Mailchimp and MailerLite overlap at the same job: building a list, designing emails, running automations and reporting on results. The difference is how much each company wants to charge once the list grows, and how much product sits behind the entry price.
TL;DR
Mailchimp splits its offer into four plans: a free plan limited to 250 contacts, Essentials from $13 per month, Standard from $20 per month and Premium from $350 per month for the first 12 months at the 0-500 contact tier, with a 14-day trial on paid plans. MailerLite keeps it to a free plan of 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails, Comfort from $12 and Power from $25, plus a negotiated Enterprise tier. Mailchimp brings SMS, deeper automation and phone support; MailerLite brings a lower entry price and a simpler editor.
Mailchimp's pricing page is organised around contact tiers, with the page defaulting to the 0-500 band and a currency selector that changes displayed figures. On the US setting it shows the free plan capped at 250 contacts, Essentials at $13.00 per month and Standard at $20.00 per month for the first 12 months, and Premium at $350.00 per month for the same period, with the standard rate rendered after the discount period. A 14-day trial applies to paid plans, and businesses above 10,000 contacts get 15% off the first 12 months. Standard is positioned as the plan for automations, personalisation and optimisation, while Premium adds phone and priority support, custom-coded email templates, multivariate and A/B testing, enhanced automation flows, personalised onboarding and predictive segmentation. Mailchimp's own pricing page cites a rating of 4.5 out of five based on more than 33,000 reviews across G2, Capterra and TrustRadius. Beyond email, the platform sells SMS and transactional sending alongside it.
MailerLite's ladder is shorter. The free plan covers up to 250 subscribers, two user seats and 2,500 monthly emails, and includes campaigns, automations, a website, landing pages, signup forms and all three editors. Comfort starts at $12 per month and adds unlimited templates, dynamic emails, campaign auto-resend, multivariate testing, an unsubscribe page builder, a preference centre, an AI writing assistant and smart sending, with an email allowance of ten times the ceiling of your subscriber tier. Power starts at $25 per month and lifts the ceiling to unlimited monthly emails under fair use, adding the tools for sales funnels and repeated revenue work. Enterprise is priced by conversation for 200,000-plus subscribers and includes unlimited seats, priority support, a dedicated success manager and an account audit. MailerLite states that support runs around the clock with a 97% satisfaction rate and a five-minute average live-chat response.
| Feature | Mailchimp | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free plan capped at 250 contacts | 250 subscribers, 2 seats, 2,500 monthly emails |
| Entry paid plan | Essentials from $13.00 per month for 12 months at 0-500 contacts | Comfort from $12 per month |
| Mid tier | Standard from $20.00 per month for 12 months at 0-500 contacts | Power from $25 per month with unlimited emails |
| Top tier | Premium at $350.00 per month for 12 months at 0-500 contacts | Enterprise negotiated for 200,000+ subscribers |
| Free trial | 14 days on paid plans, no long trial on the free tier | 14 days of premium features, no credit card |
| SMS | Sold alongside email as a channel on the platform | Does not appear on the published pricing tiers |
| Sending limits | Plan and contact tier set the monthly send allowance | Free 2,500 emails, Comfort 10x tier, Power unlimited under fair use |
| Support ladder | Priority and phone support reserved for Premium | 24/7 chat and email on paid plans, dedicated manager on Enterprise |
Pick Mailchimp if
Mailchimp is the better fit when email sits inside a wider marketing motion that includes SMS, transactional sending, predictive segmentation and, on Premium, phone support and custom-coded templates. Its four-tier ladder also gives more room to grow before a sales conversation. Model the cost at your real contact count first, since the prices shown belong to the smallest tier and a promotional window.
Pick MailerLite if
MailerLite wins on price-to-feature ratio: $12 for Comfort with automations, templates and a website builder, $25 for unlimited sending, and a free plan that behaves like a real starting point with 2,500 emails a month. For newsletters, small shops and solo operators, that is the cheaper path to the same outcomes.
The only rating quoted here is Mailchimp's own published figure of 4.5 out of five across 33,000+ reviews; we did not collect or verify a review corpus for this pair. All other figures come from mailchimp.com/pricing and mailerlite.com/pricing, read on 2026-10-12.
MailerLite. Its Comfort tier starts at $12 per month against Mailchimp's Essentials at $13.00 per month for the first 12 months at the smallest contact tier, and the gap widens once either platform's list passes a pricing band.
No. The figures on the US pricing page are the 12-month promotional rates for the 0-500 contact band, and the page renders the standard rate after that period. Prices also change with contact tier and with the currency selected.
SMS does not appear on MailerLite's published pricing tiers. Mailchimp sells email and SMS together on its platform, which is the main reason to prefer it for multi-channel campaigns.
Both cap the list at 250 contacts or subscribers. MailerLite adds two user seats and 2,500 monthly emails with automations and forms; Mailchimp's free plan allows sending within its contact limit and pauses when that limit is reached.
MailerLite, because the drag and drop, custom HTML and simple editors are all available from the free plan upward, and the plan structure has fewer branches to read before choosing. Mailchimp is not difficult, but its four plans and contact bands need more comparison first.
On either platform the account has to upgrade or stop sending. MailerLite moves you to Comfort at $12 per month; Mailchimp moves you to Essentials, whose price depends on the contact band you land in.
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