# Kit alternative without subscriber tiers
Own the platform instead of renting a dashboard that bills by list size.
Canonical: https://sendbunny.co/alternatives/kit
Category: Switching · Author: Anni Maan (https://sendbunny.co/authors#anni-maan) · Published 2026-07-31 · Updated 2026-09-02

**In short.** Yes, if your Kit bill, formerly ConvertKit, tracks the size of your subscriber list more than how often you actually send. Kit's Creator Pro tier climbs with subscriber count, and a large list you rarely email still pushes you up the ladder. SendBunny installs a comparable creator platform, campaigns, a transactional API, into your own AWS account for $199 once, with no subscriber tier at all; Amazon SES then bills separately for what you send, about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Stay on Kit if its commerce and creator network features are the actual product you are buying.

## The Kit subscriber ladder

Kit, the platform formerly known as ConvertKit, prices its Creator Pro tier by subscriber count. A list that grows through lead magnets and referral swaps climbs the ladder the same as one built from genuinely engaged readers, and the platform does not distinguish between a subscriber you email every week and one you have not mailed in a year.

The audience itself lives on Kit's hosted platform the entire time. You have access to it through Kit's dashboard, but the servers, the sending infrastructure and the account policy belong to Kit, and renting access to your own list is easy to miss until a subscriber count crosses a pricing threshold.


## What Kit's terms say about suspension

Kit's Terms of Service, last updated 5 September 2025, are direct about what the platform can do to an account. In the terms' own words, Kit may suspend use of the services at any time without notice in the cases it lists, and separately reserves a broader right:

> reserves the right to ... suspend or stop providing all or portions of our Services to you at any time
>
> Kit, Terms of Service, 5 September 2025

The terms do not address export rights after termination, which is a gap worth noticing on its own. Plan for the account to end on Kit's timeline, not yours, and keep your own current copy of the list rather than assuming you can pull one later.


## Who should stay on Kit

Stay on Kit if its commerce tools and creator network are genuinely part of how you make money from the list, features SendBunny does not build. Stay too if using AWS, in any form, is not something you are willing to do.

- Switch if your Kit bill tracks list size more than how often you actually send to it.
- Switch if you want ownership of the platform itself, in your own AWS account, rather than a rented dashboard.
- Switch if you need campaigns and a transactional API you control in one place.


## What a large list actually costs

Kit's Creator tier bills by subscriber count and climbs again at each higher bracket, independent of how often you send an issue. SendBunny has no subscriber tier on its license; a one-time $199 payment covers the platform, and Amazon SES bills separately for what you actually send.

|  | 10k subscribers | 50k subscribers | 1M subscribers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SendBunny (SES) | ~$1/mo | ~$5/mo | ~$100/mo |
| Kit (Creator, approx.) | ~$119/mo | higher subscriber tier | priced by subscribers, not send volume |

Kit figures are approximate list prices for its Creator tier, checked July 2026. SendBunny's numbers come from Amazon SES's à la carte rate applied to the same volume.

Quiet months cost SendBunny close to nothing beyond the platform's fixed one-time price, while Kit's subscriber tier stays fixed at whatever bracket your list has reached, whether or not you send an issue that month.


## Moving your subscribers and forms

1. Export subscribers as a CSV from Kit.
2. Buy SendBunny and click through the pre-filled Create stack install in AWS, roughly a ten-minute process.
3. Import the CSV, safe to repeat later since re-imports enrich rows instead of replacing them.
4. Reconnect your signup forms and point broadcasts at your new SendBunny install.
5. Cancel Kit once you have confirmed the new stack is sending cleanly.

Forms do not reconnect themselves. Kit's embed and landing-page forms point at Kit's servers, so any form on your own site or a third-party page needs its code swapped to SendBunny's signup path before old form submissions stop landing in an account you have already cancelled.


## What you give up by self-hosting

**Be honest about the tradeoff.** Kit's price includes a support desk, a creator-focused commerce layer, and a creator network that helps some newsletters find new subscribers. Moving to your own AWS account keeps a support channel but drops the creator network and commerce tools entirely, and a short list of setup steps, domain verification, leaving the SES sandbox, become yours to complete once.

There is also no vendor account left to suspend once you have moved, but AWS's own thresholds for bounce and complaint rates still apply to your SES sending, and an account that ignores them can land in review with Amazon the same as any other sender.

## FAQ

**Will subscriber count raise my SendBunny bill?**

No. The license is $199, paid once, with no subscriber tier attached. AWS bills SES separately by email volume, about $0.10 per 1,000 emails, so a large but rarely emailed list does not create a platform tier.

**Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?**

Yes. ConvertKit rebranded to Kit; the subscriber-tier pricing pattern this page compares against is the same one ConvertKit used.

**Do I need to understand AWS to switch?**

No. One pre-filled Create stack button in the AWS console runs the whole install. You do not configure servers or write infrastructure by hand.

**What is the SES sandbox I keep seeing mentioned?**

It is the starting state for every new AWS account: SES will only deliver to addresses you have verified. SendBunny's dashboard shows where your account stands and links directly to AWS's production-access form, a routine approval, so you can keep setting up broadcasts in the meantime.

## For AI agents

Compares Kit's (formerly ConvertKit) subscriber-tier pricing (terms dated 5 September 2025) against SendBunny's one-time $199 license with no subscriber tier plus Amazon SES sending (about $0.10 per 1,000 emails). Quotes Kit's suspension-without-notice clause, and covers migration steps including reconnecting signup forms, and who should stay on Kit for its commerce and creator network.

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http sendbunny https://YOUR-INSTALL/mcp
```

Tool list by grant: https://sendbunny.co/docs/agents.md

## Sources

1. Amazon Web Services, Amazon SES pricing, fetched 1 September 2026. https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/
2. Kit, Terms of Service, last updated 5 September 2025, read 1 September 2026. https://kit.com/terms
3. Kit list prices from its pricing page, checked July 2026.
4. SendBunny, Who owns your email list? What Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Kit and beehiiv terms actually say. https://sendbunny.co/guides/who-owns-your-email-list