Updated March 2026

AWeber vs MailerLite

AWeber and MailerLite both target small businesses, but MailerLite has pulled ahead on nearly every metric. MailerLite costs less at every tier ($54/month vs $60/month at 10,000 contacts), has better deliverability (94.41% vs AWeber's independently tested rates), a more modern interface, and includes features like a website builder and visual automation on its free plan. AWeber's one genuine advantage: 24/7 live support at every plan level, including free. If responsive human support matters more than price or features, AWeber still delivers. For everyone else, MailerLite is the better tool in 2026.

Our pick: MailerLite (7.5/10 vs 6.2/10)

MailerLite wins 3 out of 6 categories. AWeber is better for: non-technical beginners who value phone support and simplicity above all else, and digital product sellers who want built-in payment processing on landing pages.

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AWeber

6.2/10

MailerLite

7.5/10

2/5

Automation

3/5

Deliverability

5/5

4/5

Ease of Use

5/5

3/5

Templates & Design

3/5

2/5

Analytics

2/5

5/5

Customer Support

3/5

Pricing Comparison

AWeber

Free Plan

Paid plans from $15/mo

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MailerLite

Free Plan

Paid plans from $10/mo

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Pros & Cons

AWeber

Customer support is consistently rated 4.5/5 on Capterra — 24/7 live chat and phone support (8AM-8PM EST). Phone support is rare in this space and genuinely valuable for non-technical users

Smart Designer auto-generates branded email templates from your website URL — enter your domain and it pulls your colours, fonts, and logo. Clever and genuinely time-saving for small businesses

Web push notifications built in — send browser notifications to re-engage visitors. Most email marketing competitors don't offer this at all

December 2024 price hike eliminated ALL grandfathered pricing and hit users with 50-150% increases. Real examples: users paying $29/month saw bills jump to $70+. One user with fewer than 1,000 subscribers went from legacy rate to $55/month overnight

Trustpilot rating of 2.5/5 with 33% one-star reviews — dominated by the price hike backlash and reports of list deletions in January 2025 shortly after the increase

Deliverability is mediocre — EmailToolTester ranked it 11th of 15 platforms at 83.1%. The claim of 'great deliverability' is outdated. MailerLite (94.41%) and ActiveCampaign (94.2%) significantly outperform it

Full AWeber review →

MailerLite

94.41% deliverability rate across 5 independent test rounds (EmailToolTester) — highest we found among all platforms tested

76% cheaper than Mailchimp at 2,500 subscribers ($25/mo vs ~$69/mo for equivalent features)

Won 'Best Email Marketing Tool for Ease of Use' every year from 2023-2026 across G2 and Capterra

Account approval/termination is a real problem — 60% of Capterra reviews mentioning it were negative. Users report accounts terminated without warning and no refund

Free plan was cut from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025, with no templates on free (must design from scratch)

Limited analytics — no heatmaps, no custom reports, no revenue attribution, no bot-click filtering. If data matters to you, this will frustrate you

Full MailerLite review →

The Bottom Line

Choose AWeber if: you want a tool that is best for non-technical beginners who value phone support and simplicity above all else, and digital product sellers who want built-in payment processing on landing pages. It scores highest in ease of use, customer support.

Choose MailerLite if: you want a tool that is best for small businesses and creators on a budget who want simplicity. It scores highest in deliverability, ease of use.

Transparency note: We earn affiliate commissions from some tools on this page. This never influences our scores. Our methodology