Kit vs. AWeber: Which email marketing tool is better?

Looking for a simple way to create beautiful on-brand emails for your biz? Learn how one of this software can help in this Kit vs. AWeber comparison.

Struggling with growing your email list and need proven software for the task? Try using Kit or AWeber.

Kit suits solo creators on a budget, while AWeber fits growing e-commerce businesses. However, how does each perform as an email marketing software?

Let’s find out in this Kit vs. AWeber comparison.

Kit vs. AWeber: At a Glance

Criteria	Kit	AWeber	Winner
SMB Guide’s Rating	7.6/10	7.9/10	AWeber
Marketing Automation Capabilities	Advanced automation	Complex email sequences	Kit
Email Builder	Text-based, visual editor	600+ pre-made email templates	AWeber
Personalization & Customization	Highly personalized	Lacks segmentation options	Kit
Campaign Performance Tracking	Detailed metrics	Limited tracking	Kit
Email Deliverability	✅	✅	AWeber
List Management	More advanced segmentation and tagging	Standard segmentation	Kit
A/B Testing	✅	✅	AWeber
Advanced Reporting & Insights	Advanced Insights	Attribution has limitations	AWeber
Compliance & Security	✅	✅	Tie
User Experience and User Interface	Minimalistic interface	Minimalist interface	Kit
Integrations and Compatibility	130+ integrations	750+ integrations	AWeber
Customer Support	Live chat and email	Live chat, phone, and email	AWeber
Pricing	Free – $2,599/mo	Free – $899/mo	Kit
Scalability	Ideal for scaling businesses	Moderately scalable	Kit

Kit: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

Kit is an email marketing software built for solo creators. It offers more than the basic email sequence setup, allowing automating actions triggered by an event. 

Kit also allows contact management through tagging for easy segmentation. The best part is that it includes a forever-free plan that supports unlimited email sends.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Kit pricing is straightforward. It offers three plans and a forever-free package. The plans are scalable, and the paid packages have a two-week free trial period.

Billing is monthly or annual, with yearly payments getting 2 months off.

Here are the plans:

• Newsletter: Free (max 10K subscribers)
• Creator: $29 monthly or $290 yearly (1K subscribers)
• Pro: $59 monthly or $590 yearly (1K subscribers)

AWeber: Key Features, Pros, Cons, & Pricing

AWeber is email marketing software built for small to large enterprises. As one of the industry’s OGs, AWeber, continues to evolve.

It still provides classic email marketing, where users can capture contacts through landing pages. Today, it allows automating email marketing campaigns and tracking their performance.

The best part is that it offers a forever-free plan.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

AWeber pricing is straightforward. It offers four scalable plans, including a freemium. The free plan offers basic functionality and caps subscribers at 500.

Paid plans offer more features and support unlimited subscribers. Billing is monthly or yearly, where annual pre-payments get 4 months off.

Here are the plans:

• Free: $0
• Lite: $15 monthly or $150 yearly
• Plus: $30 monthly or $240 annually
• Unlimited: $899 monthly only

Marketing Automation Capabilities

Kit shines on branching logic and conditional actions. It focuses on subscriber actions and tags, allowing for the creation of complex workflows.

It then allows sending highly targeted emails.

AWeber is more list-centric, a model that fits e-commerce businesses with a larger audience. Its automation is basic, with limited branching options. It makes it struggle with personalization.

On cross-channel support, Kit focuses on automated email marketing. However, native cross-channel communication is lacking in SMS and social media.

AWeber offers integration with a few webinar software and landing page builders. However, like Kit, it lacks true cross-channel automation.

✅ Winner: Kit

Email Builder

On pre-designed email templates, AWeber edges out tKit. AWeber offers 700+ templates across various industries, while Kit offers only 23.

AWeber’s email editor has drag-and-drop functionality. It also allows basic template customization, such as adding buttons, images, and text. The Kit editor is classic and easy to use but has limited customization options.

Both platforms also optimize the email templates for seamless user experience across devices, including mobile.

On direct HTML editing, Kit edges AWeber. It allows direct HTML editing for granular email design control.

Both platforms also offer email preview capability and spam testing tools for email deliverability.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Personalization & Customization

Kit edges AWeber at dynamic content insertion based on subscriber data, including behavior, attributes, and segmentation.

It also offers more merge tags for personalizing emails with recipient information.

AWeber provides users with a basic merge tag capability for personalization. Unlike Kit, AWeber has limitations on its dynamic content insertion based on segmentation or behavior.

Kit offers more segmentation options. Users can segment audiences based on criteria like interests, email engagement, and more. AWeber lacks here, offering to separate subscribers by signup form or list.

On personalization tokens, Kit allows the insertion of recipient details. AWeber allows using the tokens seamlessly.

✅ Winner: Kit

Campaign Performance Tracking

Kit and AWeber track essential email marketing metrics. They include CTR, open rates, and ROI. Both also offer reporting dashboards for monitoring campaign performance.

Kit excels at goal setting and tracking. It allows users to set specific campaign goals, including sales and lead generation targets. AWeber lacks that advanced capability.

On A/B testing, AWeber edges Kit by providing powerful tools for better customization.

Both platforms also integrate with third-party tools like Google Analytics.

✅ Winner: Kit

Email Deliverability

AWeber shines here by offering a built-in spam score checker for analyzing emails. Kit lacks a built-in tool and requires the integration of third-party apps.

On sender reputation monitoring, AWeber edges Kit. It provides an in-depth report on spam complaints, bounces, and more.

Unlike Kit, AWeber allows users to monitor the sender’s reputation closely. On emergency access control, both allow easy revocation or modification for teams.

✅ Winner: AWeber

List Management

Kit excels here because it uses tags and segments for organization. Users can assign a tag based on behavior or custom criteria. It allows businesses to run targeted email campaigns.

AWeber uses lists for segmentation based on behavior or demographics. Unlike Kit, the model is rigid compared to the tag-based system.

On list cleaning and maintenance, both offer tools for removing inactive and duplicate subscribers.

However, AWeber goes on to provide tools to identify invalid emails when signing up. It reduces the need for later clean-up.

Both software also offer subscribers opt-in/out options and profile updates. However, the AWeber subscription process confirmation is complex.

✅ Winner: Kit

A/B Testing

Kit offers an A/B testing tool but with limitations. It only allows users to split test subject lines on broadcasts.

The good thing is that setting up the A/B tests is straightforward. However, reporting is basic and limited to open rates for the subject line variation.

The AWeber A/B testing tool is more powerful. Users can test CTAs, email designs, and subject lines.

Subscribing to the Pro plan allows users to get in-depth insights into what the subscribers resonate with. Setting the A/B tests is simple, and the reporting is granular in each variation.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Advanced Reporting & Insights

AWeber offers better reporting on segmented campaigns even on the free plan than Kit. Users access a customizable dashboard that displays granular analytics.

On conversion tracking and attribution, both software offer basic functionality. It requires integrating a third-party app to link email campaigns.

Regarding predictive analytics, Kit and AWeber lack the functionality.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Compliance and Security

Kit and AWeber both provide tools for consent management. It allows users to capture GDPR-compliant opt-ins. Both platforms also provide data access request procedures and references, which is a standard DPA on their website.

On encryption, both software uses the standard AES-256 and TLA 1.2.

Both software also emphasize permission-based marketing. The softwares also requires confirmed opt-ins from subscribers before emailing them.

✅ Winner: Tie

User Interface and User Experience

Kit wins hands down with its clean interface, which is easy to navigate even for new users. AWeber provides a more traditional interface that’s complex, but with more menus and options.

On email creation and management, AWeber offers a more flexible editor coupled with 700+ templates. Unlike Kit, it allows for more customization options. However, creating unique designs has a steeper learning curve.

On dashboards, Kit offers a cleaner one with quick access to metrics. AWeber’s is classic and less prominent.

✅ Winner: Kit

Integrations and Compatibility

AWeber offers more direct integration with popular CRMs like HubSpot, while Kit relies on Zapier.

On API, both software provide a well-documented API for custom integrations.

Both platforms also integrate with e-commerce systems like WooCommerce and Shopify. The softwares allows syncing data between users’ online store and email marketing campaigns.

Kit and AWeber integrate with social media apps and analytics tools. They include Google Analytics, Facebook, and more.

On mobile apps, both platforms provide one, but each has its strengths. Kit syncs with the desktop for a user to manage their campaigns.

AWeber’s is more versatile, allowing monitoring and managing campaigns on the go.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Customer Support

Kit offers live chat and email for support. The live chat is quick with response, normally in less than 5 minutes. Email response is slower, taking up to 12 hours for feedback.

AWeber offers email, live chat, and phone as support options. Live chat is quick, with responses taking up to 8 minutes. Phone and email take longer, normally, up to 24 hours for feedback.

Both software offer self-help resources through guides, blogs, and documentation. The content is in-depth and covers the software’s inner workings.

✅ Winner: AWeber

Pricing

Kit pricing consists of three scalable plans with a freemium. The free plan supports unlimited email broadcasts and up to 10K subscribers.

AWeber offers four plans, including a free package. The free plan supports 500 subscribers but with feature limitations.

On value proposition, Kit’s free plan offers unlimited email sends, making it stand out.

AWeber’s annual payment with 4 months off makes it compelling for businesses.

✅ Winner: Kit

Scalability

Kit pricing is scalable, suiting small and growing businesses with increasing subscriber count. However, pricing jumps can become significant when upgrading.

AWeber’s four-tiered pricing model offers more flexibility. It allows smaller adjustments as a list grows. However, the free plan has a 500-subscriber limit.

✅ Winner: Kit

Standout Features of Kit

Kit offers capable email marketing software built for creators. Here are two features that make it stand out.

Recommendations

Kit allows users to unlock sustainable newsletter growth through recommendations. It happens when influential voices in a user’s niche recommend their product.

Creator network

Kit allows users to find creators they want to work with and invite them to the network. Through it, they can cross-promote their content to grow their venture.

Standout Features of AWeber

AWeber still delivers powerful email marketing software even after two decades in the market.

Push notifications

AWeber allows users to drive more traffic to their website through web push notifications. The best part is that AWeber includes them across all plans at no extra cost.

AI assistant

Users who often face writer’s block can now boost their creativity through AWeber AI. It allows users to speed up their writing process and editing within minutes.

Kit vs. AWeber: SMB Guide’s Verdict

Our comparison of Kit and AWeber shows that each software is suitable for different users. Kit suits solo creators, while AWeber is for small to large enterprises.

However, after a thorough evaluation, Kit wins. Here is why:

Kit offers advanced email automation, a creator network, and cheaper plans.

AWeber offers an excellent alternative for growing businesses experimenting with email automation.

Choose Kit If:

You are a creator who prefers simple email marketing software with automation capabilities.

Choose AWeber If:

You run a growing e-commerce store and need advanced email marketing software.