Brevo vs MailerLite (2026)

USD starting prices and plan limits checked on 6 October 2026. Taxes, billing term, contact tier and send volume can change the final cost.

Read our full Brevo review and MailerLite review for more detail on each service.

Brevo and MailerLite compete for the same kind of buyer: a small or mid-sized organisation that wants professional email marketing without paying enterprise prices. The products overlap heavily, but the underlying economics are different enough that the same business can get very different value from each one.

Brevo is primarily volume-led. You choose how many marketing and transactional emails you expect to send each month, and the plan also determines how many contacts you can store at lower tiers. This can be excellent for a business with a large database that only emails small segments at a time.

MailerLite is subscriber-led. Paid plans scale through active-subscriber bands, and the Comfort plan includes monthly sends equal to 10 times the ceiling of the subscriber tier. Power removes the practical send ceiling under a fair-use policy. This can be easier to understand for a newsletter publisher that emails most of the list regularly.

The result is a simple rule: Brevo often rewards selective sending; MailerLite often rewards predictable audience growth. Neither pricing model is universally cheaper.

Brevo's Free plan allows 300 email sends per day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts. It includes marketing and transactional email, SMS campaign capability, basic analytics, basic sales tools, Aura AI and automation for up to 2,000 unique contacts. The daily limit is the main obstacle: a 2,000-person newsletter cannot simply be sent in one batch on Free.

MailerLite's Free plan is much smaller after its June 2026 update: 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly email sends. It includes two users, three active automations, one website, one landing page, three forms, all three email editors and basic creator/ecommerce functions.

Brevo Starter begins at $9 per month and removes the daily send cap. Standard begins at $18 and is the meaningful automation tier because it removes the 2,000-contact automation ceiling and adds A/B testing, send-time optimisation, advanced reporting and a landing page.

MailerLite Comfort begins at $12 per month and gives most small teams the full practical toolkit: up to 50 active automations, three users, 10 forms, 10 websites/landing pages combined, dynamic content, paid newsletters and AI writing tools. Power begins at $25 and makes monthly sends, users and active feature usage effectively unlimited under fair-use terms, while adding multiple automation triggers and 24/7 live chat.

This is the most important question in the comparison, and it cannot be answered from the starting prices alone.

On Brevo, a low send tier can also impose a low contact-storage limit. At 5,000 monthly sends, Starter and Standard currently allow up to 500 stored contacts. At 10,000 sends, the storage limit becomes 1,500; at 15,000 sends, 2,500. From 20,000 monthly sends upward, those plans can store up to 500,000 contacts. Brevo can automatically move an account upward if its contact-storage limit is exceeded.

That structure can look odd if you think Brevo is simply 'unlimited contacts.' It is not. The pricing model still heavily favours send volume, but lower send tiers now have meaningful storage caps.

MailerLite Comfort behaves differently. Its monthly send allowance is 10 times the ceiling of the subscriber tier. An account on the 5,000-subscriber Comfort tier receives 50,000 monthly sends. If the account exceeds either the active-subscriber cap or the monthly email allowance, MailerLite can auto-upgrade the plan to the next pricing tier.

For a monthly newsletter to a large but infrequently contacted database, Brevo can be attractive because you do not automatically pay as though every stored contact receives every campaign. For a publication emailing the whole audience several times per week, MailerLite's subscriber-based model—and especially Power's unlimited sending—can be easier to forecast.

Scenario 1: a consultant has 800 active subscribers and sends two newsletters plus a short automated sequence each month. MailerLite is usually the more natural fit because the database is small, the send volume is predictable and the built-in forms, landing pages and website tools replace other simple subscriptions. Brevo can still be cheaper at the headline level, but the consultant may not gain enough from transactional email, CRM or SMS to justify choosing the broader interface.

Scenario 2: a local-services company stores 25,000 customer and lead records but sends only a few segmented campaigns each month. This is the kind of business where Brevo's send-volume orientation can make more sense. The company may need appointment reminders, transactional confirmations or occasional SMS, and it may not want to pay a subscriber-based email platform as though all 25,000 people receive every newsletter. The exact Brevo tier still needs to be checked because lower send packages have storage caps, but the underlying model fits the use case better.

Scenario 3: a publisher has 10,000 engaged subscribers and emails the full list three times per week. The list is not enormous, but monthly send volume is. MailerLite deserves a closer look because its Comfort allowance is tied predictably to subscriber tier and Power removes the normal send ceiling under fair-use rules. Brevo's strength in selective sending matters less when nearly every stored contact receives almost every campaign.

These examples show why a universal 'Brevo is cheaper' or 'MailerLite is cheaper' claim is unreliable. Brevo can be inexpensive for a database-heavy, lower-frequency business and comparatively less attractive for a high-frequency publisher. MailerLite can be highly economical for a compact engaged audience and more expensive as subscriber bands rise even if the business sends infrequently.

A fourth factor is tool replacement. If Brevo lets a business cancel a transactional-email service, a lightweight CRM and an SMS provider, its total cost can be lower even if the email line item is not. If MailerLite lets a creator cancel a landing-page builder, simple website host and paid-newsletter tool, the same logic works in the other direction.

A practical way to model the next 12 months

Do not price the platforms only at today's list size. Write down your current active subscribers, current total stored contacts and current monthly sends. Then estimate those same three figures 12 months from now. Price both the present and future state.

Next add the feature tier you will actually need. On Brevo, a team that expects automation to reach more than 2,000 contacts should use Standard in the comparison even if Starter looks cheaper. On MailerLite, a team that expects to send frequently or needs several triggers per automation should compare Power rather than assuming Comfort will remain enough.

Finally add the adjacent tools. Brevo may remove separate transactional-email, SMS or basic CRM costs. MailerLite may remove separate landing-page, lightweight website or creator-monetisation costs. The cheapest email line item is not always the cheapest operating stack.

• Do you need transactional email in the same product? If yes, Brevo has the decisive advantage because SMTP/API transactional sending is built into its wider communications platform. MailerLite sends transactional email through the separate MailerSend product.

• Will you send to most of your audience frequently? If yes, MailerLite's subscriber-led model and Power's unlimited sending may be easier to forecast. If you store a large database and contact small segments selectively, Brevo's economics can be more attractive.

• Do you need a lightweight CRM or SMS? Brevo provides both pathways. MailerLite is intentionally not a sales CRM and does not build its core marketing plan around SMS.

• Do websites, landing pages or creator monetisation matter? MailerLite has the stronger native toolkit for those jobs, especially on Comfort and Power.

• How complex will automation become? MailerLite is excellent for understandable small-business journeys. Brevo becomes stronger when workflows depend on more customer events, transactional activity or multichannel actions.

• Who will operate the platform every week? A creator or owner-operator may value MailerLite's focus more than Brevo's breadth. A small marketing or customer-operations team may prefer Brevo because more communication channels and customer functions live in one place.

Both platforms provide real visual automation rather than only autoresponders. The difference is how far they expect the workflow to reach.

Brevo Free and Starter allow up to 2,000 unique contacts to enter active automations. When that cap is reached, existing contacts continue through their workflows but new contacts are blocked until the account moves to Standard, Professional or Enterprise. Standard removes the automation-contact ceiling.

Brevo also supports web and event tracking, outbound webhooks, multichannel actions and a broader communications model. Standard includes unlimited-contact marketing automation, and higher tiers add scoring, AI segmentation, custom objects and larger-scale event processing.

MailerLite takes a simpler approach. Free allows three active automations, Comfort 50 and Power unlimited. Free workflows can contain up to five steps, while Comfort and Power support up to 100 steps. MailerLite also offers conditions, ecommerce triggers and several standard starting events.

Power adds one particularly useful capability: up to three triggers can start the same automation. That means a workflow can begin when someone joins a group, completes a form or meets another supported condition without creating three separate copies.

For most small-business nurture, onboarding and re-engagement sequences, MailerLite is easier to understand and maintain. Brevo is the stronger choice when the workflow must span more customer events, transactional activity or communication channels.

MailerLite has the cleaner reputation for newsletter creation, and its product design supports that. It offers a visual drag-and-drop editor, a Simple text-forward editor and a Custom HTML editor, letting a sender choose the right workflow for a polished campaign, personal newsletter or coded template.

Comfort adds dynamic content, auto-resend, multivariate testing and the preference center. Power mainly removes operational limits rather than changing the core editor.

Brevo's editor is also modern and capable. It includes drag-and-drop design, reusable sections, templates, AI-assisted content and campaign scheduling. Standard adds A/B testing, send-time optimisation and stronger engagement reports.

The difference is feel rather than a missing basic feature. MailerLite is more publishing-centric. Brevo's campaign editor sits inside a broader system that also contains transactional sending, SMS, automation and sales tools. A newsletter-first team is likely to find MailerLite more focused.

MailerLite has a meaningful advantage in built-in web assets. Free includes one website and one landing page. Comfort includes 10 active websites and landing pages combined, plus blogs, landing-page A/B testing and click maps. Power makes websites and landing pages unlimited and adds custom code injection and password protection.

Brevo Standard includes one landing page and Professional includes 10. Brevo also provides forms and web tracking, but its low-cost plans are not designed to replace a lightweight website or creator-page tool in the same way MailerLite is.

If a small business wants to publish a simple website, build several lead-magnet pages and run email from the same login, MailerLite can remove another subscription. If the website already lives in WordPress, Shopify or another mature platform, this advantage becomes less important.

Transactional email is one of the strongest reasons to choose Brevo. Marketing campaigns and operational messages such as order confirmations, password resets and account notifications can use the same Brevo account, SMTP/API infrastructure and email-credit pool.

That does require capacity planning. A heavy marketing campaign can consume credits that might otherwise be needed for transactional messages. Brevo allows prepaid email credits as a buffer, and its transactional service supports SMTP and API integrations.

MailerLite separates marketing and transactional sending. Its sister product MailerSend handles email API, SMTP relay, transactional templates, webhooks and related technical sending. MailerSend has a separate plan structure, including a small free allowance and paid plans.

Separation is not inherently worse. Some businesses prefer to keep promotional and operational infrastructure distinct. But if the buying objective is 'one vendor and one plan for marketing plus transactional email,' Brevo is more straightforward.

Brevo supports SMS through prepaid credits with no recurring SMS subscription requirement. Credits do not expire, and price depends on destination and message length. That is useful for appointment reminders, promotions, alerts and occasional campaigns.

Brevo also supports web push at lower paid tiers and expands into WhatsApp, mobile push, popups and additional multichannel features on Professional. The catch is the price jump: Professional starts at $499 per month, so WhatsApp campaign capability is not a $9 or $18 feature.

MailerLite does not position native SMS as part of its normal email marketing product. Its related MailerSend service supports transactional SMS in selected markets, but that is a different use case and separate product.

If SMS or multichannel orchestration is likely to become important, Brevo leaves more room to grow without changing vendor.

Brevo includes basic sales functionality across its marketing plans: deals, a pipeline, meetings, tasks, reporting and related tools. That can be enough for a solo consultant or very small service company that wants to track opportunities without adopting a separate CRM.

The sales layer can also be expanded. Sales Essentials costs $31 per month and Sales Advanced $64 per month, with extra sales seats charged separately. Those packages add more pipeline, outreach, calling and AI-assisted sales functionality.

MailerLite is not a sales CRM. It has subscriber profiles, fields, segments, groups and ecommerce/creator data, but it is not designed around opportunities, pipelines or sales ownership.

This makes Brevo the better all-in-one choice for a small service business. It does not make Brevo a replacement for Salesforce or a mature HubSpot/Pipedrive setup. If sales pipeline management is the core requirement, compare dedicated CRMs before choosing either email platform.

Both products integrate with ecommerce platforms and can use purchase activity in marketing.

MailerLite integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce and other store platforms, lets users place products into campaigns/pages, tracks campaign revenue and supports purchase-triggered automation. WooCommerce also supports cart/checkout triggers. MailerLite's current Shopify documentation is more limited around abandoned cart for first-time or guest shoppers.

Brevo supports ecommerce integrations alongside transactional email and can react to website/custom events in automation. Professional adds AI product recommendations, back-in-stock alerts, contact scoring and other commerce-focused capabilities.

For a small shop that mainly needs newsletters, promotions and straightforward post-purchase journeys, MailerLite can be easier. For a store that values transactional email, SMS and broader event-driven communications, Brevo has the stronger architecture. For a serious ecommerce brand where product/customer data is the marketing strategy, Klaviyo is a stronger specialist than either.

MailerLite has deliberately expanded toward creator businesses. It supports paid newsletters, Stripe-powered digital products, appointment bookings, websites, blogs and landing pages inside the same account.

Free supports one digital product, Comfort five and Power unlimited. Comfort and Power can also support recurring paid newsletter subscriptions. This makes MailerLite appealing to consultants, writers, coaches and educators that want email plus simple monetisation without a separate creator platform.

Brevo can certainly serve creators, but creator monetisation is not the centre of its product. Its strengths are communications infrastructure, segmentation, transactional email, SMS and customer management.

Brevo Standard includes advanced campaign reporting, click heatmaps, geography/device data, A/B testing and AI send-time optimisation. Professional expands into analytics dashboards, contact scoring and AI segmentation.

MailerLite includes campaign, automation, subscriber, click-map and ecommerce sales reporting, with comparative reporting and custom reporting options across paid tiers. Its segmentation model uses dynamic segments and interest groups rather than a CRM-style object structure.

On AI, both vendors are investing heavily. Brevo's Aura is used for content generation, send-time optimisation and, at higher tiers, segmentation and product recommendations. MailerLite's HeyLite Intelligence covers AI writing, subject lines, page creation, smart sending and newer MCP integrations with tools such as ChatGPT and Claude.

Neither should be chosen because it 'has AI.' The useful question is where AI is connected to the workflow you already need. Brevo's AI is more aligned with multichannel data and marketing operations; MailerLite's AI is more aligned with simplifying content and campaign creation.

Both platforms connect to major ecommerce, CMS, automation and productivity tools. Brevo supports direct integrations as well as Zapier, Make, API, SMTP and webhooks. MailerLite supports more than 100 integrations on its pricing page, plus API/webhooks and ecommerce connections.

Brevo's developer story is stronger if transactional email, event data or custom communication workflows are central. MailerLite's integrations are usually sufficient for a normal SMB stack built around WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe and common no-code tools.

The number of integration logos is less important than data direction. Before choosing either platform, confirm that the specific fields, purchases, segments or events required by your automation can be sent reliably into the email system.

Both vendors provide the normal controls required for professional email sending: domain authentication, suppression handling, bounce processing and anti-spam policies. Neither can guarantee a universal inbox-placement percentage because deliverability depends heavily on sender reputation, consent, engagement, authentication and mailbox-provider behaviour.

Brevo is a European provider and states that its data-hosting infrastructure used for customer databases is located within the European Union. MailerLite also states that its data storage center is in the European Union and carries ISO 27001 certification.

For European buyers, both provide a credible GDPR-oriented compliance story. That does not remove the customer's obligations around lawful collection, consent, retention and tracking. The platform can provide tools and contractual safeguards; it cannot make a poor data practice compliant.

MailerLite gives Comfort and Power customers 24/7 email support. Power adds ongoing 24/7 live chat. Comfort customers receive live chat during the initial trial, and Comfort accounts at 50,000 subscribers or more keep full live-chat access.

Brevo provides email support on lower tiers, priority email support on Standard and phone plus priority email support on Professional. Professional also includes onboarding resources and limited Customer Success/deliverability specialist time.

For a small business paying around the low double digits each month, MailerLite's support packaging is more generous. Brevo becomes more service-rich at the high end, but phone support is tied to a plan beginning at $499 per month.

Both platforms reward annual commitment but have restrictive refund policies.

Brevo gives a 10% discount for annual subscriptions and charges the year upfront, while email credits still renew monthly and unused monthly credits expire. Brevo generally does not refund used or unused credits except in limited circumstances such as a technical error or shared-IP eligibility problem.

MailerLite also gives a 10% annual discount. It generally does not refund unused or partially used monthly/yearly plans, forgotten renewals or plans purchased by mistake, although qualifying consumers can have statutory withdrawal rights and MailerLite reserves limited discretion.

MailerLite monthly and annual plans can auto-upgrade when subscriber or send limits are exceeded. Brevo can also push an account to a higher tier when its selected contact-storage allowance is exceeded. In both cases, it is worth setting a calendar reminder to review usage before renewal rather than assuming the original starting price will remain relevant.

• You store far more contacts than you email in a typical month.
• You need marketing and transactional email from the same vendor and credit system.
• SMS is likely to become part of the communication strategy.
• A basic CRM and sales pipeline would reduce the need for another small-business tool.
• Automation needs to reach more than 2,000 contacts and you are comfortable moving to Standard.
• You value event-driven or multichannel communication more than built-in creator tools.
• You want prepaid email credits for seasonal or irregular sending.

• You mainly want newsletters, forms, landing pages and straightforward automation.
• You want to build simple websites or multiple campaign pages inside the email platform.
• You sell digital products, appointments or paid newsletter subscriptions.
• You want 24/7 email support on the normal SMB paid tier or live chat on Power.
• Your subscriber count is a more predictable cost driver than send volume.
• You send frequently enough that Power's unlimited sending could simplify budgeting.
• You prefer a focused publishing experience over an all-in-one communications platform.

Moving between Brevo and MailerLite is usually simpler than migrating between full CRMs, but the billing models make cleanup important before import.

If you are moving to Brevo, separate the total database from the audience you actually send to. Brevo's lower send tiers also carry contact-storage caps, so importing every historical record can force a larger plan even if monthly sending is modest.

If you are moving to MailerLite, identify which contacts are genuinely active subscribers. MailerLite does not count unsubscribed and bounced contacts toward the normal subscriber limit, but any address that was active during the current billing cycle can continue to count until the cycle resets.

In either direction, migrate suppression and consent data carefully. Do not export only the active list and lose unsubscribes or bounces. Rebuild the highest-value automation first, authenticate the sending domain, and launch to the most engaged contacts before moving the full programme.

Transactional email needs special attention. A business moving from Brevo to MailerLite may need to deploy MailerSend or another transactional provider before switching DNS/API credentials. A business moving the other direction should decide whether it wants marketing and transactional traffic to share Brevo credits or use separate capacity.

Brevo and MailerLite are both good-value products, but they reward different behaviour. Brevo is strongest when email is one part of a wider customer-communication system. It can combine marketing email, transactional email, SMS, automation and basic CRM in one account, and its send-driven pricing can favour businesses that store large databases but communicate selectively.

MailerLite is strongest when email publishing itself is the job. Its campaign workflow is focused, its built-in websites and landing pages are more useful at normal SMB prices, and its creator tools can sell subscriptions, digital products and bookings without adding another platform.

On automation, Brevo Standard has the edge for scale and multichannel events. MailerLite is easier for ordinary nurture sequences and becomes much more flexible on Power. On transactional email, SMS and CRM, Brevo wins decisively. On creator monetisation, websites and support at modest price points, MailerLite wins.

ToolRankers would choose Brevo for a service business, app or ecommerce operation that needs operational messaging and customer communication across channels. We would choose MailerLite for a newsletter, creator business, consultant or small marketing team that wants the cleanest path from signup form to campaign to landing page.

If pricing is the deciding factor, ignore the starting prices and compare your own three numbers: stored contacts, active subscribers and monthly sends. That calculation will tell you more than any generic 'cheapest email platform' ranking.

Which is better, Brevo or MailerLite?

Brevo is better for transactional email, SMS, basic CRM and send-based economics. MailerLite is better for newsletters, websites/landing pages, creator monetisation and a cleaner publishing workflow.

Which is cheaper, Brevo or MailerLite?

Brevo starts lower at $9/month versus MailerLite Comfort at $12/month, but the cheaper platform depends on list size and sending frequency. Brevo is more send-volume driven; MailerLite is more subscriber driven.

Which has the better free plan?

Brevo is better for storing a large database and testing transactional email, with up to 100,000 stored contacts but only 300 sends per day. MailerLite is better as a small publishing sandbox but is limited to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails.

Which is better for automation?

Brevo is stronger for larger-scale, event-driven and multichannel automation once you reach Standard. MailerLite is easier for common small-business journeys and allows up to 100 steps on paid plans, with multiple triggers on Power.

Does Brevo include transactional email?

Yes. Brevo supports transactional email through SMTP/API and uses the same email-credit pool as marketing sending unless prepaid credits are added.

Does MailerLite include transactional email?

Not in the normal MailerLite marketing plans. Transactional email is handled by MailerSend, a separate sister product with its own pricing and infrastructure.

Does Brevo have a CRM?

Yes, Brevo includes basic sales features and offers paid Sales Essentials and Sales Advanced packages for deeper sales functionality.

Does MailerLite have a CRM?

No full sales CRM. It stores subscriber profiles, fields, groups, segments and ecommerce activity, but it is not designed around deal pipelines or sales ownership.

Which is better for ecommerce?

For a small store focused on newsletters and simple purchase automations, MailerLite is easy to use. Brevo is stronger when transactional email, SMS and broader event-driven communication matter. Large ecommerce brands may prefer Klaviyo.

Which is better for creators?

MailerLite. It includes paid newsletters, digital products, bookings, websites and landing pages within the same platform.

Which has better support?

At normal SMB prices, MailerLite is stronger: Comfort and Power include 24/7 email support and Power includes 24/7 live chat. Brevo adds phone support at Professional, which starts at $499/month.

Do Brevo or MailerLite offer refunds?

Both have restrictive refund policies. Brevo generally does not refund used or unused credits, while MailerLite generally does not refund unused or mistaken monthly/yearly plan purchases, subject to limited legal or discretionary exceptions.

Primary official sources were prioritised. Pricing and limits were checked on 6 October 2026. MailerLite changed its Free and paid plan structure in June 2026, while Brevo now uses contact-storage tiers on lower send volumes, so older comparisons can be materially wrong.