ConvertKit Review 2021: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...
Is ConvertKit right for you?
ConvertKit is one of the newest email software providers on the market. They promote themselves as being a tool for professional bloggers and other content creators. It is known to be an easy-to-use tool with the most important features readily available to get you started quickly. Is this really the case? For who is this tool appropriate, what are the reasons for using this program, and how well does it do compared to other tools? Let us guide you through their world in this in-depth ConvertKit review. We will show you all the ins and outs of this tool, and how it scores on all its different features. Read below to see if ConvertKit is the right tool for you!
Our Review Score: 3.4/5
1) Email builder: 3.5/5
2) Email templates: 1.5/5
3) Form building: 3.0/5
4) Segmentation: 5.0/5
5) Automation: 4.0/5
6) Splittesting: 2.0/5
7) Integrations: 3.5/5
8) Reporting & tracking: 2.5/5
9) Support & Community: 4.0/5
10) Ease of use: 5.0/5
11) Value for money: 3.0/5
ConvertKit Review: Main Pro's and Con's
Main pro's
- ConvertKit mostly stands out because of the ease of use. It's perfect for beginners and tailored to bloggers and creators.
- With ConvertKit you can create landing pages, so it's possible to create a full journey right inside of the tool
- Awesome support team who were really responsive during our ConvertKit review
- ConvertKit has solid targeting features because of their tag-based subscriber system
- The visual automations builder is easy to use and has nice looking features. You can create multiple automations with their own rules, simply and fastly
- They work with a ‘trigger’ and ‘action’ system, which is very easy to use
Main con's
- It has basic A/B-testing. To get more detailed results is a bit of a complex process.
- With ConvertKit you have a very limited selection of templates, unless you HTML-code templates yourself.
- Reporting & tracking features are a bit limited
- ConvertKit can get a bit expensive if you grow a large list of subscribers
ConvertKit Review Rating Details
How does ConvertKit score as a Marketing Automation tool? After doing extensive research, using the the tool for our own Marketing purposes, and seeing how the tool stacks up against other tools, we have constructed this feature table to give you a clear overview of the most important ConvertKit review features. Every rating is accompanied by a small summary.
| Feature | Score | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | (3.4/5) | ConvertKit is easy to use, and perfect for those who just got started, or just need their basic automation needs covered. with using a marketing automation program. It also provides you with some nice list management options. This tool is especially suited for bloggers! Furthermore, you can create landing pages with this tool. |
1 – Email Builder | (3.5/5) | We found the email builder pretty easy to work with during our ConvertKit review. That being said, the customization options are a bit limited. |
2 – Email Templates | (1.5/5) | With ConvertKit you have a limited selection of templates, unless you HTML-code templates yourself. |
3 – Form Builder | (3.0/5) | With ConvertKit you can choose a reasonable amount of form types. You can also create landings pages. Creating a custom design is a bit lacking. |
4 – List Management & Segmentation | (5.0/5) | One of the outstanding features of ConvertKit is their segmentation based on tags. You can get really targeted with who you want to send emails and automations too. |
5 – Automation | (4.0/5) | ConvertKit is very user-friendly. Automations can be set up easily with their ‘automations manager’. They work with a ‘trigger’ and ‘action’ system, which is easy to use. With their visual automations builder you can also easily create multiple automations with their own rules. The number of triggers you can select are a bit limited, though. |
6 – Splittesting | (2.0/5) | It has basic A/B-testing. To get more detailed results is a bit of a complex process. |
7 – Integrations | (3.5/5) | ConvertKit integrates with most apps (also with Zapier integrations). |
8 – Reporting | (2.5/5) | ConvertKit's reporting and tracking options are basic. More detailed information is not available. |
9 – Support & Community | (4.0/5) | ConvertKit replied really quickly during our ConvertKit review and make sure you are helped out. Live chat is quick and responsive as well.. |
10 – Ease of use | (5.0/5) | In comparison with other tools, this one is easy to use. Great for beginners and bloggers! |
11 – Value for money | (3.0/5) | Although good software, a bit too expensive for the amount of features you are able to use. However, tools like Drip are even more expensive. |
ConvertKit Pricing
Ofcourse we have to discuss pricing in this ConvertKit review. How much does it cost to use ConvertKit? Below you can find the prices based on the amount of contacts you need to manage.
We try to update the pricing as best we can in this ConvertKit review. However, the pricing as listed on this page might be differtent from the prices listed on the ESPs official site due to changes.
| 1.000 contacts | 10.000 contacts | 25.000 contacts | 50.000 contacts | 100.000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan |
| $29/per month Free migration | $119/per month Free migration | $199/per month Free migration | $379/per month Free migration | $679/per month Free migration |
| 14 days free trial | 14 days free trial Free migration | 14 days free trial Free migration | 14 days free trial Free migration | 14 days free trial Free migration |
See all ConvertKit's plans
Ofcourse we have to discuss pricing in this ConvertKit review. How much does it cost to use ConvertKit? Below you can find the prices based on the amount of contacts you need to manage.
ConvertKit Features (Marketing & Sales)
We've compiled some of the most important marketing and sales features for any email marketing automation software in this ConvertKit review in the table below. This is especially handy if you are a B2B organisation or an organisation with a salesteam, because you might need features like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system included in your platform. Check it out:
Want to see which Email Marketing Service scores best? Check out our top-to-bottom Best Email service provider ranking overview.
| ActiveCampaign | AWeber | Constant Contact | ConvertKit | Drip | GetResponse | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Features | |||||||
| Native Conversion tracking | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Web activity tracking | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Splittesting Campaigns | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Splittesting Automations | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Dynamic Personalized Content | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Multichannel Attribution | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Site Messaging | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Facebook Integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| SMS Integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Webinar integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 |
| Native Landingpage builder | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Native Shopping Cart | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Sales & CRM Features | |||||||
| Leadscoring | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Native CRM System | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Task Management | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Realtime Sales alerts | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Gmail integration | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Mobile App CRM | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Create quotes & invoices | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
Who is ConvertKit right for? It's great when...
#1 You are looking for an automation tool to set up landing pages
You like to set up landings pages. For example, for your social media campaigns. Even if you don't own a website, you can still create a landings page with ConvertKit.
#2 You are looking for a tool which makes it easy to segment contacts by using tags
The tagging system of ConvertKit makes it very easy to add and remove subscribers.
See also: Sales funnels | Book funnels | Challenge funnels | Ecommerce funnels | High ticket sales funnels | Lead funnels
#3 You are a blogger looking for a 'blogger's tool'
ConvertKit offers a lot of great features to support blogs. For example, forms which are easy to set up, and allow you to send a download link to anyone who signs up.
It's not so great when...
#1 You want beautiful emails and have no coding skills
If you can not use HTML-coding, you will not be able to create custom templates. ConvertKit only offers a few templates to choose from.
#2 You have a large list and want value for money
You have more than 50,000 contacts and you have a limited budget. ConvertKit is very expensive with the larger plans.
#3 You need detailed tracking and reporting
You want to monitor your results and have detailed reporting. With ConvertKit these reporting and tracking features are very basic.
Checkout ConvertKit here.
ConvertKit Alternatives
Although we do recommend ConvertKit as being one of the easiest Marketing Automation tools out there, we do know that no tool is for everybody. For this reason, we have provided three alternative tools that we believe can be good alternatives if you've decided ConvertKit is not what you are looking for after reading this ConvertKit review. Also, we have provided a short list of the features that could be good alternative features compared with ConvertKit.
Alternative #1: ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a very effective tool that beats Converkit in particularly two areas: the first one is A/B-testing, and the second is tracking & reporting. Here are some other advantages of using ActiveCampaign over ConvertKit:
- With ActiveCampaign you have the best options when it comes to tagging and segmentation
- ActiveCampaign has a greater selection of different templates
- ActiveCampaign's drag-and-drop visual editor is more easy to use and gives you more freedom in what you want to create.
- Active campain has much more thorough reporting with far greater visuals
- ActiveCampaign's reporting and tracking options are more comprehensive
- ActiveCampaign also offers goal tracking, which means you can track conversions within Activecampaign.
Read ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit
Read Full ActiveCampaign Review
Alternative #2: GetResonse
If you are looking for a good alternative for ConvertKit, then GetResponse may be a good option. It is a tool with great tracking and reporting options. Here are some advantages of using GetResponse over ConvertKit:
- GetResponse has a better segmentation and tagging system
- GetResponse has more detailed results from A/B-testing
- GetResponse has a bigger selection of email templates
- GetResponse has better tracking and reporting
- GetResponse has ROI tracking
Alternative #3: Drip
Drip is a good tool with some outstanding features. We would especially recommend this tool for people working in ecommerce. Here are some advantages of using Drip over ConvertKit:
- Drip is the best tool when it comes to segmentation features.
- Drip exceeds ConvertKit's tracking & reporting features.
- Drip is specialized in ecommerce features.
- Drip has more different form types
- With Drip, you can customise the visibility and the behavior associated of your forms
Read ConvertKit vs Drip
Read Full Drip Review
Conclusion
ConvertKit is easy to use, and perfect for those who just got started, or just need their basic automation needs covered. with using a marketing automation program. This tool is great for bloggers and offers the option to build end-to-end campaigns with their native landingpage builder included. We did find the user interface a bit confusing during our ConvertKit review, but it does contain good segmentation & list management options. All in all a solid choice if you are a beginner!
ConvertKit User Reviews
Please leave your own ConvertKit review below. We are always looking for users to give their two cents on this software.
1) What you like about this software?
2) What you dislike about this software?
3) Who would you recommend it to? Who is it best for?
4) How did this software contribute to your business?
Be the first to leave a review.