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)
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.
Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/ · MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.