Is MailerLite worth it? Yes, once you need automations
MailerLite's free plan now stops at 250 subscribers. What it costs at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000, and how it compares with Kit, Brevo and Mailchimp.
MailerLite is worth it if you need automations and want to pay as little as possible for them: $17.10/mo at 1,000 subscribers on annual billing, with unlimited emails and visual automations on the entry paid plan. It is not worth it as a free tool any more. The free plan now stops at 250 subscribers, so the “generous free plan” reputation you’ll read in older reviews is out of date.
That leaves a narrower but still good case. If all you do is send a weekly newsletter, other tools charge you nothing for the same job. If you need a welcome sequence, a few branching flows and landing pages on a small budget, MailerLite is still one of the cheapest ways to get them.
All pricing below comes from each platform’s listed plans; verify current pricing on the vendor’s site before you commit. MailerLite’s own prices were last checked on 2026-10-08.
What MailerLite costs
MailerLite prices by subscriber count. The plan names stay the same and the price slides with your list.
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo |
| Comfort | $17.10/mo | $19/mo | Unlimited emails, templates |
| Power | $35.10/mo | $39/mo | Custom HTML, popups, AI assistant, live chat |
Comfort and Power are quoted at 1,000 subscribers. Annual billing saves 10%, which on Comfort is $1.90 a month, or $22.80 a year. There is no free trial; the free plan does that job. MailerLite takes 0% transaction fees.
Power costs $18 a month more than Comfort at 1,000 subscribers ($216 a year). Pay it only if you need one of its four extras. Most small senders don’t.
The free plan is now a test drive
250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month works out to 10 emails per subscriber per month once the list is full. The send allowance is fine. The subscriber cap is the problem: a lead magnet that works, or one mention on a podcast, will fill it in a week.
Subscriber 251 moves you to Comfort, listed at $10.80/mo for up to 500 subscribers on annual billing ($129.60 a year). That’s a fair price, but it means MailerLite stops being free at the point where most lists start to grow. Treat the free plan as a way to build your forms and first automation and check that you like the editor, not as somewhere to stay. Our free email marketing plans compared ranks all 11 free tiers by what they cost once you outgrow them.
What it costs as your list grows
This is MailerLite’s Comfort plan on annual billing, from its pricing slider:
| Subscribers | Per month | Per year | Per 1,000 subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $10.80 | $129.60 | $21.60 |
| 1,000 | $17.10 | $205.20 | $17.10 |
| 2,500 | $29.70 | $356.40 | $11.88 |
| 5,000 | $44.10 | $529.20 | $8.82 |
| 10,000 | $80.10 | $961.20 | $8.01 |
The cost per subscriber roughly halves between 1,000 and 5,000 and then flattens. Ten times the list costs you about 4.7 times as much, which is a gentle curve for this category.
MailerLite against Kit, Brevo, Mailchimp and beehiiv
Each figure is the cheapest plan that covers the list, from our pricing data (annual billing where offered, free plans counted within their caps):
| Subscribers | MailerLite | Kit | Brevo | Mailchimp | beehiiv |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $17.10 | $0 | $15.25 | $26.50 | $0 |
| 5,000 | $44.10 | $0 | $28.75 | $75 | $95 |
| 10,000 | $80.10 | $0 | $28.75 | $110 | $119 |
| G2 rating | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.7 |
That table needs three notes before it means anything.
Kit is $0 because its free plan allows one automation. Up to 10,000 subscribers you get unlimited broadcasts for nothing. Need a second automation and you move to Creator, listed from $33/mo on annual billing at 1,000 subscribers. That’s $15.90 a month more than MailerLite Comfort, nearly double, and our data doesn’t list Creator’s price at 5,000 or 10,000. The full head-to-head is in MailerLite vs Kit.
Brevo bills on emails sent, not on contacts. The $28.75 plan covers 20,000 emails a month. At 5,000 subscribers that’s four emails each; at 10,000, two. Send a weekly newsletter to 10,000 people and you’re well past that tier. Our data doesn’t price Brevo’s tiers above 20,000 emails, so if you send weekly to a big list, price Brevo at your real send volume. MailerLite’s paid plans don’t cap emails, so its number is the number.
beehiiv is free to 2,500 subscribers, then the most expensive column here. At 5,000 subscribers it costs $50.90 a month more than MailerLite, $610.80 a year. It’s built for publishers who sell paid subscriptions and ads, which is a different job.
Mailchimp is simply dearer at every size: $9.40 a month more at 1,000 subscribers and $29.90 more at 10,000 ($358.80 a year), with a G2 rating that’s 0.2 lower. If you’re choosing between those two on price, MailerLite wins.
One more peer belongs here. GetResponse is $64.78/mo at 10,000 subscribers in our data, $15.32 a month under MailerLite, the cheapest subscriber-billed plan at that size. At 5,000 the two are within 18 cents of each other.
Kit’s, Brevo’s and Mailchimp’s records in our data have no recent verification date, so read those columns as listed prices.
What you get for the money
The Comfort plan covers what most small businesses and creators actually use:
- A drag-and-drop email builder that is easy to pick up, which our listing counts among its main pros.
- Visual automations: welcome sequences, tag-based branches, follow-ups after a purchase or a click.
- Landing pages and signup forms, so you don’t need a separate page builder to collect emails.
- A/B and multivariate testing.
- Unlimited monthly emails on every paid plan, which matters once you send more than once a week.
The weaknesses are just as specific. New accounts go through an approval process before you can send, so don’t sign up the morning of a launch. Reporting is lighter than its rivals’. And for large ecommerce stores that lean on SMS, it isn’t the right tool.
MailerLite has been around since 2010 and rates 4.6 on G2, the second-highest score in the comparison table above.
Who MailerLite is worth it for
- Solopreneurs and small businesses that need automations. A welcome sequence, a nurture flow and a couple of tag-based branches cost $17.10/mo at 1,000 subscribers. Kit charges about double for the same thing once you leave its free plan.
- People who send every week. Unlimited emails on Comfort means a twice-weekly newsletter costs the same as a monthly one. Brevo’s email-based billing punishes that habit; MailerLite doesn’t.
- Anyone leaving Mailchimp. At every list size in our data MailerLite is cheaper, and it rates higher on G2.
Who should skip it
- Newsletter-only senders. If you send broadcasts and nothing else, Kit’s free plan does it for $0 up to 10,000 subscribers. On MailerLite that’s $961.20 a year at 10,000.
- Anyone who needs to stay free past 250 subscribers. Kit, beehiiv and Substack all go further for $0.
- Large lists that you rarely mail. Brevo’s email-based pricing comes in under MailerLite at 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers if you send two to four emails a month.
- Paid newsletters. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions and is built around them. MailerLite isn’t. See how to start a paid newsletter for that comparison.
The verdict
MailerLite is worth it as a cheap paid tool, not as a free one. The 250-subscriber cap makes the free plan a trial, and on price alone the newsletter crowd has better free options. Once you need real automations, though, Comfort at $17.10/mo for 1,000 subscribers and $80.10 for 10,000 is hard to beat, and it costs less than Mailchimp at every size we track.
Our best email marketing software page ranks the whole category beyond price, and the MailerLite alternatives page lists the direct competitors. If you’d rather answer a few questions about your list and how you send, the advisor gives you one recommendation.