Should you’re on the lookout for your subsequent electronic mail advertising platform, and also you’re curious if Equipment is best for you, nicely, you’re in the proper place! Right here’s our complete Equipment evaluation for 2024, which is able to cowl:
- What Is Equipment?
- Why do I want an electronic mail service supplier (ESP)?
- The rebrand from ConvertKit to Equipment
- Equipment Options
- Equipment Pricing
- Key Advantages of Equipment
- Drawbacks of Equipment
- Equipment & Electronic mail Advertising and marketing: Extra Sources to Learn, Hear & Be taught
What’s Equipment?
Equipment is an electronic mail service supplier (ESP). Primarily, it’s a know-how service that allows you to ship electronic mail campaigns to a listing of subscribers. Equipment is certainly one of actually lots of of ESPs on the market, and—full disclosure—it occurs to be the one we favor and use at SPI.
Though we’re biased, we are able to nonetheless be goal! On this submit, we’ll cowl the options, advantages, and drawbacks of Equipment as we see them, that can assist you determine if it’s the proper ESP for your enterprise.
Electronic mail advertising technique: Why you want an ESP
Should you’re studying this, you would possibly already know what an ESP is and why you want one. However in case you don’t, an ESP is crucial piece of know-how to help your electronic mail advertising technique.
Electronic mail advertising is among the strongest strategies to construct relationships and market your services to your viewers. Let’s speak about why that’s.
In its most elementary type, electronic mail advertising entails you sending emails to a bunch of people that’ve chosen to listen to from you by “subscribing” to obtain emails from you. You possibly can technically use a easy electronic mail program like Gmail to perform this—however we don’t suggest it, since you’ll rapidly discover it inadequate (and since your private electronic mail account will get flagged as spam if you happen to ship too many emails from it!).
As your enterprise grows and extra folks subscribe to get your emails, you’ll need the flexibility to do extra subtle issues together with your electronic mail advertising, like customizing the emails folks get in keeping with their pursuits, and utilizing stories and analytics to find out what’s working nicely or not.
You additionally have to ensure you’re respecting folks’s privateness and never spamming anybody. An electronic mail service supplier additionally lets you keep in compliance with authorities laws world wide, such because the CAN-SPAM act in the US, the Common Knowledge Safety Regulation within the European Union (GDPR), and the Canada Anti-Spam Regulation (CASL).
Issues can rapidly get out of hand with out the assistance of a devoted electronic mail advertising platform. That’s the place an ESP like Equipment is available in.
Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty of Equipment’s options!
Psst… Wish to develop your electronic mail listing and be taught highly effective segmentation and automation methods that enable your enterprise to run by itself? Take a look at the Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic course.
Equipment options
These are the important thing options of Equipment, organized by the way you’ll use them.
Sending emails
- Autoresponders/drip campaigns (sequences): Ship a sequence of pre-written emails robotically to a particular phase of subscribers in your listing, triggered by a particular occasion or motion, with the intention of guiding them to take a particular motion.
- Broadcast emails: Ship normal bulletins or one-time emails to your subscribers on a particular date.
- CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL compliance: CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL are legal guidelines that set the foundations and necessities for business electronic mail messages, and provides recipients the proper to have you ever cease emailing them—so compliance is essential!
- Dynamic (customized) electronic mail content material: Your electronic mail content material can show completely different textual content or photographs, in keeping with your buyer segmentation.
- Responsive electronic mail templates: Prepared-to-go electronic mail designs, in addition to the flexibility to create your personal customized templates. Equipment robotically codecs your touchdown pages for varied units, equivalent to desktop computer systems and cell phones.
- WYSIWYG electronic mail editor: The built-in electronic mail editor allows you to see how your electronic mail will look together with your template’s styling utilized whilst you’re composing it.
Gathering new subscribers
- Customized responsive touchdown pages: Use the included instrument to rapidly create a touchdown web page to gather electronic mail addresses. Equipment robotically codecs your touchdown pages for varied units, equivalent to desktop computer systems and cell phones.
- Embeddable varieties: Accumulate electronic mail subscribers wherever in your web site by dropping in a Javascript or HTML type, or through the use of the WordPress plugin.
- Web site builder: Create an internet site straight on Equipment to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather cost for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages. Arrange a touchdown web page and gather cost for one-time or subscription merchandise proper inside Equipment.
- Visible automations: Equipment means that you can create rule-based paths utilizing if-then logic, in order that when a subscriber takes a selected motion, you possibly can ship them pre-defined emails or add them to a phase.
Studying about your subscribers
- A/B testing: Equipment allows you to take a look at completely different topic strains to your emails, and robotically determines the winner based mostly on their respective open charges.
- Reporting/analytics/ROI monitoring: Learn the way usually your subscribers open your emails, click on on hyperlinks, and full varied actions.
- Segmentation/tagging: Segmenting your subscribers into completely different classes (much like however extra highly effective than different packages’ “lists”) means that you can ship them emails which can be higher tailor-made to their wants and pursuits.
- Polls. Add polls on to emails to interact with and gather details about subscribers, which you’ll then use to construct segments.
Rising your earnings
- In 2022, Equipment Commerce was added to the platform, permitting customers to attempt promoting digital merchandise to their subscribers by creating custom-made product pages that may be embedded in your emails, together with automated gross sales funnels.
- The present iteration of Equipment additionally encompasses a website builder. You may create an internet site straight on Equipment to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather cost for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages.
Connecting with and supporting different creators: The Creator Community
- In 2023, Equipment launched the Creator Community, which helps customers information their viewers members to find different creators and get found in flip.
- You too can receives a commission for Creator Community suggestions you make by way of the aptly named Paid Suggestions.
Increasing the platform’s capabilities: App retailer
- As a part of the 2024 rebrand, additionally they launched an app retailer, the place you could find customized apps to do extra with Equipment. The app retailer will launch with 5 apps: KitBoard (add CRM to your account), Wordsmith (flip YouTube movies into newsletters, SavvyCal (add reserving widgets to emails), Mighty (join your Mighty group and content material with Equipment), and SegMetrics (study the way you acquire, interact, and convert subscribers).
- Equipment additionally gives a self-service app builder to create your personal add-ons. (As of this writing, the service is presently in beta.)
Begin your Equipment account — free to your first 10,000 subscribers!
That is an affiliate hyperlink
From “ConvertKit” to “Equipment”: Behind the rebrand
In summer time 2024, the corporate beforehand often known as ConvertKit formally turned Equipment. The brand new identify was introduced in July throughout the Craft + Commerce Creator Convention and went stay in October. (They’d beforehand rebranded to Seva in 2018, however appreciable destructive suggestions to the brand new identify induced them to revert to ConvertKit till this 12 months.)
The change to Equipment was greater than a reputation change, although, as a result of the corporate launched a number of massive new capabilities to their platform as nicely. We lined a few of the new options within the part above, however listed below are the highlights:
- An app retailer the place builders can create add-ons to enhance Equipment’s capabilities
- A central knowledge hub with enhanced reporting
- An expanded Creator Community to assist customers discover new collaboration companions
Equipment additionally made a degree of rebranding in public by sharing details about the rebranding course of via weblog updates, live-streamed design classes, and a four-part YouTube mini-documentary. This transparency provides an fascinating perception into the corporate’s pondering. And we expect it’s a sensible transfer given how their earlier rebrand went.
With that out of the best way, let’s speak about pricing.
Equipment pricing
For a very long time, Equipment solely provided paid plans. However in December 2019, the corporate introduced a brand new free tier when you have fewer than 1,000 subscribers. They not too long ago expanded the free tier to incorporate creators with as much as 10,000 subscribers.
Listed below are Equipment’s pricing choices as of October 2024:
Equipment E-newsletter Plan
- $0/month for as much as 10,000 subscribers
The E-newsletter plan consists of:
- 1 fundamental Visible Automation
- 1 electronic mail Sequence
- 1 person
- Limitless touchdown pages, opt-in varieties, and electronic mail broadcasts
- Viewers tagging & segmentation
- Promote digital merchandise
- Run paid newsletters & subscriptions
- E-newsletter feed & web site
- API Entry
- Free Suggestions (required—at the very least one suggestion slot to develop your listing by cross-promoting with different creators)
- Sensible Suggestions (auto-recommendation of comparable creators that can assist you develop your listing)
- 24/7 help
Equipment Creator Plan
- $9/month for as much as 300 subscribers (paid yearly; $15 if paid month-to-month)
- $25/month for as much as 1,000 subscribers (paid yearly; $29 if paid month-to-month)
- Tiered pricing as much as $1,916/month (paid yearly; $1,916 if paid month-to-month) for as much as 400,000 subscribers
The Creator plan consists of:
- All of the options of the E-newsletter plan
- Limitless Visible Automations
- Limitless electronic mail Sequences
- 2 customers
- Free migration from one other instrument
- Free Suggestions
- Paid Suggestions
- Take away Equipment branding
- Third-party integrations
- RSS campaigns
- Polls
Equipment Creator Professional Plan
- $25/month for as much as 300 subscribers (paid yearly; $29 if paid month-to-month)
- $50/month for as much as 1,000 subscribers (paid yearly; $59 if paid month-to-month)
- Tiered pricing as much as $2,166/month (paid yearly; $2,599 paid month-to-month) for as much as 400,000 subscribers
The Creator Professional plan consists of:
- All of the options of the Creator plan
- Limitless Visible Automations
- Limitless electronic mail Sequences
- Limitless customers
- Fb customized audiences
- E-newsletter referral system
- Edit hyperlinks in despatched broadcasts
- Subscriber engagement scoring
- Superior deliverability reporting
- Insights dashboard
- 24/7 Precedence help
Each the Creator and Creator Professional plans provide a 14-day free trial so you possibly can see if it’s best for you earlier than committing.
We’ll hold this submit up to date with the most recent Equipment pricing, however you may also go to the pricing web page on the Equipment web site.
Let’s get into the explanations we like Equipment subsequent!
Advantages of Equipment
We’ve used Equipment to energy Sensible Passive Earnings’s electronic mail advertising for a number of years. In that point, we’ve discovered it to be the perfect ESP for our wants. We additionally assume it’s an important resolution for a spread of entrepreneurs and digital creators on the lookout for a strong, feature-rich electronic mail advertising platform.
One of the best electronic mail service supplier for brand spanking new entrepreneurs.
Straightforward to be taught, highly effective while you want it.
That is an affiliate hyperlink

From the place we sit, the ability of Equipment falls into two primary classes: person advantages, and viewers advantages.
Equipment advantages from the person’s standpoint
First, Equipment has every part a enterprise proprietor wants to rise up and working rapidly:
- You may gather emails.
- You may arrange a easy touchdown web page to gather emails.
- You may promote merchandise (one-time buy or subscription).
These options enable somebody to begin promoting even whereas they’re within the means of organising an internet site someplace else. It additionally makes it straightforward to execute on one of many primary classes in our Sensible From Scratch course: utilizing promoting as a key step within the idea-validation course of.
Second, the Equipment group designed their platform to develop with the sophistication of the person. Whenever you begin, you in all probability simply need to gather electronic mail addresses and ship emails. However as you develop, you’ll need to begin tailoring your message and segmenting your viewers. At that time you possibly can benefit from issues like automations and dynamic content material. As you and your enterprise turn out to be extra superior, the Creator Professional Plan is the next step—you gained’t have to modify to a special electronic mail service supplier 5 years down the street. This units Equipment aside from another ESPs, significantly Mailchimp.
Some folks discover Equipment a bit daunting (see Drawbacks beneath), however if you happen to’re considerably tech-savvy we expect it’s fairly approachable. Specifically, we just like the accessibility of Equipment’s automation builder, which helps you to create automations in a simple, linear manner.
We tried Infusionsoft for a 12 months and located its automation builder modern however overwhelming. You needed to already perceive how automations work, in addition to the assorted symbols widespread in automation builders. We discover Equipment’s automation builder, alternatively, makes it straightforward to string automations collectively in a sophisticated manner. With a number of templates to select from, organising an automation for the primary time is simple for any person.
We additionally like Equipment’s method to subscriber administration. With Equipment, all of your subscribers go into one massive pool; there aren’t any lists. As a substitute, subscribers may be put into segments by assigning them attributes utilizing tags and customized fields. These allow you to deal with your subscribers as distinctive people with completely different wants; not all subscribers are created equal. The opposite advantage of the best way Equipment treats subscribers? You’re solely charged as soon as for every distinctive subscriber, not like another ESPs.
Equipment’s not too long ago launched Creator Community can be an enormous plus in our eyes, from each a business-building and community-building perspective. It means that you can develop your subscriber base whereas additionally fostering connections with different entrepreneurs and creators.
Final however not least, if you happen to’re shifting from one other ESP like Mailchimp or AWeber, Equipment gives a free migration service that may take a few of the headache out of switching.
Equipment advantages to your viewers
Equipment provides you the chance to tailor your messaging to your viewers. You may have as many varieties and touchdown pages as you need. You may have as many tags, customized fields, and segments as you need. You may be as particular in speaking to your viewers as you need to be.
As you gather details about your viewers, you can begin to phase subscribers so that you don’t trouble folks with issues they aren’t interested by. Equipment makes it straightforward to gather particulars about your viewers alongside the best way, and also you aren’t penalized for that via larger prices, as you’d be with a list-based electronic mail platform.
Drawbacks of Equipment
No resolution is ideal, in fact. Listed below are a few of the drawbacks we and different Equipment customers have seen.
- Reasonably steep studying curve. The interface generally is a little overwhelming for a newbie. Taking full benefit of all of Equipment’s options—like segmentation, tagging, and automations—requires some studying (and probably coding). You may shorten this studying curve by following their Getting Began video collection, in addition to the remainder of the content material on their well-organized help website
- No list-based group. Though we like the best way Equipment allows you to manage subscribers utilizing tags (and doesn’t cost you for duplicate subscribers, as we talked about above), the shortage of a list-based group system may be complicated if you happen to’re coming from different platforms. Over time, although, we expect you’ll discover this method extra versatile than managing lists.
- Barebones electronic mail and touchdown web page templates. Equipment requires CSS coding to create customized superior electronic mail templates and touchdown pages past the included choices. Some customers report that the e-mail design instrument may be buggy.
- Analytics might be extra strong. The free and Creator plans don’t provide the identical superior deliverability reporting, subscriber scoring, and analytics options of the Perception function that the Creator Professional plan gives, which is smart however could also be a hassle to some customers.
Fortunately, one of many earlier drawbacks of Equipment, that there was no free possibility, hasn’t been the case since 2019. This free tier makes Equipment comparable on the entry stage to different well-liked ESP choices like Mailchimp.
Lastly, that is in no way a disadvantage, however as Equipment continues to increase its choices to incorporate issues just like the Creator Community and Equipment Commerce to its core electronic mail advertising capabilities, there’s an opportunity that the platform’s worth might get unfold skinny. To be clear, we don’t assume that is going to occur and have a number of confidence in Nathan and the Equipment group, but it surely’s value preserving in thoughts.
Our massive takeaway on Equipment
With the current updates, Equipment is coming nearer to being a one-stop store for creators who need to develop, nurture, and promote to their audiences with a platform that’s largely prepared to make use of and automatable. Should you’re on the lookout for your first or subsequent electronic mail advertising platform, we expect it’s an important resolution for rising your viewers and rising your earnings whereas retaining inventive management over what you set out into the world!
Equipment & electronic mail advertising: Extra sources to learn, hear & be taught
So there you’ve it—our evaluation of Equipment’s electronic mail advertising platform! We’ll go away you with a number of extra sources if you happen to’re interested in Equipment, or need to dig additional into electronic mail advertising.
Equipment [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, we receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]
SPI 825: Behind the Scenes of a Main Rebrand & Classes Realized After a Arduous Fail—my dialog with Equipment CEO Nathan Barry about setting his firm’s sights on extra bold objectives with the rebrand.
What Is Electronic mail Advertising and marketing? + Finest Practices: An SPI How-to Information
Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic Course
Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKitI hope this submit has been useful in deciding whether or not Equipment is the proper ESP for your enterprise. No matter electronic mail advertising platform you select, nothing is extra essential than having the proper electronic mail advertising technique, so remember to try our important information to electronic mail advertising and think about the Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic course in order for you extra hands-on help together with your electronic mail advertising, obtainable contained in the SPI Neighborhood. Good luck!