Broadcast vs ConvertKit (Kit)
ConvertKit – recently rebranded to Kit – and Broadcast both focus on email marketing rather than trying to be all-in-one marketing suites. But they serve different audiences and take different approaches to infrastructure, pricing, and feature design. This guide walks through the meaningful differences so you can pick the right tool for your needs.
Platform Overview
ConvertKit (Kit) was built for creators. Writers, bloggers, podcasters, course creators, and independent artists are its core audience. It offers a clean interface, visual automation builders, and built-in monetization features like paid newsletters and digital product sales. Its philosophy is that creators should be able to earn a living from their audience without needing technical skills.
Broadcast was built for developers and businesses that want control over their email infrastructure. It provides campaign management, subscriber handling, automated sequences, and a comprehensive API – all while letting you connect your own email service provider. Where ConvertKit abstracts away the sending infrastructure, Broadcast puts it in your hands.
Pricing
ConvertKit uses subscriber-based pricing across its tiers (Newsletter, Creator, Creator Pro). The free tier covers up to 10,000 subscribers with limited features. Paid plans start based on subscriber count and scale upward as your list grows. At 25,000 subscribers, you’re looking at well over $150/month, and the cost continues to climb with your audience.
Broadcast charges a flat rate with no per-subscriber pricing. Your subscription cost stays the same whether you have 5,000 or 500,000 subscribers. You pay your ESP directly for sending volume, which for most providers amounts to a fraction of what subscriber-based platforms charge. For creators and businesses with large lists who send infrequently, the savings can be substantial.
Creator and Monetization Features
This is the area where the two platforms diverge most sharply.
ConvertKit has built a suite of creator monetization tools:
- Paid newsletters – charge subscribers a monthly or annual fee for premium content
- Digital products – sell ebooks, courses, presets, and other digital goods directly through ConvertKit
- Tip jars – accept one-time payments from supporters
- Creator profile pages – a hosted page showcasing your content and products
- Landing page builder – create standalone pages for lead magnets, product launches, and signups
Broadcast does not include monetization or commerce features. It focuses on the core email marketing workflow: managing subscribers, sending campaigns, building sequences, and providing API access. If you need to sell digital products or run a paid newsletter, you would pair Broadcast with a separate tool for that (Stripe, Gumroad, your own application, etc.).
This is an honest trade-off. If creator monetization is central to your business, ConvertKit has a real advantage here.
Sequences and Automations
Both platforms offer email sequences with multi-step automations.
ConvertKit provides a visual automation builder where you can map out subscriber journeys with triggers, actions, conditions, and branching paths. It’s visually intuitive and lets you see the entire flow at a glance. Triggers include form signups, tag additions, purchases, and custom events.
Broadcast offers sequences with configurable delays between steps and conditional logic for branching. You can build welcome series, onboarding flows, drip campaigns, and nurture sequences. Subscribers can be enrolled automatically through opt-in forms or programmatically via the API.
Both platforms handle the core automation use cases well. ConvertKit’s visual builder is more polished for non-technical users, while Broadcast’s API-driven approach gives developers more programmatic control over enrollment and sequencing.
Segments and Tagging
Both ConvertKit and Broadcast use a tag-based approach to subscriber organization, which is a meaningful similarity.
ConvertKit lets you apply tags based on subscriber actions, form submissions, link clicks, and purchases. Segments are saved filters that combine tags, subscription dates, and other criteria.
Broadcast similarly supports tags and rule-based segments. You can segment by tags, subscription date, custom data fields, and engagement metrics. Tags can be applied during import, through opt-in forms, via the API, or manually.
The two systems are philosophically similar here. If you’re comfortable with tag-based segmentation in ConvertKit, the transition to Broadcast’s model will feel familiar.
API and Developer Experience
ConvertKit offers a REST API covering subscribers, tags, sequences, broadcasts, forms, and purchases. It’s functional and well-documented, serving the needs of creators who want to integrate with their websites or apps.
Broadcast was designed API-first. The REST API covers subscribers, broadcasts, sequences, segments, email servers, templates, opt-in forms, transactional email, and webhook endpoints. Nearly everything you can do through the web interface is available via the API. For teams building custom integrations, programmatic subscriber management, or automated workflows, Broadcast’s API coverage is more comprehensive.
Broadcast also supports webhook endpoints that can notify your application of events like deliveries, bounces, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes in real time.
Email Infrastructure
ConvertKit manages email sending entirely. You configure your sending domain and DKIM records, but ConvertKit handles the actual delivery through its own infrastructure. You have no choice of ESP and limited visibility into the underlying sending mechanics.
Broadcast lets you bring your own ESP. Connect Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Resend, or any SMTP server. You control your sender reputation, your IP allocation, and your deliverability strategy. You can even configure multiple email servers and assign different ones to different channels or use cases.
This is a fundamental architectural difference. ConvertKit’s approach is simpler – you don’t need to think about email infrastructure. Broadcast’s approach gives you ownership and flexibility, but requires you to set up and manage an ESP account.
Where ConvertKit Wins
Creator monetization. Paid newsletters, digital product sales, and tip jars are built right into the platform. If your business model revolves around selling content or digital products to your email audience, ConvertKit provides an integrated solution.
Landing page builder. ConvertKit includes a capable landing page builder with templates designed for lead magnets, product launches, and newsletter signups. Broadcast does not offer landing pages.
Simpler UX for non-technical users. ConvertKit’s interface is clean and creator-friendly. The visual automation builder, in particular, makes complex sequences accessible to people who don’t think in terms of APIs and webhooks.
Creator community. ConvertKit has built a strong community of creators, with events, resources, and educational content tailored to independent content producers.
Where Broadcast Wins
Bring your own ESP. You own your sender reputation. You choose your ESP based on cost, deliverability, and features. If you switch platforms, your reputation stays with you.
No subscriber-based pricing. Flat-rate pricing means your costs don’t scale with your list size. For creators with large audiences, this alone can save hundreds of dollars per month.
Self-hosted option. Broadcast is open source and can be self-hosted. If you want complete control over your data and infrastructure, no SaaS platform – including ConvertKit – offers this.
Autopilot AI newsletters. Broadcast’s Autopilot feature uses AI to generate newsletter content, which can significantly speed up the content creation process for regular newsletter senders.
Multi-ESP flexibility. Configure multiple email servers for different sending use cases. Use Postmark for transactional emails and Amazon SES for bulk campaigns, all within the same platform.
Comprehensive webhooks. Set up webhook endpoints to receive real-time notifications for email events, enabling deep integration with your own applications and workflows.
Who Should Choose What
Choose ConvertKit if you’re a creator whose business model includes paid newsletters, digital product sales, or tip-based support. If you want a platform purpose-built for writers, podcasters, and course creators – with built-in monetization and a visual automation builder – ConvertKit is designed specifically for you.
Choose Broadcast if you want control over your email infrastructure and costs. If you’re a developer or technical team that values API access, wants to choose your own ESP, and prefers flat-rate pricing that doesn’t penalize list growth, Broadcast gives you that control. It’s also the right choice if you want the option to self-host or if you’re building custom integrations that need comprehensive API and webhook support.
Migrating from ConvertKit
If you’re ready to move from ConvertKit to Broadcast, we’ve put together a step-by-step migration guide covering subscriber export, sequence rebuilding, form replacement, and API integration updates.