MadeThis vs. ConvertKit (Kit): Which Is Better for Selling Digital Products in 2027?

ConvertKit — now rebranded as Kit — is one of the most respected names in the creator economy. If you've been in the online business space for any length of time, you've probably been told to 'just use ConvertKit' for your email list. And for a specific kind of creator, that advice holds up.

But ConvertKit is an email marketing tool. A really good one. What it isn't is a platform for building and selling digital products from scratch. The commerce features are there, but they're a bolt-on to what is fundamentally a newsletter and automation tool.

MadeThis is built around the opposite premise: that you need an AI co-founder that ships your storefront, writes your product descriptions, runs your SEO blog, and delivers your digital files — not just a system for sending email sequences. That difference sounds small until you sit down and try to sell your first product on each platform.

Here's exactly where each one wins, and who should actually be using which.

ConvertKit's commerce features are an afterthought. The platform was built for newsletters and email automation — the product selling layer was added later, and it shows. You get a basic checkout page and digital file delivery, but there's no branded storefront, no AI helping you write product descriptions, and no SEO engine to drive traffic to your products. You're responsible for every piece of the business that isn't an email.

The practical implication: if you want to sell a digital product on ConvertKit, you either need an existing email list to sell to, or you need to drive traffic through your own channels. ConvertKit gives you no tools to build organic search traffic. No blog engine. No AI co-founder to help you figure out what to build or how to price it. It's a platform for creators who already have an audience — not for people still building one.

There's also no AI anywhere in the product. ConvertKit's strength is its automation logic — you can build sophisticated tag-based sequences and behavioral triggers — but every decision, every piece of copy, and every strategic call is yours to make. For a solopreneur with no team, that cognitive load adds up fast.

Finally, the commerce experience is limited. ConvertKit can sell a digital product, but it can't help you build a full product catalog, manage a multi-product storefront, or scale your digital product business the way a purpose-built platform can. The checkout works — but that's about all it does.

ConvertKit (Kit) is genuinely excellent at what it's designed to do. If you already have an email list and your primary goal is nurturing subscribers, selling to them via sequences, and growing your newsletter, ConvertKit is one of the best tools in the market. The automation logic is mature, the audience-building features are strong, and the $25/month Creator plan is reasonable for what you get.

But for building and selling digital products? ConvertKit is the wrong starting point. You'd be duct-taping a commerce layer onto an email tool and hoping the pieces connect. MadeThis is built around the product and the store first — the AI co-founder handles the parts ConvertKit leaves entirely to you.

The verdict: MadeThis wins for anyone trying to build a digital product business from scratch. ConvertKit wins for newsletter-first creators who already have a substantial audience and primarily need sophisticated email automation. If you're not sure which category you're in, that's a signal you probably need MadeThis — the platform that helps you figure it out.