Searching for an email marketing tool that genuinely delivers? We’ve put MailerLite under the microscope to see if it meets the hype. In this Mailerlite review, we’ll dissect its features, weigh the pros and cons, and see if it has the potential to supercharge your marketing efforts.
MailerLite is an email marketing platform that allows users to create professional newsletters, landing pages, and websites using pre-designed templates or drag & drop builders. It also provides advanced targeting, automation, and surveys to help connect with the audience.
MailerLite is a feature-rich and user-friendly email marketing tool that is a superb choice for small businesses thanks to its generous free plan.
Use MaillerLite for free (up to 1k subscribers)
Send unlimited monthly emails. Choose from 100s of templates. Paid newsletter subscriptions. Email automation and subscriber segmentation. Create quizzes, websites, and landing pages.
MailerLite is best for individuals or businesses looking for a cheap email marketing platform that is easy to use and has a clean, modern design. It is also suitable for creating professional newsletters, landing pages, and websites quickly and efficiently.
However, MailerLite may not be the best choice for those who need phone support, more advanced features, or a larger list of email subscribers.
Plans & Pricing
Free Plan
MailerLite offers a Free Forever plan, which is an excellent option for small businesses and individuals who are just starting out with email marketing. Some key features of the Free Plan include:
- One user and 12,000 monthly emails
- 24/7 email chat support for the first 30 days
- Access to a drag-and-drop editor, email automation builder, and website builder
Paid Plans
For those who require more advanced features and a higher subscriber capacity, MailerLite provides two paid plans:
- Growing Business plan: Starting at $9/month, this plan offers the following features and benefits:
- Three users
- Unlimited monthly emails
- Up to 1,000 subscribers
- Unlimited emails and landing pages
- Access to over 60 modern newsletter templates
- Easy-to-use interface
- Advanced plan: Starting at $18/month, this plan includes:
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited monthly emails
- Everything in the Growing Business plan, plus:
- Email marketing with easy-to-use templates
- Automated Welcome Email for new contacts
- Social and event management tools
Pros and Cons
MailerLite offers various advantages that make it a popular choice for businesses in their email marketing efforts. They provide an extensive set of features, even in their free plan, which includes an email automation builder, landing page builder, website builder (only 1), form, and pop-up builder. This generous offering allows users to experiment and explore without any initial investment.
The user-friendly interface of MailerLite is another major highlight. It is designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind, enabling even those new to email marketing to navigate the platform comfortably. Additionally, MailerLite offers 24/7 support and a 30-day premium trial, providing excellent assistance to users.
Moreover, MailerLite’s pricing is competitive in comparison to other email marketing tools, starting from $9/month for 1,000 subscribers on the Growing Business plan. This plan includes unlimited emails and landing pages, as well as over 60 modern newsletter templates. This affordability makes MailerLite a suitable option for businesses of various sizes.
On the other hand, there are some downsides to using MailerLite. Some users have raised concerns regarding account suspensions without warning due to potential compliance issues. This could cause disruptions to email campaigns and affect the overall user experience. The approval process for new accounts may also be time-consuming for some users.
Here is a summary of the pros and cons of using MailerLite:
Pros:
- Free Plan: Offers substantial features in its free version, including single trigger automation workflows, landing page builder, and survey maker.
- Ease of Use: The platform boasts a clean and simple interface suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
- Landing Page Builder: Allows easy creation and design of landing pages either hosted by MailerLite or on a user’s own domain, with Stripe integration for selling digital products.
- Excellent Email Deliverability: MailerLite often ranks highly in deliverability tests, ensuring emails reach subscribers’ inboxes.
- Fair Subscriber Count Policy: Charges are based on “unique subscribers used”, meaning users aren’t billed for inactive contacts who have unsubscribed or bounced.
Cons:
- Lack of Some Advanced Features: It’s very affordable, but MailerLite misses some professional features such as full reporting, advanced automations, CRM functionalities, and spam/design testing.
- Rigorous Approval Process: The platform has a stringent approval process which, while beneficial for maintaining high deliverability rates, can be cumbersome for users eager to start quickly.
- Limited Access to Templates in Free Version: Access to newsletter and landing page templates, as well as the HTML editor, requires a subscription to the paid plans.
- Basic Subscriber Management Tools: The subscriber management capabilities are fundamental, lacking advanced tools. The database is limited to text, number, and date fields without a comprehensive tagging system.
While MailerLite has its drawbacks, its comprehensive feature set, affordable pricing, and user-friendly experience make it an appealing choice for many businesses in their email marketing endeavors.
Key Features
Email Campaign Capabilities
MailerLite offers a range of powerful email campaign capabilities. Users can create and send newsletters, automated campaigns, and RSS campaigns. The platform also supports deliverability optimization and integrations with popular APIs for seamless communication with your existing software tools.
Templates and Editor
One of the platform’s greatest strengths is its collection of over 60 modern, responsive newsletter templates. MailerLite provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, as well as a custom HTML editor for more advanced users. With these tools, you can design visually appealing emails that cater to your audience’s preferences and device types.
Automation Workflows
Automation workflows are at the core of MailerLite’s email marketing offerings. The workflows enable users to segment subscribers into different groups and send targeted campaigns based on subscribers’ engagement levels, interests, and other behaviors. The platform’s drag-and-drop automation builder simplifies the process of setting up and refining these workflows.
Paid Newsletter Subcriptions
MailerLite’s paid newsletter subscription feature is a comprehensive solution for those looking to monetize their newsletters. This feature is designed to handle everything from collecting leads and payments to automatically delivering paid subscription emails, providing a seamless experience for both the newsletter creator and the subscribers.
With the integration of Stripe, MailerLite enables secure processing of payments on your newsletter landing pages. You can choose your pricing plan, from one-time purchases to weekly, yearly, or custom subscriptions. With support for over 135 currencies and various payment methods, there’s no limit to who can become your customer.
MailerLite’s paid newsletter feature also includes automated email workflows that target subscribers most likely to make a purchase. You can upsell regular subscribers to a paid newsletter subscription and finalize the sale with a personalized message sent at exactly the right time.
With over 40 newsletter blocks like surveys, quizzes, and carousel galleries, MailerLite ensures that each newsletter you send is a high-value experience. You can deliver valuable content in style with emails that are beautiful, engaging, and on-brand.
The platform also takes care of new paid newsletter subscribers and cancellations. Personalized emails, which you design, are automatically sent whenever someone signs up, changes, or cancels their subscription.
MailerLite’s paid newsletter feature also includes tools for A/B testing content and analyzing newsletter reports to track performance. You can see where people click in each email with visual click maps, providing insights that help you continuously deliver content that’s worth paying for.
Landing Pages and Signup Forms
To help grow your email list, MailerLite offers tools for creating eye-catching landing pages and signup forms. These tools integrate seamlessly with the platform’s email campaign features, allowing you to collect new subscribers and track their engagement in various campaigns over time.
Subscriber Management
Managing your subscribers is made easy with MailerLite’s subscriber management tools. Users can segment their email lists based on various factors, such as engagement, interests, demographics, and other custom fields. MailerLite also provides a database for storing subscriber information, simplifying the process of organizing and filtering your email contacts.
Split Testing and Analytics
To optimize your campaigns, MailerLite offers A/B split testing and analytics tools. Users can test different subject lines, content, and sending times to determine which combinations perform best. The platform also includes detailed reports on important email marketing metrics like opens, clicks, bounces, and conversions.
Website Builder
Beyond email marketing, MailerLite provides a website builder that helps users create professional-looking websites without coding knowledge. This feature expands the platform’s capabilities and offers an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to develop or enhance their online presence.
Free Email Marketing Tool
MailerLite offers a Free Forever plan for businesses with fewer than 1,000 subscribers, making it an accessible email marketing tool for small companies or individuals just starting out. As your email list grows, you can transition to a paid plan, with prices starting at $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
User Experience
Ease of Use
MailerLite is known for its ease of use, making it a popular choice among users for its email marketing platform. The process of setting up email campaigns and landing pages is simple and efficient, even for those who are new to email marketing. It offers an array of campaign templates that cater to various needs and preferences, allowing users to quickly create and send their campaigns without any complications.
User Interface
The user interface (UI) of MailerLite is clean and straightforward, which contributes to its top-notch user experience. Users appreciate the well-designed UI as it allows them to navigate the platform without any difficulties. The tutorials provided are short and informative, making it effortless for users to learn and utilize all the features offered by MailerLite.
MailerLite is best for
MailerLite is an ideal choice for individuals, small businesses and startups wanting a user-friendly email marketing platform with a website builder. It caters to a wide range of users, including those involved in various genres such as fiction and non-fiction groups.
It boasts excellent support, which is personalized, responsive, and highly appreciated by its users. The platform also offers automation capabilities that enable users to create customizable onboarding welcome emails for their subscribers.
In summary, the user experience of MailerLite is highly regarded due to its:
- Ease of use
- Clean and simple user interface
- Helpful tutorials
- Efficient customer support
- Automation features for email campaigns and landing pages
These aspects make MailerLite a valuable choice for those looking for a user-friendly and efficient email marketing and website-building solution in 2024.
Customer Support
Channels of Support
MailerLite offers various channels for customer support, aiming to provide a seamless experience for its users. Their knowledgeable support team is known for offering great assistance and helping troubleshoot and resolve issues. However, it is important to note that live chat support is only provided to those who opt for the Advanced plan.
MailerLite Academy
In addition to direct support channels, MailerLite also features an educational platform called MailerLite Academy. This platform serves as a valuable resource for users to strengthen their understanding of the software, email marketing strategies, and best practices. The academy offers comprehensive tutorials, guides, and actionable tips to help users maximize the effectiveness of their email campaigns.
As an added bonus, MailerLite Academy is designed to cater to users of all experience levels, from beginners starting their email marketing journey to advanced users looking to fine-tune their campaigns. By providing these educational resources, MailerLite empowers its users to continuously improve their skills and take full advantage of the software’s potential.
What is MailerLite?
MailerLite History
MailerLite is a popular email marketing service that has been assisting businesses in creating and sending customized email campaigns. The company was founded in 2010 and has since evolved into a comprehensive email marketing solution. With its user-friendly interface and design, it caters to businesses of all sizes, making it an attractive option for anyone looking to improve their email marketing strategy.
Updates in 2023
In 2023, MailerLite made significant updates to its platform, ensuring it remains a strong competitor in the email marketing landscape. Some of these updates include:
- Enhanced User Experience: MailerLite has focused on enhancing its user experience by simplifying navigation and introducing new features that make campaign creation more intuitive and efficient.
- New Integrations: MailerLite has expanded its integrations with various platforms, allowing users to streamline their marketing efforts and easily manage multiple channels from their MailerLite dashboard.
- Advanced Analytics: In addition to the existing analytics features, MailerLite has integrated advanced analytics capabilities to help businesses better understand their email campaign performance and make data-driven decisions.
- E-commerce Features: Recognizing the growing need for businesses to optimize their sales through email marketing, MailerLite has introduced e-commerce features that help users sell products and manage their online stores more effectively.
These updates ensure that MailerLite remains a reliable and effective email marketing platform for businesses in 2024.
Compare MailerLite Competitors
Here’s our detailed comparison of how MailerLite stacks up against other email marketing tools like ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Brevo, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and SendGrid.
- MailerLite:
- Best for: Beginners and small businesses valuing ease of use and affordability.
- Limitations: Basic automation and reporting features.
- Pricing: Starts at $12.50/month for up to 500 subscribers.
- ConvertKit:
- Best for: Content creators and bloggers needing advanced segmentation and automation.
- Limitations: No free plan, more suitable for creators than traditional businesses.
- Pricing: Starts at $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers and $49/month for 1,000 to 3,000 subscribers.
- ActiveCampaign:
- Best for: Businesses needing sophisticated automation, CRM, and email deliverability.
- Limitations: Higher complexity and cost.
- Pricing: Starts at $39/month for up to 500 subscribers and $61/month for up to 25,000 subscribers, ActiveCampaign offers a wide range of automation and CRM features.
- GetResponse:
- Best for: Businesses that require email marketing with webinar support.
- Limitations: No free plan, can be complex for beginners.
- Pricing: Starts at $13.24/month for up to 1,000 subscribers and $99/month for up to 10,000 subscribers, GetResponse provides a comprehensive set of email marketing tools, including landing pages and webinars.
- AWeber:
- Best for: Small to medium businesses looking for a balance of features and ease of use.
- Limitations: Less advanced in automation compared to some competitors.
- Prices: Start at $12.50/month for up to 500 subscribers and goes up to $149/month for 10,000 to 25,000 subscribers. It offers features like automation, segmentation, and landing pages.
- Brevo:
- Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses seeking an affordable and user-friendly email marketing solution with features like automation, transactional emails, and CRM integration
- Limitations: Cannot be determined without more information.
- Pricing: Starts at $25/month for up to 10,000 emails per month and $65/month for up to 20,000 emails per month. It provides email marketing, SMS marketing, and marketing automation tools.
- Constant Contact:
- Best for: Small businesses seeking an easy-to-use tool with good social media integration.
- Limitations: Limited advanced features.
- Pricing: Starts at $12/month for up to 500 subscribers and $45/month for up to 2,500 subscribers, Constant Contact offers email marketing, automation, and eCommerce integration.
- Mailchimp:
- Best for: Startups and small businesses needing an all-in-one marketing platform.
- Limitations: Costs can escalate as the business grows.
- Pricing: Starts at $13/month for up to 500 subscribers and goes up to $299/month for up to 50,000 subscribers. It offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of marketing features.
- SendGrid:
- Best for: Businesses focused on email deliverability and developers.
- Limitations: Less traditional email marketing features.
- Prices: Start at $14.95/month for up to 500 subscribers and going up to custom plans for high-volume senders. It specializes in transactional and marketing email delivery.
MailerLite is an affordable and beginner-friendly email marketing solution. Its ‘Free Forever’ plan, suitable for smaller subscriber lists. Its best known for its user-friendly interface and excellent email deliverability. But, it has limitations in advanced automation and reporting, and recent changes have reduced some features in the free plan, like limited access to templates and the HTML editor.
Questions & Answers
Our Verdict ⭐
MailerLite has proven to be a highly reliable and effective email marketing tool for businesses. Its affordable pricing, particularly its Free Forever plan and the $9/month Growing Business plan, make it an attractive option for many businesses seeking to increase their marketing reach.
MailerLite is a feature-rich and user-friendly email marketing tool that is a superb choice for small businesses thanks to its generous free plan.
Use MaillerLite for free (up to 1k subscribers)
Send unlimited monthly emails. Choose from 100s of templates. Paid newsletter subscriptions. Email automation and subscriber segmentation. Create quizzes, websites, and landing pages.
We think the best features are the easy-to-use and intuitive drag-and-drop editor, the generous free plan without a time limit, and the easy-to-understand email campaign automation set up.
However, potential users should be aware of reported limitations in the drag-and-drop editing function, as well as occasional concerns surrounding customer support. Despite this, MailerLite appears to be a worthy contender in the realm of email marketing tools, providing value for money without compromising on functionality.
Why should you choose MailerLite? Because it offers a compelling mix of affordability and utility, making it a strong contender for businesses in search of a comprehensive email marketing solution in 2024.
Recent Improvements & Updates
MailerLite is constantly updating and enhancing its email marketing platform to provide users with cutting-edge tools and features that streamline marketing efforts and improve campaign effectiveness. Their most recent updates (as of October 2024) are:
- Smart Sending with AI: This feature leverages AI algorithms to determine the best time to send emails based on subscriber engagement patterns, ensuring emails are delivered when recipients are most likely to open and read them.
- Multivariate Testing: Allows users to simultaneously test various elements of their emails, including subject lines, sender names, content, and sending times. This helps in identifying the most effective combinations for higher engagement rates.
- AI Subject Line Generator: An AI-driven tool that crafts compelling subject lines tailored to the target audience, thereby increasing the probability of email opens and engagement.
- A/B Testing for Automation: This update enables users to apply A/B testing within automated email workflows, providing valuable insights that help refine and optimize email strategies for better results.
- Canva Integration: Integrates Canva’s robust design capabilities within MailerLite, allowing users to create attractive email designs easily and efficiently.
- New Drag & Drop Editor with AI Text Generator: Features an AI-powered writing assistant to help generate email content, alongside new inline editing capabilities, making the email creation process more intuitive and less time-consuming.
- Drag & Drop Website Builder: MailerLite has enhanced its platform with a drag-and-drop website builder, enabling users to create stunning, feature-rich websites effortlessly. This tool is designed for versatility, allowing users to start blogs, personal websites, or online stores with ease. It emphasizes user-friendly design, providing an intuitive way for users to establish and grow their online presence.
- Email Automation Templates: Provides a range of pre-designed automation templates, streamlining the creation of complex email automation sequences.
- MailerCheck – Email Verifier: This instant email verification tool helps in maintaining a clean email list. MailerCheck optimizes the list by verifying each email address, thereby improving deliverability and protecting the sender’s reputation. It’s designed to be user-friendly, working in three simple steps to clean and optimize email lists.
- MailerSend – Transactional Email Service: For businesses in need of a reliable transactional email service, MailerSend is introduced as the ‘Lite’ option. It is designed to handle emails like invoices, order updates, and password resets. MailerSend shares the same intuitive design, award-winning deliverability, and fair pricing model as MailerLite, making it an ideal choice for growing businesses.
- Integration with Make and HubSpot: Offers enhanced capabilities for audience growth and targeted marketing by integrating with Make (formerly Integromat) and HubSpot.
- MailerCheck Integration for Email List Cleaning: Improves email deliverability by integrating with MailerCheck to ensure email lists are clean and up-to-date.
- Selling Digital Products and Subscriptions: Introduces the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions directly through MailerLite’s platform, offering a new revenue stream for users.
- Form A/B Testing: Enables users to conduct A/B tests on web forms and popups, optimizing elements for maximum conversion and subscriber engagement.
Reviewing Mailerlite: Our Methodology
Choosing the right email marketing service is more than just picking a tool for sending emails. It’s about finding a solution that enhances your marketing strategy, streamlines communication, and drives engagement. Here’s how we evaluate and review email marketing tools to ensure you get only the best information before you make a decision:
- User-Friendly Interface: We prioritize tools that offer a drag-and-drop editor. This feature is crucial for crafting unique email templates effortlessly, eliminating the need for extensive coding knowledge.
- Versatility in Campaign Types: The ability to support various email formats is key. Whether it’s standard newsletters, A/B testing capabilities, or setting up autoresponders, versatility is a significant factor in our evaluation.
- Advanced Marketing Automation: From basic autoresponders to more complex features like targeted campaigns and contact tagging, we assess how well a tool can automate and tailor your email marketing efforts.
- Efficient Sign-up Form Integration: A top-tier email marketing tool should allow easy integration of sign-up forms on your website or dedicated landing pages, simplifying the process of growing your subscriber list.
- Autonomy in Subscription Management: We look for tools that empower users with self-managed opt-in and opt-out processes, reducing the need for manual oversight and enhancing user experience.
- Seamless Integrations: The ability to seamlessly connect with other essential platforms – such as your blog, e-commerce site, CRM, or analytics tools – is a critical aspect we examine.
- Email Deliverability: A great tool is one that ensures your emails actually reach your audience. We assess the effectiveness of each tool in bypassing spam filters and ensuring high deliverability rates.
- Comprehensive Support Options: We believe in tools that offer robust support through various channels, be it a detailed knowledge base, email, live chat, or phone support, to assist you whenever needed.
- In-depth Reporting: Understanding the impact of your email campaigns is vital. We delve into the kind of data and analytics provided by each tool, focusing on the depth and usefulness of the insights offered.
Learn more about our review methodology.
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What
Mailerlite
Customers Think
MailerLite has been a game-changer for my small business
The interface is incredibly user-friendly, even for someone with limited tech experience like me. Their free plan was perfect for getting started, and the paid plans are very affordable with great value. My email open rates have increased significantly, and I’m loving the automation features. Highly recommend!
MailerLite ★★★★
Easy email magic with (mostly) happy subscribers. The free plan rocks, open rates soar, but automation could be more powerful. Still, budget-friendly bliss!
