Choosing an email marketing platform is easy when your list has 50 subscribers. The decision becomes much more important once you reach 500, 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 subscribers and your monthly bill starts affecting your marketing budget.
MailerLite has traditionally been known as one of the more affordable email marketing platforms, but its pricing changed significantly in 2026. The company introduced new Comfort and Power plans on June 16, 2026, replacing the previously familiar Growing Business and Advanced plans. At the same time, MailerLite reduced the Free plan from 500 active subscribers to 250 and cut its monthly sending allowance from 12,000 emails to 2,500.
That means many articles published before mid-2026 are now outdated.
This guide breaks down MailerLite pricing using the current structure, explains what you actually get for your money, calculates the annual cost at different subscriber levels, compares MailerLite with Mailchimp, Kit, and Brevo, and shows exactly which plan makes sense for different types of businesses.
Key takeaway: MailerLite remains a strong value proposition, especially for bloggers, creators, small businesses, and marketers who want email, landing pages, automations, and digital-product selling in one platform. However, the current Free plan is much tighter than it used to be, while Power becomes increasingly attractive as your list grows and you need unlimited sending, users, and feature usage.
1. Executive Summary & Core Verdict
The current MailerLite Free plan is best treated as a starter plan rather than a long-term growth plan. You can use it at no cost with up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails per month, while also getting surprisingly useful tools such as the drag-and-drop editor, automation builder, forms, pop-ups, landing pages, and basic website functionality.
For a growing business, Comfort is usually the logical middle ground. It starts at $12/month for up to 500 subscribers, gives you 5,000 monthly emails at that level, three user seats, 50 automations, additional landing pages and forms, and removes MailerLite branding.
Power starts at $25/month for up to 500 subscribers and is the better choice for teams, high-volume senders, agencies, and businesses that need unlimited monthly sending, unlimited user seats, unlimited feature usage, 24/7 live chat and email support, and more advanced automation capabilities.
Quick Comparison Matrix
| Plan | Starting Price | Subscriber Limit | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Up to 250 active subscribers | Beginners, testing email marketing, tiny lists |
| Comfort | $12/month | 500+ subscriber tiers | Bloggers, creators, small businesses |
| Power | $25/month | 500+ subscriber tiers | Teams, agencies, high-volume marketers |
| Enterprise | Custom | 200,000+ | Large organizations and advanced needs |
MailerLite says Free covers the first 250 active subscribers, while Comfort and Power use subscriber-based tiers ranging from 500 to 200,000 subscribers. Enterprise is designed for lists above that range.
2. Deep-Dive: MailerLite Free Plan Breakdown
What does MailerLite Free actually include?
The Free plan is considerably more capable than a typical “trial-only” account.
According to MailerLite's current feature and billing information, Free includes:
- Up to 250 active subscribers
- Up to 2,500 emails per month
- 2 user seats
- Drag-and-drop email editor
- Simple editor
- Custom HTML email editor
- Up to 3 visual automations
- Up to 3 active forms
- Up to 3 pop-ups
- 1 landing page
- 1 website
- 1 digital product
- A/B testing
- E-commerce integrations
- Comparative reporting
- Basic website and landing-page functionality
- Access to MailerLite's core audience-management tools
That is an important point because older MailerLite reviews frequently describe the Free plan as much more restricted than it is today.
MailerLite's June 2026 Free-plan update actually opened up several features while simultaneously tightening the subscriber and email limits. Free users gained access to things such as custom campaign and landing-page templates, promotional pop-ups, HTML campaign editing, and blogs.
The biggest Free-plan limitation: 250 active subscribers
This is the number that matters most.
The current Free plan supports 250 active subscribers, not 500, 1,000, or 2,500. Once you exceed the limit, MailerLite says sending campaigns, running automations, and adding new subscribers can be paused until you reduce the list or upgrade.
That makes the Free plan excellent for:
- Testing your first newsletter
- Building your first small email list
- Learning email automation
- Creating a lead magnet funnel
- Sending occasional campaigns
- Building a basic newsletter around a new blog or personal project
But it becomes difficult to rely on if your list is growing quickly.
The 2,500-email monthly ceiling
Free also has a 2,500-email monthly limit.
This is separate from the subscriber limit.
For example, suppose you have 250 subscribers and send one newsletter every week.
250 subscribers × 4 weekly campaigns = 1,000 email sends
That leaves approximately:
2,500 − 1,000 = 1,500 sends
So at that list size, you still have room for automated welcome emails and other campaigns.
But imagine sending two campaigns each week:
250 × 8 = 2,000 sends
You would have only about 500 remaining sends for the entire month.
MailerLite defines a “send” as one email sent to one subscriber. A campaign sent to 500 people therefore consumes 500 sends.
Does MailerLite Free include automation?
Yes.
This is one of the reasons MailerLite Free is useful for beginners.
You can create visual automation workflows and build sequences triggered by events such as:
- Joining a group
- Completing a form
- Clicking a link
- Updating a subscriber field
- An exact date
- An anniversary
- Joining a segment
The limitation is scale. The Free plan allows up to 3 automations, and active feature usage is capped.
For a beginner, three workflows can be enough for a simple system:
Workflow 1: New subscriber welcome sequence
Workflow 2: Lead magnet delivery
Workflow 3: Product promotion or newsletter onboarding
That covers a surprising amount of basic email marketing.
MailerLite branding on Free
The main branding limitation is that MailerLite's logo appears in newsletters on the Free plan.
Removing the MailerLite logo is a paid feature available on Comfort and Power.
For a hobby project, this may be perfectly acceptable.
For a professional company, affiliate website, consulting business, or e-commerce brand, it is usually worth paying to remove it.
Who should stay on Free?
Stay with Free if your list is comfortably below 250 subscribers and you are primarily learning, testing, or building your first funnel.
Do not upgrade simply because paid plans exist.
Upgrade when a real business constraint appears.
That constraint might be:
- You have more than 250 active subscribers
- You regularly approach 2,500 monthly sends
- You need more than three active automations
- You want to remove MailerLite branding
- You need more landing pages or forms
- You want more user seats
- You need advanced features that are Power-only
3. Deep-Dive: MailerLite Comfort Plan
Important naming correction
If you have seen articles referring to the Growing Business plan, that name is no longer the current plan name.
MailerLite replaced Growing Business with Comfort in June 2026.
Likewise, the old Advanced plan is now called Power.
This matters because pricing and feature limits changed along with the naming.
Comfort pricing
Comfort currently starts at:
$12/month for up to 500 subscribers
MailerLite offers a 10% discount for annual billing, making the 500-subscriber Comfort price:
$10.80/month effective annual rate
or:
$129.60 per year.
The plan then scales according to subscriber count.
The important difference from Free is that Comfort is designed for an actively growing list rather than an experimental one.
Monthly sending allowance
Comfort is not unlimited.
Its sending allowance is calculated at approximately 10× the ceiling of your subscriber tier each month.
At 500 subscribers:
500 × 10 = 5,000 monthly emails
At 1,000:
1,000 × 10 = 10,000 monthly emails
At 5,000:
5,000 × 10 = 50,000 monthly emails
At 10,000:
10,000 × 10 = 100,000 monthly emails
This is an important distinction.
Comfort may be sufficient for a blogger sending one weekly newsletter plus automated sequences, but a business sending multiple broadcasts every week to its full database can eventually hit the ceiling.
Comfort features
Comfort expands the platform substantially.
MailerLite currently lists features such as:
- 3 user seats
- 24/7 email support
- 50 visual automations
- Up to 10 websites and landing pages combined
- Up to 10 forms and pop-ups
- Up to 5 digital products and bookings
- Paid newsletters
- RSS campaigns
- AI writing assistant
- Subject-line generator
- Newsletter templates
- Auto-resend campaigns
- Advanced campaign functionality
- Branding removal
That makes Comfort the sweet spot for a large percentage of small businesses.
Real-world example: blogger with 2,500 subscribers
Suppose you run a content website with 2,500 subscribers.
You send one newsletter every week.
2,500 × 4 = 10,000 campaign sends per month
Now suppose automated emails add another 3,000 sends.
Your approximate monthly usage becomes:
10,000 + 3,000 = 13,000 sends
The Comfort plan at the 2,500-subscriber tier allows approximately:
2,500 × 10 = 25,000 monthly sends
You would therefore still have:
25,000 − 13,000 = 12,000 sends of headroom
That is a healthy buffer.
Who is Comfort best for?
Comfort is particularly suitable for:
Bloggers: You get enough sending capacity for regular newsletters and automated funnels.
Affiliate marketers: The combination of forms, landing pages, automations and segmentation can support lead-generation campaigns.
Digital product creators: You can sell digital products and bookings without building an entirely separate system.
Small businesses: Three seats are enough for many small marketing teams.
Newsletter operators: Paid newsletters, RSS campaigns and subscriber-focused tools make it more useful than a basic email broadcaster.
4. Deep-Dive: MailerLite Power Plan
Power is the current successor to MailerLite's old Advanced plan.
Starting price
Power starts at:
$25/month for up to 500 subscribers
With annual billing and the 10% discount, the effective monthly cost becomes:
$22.50/month
or:
$270 per year.
At larger subscriber counts, the pricing gap between Comfort and Power becomes relatively smaller.
That is one of the most interesting aspects of MailerLite's current pricing.
Unlimited sending
Power's biggest advantage is simple:
Unlimited monthly emails, subject to a fair-use policy.
For a high-volume email marketer, this can be more important than almost every other feature.
Suppose you have 5,000 subscribers and send:
- 4 weekly newsletters
- 2 promotional campaigns
- Several automated sequences
You could easily reach or exceed Comfort's 50,000 monthly send limit.
Power removes that monthly arithmetic.
Unlimited seats
Comfort includes three user seats.
Power includes unlimited user seats.
That is particularly valuable for:
- Agencies
- Marketing departments
- E-commerce teams
- Virtual assistant teams
- Freelance email managers
- Businesses with client collaborators
For an agency, the unlimited-seat advantage can materially change the economics.
Unlimited feature usage
Power removes the feature caps that appear on Free and Comfort.
MailerLite lists unlimited:
- Visual automations
- Landing pages
- Websites
- Digital products and bookings
- Signup forms and pop-ups
This matters when you start managing multiple funnels.
Multiple automation triggers
One of the genuinely advanced differences is multiple automation triggers.
Power allows up to three triggers on one automation, creating multiple entry paths into the same workflow.
For example:
Trigger A: subscriber joins a group
Trigger B: subscriber clicks a specific link
Trigger C: subscriber matches a segment
Instead of maintaining multiple duplicate workflows, you can have a common automation structure with multiple entry points.
That is much more useful once your email strategy becomes sophisticated.
24/7 live chat and email support
Power includes 24/7 live chat and email support.
Comfort includes 24/7 email support, while Power adds live-chat access.
For a solo blogger, that difference may not justify an upgrade by itself.
For a business generating thousands of dollars from email campaigns, fast support can be much more valuable.
Who should choose Power?
Power is a strong fit for:
- Agencies
- Large e-commerce businesses
- High-volume newsletter publishers
- Marketing teams
- Businesses running multiple funnels
- Companies with more than three collaborators
- Senders who routinely exceed Comfort's monthly limit
5. Comprehensive Subscriber-Based Pricing Cost Table
MailerLite's current paid pricing is subscriber-based and spans tiers from 500 through 200,000 subscribers, with Enterprise designed for larger lists. Annual billing provides a 10% discount.
The table below uses the current published pricing ladder and calculates the effective monthly annual-billing amount by applying the 10% annual discount.
| Active Subscribers | Comfort Monthly | Comfort Annual-Effective | Power Monthly | Power Annual-Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $12 | $10.80 | $25 | $22.50 |
| 1,000 | $19 | $17.10 | $39 | $35.10 |
| 2,500 | $33 | $29.70 | $49 | $44.10 |
| 5,000 | $49 | $44.10 | $69 | $62.10 |
| 10,000 | $89 | $80.10 | $129 | $116.10 |
| 25,000 | $179 | $161.10 | $239 | $215.10 |
| 50,000 | $319 | $287.10 | $389 | $350.10 |
| 100,000 | $439 | $395.10 | $489 | $440.10 |
The higher-tier figures above reflect the current 2026 pricing ladder reported from MailerLite's current pricing data, while MailerLite's own pricing pages confirm the 10% annual discount and core tier structure.
What does annual billing save?
At the 500-subscriber Comfort level:
Monthly:
$12 × 12 = $144
Annual billing:
$144 × 0.90 = $129.60
Annual saving:
$14.40
At 10,000 subscribers on Power:
Monthly:
$129 × 12 = $1,548
Annual:
$1,548 × 0.90 = $1,393.20
Annual saving:
$154.80
At 50,000 subscribers on Power:
$389 × 12 = $4,668
Annual:
$4,668 × 0.90 = $4,201.20
Annual saving:
$466.80
At large list sizes, the annual discount becomes increasingly meaningful.
6. Granular Feature-by-Feature Comparison Matrix
| Feature | Free | Comfort | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active subscribers | Up to 250 | 500–200K tiers | 500–200K tiers |
| Monthly email limit | 2,500 | 10× subscriber-tier ceiling | Unlimited* |
| User seats | 2 | 3 | Unlimited |
| MailerLite branding | Included | Removable | Removable |
| Visual automations | 3 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Automation triggers | Standard | Standard | Up to 3 triggers per workflow |
| Forms/pop-ups | 3 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Landing pages/websites | 1 each | 10 combined | Unlimited |
| Digital products | 1 | 5 | Unlimited |
| Live chat | Trial period | No ongoing live chat | 24/7 live chat |
| Email support | Limited after trial | 24/7 | 24/7 |
| Custom HTML editor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Newsletter templates | Limited | Expanded | Expanded |
| AI writing assistant | Limited/available through current feature set | Yes | Yes |
| Paid newsletters | No | Yes | Yes |
| RSS campaigns | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple automation triggers | No | No | Yes |
| E-commerce integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Promotion pop-ups | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited sending | No | No | Yes* |
*Power's unlimited sending remains subject to MailerLite's fair-use policy.
One particularly important correction to older reviews is the HTML-editor issue.
The Free plan now includes access to the drag-and-drop, simple, and custom HTML editors. So it is no longer accurate to say that Free completely blocks custom HTML editing.
The bigger Free limitations are the subscriber limit, monthly sending allowance, feature-use caps, and MailerLite branding.
7. Hidden Costs, Fine Print & Gotchas To Watch Out For
A pricing page only tells part of the story.
The most important cost risks come from how MailerLite calculates subscribers, sending usage and automatic upgrades.
1. Active subscribers matter
MailerLite bases billing on active subscribers.
Unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count toward the subscriber limit.
That sounds straightforward until you read the cumulative-count rule.
MailerLite says an address that was active at any point during the billing cycle can continue to count toward the subscriber limit during that cycle even if you later delete it.
Example
Suppose you have:
500 active subscribers.
You add another 50 during the month.
Your account temporarily reaches:
550 active subscribers
Then you delete those 50 later.
That does not necessarily mean the current billing cycle instantly falls back to the 500 tier.
MailerLite uses a cumulative count during the billing cycle.
This is one of the most important pricing details to understand.
2. Paid accounts can auto-upgrade
Paid plans can automatically move to the next pricing tier when you exceed your subscriber or sending limit.
MailerLite says the system calculates a prorated amount based on the new pricing and time remaining in the billing cycle, then charges the new amount at the next billing cycle.
This is convenient because your campaigns can keep running.
But it also means your bill can increase without you manually visiting the billing page.
3. Sending overages can trigger upgrades
Comfort's sending system is especially important.
For example, if you're on the 5,000-subscriber Comfort tier, your monthly allowance is approximately:
50,000 emails
If you exceed the plan's sending limit, MailerLite says the account may automatically move to the next tier so sending can continue.
Therefore, do not budget based only on subscriber count.
Budget based on:
Subscribers + campaign frequency + automation volume.
4. Feature overages work differently
Feature usage does not automatically upgrade your account.
For example, if Comfort lets you have a certain number of automations and you exceed that limit, MailerLite says the account will not automatically move to Power simply because of that feature cap. Instead, you may need to reduce feature usage or upgrade manually.
5. Your custom domain is a separate consideration
MailerLite does not function as your domain registrar in the same way that a traditional domain provider does.
If you want a professional address such as:
newsletter@yourdomain.com
you will normally purchase a domain from a domain registrar and authenticate it with MailerLite.
That means your total marketing cost may include:
MailerLite subscription + domain registration
The domain expense is separate from the MailerLite subscription.
MailerLite also recommends authenticating a custom domain to improve sending credibility.
6. Dedicated IP is not a normal beginner expense
A dedicated IP is intended for high-volume senders.
MailerLite's documentation says dedicated-IP eligibility generally requires at least one authenticated domain and a minimum sending volume of 50,000 emails per week, followed by an assessment by its deliverability team.
That means most bloggers and small businesses do not need to budget for a dedicated IP.
It is a specialized infrastructure decision for larger senders.
7. Taxes may apply
MailerLite states that listed prices can be subject to applicable taxes.
So the amount shown at checkout may be higher than the headline USD price depending on your billing location and tax treatment.
8. MailerLite vs Top Competitors
MailerLite vs Mailchimp
Mailchimp remains one of the most recognized email marketing platforms, but its pricing structure can become more complicated as contact counts and sending requirements increase.
Mailchimp currently offers Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium-style marketing options, with paid pricing varying according to contact volume and selected features. Its current pricing page also warns that overages can apply when contact or email limits are exceeded.
MailerLite's advantage is often pricing simplicity and broader feature availability at lower tiers.
For example, MailerLite gives Free users automation, landing pages, forms, pop-ups and a website, rather than treating automation as something reserved primarily for higher paid tiers.
MailerLite also publishes comparisons showing savings against Mailchimp at several subscriber levels. Its current comparison material lists MailerLite at substantially lower prices at larger list sizes.
Where MailerLite tends to win
Price: Frequently lower, especially as lists grow.
Ease of use: MailerLite is designed around a relatively simple workflow.
Built-in website tools: Landing pages and website functionality are part of the ecosystem.
Digital products: MailerLite integrates email and digital-product selling.
Where Mailchimp can win
Mailchimp has a large ecosystem, extensive integrations, and a mature marketing platform. Larger organizations with established Mailchimp workflows may value that ecosystem enough to justify the higher cost.
Verdict
For a new blogger or small online business, MailerLite is usually the better value starting point.
For a company already deeply invested in Mailchimp's ecosystem, switching costs should be considered.
MailerLite vs Kit
The current Kit pricing structure is especially interesting because Kit offers a generous Free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. Its free plan includes unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and digital-product selling.
That makes Kit's Free plan extremely compelling for creators.
However, the comparison changes when you need advanced paid functionality.
Kit's current Creator plan starts at $33/month for 1,000 subscribers, while its Pro plan starts at $66/month for 1,000 subscribers.
MailerLite Power is currently $39/month at 1,000 subscribers, while Comfort is $19/month at that level.
Best choice for creators
Choose Kit when your business is heavily centered around creator newsletters, audience segmentation, sequences, subscriptions and a creator-first ecosystem.
Choose MailerLite when you want a broader small-business toolkit with email marketing, website tools, landing pages, digital products, forms and automation at a comparatively accessible price.
The interesting twist is that Kit's current Free plan is actually more generous in raw subscriber capacity than MailerLite Free.
So the winner depends on what you mean by “value.”
MailerLite vs Brevo
Brevo uses a fundamentally different pricing philosophy.
Instead of primarily charging according to how many subscribers you have, Brevo puts much more emphasis on email sending volume.
Brevo's Free plan includes up to 100,000 stored contacts but limits users to 300 emails per day. Its Starter plan begins at $9/month and is structured around monthly email volume rather than simply subscriber count.
That means Brevo can be attractive when you have a large database but email relatively infrequently.
MailerLite makes more sense when you want a traditional subscriber-tiered newsletter platform and expect your sending volume to increase with your audience.
Example
Imagine you have:
20,000 contacts
but you only send:
5,000 emails per month
Brevo's model may be attractive because contact count itself is not the primary pricing driver.
But if you regularly send multiple campaigns to most of those contacts, MailerLite's plan structure may become more predictable.
Verdict
Choose Brevo: large contact database + relatively low email frequency.
Choose MailerLite: growing newsletter + regular campaigns + automation + landing pages + digital products.
9. Step-by-Step Decision Framework: Which Plan Should You Pick?
The best plan is not necessarily the cheapest plan.
It is the plan that gives you enough capacity without making you pay for features you will not use.
Scenario A: E-commerce store launching digital products
Imagine you are launching a small online business selling a $29 digital product.
You have:
180 subscribers
You want:
- A welcome sequence
- Lead magnet
- Product launch emails
- Landing pages
- Checkout
- Basic segmentation
Start with:
MailerLite Free
At 180 subscribers, you remain below the 250-subscriber ceiling.
The platform provides forms, automations, landing pages, website functionality and digital-product capabilities within the Free feature limits.
As soon as your list begins approaching 250 or your campaigns approach the 2,500-send threshold, upgrade.
Next step: Comfort
Comfort becomes the logical upgrade once you need more subscribers and higher sending capacity.
Scenario B: Solo blogger on a zero budget
This is the simplest case.
Suppose you are starting a blog and currently have:
75 subscribers
You publish one newsletter each week.
Your monthly campaign volume is approximately:
75 × 4 = 300 sends
Even after adding automated welcome emails, you remain far below the 2,500-email ceiling.
Best choice: Free
There is no financial reason to pay $12 or $25 every month merely because the paid plans offer more features.
Use Free while:
- Your list remains under 250
- Your monthly sending stays under 2,500
- Three automations are enough
- Two seats are enough
- MailerLite branding does not bother you
Then upgrade when the business genuinely outgrows it.
Scenario C: Growing business needing team access and live chat
Suppose your company has:
5,000 subscribers
and your marketing team includes:
- Marketing manager
- Copywriter
- Designer
- VA
- Business owner
You already exceed Comfort's three-seat allowance.
Your newsletter program also sends:
70,000 emails per month
Comfort at 5,000 subscribers supports approximately:
50,000 monthly sends
You would therefore be outside the comfortable operating range.
Best choice: Power
Power at 5,000 subscribers costs:
$69/month
or approximately:
$62.10/month effective with annual billing
and gives you unlimited users and unlimited monthly email sending subject to fair use.
This is exactly the kind of scenario where Power's additional cost makes business sense.
10. A Practical Formula for Choosing Your Plan
Instead of asking:
“Which MailerLite plan is cheapest?”
ask:
Step 1: Count active subscribers
Find the number of active subscribers, not just the number of records you have accumulated.
Step 2: Estimate monthly email volume
Use:
Subscribers × Campaigns per month
Then add automated messages.
For example:
5,000 subscribers × 8 broadcasts =
40,000 sends
Add 10,000 automated emails:
50,000 total sends
That puts you right around the Comfort 5,000-subscriber monthly allowance.
Step 3: Count users
Need one or two people?
Free may work.
Need three?
Comfort.
Need four or more?
Power becomes much more relevant.
Step 4: Review automation complexity
If you need simple workflows, Free or Comfort can be sufficient.
If you need multiple automation entry points and more sophisticated workflow architecture, Power is the better fit.
Step 5: Calculate annual cost
If you expect to use MailerLite for at least a year, compare annual pricing rather than only monthly pricing.
The current annual discount is 10%.
11. FAQ: MailerLite Pricing
Is MailerLite completely free?
MailerLite has a Free plan that costs $0 and does not expire as long as you stay within its limits. The current Free plan supports up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails per month.
There is also a 14-day premium-feature trial for testing paid functionality.
What happens if I go over my MailerLite subscriber limit?
On the Free plan, exceeding 250 active subscribers can pause sending, automations and adding new subscribers until you reduce your list or upgrade.
On paid plans, MailerLite can automatically move you to the next subscriber tier and apply a prorated charge.
Does MailerLite offer a discount for non-profits?
Yes.
MailerLite currently advertises a 30% nonprofit discount. Its nonprofit page states that the discount applies to eligible nonprofit organizations and notes that nonprofit pricing was updated in 2026.
Can I switch between monthly and annual billing anytime?
MailerLite allows users to manage and change their plans from the Plan and billing section, and Comfort and Power are available on both monthly and annual billing. Changes can be made during the account lifecycle, with applicable prorated calculations when plans are changed.
However, because MailerLite's billing structure changed in 2026, existing legacy-plan customers can also be moved to the current plan structure at renewal or after a manual plan change.
Is MailerLite cheaper than Mailchimp?
In many comparable scenarios, yes.
MailerLite commonly comes in below Mailchimp at medium and larger subscriber counts, and MailerLite's own current comparison materials highlight substantial savings at several list sizes.
However, there is no single universal answer because Mailchimp pricing varies by plan, contacts, sending limits and selected functionality. Always compare the exact plans you need rather than comparing headline starting prices alone.
Does MailerLite charge for unsubscribed subscribers?
No. MailerLite says unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count toward the subscriber limit.
However, MailerLite uses a cumulative counting method during a billing cycle, so an email address that was active during the cycle may still count for that cycle even after deletion.
Is Power unlimited?
Power offers unlimited monthly sending and unlimited feature usage, but email sending remains subject to a fair-use policy.
Does MailerLite include a custom HTML editor on Free?
Yes.
This is one of the areas where older articles are now misleading. MailerLite's current Free plan includes the Custom HTML editor.
Can I remove MailerLite branding on Free?
No.
MailerLite branding appears on Free newsletters. Removing it is a paid feature on Comfort and Power.
12. Final Verdict: Is MailerLite Worth the Price?
- MailerLite is still one of the more compelling email marketing platforms for small and growing online businesses, but the 2026 pricing changes make it important to choose your plan based on actual usage rather than outdated reviews.
The Free plan is excellent for beginners, but its 250-subscriber cap and 2,500-email monthly limit mean you should think of it as a genuine starter environment rather than an indefinitely expandable free platform.
The Comfort plan is the best overall option for many bloggers, creators and small businesses. Starting at $12/month for 500 subscribers, it gives you considerably more room, removes MailerLite branding, expands automation and website capabilities, and includes useful monetization features.
The Power plan is where MailerLite becomes particularly attractive for serious senders. Unlimited email sending, unlimited users, unlimited feature usage and 24/7 live chat can justify the higher cost when your email list and business operations become more complex.
The biggest pricing mistake is not choosing the “wrong” plan.
It is underestimating how quickly a successful email list can grow.
A plan that costs $12 today may cost $49 or $89 later because your list has grown. That is not necessarily a problem. A growing subscriber base should ideally correspond with growing revenue.
The smarter question is:
Which MailerLite plan gives me enough capacity to grow without paying for features or sending volume I don't need yet?
For most beginners, that answer is Free first, Comfort when growth begins, and Power when volume, teamwork or advanced automation makes the upgrade economically sensible.
Final recommendation
Start with Free when you are still building your first 250 subscribers.
Choose Comfort when your list is growing and you need professional branding, larger sending capacity, more automation, digital products and additional marketing features.
Choose Power when you need unlimited sending, unlimited seats, unlimited feature use or advanced automation and support.
And because MailerLite provides a free plan as well as a 14-day premium-feature trial, you do not need to make a large upfront commitment just to find out whether the platform fits your workflow.
Test the Free plan, build your first campaign, create an automation, and watch your real subscriber and sending volume. When your current limits start becoming a business constraint, upgrade based on the numbers—not hype.
That is the most cost-effective way to use MailerLite in 2026.