Paid newsletters, subscriptions, tip jars, and a sponsorship marketplace that matches you with advertisers. One of the four platforms here treats your audience as the thing being sold. The rest just send email to it.
Do the arithmetic
How many people actually read you?
$400/mo
If 2 in 100 of your 2,500 subscribers paid $8 a month. Kit’s own share of that is 0.6% — $2.40 a month. Mailchimp and Constant Contact cannot sell a paid newsletter at all. An illustration at one price point, not a forecast.
| Platform | What you can sell | Platform fee | Landing pages |
|---|---|---|---|
Kit Best |
Digital products, paid newsletters, subscriptions, tip jars, sponsorship marketplace | 3.5% + 30¢ per sale, of which Kit’s own share is 0.6% | Unlimited on every plan, including free |
| Products and services, subscriptions, payment plans, purchase tagging | 1.0% on Lite, 0.6% on Plus | 3 on Lite, unlimited on Plus | |
| No native creator monetization | Not published | Included on Pro, with analytics | |
| None documented | Not published | Included — per-feature limits not detailed | |
Mailchimp Incumbent |
Sells products you already sell elsewhere | — | Included on paid tiers |
Constant Contact Incumbent |
Sells products you already sell elsewhere | — | Included on paid tiers |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Paid newsletters, subscriptions, tip jars, digital products and a sponsorship marketplace that actively matches you with advertisers — plus unlimited landing pages on every plan, including the free one that carries 10,000 subscribers. No other platform here treats the list itself as the thing being monetised.
If all you need is to take payment for a product, AWeber’s Plus tier charges 0.6% against Kit’s headline 3.5% + 30¢ — though Kit’s own share of that is also 0.6%, with the rest being payment processing, which AWeber’s figure does not appear to include. Compare the all-in number for your own volume before deciding on fees alone. The reason to pick Kit is not the rate: it is paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions and the sponsorship marketplace, none of which AWeber offers. If your list is the product, Kit is built for that. If your list sells a product, AWeber is enough.
The cheaper way to take payment
Products and services, subscriptions and payment plans, with purchase tagging so buying triggers automation. 1.0% on Lite and 0.6% on Plus. No paid newsletters, no sponsorship marketplace.
Full AWeber review →Not built for this
No native creator monetization. Moosend’s strengths are uncapped sends and pay-as-you-go credits, which is a different problem.
Full Moosend review →Not built for this either
No monetization documented. Benchmark’s free plan and its 10 sending domains are what it is actually good at.
Full Benchmark Email review →The full comparison prices all four challengers against Mailchimp and Constant Contact at your list size, row by row.
Kit. It is the only platform in this comparison that ships paid newsletters, subscriptions, tip jars and a sponsorship marketplace — monetising the list itself rather than just mailing it.
3.5% + 30¢ per sale, of which Kit’s own share is 0.6%. The remainder is payment processing. AWeber charges 1.0% on Lite and 0.6% on Plus, which does not appear to include processing.
Not natively. Mailchimp and Constant Contact help you sell products you already sell elsewhere; neither ships paid subscriptions or a sponsorship marketplace.
Yes — up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, unlimited landing pages, one visual automation and one sequence. It is the largest free tier in this comparison.