Mailerlite

You send newsletters, build a mailing list, and occasionally want to create a landing page without using a separate tool for it. Mailerlite promises to bundle all of that in one package, for a price that won’t immediately drain your marketing budget. I tested the tool and thoroughly researched it to see if that promise holds up.

Who is behind Mailerlite?

Mailerlite is the brainchild of Ignas Rubežius, who founded the platform in 2010 from Vilnius, Lithuania. The story behind it is actually quite funny: Rubežius had been running a web design agency since 2005 that built websites for clients. For those clients, he developed a simple email marketing tool internally. That tool turned out to be more popular than the websites themselves. Clients increasingly asked if they could just use that email tool, without all the other hassle around it.

That was the moment when Rubežius decided to fully pivot to email marketing. He built Mailerlite completely bootstrapped – without external investors or venture capital. That remained the case until 2022, when the Polish company Vercom S.A. acquired Mailerlite for 90 million dollars. A substantial exit for a company that had lasted more than ten years without external financing. Meanwhile, more than 1 million people worldwide use the platform, and Mailerlite has won multiple awards for customer service and ease of use.

A nice detail: Mailerlite has developed a special iPad Subscribe App that allows you to collect offline sign-ups at events or in your store. Those kinds of practical features show that the company really listens to what users need in the real world.

Who is Mailerlite for?

Mailerlite explicitly targets freelancers, small to medium-sized businesses, creators, and bloggers. If you’re just starting with email marketing or looking for a straightforward tool without too much fuss, you’re in the right place here. The interface is deliberately kept simple and you don’t need a technical background to get started with it.

For large enterprise organizations with complex workflows and dozens of team members, Mailerlite is less suitable. Affiliate marketers should also be careful: Mailerlite maintains a strict approval policy and is not particularly lenient when it comes to affiliate content. Your account can be rejected or blocked without much explanation if they suspect you’re doing affiliate marketing in a way that goes against their policy.

The ideal Mailerlite user is someone who has a few thousand to several tens of thousands of subscribers, regularly sends newsletters, occasionally needs a landing page, and doesn’t want to dive too deep into advanced segmentation or analytics. Think of an online coach, a webshop owner, a content creator, or a local business that wants to maintain customer contact via email.

What can Mailerlite do?

Mailerlite’s free plan already offers quite a bit of functionality: you can create emails with the drag-and-drop editor, set up simple automations, and place forms and pop-ups. For more advanced features like A/B testing, extensive reporting, multiple users, and removing Mailerlite branding, you need a paid plan. Here’s what you get:

• Drag & drop email editor: You drag blocks with text, images, buttons, and other elements into your email. No HTML knowledge required. The editor works intuitively and you immediately see what your email will look like on desktop and mobile. I found it convenient that you can quickly switch between different views.
• Marketing automation workflows: You can build visual workflows that automatically send emails based on triggers such as a new signup, a click on a link, or a specific date. Even in the free plan you get access to the automation builder, which is pretty generous. The workflows aren’t as advanced as with specialized tools, but for most use cases more than sufficient.
• Landing pages & Website builder: Mailerlite has a built-in builder that lets you create landing pages and even complete websites. The templates are functional but not spectacular. For a simple opt-in page or a ‘coming soon’ site it’s fine, but don’t expect ClickFunnels-level design and capabilities.
• Pop-ups & Sign-up forms: You can create different types of forms: embedded forms for your website, pop-ups that appear after a certain time, and exit-intent pop-ups. The styling options are fairly extensive and you can adapt them well to your brand identity.
• Selling digital products: Through the Stripe integration you can sell digital products directly from Mailerlite. You create a product, set a price, and Mailerlite handles the payment and delivery. Handy if you’re selling an e-book or online course, for example, and don’t immediately need a complete webshop.
• A/B testing: You can test different versions of your email to see which performs best. For example, you test two different subject lines or two different call-to-action buttons. Mailerlite sends both versions to a portion of your list and automatically sends the winner to the rest.
• Smart sending: This feature analyzes when your subscribers are most likely to open emails and sends your message at that time. Instead of everyone receiving your email at 10:00 AM, one subscriber gets it at 09:00 and another at 2:00 PM, depending on their previous behavior.
• Segmentation: You can divide your mailing list into groups based on behavior, location, custom fields, or previous interactions. This way you send more targeted emails to specific groups of subscribers. The segmentation options are good enough for most applications, but not as extensive as with tools that specifically focus on advanced marketing automation.

During my test, I noticed that the interface consistently feels the same, whether you’re creating an email, building a landing page, or designing a form. That consistency makes the platform pleasant to work with. You don’t have to keep relearning how something works.

What does Mailerlite cost?

Mailerlite has a free plan that you can use for an unlimited time. You then get access to most basic features, but you’re limited to a maximum of 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. Only one user can log in and all emails contain Mailerlite branding at the bottom. For many starters, this free plan is already sufficient to begin with.

If you have more subscribers or need extra functionality, there are two paid plans. The Growing Business plan costs 10 dollars per month (9 dollars with annual payment). The Advanced plan costs 20 dollars per month (18 dollars per year). These prices apply to up to 500 subscribers. As your list grows, the price increases. At 1,000 subscribers, for example, you pay 15 dollars per month for Growing Business and 26 dollars for Advanced.

What do you get extra in the paid plans? No more sending limits, no Mailerlite branding, multiple users, A/B testing, extensive reporting, auto resend for non-openers, and priority support. The Advanced plan adds Facebook integration, a dedicated IP address, and an Instagram verification badge to that.

Mailerlite also offers a 14-day trial period for the paid plans, where you can test with a credit card without paying immediately. Compared to Mailchimp, Mailerlite is a lot cheaper, especially as your list grows. At 2,500 subscribers, you quickly pay double at Mailchimp.

What should you watch out for?

During my test and digging through user experiences, a number of points came up that you should keep in mind. First: the account approval process. Mailerlite is strict about who they allow on the platform. You can create an account, fill everything out neatly, and then be rejected without clear explanation. Especially if you do something that even remotely smells like affiliate marketing, you run a risk. Customer service isn’t always very helpful with explanations in those cases.

Another point is the limited template library in the free plan. You then have to build your emails from scratch or use one of the very basic templates. The same applies to landing pages: there are only about 26 templates available, and they’re functional but not exactly exciting in terms of design. If you want to create visually impressive pages, you have to customize a lot yourself or use another tool.

The reporting and analytics are also a weak point. You get the basic statistics like open rate, click rate, and unsubscribes, but if you want to dig deeper into the behavior of your subscribers or see advanced heatmaps, you quickly run into limitations. For most small businesses, this isn’t a problem, but if you want to work data-driven, you’re missing some functionality.

Furthermore, spam-testing tools are missing. You can’t check in advance how likely it is that your email will end up in the spam folder. Design testing for different email clients is also limited. You see a preview for desktop and mobile, but not how your email looks in Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and all other clients. That can be annoying if you want to be sure that your email displays correctly everywhere.

Finally: the migration from Mailerlite Classic to the new version has caused frustration for many users. Not everything is transferred automatically and some features work slightly differently, which means you have to adjust your workflows and templates again. If you switch from another tool to Mailerlite, that also takes some time and effort.

Mailerlite reviews

I’ve looked at a number of Mailerlite reviews to see what other users and experts think about the platform. Here are two comprehensive videos that highlight different aspects of Mailerlite:

1. Starupwise

Starupwise gives a comprehensive and enthusiastic review of MailerLite, focusing on ease of use and accessibility. The reviewer emphasizes that MailerLite is built around one core principle: simplicity. According to him, this makes the platform an excellent choice for beginners in email marketing, but also for experienced marketers who value efficiency.

The review takes you step by step through the registration process and the most important features. Starupwise shows how to set up your first campaign, add subscribers and create forms. He is especially positive about the drag-and-drop editor, the automation capabilities and the built-in landing page builder. The pricing model also receives much praise – particularly the free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers is described as very generous.

Pros

• Clear dashboard and intuitive interface that you understand immediately
• Free plan up to 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 emails per month
• Built-in landing page and website builder without learning curve
• Extensive automation capabilities with visual workflow builder

Cons

• No specific disadvantages mentioned in this review

2. Marketing Island

Marketing Island delivers a clear and practical review with a touch of humor. Reviewer James describes MailerLite as “the friend who isn’t flashy but always shows up on time and does the job well”. He especially appreciates the stress-free user experience and the honest pricing. The review is aimed at creators, entrepreneurs and small businesses looking for a reliable email marketing tool.

James takes you through all the important features: from creating newsletters to setting up pop-ups and automations. He is enthusiastic about the drag-and-drop editor and the smart sending feature, which sends emails at the time subscribers are most likely to open. However, he notes that the landing page templates can’t compete with specialized tools like ClickFunnels, but for the price he finds that more than acceptable.

Pros

• Send unlimited emails without limit or extra costs
• Smart sending feature for optimal timing of your emails
• Very affordable – starting at 10 dollars per month for 1,000 subscribers
• Consistent drag-and-drop interface throughout the platform

Cons

• Limited number of landing page templates (approximately 26)
• Sign-up forms and landing pages are functional but not super pretty

Mailerlite alternatives

Mailerlite is not the only email marketing tool on the market. Depending on your specific needs, an alternative may suit you better:

• Mailchimp: Choose Mailchimp if you need advanced enterprise features, have a larger team, or want more integrations. Mailchimp has a more extensive ecosystem and more advanced analytics, but you do pay a hefty price for that. For most small businesses, Mailerlite is much more affordable and user-friendly.
• Kit (formerly ConvertKit): If you mainly send text-based newsletters and target creators, bloggers, and podcasters, then Kit is a strong alternative. The tool is built around the concept of ‘subscribers’ instead of ‘lists’, which makes it easier to tag and segment people. Mailerlite does have better design options for visually appealing emails.
• Brevo: Previously known as Sendinblue. Choose Brevo if you want to do SMS marketing in addition to email marketing or need a built-in CRM. Brevo is stronger in transactional emails and has better capabilities for multichannel marketing. For pure email newsletters and landing pages, Mailerlite is more straightforward.

Frequently asked questions

Here I answer a number of questions that often come up about Mailerlite:

Is MailerLite really free?

Yes, the Free Forever plan is free up to 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. You get access to most basic features, including the drag-and-drop editor, automations and forms. There is Mailerlite branding at the bottom of your emails and you can only add one user.

Where is my data stored?

For customers in the EU, data is stored in European data centers in Germany and the Netherlands. For customers outside the EU, data is stored in data centers in the United States. Mailerlite is GDPR-compliant and takes privacy seriously.

Can I build websites with MailerLite?

Yes, Mailerlite has a drag-and-drop website builder built in that allows you to create simple websites and landing pages. It’s not a replacement for WordPress or a full-fledged website builder, but for simple pages or opt-in landing pages it works fine. You also get hosting and a free subdomain.

Conclusion

Mailerlite is a solid email marketing tool that does what it promises: send emails without hassle. The interface is pleasant, the prices are fair, and you get more functionality than you’d expect based on the price. For freelancers, small businesses, and creators looking for a reliable tool without unnecessary complexity, Mailerlite is an excellent choice. If, on the other hand, you need advanced analytics, want a large team to collaborate, or do affiliate marketing, you’re better off looking at alternatives. For most users, however, Mailerlite offers just enough functionality at a price that doesn’t hurt.