MailerLite Review: Honest Pros, Cons and Pricing

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MailerLite is the easiest email marketing tool we’ve used for small businesses that send a regular newsletter. The free plan is genuinely useful for lists under 250 subscribers, and paid plans start at $12 a month. If you need SMS, a built-in sales CRM or very complex automations, a different tool will suit you better.

In this review

• How we tested MailerLite
• MailerLite pricing and plans
• Features in practice
• Ease of use and setup
• Getting started in five steps
• Deliverability and reporting
• Our scores
• Who MailerLite is for, and who should skip it
• MailerLite alternatives
• FAQ
• Final verdict

How we tested MailerLite

We signed up for MailerLite’s free plan, then switched on the 14-day trial of premium features to test the paid tools. Over two weeks in November 2026 we imported a list of 400 test contacts from a spreadsheet, built a signup form and a landing page, designed and sent a monthly newsletter, and set up a three-email welcome sequence for new subscribers.

We also went through MailerLite’s account approval, asked its support team a question, and read the reports after each send. Every price in this review comes from MailerLite’s pricing page, checked on 10 November 2026. Read more about how we test and score software.

MailerLite pricing and plans

MailerLite has a free plan and three paid plans. The prices below are for the smallest paid tier of 500 subscribers, in US dollars, as of 10 November 2026. Prices rise as your list grows.

Plan	Subscribers	Monthly emails	Billed monthly	Billed yearly
Free	Up to 250	2,500	$0	$0
Comfort	500	5,000	$12/month	$10.80/month ($129.60 a year)
Power	500	Unlimited (fair use)	$25/month	$22.50/month
Enterprise	200,000+	Custom	Custom	Custom

What the free plan includes

• Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month
• 2 user seats
• 3 active automations
• 1 website and 1 landing page
• 3 active signup forms
• 1 digital product or booking page

One catch: if your list grows past 250 active subscribers, MailerLite locks sending until you upgrade or trim your list. Plan for that before a big signup push.

What the paid plans add

• Comfort: 3 user seats, 50 automations, 10 websites and landing pages, 10 forms, 5 digital products, unlimited templates, email support, and no MailerLite logo in your emails.
• Power: unlimited seats, automations, forms and sites, unlimited monthly emails under a fair-use policy, multiple triggers per automation, and 24/7 live chat support.
• Enterprise: custom sending volume, deliverability help, an onboarding consultation and an optional dedicated IP, for lists of 200,000 or more.

Worked example: what 500 subscribers costs

Say you run a small business with 500 newsletter subscribers and you send a few campaigns a month. On the Comfort plan billed monthly you pay $12 × 12 = $144 a year. Billed yearly it’s $129.60, a saving of $14.40.

For comparison, Brevo’s Starter plan costs $9 a month billed monthly ($108 a year) and is priced by the number of emails you send rather than the number of subscribers. That makes Brevo cheaper for large lists you email rarely, and MailerLite better value for smaller lists you email often. See our MailerLite vs Brevo comparison.

Features in practice

Email editor

MailerLite gives you three ways to build an email: a drag-and-drop editor, a simple rich-text editor for plain newsletters, and a custom HTML editor. We built our test newsletter in the drag-and-drop editor in about 20 minutes. Blocks snap neatly into place, and the mobile preview is one click away, which matters because most emails are now opened on phones.

Automations

Automations use a visual builder. You pick a trigger, such as someone joining a group or filling in a form, then add emails, delays and conditions. Our three-email welcome sequence took about 15 minutes to set up. The free plan’s limit of 3 active automations is enough for a welcome series, but you’ll reach it quickly if you add re-engagement or follow-up flows.

Signup forms, landing pages and websites

You can build signup forms, pop-ups, landing pages and simple websites without leaving MailerLite, and new subscribers land straight in your list. The templates look modern, and we had a working landing page live in under half an hour. The free plan limits you to 1 site or landing page and 3 forms.

Selling digital products and bookings

MailerLite lets you sell digital products, such as guides or courses, and take bookings from your pages. You get 1 product on the free plan and 5 on Comfort. It’s a handy extra for small businesses and creators, though it won’t replace a full online store.

Integrations and AI

The free plan connects to more than 100 apps, and paid plans unlock the full integrations list and API access. Paid plans also include HeyLite, MailerLite’s built-in AI assistant, which can help draft subject lines and email copy.

Ease of use and setup

Setup was the smoothest of the email tools we’ve tested. After signing up, MailerLite asks a few questions about your business and reviews your account before you can send campaigns. Our approval came through within a few hours. If you need to send something urgently on day one, sign up a day early.

Importing our spreadsheet of contacts took two minutes, and the main menu is short enough that you won’t get lost. Reports are clear: opens, clicks and unsubscribes are on one screen after each send, with a click map showing which links people used.

Getting started: your first newsletter in five steps

If you’re new to email marketing, this is the order we’d follow in MailerLite. Allow about an hour for your first campaign, plus the time it takes MailerLite to approve your account.

1. Create your account and complete the profile questions. MailerLite asks about your website and how you collect subscribers. Answer accurately: this is what the approval team reviews.
2. Import your contacts. Upload a spreadsheet or paste a list, map the columns, and put everyone into a group such as “Newsletter”. Only import people who agreed to hear from you.
3. Build a signup form. Pick a template, connect it to your group and add it to your website or a MailerLite landing page.
4. Design and test your email. Start from a template in the drag-and-drop editor, add your logo and content, then send a test to yourself and check it on your phone.
5. Send or schedule, then check the report. Open and click rates appear within hours. Use them to choose subject lines and send times for your next campaign.

Deliverability and reporting

Deliverability is how reliably your emails land in the inbox instead of the spam folder. MailerLite’s account approval and its strict rules on imported lists are part of how it protects deliverability for everyone on its servers. That can feel slow on day one, but it’s a good sign for a service you’ll rely on.

In our test sends, the newsletter and welcome emails reached the main inbox in Gmail and Outlook test accounts. Results always depend on your list quality and domain setup, so connect your own sending domain, which MailerLite walks you through, before you send to a large list.

Reports cover opens, clicks, unsubscribes and spam complaints for every campaign, with a click map that shows which links people tapped. Automations have their own reports, so you can see where people drop off in a sequence. Paid plans add more detail, such as opens by location and comparisons between campaigns.

What we’d like to see improved

Live chat support only comes with the Power plan, so Comfort users rely on email support. And while the free plan is generous for small lists, the 3-automation limit means most growing businesses will need to upgrade sooner than the subscriber count alone suggests.

Our scores

We score every tool out of 10 in four areas, then combine them into a weighted overall score. See how we score.

• Ease of use: 9/10. The cleanest interface in its class, with a quick setup and a short learning curve.
• Features: 8/10. Everything most small businesses need, but no SMS and lighter CRM tools than some rivals.
• Value for money: 8.5/10. A useful free plan and fair prices for small lists. Costs climb as your list grows.
• Support: 7.5/10. Email support on Comfort. 24/7 live chat only comes with the Power plan.
• Overall: 8.4/10.

Who MailerLite is for, and who should skip it

Choose MailerLite if

• You want to send a regular newsletter without a steep learning curve.
• Your list is small to medium and you’d like a free plan to start.
• You want landing pages, forms and simple automations in the same tool.

Skip MailerLite if

• You need SMS or transactional emails in the same platform. Brevo covers both.
• You rely on complex, branching automations and a sales CRM. ActiveCampaign is built for that.
• You’re a creator who wants a bigger free list. Kit’s free plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers.

MailerLite alternatives

Here is how MailerLite compares with the other email tools we cover. Want a closer look? Try our quick MailerLite vs Brevo or Kit vs MailerLite comparisons.

Prices checked on the vendors’ websites on 10 November 2026. Prices change often, so check before you buy.

MailerLite FAQ

Final verdict

MailerLite is our top pick for small businesses that want a simple, good-looking newsletter and a few useful automations without paying much. Start on the free plan, and move to Comfort when you pass 250 subscribers or need more automations. If SMS, a sales CRM or very advanced automation is a must, compare Brevo and ActiveCampaign first.

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