The typical searcher started on MailerLite because the free plan was generous and the paid price was low, and then met a limit: a subscriber cap, an automation allowance, or the account approval step before sending. They move to a cheaper volume-priced sender, to a creator-focused tool, or to a platform with deeper automation and a CRM.
Tomasz WierzbickiData & Market Research
Niels Abrahamsen
Sebastiaan SmitsVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 2 user seats and 3 automations. MailerLite's terms say that once a free account reaches its subscriber cap, campaign sending, automations and several ways of adding subscribers are stopped. A growing list therefore forces a paid plan rather than degrading gently.
MailerLite states that all paid plans carry the full feature set, so the differences are volume, seats and automation count. The Comfort plan (from $12 a month) allows 50 automations and 3 seats, and the Power plan (from $25 a month) removes those limits. A team that outgrows 50 automations or 3 people pays for the next plan, not for a better feature.
New accounts complete a profile and then request approval. The terms reserve the right to review a subscriber list and past campaign performance before approving the full purchased limit, and to terminate an account when abuse complaints exceed thresholds. Anyone importing an older list or switching from another sender should expect that review, and should plan the first send around it.
| Alternative | Country | Pricing | Our rank | Switch if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | France | Free tier; paid plans by monthly send volume, published | #1 | your list is large but you send rarely, so a subscriber-based bill feels wasteful |
| Kit | United States | Free to 10,000 subscribers; paid per subscriber, published | #6 | you sell as a creator and want a large free list without automations |
| Mailchimp | United States | Free tier to 250 contacts; paid plans per contact per month, published | #9 | you want the market-standard tool with the widest set of integrations and templates |
| GetResponse | Poland | 14-day trial only; paid per contact per month, published | #7 | you run webinars or funnels and want them inside the email tool |
| Omnisend | United Kingdom | Free tier to 250 contacts; paid per contact, published | #4 | you run an online shop and want email and SMS in one commerce-focused tool |
| ActiveCampaign | United States | Per contact band per month, published; 14-day trial | #3 | your automations have outgrown MailerLite's workflows and you want a CRM beside them |
| Mailjet | France | Free to 6,000 emails a month (200 a day); paid by send volume, published | #8 | developers need the same account to send both campaigns and transactional email |
| Campaign Monitor | United States | Per month by subscriber count, published | #5 | an agency or a larger brand wants unlimited sends and prebuilt journeys |
| Klaviyo | United States | Free tier to 250 active profiles; paid per active profile, published | #10 | revenue per customer from an online shop is the number that matters |
| Constant Contact | United States | Per plan and contact tier per month, published | #11 | you want a conventional small-business sender and will compare its tiers yourself |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | United States | Free tier; Starter per seat, higher tiers per month with marketing-contact tiers, published | #12 | marketing and sales want one system and there is budget for it |
France · Free tier; paid plans by monthly send volume, published
Prices by sending volume where MailerLite prices by subscriber count. Its free plan allows up to 300 emails a day once the account is approved for sending, and paid plans start at $9 a month. Brevo is wider than a newsletter tool, so its interface is busier, and a daily cap applies on the free plan.
Switch from MailerLite if your list is large but you send rarely, so a subscriber-based bill feels wasteful.
United States · Free to 10,000 subscribers; paid per subscriber, published
Built for creators, with a free plan of up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, and one team seat. The free plan excludes the visual automation builder, which sits on Creator at $33 a month for 1,000 subscribers. It costs more than MailerLite once automation matters.
Switch from MailerLite if you sell as a creator and want a large free list without automations.
United States · Free tier to 250 contacts; paid plans per contact per month, published
The best-known sender, owned by Intuit, with a free plan of up to 250 contacts that pauses sending when a contact or email limit is exceeded. Paid plans start at EUR 11.54 (Essentials) and EUR 17.75 (Standard, up to 200 automation flows). Premium jumps to EUR 310.69 a month.
Switch from MailerLite if you want the market-standard tool with the widest set of integrations and templates.
Poland · 14-day trial only; paid per contact per month, published
Bundles landing pages and webinars with email. Paid plans start at EUR 16 a month for 1,000 contacts, and webinars (up to 100 attendees) only arrive on the Creator plan from EUR 62. There is a 14-day trial but no permanent free plan, which MailerLite does have.
Switch from MailerLite if you run webinars or funnels and want them inside the email tool.
United Kingdom · Free tier to 250 contacts; paid per contact, published
Aimed at online stores, with SMS sold as an add-on credited per message. Its free plan is smaller than MailerLite's on sends: 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. Paid plans start at $11.20 (Standard) and $41.30 (Pro), and billing counts contacts who received automated messages.
Switch from MailerLite if you run an online shop and want email and SMS in one commerce-focused tool.
United States · Per contact band per month, published; 14-day trial
Automation and a CRM come first, with contact-band pricing, a 14-day trial and no free plan. Its Starter plan caps an automation at 5 actions, while higher plans lift that limit. The CRM is included on every plan. It asks for more setup and more money than MailerLite.
Switch from MailerLite if your automations have outgrown MailerLite's workflows and you want a CRM beside them.
France · Free to 6,000 emails a month (200 a day); paid by send volume, published
Sold by Sinch and built around the API: every plan includes the Send API, SMTP relay and webhooks. The free plan allows 6,000 emails a month but only 200 a day and 1,000 contacts. Plans from $9 are priced by volume, and automations arrive on Premium ($29).
Switch from MailerLite if developers need the same account to send both campaigns and transactional email.
United States · Per month by subscriber count, published
Owned by Marigold. Tiers run Free, Lite, Essentials, Premier and Enterprise, with the Lite plan limited to 2,500 emails a month and Essentials and Premier unlimited. It is geared to agencies and larger brands and offers no free plan comparable to MailerLite's. We could not read its prices from the pricing page.
Switch from MailerLite if an agency or a larger brand wants unlimited sends and prebuilt journeys.
United States · Free tier to 250 active profiles; paid per active profile, published
Pitches itself at B2C and ecommerce brands, with Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix integrations. It charges by active profile, and the free plan is 250 profiles and 500 sends a month, with email support only for the first 60 days. It is a heavier, data-driven tool than MailerLite.
Switch from MailerLite if revenue per customer from an online shop is the number that matters.
United States · Per plan and contact tier per month, published
A long-established small-business sender, listed in our category record as priced by plan and contact tier. We could not load its pricing page in this review, so we quote no figures. Check its own page for the current tiers, and for whether a free plan exists, before comparing.
Switch from MailerLite if you want a conventional small-business sender and will compare its tiers yourself.
Constant Contact, #11 of 12 in our email marketing ranking →
United States · Free tier; Starter per seat, higher tiers per month with marketing-contact tiers, published
A suite, not a newsletter tool: the free plan gives 2 users, 1,000 marketing contacts and 2,000 sends a month, while Professional is $800 a month with 3 seats and a $3,000 onboarding fee. It adds a CRM and reporting and costs far more than MailerLite once you leave the free tier.
Switch from MailerLite if marketing and sales want one system and there is budget for it.
HubSpot Marketing Hub, #12 of 12 in our email marketing ranking →
MailerLite remains the right choice for a small team that wants a simple, low-cost newsletter and automation tool. Its free plan allows 250 subscribers and its paid plans carry the full feature set, so you do not buy features separately. If your list is modest, your automations fit within the Comfort plan, and you get approved without friction, moving mostly adds cost and learning time.
Export subscribers with their status (active, unsubscribed, bounced) and any custom fields. Do not import unsubscribed or bounced addresses into the new tool. Most senders review a new account's list and early campaigns, as MailerLite itself does, so send your first campaigns to your most engaged subscribers.
Automations do not transfer between tools. List every workflow, its trigger and its conditions before cancelling. A MailerLite plan with 50 automations may have grown a larger set than anyone remembers, and the replacement may ration automations differently, as Kit's free plan and ActiveCampaign's Starter plan do.
Embedded forms and landing pages need replacing, since MailerLite plans include websites and landing pages. Authenticate the sending domain in the new tool before the first send, and check how your unsubscribe and consent records carry over. Keep the MailerLite account open until the final campaigns are delivered.
Yes, if your list is large and your sending is light. Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day after approval and its paid plans start at $9 a month, whereas MailerLite counts subscribers. Compare your monthly send volume against both models.
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers but without the visual automation builder.
Mailchimp, Omnisend and Klaviyo are free to 250 contacts or profiles, Mailjet allows 6,000 emails a month (200 a day), Brevo 300 emails a day, and HubSpot's free plan includes 1,000 marketing contacts.
Up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 2 user seats and 3 automations. The terms say that when a free account reaches its subscriber cap, sending, automations and several ways of adding subscribers are stopped.
Its terms name MailerLite Limited in Dublin (EEA, UK and Switzerland) and MailerLite, Inc. in San Francisco (elsewhere) as the contracting entities.
Its data processing agreement applies the law of the Republic of Lithuania and names the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate, which reflects the Lithuanian origin of the product.
MailerLite says all paid plans include the full feature set. The Comfort plan (from $12 a month) has 50 automations and 3 seats, Power (from $25) has unlimited emails, automations and seats, and Enterprise starts at 200,000 subscribers with an optional dedicated IP.
Omnisend and Klaviyo are both built for ecommerce, with store integrations and SMS (Omnisend sells SMS as an add-on). Klaviyo charges by active profile, Omnisend by contact range. Both cost more than MailerLite at the same list size.
