# Kit vs Mailchimp

A creator platform for selling to subscribers against an all-round marketing account.

Canonical: https://brew.new/compare/kit-vs-mailchimp

## The short version

Choose Kit if you are a creator selling digital products or paid newsletters and want a large free plan and unlimited automations on paid plans.

Choose Mailchimp if you run a business and want a website builder, product recommendations and AI copy help next to your email.

Choose Brew if you want a fully agentic setup, where your AI agent drives lifecycle marketing to engage and retain customers. Brew designs every email from your brand and runs your automations agentically.

## Kit vs Mailchimp, side by side

### Key differences

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Billed on | Confirmed subscribers; unsubscribes don’t count | Contacts, counted once per audience | Emails sent and AI credits |
| Fully agentic | Partly: AI drafts and organizes; your team runs the rest in Kit | Partly: AI assists with copy; your team does the work in the app | Your agent designs, sends and runs automations end to end |
| Designs finished, on-brand emails | AI writes subject lines; you design each email | Writes copy and subject lines; you design each email | Layout, copy and images from your brand, ready to send |
| Your agent takes it live | Partly: Drafts broadcasts; you click Confirm in Kit to send | Claude and ChatGPT connectors draft; you finish and send in Mailchimp | Sends, schedules and runs automations; OAuth and org-scoped MCP require confirmation, brand API keys do not |
| Automations by plan | Partly: Unlimited on Creator and Pro; none on Free | Partly: Up to 4 steps on Essentials; none on Free | No step or flow limits on any plan |
| Landing pages, forms and websites | Landing pages and forms | Landing pages and a website builder | Email only |

### Creating emails

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Remembers your brand for every email | Partly: Saved templates and branded sections, reused by hand | Partly: Brand kit takes colors and fonts from your site; logos by hand | Brand files your agent reads every time |
| Visual editor | Email designer with 40+ templates | Drag-and-drop builder with 250+ templates | Infinite canvas, edit by hand or in chat |
| Bring the emails you already have | Custom templates in HTML and CSS | Partly: Custom-coded templates; sending them needs Standard | HTML, MJML, React Email, Figma or a forwarded email |

### Automation

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Event-triggered automations | Signups, link clicks, purchases and inactivity | Signups, store activity and dates | Stripe, Shopify, Clerk, Supabase or your own events |
| Builds an automation from a description | Built in the visual builder or from templates | Partly: AI fills in pre-built flow templates, Standard and up | Emails, waits and branches together |

### Channels

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SMS | SMS marketing on Creator and up | Paid add-on in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and parts of Europe | Email only |

### Agents and developers

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MCP server for AI agents | Partly: Subscribers, tags and drafts on paid plans; no automations | Partly: Searches the docs; a separate one for transactional email | Every Brew tool, in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Grok |
| API | API and webhooks | Marketing API and webhooks | REST API, typed SDK and CLI |

### Pricing

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Unlimited contacts | Priced by confirmed subscribers | Priced by contacts, unsubscribed ones included | On every plan; you pay for sends |
| Getting started | Free plan up to 10,000 subscribers, no automations | Free plan: 250 contacts, 500 sends a month | Free trial with 500 AI credits and 1,000 sends |
| First paid plan | Creator, $39/month for 1,000 subscribers; $33 billed yearly | Essentials, from $13/month for 500 contacts; no AI features | Growth, $99/month: 10,000 AI credits and 50,000 sends |
| Next plan | Pro, $79/month for 1,000 subscribers; $66 billed yearly | Standard, from $20/month for 500 contacts; adds AI and longer flows | Pro, $249/month: 25,000 AI credits and 200,000 sends |
| Top plan | Pro; no enterprise plan listed | Premium, from $350/month for 10,000 contacts: phone support and SSO | Enterprise: custom volume and a dedicated account manager |

### Security and compliance

| | Kit | Mailchimp | Brew |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SOC 2 and ISO 27001 | Not listed for Kit; its hosting providers hold them | SOC 2 reports and ISO 27001 | Not yet; security review and DPA on request |

## Where Kit is stronger

- A free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, against 250 contacts on Mailchimp’s free plan.
- Sells digital products, paid newsletters and memberships from the same account.
- Unlimited automations on Creator and Pro. Mailchimp Essentials allows 4 steps per flow.
- Only confirmed subscribers are billed. Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts and bills a person again for every audience they are in.

## Where Mailchimp is stronger

- A website builder next to landing pages, and product recommendations on every plan.
- AI writes copy, subject lines and preview text and fills in flow templates on Standard and up. Kit’s AI writes subject lines, and automations are built by hand or from templates.
- Its brand kit takes colors and fonts from your site. In Kit, you reuse saved templates and branded sections by hand.
- SOC 2 reports and ISO 27001 of its own. Kit’s security page names its hosting providers’ certifications, not Kit’s.

## Where both fall short

Neither designs a finished, on-brand email. Kit’s AI writes subject lines and Mailchimp’s writes copy and subject lines; in both, you design each email in the editor.

Teams that move to Brew tell us AI drafts from tools like these rarely look like their brand, so someone still redesigns them.

Both price on the size of your list, so subscribers you rarely email still cost money.

## Pricing at the same list size

Kit lists its prices at 1,000 subscribers: Creator is $39/month, or $33 billed yearly, and Pro $79/month, or $66 billed yearly. Mailchimp lists Essentials from $13/month and Standard from $20/month at 500 contacts, and Premium from $350/month at 10,000 contacts, so the two pricing pages start at different list sizes.

The free plans are far apart. Kit’s covers up to 10,000 subscribers but has no automations; Mailchimp’s covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. Kit counts only confirmed subscribers; Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts too, once for every audience they are in.

Brew bills on emails sent and AI credits, with unlimited contacts: Growth is $99/month for 50,000 sends and 10,000 AI credits.

## When to consider Brew

Brew is fully agentic: your agent designs on-brand emails, sends them and runs your automations. Unlimited contacts on every plan. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

- [Brew vs Kit](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-convertkit.md)
- [Brew vs Mailchimp](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-mailchimp.md)

## Your agent runs your lifecycle email.

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Grok over MCP and your agent gets every Brew tool. It designs emails from your brand, builds audiences, runs automations and schedules sends. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

## Every email designed from your brand.

Paste your website and Brew writes your brand into two files your agent reads for every email. Describe the email and it appears on the canvas, ready to edit by hand or in chat.

## Questions

### Is Kit or Mailchimp better for creators?

Kit, for most creators: it sells digital products, paid newsletters and memberships, its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, and Creator and Pro include unlimited automations. Mailchimp suits a business that wants a website builder and product recommendations next to its email.

### Which is cheaper, Kit or Mailchimp?

It depends on your list. Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers without automations; Mailchimp’s covers 250 contacts. On paid plans, Mailchimp Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts, and Kit Creator is $39/month for 1,000 subscribers, or $33 billed yearly. Kit bills only confirmed subscribers; Mailchimp counts unsubscribed contacts, once for every audience they are in.

### Which has better AI, Kit or Mailchimp?

They do different things. Mailchimp’s AI writes copy, subject lines and preview text and fills in flow templates on Standard and up, and its Claude and ChatGPT connectors draft campaigns; its MCP server searches the docs. Kit’s AI writes subject lines, and Kit MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT and other clients manage subscribers and draft broadcasts and sequence emails on Creator and Pro. A Kit broadcast sends only after you click Confirm in Kit. Neither designs a finished, on-brand email; Brew does.

### Is there an alternative to Kit and Mailchimp?

Brew, if you want an agent to run your email. Your agent designs finished, on-brand emails from your brand, sends them and runs your automations, with unlimited contacts and seats on every plan. Brew is email only, so landing pages, SMS and product sales stay in another tool.

### Can I use Brew with Kit or Mailchimp?

Yes. Connect Mailchimp in Brew and save any email as a Mailchimp template, ready for your campaigns and flows. For Kit, export the finished email as HTML and save it as a custom template, which Kit accepts in HTML and CSS.

## Sources and review

Brew publishes this comparison. Brew Team reviewed the linked first-party documentation. This is a documentation review, not a claim of hands-on testing of every product. Pricing and plan limits can change.

Work at Kit or Mailchimp? If anything on this page is wrong or out of date, email support@brew.new and we will correct it. We want to compete on the product, not on a mistaken comparison.

- [Kit pricing](https://kit.com/pricing)
- [Kit MCP tools](https://help.kit.com/en/articles/15072804-kit-mcp-tools)
- [Connect the Kit MCP to your AI tools](https://help.kit.com/en/articles/14827557-how-to-connect-the-kit-mcp-to-your-ai-tools)
- [Kit and AI](https://kit.com/ai)
- [Kit subscriber status and billing](https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502651-the-subscriber-profile-page-and-status)
- [Export subscribers from Kit](https://help.kit.com/en/articles/2502489-how-to-export-subscribers-in-kit)
- [Kit security](https://kit.com/security)
- [Mailchimp plans](https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/)
- [Mailchimp pricing plans: what counts as a contact](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/)
- [Mailchimp AI tools](https://mailchimp.com/solutions/ai-tools/)
- [Mailchimp and Claude](https://mailchimp.com/resources/connect-mailchimp-to-claude/)
- [Mailchimp MCP server](https://mailchimp.com/developer/marketing/build/ai-tools/mcp-server)
- [Mailchimp customer journeys](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-customer-journeys/)
- [Mailchimp security](https://mailchimp.com/about/security/)
- [Brew vs Kit](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-convertkit)
- [Brew vs Mailchimp](https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-mailchimp)
- [Brew pricing](https://brew.new/pricing)
- [All Brew comparisons](https://brew.new/compare)

Updated October 2026