MailerLite Pricing Explained (2026): Plans, Limits and Which One to Choose

If you search for MailerLite's Growing Business or Advanced plans, you are probably reading an older guide. Effective 16 June 2026, MailerLite changed the new-platform plan structure: Growing Business became Comfort and Advanced became Power. Existing paid subscribers on the previous structure move to the newer pricing at renewal or on a manual plan change, subject to MailerLite's stated transition rules. Legacy (Classic) accounts are a separate case and should not be confused with the current platform.

The shift was more substantial than a cosmetic rename. Before the June update, many comparisons described a Free plan allowing 500 subscribers and 12,000 monthly sends. That is no longer the current Free offer: it now supports 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. MailerLite simultaneously expanded access to certain free editing features and increased Free's user allowance to two seats. Those improvements are useful, but they do not erase the sharp reduction in the free audience and send ceilings.

The new Comfort plan also has measurable usage ceilings. Instead of treating all automation and landing-page features as effectively unlimited, buyers must account for 50 active automations, 10 active forms, 10 websites and landing pages combined, and five active digital products or bookings. Power removes those active-item caps, while adding multiple triggers per automation and greater team capacity.

Why does this matter? Because two businesses with the same number of contacts can have radically different requirements. A weekly newsletter to 2,000 people may fit Comfort comfortably. A publication sending a daily update, a weekend digest, product campaigns and several automated sequences to those same subscribers can approach or exceed its sending allocation. MailerLite pricing is therefore a two-dimensional decision: list size and monthly activity, not merely a question of how many contacts you have.

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The MailerLite pricing page also lists a 14-day free trial of paid functionality without requiring a credit card. That should not be confused with an unlimited-length free subscription. Once the trial period ends, check exactly which feature set remains available on the plan you select.

A critical distinction: subscribers versus sends

A subscriber is an address in your active audience. A send is one email delivered to one recipient for usage-counting purposes. Sending one newsletter to 1,000 subscribers consumes approximately 1,000 sends. Four such campaigns consume 4,000 sends, before any welcome emails, reminders or other automated messages.

For Comfort, MailerLite states that monthly sending is 10 times your subscriber-tier ceiling. A Comfort tier covering up to 5,000 subscribers therefore permits 50,000 monthly sends. That is effectively ten full-list emails per month if every send targets every address. Real lists are more nuanced: segmentation may lower the volume, while automation sequences can increase it.

The distinction explains why a business should calculate projected volume before deciding the more affordable plan has enough capacity.

The table uses USD monthly-billed tier prices confirmed against MailerLite's current 2026 price ladder and September 2026 pricing snapshots. It is a reference snapshot, not a personalised quote: select your live subscriber tier and billing cycle on MailerLite's official pricing page before paying. The Free tier is only available up to 250 active subscribers. Annual billing currently advertises a 10% discount; tax and currency conversion may add to the cash charged.

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MailerLite's pricing page advertises approximately 10% savings on yearly billing. Annual payments are not the same as a cancellable monthly arrangement: compare the full annual cash commitment and MailerLite's cancellation terms, not only the smaller equivalent monthly figure. Do not assume that an existing customer's transitional price exactly matches a new signup price.

What the table actually tells us

The cost gap between Comfort and Power varies with list size. At the 500-subscriber tier, the $13-per-month difference may sound modest. Over a full year, however, that is about $156 of additional expenditure on monthly billing. If the business sends five campaigns a month and runs only two automations, paying extra for unlimited sends is difficult to justify.

At 10,000 subscribers, the approximate difference in the table is $40 monthly. That is no longer negligible for a small creator. Yet an email-led business sending daily promotions may recover the additional expense through flexibility, fewer operational restrictions and team access. The rational decision depends on the campaign schedule and how email generates revenue, not on a generic assertion that Power is 'better'.

A useful calculation is annual platform cost divided by the contribution margin from an email-generated customer. If the move to Power adds $480 per year and reliably supports activities that create substantially more than $480 of incremental contribution, it may be sensible. If those activities are speculative, remain on Comfort and upgrade when there is evidence of demand.

Compare the annual commitment, not only the monthly headline

Consider two real buying decisions at the published 500-contact band. Comfort costs $12 × 12 = $144 if retained for twelve separate monthly payments, or $129.60 paid for a year at the currently advertised 10% annual discount. Power costs $25 × 12 = $300 month by month, or $270 for one annual term. The illustrative annual discount saves $14.40 or $30 respectively, but paying upfront trades away short-term flexibility. These calculations exclude tax, higher subscriber tiers and possible changes during a contract.

At 5,000 subscribers, the table's monthly prices imply $588 per year for Comfort and $828 for Power if the chosen tier remains unchanged and billing stays monthly. This is not a forecast for a growing list; it is a constant-tier comparison. A better operating budget models three contact counts: today's verified active audience, the likely year-end audience, and a growth scenario that crosses the next tier.

Pricing evidence: MailerLite's live pricing page provides the plan selector, while its billing documentation describes the unique-active-subscriber count, 10× Comfort send limit, resets and published active-item caps. Those rules matter more than a stale screenshot of one price.

The Free plan is still a practical environment for learning email marketing. It provides a real editor, basic campaign management, forms, a landing page and a small set of automations without an immediate software bill. It is particularly appropriate for an independent consultant testing a lead magnet, a local business beginning a newsletter or a creator who wants to validate a topic before committing to a paid platform.

Its limitations become visible surprisingly quickly. Suppose a 200-person audience receives a weekly newsletter. Across four weeks, that is around 800 sends, leaving plenty of room for a short welcome automation. Now suppose those 200 subscribers receive three messages a week, and 60 new subscribers each receive a three-part welcome sequence. The estimated usage becomes 2,400 campaign sends plus 180 automation sends, exceeding the 2,500-send allowance. An audience can therefore outgrow the free sending limit before it exceeds 250 people.

The number of active automations also matters. You could create a newsletter welcome sequence, a lead-magnet follow-up and a re-engagement sequence, then discover that a fourth workflow requires a paid plan. The issue is not whether MailerLite can automate more sophisticated marketing; it is whether your subscription tier permits the operation you want.

Choose Free if: the list is small, send frequency is low, your automations are simple and price sensitivity outweighs future scale.

Avoid relying on Free if: you already have close to 250 active contacts, anticipate rapid growth, need a larger sending allowance, or require several independently active customer journeys.

A free plan should be judged not only on how long it lasts, but also on the work involved in moving away from it. Before building a complex funnel, confirm that its essential steps are supported on your expected paid tier.

Comfort is arguably the most interesting plan in the range because it places the everyday email-marketing toolkit within reach without obliging a business to pay for unlimited everything.

A small professional-services firm might need a contact form, a welcome email, a segmented newsletter and a follow-up sequence for prospects who download a guide. Comfort can be a good fit: 50 active workflows is a substantial allowance for a deliberately simple marketing operation, and three user seats support a founder, marketer and assistant.

A course creator with a few lead magnets and a limited set of landing pages can also use it, provided the aggregate active-item limits remain sufficient. The published allowance for websites and landing pages is combined, not ten of each. Similarly, active forms and digital products have their own ceilings. These are the kinds of details that disappear when comparisons say 'landing pages included' without explaining quantities.

Comfort's defining constraint is sending frequency

With a 5,000-subscriber tier, the stated 50,000-send limit might sound generous. But consider this hypothetical monthly schedule:

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This business still fits the allowance, but only with limited headroom. Add a product launch or an unexpectedly successful subscriber drive, and the business may need to adjust frequency or change plans. Subscribers do not equal monthly sends; forecast both.

Comfort is therefore well suited to planned, moderate-volume marketing. The customer who should be sceptical is one who treats email as a high-frequency publishing channel or needs unrestricted operational complexity.

What about annual billing?

MailerLite advertises a yearly discount, but the percentage should not dominate the decision. Businesses still validating their list-growth rate can reasonably prefer monthly billing for flexibility. Once a campaign calendar and list size become stable, the discounted annual commitment may be worthwhile. First check the exact next-renewal price and what happens when subscriber numbers increase mid-term.

Power is designed for users who need more than a conventional newsletter plan. It adds unlimited monthly email sends subject to MailerLite's fair-use policy, unlimited seats, unlimited active automations and greater scope for landing pages, forms and monetisation. It also supports multiple triggers in one automation, which MailerLite documents as a Power-specific capability allowing up to three triggers per workflow.

That last distinction has genuine operational value. A customer could enter the same nurture workflow after joining a group, clicking a link or meeting another qualifying condition, instead of maintaining separate copies of essentially the same journey. A larger team can collaborate without counting seats. A publication sending newsletters nearly every day may prefer not to budget around a fixed monthly send multiplier.

But unlimited is not permission to ignore operational quality. Fair-use terms still apply. Deliverability depends on permission, engagement, authentication and list hygiene, and sending excessive irrelevant emails can harm results regardless of plan. A technically unlimited allowance is useful only if the business has a legitimate audience and an effective content strategy.

When should a Comfort customer upgrade to Power?

Upgrade if at least one of these statements is true:

• Projected sends repeatedly approach the Comfort ceiling, not just during an isolated promotion.
• You need more than 50 active workflows, or plan to operate many distinct customer journeys.
• Multiple entry triggers would materially reduce duplication and workflow maintenance.
• Your team requires more than three user seats.
• The aggregate limits on landing pages, websites, forms or products are restricting a profitable operation.

Do not upgrade because you believe Power guarantees better inbox placement, more sales or higher email open rates. Those results are not purchased with a plan label.

MailerLite directs organisations with approximately 200,000 or more subscribers towards Enterprise. This is a consultative purchase rather than a simple consumer checkout. It may include dedicated customer-success assistance, performance guidance, onboarding consultation and more tailored deliverability support.

An enterprise buyer should request a written proposal covering permitted monthly sending, account architecture, team permissions, integration requirements, migration scope, support response commitments, data practices and the complete commercial terms. A quote that merely says 'custom pricing' is not sufficient for procurement.

What if your list or sending volume unexpectedly exceeds the allowance?

Treat an over-limit event as a workflow-continuity risk, not just a price increase. MailerLite's Free-plan update guidance says that exceeding the Free subscriber cap can pause campaigns, automations and contact additions; exceeding its send cap can pause sends until an upgrade or reset. Its separate paid-plan transition FAQ describes automatic upgrade behaviour for some paid sending-limit events. These statements cover different account states, so a business should not assume one universal rule applies to every tier and every existing contract.

Before a scheduled launch, inspect the dashboard's subscriber tier and remaining sends, and confirm how your own account handles an overage. If interruption would have a financial cost, build a margin for welcome emails, transactional exceptions handled outside MailerLite, and unexpected promotion volume. Do not equate 'unlimited sends' with permission to send unsolicited mail: Power remains subject to a fair-use policy.

1. Active-subscriber accounting is cumulative within a billing period

MailerLite counts unique subscribers who held Active status at any point in the billing cycle, rather than simply looking at a photograph of your list on its last day. Deleting an active contact does not necessarily reduce the billable tally immediately. MailerLite says unsubscribed and bounced contacts are not ordinarily included as active subscribers, but you should still consult its explanation of billing-cycle counting before attempting to manage costs through last-minute deletions.

This is important for rapidly changing lists, seasonal acquisition campaigns and businesses that frequently import or remove subscribers.

2. Sending limits have a reset date

Monthly email allowances reset based on the applicable account or billing date. They are not necessarily reset at midnight on the first day of a calendar month. A promotion planned around the last day of a period can affect the next campaign if the account has exhausted its quota.

3. Annual prices and monthly prices are not interchangeable

A lower quoted 'per month' amount may represent a prepaid 12-month commitment. Compare total cash due today, renewal terms and the financial impact of adding more contacts later. If a business is moving between subscriber tiers, any upgrade calculations must use the actual account interface.

4. Taxes, currency and local billing matter

MailerLite warns that applicable taxes can be added. Do not assume the US-dollar figure is the same amount charged to a UK business in pounds or to an EU business in euros. Currency conversion and local tax treatment can change the payable total.

5. A downgrade can disable workflow features

An account using more than three automations cannot expect those workflows to remain fully operational on Free. Likewise, dropping from Power to Comfort may require reducing feature usage first. MailerLite's cancellation documentation says stored data is retained when switching to Free, but certain premium functionality, reporting access and workflows can become unavailable. Plan the transition rather than simply cancelling the day before a campaign.

6. The platform is not your business strategy

Adding a tool's landing page, forms and digital products into one subscription can save a creator from maintaining separate entry-level services. That bundled value is genuine only where the included features meet the business's design, checkout, reporting and integration requirements. An established ecommerce operator may prefer specialist storefront, analytics or customer-data systems.

7. Support differs by tier

The current pricing comparison shows community-based help on Free, email support on Comfort and live chat plus email support on Power. If your operation depends on a fixed response-time guarantee, do not infer one from the phrase '24/7 support'. Obtain the precise service terms that matter to your organisation.

Pricing only makes sense against the job to be done. MailerLite competes with tools that take different approaches to email marketing.

Brevo deserves consideration if your campaigns require a contact-rich CRM-style setup and pricing that depends more heavily on email volume than a MailerLite-style contact tier. Brevo's official pricing explanation currently describes a Free level with 300 sends per day, storage of up to 100,000 contacts and marketing automation limited to 2,000 contacts, subject to plan terms. The economic advantage varies with your database and activity. A very large, infrequently mailed contact base may favour a send-based structure, while frequent sending can alter the calculation.

GetResponse can be worth examining when landing pages, webinar-centric workflows or more elaborate marketing funnels are central to the business. Its current pricing guide distinguishes Starter, Marketer and Creator; do not attribute Creator webinar or monetisation allowances to Starter. Compare the actual features available on the relevant current plan; do not assume a complex marketing suite is inexpensive simply because the entry plan appears competitive.

ActiveCampaign is a stronger candidate when deeply conditional automations, sales pipeline integration and advanced behavioural segmentation are more important than the simplicity of a newsletter editor. The trade-off is typically a more involved setup and a potentially higher total cost for the features you need.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) often appeals to creators building newsletters, audience funnels and digital-product businesses. Compare subscriber thresholds, monetisation options, email frequency and automation restrictions carefully rather than ranking it by brand reputation.

Mailchimp remains familiar to teams with established templates or third-party integrations, but familiarity is not a substitute for comparing paid contact definitions, plan feature limits and total cost at your expected audience size.

No provider is the cheapest for every combination of contacts, messages, employees and integrations. Build a 12-month scenario for your own list and workflow requirements before switching.

Which alternatives are genuinely better for which problem?

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This is a use-case comparison, not a performance ranking. ToolRankers has not conducted a controlled delivery-rate or speed test of these providers. Availability and prices should be verified in the relevant vendor's current plan documentation. Choose on the workflows you will actually operate, not on the longest checklist.

Scenario A: A new newsletter with fewer than 100 subscribers

Start with Free. Build the signup process, write the first four newsletters and create one welcome automation. Spend money only when approaching the audience or send ceiling, or when a specific feature is holding back a useful campaign.

Scenario B: A small business with 800 subscribers and two monthly newsletters

Choose Comfort if you need paid functionality. Its send allocation at the 1,000-contact tier should normally cover newsletters and a moderate welcome sequence, assuming your detailed volumes confirm that expectation.

Scenario C: An ecommerce shop with 5,000 contacts and regular promotions

Calculate the full monthly send volume first. If regular campaigns, abandoned-checkout messaging, post-purchase journeys and product-launch sequences frequently exceed Comfort's limit, Power may be commercially sensible. Also verify the relevant ecommerce integration and marketing-consent configuration before committing.

Scenario D: A consultancy with multiple marketers

Count the number of required user seats and roles. If three seats are enough, Comfort can work. If many colleagues need access or custom permission handling is essential, scrutinise Power and any specialist enterprise controls.

Scenario E: A creator selling one ebook

You may not need a broader ecommerce platform immediately. Free supports one active digital product or booking and can be a low-cost experiment; Comfort offers room for several. Consider transaction and payment-provider fees separately from the MailerLite platform charge.

Scenario F: A publication with 25,000 engaged subscribers and frequent campaigns

The choice should hinge less on a small headline-price saving and more on sending volume, list segmentation, workflow architecture and support. Make a detailed campaign forecast and compare Comfort versus Power on actual operational needs.

The best purchasing checklist is short but exact. What is my highest expected active-subscriber count over the next 12 months? How many emails will all campaigns and automations send each month? How many workflows and landing pages must be live concurrently? How many people need logins? Which automations rely on features restricted to Power? What is the complete annual cost after tax, and what happens when I grow into the next tier?

Answering those questions is more valuable than reading another list of broadly described features.

Is MailerLite free in 2026?

Yes. The current Free plan permits up to 250 active subscribers, 2,500 monthly emails and a limited set of forms, pages and automations. Those are the post-June-2026 limits, not the older 500-subscriber/12,000-send configuration.

How much is MailerLite for 1,000 subscribers?

September 2026 third-party checks list Comfort at approximately $19 per month and Power at $39 per month when billed monthly in US dollars, before tax. Confirm the current figure in MailerLite's interactive pricing calculator before buying.

What is the difference between Comfort and Power?

Comfort has defined monthly sending and active-feature limits, with three seats. Power offers unlimited sends subject to fair use, unlimited active automations and user seats, and supports multiple automation triggers.

Is MailerLite priced per email or per subscriber?

Both dimensions matter. Paid tiers are selected by subscriber count, and Comfort also restricts monthly sends to ten times the chosen subscriber-tier limit. Free has both an audience limit and a fixed send allowance.

Can I pay annually?

Yes. MailerLite advertises an annual-billing discount of around 10%. Check the full amount and current renewal conditions at checkout.

Does MailerLite count unsubscribed contacts?

Its billing documentation says unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count towards the active-subscriber limit, but its cumulative active-subscriber count within a billing cycle can still affect the tier charged.

Are MailerLite's old Growing Business and Advanced plans still current?

Those are previous names. MailerLite updated the new-platform plans to Comfort and Power on 16 June 2026. A customer may still see transition-specific terms, and Classic accounts are handled separately.

Is Power worth the extra money?

It is worth considering for heavy sending, larger teams, advanced multi-trigger workflows or operational limits that make Comfort insufficient. It is not automatically a better investment for a small newsletter that barely uses Comfort's allowances.

A two-minute plan-selection checklist

• Count the unique active addresses you expect during the paid billing period, not all contact rows.
• Multiply scheduled campaign recipients by campaign frequency, then add expected automation recipients and steps. Leave a margin for exceptional campaigns.
• Count active workflows, forms, landing pages, products and required user seats.
• Price Comfort and Power at today's tier and the next likely tier using both billing toggles.
• Select Free for validation, Comfort for planned moderate sending, or Power when a documented limit materially impedes work. Recheck the decision before an annual renewal.

Next step: Compare your predicted audience and monthly sending against the live MailerLite plan selector. This is a link to the vendor's normal pricing information, not an unverified ToolRankers affiliate redirect.

For a legitimate small business or creator that has grown beyond 250 contacts, Comfort is the most defensible starting choice. It can support serious newsletter and automation work without paying upfront for unlimited sending and unlimited active features. Its restrictions are clear enough to model, provided the buyer does the maths.

Free is a useful testing ground, but the 2026 reduction to 250 active contacts and 2,500 monthly sends makes it more of a launchpad than a long-term home for an ambitious newsletter. Power is the right upgrade once sending frequency, workflow count or collaboration demands justify the price. Enterprise belongs in a negotiated requirements conversation.

The decision is straightforward once you measure what matters: how many people you reach, how often you email them, and how complex your customer journeys genuinely need to be.

• Current plan prices and features: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing
• MailerLite plan, billing, active-subscriber and send-limit rules
• MailerLite June 2026 Free plan update
• MailerLite paid-plan transition guidance
• MailerLite cancellation and downgrade rules
• MailerLite multiple automation triggers
• Independent September 2026 reference prices (cross-check, not a substitute for checkout)