Alternatives to MailerLite
Affordable email marketing with automation
MailerLite ranks #5 of 9 in Newsletter platforms, with an Alt Score of 78. It is proprietary, freemium from $12/month and available on the web. 11 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Solo creators, freelancers, and small-to-midsize businesses who want to run email marketing without a large budget or technical team.
A drag-and-drop email campaign builder for newsletters, plus trigger-based automations, signup forms, landing pages, and a basic website/blog builder. Includes subscriber segmentation, campaign performance analytics, and support for selling digital products or paid newsletter subscriptions. Freemium pricing makes core features accessible before scaling up.
Sign up and build your subscriber list with signup forms or landing pages, then design campaigns and automation workflows using pre-built templates and a drag-and-drop editor. Trigger emails based on subscriber actions or schedules, and track results through built-in analytics.
Why people leave MailerLite
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Newsletter platforms checklist (16 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Newsletter platforms checklist | MailerLite | beehiiv | Kit | Ghost | Buttondown | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Subscriber limit (free) | ||||||
| Automations & sequences | ||||||
| Segmentation | ||||||
| Paid subscriptions | ||||||
| Custom domain | ||||||
| Referral program | ||||||
| Landing pages | ||||||
| API access | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Deliverability tooling (DKIM, dedicated IP) | ||||||
| Import from competitors | ||||||
| Web archive of issues |
Every fact and feature listed for MailerLite is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Platforms Web verified 2026-07-11
all the data you need to replicate success across campaigns is available in your dashboard.
https://www.mailerlite.com/features/email-marketing -
License Proprietary verified 2026-07-11
You acknowledge that MailerLite owns all right, title and interest in and to the Service, including without limitation all intellectual property rights, and such rights are protected by international
https://www.mailerlite.com/terms-of-service -
Pricing model Freemium verified 2026-07-11
You get up to 250 subscribers, 2 user seats, and 2,500 monthly emails, plus campaigns, automations, a website
https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing -
Starts at $12/month verified 2026-07-11
The Comfort plan (starting $12/month) is the full toolset at the right size
https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
New e-commerce automation triggers — The platform split abandoned cart automation into two distinct triggers: Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout, plus added a Purchase Frequency trigger for custome
https://www.mailerlite.com/whats-new -
Subscriber limit (free) Yes verified 2026-07-11
You get up to 250 subscribers, 2 user seats, and 2,500 monthly emails
https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing -
Automations & sequences Yes verified 2026-07-11
Build out your automation, from start to finish, with an intuitive drag and drop builder.
https://www.mailerlite.com/features/automation -
Segmentation Yes verified 2026-07-11
Segmentation divides subscribers into smaller audiences based on a set of characteristics that will help you deliver more targeted emails.
https://www.mailerlite.com/features/segmentation -
Paid subscriptions Yes verified 2026-07-11
Monetize your newsletters by using MailerLite to handle everything from collecting leads and payments to automatically delivering paid subscription emails.
https://www.mailerlite.com/features/paid-newsletter-subscriptions -
Custom domain Yes verified 2026-07-11
We offer two methods to make this process smooth and straightforward: the automatic setup and the manual setup.
https://www.mailerlite.com/help/how-to-add-a-custom-domain-to-landing-pages-and-websites -
Referral program No verified 2026-07-11
SparkLoop is a tool that provides a convenient method to incorporate a powerful referral program in your MailerLite newsletters.
https://www.mailerlite.com/integrations/sparkloop -
Landing pages Yes verified 2026-07-11
Build pages that look so good and convert so well
https://www.mailerlite.com/features/landing-pages -
API access Yes verified 2026-07-11
MailerLite API is RESTful, fully-featured, and easy to integrate with.
https://developers.mailerlite.com/docs -
Self-hostable No verified 2026-07-11
The base endpoint for all requests is: https://connect.mailerlite.com/api
https://developers.mailerlite.com/docs -
Deliverability tooling (DKIM, dedicated IP) Yes verified 2026-07-11
Add the DKIM as a CNAME record, the SPF as a TXT record
https://www.mailerlite.com/help/how-to-verify-and-authenticate-your-domain -
Import from competitors Yes verified 2026-07-11
Directly from Mailchimp (read How to switch from Mailchimp to MailerLite)
https://www.mailerlite.com/help/how-to-import-subscribers
FAQ
Yes. beehiiv, Kit and Buttondown have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Ghost — every license claim links its source.