Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

The pitch has narrowed usefully. Kit isn't trying to be everyone's ESP anymore; it's a place for creators to grow a list and get paid from it, in that order. We'd reach for Kit when the goal is monetization, not just sending email. Selling a digital product, running a paid newsletter, or matching your list with a sponsor are all first-class here rather than integrations you stitch together. Subscriber Signals is the sleeper feature — engagement scoring that points at revenue opportunities instead of vanity open rates. The AI story is real but early. Kit MCP unlocks workflow automation where an AI assistant reads your list and helps segment or personalize, and the published workflows give you something concrete to copy rather than a blank canvas. The Dan Cumberland case study is the honest framing: the value is digging insight out of a list you already have, not magic growth. Where it bites: conditional automation runs shallow next to ActiveCampaign. If your logic needs hundreds of branches, or your team needs granular multi-user permissions, Kit will frustrate you fast. The landing page editor is mid-rebuild, so anyone whose whole funnel depends on heavy custom page design should watch that space before committing. The free tier up to 1,000 subscribers is the lowest-risk way to test whether creator-focused tooling fits how you actually work. Start there, move to a paid tier when SMS or the A/B testing and AI workflow capabilities start earning their keep. Closest alternative depends on your bottleneck. Beehiiv if newsletter design and layout are the priority. ActiveCampaign if automation complexity is. Kit sits in the middle and wins on the combination of free entry, commerce, and creator-specific monetization levers.