MailerLite vs Mailchimp: An Honest Comparison

MailerLite and Mailchimp are two of the names that come up most often when small businesses and creators look for email marketing software. They cover a lot of the same ground: newsletters, signup forms, landing pages, automations and reporting. The differences are in how they price, what the free plans include, and how far each platform goes in specific areas. This comparison is based on each company’s published pricing and feature information as of October 2026, not on hands-on testing, and it does not assume one tool is right for everyone.

The short version

• MailerLite is a strong fit if you want a capable free plan, straightforward pricing by subscriber count, and the core tools (editor, automations, landing pages, forms, A/B testing) without many add-ons.
• Mailchimp is a reasonable fit if you want its tiered plan structure, generative AI features (on Standard and up), multivariate testing (on Premium), or you are already invested in its ecosystem.

Plans and pricing model

Both platforms price their paid plans by the size of your audience, but they use different terms and structures.

MailerLite offers Free, Comfort (formerly Growing Business), Power (formerly Advanced) and Enterprise plans. Paid plans are priced by number of subscribers. Comfort starts from $12 per month and Power from $25 per month. Annual billing saves 10%, and nonprofits can get a 30% discount. Full details are in our MailerLite pricing guide.

Mailchimp offers Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium plans, priced by contacts. We have not listed Mailchimp’s dollar prices here because we could not verify them for this update; check Mailchimp’s pricing page for current figures in your currency. Essentials and Standard come with 14-day trials.

MailerLite vs Mailchimp at a glance (October 2026)

Criteria	MailerLite	Mailchimp
Plans	Free, Comfort, Power, Enterprise	Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium
Priced by	Subscribers	Contacts
Free plan audience	250 subscribers	Up to 250 contacts
Free plan sending	2,500 emails/month	500 sends/month, max 250/day
Free plan seats	2	1
Paid sending limits	Comfort: 10x subscriber tier per month; Power: unlimited under fair use	Essentials 10x, Standard 12x, Premium 15x contact limit per month
Entry paid price	Comfort from $12/mo	See Mailchimp's pricing page
Trials	Free plan available	14-day trials on Essentials and Standard
A/B testing	All plans, including Free	Available; multivariate testing on Premium
AI features	HeyLite Intelligence: AI subject lines and MCP server on all plans; writing assistant, AI HTML emails and landing pages on paid plans	Generative AI features on Standard and up
Support	Free: knowledge base; Comfort: email; Power: live chat and email	Check Mailchimp's plan pages

What the free plans really allow

Both free plans cap your audience at 250, so the difference lies in sending. MailerLite allows 2,500 emails per month. With 250 subscribers, that is enough for roughly ten full-list sends a month. Mailchimp allows 500 sends per month and 250 per day, which with a full 250-contact list works out to about two full sends per month.

MailerLite’s free plan also includes 2 seats, 3 active automations (up to 5 steps each), 3 forms and 1 landing page, with support limited to the knowledge base. Mailchimp’s free plan has 1 seat.

Hypothetical example: a yoga teacher with 200 subscribers who wants to send a weekly class update would send around 800 to 1,000 emails a month. That fits MailerLite’s free plan but would exceed Mailchimp’s 500 monthly sends.

Paid plan sending limits

On paid plans, MailerLite’s Comfort plan lets you send up to 10 times your subscriber tier each month, and Power offers unlimited sending under a fair-use policy. Mailchimp sets monthly send limits as a multiple of your contact limit: 10x on Essentials, 12x on Standard, 15x on Premium. If you send several times a week to your full list, check how each limit maps to your actual schedule.

Features compared

Editors and design

MailerLite offers three ways to build emails: a drag-and-drop editor, a simpler editor for text-focused emails, and a custom HTML editor. That covers most needs, from designed newsletters to plain, personal-looking messages. If editing experience matters to you, build the same test email in both tools before committing.

Automation

MailerLite includes a visual automation builder. The Free plan limits you to 3 active automations with 5 steps each, and Power adds multiple automation triggers. For Mailchimp, check which automation features are included on the plan you are considering. If you plan detailed, branching customer journeys, map out one real workflow (for example, the welcome email sequence you actually want) and test whether each tool can build it on the plan you can afford.

Testing and AI

MailerLite includes A/B testing on every plan, including Free, which is useful for small senders who want to learn what works without upgrading. Mailchimp offers multivariate testing on its Premium plan, which lets you test more than two combinations at once; that matters mainly for larger lists where there is enough audience to split meaningfully. Mailchimp also offers generative AI features on Standard and higher.

MailerLite’s AI tools are grouped as HeyLite Intelligence. The AI subject line generator works on every plan, while the AI writing assistant, AI-generated HTML emails and landing pages, and Smart sending need Comfort or Power. MailerLite also offers an MCP server on all plans, including Free, which connects your account to ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor without code or API keys, so you can analyze your audience or draft campaigns and automations through prompts. See the AI tools section of our MailerLite review for the full list.

Landing pages, websites and forms

MailerLite includes landing pages, a website builder, forms and pop-ups, with limits on the Free plan (3 forms and 1 landing page). This can replace a separate page-building tool for simple needs. If you need pages and forms from Mailchimp, check what its plan pages list for your intended tier.

E-commerce and selling

MailerLite integrates with Shopify and WooCommerce and uses Stripe for selling digital products and paid newsletters. Its RSS campaigns, which turn blog posts into emails automatically, are available on paid plans only. It lists 150+ integrations overall. If you rely on a specific store platform or CRM, check both providers’ integration directories for it.

Getting started

MailerLite checks new accounts as part of signup to protect its sending reputation. The check is automatic: accounts are approved or rejected straight away, so there is no waiting period before your first send. New accounts also get a 14-day free trial of premium features, with full support including live chat.

Who should choose which

MailerLite is likely the better fit if you:

• Are starting out and want a free plan that supports regular sending
• Want A/B testing without paying for it
• Need landing pages, forms and a simple website alongside email
• Prefer pricing based on subscriber count with clear plan tiers
• Want two people to access the account on the free plan
• Want to connect your email account to ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor, even on the free plan

Mailchimp is likely the better fit if you:

• Specifically want Mailchimp’s generative AI features (Standard and up)
• Have a large enough list to benefit from multivariate testing (Premium)
• Already use tools that integrate deeply with Mailchimp, or your team knows it well
• Want to trial a paid plan (Essentials or Standard) for 14 days before paying
• Would spend more time rebuilding workflows by switching than you would save

Neither may be the best fit if you:

• Are a creator who wants a free plan for a larger audience: Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, though visual automations are not included on it
• Need CRM-style sales pipelines and deep multi-step automation: ActiveCampaign is built around this, with no free plan but a 14-day trial
• Send occasionally to a large list and want pricing based on email volume: Brevo prices mainly by emails sent (check its current terms)

Our MailerLite alternatives roundup covers these options in more depth, and how to choose email marketing software offers a broader decision framework.

Before you switch

If you are moving from one to the other, a few steps will save trouble:

1. Export your contacts with their consent status and tags or groups.
2. Do not import people who previously unsubscribed or bounced.
3. Authenticate your sending domain on the new platform before your first send.
4. Rebuild your most important automation first, usually the welcome sequence.
5. Warm up by sending to your most engaged subscribers first.

Try MailerLite on the free plan

Build a form, set up a short automation and send a test campaign to see whether MailerLite suits the way you work. Read our full MailerLite review for more detail.

Try MailerLite free(opens MailerLite in a new tab)

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For a deeper look at MailerLite alone, see our MailerLite review.