Kit vs Mailcoach
We give Kit a 2.6 GPA and Mailcoach a 2.2, out of 4.0. Kit grades higher on the free plan and features. Mailcoach grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Mailcoach
Email campaigns priced by emails sent, hosted or self-hosted
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAKitGood | 2.2GPAMailcoachFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DCreator is $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, or $39 monthly, about two and a half times the middle of this category, and it's the plan you need for automations and sequences. Pro is $66, or $50 for the first year if you sign up by November 7, 2026. | C$9.99 a month with 2,000 emails, then $0.002 an email, a few cents above the cheaper quarter of email tools. Contacts are unlimited, so a big list costs far less than with per-contact tools, and sending through your own provider halves the per-email fee. |
| Free plan and trial | AUp to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms, and sales of digital products and paid newsletters, all free. That's far more room than any other free plan here. What's missing is automations and sequences, and it's 1 user with Kit branding. | CNo free plan, but there's a 14-day trial with no card needed. Long enough to import a list and send a first campaign. |
| Features | BVisual automations, sequences, landing pages, a newsletter site, tags, segments, paid newsletters, products and a recommendation network. It covers a creator's whole email job. Each sale costs 3.5% plus 30 cents, and Paid Recommendations carry a 23.5% fee. | CCampaigns with segments, split tests and analytics, no-code automations, transactional email, pre-send checklists and a newsletter archive. The basics are well covered, but no sign-up forms or landing page builder are named among its features. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record. It's a web app where you build the forms, pages and automations yourself, so expect some setting up before it runs on its own. | CNo App Store rating on record and no phone app. The hosted version is a normal web app, though you first choose its sending or your own provider, and the self-hosted one needs a Laravel developer. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with Shopify, Wix, Fourthwall, Facebook and SparkLoop, 100+ apps on Creator, and an API. No desktop or phone app is listed. | BWeb, with an API and sending through Postmark, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Brevo or any SMTP server, and developers can run it inside a Laravel app. No desktop or phone app, so B is the ceiling. |
| Best for | creators growing a big list for free | big lists you only email now and then |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Kit and Mailcoach. How we grade
Price against what you get
Kit starts at $33 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Mailcoach starts at $9.99 a month and scores 2.3.
Kit scores higher, and starts $23.01 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other email marketing and newsletter tools on the chart, 3 score higher than Kit for less, and 6 score higher than Mailcoach for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Kit starts at $33 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($39 monthly). Mailcoach starts at $9.99 per month with 2,000 emails, plus $0.002 per extra email.
- Kit has a free plan. Mailcoach does not, though it has a free trial.
- Mailcoach is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Kit also covers forms and paid newsletters.
At a glance
| Kit | Mailcoach | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $33 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($39 monthly) | $9.99 per month with 2,000 emails, plus $0.002 per extra email |
| Free plan | Up to 10,000 subscribers, 1 user, unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts, tagging and segments, and sales of digital products. No automations. | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of Creator or Pro, no credit card required | 14-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Kit | Spatie |
| Price read from | kit.com | mailcoach.app |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Kit
- Writers, podcasters and other creators growing an email list
- Creators selling digital products or a paid newsletter
- Lists of up to 10,000 subscribers that only need broadcasts
Mailcoach
- Senders with a large list who email it only occasionally
- Laravel developers who want email marketing inside their own app
- European businesses that want their data hosted in the EU
Worth knowing
Kit
- The Free plan has no automations or email sequences, allows 1 user and keeps Kit branding.
- Product and subscription sales cost 3.5% plus 30 cents each on every plan, card processing included.
- Earnings from Paid Recommendations carry a 23.5% Kit fee.
- The Pro first-year discount ends November 7, 2026; the plan then renews at $790 a year for 1,000 subscribers.
Mailcoach
- There is no annual plan: usage is invoiced monthly, and prices exclude VAT.
- Each team must choose either Mailcoach's sending or its own provider, not both.
- The self-hosted Laravel version is a separate license bought through spatie.be, with a year of updates per purchase; its dollar price could not be read.
- The pricing page names no sign-up forms or landing page builder among its features.
Key features
Kit
- Visual automations and sequences
- Creator and Pro include unlimited visual automations and email sequences for welcome series, launches and nurture campaigns. The Free plan has neither.
- Landing pages, forms and newsletter site
- Unlimited landing pages and opt-in forms, a newsletter feed and website, and automatic delivery of opt-in freebies on every plan.
- Commerce
- Sell digital products, paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions and tips on any plan, for 3.5% plus 30 cents per sale including card processing.
- Recommendations and sponsorships
- Free creator-to-creator recommendations on every plan. Paid recommendations (Kit keeps 23.5%) and newsletter sponsorships start at Creator.
- Tags, segments and conditional content
- Tag subscribers by entry point or interest, group tags into segments, and use Liquid to show different content to different subscribers.
- Pro audience analytics
- Pro adds engagement scoring, Subscriber Signals audience research, deliverability reporting, an insights dashboard and a SparkLoop referral program.
Mailcoach
- Campaigns
- Newsletters with segmentation, split testing, open and click analytics, pre-send checklists and a searchable archive of past issues.
- Automations
- Workflows for onboarding, lead nurturing and other sequences, built without code.
- Transactional email
- Edit, send and track transactional emails in the same app, sent from your product through Mailcoach's API.
- Unlimited contacts
- Contacts, lists and audiences cost nothing extra; the bill depends only on how many emails go out each month.
- Bring your own provider
- Send through Postmark, Mailgun, Brevo, Amazon SES or any SMTP server instead of Mailcoach's own sending, at half the per-email fee.
- EU hosting and GDPR
- Data is stored encrypted in the EU, and open and click tracking can be switched off.
Plans
Kit
Free$0
Up to 10,000 subscribers, 1 user, unlimited landing pages, forms and broadcasts. No automations or sequences; Kit branding stays.
Creator$33
per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($39 monthly)
2 users, unlimited visual automations and sequences, no Kit branding, SMS, RSS campaigns and 100+ apps. $1,390 a year at 10,000 subscribers.
Pro$66
per month for up to 1,000 subscribers, billed yearly ($79 monthly)
Unlimited users, engagement scoring, Subscriber Signals, deliverability reports. First year $50 a month under an offer ending Nov 7, 2026. $1,890 a year at 10,000.
Mailcoach
Pay as you go$9.99
per month with 2,000 emails, plus $0.002 per extra email
Unlimited contacts, lists and automations, campaigns, transactional email and the API. Extra emails cost $0.001 each when sent through your own provider.
Ways to pay less
Kit
- Annual discount
Save 17% with yearly billing
Yearly billing costs the same as 10 months: Creator at 1,000 subscribers is $390 a year instead of $468 paid monthly, and Pro is $790 instead of $948.
- Other savings
25% off the first year of annual Pro
Annual Pro is 25% off its first year for lists up to 65,000 ($593 at 1,000 subscribers) and 10% off up to 500,000. Ends November 7, 2026; renews at the standard rate.
Mailcoach
No public discounts listed.
