Online-course guide
Best Email Automation Tools for Online Courses
For a creator selling a course to their own list, Kit is the best pick: Creator is $75 a month for 5,000 subscribers with unlimited Visual Automations. ActiveCampaign wins when students take several courses, and a course host such as Kajabi or Teachable is enough for a single product with no prospect list.
How to choose when you sell a course
Start by asking where the students live. If your course platform already owns the enrollment and you have no prospect list, its built-in email may be all you need. If you sell through a list, the email tool is the product, and the choice comes down to how many courses one student can be in and how many actions your longest journey needs.
A course with 5,000 past students shows why the action cap matters more than the price gap. Kit lists Creator at $75 a month for 5,000 subscribers (billed yearly) with unlimited Visual Automations, while ActiveCampaign lists Starter at $79 a month for 5,000 contacts (billed annually) but limits Starter to 5 actions per automation. If your emails depend on lesson progress or purchase tags, count the steps in your longest journey before paying for either, then build only the enrollment welcome first, with an exit for refunded students.
| If you sell... | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One course to your own newsletter list | Kit or MailerLite | Sequences and tags are enough, and the price is lowest at 1,000 to 5,000 students |
| Several courses and bundles to overlapping students | ActiveCampaign or Drip | Branching and purchase-history segments decide who hears about which offer |
| Courses hosted on Kajabi, Teachable or Thinkific | The host's own email first | No integration to build; add an email tool when you need to reach non-buyers |
| A course inside your own software | Loops, Customer.io and Postmark | Lesson events and access emails come from your code |
Shortlist by course need
| # | Tool | Best for | Price as listed on 2026-10-07 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kit | Creators who sell a course to their own list | Free up to 10,000 subscribers (broadcasts only); Creator $33 at 1,000, $75 at 5,000, $116 at 10,000, billed yearly |
| 2 | ActiveCampaign | Segmented journeys when students take several courses | No free plan; Starter $15 at 1,000 contacts, $79 at 5,000, $149 at 10,000, billed annually |
| 3 | MailerLite | Cost-conscious creators who want pages and products in one tool | Free up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; Comfort $19 at 1,000, $49 at 5,000, $89 at 10,000 |
| 4 | Kajabi | An all-in-one course business that wants a single login | Tiered plans on Kajabi's own pricing page; not priced here |
| 5 | Teachable | One-course sellers who want the host to handle enrollment mail | Tiered plans on Teachable's own pricing page; not priced here |
| 6 | Thinkific | Course hosting with built-in student communication | Tiered plans on Thinkific's own pricing page; not priced here |
| 7 | Drip | Course sellers with many small products and bundles | 14-day trial; $39 a month up to 2,500 people, $89 at 5,000, $154 at 10,000 |
| 8 | Brevo | Large lists with few sends, plus enrollment receipts | Free: 300 emails a day; Starter from $9 a month at 5,000 emails, Standard from $18 |
| 9 | HubSpot | Courses sold beside coaching or B2B training | Free marketing tools; Starter $7 per seat a month, Professional $800 a month, Enterprise $3,600 a month |
| 10 | Customer.io | Courses that run inside your own app and emit lesson events | Essentials $100 a month for 5k profiles and $145 for 10k, billed monthly |
| 11 | Loops | A course attached to a software product, run by a small team | Free: unlimited contacts but 4,000 sends in any rolling 30 days to the 1,000 newest; paid $99 at 10k, $249 at 50k |
| 12 | Postmark | Access links, receipts and password resets for a course app | Free: 100 emails a month; Basic, Pro and Platform $15, $16.50 and $18 at 10,000 emails, $55, $60.50 and $66 at 50,000 |
| 13 | ConvertKit | Kit under its former name | Same plans as Kit: free up to 10,000 subscribers, Creator $33 at 1,000 and $75 at 5,000, billed yearly |
1. Kit: Creators who sell a course to their own list
Kit is the best pick here for a creator who sells a course to a list they own. Its pricing page puts Free at up to 10,000 subscribers with landing pages, forms, broadcasts and tagging, while unlimited Visual Automations and email sequences start on Creator at $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers, $75 for 5,000 and $116 for 10,000 when billed yearly. A tag for each purchase or lesson milestone is enough to drive an enrollment welcome and a post-completion offer.
Kit also lists digital product sales and free migrations, so a creator whose students sit in a course platform's built-in email can move the list without paying for the switch. The catch is that the free plan has no sequences, which makes the welcome series for a paid course a $33 decision on day one. Pair Kit with a course host and connect purchases through an integration. Prices and limits come from the Kit pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Creators who sell a course to their own list | Unlimited Visual Automations and sequences on Creator, digital-product sales, and free migrations. | Sequences are not on the free plan, and Kit does not host the lessons. |
2. ActiveCampaign: Segmented journeys when students take several courses
ActiveCampaign is the pick when one student can be in several courses at once and each needs different emails. Its pricing page lists Starter at $15 a month for 1,000 contacts, $79 for 5,000 and $149 for 10,000, billed annually, which puts the 5,000 figure only $4 above Kit Creator's $75.
The Starter limits matter for a cohort course: 1 user and 5 actions per automation, so a nurture that waits, tags and checks purchase status runs into the cap quickly. Plus starts at $49 a month at 1,000 contacts and adds landing pages and standard segmentation. If your catalogue is one course with one buyer type, the extra power goes unused and Kit is simpler to run. Prices and limits come from the ActiveCampaign pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Segmented journeys when students take several courses | Branching, tagging and conditional content for students who sit in more than one course. | Starter allows 1 user and 5 actions per automation, so long journeys need a higher plan. |
3. MailerLite: Cost-conscious creators who want pages and products in one tool
MailerLite's feature list includes email automation, landing pages and websites, and digital products, so a solo teacher can sell a short course and email the buyers without a second subscription. At 5,000 students, Comfort is $49 a month, which is $26 below Kit Creator and $30 below ActiveCampaign Starter.
The trade-off is depth. Check exactly what your course platform sends to MailerLite when someone buys or finishes a module, because that connection decides whether you can branch on progress or only on purchase. MailerLite also states an EU data storage center and an ISO 27001 certificate on its pricing page, which helps when you sell to European students. Prices and limits come from the MailerLite pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Cost-conscious creators who want pages and products in one tool | The lowest published price at every list size here, with landing pages and digital products included. | A newsletter-first tool, so lesson-level branching depends on what your course host passes to it. |
4. Kajabi: An all-in-one course business that wants a single login
Kajabi sells courses, memberships and marketing from one product, so the enrollment email can be wired in the same place that records the purchase. For a creator whose whole income is courses, that removes the integration that breaks most often between a checkout and an email tool.
The cost is lock-in and email depth. A dedicated tool such as ActiveCampaign or Kit gives finer segmentation and a cleaner exit, so ask Kajabi what a full contact and tag export looks like before you build years of automation inside it. We do not quote Kajabi's prices because we have no dated readout of its plans. Prices and limits come from the Kajabi pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| An all-in-one course business that wants a single login | Courses, memberships and email sit in one product, so there is no purchase-to-email integration to maintain. | Your students and automations live inside Kajabi, which makes leaving harder. |
5. Teachable: One-course sellers who want the host to handle enrollment mail
Teachable hosts the course and handles enrollment itself, so the first message after a purchase can come from Teachable itself with no connection to build. That is the lowest-effort setup for a teacher with one course and a modest list.
It stops being enough when you want a nurture sequence for people who have not bought, or segments across several products. The usual answer is to keep Teachable for hosting and connect Kit or MailerLite for the list. We do not quote Teachable's prices because we have no dated readout of its plans. Prices and limits come from the Teachable pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| One-course sellers who want the host to handle enrollment mail | The course host sends enrollment messages itself, so there is nothing to connect on day one. | Nurture for people who have not bought yet usually needs a separate email tool. |
6. Thinkific: Course hosting with built-in student communication
Thinkific is another course host with student communication built in. Choose between it and Teachable on how each handles your course structure, drip schedule and checkout rather than on email, since both are course hosts with native student email.
If you plan to run launches to a prospect list who have not enrolled, test whether the host can email them at all before assuming it will replace a dedicated tool. Export a sample of student records before committing, and confirm that purchase data can flow to an external list. We do not quote Thinkific's prices because we have no dated readout of its plans. Prices and limits come from the Thinkific pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Course hosting with built-in student communication | A course host with student communication included, so a small catalogue can run without a second tool. | Limited reach beyond enrolled students unless you add an email platform. |
7. Drip: Course sellers with many small products and bundles
Drip's pricing page says cost follows active people and monthly email volume, with $39 covering up to 2,500 people, $89 at 5,000 and $154 at 10,000. Its ecommerce roots suit a creator with a dozen small products and bundles, where purchase history decides who sees which offer.
At 5,000 students Drip is $10 above ActiveCampaign Starter and $14 above Kit Creator, so the reason to choose it is shopping-style segmentation rather than savings. For a single flagship course there is little to gain over Kit. Prices and limits come from the Drip pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Course sellers with many small products and bundles | Purchase-based segmentation that suits a catalogue of small products and bundles. | Costs more than Kit or ActiveCampaign at 5,000 students. |
8. Brevo: Large lists with few sends, plus enrollment receipts
Brevo bills by monthly email volume, so a course business with a big list and few sends can stay cheap: its help centre says Starter begins at $9 a month for 5,000 emails and the free plan allows 300 emails a day. It also sends transactional mail, so access emails and promotional emails can share a vendor.
Automation, A/B testing and advanced reports are listed on Standard, from $18 a month. A five-email launch to 5,000 students is 25,000 sends inside a few days, well above the 5,000 entry volume, so read the volume selector for your launch month before you choose a tier. Prices and limits come from the Brevo pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Large lists with few sends, plus enrollment receipts | Pricing follows email volume rather than list size, and transactional mail is available from the same vendor. | A launch week of daily emails to a big list outgrows the entry tiers quickly. |
9. HubSpot: Courses sold beside coaching or B2B training
HubSpot fits when a course is one product beside coaching, consulting or corporate training and the same people appear in a sales pipeline. Its Marketing Hub pricing page lists Starter at $7 per seat a month, Professional at $800 and Enterprise at $3,600.
The email automation row shows 1 automated action on the free tier, up to 10 on Starter and unlimited actions from Professional. A welcome email with a refund check and a completion nudge can pass 10 actions, which pushes a course creator toward the $800 tier; for a creator with no sales team, Kit or MailerLite costs far less. Prices and limits come from the HubSpot pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Courses sold beside coaching or B2B training | Course buyers sit in the same CRM as consulting leads and deals. | Automation actions are capped on the cheaper tiers, and Professional is a large step up. |
10. Customer.io: Courses that run inside your own app and emit lesson events
Customer.io makes sense when the course lives in your own product and your code can send events such as a lesson completed or a quiz failed. Its Essentials plan is $100 a month for 5k profiles and $145 for 10k and includes 1 million emails a month.
At 5,000 students that is $25 above Kit Creator, and you also pay with engineering time for event design. Customer.io's billing docs say a profile that existed at any point in the month counts even if you delete it, so clean the list before the billing month starts, not after. Prices and limits come from the Customer.io pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Courses that run inside your own app and emit lesson events | Event-driven journeys from lesson and quiz events your app already records. | Needs engineering time to send events, and costs more than Kit at 5,000 students. |
11. Loops: A course attached to a software product, run by a small team
Loops was built for SaaS lifecycle email, and it suits a software company that offers a training course to its users. Its free plan keeps unlimited contacts but sends up to 4,000 emails in any rolling 30 days to the 1,000 newest contacts, and the paid slider reads $48 at 4,788 subscribers, $99 at 9,998 and $249 at 49,989.
At roughly 5,000 students that is cheaper than Kit Creator's $75, but it gives you less course-specific structure. The pricing page says Loops does not charge for team seats and includes transactional sending on paid plans, which helps when your app also emails lesson-access links. Prices and limits come from the Loops pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| A course attached to a software product, run by a small team | No seat fees, transactional email included on paid plans, and a narrow tool that is easy to review. | Built for SaaS lifecycle email, so course-specific features are minimal. |
12. Postmark: Access links, receipts and password resets for a course app
Postmark belongs next to a marketing tool, not instead of one. It sends the emails a student must receive: access links, receipts and password resets. Its pricing page shows only slider stops, with Basic, Pro and Platform at $15, $16.50 and $18 for 10,000 emails and $55, $60.50 and $66 for 50,000.
The free plan covers 100 emails a month with no overages allowed, and data retention is 45 days by default. A course that sells a few hundred seats a month sends well under 10,000 transactional emails, so the entry slider stop is plenty; keep the promotional drip in Kit or MailerLite. Prices and limits come from the Postmark pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Access links, receipts and password resets for a course app | Separate message streams keep access emails away from promotional mail. | A transactional service, not a nurture tool. |
13. ConvertKit: Kit under its former name
Kit is the current name for ConvertKit, so this is not a separate product. Older course tutorials, integration guides and automation recipes still say ConvertKit, which is why the name still gets searched, and everything in entry 1 applies to it.
If an old guide tells you to connect ConvertKit to your course platform, you are connecting Kit, and the plans and prices are the ones listed above. Kit's pricing page offers free migrations, which is useful if you are moving a course list out of a platform's built-in email. Prices and limits come from the ConvertKit pricing page.
| Best for | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Kit under its former name | The same product as entry 1, so older course tutorials still apply. | Listed under the old name only because many guides and searches still use it. |
The three emails every course needs
| Stage | Message job | Question to ask before sending |
|---|---|---|
| Enroll | Give the access link, the format and one first step | Can a student start without writing to support? |
| Learn | Point to the next lesson only when the last one is unfinished | Does the email stop once the lesson is marked complete? |
| Continue | Offer the next course or a review after completion | Is the invitation relevant to what this student actually finished? |
Read our automation guide, personalization guide, and metrics guide.
What a student list costs at three sizes
Monthly prices read from each vendor's pricing page on 2026-10-07. Kajabi, Teachable and Thinkific are left out because we have no dated readout of their plans, and Brevo and Postmark bill by email volume rather than list size.
| Tool | 1,000 students | 5,000 students | 10,000 students |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite Comfort | $19 | $49 | $89 |
| Loops (paid slider) | free covers the 1,000 newest contacts | $48 (at 4,788 subscribers) | $99 (at 9,998) |
| Kit Creator (billed yearly) | $33 | $75 | $116 |
| ActiveCampaign Starter (billed annually) | from $15 | $79 | $149 |
| Drip | $39 (covers up to 2,500) | $89 | $154 |
| Customer.io Essentials (profiles) | n/a | $100 (5k profiles) | $145 (10k profiles) |
A creator with 5,000 past students pays $588 a year on MailerLite, $900 on Kit and $948 on ActiveCampaign Starter. The $312 to $360 gap buys Kit's visual automations or ActiveCampaign's branching, so it only pays back if those students buy a second course because of them.
A 30-day rollout for your first course sequence
One enrollment welcome is enough for the first month. Resist adding upsells until refunds and first-login problems are under control.
| Days | Do this | You are done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | Write down what a purchase should trigger and what pulls a student out of the sequence (refund, completion, unsubscribe) | One page that names the trigger, the exits and who owns refunds |
| 6-10 | Connect your course host or checkout to the email tool and send a test purchase through it | The test buyer appears in the list with the right tag within minutes |
| 11-16 | Write the access email, a day-two nudge and a week-one check-in, each with one link | A friend can start the course from the first email alone |
| 17-21 | Build the sequence, with an exit for refunded and completed students | A test refund removes the tester from the sequence |
| 22-26 | Send to staff and a few real students on Gmail, a work account and a phone | Links open the right lesson on every device |
| 27-30 | Switch it on for new buyers only | A week of live enrollments tracked by first-login and completion, not opens |
What to measure on a course launch
| Measure | What it shows | How it misleads |
|---|---|---|
| First-login rate within three days of purchase | Whether the access email actually works | A low number is usually a broken link or a spam-folder problem, not weak copy |
| Lessons completed per active student | Whether the nudge emails help or just nag | It looks better if you only count students who already logged in |
| Refund requests after the day-two email | Whether the sequence sets the wrong expectations | A single launch cohort is too small to compare against another |
| Second-course purchases from completers | Whether the upsell timing is right | Attributing every later purchase to the email ignores buyers who would have returned anyway |
Course-email mistakes that cost students
- Sending the day-three nudge to students who finished the first module on day one
- Leaving refunded students in the sequence, so they keep receiving "your access is waiting" emails
- Importing an old student list into a new tool without keeping the date and source each person joined
- Paying for ActiveCampaign branching while running a single linear drip that Kit Creator or MailerLite would handle
Four course journeys and who owns each
Enrollment, progress, completion and renewal are four separate triggers, and each needs its own exit and its own person who reads the result. Judge a tool on whether you can build the first one cleanly, not on the whole catalogue:
| Course journey | Trigger data required | Stop condition | Owner of the review signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enrollment welcome | Purchase or signup event from the course platform | Student finishes the first module | Course owner checks completion, refunds, first-login support |
| Onboarding sequence | Lesson-start event or manual enrollment import | Progress stalls two sends in a row | Product lead reviews completion and reply quality |
| Completion and referral | Completion event or certificate export | Referral click-through after the announcement | Growth or marketing lead owns the follow-up offer |
| Renewal or next course | Purchase history, cohort date, or subscription state | Renewal completes or the learner opts out | Finance or creator reviews revenue per cohort |
Moving a student list from a course platform to an email tool
Many creators start on a course host's built-in email and move once they want launches. Plan the move around the data you will not get back.
| What to export | Why it matters for a course | What usually goes missing |
|---|---|---|
| Email, name and purchase date | Lets the new tool tag each student with the course they bought | Purchase dates arrive as plain text, so you tag by hand or rebuild the rule |
| Which course or bundle each person owns | Stops you pitching a student the course they already have | Bundle purchases are exported as separate rows or not at all |
| Unsubscribes and bounces | Keeps people who opted out from reappearing after the import | Some exports cover the audience only, so ask for the suppression list separately |
| Progress and completion status | Drives the nudge and the next-course offer | Progress may stay inside the course host, so plan to pass it back through an integration |
Import one small course first, send yourself a test purchase, and check the tag before moving the whole catalogue. Kit's pricing page lists free migrations, which is worth asking about if you are moving a list of several thousand.
Related reading
- Welcome email automation for the first message every new student gets
- Email automation for creators if you also run a newsletter
- ConvertKit vs Mailchimp for the most common two-way choice
Frequently asked questions
What is the best email automation tool for online courses?
Kit is the best pick for a creator who sells to their own list: Creator is $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $75 at 5,000 and $116 at 10,000 when billed yearly, with unlimited Visual Automations and sequences. ActiveCampaign suits students who take several courses.
Do I need a separate email tool if my course platform has email?
Not for a single course sold only to enrolled students. You need a separate tool once you want to nurture people who have not bought, run launches to a list, or segment across several products.
How much does course email automation cost for 5,000 students?
On the vendors' pricing pages, MailerLite Comfort is $49 a month, Kit Creator $75, ActiveCampaign Starter $79 and Drip $89 for 5,000 people, and Customer.io Essentials is $100 for 5k profiles.
Is ConvertKit the same as Kit?
Yes. Kit is the current name for ConvertKit, so older tutorials that mention ConvertKit describe the same product and plans.