MailerLite Pricing: A Fair Price for Small Businesses?

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MailerLite is one of our favorite email marketing tools. It offers an intuitive platform without compromising on features – in fact, extras like automations, websites, and landing pages can be created for free.

That tracks with MailerLite’s long-standing reputation as an email marketing service that provides great value for money. And its pricing is refreshingly simple to understand, with a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, and paid plans with varying features.

However, as with any service, prices can fluctuate. Before you make a decision about whether MailerLite is right for you, you’ll need to be clear on what exactly you’re getting for your cash.

In this article, we'll dive into MailerLite's recent price changes and answer the big question: Is it still worth your money? We'll break down all the different plans on offer and help you find a match for your needs.

We’ll also compare MailerLite's pricing with its competitors, shedding light on how it stacks up against other low-cost providers.

So, let’s get started with a quick summary on the most important things you need to know about MailerLite pricing.

MailerLite Pricing: What to expect?

MailerLite offers four different plans: Free, Growing Business, Advanced, and Enterprise. Prices go up the more features you need, and the bigger your subscriber list is.

MailerLite’s freemium plan is available for those with under 1,000 subscribers and comes with 12,000 emails/month. Features are limited on this plan (see the comparison table below).

The Growing Business plan starts at $15/month for 500 contacts. You’ll have access to features such as unlimited emails, newsletter and landing page templates, dynamic emails, branding-free emails, unlimited websites, and more.

If you want access to features such as promotion pop-ups, Facebook custom audiences, multiple automation triggers and MailerLite's custom HTML newsletter editor, you’ll need to sign up for the Advanced plan. Prices start at $30/month, so around double that of the Growing Business plan. However, you’ll start to notice less of a price difference once your list hits the 5,000-subscriber mark.

The Enterprise plan is for businesses with over 100,000 subscribers, and pricing is available upon consultation.

Check out MailerLite’s site for more information. Additionally, if you sign up for a yearly plan, you’ll get a 15% discount.

Now, let’s break down the differences between each plan, so you can understand what is and isn’t included.

MailerLite Pricing Breakdown: Comparing the Plans

Now that you know what’s included in each plan, let’s see how much you’ll be paying for each one based on your list size.

MailerLite Pricing Based on List Size

Please read the FAQ below to learn more about how MailerLite counts active users. 

MailerLite’s Plans: A More Detailed Look

MailerLite plans: Free vs. Growing Business paid plan

Besides having a lower email allowance (12,000/mo compared to unlimited emails), there are a few limitations to the free plan you should know about. You won’t get access to:

• Newsletter templates (which in our opinion is a pretty big limitation!)
• Custom HTML newsletter editor
• Support after the first month
• Custom domains for landing pages
• Auto-resend to those who didn’t open or click
• Dynamic content
• Paid newsletters and subscriptions

A MailerLite logo will also be added at the bottom of your emails on the free plan. This logo can’t be removed and will be visible to your recipients.

You do, however, get access to features such as marketing automation, email reports, the landing page editor, website builder and email support on the free plan. We compared MailerLite’s free plan alongside other free email marketing services and found it to be the best in terms of included features and allowances.

Growing Business vs Advanced Plan

MailerLite used to have just one paid plan, and the prices were similar to that of the Growing Business account. However, the Advanced plan came into the mix when MailerLite updated its interface and added new features, such as the ability to sell digital products and recurring subscriptions.

There isn’t a massive difference in features between the two plans. However, those who need the following features will want to upgrade to Advanced:

• 24/7 live chat support
• Unlimited account users (seats)
• Multistep automations
• Promotion popups
• Facebook custom audiences
• Custom HTML newsletter editor
• Preference center
• AI writing tools (although you can obviously use ChatGPT and similar tools separately)

Enterprise

This plan is for large organizations (with 100,000+ subscribers) where pricing is worked out on a case-by-case basis.

It includes a dedicated sending IP address, which can be advantageous for those sending over 50,000 emails/week.

Discounts on MailerLite Pricing

Nonprofits: MailerLite offers a generous 30% off for nonprofits

Annual discounts: If you sign up for the annual plan, you can benefit from 15% off

What’s Not Included in MailerLite’s Pricing?

While MailerLite’s plans come packed with features, there are a few services that you’ll need to pay extra for:

• Email accounts: Email marketing services rarely provide email mailboxes or addresses, and MailerLite is no exception. However, they do offer a 15% discount on Google Workspace accounts, which is not something we’ve seen many providers do.
• Transactional emails: While MailerLite is designed to send marketing emails only, you can opt to add on its transactional email service, MailerSend, if you need to send emails like order confirmations and password resets.
• Spam and design testing: Unlike platforms like GetResponse or MailChimp, MailerLite doesn’t offer any kind of email testing service (for example, to identify the likelihood of your email landing in the spam folder, or to see how it will display in different email clients). Instead, you’d need to run these tests separately in a tool like Litmus or Email on Acid.
• Deliverability testing: Luckily, MailerLite offers some of the highest deliverability rates in the industry, according to our tests. But if you want to test this out for yourself, you’ll need to subscribe to a third-party service like GlockApps.

How does MailerLite’s Pricing Compare to Other Email Marketing Services?

MailerLite has always marketed itself as a low-cost email service provider, especially compared to more expensive MailerLite alternatives like ActiveCampaign or MailChimp. However, its recent price increases might make you wonder whether it’s still deserving of that title.

Let’s take a look at how its latest prices compare to other cheap email marketing services:

*Mailjet and Brevo charge based on monthly emails sent, rather than list size, so we've calculated their prices based on 1 email sent to each subscriber per month.

As you can see, MailerLite still offers competitive prices for those who have smaller lists. However, once your list starts growing (10k+ subscribers), it becomes one of the pricier “low-cost” options.

Considering the vast amount of features you get, however, you might find the investment to be worth it. After all, you won’t have to pay for extras like landing pages, websites, automations, or ecommerce features. Having all these add-ons bundled together in a single tool could actually save you money in the long run.

MailerLite Prices & Plans: Last thoughts

To know exactly how much MailerLite will cost you, you only need to know how big your subscriber list is and check it against MailerLite’s pricing tiers.

Check our price comparison tool if you want to compare MailerLite’s prices with those of their competitors.

For smaller lists, their prices are among the most competitive in the industry, and they also offer a lot in terms of features (read our full MailerLite review).

In my opinion, MailerLite is worth every penny, as it’s one of the tools that offers the best value for your money and, it will be an integral part of your overall email marketing strategy.

Since email marketing ROI can secure you as much as $36 for every dollar you spend on your email campaign, you really have nothing to lose with MailerLite's very affordable prices.

Plus, for those with less than 1,000 subscribers, their free plan is excellent, so long as you’re willing to go without features such as templates and priority support.

> Open your free MailerLite account

Looking for a transactional email service provider? Check out MailerSend, MailerLite's transactional service.