Mailchimp #5 vs MailerLite #6 of 9 on /best/email-marketing
Mailchimp vs MailerLite
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Mailchimp and MailerLite, verified . Both are primarily email marketing tools.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Mailchimp
- Free
Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
Free - Essentials
Entry paid tier with A/B testing
$13/mo - Standard
Most popular paid tier
$20/mo - Premium
For high-volume senders and bigger teams
$350/mo
MailerLite
- Free
Up to 500 subscribers, 12,000 sends/month
Free - Growing Business
Most popular paid tier, starts at 500 subscribers
$10/mo - Advanced
Power features for active senders
$20/mo - Enterprise
100,000+ subscribers, custom contracting
Custom
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Essentials (Mailchimp) against Growing Business (MailerLite). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Mailchimp | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) | 500 subscribers (anchor; scales up) |
| Emails / month | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) | Unlimited |
| Team seats | 3 | 3 |
| Automations | 4 flow steps | · |
| Campaigns | 3 audiences | · |
When Mailchimp wins
- Small businesses that want one tool with a real onboarding flow and a huge integration list
- Teams already living in Intuit (QuickBooks) products
- Operators who want a brand-name vendor for stakeholder approval
Where Mailchimp is the wrong fit
- Creators with growing newsletters; the per-contact tax compounds (Kit, beehiiv, or MailerLite tend to be cheaper at 10k+ subscribers)
- B2B sales teams; the CRM is light versus HubSpot or ActiveCampaign
- Teams needing predictive AI on a budget; you have to jump to the $350 Premium plan
When MailerLite wins
- Solo creators and small businesses replacing Mailchimp
- Teams that want one tool for emails, landing pages, and a small website
- Nonprofits (30% discount on paid plans)
Where MailerLite is the wrong fit
- B2B teams needing deep CRM and pipeline workflows (use HubSpot or ActiveCampaign)
- Operators wanting native ad network or paid subscriptions (use beehiiv)
- API-first transactional senders (use Postmark or Resend)
Migrating between these tools 2 guides
Long-form migration guides for this exact pair. Each covers the cost math, what you lose, what you gain, and the pair-specific gotchas that bite during cutover.
Compare across the category
This page is Mailchimp vs MailerLite. To put both side by side with every other email marketing tool we track on a single price-only table, see the email marketing pricing comparison . Free tiers, entry paid plans, and mid-tier plans for the full email marketing cohort.
Common questions
- Is Mailchimp cheaper than MailerLite?
- Both Mailchimp and MailerLite have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Mailchimp or MailerLite have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month. MailerLite: Up to 500 subscribers, 12,000 sends/month.
- Are Mailchimp and MailerLite in the same category?
- Yes. Both are primarily email marketing tools, which is why this is a natural head-to-head comparison.
- Which has more plans, Mailchimp or MailerLite?
- Both Mailchimp and MailerLite ship 4 plans. Tier counts match; the differentiation is in features and pricing structure rather than tier ladder depth.
- Where can I see alternatives to Mailchimp or MailerLite?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/mailchimp for Mailchimp and /alternatives/mailerlite for MailerLite. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ · MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.