Creator buying guide
Best Email Automation Tools for Creators
For most coaches, course sellers and consultants, start with Kit (formerly ConvertKit): the free plan covers forms, landing pages and broadcasts for up to 10,000 subscribers, and Creator at $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers adds the Visual Automations and sequences a launch needs. Choose MailerLite when price decides ($19 a month for 1,000 subscribers on monthly billing), beehiiv when the newsletter is the product, Flodesk when design and checkout matter most, and ActiveCampaign when a sales pipeline sits behind the list.
Creators need an audience system that protects trust while moving people from a useful subscription to a course, product, membership, or paid publication. The best choice depends on the publishing workflow, the event that should change the next message, and how much operational complexity the creator can own.
How to evaluate creator automation
Start with one promise and one next step: deliver a lead magnet, welcome a new reader, teach a course lesson, or help a buyer use what they purchased. Write down the trigger, the useful message, the stop condition, and the owner before comparing features. That small contract prevents a creator funnel from sending a sales pitch after someone has already bought.
Three limits decide most creator purchases, and they sit in different places on each vendor’s page. Kit’s free plan has no sequences, Flodesk Lite has one workflow, and Mailchimp’s free plan allows 500 sends a month; each of those is a wall you hit the first time you build a launch. Prices below were read from each vendor’s own pricing page on October 7, 2026, and the tool names link to those pages. Billing differs between vendors (Kit and ActiveCampaign quote yearly billing, MailerLite and Flodesk monthly rates), so compare within a row of the cost table rather than across billing terms.
| Decision lens | Question to answer | Evidence for a pilot |
|---|---|---|
| Audience ownership | Can you export subscribers and preserve consent, tags, and purchase state? | Test export, unsubscribe, preference, and re-import behavior |
| Offer timing | What event changes the message: download, click, purchase, or cancellation? | One trigger, one exit rule, and one test subscriber |
| Trust and cost | What will the creator maintain besides the monthly bill? | Copy review, data hygiene, deliverability, support, and failure recovery |
Shortlist by creator job
| Tool | Best for | Pricing caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Kit | Course, coaching and newsletter lists with digital products | Free up to 10,000 subscribers; Creator $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $75 for 5,000 subscribers, $116 for 10,000 subscribers (billed yearly) |
| beehiiv | Publication-led newsletters and growth loops | Free up to 2,500 subscribers; Lite $49 a month and Pro $95 a month (yearly billing) |
| MailerLite | Lean lead magnets and product launches | Free for 250 subscribers; Comfort $19 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $49 for 5,000 subscribers, $89 for 10,000 subscribers (monthly billing) |
| Flodesk | Design-first emails and checkout for coaches and course sellers | Free plan without email sending; Lite $25 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $52 for 5,000 subscribers, $72 for 10,000 subscribers (monthly billing) |
| ActiveCampaign | Segmented creator funnels and coaching pipelines | Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79 a month at 1,000 contacts; Starter $79 at 5,000 and $149 at 10,000 (billed yearly) |
| Substack | Paid publications with a simple editorial cadence | No monthly fee; 10% of paid-subscription revenue plus Stripe fees |
| Ghost | Owned membership publications | Ghost(Pro) billed yearly: Starter $15 a month, Publisher $29, Business $199 for 10,000 members |
| Customer.io | Behavioral journeys for a creator product | Essentials $100 a month for 5k profiles (billed monthly); Premium from $1,000 a month (billed yearly) |
| HubSpot | Creator businesses with CRM and sales context | Free tools; Marketing Hub Starter $7, Professional $800, Enterprise $3,600 a month (priced per seat) |
| Brevo | Budget-conscious campaigns and automation | Free with 300 sends a day; Starter from $9 and Standard from $18 a month |
| Drip | Commerce-led creator brands | $39 a month for up to 2,500 people; $89 for 5,000 people and $154 for 10,000 people; 14-day trial |
| Loops | Simple SaaS-style creator funnels | Free for 1,000 newest contacts; paid $48 at 4,788 subscribers, $99 at 9,998 subscribers |
| Mailchimp | Familiar broadcasts and audience journeys | Free for 250 contacts; Standard from $20 at 500 contacts, $100 for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts, $135 for 5,001 to 10,000 |
Kit: Course, coaching and newsletter lists with digital products
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is first on this list for the people this site is written for: coaches, course sellers and consultants with a list of a few thousand. The free plan covers unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts for up to 10,000 subscribers, with tagging and segmentation, and it can sell digital products and subscriptions, so a lead magnet and a paid guide can run before you pay anything. A welcome sequence or a Visual Automation is where the free plan stops, because those start on Creator, which also adds A/B subject-line tests, removes Kit branding and includes 24/7 email and chat support. Pro adds Subscriber Signals, unlimited users, deliverability reporting and a newsletter referral system, which is worth paying for only when a team shares the account. Kit offers a 14-day trial with no credit card and free migrations.
What it costs: Creator is $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $75 at 5,000 subscribers, $116 at 10,000 subscribers and $166 at 25,000 subscribers, billed yearly. Pro is $66 at 1,000 subscribers (the page shows a first-year promotion of $50), $158 at 10,000 subscribers and $233 at 25,000 subscribers. The figures come from the Kit pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course, coaching and newsletter lists with digital products | Forms, landing pages, sequences and product sales in one creator-oriented workspace, with free migrations from your current tool. | Visual Automations and sequences are not on the free plan, and complex commerce, support or account-level journeys may need other systems. | Connect one lead magnet to a welcome sequence and measure qualified subscribers after 14 days; then sell one low-price product from the same page and confirm the buyer leaves the sales emails. |
beehiiv: Publication-led newsletters and growth loops
beehiiv is a publishing platform with an email tool inside it. Its feature list includes a website, podcasts, a community, digital products and an ad network alongside automations, so it fits a newsletter that is itself the product and grows through referrals and a public archive. The free plan allows up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, but only 1 publication and 1 team seat; automations, paid subscriptions and audience polls start on Lite. A coach who sells a program rather than the newsletter itself will use fewer of those parts than a writer would.
What it costs: Lite is $49 a month and Pro $95 a month, both with yearly billing. The page lists Lite for up to 100,000 subscribers with 2 team seats, and Pro for up to 250,000 subscribers with 10 seats, advanced analytics and priority support. beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid-subscription and digital-product revenue, so the cost beyond the plan is Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. The figures come from the beehiiv pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publication-led newsletters and growth loops | A strong fit when publishing, referrals, and newsletter growth are the operating center. | Validate automation depth and product or membership integrations before replacing a broader stack. | Run one welcome path for a single acquisition source and compare engagement with an unbranched baseline. |
MailerLite: Lean lead magnets and product launches
MailerLite is the budget answer for a creator with a list in the low thousands who wants automations, landing pages and digital-product sales without paying per feature. The free plan allows 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with 2 seats, which is enough to test a lead magnet. On Comfort the monthly email allowance is ten times the ceiling of your subscriber tier, and Power has unlimited emails. MailerLite states that its data storage center is in the European Union with ISO 27001 certification, which matters to a coach with European clients; its privacy policy page carries the details.
What it costs: Comfort is $12 a month at 500 subscribers ($10.80 with annual billing) and, on monthly billing, $19 at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000, $89 at 10,000 and $179 at 25,000. Power is $39, $69, $129 and $239 at the same four sizes. The figures come from the MailerLite pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean lead magnets and product launches | Accessible forms, campaigns, and visual automations can suit a small creator team, at a low price per subscriber. | Complex event models and advanced revenue attribution may require integrations or custom work. | Deliver one download, branch once on a meaningful click, and test the unsubscribe and preference paths. |
Flodesk: Design-first emails and checkout for coaches and course sellers
Flodesk sells on design and prices by active subscribers. Its free plan covers forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages but does not send email or run workflows. Lite allows unlimited sends but only 1 workflow and up to 25,000 subscribers; Pro removes the workflow limit and adds integrated checkout and 2 seats; Everything adds unlimited checkouts, sales pages, payment plans and subscriptions with 3 seats. For a coach who sells one offer from a branded email and a checkout page, Pro or Everything can take the place of a separate checkout tool; a creator who needs many segmented sequences gets more room from Kit or ActiveCampaign.
What it costs: At 1,000 subscribers Lite is $25 a month ($19 with annual billing), Pro $28 ($25) and Everything $54 ($49). Lite on monthly billing is $32 at 2,500 subscribers, $52 at 5,000, $72 at 10,000 and $162 at 25,000; Pro is $39, $59, $79 and $169; Everything is $107 at 5,000 and $137 at 10,000. The figures come from the Flodesk pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design-first emails and checkout for coaches and course sellers | Template-led emails, with integrated checkout, sales pages and payment plans on the higher plans. | Lite allows one workflow, so a launch with several sequences needs Pro, and the free plan cannot send email. | Build one welcome workflow on Lite, then test whether a single checkout page on Pro would replace the payment tool you use now. |
ActiveCampaign: Segmented creator funnels and coaching pipelines
ActiveCampaign is the step up for a creator whose business has a sales motion: coaching enquiries, discovery calls, several offers for different audiences. Its automations branch on what someone clicked or bought and can feed a built-in CRM, which a newsletter-first tool does less of. Starter is the entry plan but allows 1 user and 5 actions per automation, so a launch sequence with branches belongs on Plus. Every price on the page is billed annually.
What it costs: At 1,000 contacts, billed annually, Starter is $15 a month, Plus $49, Pro $79 and Enterprise $145. Starter is $39 at 2,500 contacts, $79 at 5,000 and $149 at 10,000; Plus is $95, $145 and $189 at the same sizes. The figures come from the ActiveCampaign pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segmented creator funnels and coaching pipelines | Useful for creators selling several offers to audiences with different interests and lifecycle states. | Automation overlap and contact-field sprawl become real maintenance costs as the funnel grows, and Starter allows 1 user and 5 actions per automation. | Build one three-email offer path with a purchase exit, a cooldown, and a manual review of edge cases. |
Substack: Paid publications with a simple editorial cadence
Substack is the simplest route for a writer whose product is the writing. Publishing is free and there is no monthly plan; if you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue and Stripe charges its own fees. A custom domain costs a one-time $50, and emails are still sent from your-subdomain@substack.com. Two points matter to a coach or course seller: Substack cannot export subscriber names with the list, and it is publication-first, so tags, branching sequences and purchase-based suppression are thin. Substack says that from December 1, 2026 it will calculate, collect and remit sales tax or VAT on paid subscriptions, with exceptions for publishers in some countries.
What it costs: On a $10 paid subscription Substack keeps $1.00, and Stripe card processing is 2.9% + $0.30, which is $0.59 on that payment; Stripe Billing for recurring payments adds 0.7%. There is no flat plan fee, so the cost rises with revenue instead of with list size. The figures come from the Substack pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid publications with a simple editorial cadence | Low operational overhead for writers whose core product is a recurring publication. | A publication-first workflow may be limiting for elaborate segmentation or multi-product funnels, and the subscriber export does not include names. | Map free-to-paid conversion for one recurring series and document export, consent, and cancellation handling. |
Ghost: Owned membership publications
Ghost is the pick for a creator who wants an owned website, memberships and a newsletter in one product instead of a separate site. The pricing page lists 0% Ghost transaction fees on paid subscriptions, the main contrast with Substack’s 10%. Plan limits are set on members and staff: Starter covers 1,000 members with 1 staff user and no paid subscriptions, Publisher adds paid subscriptions and 3 staff users, and Business covers 10,000 members with 15 staff users and priority support. Ghost is also open-source software you can host yourself, but that is a separate route with its own maintenance.
What it costs: Starter is $15 a month, Publisher $29 and Business $199, all billed yearly, with the page’s audience slider set to 1,000 members for the first two. Larger audiences than Business covers need a custom price. The figures come from the Ghost pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned membership publications | Combines publishing, memberships, and an owned web presence for teams prioritizing control. | Hosting, integrations, and custom lifecycle logic may require more technical ownership. | Create one member welcome series and verify access changes when a subscription starts, pauses, or ends. |
Customer.io: Behavioral journeys for a creator product
Customer.io belongs on a creator list only when the business is also a product: a members-only app, a community or a course platform that can send an event such as “finished lesson three”. Messages then react to those events, which a list-based tool cannot see. Essentials includes 1 million emails a month, far beyond what a list of a few thousand sends, so the bill is driven by profiles. Without a developer to send the events, Kit or ActiveCampaign will do more for less effort.
What it costs: Essentials is $100 a month, billed monthly, for 5k profiles, with $145 at 10k and $235 at 20k and $0.009 for each extra profile. A profile that existed at any point in the month counts toward that month even if you delete it. Premium starts at $1,000 a month, billed yearly. The figures come from the Customer.io pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavioral journeys for a creator product | Event and attribute-driven workflows can fit apps, communities, and products with behavioral data. | It is a larger operating surface than many newsletter-first creators need. | Trigger one activation or course-progress journey from a documented event and compare it with a holdout. |
HubSpot: Creator businesses with CRM and sales context
HubSpot suits a creator whose offers include high-ticket coaching or consulting sold through calls: the CRM keeps the lead, the deal and the email history in one record, and the free tools cost nothing. The price step is the catch. Marketing Hub Starter allows up to 10 automated actions, Professional is unlimited and lists omni-channel automation too, so a long launch sequence with branches means comparing $800 a month against Kit Creator at $75 for 5,000 subscribers.
What it costs: Starter is $7 a month, Professional $800 and Enterprise $3,600, priced per seat as HubSpot’s pricing page reads, with free tools at no cost. The figures come from the HubSpot pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creator businesses with CRM and sales context | Connects lead capture and nurture with CRM records, deals, and service context. | The broader platform can introduce cost and process overhead for a solo creator, and Starter caps automation at 10 automated actions. | Use one offer pipeline and one nurture branch, then audit consent, ownership, and sales handoffs. |
Brevo: Budget-conscious campaigns and automation
Brevo is a lean option when sending volume matters more than list size. The free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends 300 emails a day, so a list of 6,000 would take 20 days to mail once. Starter and Standard both start from 5,000 emails a month, and Standard adds automation, A/B testing and advanced reports. Brevo also offers web and mobile push and WhatsApp campaigns, which a coach with a phone-first audience may want next to email.
What it costs: Starter starts at $9 a month and Standard at $18; the first listed tier of each stores up to 500 contacts. Professional starts at $499 a month for 150,000 to 10 million monthly sends. The figures come from the Brevo pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget-conscious campaigns and automation | Can cover campaign and automation needs when a creator wants a relatively broad but lean stack. | The free plan caps sends at 300 a day, and segmentation, event detail and reporting need checking against the intended funnel. | Separate editorial, promotional, and transactional messages and test one consented launch sequence. |
Drip: Commerce-led creator brands
Drip is for the creator who sells products to the list: merchandise, a physical kit, a course with a cart. Its automations key on purchase behavior, with revenue attribution and dynamic segments, up to 50 workflows and unlimited email sends on the plans the page lists. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial with no credit card. A creator who sells one course and a coaching call gets the same job done for less on Kit or MailerLite.
What it costs: The entry tier is $39 a month for 1 to 2,500 people, then $49 at 3,000 people, $89 at 5,000 people, $154 at 10,000 people and $369 at 25,000 people, according to Drip’s pricing slider. The figures come from the Drip pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commerce-led creator brands | A commerce-oriented model can help creators coordinate content, products, and buyer behavior. | It may be unnecessary for a creator whose business is only a free newsletter or single download, and there is no ongoing free plan. | Start with one product education flow and suppress buyers immediately after the conversion event. |
Loops: Simple SaaS-style creator funnels
Loops is for a creator who runs a small app or software product and wants onboarding emails triggered by what users do. The free plan sends up to 4,000 emails in any rolling 30 days to your 1,000 newest contacts; paid plans send without a cap, include transactional email and charge no seat fees. It is a narrower tool than Kit for a newsletter or a launch, so choose it only if your business is closer to software than to publishing.
What it costs: The slider on Loops’ pricing page reads $48 a month at 4,788 subscribers, $99 at 9,998 subscribers, $198 at 24,339 subscribers and $249 at 49,989 subscribers. The figures come from the Loops pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple SaaS-style creator funnels | A focused workflow can be easier to operate for creators with a small set of events and messages. | Validate publishing, commerce, experimentation, and export needs before making it the system of record. | Run one welcome or activation sequence from a small event vocabulary with a documented rollback path. |
Mailchimp: Familiar broadcasts and audience journeys
Mailchimp is a safe default if you already know its editor. The free plan covers 1 audience, up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a cap of 250 a day. Essentials has 3 seats, Standard has 5 seats and can send custom-coded templates, and Premium has unlimited seats. At 5,000 subscribers Standard is $100 against $49 for MailerLite Comfort, so a familiar editor is the thing you are paying the difference for.
What it costs: Essentials starts at $13 a month and Standard at $20 for 500 contacts; Standard is $100 for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts (a 50% first-12-months offer shows $50) and $135 for 5,001 to 10,000. Premium starts at $350 a month. The figures come from the Mailchimp pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons | Implementation pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Familiar broadcasts and audience journeys | Familiar campaign operations can work for newsletters, launches, and permission-based audiences. | Advanced behavioral or product journeys may depend on integrations and careful data hygiene, and the free plan’s 500 monthly sends cover two sends to 250 people. | Send one segmented launch with a preference center, a suppression test, and a post-send revenue review. |
What a creator list costs at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers
Each row uses an entry plan that includes automations, since a welcome sequence is the first thing a creator builds. Billing terms are noted in the first column.
| Tool and plan | 1,000 subscribers | 5,000 subscribers | 10,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kit Creator (billed yearly) | $33 | $75 | $116 |
| MailerLite Comfort (monthly billing) | $19 | $49 | $89 |
| Flodesk Lite (monthly, 1 workflow) | $25 | $52 | $72 |
| Flodesk Pro (monthly, unlimited workflows) | $28 | $59 | $79 |
| ActiveCampaign Starter (billed yearly) | $15 | $79 | $149 |
| Drip | $39 (the tier covers up to 2,500 people) | $89 | $154 |
| Mailchimp Standard | from $20 at 500 contacts | $100 (2,501 to 5,000 contacts) | $135 (5,001 to 10,000 contacts) |
| Loops | Free for the 1,000 newest contacts | $48 at 4,788 subscribers | $99 at 9,998 subscribers |
ActiveCampaign Starter is the cheapest line at 1,000 subscribers and the dearest of the three full-feature creator tools at 10,000: $149 against $116 for Kit Creator and $89 for MailerLite Comfort. At 5,000 subscribers Kit Creator’s $75 sits $26 above MailerLite Comfort’s $49 on the displayed rates, though one is billed yearly and the other monthly. beehiiv is left out of the grid because its page headlines Lite at $49 and Pro at $95 with yearly billing, free up to 2,500 subscribers; confirm what your list size costs on its page before comparing it cell for cell.
A worked example. A course seller with 5,000 subscribers needs a welcome sequence, a launch sequence and a rule that removes buyers from the sales emails. On Flodesk Lite that is three workflows against a limit of one, so the real plan is Pro at $59. MailerLite Comfort at $49 and Kit Creator at $75 allow it without a plan change. If the same seller also takes coaching enquiries and wants each lead moved through a pipeline, ActiveCampaign Plus at $145 for 5,000 contacts is the line to price, not Starter at $79 with its 5-action limit per automation.
A creator-safe implementation pilot
| Phase | What to do | Proceed when |
|---|---|---|
| Promise | Choose one audience, one useful promise, one offer, and one owner. | The subscriber can explain why they joined and what comes next. |
| Instrument | Test consent, identity, delivery, purchase suppression, preferences, and replies. | A test contact receives one correct path and exits at the right state. |
| Measure | Use qualified clicks, downloads, activation, sales, retention, or replies—not opens alone. | Results have a baseline, cohort definition, and review date. |
| Expand | Add branches only when the data owner, copy owner, and rollback path are explicit. | The creator can explain maintenance cost and failure recovery before adding volume. |
For implementation context, read our email automation guide, personalization guide, and metrics guide. For adjacent use cases, see digital-product tools and course tools.
Decision table: which tool fits your priority?
| If your priority is… | Test first | Confirm before committing |
|---|---|---|
| A lead magnet, a welcome sequence and a launch to a few thousand people | Kit, with MailerLite as the cheaper alternative | That the plan you can afford includes sequences, which Kit’s free plan does not |
| A newsletter that is the product, with referrals and a public archive | beehiiv, or Substack for the simplest set-up | beehiiv’s 2,500-subscriber free limit, or Substack’s 10% of paid revenue |
| Beautiful emails and a checkout in one place | Flodesk Pro, or Everything for payment plans and subscriptions | That the one workflow on Lite will not cover your sequences |
| High-ticket coaching sold through calls | ActiveCampaign Plus, or HubSpot free tools to start | The 5-action limit on ActiveCampaign Starter, or the 10 automated actions on HubSpot Starter |
| Your own site, memberships and newsletter | Ghost Publisher | That your members fit the 1,000-member limit before Business at $199 |
| A members-only app or a course platform with events | Customer.io or Loops | That your product can send an event when a student finishes a lesson |
| Products sold from the list, with purchase behavior | Drip | That its $39 entry tier, which covers up to 2,500 people, fits the audience |
| A free, familiar editor for a small list | Mailchimp free, or Brevo free | Mailchimp’s 500 sends a month, or Brevo’s 300 sends a day |
Four weeks before you launch a course or cohort
Moving the list to a new tool in the middle of a launch is how buyers end up getting sales emails. Do the move in the quiet weeks before a launch, in this order.
| Week | What you do | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Export your subscribers with tags, sign-up dates and buyer status from the current tool, and work out the bill on your two finalists at your list size and at double it | You know which plan you would be on, Kit Creator, MailerLite Comfort or ActiveCampaign Plus, if the list doubles |
| 2 | Import into the new tool (Kit offers free migrations) and rebuild the sign-up form for your main lead magnet | A test sign-up from your phone arrives with the right tag and the lead magnet email |
| 3 | Write the welcome sequence and the buyer exit: the moment someone purchases, they leave the sales sequence and enter onboarding | A test purchase moves the test contact out of the sales path without a manual step |
| 4 | Send to a small slice of the list, read the replies, then switch the form and checkout over | You can say how many people reached the course page and how many unsubscribed |
What a good pilot actually measures
| Measurement trap | Why it misleads for a creator | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate on a lead-magnet sequence | Apple Mail pre-loads images, so a share of opens come from no one | Count clicks to the offer page, replies and sales from that sequence |
| Judging Kit on its free plan | Free has no Visual Automations or sequences, so the tool you test is not the one you will use | Run the 14-day Creator trial on your real list |
| Comparing tools on the 1,000-subscriber price | ActiveCampaign Starter is $15 at 1,000 contacts but $149 at 10,000, a steeper climb than Kit or MailerLite | Price each finalist at your list size today and at double it |
| A one-week trial in a launch month | You see the sale but not the unsubscribes and complaints that follow | Watch at least two sends after the cart closes |
Common implementation mistakes to avoid
- Sending the course sales sequence to people who already bought, because the purchase never reached the email tool as a tag
- Importing a list from a giveaway or a past business without sign-up dates, then mailing the whole thing from a new sending domain
- Building the welcome sequence on a plan that does not include it, such as Kit’s free plan, and finding out the night before launch
- Choosing a tool for its template gallery when what you need is an exit rule that fires when someone buys
Recommended reading order
- Getting started with email automation, for the first workflow before you pick a tool
- Welcome email automation, for the first sequence a new subscriber receives
- Best email automation tools for online courses, if the list exists to sell a course
- Best email automation tools for memberships, if you sell paid access
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) vs Mailchimp, for a head-to-head on the two most common starting points
FAQ
What is the best email automation tool for creators?
For coaches, course sellers and consultants it is Kit (formerly ConvertKit): free up to 10,000 subscribers for forms, landing pages and broadcasts, and Creator is $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $75 at 5,000 and $116 at 10,000, billed yearly. MailerLite is the cheaper paid option at $19, $49 and $89 on monthly billing.
Can I run a creator business on a free email plan?
For a small list, yes. Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers but without Visual Automations or sequences, beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, MailerLite is free for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, and Mailchimp is free for 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. A welcome sequence usually pushes you onto a paid plan.
Should a creator use Substack or Ghost instead of an email tool?
Only if the writing is the product. Substack is free to publish and keeps 10% of paid-subscription revenue plus Stripe fees; Ghost charges $15 to $199 a month for hosting and lists 0% Ghost transaction fees. Neither replaces a segmented launch sequence for a course or a coaching program.
When does ActiveCampaign make sense over Kit or MailerLite?
When coaching enquiries or several offers need a pipeline and branching follow-up. It costs $15 a month at 1,000 contacts on Starter but $149 at 10,000, against $116 for Kit Creator and $89 for MailerLite Comfort, and Starter limits each automation to 5 actions.