Home / Email Marketing & Newsletters / Alternatives to Kit (ConvertKit)

2 open source alternatives to Kit (ConvertKit)

Creator-focused newsletter platform. Here are the open source projects real teams use instead — ranked by fit, with honest pros and cons for each.

What people don't love about Kit (ConvertKit)

  • Tags/segments logic has a learning curve.
  • Price scales by subscribers not emails sent.
  • Cloud-only.

Current Kit (ConvertKit) pricing (for reference): Free up to 10k subscribers; Creator from $15/month.

Ad slot — above comparison

Quick comparison

Alternative Best for License Self-host Hosted cloud?
Listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager.
Creators who want simple broadcast newsletters self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 ★★☆☆☆ Self-host only
Mautic
Open source marketing automation platform.
Creators scaling into automations and lead funnels. GPL-3.0 ★★★★☆ Yes

1. Listmonk — Creators who want simple broadcast newsletters self-hosted.

Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager.

Strengths

  • Fast Go binary — single executable.
  • Clean UI and import/export tools.
  • Bring-your-own-SMTP (Amazon SES, Postmark, etc.).

Weaknesses

  • No drag-and-drop visual builder.
  • Deliverability depends on your SMTP setup.
  • Not a visual marketing suite — plain newsletter focus.
License: AGPL-3.0 Self-host difficulty: 2/5

Listmonk homepage · Source on GitHub · Kit (ConvertKit) vs Listmonk →

2. Mautic — Creators scaling into automations and lead funnels.

Open source marketing automation platform.

Strengths

  • Full marketing automation — campaigns, landing pages, scoring.
  • Large ecosystem.
  • Strong for B2B lead nurturing.

Weaknesses

  • Heavy self-host setup (PHP + queue + cron).
  • UI is complex and has a learning curve.
  • Smaller company behind — not as polished as Mailchimp.
License: GPL-3.0 Self-host difficulty: 4/5 Hosted cloud option

Mautic homepage · Source on GitHub · Kit (ConvertKit) vs Mautic →

Ad slot — below body

Not what you're looking for?

Browse other tools in Email Marketing & Newsletters, or check out open source projects by category on the full category index.