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How ConvertKit Makes Money
Email marketing platform built for online creators
How did ConvertKit monetize?
Summary of the sourced claims below
ConvertKit monetizes primarily through recurring subscription fees charged to users based on subscriber tiers. Additionally, they generate revenue via an affiliate referral program where creators earn commissions for recommending ConvertKit, which contributes significantly to new signups. They also take a small transaction fee from sales of digital products and subscriptions through their Kit Commerce platform.
Revenue sources
6 sources · grouped by how ConvertKit makes money
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Recurring subscriptions
· 18 mentions · 18 sources“my goal is to get to $5,000 a month in monthly recurring revenue by July 1st, so six months later ... And so by that time, we're at October 2014, the revenue has declined down to $1,300 a month ... ConvertKit went from $1,300 a month to $1,600 to $2,000 ... six months after that decision, we hit ...”
highShow 17 more quotes
“Preorder just your first 3 months and you’ll get one month free. Plus, as a thank-you for your support, you’ll receive a 25% discount for life. (Starting at $37 per month, forever!)”
high“If you could sum up an entire story in one image, it would be the monthly recurring revenue graph for ConvertKit. So if you want the short version of the last 2 years of my work, just look at this image: ... 2 years, 2 months, and 9 days ago I announced my big new goal for the year: to start a br...”
high“But making even $2,500 with ConvertKit that money will come in the next month, and the month after, etc. I can build a massive business off of the recurring revenue. It’s predictable.”
high“$29 at a time you enable us to work each day on the product we love.”
medium“The goal was to get to $5,000 a month in revenue in six months, and then ConvertKit came pretty quickly because I needed a better email tool.”
high“We have nearly 20,000 customers, send billions of emails, and are at $12 million in annual revenue.”
medium“By December 2020, ConvertKit — the email platform for creators, renamed Kit in 2024 — was at a $25M run rate, up from $19M the year before, fully bootstrapped ... 40%of all new accounts driven by search, per the December 2020 tape”
high“ConvertKit reached $25M ARR in 2020, up from a $3.6M annual run rate in summer 2016.”
high“we're going to not only hear how ConvertKit has built a huge business doing $2.1 million in monthly recurring revenue”
high“pure subscription SaaS companies like ConvertKit ($9-25/month) ... with a simple model of charging a fixed monthly fee based on list size hit $38M annual recurring revenue (ARR)”
high“That showed newsletter platforms could blend SaaS revenue with marketplace revenue instead of choosing one or the other.”
medium“bootstrapped their way to an ARR of $35 million.”
high“ConvertKit operates on a freemium business model, offering a free tier along with two paid tiers: Creator ($29 per month) and Creator Pro ($59 per month). This pricing structure allows ConvertKit to reach a broad range of customers, from hobbyist bloggers to professional e-commerce marketers. C...”
high“Kit uses subscriber-based tiered pricing across three plans. The Newsletter plan is free for up to 10,000 subscribers ... The Creator plan starts at $39/month for up to 1,000 subscribers ($33/month annually), $59/month for 3,000 subscribers, and $89/month for 5,000 subscribers. Creator Pro starts...”
high“ConvertKit crossed $30 million in annual recurring revenue last year...from day one, he charged a monthly fee. No freemium, no free trial longer than 14 days.”
high“ConvertKit scaled monthly revenue from roughly $98k to $625k in 12 months by focusing almost entirely on partnership webinars.”
high“The goal was to reach $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within six months with only $5,000 invested—the rest of the money coming from pre sales to customers. Unfortunately we fell short at about $2,000 MRR.”
high -
Affiliate / referral commissions
· 6 mentions · 6 sources“So AWeber can offer a mediocre product and win out because of a generous affiliate program. What would happen if a great product offered a generous affiliate program? That made it an easy discussion to also pay a 30% recurring commission. We quickly got most of our customers signed up for the aff...”
highShow 5 more quotes
“The older flywheel: affiliatesPowered the early years at 30%+ of revenue and still drove about 20%: roughly 3,000 paid affiliates at 30% commission, about $250K a month in payouts against $830K of affiliate-driven monthly revenue”
high“The company paid out $250K per month to affiliates at a 30% commission rate”
high“ConvertKit’s 30% recurring commission program incentivized influencers like Pat Flynn to promote the platform, driving exponential growth.”
high“In 2017, they launched a referral program where creators could earn commissions by recommending ConvertKit to their audience. That turned customers into an affiliate army. The program now accounts for a significant portion of new signups, and it costs nothing upfront.”
medium“they maintained a wide-open affiliate program... all affiliates needed to do was sign up. Then they earned a recurring 30% commission for the life of the customer.”
high -
One-time / lifetime deals
· 4 mentions · 4 sources“I went off and started building the product more, you know, because I had these wireframes, but actually, like, turning it into something. And then, like, a month later, I had a way for people to pre-order, and so I came back to them and said, hey, okay, this is a more clearly defined product vis...”
highShow 3 more quotes
“Preorder your first four months of ConvertKit for only $112.”
high“Not including another 100 customers and $13,000 from a single webinar (that we counted as one-time income).”
high“In-App Purchases Yes ConvertKit One Pro $4.99”
high -
Usage-based fees
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“Kit Commerce lets you sell digital products and paid newsletter subscriptions without a separate e-commerce platform. You create product listings within Kit, set pricing (one-time or recurring), and Kit handles checkout via Stripe. The 0.6% transaction fee is one of the lowest in the creator econ...”
highShow 1 more quote
“now for ConvertKit, like, Oh, we have 250,000 users and so let's just tell them to use this new thing... we launched ConvertKit commerce, which is our digital product sales platform... we're at almost half a million in GMV”
medium -
Advertising revenue
· 2 mentions · 2 sources“ConvertKit’s ad and recommendation products were already showing up in the numbers by late 2023. Growth re accelerated to 22%, net dollar retention moved above 100%, and the boost was tied to Creator Network and Sponsor Network, which added monetization on top of core email SaaS.”
highShow 1 more quote
“ConvertKit’s growth re-accelerated to 22% last month with the ad network launches of Creator Network, which lets writers do both free and paid recommendations of other newsletters, and Sponsor Network, which lets businesses sponsor writers.”
high -
Course / training sales
· 1 mention“2014 January — Launch ConvertKit Academy to better train customers and use a launch model to bring in new accounts. April — Some success with that, but not on the level needed.”
medium
How 2,292 businesses make money
Of businesses with mapped revenue sources, the share using each —
ConvertKit’s highlighted.
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Recurring subscriptions61% ◀
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One-time / lifetime deals28% ◀
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Services & consulting27%
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Physical products25%
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Affiliate / referral commissions15% ◀
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Course / training sales12% ◀
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Add-ons & upsells11%
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Usage-based fees10% ◀
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Sponsorships & partnerships10%
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Advertising revenue9% ◀
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Marketplace commissions5%
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Licensing2%
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Donations & tips2%
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Setup / onboarding fees2%
