GetResponse vs ConvertKit: Which Is Best For Your Business?

Last Updated on 1st February 2024

GetResponse vs ConvertKit can be a tricky choice because they both have such similar features at first glance.

However, there are some key differences between them, which means that one might be more suited to you than the other.

And choosing the wrong one could limit your business growth or lead you to waste a lot of money. That’s why this article will be a complete comparison between the two to help you make the right choice for your business.

Also, I found it interesting that both options are affiliate-friendly, which isn’t always the case. But I’ll cover that in more detail later on.

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GetResponse vs ConvertKit Overview

In this article, we will take a complete look at what both of these pieces of software have to offer. This includes their features, pricing, and much more.

Introducing GetResponse

GetResponse has been around for what feels like forever. The founder, Simon Grabowski, founded it in 1999, but it has become one of the most popular email marketing tools on the internet since then.

The funny thing about GetResponse is that when Simon first founded the software, it was just meant to be an internal solution for one of his other businesses. Later on, he realized that GetResponse could be a business itself and started turning it into a product.

Today GetResponse has a whopping 350,000 customers.

• GetResponses’ core features include:
• Newsletter
• Behavior-based automation sequences/Workflows
• Email autoresponders
• Landing and Sales page builder
• Forms and pop-ups
• List management
• CRM
• Sales funnels
• Webinars

GetResponse is one of the best choices for business owners and marketers looking for an all-in-one platform.

It allows its users to build an entire marketing system that they can use to generate, convert and engage their leads. How it does that, I’ll talk about in more detail later on.

GetResponse Pros & Cons

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Introducing ConvertKit

ConvertKit hasn’t been around for anywhere near the amount GetResponse has. Nathan Barry founded the platform in 2013, but it has also gained popularity fast in recent years.

And although not quite as popular as GetResponse, the platform still has an impressive 36,000 customers. Not bad.

One of the reasons why it grew in popularity so fast is because of its usability. When it was founded, it was one of the first autoresponders that were particularly easy to use.

However, since then, most autoresponders (including GetResponse) have caught up on the trend, and therefore, also invested a lot of time and money into making their platforms more user-friendly also.

ConvertKit’s core features include:

• Email marketing
• Automations
• Commerce
• Creator Pro
• Email Designer
• Email sign up forms
• Integrations

It brands itself as the go-to email marketing platform for digital creators and bloggers. Some of the ways it does this are through specialized templates for these particular business types, and also providing the core tools they will need.

ConvertKit Pros & Cons

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GetResponse Features and Benefits

Let’s start with GetResponse, and look at what features the platform offers.

What GetResponse Has That ConvertKit Does Not Have

GetResponse has been around for almost 14 years longer. Therefore, it’s to be expected that it has some features that ConvertKit doesn’t have.

And, GetResponse doesn’t disappoint, as you can see below.

Webinars

The first feature that GetResponse has that ConvertKit doesn’t is webinars.

GetResponse has a truly complete webinar feature built-in that lets you host pre-recorded and live webinars. ConvertKit doesn’t have this feature at all, so you’d have to integrate several software pieces to get it.

In my opinion, this is slightly surprising because I would have thought that a lot of “bloggers and digital creators” would also want to run webinars for their audience.

Better Landing Page Builder and More Templates

GetResponse has a landing page builder that offers more flexibility. This is because it has more elements, i.e., functions, and is drag and drop, while ConvertKit isn’t.

Plus, it also has many more templates with a lot more variety in styles. This means that it appeals to a wider range of businesses.

That’s not all… GetResponse also offers more customization when it comes to structuring your pages and customizing the SEO settings.

The only part where GetResponse’s landing page builder can improve in my opinion is the mobile optimization. While it’s perfectly capable of optimizing the pages for visitors on mobile devices, I find that the process isn’t the easiest.

Still, in terms of landing pages, it’s a win for GetResponse.

Better Email and Automation Builder

While they both have similar functionality, GetResponse also is superior when it comes to the email and automation builder.

Again, one of the main reasons for this is that GetResponse has a drag and drop builder for the emails and automation workflows. This makes it easier to use and visualize what exactly you’re building.

ConvertKit, on the other hand, has some nice templates for emails too, but no drag and drop editor. The same goes for the automation sequences, which also makes it a little harder to edit them. Plus, GetResponse also has more triggers to help you send more targeted emails.

Conversion Funnel

One of the features where GetResponse outdoes pretty much every other autoresponder on the market is its conversion funnel feature.

This feature allows you to visualize your entire sales funnel from the point where they first visit your landing page, to them making purchases and becoming repeat customers. The cool thing is that GetResponse gives you a huge selection of templates for every step of the process to make your life easier.

You can also manage your entire sales funnel from this feature which is pretty cool too.

Plus, another excellent thing about GetResponse’s conversion funnel is that it gives you detailed analytics. For example, it shows you the ROI of the entire sales funnel, which you can use to make better management decisions.

GetResponse CRM

GetResponse isn’t only a monster when it comes to helping you generate leads. It also helps you manage and convert them with a dedicated CRM feature that ConvertKit doesn’t have. Again, the cool thing about its CRM is how visual it is; you can drag leads from one phase to another to easily keep an overview.

Plus, with tools like contact scoring, GetResponse helps you make the best decisions.

Other Features

GetResponse really does have an impressive number of features.

It would take too long to explain them all, but here’s a list of everything else that is only available in GetResponse:

• Web Push Notifications
• Google ads creator and management
• Facebook ads creator and management
• Social ads creator
• Done for you lead magnets (Marketing niche)
• Live chat support

You can find out more about all the GetResponse features in my article here.

What GetResponse Is Particularly Good At

GetResponse is particularly good at helping customers build an entire marketing funnel that promotes their business.

There isn’t any other autoresponder that comes with so many tools to help you generate leads.

Plus, with the average ROI of email marketing being around $44 for every $1 spent, you’ll want to funnel as many leads as you can into your list. And GetResponse helps you do exactly that.

GetResponse Ease of Use

GetResponse is one of the easiest-to-use autoresponders out there.

Every single feature inside of GetResponse is drag and drop and laid out visually with bright colors to make everything easy for you.

That being said, it does have a bit of a learning curve, due to the large number of features it comes with. However, you’ll likely soon get the hang of it quickly, then have a huge list of very useful features at your fingertips.

GetResponse Deliverability Rates

Deliverability rates are another area where GetResponse performs incredibly well.

Studies have shown that GetRespnse has industry-leading deliverability rates with around 99% of emails sent through their system actually getting delivered.

Who Is GetResponse Good For

GetResponse is great for the following businesses:

• Ecommerce stores
• Service-based businesses
• Info-product vendors
• Affiliate marketers (GetResponse has no problems with users participating in affiliate marketing)

I also think it can work especially well for service-based businesses with high-value leads. This is because they can use the sales funnel, CRM, and marketing automation to convert their customers.

However, GetResponse’s tools can also be used for a wide range of other businesses, particularly any that fall into the categories I listed above.

If you want to see a visual walk-through of the GetResponse platform then check out the video below.

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ConvertKit Features and Benefits

GetResponse set the standard pretty high, but let’s take a look at how ConvertKit compares.

What ConvertKit Has That GetResponse Does Not Have

ConvertKit doesn’t actually have too many features, which GetResponse doesn’t. This is because it aims to be a simpler solution for a smaller market instead of an all-in-one software targeting most small businesses.

However, I still managed to pick out a few, which I have explained below.

Some Ease Of Use Benefits

The key word here is “some.”  GetResponse, of course, is a lot more visual.

However, ConvertKit has a straightforward dashboard and automations. This may make it easier for you to keep an overview, and you will feel less overwhelmed. Plus, ConvertKit also lets you create tags anywhere inside of the app, which is pretty cool.

GetResponse, on the other hand, only lets you create those in the automation workflows section.

Newsletter Referral System

This is only available on ConvertKit’s highest plan, but it’s basically a free SparkLoop account. Using it, you can create referral campaigns for your email list and let your audience grow it for you.

This is quite a cool feature/add-on because SparkLoop costs like $29 per month by itself. However, you only get this on the $59 per month plan.

Still, it’s pretty nice and something that GetResponse doesn’t have.

Better WordPress Plugin

ConvertKit has a brilliant WordPress plugin that you can also use to add tags, integrate forms, etc.

GetResponse’s plugin, on the other hand, is basic and even has quite a lot of bugs. This is also reflected in the WordPress plugin store reviews, and I would not recommend using it.

Doesn’t Charge For Duplicate Email Signups

GetResponse most other autoresponders that I know of, except SendLane, charge you twice if someone signs up two times with the same email address.

This can happen if you have multiple lists with different optin forms, and a person subscribes to more than one of your lists with the same email address.

I had an issue with this at one point when I was using Aweber as I had a number of different offers on my blog. A lot of my site visitors were interested in more than one of my free lead-magnets, so they were opting to get multiple freebies. I set things up in this way as I wanted to keep and monitor different lists based on my free offers.

In this case, I needed to then also monitor my subscribers and every few weeks clear out the duplicate email addresses manually so I wouldn’t get charged twice for them. It’s a bit of a pain, but not the end of the world.

What ConvertKit Is Particularly Good At

ConvertKit is particularly good at simplicity and ease of use. Despite it not having the same drag and drop functionality, it helps users that might lack technical knowledge, but who will benefit by using email marketing.

ConvertKit does this by offering the most essential tools in an easy-to-use interface that almost anyone can understand.

ConvertKit Ease of Use

ConvertKit is easy to use because of how simple it is. It simply doesn’t have as many options as GetResponse, so you don’t have as many buttons on your screen.

The options you do have on your screen are also bigger, so they are easier to recognize and move around the dashboard quickly.

You may prefer ConvertKit because of this, and if you don’t need all the features that GetResponse provides. Personally, I think that most businesses would be able to do a lot more with GetResponse, but that’s just my opinion.

ConvertKit Deliverability Rates

According to their website, ConvertKit also has a 99% deliverability rate. Or, at least they mention, “Last month ConvertKit has sent over 1 billion emails with a deliverability of over 99%”.

I wasn’t able to find other studies on ConvertKit’s deliverability to share with you in this article. But, they seem to have a lot of resources to help you get your emails delivered and in the right place.

Who Is ConvertKit Good For

ConvertKit’s tools are indeed pretty well suited for bloggers and digital creators.

If you look at those groups’ needs, you’ll find that ConvertKit meets most of them. Plus, it is also easy to use because of its simplicity.

So, ConvertKit is great for bloggers looking for simplicity and don’t want to use a more comprehensive tool like GetResponse. Based on my assumptions, I could imagine ConvertKit working well for digital creators in niches like food, fashion, interior design, etc.

If you want to see ConvertKit in action then take a look at the video below.

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GetResponse vs ConvertKit – Pricing

Now that we have taken a look at the features, let’s look at the cost of each platform:

GetResponse Cost

GetResponse comes with flexible pricing plans ranging from $15 to $99 per month for 1,000 subscribers.

Plus, if you need something more custom, you can contact GetResponse’s support team for the “Max” plan.

With a GetResponse free trial, you can also test out all the features for a full 30 days without entering your credit card information.

The prices below are based on 1,000 subscribers. If you want to know the prices based on more subscribers then please see their pricing page here.

Basic ($15 per month)

This plan is perfect for beginners and includes:

• Unlimited landing pages
• Chats
• Basic email marketing (Non-behavior automation, newsletters, etc.)
• 1 Sales funnel
• Unlimited lead generation funnels
• Facebook and Google ad creator

For a $15 per month plan, this plan is solid as it comes with basic email tools, and you can even sell your products.

Plus ($49 per month)

This plan has everything the previous one has, plus:

• Contact scoring and tagging
• Webinars with up to 100 attendees
• Work with a team (up to 3 members)
• 5 Sales Funnels
• 5 Behavior-based automation workflows
• 5 webinar funnels

The $49 per month plan will be suited for more businesses. It comes with more sales funnels, better email marketing tools, and even webinars. Pretty impressive for a $49 per month plan.

Professional ($99 per month)

Everything in the previous plan, plus:

• Work with 5 users
• On-demand webinars
• Paid webinars
• Up to 300 attendees inside of the webinar
• Unlimited sales funnels
• Unlimited email automation workflows
• Website push notifications

GetResponse Professional comes with almost everything that the platform has to offer. This plan is perfect if you want to create many sales funnels, webinars, automation sequences, etc.

GetResponse Max (Custom pricing)

Everything in PRO and:

• Manage teams and roles
• Single-sign on (SSO)
• 500 webinar attendants
• Transactional emails (only as a paid add on)
• Dedicated support (including for Migrations)
• Several accounts and users

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ConvertKit Cost

ConvertKit has three main pricing plans; free, creator, and creator pro. Below, I’ve explained them all, but keep in mind the prices named are for up to 1,000 subscribers.

 Free ($0 per month)

ConvertKit’s free plan is pretty limited. While you can use their basic landing page builder and send email broadcasts, you can’t use automation sequences.

While this plan may be enough to get you started, it probably won’t be the best choice because you can’t even automate the process.

 Creator ($29 Per Month)

ConvertKit’s creator plan is what I’d assume to be the most popular plan.

Here you can get everything in free, plus:

• Sell digital products
• Automation sequences/Workflows (or funnels, as ConvertKit calls them)
• Get a free migration from any other tool.

This is pretty decent for a $29 per month plan, although it still doesn’t quite offer the number of features that GetResponse has.

Creator Pro ($59 Per Month)

Finally, ConvertKit’s creator pro plan comes with everything the platform has to offer.

That means everything in creator plus:

• Facebook custom audiences
• Newsletter referral system
• Subscriber scoring
• Advanced reporting

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Final Thoughts – GetResponse vs ConvertKit – Which Is Best?

As you have seen throughout this article, both GetResponse and ConvertKit have an impressive list of features.

However, GetResponse does have quite a few more, and their pricing is a little more flexible to suit more types of businesses. Therefore, if I would pick a winner overall, it would have to be GetResponse, because of the significant differences in features.

GetResponse has also been around for a lot longer and has also piled a considerable amount of money into improving the usability of their products a few years ago.

To me, this shows that the company is committed to evolving their business and they do actually care about their customers.If you want to try them out for yourself then you can get a free 30-day GetResponse trial here, no credit card required.