MailerLite handles newsletters, automation, landing pages, forms and basic ecommerce email, priced on subscriber count. It is deliberately simpler than the market leaders and consistently cheaper at every list size, which makes it the sensible default for a business whose email requirement is "send a good newsletter and a few automated sequences".
MailerLite: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 9 August 2026.
- What it is
- The email tool most small businesses should buy instead of Mailchimp
- Best for
- Small businesses and creators sending regular newsletters
- Starts at
- Free up to 250 subscribers; Comfort from $12/month at 500 subscribers
- Free option
- Free plan available, 14 days of premium features trial
- Biggest strength
- Consistently cheaper than Mailchimp at every list size modelled
- Biggest drawback
- Manual account approval, which rejects some legitimate use cases
- Closest alternative
- Mailchimp - Wider integration ecosystem, and materially more expensive at scale
- True annual cost
- from $144 a year at the cheapest paid tier
MailerLite at a glance
| Best for | Small businesses and creators sending regular newsletters, Teams wanting clean automation without a platform to learn, Anyone comparing costs at 10,000 subscribers and upward |
|---|---|
| Category | Marketing, Ecommerce |
| Starting price | Free up to 250 subscribers; Comfort from $12/month at 500 subscribers |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days of premium features |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Company | MailerLite (UAB MailerLite) |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Vilnius, Lithuania |
| Founders | Ignas Rubežius |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | Affiliate programme advertised, paying recurring commission on referrals |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
MailerLite pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 9 August 2026. Pricing model: subscription. Free trial: 14 days of premium features.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | per month | Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, MailerLite branding |
| Comfort | $12 | per month | $10.80 billed yearly at 500 subscribers. Unlimited monthly emails |
| Power | $25 | per month | $22.50 billed yearly at 500 subscribers. Adds advanced features and support |
| Comfort at 10,000 subscribers | $89 | per month | Read from the subscriber slider. $961.20 billed yearly |
| Comfort at 50,000 subscribers | $319 | per month | Read from the subscriber slider. $3,445.20 billed yearly |
| Enterprise | Custom | Negotiated | For very large lists and dedicated support |
What MailerLite actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above multiplied out to twelve months, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way.
| Plan | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Comfort | $12 | $144 |
| Power | $25 | $300 |
| Comfort at 10,000 subscribers | $89 | $1068 |
| Comfort at 50,000 subscribers | $319 | $3828 |
Which MailerLite plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You have fewer than 250 subscribers | Free | 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. Cut from 1,000 during 2026, so it is now a trial rather than a plan to sit on. |
| You want branding removed and unlimited sends | Comfort | $12 a month, or $10.80 billed yearly at 500 subscribers. |
| You need advanced features and priority support | Power | $25 a month, or $22.50 billed yearly at 500 subscribers. |
| You are comparing options at 10,000 subscribers | Price MailerLite properly here | This is where it beats Mailchimp most clearly, so run the comparison at your actual list size rather than the headline. |
| Your list is purchased or affiliate-heavy | Do not use MailerLite | Approval is strict and accounts get rejected. Be honest about how the list was built. |
| You need ecommerce revenue attribution | Consider Klaviyo instead | MailerLite does not model product and order data at that depth. |
Verdict by who you are
Creator or small business sending newslettersYes
Clean, cheap and pleasant, with the best templates at this price. The obvious first choice for straightforward sending.
Anyone at 10,000 subscribers comparing costsYes
Materially cheaper than Mailchimp for the same job at that size.
Ecommerce brandNo
No serious revenue attribution. Klaviyo or Omnisend instead.
Business with a bought listNo
Approval is genuinely strict, and you will likely be rejected.
Should you buy MailerLite?
Buy MailerLite if…
- Small businesses and creators sending regular newsletters
- Teams wanting clean automation without a platform to learn
- Anyone comparing costs at 10,000 subscribers and upward
Do not buy MailerLite if…
- Complex B2B lifecycle marketing across several products
- Ecommerce brands needing deep revenue attribution
- Businesses with a purchased or affiliate-heavy list
Key features
- Drag-and-drop email builder with a clean template set
- Visual automation builder with behavioural triggers
- Landing pages and signup forms included
- Unlimited monthly emails on paid plans
- A/B testing on subject lines and content
- Ecommerce integration for abandoned cart and product blocks
- Paid newsletter subscriptions with Stripe
- Deliverability-focused onboarding and list hygiene tools
Integrations
- Shopify and WooCommerce
- WordPress
- Stripe
- Zapier and Make
- MailerLite API
Our assessment
MailerLite is the answer to a question a lot of businesses get wrong. They default to Mailchimp because they have heard of it, then pay two or three times more for capability they never use. MailerLite's automation builder is clean, unlimited monthly emails on paid plans removes a whole category of anxiety. The free tier was cut to 250 subscribers during 2026, which removes what used to be its strongest hook. The two real caveats are that account approval is manual and rejects list-purchased or affiliate-heavy use, and that reporting is thinner than the larger platforms. Neither matters to a business sending honest email to a list it built.
What works in MailerLite
- Consistently cheaper than Mailchimp at every list size modelled
- Unlimited monthly emails on paid plans
- Clean automation builder that does not require training
- Cheapest credible option at 10,000 subscribers and upward
What doesn't
- Manual account approval, which rejects some legitimate use cases
- Reporting is thinner than Mailchimp or Klaviyo
- Fewer native integrations than the larger platforms
- Not built for complex multi-product lifecycle marketing
EveryAny Decision Score
Scored by dimension rather than averaged into one number, because the trade-offs are the useful part. 3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts by published formula; the rest are editorial judgement, labelled as such. How each score is calculated.
- Cost position6.7/10
derivedentry tier at $12 a month against a category median of $20 across 12 comparable tools
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility8/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, subscription, monthly billing
- Feature depth6/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Ease of learning9/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Collaboration6/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- AI capability5/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Professional adoption8/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
What leaving MailerLite would cost
moderate lock-in
Calculated as 10 minus a portability score of 5, built from four signals (self-hosting, a public API, open-source licensing and a documented export path) . MailerLite scores on: public API. Formula.
MailerLite competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Wider integration ecosystem, and materially more expensive at scale. |
| Brevo | Better if you hold a large list and email it infrequently. |
| Kit | The stronger choice for creators and paid newsletters. |
Mailchimp
Marketing
Email marketing and automation platform aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.
Brevo
Marketing
Priced on sends, not contacts, which changes everything for large lists.
Price it at your real list size
MailerLite charges on subscriber count, and every published figure is quoted against a specific tier. The prices above are at 500 subscribers, which almost certainly is not you. Use the slider on the pricing page at your actual number, then do the same on Mailchimp’s page. The gap widens as the list grows, and at 10,000 to 25,000 subscribers it is usually the largest single saving available in a small business software stack.
Unlimited emails is the underrated part
Several competitors cap monthly sends as well as contacts, which means a business that wants to email its list weekly rather than monthly hits a limit unrelated to list size. MailerLite’s paid plans remove that constraint, so send frequency becomes an editorial decision rather than a billing one.
Manual approval catches people out
New accounts are reviewed by a human before sending is enabled, and MailerLite declines accounts it judges high-risk: purchased lists, aggressive affiliate marketing, some crypto and adult categories. This is why its deliverability is good, and it is also a genuine operational risk if you are migrating urgently. Apply and get approved before you cancel your current provider.
Comfort or Power?
Comfort at $12 covers newsletters, automation, landing pages and unlimited sends, which is the whole product for most businesses. Power at $25 adds the more advanced features and priority support. Start on Comfort; the upgrade is trivial and the downgrade is not always.
Where to look instead
If you send infrequently to a very large list, Brevo prices on sends rather than contacts and inverts the economics. If you sell products and want revenue attributed to individual flows, Klaviyo is worth its premium. And if you are a writer with a paid newsletter, Kit is built for exactly that.
MailerLite questions, answered
- Is MailerLite worth it?
- MailerLite is the answer to a question a lot of businesses get wrong.
- How much does MailerLite cost?
- Free up to 250 subscribers; Comfort from $12/month at 500 subscribers. The cheapest paid tier we recorded works out at $12 a month, or $144 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does MailerLite have a free plan or free trial?
- MailerLite has a free plan. A free trial is available: 14 days of premium features.
- What is the best MailerLite alternative?
- It depends on the job. Mailchimp: Wider integration ecosystem, and materially more expensive at scale. Brevo: Better if you hold a large list and email it infrequently. Kit: The stronger choice for creators and paid newsletters.
- Can I self-host MailerLite?
- No. MailerLite is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Correction: we had published the free tier as 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails. It is 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails, cut during 2026. The old figure had been live behind a verified stamp
- Tier prices read by driving the subscriber slider: $19 at 1,000, $89 at 10,000, $319 at 50,000
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- MailerLite pricing - checked 9 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
