Updated March 2026

Mailchimp vs MailerLite

This is the most common switch in email marketing. Mailchimp was once the default choice, but after gutting its free plan from 2,000 contacts to 250, hiking prices 20-30% post-Intuit acquisition, and declining 19.63% in deliverability year-on-year, thousands of users have moved to MailerLite. The question is whether Mailchimp's 300+ integrations and brand recognition still justify paying nearly double for comparable features. Based on our research across G2, Capterra, Reddit, and independent deliverability testing — for most users, they don't.

Our pick: MailerLite (7.5/10 vs 6.5/10)

MailerLite wins 3 out of 6 categories. Mailchimp is better for: complete beginners who want the easiest interface and maximum third-party integrations.

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Mailchimp

6.5/10

MailerLite

7.5/10

2/5

Automation

3/5

Deliverability

5/5

Ease of Use

5/5

Templates & Design

3/5

Analytics

2/5

Customer Support

3/5

Pricing Comparison

Mailchimp

Free Plan

Paid plans from $13/mo

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MailerLite

Free Plan

Paid plans from $10/mo

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Pros & Cons

Mailchimp

Genuinely intuitive interface — G2 rates ease of use 4.3/5, Capterra 4.4/5. The drag-and-drop builder has a shallow learning curve for basic campaigns

300+ third-party integrations — the largest ecosystem of any email tool. Nearly every SaaS product connects to Mailchimp natively

260+ professional templates on paid plans. The email builder produces clean, responsive emails that look good on mobile

Free plan has been systematically gutted: 2,000 contacts (pre-2021) → 500 (2023) → 250 (Jan 2026). Automations removed June 2025. A/B testing removed. Email scheduling removed. It is now effectively a demo, not a free plan

Charges for ALL contacts including unsubscribed and bounced — you pay for contacts who will never receive an email unless you manually archive each one. Most competitors only bill for active subscribers

Trustpilot: 2.8/5 with 67% one-star reviews. Support is widely despised — phone support only available on the $350+/month Premium plan. Below that, users report chatbots and generic responses

Full Mailchimp 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 Mailchimp if: you want a tool that is best for complete beginners who want the easiest interface and maximum third-party integrations. It scores highest in ease of use, templates & design.

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