MailerLite review: cheap, capable, and one cap to watch
The best value in the category by some distance — as long as you understand that you're buying emails per month, not subscribers.
The short verdict
Use MailerLite if you want real automation without paying real money. At $10.80/month billed yearly you get 50 active automations, landing pages, websites, signup forms and digital product sales — a package rivals split across tiers costing four times as much.
Pick something else if you email your list often. The Comfort plan caps you at 5,000 emails per month, and that ceiling arrives long before the subscriber ceiling does. Also look elsewhere if you want a large free plan: 250 subscribers is modest next to beehiiv's 2,500.
No score out of ten here — we haven't run MailerLite in production, and a number would imply precision we don't have. What we can give you is verified pricing, the real limits, and who it suits.
What MailerLite is
MailerLite is a general-purpose email marketing platform that has spent fifteen years competing on price and simplicity rather than features. It does newsletters, but unlike beehiiv it isn't newsletter-shaped: it's equally at home sending a product launch sequence or an abandoned-cart email.
What you get for the money is unusually broad. Drag-and-drop editor, visual automation builder, landing pages, full websites, signup forms and pop-ups, digital product and booking sales, surveys and quizzes — all bundled rather than sold as add-ons. It also ships an MCP server, so Claude or ChatGPT can query your account directly, and that's available even on the free plan.
What it costs
Read from MailerLite's pricing page on 16 September 2026, at the entry subscriber tier.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Emails/month | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free250 subscribers | $0 | $0 | 2,500 | 3 automations, 1 site + 1 landing page, 2 seats, community support only |
| Comfort500 subscribers | $12 | $10.80$129.60/yr | 5,000 | 50 automations, 10 sites/landing pages, 3 seats, removes MailerLite logo |
| Power500 subscribers | $25 | $22.50$270/yr | Unlimited | Unlimited automations and landing pages, unlimited seats, 24/7 live chat |
| Enterprise200K+ subs | Custom | Custom | Dedicated IP, success manager, deliverability support | |
Annual billing saves 10%. A 14-day trial unlocks every feature with no credit card. Prices rise as your subscriber count moves up MailerLite's tiers — check the price at the list size you expect to reach.
The sending cap — the thing to understand before you buy
This is the one piece of information that changes the decision, and most comparisons skip it entirely because they only copy the headline price.
MailerLite advertises by subscriber count. But the Comfort plan also limits you to 5,000 emails per month. Those are different meters, and the second one usually runs out first.
Work it through. With 500 subscribers:
- A weekly newsletter sends about 2,150 emails a month. Comfortable.
- Twice a week sends about 4,300. You're at 86% of the cap before a single automation fires.
- Add a welcome sequence and a promotion, and you're over.
And if your list grows to 1,200 subscribers — still well inside the plan's subscriber allowance at that tier — a single weekly send is already 5,160 emails. Over the cap, on a list the plan says it supports.
The fix is the Power plan at $22.50, roughly double. That's still good value, but it's the number to budget against if you email more than once a week. Compare this category on emails per month, not subscribers.
Pros and cons
MailerLite
Best value for automation on a budget- Cheapest credible paid plan in the category — $10.80/mo yearly
- Automations on every plan, including free
- 50 automations with 100 steps each on Comfort — more than most will use
- Landing pages, websites, forms and product sales bundled
- 24/7 support on paid plans; live chat on Power
- MCP integration for AI assistants on all plans
- 14-day full-feature trial, no card required
- 5,000 emails/month cap on Comfort — bites before the subscriber limit
- Free plan is small: 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails
- Free plan support is community-only
- Free plan carries MailerLite branding
- Known for a strict manual account approval — expect a review before sending
- Automation is capable but not ActiveCampaign-grade for complex logic
Who should and shouldn't use it
Strong choice for
- Creators who need a welcome sequence on a budget. This is MailerLite's clearest win. Automations at $10.80 where beehiiv charges $43.
- Anyone selling something. Digital products, bookings and paid subscriptions are built in, and the landing pages mean you don't need a separate site builder.
- People who send weekly or less. The cap is generous if your cadence is modest.
Look elsewhere if
- You send daily or near-daily. Go straight to Power, or to beehiiv, whose sends are unlimited even when free.
- You want a big free plan. 250 subscribers runs out fast.
- Your business runs on complex conditional automation. That's ActiveCampaign territory — at four times the price.
Questions we get asked
MailerLite or beehiiv?
Depends on one thing: do you need automation? beehiiv's free plan gives you 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends but zero automations. MailerLite gives you 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails but includes three automations free, and 50 for $10.80.
Pure newsletter, no sequences: beehiiv. Anything with a funnel: MailerLite.
Is the 5,000 email cap really a problem?
Only if you send often. Weekly to 500 subscribers uses roughly 2,150 a month and you'll never notice it. Twice weekly uses 4,300 and you're close. Daily is impossible on Comfort. Check your planned cadence against the cap before you commit — then decide between $10.80 and $22.50 with your eyes open.
Why does MailerLite review new accounts manually?
It's a deliverability decision: screening senders keeps spam off shared sending IPs, which protects inbox placement for everyone on the platform. The practical effect is that you may wait for approval before your first send, so don't sign up the morning you plan to launch.
Do you earn a commission from this review?
Yes, and unusually it's a lifetime recurring commission rather than a capped one. We're telling you that because it's exactly the kind of incentive you should know about while reading a positive review. The counterweight is checkable: in the same category roundup we rank Ghost and Substack, neither of which pays us anything.
The verdict
MailerLite is the best value in this category and it isn't close — $10.80 a month for real automation, landing pages and product sales undercuts everything comparable. If budget is a constraint and you need more than a plain newsletter, start here.
Just buy it on the right meter. The number that decides your plan isn't 500 subscribers, it's 5,000 emails a month. Work out your actual send volume for the next year, and if it clears the cap, price the Power plan at $22.50 instead. It's still the cheapest serious option on the table.
Pricing read directly from MailerLite's pricing page on 16 September 2026, in USD. Under our methodology this is at the "researched, not tested" level — we verified the plans and limits first-hand but have not run MailerLite in production. Found something out of date? Tell us.
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