Mailchimp vs MailerLite

Trying to choose between Mailchimp vs MailerLite as your email marketing software? Here's when to choose each tool – and the pros and cons to know about.

Mailchimp vs MailerLite comparison
  • 1.4 TrustPilot
  • 4.5 Capterra
  • 4.3 G2

Average 3.4 / 5

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Mailchimp

An email marketing software with automations and integrations. Plus, a hosting and website and landing pages builder.

Pricing

Starts at $13 a month for 500 contacts

Key features

  • Email automation
  • Hosting, websites, and online stores
  • Landing page builder
  • Marketing CRM
  • Integrations with various services
  • Drag-and-drop email builder

Support

24/7 support via email and chat on paid plans, phone support on Premium. Email support for the first 30 days on the Free plan.

  • 4.4 TrustPilot
  • 4.7 Capterra
  • 4.7 G2

Average 4.6 / 5

i

MailerLite

MailerLite is an all-in-one email marketing platform that allows you to create newsletters, landing pages, and even websites using pre-made templates. It has 100+ integrations with other platforms and a recurring payment feature for paid newsletters.

Pricing

Free plan, dynamic paid plans depending on the features and the contact list size start from $9/month billed yearly.

Key features

  • Drag-and-drop email editor with an AI writing assistant
  • No-code website, blog, and landing page builder
  • iPad subscriber app for generating leads on offline events
  • Paid newsletter subscription
  • Automated sequences
  • Integrations with online stores
  • Email verifier

Support

24/7 email and live chat support

General info about company

Mailchimp

Mailchimp was founded in Atlanta in 2001 by Ben Chestnut, Mark Armstrong, and Dan Kurzius. Headquarters in Atlanta, GA. Was acquired by Intuit in 2021.

MailerLite

MailerLite was founded in 2005 as a web design agency but then switched to email marketing. The company is remote-first, with employees in 40 countries.

Difficulty

Mailchimp

Creating emails doesn’t require design or coding skills. However, the interface can be confusing to novices.

MailerLite

No coding or design skills are required to create emails and web pages. The platform also offers an extensive knowledge base with tutorials, which makes it beginner-friendly.

Best for

Mailchimp

Small to medium e-commerce companies that want email marketing together with their website hosting.

MailerLite

E-commerce, freelancers, small businesses

Free plan

Mailchimp

Has a free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 1,000 emails a month and a daily send limit of 500. It has a lot fewer features than paid plans, fewer available templates, and customer support for 30 days only.

MailerLite

A generous forever free plan with a limit of 1 user, 1,000 contacts, and 12,000 monthly emails. The free plan includes:

  • Email editor and automation builder
  • Website builder and 10 templates for landing pages
  • Sign-up forms and pop-ups
  • 24/7 email and chat support for the first 30 days

Pricing

Mailchimp

For up to 500 contacts, billed monthly:

  • Essentials $13
  • Standard $20
  • Premium $350

Other pricing features:

  • 1-month free trial for Essentials and Standard
  • A Pay As You Go plan
  • Two possible pauses of the account’s billing every 12 months
  • 15% discount for nonprofit organizations

MailerLite

Growing business:

  • $9-205/month billed yearly, depending on the number of subscribers, with a limit of 50k contacts at the highest price
  • Unlimited emails and 24/7 support
  • Includes extra features like dynamic emails, selling digital products, blogs, and an unsubscribe page builder
  • 3 users available

Advanced:

  • $19-1,600/month billed yearly, with a limit of 500k contacts at the highest price
  • An email limit if you have more than 50k subscribers, up to 6 million, depending on the number
  • Includes features like custom HTML editor, AI writing assistant, Facebook integration, promotion pop-ups, and more
  • Unlimited users

Entreprise:

  • Depends on the scope of work
  • Only available for businesses with 100k and more subscribers
  • Includes the services of a dedicated success manager, onboarding, account audit, and dedicated IP and deliverability consultation

Support

Mailchimp

  • Email support on paid plans and 30-day only on a Free plan
  • 24/7 chat support on paid plans
  • Support phone line for the Premium plan: Mon-Fri 6:30 am — 6:00 pm ET (UTC-5)

MailerLite

Customer support is available 24/7 via email and live chat — however, it’s only available for 30 days on the free plan. Users can also hire experts in email marketing, copywriting, no code development, and more.

MailerLite also offers an extensive Customer Self-Service Center. It includes:

  • A large categorized knowledge base, that includes articles about troubleshooting most common issues
  • Video tutorials
  • A Circle community where users can communicate with each other
  • A free ML Academy with 5 free online courses about MailerLite and email marketing

Features

Mailchimp

  • Email automation with pre-made customer journeys
  • Hosting, websites, and landing pages builder
  • Online store creator
  • Marketing CRM
  • Integrations with popular services
  • Drag-and-drop email builder and pre-made templates
  • A mobile app for iOS and Android to create and send emails, add clients, check analytics, etc.

MailerLite

  • Email marketing automation
  • Sign-up forms
  • Landing pages
  • Website builder
  • Blog builder
  • Email verifier
  • Transactional emails
  • Click maps
  • The ability to sell digital products like e-books and online courses
  • Setting up a paid subscription for emails

Templates

Mailchimp

100+ templates for emails and landing pages
AI assistant for designing
The free plan has a limited number of pre-built templates

Templates for:

  • Welcome messages
  • Sales
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Announcements
  • Win-back

MailerLite

70+ templates for newsletters:

  • Blog digests
  • Events
  • Holiday emails
  • Featured product
  • Notifications
  • Surveys and quizzes
  • Deals and offers
  • Emails for creative professionals

40+ templates for landing pages:

  • For bloggers
  • For creative professionals
  • Events
  • Surveys and quizzes
  • Coming soon
  • Celebrations
  • Books
  • Non-profits

18 website templates for different industries and purposes:

  • Business
  • E-commerce
  • Education
  • Events
  • Food and drinks
  • Portfolio
  • Wellness

Integrations

Mailchimp

315 integrations including WordPress, Shopify, Facebook, Stripe, LiveChat, Canva, Unsplash, and more.

MailerLite

139 integrations with services for CRM, loyalty programs, e-commerce, project management, surveys, and more.

Devices

Mailchimp

  • Website
  • A mobile app for iOS and Android to create and send emails, add clients, check analytics, etc.

No installable solution.

MailerLite

    MailerLite has a web app, an iOS app, and an iPad app only for subscribing leads on offline events.

Languages

Mailchimp

English English Spanish Spanish Portuguese Portuguese

MailerLite

English English

Automation

Mailchimp

Many pre-built automations (called customer journeys):

  • Welcome series
  • Abandoned cart
  • Product retargeting
  • Lead generation
  • Order notifications, and more

MailerLite

  • 15 automation recipes for welcome emails, abandoned cart, membership renewal, online courses, and more.
  • Paid versions include an AI writing assistant powered by OpenAI that allows users to write marketing copies faster.
  • Automated A/B testing for up to 3 workflow variations.

Pros

Mailchimp

  • Essential features for small businesses
  • 315 integrations
  • Website hosting
  • A mobile app
  • Stylish design and built reputation
  • Landing page builder

MailerLite

  • A very simple and minimalist product that is good for beginners
  • Many unique features like paid newsletters and selling digital goods
  • Great customer support
  • A lot of integrations available
  • Easy migrations from other services
  • Extensive video tutorial library for new users

Cons

Mailchimp

  • Relatively high prices
  • Free and Standard plans are very limited
  • Limited customization
  • Customer support is hard to reach and isn’t very helpful
  • Many people find the interface not user-friendly
  • Unsubscribed and inactive accounts are still included in sending limits

MailerLite

  • May come off as too simple for experienced marketers
  • You need to get approval to start working with the service
  • 2FA requires a third-party app instead of a phone number
  • Stripe integration can be troublesome
  • Confusing categories in the interface
  • Outdated documentation at times

Reviews from experts

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a perfectly good tool for most English-speaking users, with its ease of use and range of features, as well as their free and pay-as-you-go plans.

Keep in mind, though, that their subscription plans are relatively expensive compared to similar newsletter tools.

Perhaps if you’re a business with specific needs, like multilingual software, or use of your own tracking domain, then you may need to look further afield for the correct newsletter tool. But there really is a lot to like from Mailchimp.

Robert Brandl

Robert Brandl

founder and CEO, Inka Wibowo, Senior Content Manager at EmailToolTester

The interface is simple and intuitive, and you don't need to be technically savvy to get up and running with email campaigns. I have easily trained non-technical colleagues and elderly clients on how to use Mailchimp to send newsletters. It's easy to add contacts on the go using the Mailchimp mobile app.

Cons: The biggest downside is that the free plan is very limited now compared to when I first started. The free option is really only good for very small lists and basic emails. To do anything more sophisticated with segmentation, automations, or larger lists, you need to pay for one of the monthly subscription plans.

Jessica Kay M

Jessica Kay M

Marketing Consultant

MailerLite

Great level of satisfaction in terms of the results we are obtaining in our campaigns, as well as how it is to work with MailerLite on a daily-basis. Also, very important to mention the amazing customer service provided. Always very quick, detailed and helpful. Message Factory couldn’t be any happier by working with MailerLite!

Andre R.

Andre R.

Project manager at msgFactory

On the down side, MailerLite felt a bit unpolished at times. Things like the odd feature that was incomplete, or a tab that seemed to be in the wrong place – small things that slowly added up, resulting in a bittersweet experience.
MailerLite is great, and I’m sure it will only get better with time. It just fails to deliver an exceptional email marketing experience right now

Alexandros Melidoniotis

Alexandros Melidoniotis

Freelance writer and editor with experience in digital marketing

*This information is current as of 09/28/2023. While we regularly update our articles, it`s possible that this article may not contain some of the latest information.