MailerLite review: who it fits, what it costs, and when to skip it

Verdict: a strong default for small lists, with two limits to plan around

MailerLite sells four plans: Free, Comfort, Power and Enterprise. Its pricing page says paid pricing is based on usage, meaning active subscribers and send volume, rather than on access to features. Most of the toolset (drag-and-drop and custom HTML editors, A/B testing, forms, ecommerce triggers, digital product sales) is present from the Free plan up. [1]

For a newsletter of a few hundred to a few thousand people that sends weekly or less often, Comfort is the plan most readers will compare. The two limits that most often push people to Power are the monthly email allowance on Comfort, which is 10 times the subscriber tier, and multiple automation triggers, which MailerLite lists as a Power-only feature. [1] [2] [5]

If you bought a MailerLite plan before June 16, 2026, the billing help page says the new pricing applies at renewal or when you change plans manually, so an older invoice may not match the figures here. [2]

What each plan includes

Figures below come from MailerLite's pricing page and billing help on October 29, 2026, in USD. Paid prices are shown at the smallest tier, 500 subscribers. The annual figure is the per-month equivalent with MailerLite's 10% annual discount. [1] [2]

Account approval: what to expect before your first send

MailerLite is not a sign-up-and-blast tool. Its Terms of Use say that after creating an account you complete your profile and then request approval; if you comply with the rules you get an approval email, and if something looks suspicious you might get a disapproval email. [3] The same terms say the service is for your trade, business, craft or profession, that lists must be permission-based, and that purchased or rented lists are not acceptable. [3]

MailerLite also reserves the right to review your subscriber list and past campaign performance before approving your full purchased limit. If an account is placed under review, sending and landing page publishing are paused, and an account that does not answer a review inquiry within 30 days is terminated. [3]

The account setup help page says signup with a free email domain such as Gmail has limitations, and that after the 14-day trial you will need to authenticate your sending domain. [4] Plan for a business email address on your own domain before you start.

• Have your own domain and a business sender address ready.
• Be able to explain where every imported contact came from.
• Do not import a purchased, rented or scraped list; the terms forbid it. [3]
• Answer any review email promptly; the terms set a 30-day limit. [3]

How deep the automation goes

MailerLite's help page on multiple triggers names these trigger types: joins a group, clicks a link, completes a form, updated field, joins a segment, event anniversary and exact date. [5] The pricing table also lists ecommerce triggers on every plan. [1]

On Free and Comfort, each workflow starts from one trigger. Power allows up to three triggers per workflow, and a subscriber only needs to meet one of them to enter. Re-entry is opt-in for the group, form and link triggers, while updated field, anniversary and exact date triggers always repeat. A workflow can be re-entered at most once every 24 hours. [5]

The practical ceiling for a small shop is the step count: Comfort and Power both allow up to 100 steps per automation, and Free allows 5. [1] A welcome series with a few emails, delays and one condition fits easily on Comfort. If you want one workflow that starts from a form, a purchase and a tag, budget for Power or build separate workflows on Comfort.

What it costs at common list sizes

Monthly prices from MailerLite's pricing slider on October 29, 2026. Annual totals are the displayed annual per-month price times 12. [1] See the MailerLite pricing guide for the full tier table.

Billing rules that change the real bill

• Only unique Active subscribers count. Unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not. [2]
• The count is cumulative within a billing cycle: an address that was Active at any point counts, even if you delete it later. Clean the list before the cycle starts, not after. [2]
• On monthly plans, going over the subscriber tier upgrades you automatically with a prorated charge. Going over the Comfort email allowance also upgrades you, then moves you back at renewal; MailerLite's example moves a 5,000-subscriber account to the 8,000 tier. [2]
• On annual plans, overages are charged as a prorated amount to your payment method. [2]
• Deleting and re-uploading subscribers to stay under a limit violates the terms of service, according to the billing page. [2]
• You can pause a subscription once per calendar year for 2 months without charges. Nonprofits can get 30% off with proof of status; discounts do not stack. [2]

Who should skip MailerLite

• Personal or hobby senders: the terms limit use to business, trade, craft or profession. [3]
• Daily senders on a mid-size list who want Comfort pricing: 30 sends to 5,000 people is 150,000 emails, three times the Comfort 5,000 allowance of 50,000. [2] Power at 5,000 is listed at $69 a month with unlimited sends under fair use. [1]
• Teams needing more than 3 seats without paying for Power. [1]
• Anyone who needs transactional receipts from the same tool: every plan points to MailerSend, a separate product. [1]
• Lists above 200,000 subscribers: that is Enterprise territory with custom pricing. [1]

Checklist: does MailerLite fit you?

• My list is under 250 and I can live with 3 automations of 5 steps: start on Free.
• I send weekly or less and need one entry trigger per automation: compare Comfort at my tier.
• I need multiple triggers, more than 3 seats, live chat support or daily sends: price Power.
• I have a business domain and can authenticate it before the 14-day trial ends. [4]
• Every contact I will import opted in, and I can show how.
• I checked my cumulative Active count, not just today's count, before choosing a tier.

Sources & verification

Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.

1. MailerLite pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
2. MailerLite Help: Everything about subscription plan and billing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
3. MailerLite Terms of Use Accessed 29 Oct 2026
4. MailerLite Help: How to create a MailerLite account Accessed 29 Oct 2026
5. MailerLite Help: Multiple automation triggers Accessed 29 Oct 2026