MailerLite Review: Tried & Tested Features, Cost, Comparison (2024)

MailerLite is affordable email marketing software. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown impressively. Over 800,000 companies use MailerLite each month. So they are very popular, but is MailerLite the best email marketing service for you?

For this MailerLite review, we tried and tested the tool. Get ready for a run-through with all the features, pros, cons, and MailerLite pricing.

MailerLite Review Summary:

  • MailerLite is a simple, effective, free email newsletter software that does the job. 
  • They have an excellent free plan and even on paid plans, it is cheaper than competitors like Mailchimp.
  • Automation isn’t as elaborate as for instance ActiveCampaign, but very effective.
  • We found this email tool easy to use and easy to set up.
  • With all the features you expect, MailerLite is certainly worth its salt.

Try MailerLite for free here.

MailerLite Email Marketing Software Review

mailerlite review email software 2024

You can use MailerLite to send emails, promotions, and newsletters to your subscribers. But it can host web pages, automate emails, and more. So let’s get into the details.

In this MailerLite review:
1. Most important features
2. Step-by-Step MailerLite Review
3. Conclusion: Is MailerLite worth it?
4. Pricing and Discounts 💎
5. Compare MailerLite vs the Rest

👉 Ready for the review of the MailerLite email marketing service? Great. Let’s get started!

1. MailerLite’s most important features

You might be wondering: “MailerLite email marketing, what does it do?”

Well, for an easy email marketing service, it does a lot. MailerLite has some cool functionality up its sleeve. Here are the most notable MailerLite features:

mailerlite review email marketing software features
  1. Send email campaigns. Create email newsletters with MailerLite, send your email promotions, or use RSS to automatically send digests from your blog content.
  2. A/B split testing. Email campaign optimization with A/B split testing of subject lines, email content, and more.
  3. Grow your audience. Create forms and targeted pop-ups from MailerLite on your site as email list builders and get more subscribers.
  4. Segment your subscribers. “Marie Kondo” your subscribers to deliver the most relevant messages. You can group by their characteristics (for example, age, gender, country), by their activities (emails clicked, opened) and make lists.
  5. Build your website and landing pages. With MailerLite you can not only build emails, but also landing pages, opt-in forms and (mini) sites. They’ll even host it for you.
  6. Marketing automation. Start with a simple automatic welcome email flow. Or, build a ten-stage, multi-flow-step onboarding process for new customers. Powerful.
  7. Great pricing and value for money. MailerLite is very cheap compared to its competitors. You get a lot of value for money.
  8. Solid support. 24/7 live chat support to troubleshoot any issues you might have on all paid plans.

 

2. MailerLite review: Sending your email campaigns in MailerLite

Mailerlite review sending emails campaign types

Of course, MailerLite can send regular email campaigns, but more advanced functionality is available as well. Moving on with the MailerLite reviews… Let’s walk through the four types of email campaigns you can send:

  • Email campaigns: Your standard email send. Give the campaign a name, target a group of subscribers, and create an email to send them.
  • A/B split campaigns: Optimise your emails. Test one email against another – whether it’s the subject lines, content, or From name for email campaign optimization.
  • Auto resend campaigns: Similar to a regular campaign, but now the campaign is resent to those who didn’t react to your first send. Handy to increase opens and clicks.
  • RSS campaign: Have a blog? Automate new campaigns going out as you put your new content on your website. Ideal for bloggers and low maintenance email newsletters.

Email editor, free email templates, and email flows

To quickly start your campaign, you can use one of the more than 60 free email newsletter templates that MailerLite gives you in the paid plan. There is a lot of variety, and templates have modern and mobile responsive designs. It’s easy to quickly build a beautiful email.

Mailerlite email campaign templates email marketing platform

If you want to create your own template, no problem. Your business is unique, dammit! 😀 Most will start with the drag and drop email editor, but you can also import custom HTML. Once made, you can re-use previous emails as an email template for your next campaigns.

The MailerLite email editor is the main playground :D. There are over 20 pre-built modules. You can drag them from the left onto the canvas.

Mailerlite review email campaign editor

Dynamic content blocks
Now that we have our email template, on to the fun stuff. In MailerLite you can make the content dynamic. Show a block only to one group for instant personalization. A caveat is that if you want to show one block for men and one for women, you need to use two blocks – you can’t have “variations” of the same block without duplicating them. No deal-breaker.

Special drag and drop blocks include:

  • Video blocks with animated GIFs
  • Product feature blocks
  • Social media posts
  • Countdown timers
  • RSS templates
  • Survey blocks

Your header, footer, and global styles can be easily standardized across all emails. So you don’t have to change all of those individually every time you update them.

AI writing assistant
A standout feature of MailerLite’s drag-and-drop email editor is the AI writing assistant. Write headlines, product descriptions, and even full newsletters. It can also help to localize your email content with translations. And if you’ve hit writer’s block, it can suggest ideas to make more engaging content.

YouTube email embeds
Video in email is hot. MailerLite makes it easy to embed a video from YouTube. You enter the URL and the email editor will turn the video into an animated GIF for you. This is pretty cool, I wish I had that functionality in Marketo.

Send preview
Once your email is done, share it with colleagues with a preview send, to let them check it before sending your email. Or you can share a link, or download a PDF. Email reviews are in desktop mode and mobile. Personalization isn’t included in those previews though.

Schedule sending
Now we can go on to select our email subscribers. MailerLite has advanced logic for targeting your email to exactly the right segments. You can schedule a send at a static time, or based on subscriber time zone (so all subscribers get the email at the same local time).

MailerLite Review: What do we think of the Email Campaigns?

Most time in email marketing software is spent in email creation, so it needs to be good. MailerLite doesn’t disappoint.

  • Solid email marketing platform with many features
  • Strong email editor with 90+ modern email templates
  • Easy to use, and several advanced features (YouTube embeds, yes please!)

Overall, I’m impressed by what you get for the price here. The email editor has loads of features. With the email templates, you will have a head start on creating beautiful email campaigns. It’s very easy to use (Mailchimp users will feel right at home) and at the same time, you can do quite advanced things.

There are plenty of large companies that I know are not taking advantage of half this functionality. So it will take you a while to outgrow the platform for email editing and campaign deployment.

Test-drive the MailerLite editor here

3. MailerLite form builder and pop-ups

Mailerlite form templates email marketing tool

With MailerLite Forms, you can design your “conversion tools” – newsletter subscription forms for site visitors and pop-ups that advertises a sale.

There are two types of forms: pop-up forms and website embedded forms. While the templates are different way to build forms in MailerLite is the same.

The form and pop-up editor

When building a website pop-up, templates are the preferred starting point. Or you could jump straight to the editor and build it all exactly as you want. Creating a form or pop-up is pretty straightforward.

You can customize fonts, text, color, and add images. You can add form fields, so you get more than only an email address. Ask for customer preferences, names, addresses, whatever you like.

Forms are simpler than the email newsletter builder. You choose a format (default, horizontal, or card with image) and that is what you get.

Form and pop-up automation

After building the opt-in form, you add the follow-up flow. Maybe you want new subscribers to confirm their subscription, and then send multiple automated follow-up emails (MailerLite marketing automation).

It’s nice to be able to choose double-opt-in form-by-form. You don’t need to specify it for your whole instance. That’s a nice bit of flexibility. You can build out a Europe form for GDPR legislation, and another for the US, where email laws are a bit more, shall we say….loose!

Now we set when your pop-up appears, based on time, on the page/scroll depth down the page or/ only on certain pages. Very effective are exit intent pop-up, showing a pop-up when someone starts to leave a webpage.

There are Mailerlite WordPress plugins and a Shopify integration, so the form and pop-ups snippet can be added automatically on those platforms.

Forms and Pop-ups in MailerLite: quite advanced

Forms in MailerLite are included in all of their plans and it’s quite advanced, so you won’t need to have a separate pop-up software. The pop-up forms have several triggers, and you can automate virtually anything after a form is filled.

A marketer can use this functionality to build advanced campaigns where a user fills in a form and goes through a series of emails designed to convert on a particular product. Can’t beat that for this price.

4. MailerLite Website and landing page builder

Mailerlite review landing pages sites email marketing tool

MailerLite has a website and landing page builder. But are MailerLite’s landing page features competition to a CMS like WordPress?

You can host MailerLite’s landing pages and websites either on their domain (.mailerpage.com) or display it on your site. So if you already have a website set up, you might want to use MailerLite’s landing page creator to add a few extra landing pages.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a website, use the website builder to create a minisite of your own. Quickly get a page up and running with MailerLite’s hosting, and in the future, you could migrate to something else.

Let’s look at the functionality.

MailerLite’s landing page editor

Mailerlite review landing page templates email marketing service

You can create a landing page from scratch, or use one of the 30 MailerLite premade landing page templates. (on the paid plan).

The page editor looks and feels the same as the email editor (as it should!). You can add in modular “content blocks” with the drag and drop editor.

Mailerlite review landing page builder email marketing vendor

On the final page, you can edit the landing page settings. These include:

  • Page title
  • The URL of the page
  • SEO settings such as page metadata
  • Social sharing descriptions and metadata
  • Google Analytics tracking codes

MailerLite’s website builder

The MailerLite website builder allows you to create simple websites with multiple pages.

The only quirky thing is when you create a MailerLite site, you have to connect it to a subscriber group. It doesn’t affect anything negatively, but it was a bit confusing at first. Forms can be connected to multiple groups.

The site templates are based on different industries and use cases. For testing, I picked a real estate website: a five-page template with featured properties on the homepage, individual listing pages, and a “meet the team” page. I haven’t sold a house yet, but who knows :D.

The editor is the same as the landing page editor. The templates are quite good – you don’t need to change that much.

MailerLite Reviews: Site builder, what do we think?

Really great functionality here. You can build out a pretty slick website with a feature included in your email marketing software. Best parts?

  • Full-featured website builder
  • Ability to take payments (coming soon via Stripe)
  • User-friendly and a range of useful templates included

While its email marketing functionality might be similar to MailerLite competitors, its landing page and website functionality is better. This gives some incentive for users to go to for more than email marketing. Using MailerLite as WordPress for their CMS and hosting. Not everyone will use it but when you do, it will save quite some dollars.

5. Segmentation and Personalisation: Subscriber management in MailerLite

Mailerlite segmentation options email marketing software

Let’s review the “Subscribers” section in MailerLite. This is where you will manage your email list, create segmentation groups, create new fields, and do list reporting. Let’s zoom in on the email list management features.

Start at the all subscribers section

This is where you will find all of your subscribers. With filters, you can drill into subsets. Filter on any database field or behavioral filters such as a member of campaign/number of emails sent, and the like.

You can combine filters to get more advanced. After nailing down your selection, save the segment for use in other parts of MailerLite.

Add new subscribers as they sign up. Other options are to upload a CSV/TXT file, copy and paste from Excel, or import from a linked Mailchimp database. If you are migrating from Mailchimp, that is very handy.

Segmenting your subscribers in MailerLite

Segments and groups are powerful in MailerLite. Here you build automated dynamic or static groups of your subscribers. For Mailchimp users, MailerLite groups are similar to Mailchimp Lists. MailerLite segmentations are similar to….Mailchimp segments.

So, how would you use segments? You can create a segmentation or group based on:

  • Existing group membership (static lists)
  • Any database field
  • Any other segment
  • Email campaign membership
  • Automation membership (see email automation)
  • Behavioral (number of emails sent, opened or clicked)
  • Purchases (with an integration to your online store)

You can combine all segmentations above. That should take care of….every crazy segmentation scheme you can come up with.

Email analytics in MailerLite

In the stats section is where we find the reporting on your list. You can run the stats of either “all subscribers”, or a specific group. MailerLite will pull together all the data for this group and give you a drill-down.

Email stats available are: list growth, average open and click rate, and unsubscribe metrics. Additionally, you can see top domains and email clients.

Cool feature: Automatically remove non-engaged subscribers
The last tab is a cool feature called “Clean up inactive”. It quickly finds and unsubscribes people on your list who haven’t opened an email for six months. This will help you keep a clean and engaged list, improving deliverability, and reducing the chance of hitting the spam box. Of course, it’s in everyone’s best interest to get you in the inbox and high email deliverability.

MailerLite reviews: Subscriber management

The subscriber and list management features in MailerLite are solid without being overwhelming.

  • Group subscribers dynamically (via segments) or statically (via groups)
  • Create your own new fields
  • Report on email subscribers

It’s segmentation features that allow you to do more sophisticated email marketing. Compared to Mailchimp, MailerLite subscriber management and reporting are solid. We’d love to see tag-based segmentation in there soon like you’d have in Brevo for instance.

6. Email automation in MailerLite

Mailerlite review email automation platform visual workflow editor

MailerLite Automation brings automated email flows to your subscribers. For example, set up a welcome email series using MailerLite autoresponders. Initially, you’ll land on the MailerLite Automations dashboard.

We’ll create a workflow and build out our automated flows in the automation editor. Start with a trigger. What’s starting this workflow?

Available automation triggers in MailerLite:

  • When a subscriber joins a group
  • A link gets clicked
  • When a subscriber completes a form
  • When a subscriber’s field is updated
  • The anniversary of a date
  • The exact match of a particular date from your database

This means you can trigger workflows on obvious things like form fills and subscribing – but also the end of a free trial (based on a date), when they join particular groups, and so on. Unfortunately, you can’t trigger based on web page visits.

You use modules to guide people through the flow. There are four options for a module: Email, Delay, Condition, and Action.

Here is an example of a signup flow to put Canadians and Germans through a subscription confirmation step. Everyone else wouldn’t get that email.

By adding decision steps in MailerLite, you can build quite advanced automation. lt is more than enough for those that don’t have super complex needs. And who reviews MailerLite for automation, it has automation tutorial videos available to get you started.

MailerLite’s automation feature: overall thoughts

The email automation side of MailerLite is great value-for-money. It’s included in every plan. You can use automation to power quite sophisticated setups. In Mailchimp vs MailerLite, MailerLite takes the automation cake – but isn’t as advanced as for instance ActiveCampaign.

If you are looking to do more triggered email marketing and autoresponders, you will get a lot of value out of MailerLite’s automation.

7. MailerLite Integrations

MailerLite has dozens of native connections for eCommerce and CMS systems. Like the Mailerlite Shopify integration, Woocommerce, and MailerLite WordPress plugin. Next to those, you can integrate any tool through Zapier. Zapier is a middleware application to connect software – no coding required. Or you can use the MailerLite API.

These integrations will save you lots of time – since you can avoid manual imports of subscribers, trigger an abandoned cart email, pull your products from Shopify into the email editor… you get the idea.

Don’t forget that MailerLite has a lot of the functionality of these external tools anyway. For example, MailerLite does list growth pop-ups, as does for instance NinjaPopups. The beauty is now, you can use the tool that works best for you.

8. MailerLite pricing: How much does MailerLite cost?

MailerLite pricing is based on the number of subscribers. You get unlimited emails and all platform functions.

If you want to try out the software, Mailerlite is free for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. You get most of the features on the free plan.

Once you get started with MailerLite you will also get access to 24/7 live chat support, email templates, and auto-resend emails. You can see complete pricing information here.

MailerLite pricing & packages are extremely cheap for what you get. It’s worth hopping on the free plan and having a look at their email marketing, forms, site builder, and marketing automation tools.

Want to know how it stacks up against the competition? Compare costs between MailerLite and similar software. See full pricing and discount here.

# of contacts
MailerLite
Brevo*
MailChimp
Standard
Moosend
Up to 1.000 contacts
$0
$17
$14.99
$16
2.500 contacts
$25
$29
$49.99
$32
5.000 contacts
$39
$29
$74.99
$48
10K contacts
$73
$39
$99
$88
50K contacts
$289
$239
$299
$315

*For Brevo plans with unlimited contacts, the price is based on 4 emails per contact each month.

MailerLite discount

If you are ready to try out MailerLite email marketing software, we have an extra discount in it for you. Because when we spoke to the MailerLite team, they wanted you to get started on your favorite plan – basically totally free.

If you register for a new account, start your free trial via this page you get…

  • Full month free plan with all features
  • Another 10% discount if you pay for the year

Try MailerLite for free > (Extras included)

MailerLite pricing in detail:

  • 0-500 subscribers: Free or $10 a month for unlimited emails
  • 500-1,000 subscribers: Free or $15 a month for unlimited emails.
  • 1,000-2,500 subscribers: $25 a month for unlimited emails.
  • 2,501-5,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $39 per month
  • 5,001-10,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $73 per month
  • 10,001-15,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $109 per month
  • 15,001-20,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $139 per month
  • 20,001-25,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $159 per month
  • 25,001-30,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $189 per month
  • 30,001-35,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $219 per month
  • 35,001-40,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $249 per month
  • 40,001-45,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $269 per month
  • 45,001-50,000 subscribers, unlimited emails – $289 per month

Get MailerLite for free

MailerLite: Pros and Cons

featured image: mailerlite review email marketing software tool automation lead generation websites

MailerLite has a lot going for it. Realistically, the most impressive is the cost.
It’s cheaper than almost anyone else with a similar set of features – and it stacks up well against the market leader, Mailchimp.

What we like Most:

  • It is a cheap email marketing software
  • Solid landing page and website builder
  • Advanced automation tools
  • Simple, clean interface
  • Strong email editor with great modules for use

Can be better:

  • ActiveCampaign and others have automation that can trigger directly from website visits.

 

Get MailerLite for free

MailerLite vs Mailchimp – Email services compared

Looking for an email service like Mailchimp? This is the comparison many people will be making: Mailchimp vs MailerLite.

Quickly breaking it down:

  • Email editor. MailerLite versus MailChimp email editing experience is close. Both are very easy to use.
  • Pricing: MailerLite is almost 50% cheaper for 5K contacts and 26% cheaper for 10K contacts than Mailchimp. how much cheaper depends on the number of subscribers.
  • Send postcards. Mailchimp allows you to send postcards as you would email campaigns to 27 countries. MailerLite doesn’t.
  • Web building functionality. MailerLite’s webpage builder is stronger, and they provide more templates to get started.
  • Automation functionality. This isn’t very close – you can do much more automation with MailerLite compared to Mailchimp
  • Ad functionality. Mailchimp allows you to create Google Adwords and Facebook / Instagram ads from within their platform. You’d do it directly in the ad platform if you are using MailerLite.

The rest of it likely comes down to personal preference. Both platforms are very good at what they do and offer an impressive range of features for a very reasonable price. Check out this full MailerLite vs Mailchimp comparison guide for details.

MailerLite Review: Conclusion and Scoring

MailerLite is an email marketing service, with much more punch than just email blast software. For $10 / month, you can create email campaigns, automate a new subscriber onboarding process, and build and host your landing page. Can’t beat that.

  • MailerLite is simple and effective. It is newsletter software that does the job.
  • The MailerLite email editor is easy to use, and the whole system is easy to set up.
  • They have an excellent free plan and paid plans are cheaper than competitors like Mailchimp.
  • Automation is effective, yet not as elaborate as full marketing automation tools.
  • With all the features you expect, MailerLite is certainly worth its salt.

And if you’re just starting, they have a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers and 12.000 emails.

Our Scorecard for MailerLite:
Ease of Use: 4.5 / 5
Value for Money: 4.5 / 5
Editor and templates: 4.5 / 5
Functionalities: 5 / 5
Email Automation: 4.5 / 5
Customer service: 4 / 5
Total score: 4.5 / 5

I can say it MailerLite one of the best choices for bloggers, small businesses, and senders that like a clean email interface. In addition, everyone that was thinking about Mailchimp can find a great home at MailerLite.

Try MailerLite for free > (Extras included)

Expert reviewed 2024 status and recognitions
Mailerlite is expert reviewed and recognised in the following categories.
* Expert reviewed
* Best small business
* Top Mailchimp alternative
* Best Value

MailerLite Frequently Asked Questions

Is MailerLite free?

There is a free MailerLite plan you can use until you have up to 1,000 subscribers. It allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month. You can double-check how the free plan is different from paid plans here. The paid plans are based on the number of subscribers you have, starting at $10. Full pricing info here.

How do I sign up for MailerLite?

Signing Up for MailerLite’s email software is quite easy. Create a free account, then enter some additional details such as website address, how you collect leads, and where you heard about the product. You can start using the tool and get approved for sending in a day or so.

Does MailerLite have live chat?

MailerLite has 24/7 live chat support and email support for all paid plans.

Where does MailerLite store my database?

MailerLite stores the data in the EU. It is therefore covered by EU data protection laws and in line with GDPR requirements. This makes it a good option for international, US, and European users.

Can I create segments in MailerLite?

Yes, you can create segments in MailerLite – based on subscriber information (eg gender, age, etc) or behavioral information (eg. number of emails opened). Using integrations, you can pull in purchase information as well.

What is the account approval process in MailerLite?

MailerLite checks all senders before their first send. You can start using the platform, but just not send the first day. The process is automated, and you don’t have to do much beyond providing your company / personal details. While a small annoyance, approval benefits everyone since you won’t have spammers using the platform.

What is MailerLite customer support like?

On the free plan, you get 24/7 email support – while on paid plans you get access to live chat support. In our experience, chat support is quick and helpful. So within a couple of minutes, you have a useful answer to any question.

What are some alternatives to MailerLite?

This comes down to what you are looking for. MailerLite is an alternative to MailChimp, but you could look also consider Brevo, GetResponse, and Moosend.

About Phil Wild


Phil Wild is a marketing technology, digital marketing and marketing operations expert specialising in marketing automation. He has 10+ years of experience in the digital marketing space.
Phil has worked with a variety of companies ranging from startups to global brands. And has an expert understanding of CRMs, marketing automation platforms, optimization and personalization.
When he’s not keeping up to date with all things marketing automation, you’ll find him trying beers or hiking mountains in his native Australia.

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