5 MailerLite Alternatives After Its Free Plan Cut (2026)

The best MailerLite alternatives in 2026 are Kit if you want a bigger free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers), Brevo if you have a large list you email a few times a month, Mailchimp for a familiar all-in-one, ActiveCampaign for deeper automation and a CRM, and Loops if you run a software product that needs marketing and transactional email in one tool. Many start looking because MailerLite's free plan fell to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month on June 16, 2026. Pick based on the specific limit you hit.

Last validated: September 2026. Prices are USD public rates from each provider's pricing page (linked in References). They change often, so confirm before you switch.

Why do people switch from MailerLite?

Usually because of one specific limit, not because MailerLite is bad. If none of these apply to you, stay put: MailerLite Comfort costs $12 a month at 500 subscribers and $49 at 5,000, which is cheaper than most of this list. Our MailerLite review covers the full picture.

The free plan shrank. MailerLite's free plan covered 1,000 subscribers until September 23, 2025, when it dropped to 500. On June 16, 2026 it dropped to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with caps of 3 automations and 1 landing page. Go over 250 and campaigns stop sending.

By the numbers

Free-plan subscriber cap by tool

Free-plan subscriber cap by tool

Tool	Free subscribers
MailerLite	250
Mailchimp	250
Loops	1,000
Kit	10,000
Brevo	100,000

You need transactional email. MailerLite's main app sends campaigns and automations to subscriber lists. Password resets, signup confirmations, and receipts go through MailerSend, a separate product with separate pricing. Product teams that want one tool often move to Brevo or Loops.

Your automations outgrew Comfort. Comfort allows 50 active automations with one trigger each. Multiple triggers need Power ($25/month and up). If you want lead scoring or a sales pipeline, you want ActiveCampaign.

You got stuck on approval. Every new MailerLite account has to be approved. The terms ban affiliate marketing, MLM, forex, loans, gambling, weight-loss offers, and purchased lists, so some senders can't use it at all.

MailerLite alternatives and competitors compared

The entry tiers aren't the same size, so compare what you'd pay at your own list size, not the headline number.

Pricing compared

Paid plan starting price by tool

Paid plan starting price by tool

Item	Starting price per month
Brevo	$9
MailerLite	$12
Mailchimp	$13
ActiveCampaign	$15
Kit	$39
Loops	$49

1. Kit: best free plan for creators

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is the best MailerLite alternative for creators, because its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. That's 40 times MailerLite's free limit, with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages, and forms.

The catch is that Kit gets expensive once you pay. Creator costs $39 a month at 1,000 subscribers ($33 a month billed yearly), against $19 for MailerLite Comfort at the same size. Pro costs $79 a month ($66 yearly) and adds unlimited users, subscriber engagement scoring, deliverability reporting, and a newsletter referral system. The free plan allows one user, adds Kit branding, and saves unlimited automations and email sequences for paid plans.

Kit's automations are built for creator funnels: tag subscribers by what they signed up for, drip a course, pitch a product. They're approachable but not as deep as ActiveCampaign's, and Kit doesn't send transactional email.

Best for: Newsletter writers, course creators, and anyone who needs a free plan past 250 subscribers.

Weak spot: Paid plans cost roughly twice MailerLite's at the same list size.

2. Brevo: best for large lists you email occasionally

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) prices mainly by how many emails you send, not how many contacts you store. If you have a large list and email it a couple of times a month, that can be much cheaper than subscriber-based tools like MailerLite.

There's an important catch that older comparisons miss. Starter and Standard cap stored contacts by send tier: the $9 Starter tier includes 5,000 emails a month but only 500 contacts, the 10,000-email tier 1,500 contacts, and the 15,000-email tier 2,500. From the 20,000-email tier up, you can store up to 500,000 contacts. So Brevo's big-list advantage starts at 20,000 emails a month.

A worked example: 10,000 contacts emailed twice a month is 20,000 emails. On Brevo that's $32 a month on Starter or $69 on Standard. MailerLite Comfort at 10,000 subscribers costs $89.

Pricing compared

Brevo cost by monthly send volume

• Starter
• Standard

Brevo cost by monthly send volume

Emails per month	Starter	Standard
5,000 emails	$9	$18
20,000 emails	$32	$69

The plans, checked September 2026:

• Free: 300 emails a day, up to 100,000 contacts stored, "Sent with Brevo" branding, automation for up to 2,000 contacts.
• Starter: From $9/month. No daily limit. Removing Brevo branding is a paid add-on.
• Standard: From $18/month. Adds unlimited automation contacts, A/B testing, one landing page, and priority email support.
• Professional: From $499/month for 150,000+ emails, with 10 seats, WhatsApp, and phone support.

The free plan's 300-a-day limit applies to campaigns too. Send a campaign to 3,000 people and only 300 get it that day; you requeue the rest manually over the next nine days.

Brevo also includes transactional email over API and SMTP on every plan, sells SMS credits by country, and has a built-in sales CRM. The interface is busier than MailerLite's. For the head-to-head, see Brevo vs MailerLite.

Best for: Large lists with infrequent campaigns, and teams that want transactional email or SMS in the same tool.

Weak spot: Frequent senders pay more, and the cheapest tiers store only a few hundred contacts.

3. Mailchimp: best familiar all-in-one

Mailchimp is the safe, recognizable choice, with 300+ integrations and a large template library, but it costs more than MailerLite at every list size we checked.

Its free plan is now the same size as MailerLite's: 250 contacts and 500 emails a month (250 a day), with one user, no automation flows, and no scheduling. Paid plans:

Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts toward your bill. Archive unsubscribes regularly or you'll pay for people you can't email. Essentials limits automation flows to 4 steps; Standard allows flows of up to 200 steps.

What you get for the extra money: 24/7 email and chat support from the $13 plan (after the 14-day trial, MailerLite gives live chat only on Power or on plans with 50,000+ subscribers), a larger integration catalog, an SMS add-on in selected countries, and a transactional email add-on on Standard and above. See our MailerLite vs Mailchimp breakdown.

Best for: Teams that want a tool everyone recognizes, with lots of integrations.

Weak spot: The price climbs fast, and unsubscribed contacts count toward it.

4. ActiveCampaign: best for automation depth

ActiveCampaign is the upgrade if you left MailerLite because its automations felt cramped. Its workflow builder handles branching, conditional logic, and lead scoring that simpler tools can't, and CRM pipelines are available as add-ons.

There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial capped at 100 email sends. At 1,000 contacts, billed annually, Starter costs $15 a month, Plus $49, Pro $79, and Enterprise $145. Transactional email is a paid add-on on any plan. The SMS and Enhanced CRM (pipelines and sales engagement) add-ons need Plus or higher, and WhatsApp is a separate plan you can combine with Plus or higher. Prices rise with your contact count.

For a small team that just needs a newsletter, it's too much tool and too much money. See our ActiveCampaign alternatives roundup for the rest of this tier.

Best for: Marketing teams that live in automations and want a CRM in the same product.

Weak spot: No free plan, and the add-ons add up.

5. Loops: best for software products

Loops is the MailerLite alternative for SaaS and app teams that need marketing and transactional email in one tool. Onboarding sequences, product announcements, password resets, and receipts all run from the same account, with an API for your app and SMTP for transactional email.

Pricing is simple. The free plan covers up to 1,000 subscribed contacts and 4,000 emails in any rolling 30 days (marketing and transactional combined), with a small Loops footer. Paid plans start at $49 a month for up to 5,000 subscribed contacts, with unlimited sends, every feature, and no charge for team seats.

The downside is the jump: there's nothing between free and $49. It's also built for software products, not creators, so a newsletter writer will find it an odd fit. See our Loops alternatives for its closest rivals.

Best for: Software products that want lifecycle and transactional email in one place.

Weak spot: The first paid step is steep, and it isn't built for newsletters.

How to choose a MailerLite alternative

Start with the limit that made you look:

• The free plan is too small, and you're a creator: Kit.
• You have 10,000+ contacts and email them twice a month or less: Brevo, on a 20,000-email tier or higher.
• You want the recognizable brand, lots of integrations, or SMS in the same tool: Mailchimp. Budget about 50% more than MailerLite at 5,000 contacts.
• You need branching automations, lead scoring, or a CRM: ActiveCampaign.
• Your app needs signup confirmations and receipts plus onboarding email: Loops, or MailerLite paired with MailerSend.
• None of the above: Stay on MailerLite Comfort.

How to move off MailerLite

1. Export subscribers as a CSV with their groups, custom fields, and signup dates. Keep unsubscribes and bounces in a separate file so you don't re-import them.
2. Document your automations. Expect to rebuild them by hand in the new tool, so write down each trigger, delay, and condition.
3. Set up the new tool first. Authenticate your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and finish any approval review before you switch forms over. Our email deliverability guide covers the setup.
4. Run both tools for one sending cycle, then cancel MailerLite.

The automation rebuild usually takes longer than the contact import, so leave time to test.

Where Dreamlit fits

Every tool above is do-it-yourself: you pick the emails, write them, and watch the numbers. For a creator or small business, that's the right answer, so pick from the list.

Dreamlit, the company behind this blog, does the activation work for you. Our experts pinpoint where users drop off and send the emails that turn them into paying customers, and own the program through measurement. If you're here because of MailerLite's free plan, it isn't for you.

Running a product with 500+ signups a month? Get a free activation audit.

References

• MailerLite pricing⁠
• MailerLite free plan update FAQ (June 16, 2026)⁠
• MailerLite's September 2025 free plan notice, as archived by PriceTimeline⁠
• MailerLite plan and billing⁠
• MailerLite terms of use⁠
• MailerLite support options⁠
• MailerLite transactional email (MailerSend)⁠
• Kit pricing⁠
• Kit Creator vs Pro⁠
• Brevo pricing⁠
• About Brevo's pricing plans⁠
• Brevo Free plan limits⁠
• Mailchimp marketing pricing⁠
• About Mailchimp pricing plans⁠
• ActiveCampaign pricing⁠
• ActiveCampaign free trial capabilities⁠
• Overview of ActiveCampaign plans and add-ons⁠
• Loops pricing⁠
• Loops SMTP⁠

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Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to MailerLite?

It depends on the limit you hit. Kit is best for creators who want a bigger free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers), Brevo for large lists you email a few times a month, Mailchimp for a familiar all-in-one, ActiveCampaign for deeper automation and a CRM, and Loops for software products that need marketing and transactional email in one tool.

Why are people leaving MailerLite?

A common reason is the smaller free plan. It covered 1,000 subscribers until September 23, 2025, then 500, and since June 16, 2026 it covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Other reasons are the lack of transactional email in the main app, account approval, and live chat being limited to Power or 50,000+ subscriber plans after the 14-day trial.

Which MailerLite alternative has the best free plan?

Kit, which is free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts. Brevo stores up to 100,000 contacts free but sends only 300 emails a day. Loops is free up to 1,000 subscribed contacts and 4,000 sends every 30 days, and Mailchimp's free plan matches MailerLite's at 250 contacts.

What is the cheapest MailerLite alternative?

For a big list you email a few times a month, Brevo, because it prices by emails sent and its 20,000-email tiers store up to 500,000 contacts. For a small list, MailerLite itself is hard to beat at $12 a month for 500 subscribers. Mailchimp costs more than MailerLite at every list size we checked.

Does MailerLite have transactional email?

Not in the main marketing app. MailerLite sends transactional email such as password resets and receipts through MailerSend, a separate product with its own API, SMTP relay, and pricing. Brevo and Loops include transactional email alongside marketing email.

Can I move my MailerLite list to another tool?

Yes. Export your subscribers as a CSV with their groups and fields, and every tool here can import it. The slow part is rebuilding automations and templates, so document them first and run both tools side by side for one sending cycle before you cancel.