attribute model supports branching when the team maintains stable identity and naming conventions.
That answer changes if your startup is really a publication. A founder newsletter with a paid tier, a media product or a creator audience is better served by Kit or beehiiv, which are built around subscribers and publishing rather than product events. The rest of this guide explains the trade-offs so you can choose by job rather than by brand.
Before switching anything, separate the four kinds of email you are probably sending from the same account: newsletters, onboarding and product updates, billing and recovery messages, and sales nurture. Each one has different timing, consent and reporting needs, and the cheapest tool for one may be the wrong tool for another.
Comparison at a glance
The table below gives each tool's best use case, its lowest published paid price with billing view, and the limitation that matters most for a startup moving off ConvertKit. Prices are the lowest plan shown on the vendor's pricing page, not the plan a typical account ends up on.
| Tool | Best for | Lowest paid price (plan, billing) | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Creator newsletters and simple paid audiences | $33/month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers (Creator) | Visual automations and sequences start on the Creator plan |
| Loops | Product updates and SaaS messaging on a small budget | Free up to 4,000 sends per 30 days; paid price scales with contacts | Free tier caps sends to 4,000 in any rolling 30 days |
| MailerLite | Simple newsletters and light nurture | $12/month for 500 subscribers (Comfort) | Monthly email allowance scales with the subscriber tier |
| Brevo | Campaigns and transactional mail under one vendor | $9/month for 5,000 emails (Starter) | Keep marketing consent and transactional sending clearly separated |
| beehiiv | Newsletter publishing and subscriber growth | $49/month for up to 100,000 subscribers (Lite) | Built around publications, not application lifecycle |
| Customer.io | Behavior-based journeys owned by engineering | $100/month for 5,000 profiles (Essentials) | Profile volume drives cost, and setup needs event discipline |
| ActiveCampaign | Sales-connected nurture and segmentation | $15/month billed yearly for 1,000 contacts (Starter) | No free plan; a free trial is offered instead |
| Resend | Developer-owned application and transactional mail | $20/month for 50,000 emails (Pro) | Not a publishing or creator tool |
| Mailchimp | Broad campaign ecosystem and familiar workflows | $20/month for 500 contacts (Standard) | Costs step up quickly as contacts grow |
What each tool costs at common list sizes
Startups often ask which free plan lasts longest. The answer depends on whether the limit is contacts, sends or features. The table below lists the free option and the lowest published paid price at each list size. A blank paid cell means the vendor's published tiers do not show a price for that size, so the only accurate answer is to request a quote.
| Contacts | Free option that covers it | Lowest published paid price at this size |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | MailerLite free (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month); Mailchimp free (250 contacts, 500 sends/month) | Not needed at this size |
| 1,000 | Resend marketing free (1,000 contacts, unlimited broadcasts, 3 segments); Kit free (up to 10,000 subscribers, broadcasts only) | ActiveCampaign Starter at $15/month |
| 2,500 | beehiiv free (up to 2,500 subscribers, 1 publication); Kit free | Kit Creator at $33/month billed annually, needed for visual automations |
| 5,000 | None on this list; Resend's free marketing tier stops at 1,000 contacts | Resend Pro marketing at $40/month; Mailchimp at $100/month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts |
| 10,000 | Kit free (up to 10,000 subscribers, without visual automations) | Resend at $80/month; beehiiv Lite at $139/month billed monthly or $119/month billed yearly; Customer.io Essentials 10k profiles at $145/month billed monthly |
| 25,000 | None on this list | Resend Pro marketing at $180/month; Customer.io Essentials 30k profiles at $325/month |
| 50,000 | None on this list | Resend Pro marketing at $250/month; Customer.io 50k+ profiles from $505/month billed monthly |
Two rules follow from the table. First, the free plans are best used to prove the workflow, not to run a growing list for years. Second, contact pricing and send pricing answer different questions. A tool priced by contacts charges you for people on the list, while a tool priced by emails charges you for every message. A small list that sends a lot of product mail can be cheaper on an email-volume plan, and a large list with few sends can be cheaper on a contact plan.
1. Kit: best for creator newsletters and simple paid audiences
Kit is the closest like-for-like move for a startup whose growth comes from a founder's newsletter. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. A founder can grow a list there without paying anything until automation is needed.
Where it falls short: visual automations and email sequences start on the Creator plan, so product onboarding or billing-triggered mail requires a paid tier. It is still creator-first rather than event-first, and it does not replace a system that reads subscription state from your billing provider.
Price: Creator is $33 a month billed annually, which is $396 a year. Pro is $66 a month billed annually, or $792 a year, and adds unlimited users and deliverability reporting. The free plan includes a 14-day trial on paid plans with no card required. See the Kit pricing page.
2. Loops: best for product updates on a small budget
Loops suits a startup whose email audience is users of the product rather than readers of a publication. Its early-stage plan gives unlimited contacts, with up to 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days to the 1,000 newest contacts, all features included, and a 10-emails-per-second rate. That makes it a sensible place to build a product-update and onboarding flow before paying for it.
Where it falls short: the free sends cap is small for a product that emails every user each week, and the free plan adds a Loops footer. The paid Growing Audience plan removes the cap for subscribers and includes transactional sends to users outside your audience, but it is a flat $99 a month. Teams that need a publication toolkit will find less breadth than in Kit or beehiiv.
Price: the early-stage plan is $0. The Growing Audience plan is listed at $99 a month. Check the Loops pricing page for the current contact and send rules before you commit.
3. MailerLite: best for simple newsletters and light nurture
MailerLite is a straightforward replacement when the job is a newsletter and a welcome sequence with little complexity. Its free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which is enough to run a pre-launch list. Its paid plans are simple to explain to a non-technical co-founder.
Where it falls short: the monthly email allowance on the Comfort plan scales with the subscriber tier, so a list that grows quickly needs the allowance rechecked each time. It has less product event depth than a lifecycle tool and is a weaker fit where billing state drives the message.
Price: Comfort is $12 a month billed monthly or $10.80 a month billed annually, on the 500-subscriber starting tier. Power is $25 a month billed monthly or $22.50 a month billed annually, with unlimited monthly emails. The MailerLite pricing page lists the current tiers.
4. Brevo: best for campaigns and transactional mail from one vendor
Brevo suits a startup that wants campaign tools and application mail from a single account. Its free plan offers 300 daily email sends and storage for up to 100,000 contacts, which makes it one of the broadest free offers in this guide. Brevo's Starter and Standard plans add automation and advanced reports once volume grows.
Where it falls short: one vendor for both campaigns and transactional mail means the boundaries must be set deliberately. A receipt sent from a promotional sender can inherit marketing consent rules it should not have. The daily send limit on the free plan also becomes a constraint during launches.
Price: Starter is $9 a month and starts at 5,000 emails a month with no daily limit. Standard is $18 a month at the same volume and adds automation, A/B testing and advanced reports. The Brevo pricing page changes these by monthly email volume.
5. beehiiv: best for publication-led newsletter businesses
beehiiv is for a startup that is operating a media product. Its free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends and one publication, and paid plans add paid subscriptions, automations and audience polls on Lite. Its growth features are built around the publication, so it is a stronger fit than Kit when the newsletter itself is the product.
Where it falls short: it is not designed to sit behind an application's lifecycle. Trigger-based onboarding, billing recovery and usage messages are not its center of gravity, and it should not be asked to replace one.
Price: Lite is $49 a month for up to 100,000 subscribers. Pro is $95 a month for up to 250,000 subscribers and adds advanced analytics and priority support. At 10,000 subscribers on Lite, the listed price is $139 a month billed monthly or $119 a month billed yearly, and yearly billing saves up to 20 percent across plans. See the beehiiv pricing page.
6. Customer.io: best for behavior-based journeys owned by engineering
Customer.io is appropriate when messages depend on product behavior, plan or account state, and an engineering team will own the events. Its journeys can branch on what a customer has done, and its profile plans are sized by the number of people in the workspace, which makes it easier to reason about a product's growth than a publication model.
Where it falls short: flexibility is paid for in setup time and data discipline. Event names, identity merging and journey governance must be owned, and the profile count drives cost quickly. The Premium plan is priced on custom profile volume rather than a list price, so budget conversations need a quote.
Price: the Essentials plan is $100 a month. Profile plans are $145 a month for 10,000 profiles, $235 for 20,000, $325 for 30,000, $415 for 40,000 and $505 for 50,000 and above, all billed monthly. Eligible early-stage companies that have raised under $10 million can receive 12 months free through the Startup Program. Details are on the Customer.io pricing page.
7. ActiveCampaign: best for sales-connected nurture
ActiveCampaign fits a startup where newsletter subscribers must be qualified and followed up by a sales team. Its plans step up from segmentation on Plus to advanced segmentation on Pro, which is where routing a lead by behavior starts to matter. It is the strongest option in this list for a startup with a sales team and a long consideration cycle.
Where it falls short: there is no free plan, only a free trial. Its configuration needs more care than a publication tool, and a small founder team may use only a fraction of what it offers.
Price: Starter is $15 a month, Plus is $49 a month and Pro is $79 a month, each starting at 1,000 email contacts. Enterprise is $145 a month and adds premium segmentation and a dedicated account team. Check the ActiveCampaign pricing page for how the starting price changes with the contact count you select.
8. Resend: best for engineering-owned application mail
Resend is a developer-first sender. A startup might use it for password resets, notifications and receipts so that critical application mail is owned by engineering and kept apart from marketing. Its free plan covers 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day and 3 domains, which is enough to build and test the integration.
Where it falls short: Resend is not a newsletter or creator-publishing product. It is a sending layer, so a team that wants drag-and-drop campaigns will need something else for marketing.
Price: Pro is $20 a month for 50,000 emails. Scale is $90 a month for 100,000 emails. On the marketing side, the free tier covers 1,000 contacts with unlimited broadcasts and 10,000 automation runs, and Pro marketing is $40 a month at 5,000 contacts, $80 at 10,000 and $180 at 25,000. See the Resend pricing page.
9. Mailchimp: best for a broad, familiar campaign ecosystem
Mailchimp suits a startup that needs many templates, integrations and a campaign workflow the team already knows. Its free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily maximum of 250, which is adequate for a small pre-launch audience.
Where it falls short: costs rise in steps with contact count, and the main question of what a user did inside the product is not its strength. A list that grows past the free tier moves into paid contact bands quickly.
Price: Standard starts at $20 a month on the 500-contact selector, with up to 6,000 emails a month at that size. At 2,501 to 5,000 contacts the listed price is $100 a month for up to 60,000 emails. At 5,001 to 10,000 contacts it is $135 a month for up to 120,000 emails. The Mailchimp pricing page shows the current bands.
Decision table: which job points to which tool
Start from the job, not the list size. The table below maps the most common startup situations to the tool that fits them and the reason it fits. Where two tools are close, the reason column says which one is usually the safer starting point.
| If you need | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A founder newsletter with a paid tier, starting free | Kit | Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers, with paid subscriptions and digital products |
| A publication where the newsletter is the product | beehiiv | Publication features and paid subscriptions built around the newsletter |
| Product updates on a very small budget | Loops | Free early-stage plan with all features, within its send cap |
| Campaigns and transactional mail from one vendor | Brevo | Free daily sends and low-cost paid plans from 5,000 emails a month |
| Behavior-based journeys owned by engineers | Customer.io | Profile-based plans and a 12-month program for eligible early-stage companies |
| Sales follow-up from nurture sequences | ActiveCampaign | Segmentation tiers that step up toward advanced segmentation on Pro |
| Receipts, resets and alerts only | Resend or Postmark | Developer-owned sending, with Postmark's free plan covering 100 emails a month |
How to choose
Begin by listing every message the startup sends from the current ConvertKit account. Mark each one as newsletter, onboarding, billing, product update, alert or sales nurture. Most early teams find that only two or three of these matter for the decision. If the list is mostly newsletter, a creator tool such as Kit or a publication tool such as beehiiv is the simplest move. If the list is mostly product-triggered, the choice narrows to Customer.io or Loops depending on whether you need billing data, behavioral branching or a simple update flow.
Next, price the choice at the size you expect in twelve months, not the size you have today. A free plan that covers 1,000 contacts is useful for a pilot but not for a growth plan. Count contacts or profiles, sends, transactional volume, seats and automation access separately. Plans that look cheap on the entry tier can cost more once automations are needed, and annual billing can change the monthly figure by a meaningful amount.
Finally, decide who owns the output. A tool that engineers configure through an API, such as Customer.io, needs a named owner for event names and journeys. A tool that marketing configures through a visual builder needs a named owner for consent and suppression. Without an owner, the cheapest plan becomes the most expensive one within a year.
Transactional mail should not share a sender with marketing
Many startups discover that receipts, password resets and login alerts are being sent from the same tool as the newsletter. That is the moment to split them. Application mail should go out on a stream that marketing consent cannot block, with its own domain or subdomain and its own logs. Postmark is designed for this kind of critical delivery, and its free plan covers 100 emails a month. Its Basic plan starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails. Resend, covered above, is the developer-owned alternative.
Keep the rule simple: anything the customer must receive to use the product goes on the transactional stream, and anything the customer can opt out of goes on the marketing stream. Test the boundary by unsubscribing from a newsletter and confirming that a password reset still arrives.
Migration checklist
Moving off ConvertKit is safest when it is done in stages. Move one bounded journey first, then the newsletter, then the rest. The table below lists the checks that matter for a startup, with the condition that shows the step is finished.
| Step | What to check | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| Export and consent | Subscriber list, consent records, tags and unsubscribes exported and matched | A sample of 100 contacts reconciles on both sides |
| Domain and sender | Sending domain authenticated on the new tool; transactional and marketing streams separated | Authentication passes and each stream has its own sender |
| Events and identity | Customer ID, plan and billing events mapped to the new tool's fields | One test account moves through the full path with correct data |
| First journey | Welcome or onboarding sequence rebuilt with timing, exits and suppression | A test user receives each step once and exits on the correct trigger |
| Newsletter cutover | Broadcast template, segments and send schedule recreated | One live issue sends to the intended segment without errors |
| Reporting and rollback | Open, click and revenue reporting defined; ConvertKit kept active for a set period | A named owner has a runbook and a date to turn off the old flow |
A practical order for a startup: export the list first and reconcile consent. Then set up the sender domain and the transactional stream. Rebuild the first journey and test it with a test account. Only then cut over the newsletter. Keep ConvertKit running until the new flow has sent a full cycle without errors, and make the shutdown date part of the plan.
Continue with the startup alternatives hub, newsletter use cases, and the transactional email platforms guide.
ConvertKit alternatives FAQ
Which ConvertKit alternative is cheapest for a startup with 1,000 contacts?
Free options cover 1,000 contacts without a card. Resend's marketing tier lists 1,000 contacts with unlimited broadcast sending and 3 segments. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers for broadcasts, tagging and landing pages. If you need paid automations at this size, ActiveCampaign's Starter plan is listed at $15 a month for 1,000 contacts.
Is there a free plan that handles SaaS lifecycle email?
Loops offers an early-stage plan with up to 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days to your 1,000 newest contacts, but that cap is tight for a product that sends triggered mail every day. Check the send math against your own volume before choosing it.
When does a startup need to leave ConvertKit for a product-event tool?
Move when the decision depends on what a user did in the product, what plan they pay for, or whether an invoice failed. Newsletters and simple sequences work fine in a broadcast tool. Event-triggered onboarding, dunning and usage-based messages need event data, identity matching and suppression rules that broadcast-first tools handle less directly.
Do I need a separate tool for transactional email like receipts and password resets?
Often yes. Marketing tools are built around broadcasts and sequences, and sending receipts or password resets through the same sender can damage reputation and mix consent rules. Postmark's free plan covers 100 emails a month and its Basic plan starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails. Resend's free plan covers 3,000 emails a month. Keep critical mail on a separate stream.
Is Customer.io free for early-stage startups?
Customer.io lists a startup program for eligible early-stage companies that have raised under $10 million, which gives 12 months free. It is not an ongoing free plan. Outside that program, its published Essentials plans start at $100 a month, and profile-based plans such as 10,000 profiles are listed at $145 a month billed monthly.
How should I compare total cost, not just the entry price?
Model contacts or profiles, monthly sends, transactional volume, seats, automation access and any annual discount. Plans that look cheap at 1,000 contacts can cost more than a per-send tool once you add automations or extra sends. Kit's paid automations begin at its Creator tier, and Mailchimp's send allowance changes with its contact tier.