I've used both. Convertkit is amazing and I like the tagging system. But the emails can't really be beautified, which is important for my audience in the wedding industry. Mailerlite is less expensive, and very robust. And the emails can be made to look quite nice.

Congrats!

@Lynyetta Willis, PhD The layout is sticky IMO. Most people are used to scrolling down or up. And then stopping mid-scroll to read or take some type of action. And likely this is often done on mobile devices. Having to click on menus on a sidebar (circle and heartbeat) is not intuitive IMO or conducive to engagement. Also, the general feed showing ALL posts is sticky. It forces the user to scroll for a while, then filter if need be. When I login to Heartbeat, I see whatever the top-most channel is. And that's usually a pinned post. So I need to physically scroll down that channel to see new content or click on the sidebar that is boldened to see what new threads are there. Then repeat that action for other boldened sidebars. It's a lot of work and not what people are used to. I feel like users just want to scroll first, then click around if something compels them to. Then, the simple Skool design in which they instruct users to "write something" is more inviting than "start a thread" in Heartbeat or "New Post" in Circle. Psychologically, I would rather "write something" than "start a thread." "Starting a thread" seems like a larger commitment than simply "writing something." "New post" isn't specifically telling me to do anything. I have over 600K followers collectively on my company social media accounts. Whenever I have a call to action specifically telling people what to do, they often do just that. Then, the bright blue indication of when the last comment was made is perfection. People are generally nosy. They want to know what's happening when it's happening. If I see a comment was recently made, even if the post is from February, I am inclined to click on it. It's human nature. So I feel it's a genius way to encourage engagement. Then of course, the leaderboard. Even if I'm not competing, I check to see who's moving up or down. It's fun and it's exciting. I don't know if you're familiar with the Double Good popcorn fundraiser? The leaderboard is the reason why people are so successful selling $18 (small-ish) bags of popcorn.

@Mariah Coz I like the customization in Heartbeat and custom domain option, but as I'm exploring Skool more, the simplicity is encouraging. I'm really close to moving my b2b community here.

@Lynyetta Willis, PhD thx!!

@Lynyetta Willis, PhD Heartbeat has LOTS of amazing features that Skool doesn't have and may not ever have (like custom domains). But the feed design in Skool is better for engagement than the thread layout of Heartbeat. I wish Heartbeat had a general feed with all the latest posts so when my members login, they can scroll around and see what's new without having to click into different channels. And I with Skool gave the option to use a custom domain and tweak a few things like colors.

Thanks for accepting me into your group! I'm loving the energy in here :) @Mariah Coz