Migration guide
Mailchimp → MailerLite
Mailchimp's pricing escalates fast as your contact list grows. MailerLite is consistently cheaper at every tier, has a more generous free plan (1,000 subscribers vs 250), and ships the automation features Mailchimp gates behind Standard or Premium.
Published · By the TierGauge editorial team
When this migration makes sense
- You're paying $50 to $300/mo for Mailchimp Essentials or Standard and feeling the contact-tier ratchet.
- You want automations and segmentation without paying Mailchimp's Standard premium for them.
- You're under 1,000 contacts and Mailchimp's 250-contact free tier is a constraint.
When it doesn't
- You depend on Mailchimp's CRM-adjacent tools (audiences, customer journeys, predicted demographics) for orchestration.
- You're deeply integrated with Mailchimp transactional (Mandrill); MailerLite's transactional is separate.
- You operate at scale (>100k contacts) and have negotiated Mailchimp pricing; rerun the math at your specific tier.
What you lose by leaving Mailchimp
- Mailchimp's audience-prediction features (engagement segments, predicted demographics).
- Mandrill (Mailchimp's transactional product) integration if you used the unified billing.
- Mailchimp's Content Studio and AI-assisted templates.
What you gain with MailerLite
- Lower bills at almost every contact tier.
- Automations and segmentation included on the free tier.
- A simpler interface; less feature surface area to navigate.
- Generous free tier (1,000 subscribers vs Mailchimp's 250).
Plan mapping at the entry paid tier
The lowest non-free, non-custom tier on each side. Use this for the "if I'm on $X with Mailchimp, what's the equivalent on MailerLite?" gut check.
| Limit | Mailchimp (Essentials) | MailerLite (Growing Business) |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | · |
Step-by-step migration
- 01
Export your list from Mailchimp
Pull a fresh CSV of every active subscriber. Capture the fields you actually use downstream: email is required, name is standard, signup date and tier (free/paid) are useful when Mailchimp provides them.
- 02
Provision MailerLite
Sign up, set sender identity, and verify your sending domain (DKIM, SPF, DMARC). Do this before importing the list; sending from an unverified domain is the single fastest way to land in spam at the moment of cutover.
- 03
Import the list and map fields
Upload the CSV. Map email + name + any custom fields. Decide whether to import as one list or split into segments/tags. Mailchimp-style organization rarely maps 1:1, so plan the split before the upload, not after.
- 04
Rebuild automations and templates
MailerLite's automation builder is structurally similar but won't import Mailchimp's flows directly. Rebuild only what you actively use; the move is a chance to delete the unused ones rather than lift-and-shift dead infrastructure.
- 05
Send a test broadcast
Pick a small segment and send a real broadcast (not just a preview). Verify deliverability, link clicks, and unsubscribe flow. If anything's off, you find it before the announcement, not after.
- 06
Announce the move and cut over
Send your last broadcast from Mailchimp announcing the new sender domain and what to expect. Cut over DNS and sending from MailerLite on the same day, not staggered. A dual-send week creates more confusion than it prevents.
Mailchimp-to-MailerLite specific gotchas
Universal steps cover most of the work. These are the failure modes unique to this exact pair.
-
#1
Mailchimp's audiences map to MailerLite's groups, not 1:1 lists. If you have multiple audiences, decide whether to consolidate before the cutover.
-
#2
Tags transfer cleanly; merge fields need to be re-mapped manually.
-
#3
Mailchimp double opt-in is on by default; MailerLite asks you to opt in to it. Match the setting to maintain compliance.
-
#4
Mailchimp's automation builder uses 'customer journeys'; MailerLite's automation is structurally similar but you'll rebuild from scratch, not import.
Common questions
- Is MailerLite cheaper than Mailchimp?
- Both start at the same headline price (Free). The reason to migrate is the pricing model and feature scope, not the entry-tier number.
- Will I lose subscribers in the move?
- Email lists transfer as raw addresses; subscriber relationships transfer with you because the addresses haven't changed. What you can lose: re-engagement (some readers won't notice the new sender domain immediately), paid subscriptions if Mailchimp handles billing differently from MailerLite (the gotchas above call out the specific cases), and any "engagement" or warmth signals that Mailchimp's deliverability inferred from your sending history. Plan a clear announcement and a deliverability warm-up week.
- How long does the migration take?
- For a list under 10,000 subscribers, a clean migration is one focused week: domain setup and verification, list import, automation rebuild, test broadcast, announcement, cutover. Larger lists or complex automations can stretch to 2 or 3 weeks. The constraint is rarely the import itself; it's the deliverability warm-up and the time to rebuild flows you actually depend on.
- Are Mailchimp and MailerLite direct competitors?
- Yes. Both are primarily email marketing tools, which is why this is a defensible head-to-head migration rather than a cross-category consolidation.
- Where can I see Mailchimp vs MailerLite side-by-side?
- The /compare/mailchimp-vs-mailerlite page on TierGauge shows side-by-side plans, headline pricing, included features, and limit comparison at the entry paid tier. This migration guide is the long-form decision narrative; the compare page is the data-only dashboard.
Sources
- Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
- MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
Pricing verified . Migration mechanics are based on the public pricing pages and standard ESP migration patterns; verify destructive steps (DNS cutover, paid subscription transfer) against the vendor's current docs before executing.