How to Migrate from Mailchimp to ConvertKit (Kit)

This guide is for solo creators, writers, and newsletter operators with lists under ~25,000 subscribers who’ve decided to leave Mailchimp for ConvertKit. If your list is bigger, the principles still apply — add a day for testing. If you have active ecommerce automations connected to Mailchimp (abandoned cart, etc.), this migration is meaningfully more complex and you should budget a full week and consider hiring help.

Why migrate? Usually one of three things: the 2,500-contact pricing cliff (see the Mailchimp TCO calculator), automation features that don’t match your workflow, or a desire for creator-native primitives (tags, sequences, subscriber scoring) Mailchimp doesn’t have. If none of those apply, don’t migrate.

The 90-minute migration

If you have a single audience, no active automations, and less than 10,000 subscribers, this is a 90-minute job, split across three working sessions:

1. Prep (30 min): export your data, prepare your new tags and form structure, warm up your sending domain.
2. Import (15 min): upload the list, tag it appropriately, confirm counts.
3. Rebuild + switch (45 min): rebuild any forms, landing pages, and automations, update your signup sources, send a first broadcast to validate.

For anything more complex, expect a day.

What moves cleanly vs what you rebuild

What you can move	What you rebuild
Subscriber list (CSV export/import)	Automations / sequences
Merge fields (first name, custom fields)	Signup forms
Tags (with a remapping step)	Landing pages
Unsubscribes (you MUST move these)	Email templates
Email history (partial, via Kit’s importer)	Segmentation rules

Automations do not port. ConvertKit’s Sequences and Visual Automations are a different mental model than Mailchimp’s Customer Journey. You will rebuild them. This is actually often the point — it’s your chance to simplify automations that accumulated cruft over years on Mailchimp.

Step 1 — Export from Mailchimp (10 min)

1. In Mailchimp, go to Audience → All Contacts.
2. Click Export Audience. Mailchimp emails you a download link when it’s ready. Typically a few minutes for lists under 10k.
3. The export contains a ZIP with several CSVs — you want subscribed_members.csv (active subs) and unsubscribed_members.csv (unsubscribes/complaints). You MUST keep and import the unsubscribed list — sending to known unsubscribes is a CAN-SPAM violation.
4. Also export your forms and automations (not for import — for reference as you rebuild).

Step 2 — Prep your ConvertKit account (20 min)

1. Sign up for ConvertKit (you can start on the free tier).
2. Create tags that mirror any segmentation you used in Mailchimp. If your old workflow used groups, convert each group to a tag.
3. Set up your sender identity. Use the same from email and display name — changes here hurt deliverability.
4. Configure DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records for your sending domain. ConvertKit’s setup flow walks you through this; it’s the single most important deliverability step.
5. Warm your sending domain if it’s new: send a few low-volume broadcasts to your most engaged subscribers before a mass migration.

Step 3 — Import your list (15 min)

1. In ConvertKit: Grow → Subscribers → Import.
2. Upload subscribed_members.csv. Map fields (email, first name, last name, custom fields).
3. Apply a migration tag like imported-from-mailchimp to all imported subscribers. Useful later for troubleshooting and for giving people a re-opt-in moment if you choose to do one.
4. Upload unsubscribed_members.csv with the “add as unsubscribed” option. This is the critical step most migration guides skim over. Confirm the unsubscribed count matches Mailchimp’s count.
5. Double-check your subscriber total. Mailchimp counts differently than Kit (Mailchimp includes “cleaned” and “archived” in some views), so expect the number to be slightly lower in Kit — that’s usually correct.

Step 4 — Rebuild signup forms (20 min)

1. List every place you have a Mailchimp signup form live: your website, your landing pages, any lead magnets, any third-party tools (Beacon, ConvertFlow, etc.).
2. In ConvertKit: Grow → Landing Pages & Forms. Create a form for each location, matching what you had (inline, popup, sticky bar, etc.).
3. Get the new form embed code.
4. One place at a time, swap the Mailchimp embed for the Kit embed. Test each one — sign yourself up, confirm the subscriber lands in the right tag.
5. Do NOT delete the Mailchimp audience yet. Keep it live with signup forms disabled until you’re confident.

Step 5 — Rebuild automations (variable — 30 min to 4 hours)

This is the part with the most variance.

1. List every automation currently running in Mailchimp. For each, note: trigger, emails, delays, exit conditions.
2. Rebuild in ConvertKit using either:
   • Sequences (simple linear sequences — most welcome flows fit here)
   • Visual Automations (branching, multi-trigger workflows)
3. Start with the most important automation only — usually your welcome sequence. Get it working, testing with a dummy subscriber, before moving on.
4. Simplify ruthlessly. Automations accumulate conditions and steps that no one remembers why. The migration is your chance to delete 60% of them.

Step 6 — Update third-party integrations (15 min)

Everywhere Mailchimp was connected:

• Landing page builders (Carrd, Webflow, Squarespace) — update to Kit
• Lead-magnet delivery tools (ConvertBox, ConvertFlow) — update to Kit
• CMS plugins (WordPress, Ghost) — update
• Zapier — migrate any Zaps pointing to Mailchimp
• E-commerce tools — if you had abandoned-cart flows, this is the hardest bit; budget real time

Step 7 — Send a first broadcast (10 min)

From ConvertKit, send a broadcast to your imported subscribers. Keep it simple: an honest “we’ve moved” note if you want, or just your next regular newsletter.

1. Watch the deliverability — if your open rate is dramatically lower than you had in Mailchimp, you have a SPF/DKIM setup issue.
2. Watch unsubscribes — a migration-related spike of 2–4% is normal; anything above 10% means something is wrong (wrong list imported, bad subject line, or a massive gap since the last send).
3. Watch complaints (marked as spam). Complaint rate above 0.1% is bad; investigate immediately.

Step 8 — Keep Mailchimp around for 30 days, then cancel (30 days later)

Don’t cancel Mailchimp for at least 30 days after your migration:

• Deliverability issues surface on the second or third send, not the first.
• You may have forgotten a third-party integration.
• You may need to re-pull reports or historical data.

After 30 days of clean Kit sends, export one more copy of everything from Mailchimp, then downgrade or cancel.

Things that commonly break

1. SPF / DKIM misconfiguration. Most common cause of deliverability tank after migration. Fix: verify DNS records per Kit’s setup flow.
2. Forgotten signup form. Leads keep landing in the old Mailchimp audience; you miss them. Fix: audit every page, every lead magnet landing, every social profile bio.
3. Welcome sequence delay mismatch. Mailchimp’s “wait 1 day” doesn’t translate perfectly to Kit’s step timings. Fix: test with a fresh email address before going live.
4. Double opt-in requirement drift. If Mailchimp used double opt-in and Kit is set to single opt-in (or vice versa), you’re sending to a different list than you think you are. Fix: explicitly configure opt-in mode in Kit to match your intent.

Before you migrate: the 3 questions that predict how hard it will be

1. Do you have active e-commerce automations? (If yes → budget a week, consider hiring help.)
2. Do you use Mailchimp’s transactional send (Mandrill)? (If yes → you need a separate transactional provider. Postmark, Resend, SendGrid.)
3. Is your list over 25,000 contacts? (If yes → budget extra time for import validation and deliverability ramp-up.)

If you answered “no” to all three, the 90-minute plan works.

Related reading

• Mailchimp review — our honest take on when Mailchimp is still the right pick.
• ConvertKit review — why creators pick Kit.
• Mailchimp TCO calculator — the pricing math that drives many migrations.
• Freelance writer stack — why creators land here.
• AI coach stack — the creator newsletter pattern.