MailerLite alternatives

I left Reachkit off this list. My company builds cold email software, which reaches prospects from separate inboxes; it doesn’t send newsletters to subscribers, and that’s MailerLite’s job. Each price below comes from the vendor’s site, checked in October 2026. Where a vendor’s page only shows its first price, the entry names the review site that read the rest.

MailerLite does a lot right: a low entry price, an app reviewers call easy to use, support they praise, and an MCP server on every plan (sending needs a paid plan). So pick by what it stopped doing for you:

• A bigger free plan: Sender, whose free tier takes 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 monthly emails.
• A smaller bill at 10,000 subscribers: EmailOctopus, $40 a month billed yearly.
• A daily newsletter without a send cap: Moosend, from $9 a month with unlimited sends.
• A big list you mail a few times a month: Brevo, which prices by emails sent.
• Courses, coaching or downloads to sell: systeme.io, with 0% transaction fees.
• An online store: Omnisend, built on order and browsing data.
• Automations that branch: ActiveCampaign.
• Webinars next to your emails: GetResponse Creator.
• One integration you can’t live without: Mailchimp, with 300+ apps.

For comparison, MailerLite’s own free tier takes 250 subscribers, and Comfort costs $12 a month at 500 (October 2026).

Entries 1 to 4 cost less than MailerLite for the same list, or let you send more for free.

Run from Vilnius since 2012, Sender sells email and SMS marketing to small businesses and online stores. Its editor, automations, popups, forms and landing pages cover what most MailerLite newsletters use, plus transactional email on every plan.

Price, October 2026: Free Forever allows one user, 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 monthly emails, with the Sender logo. At 500 subscribers, Standard is $9 and Professional $15 a month on monthly billing, and new customers paying yearly get 30% off the first year ($6.30 and $10.50 a month). Standard sends up to 12 times your list each month, Professional 24 times. Above 500 subscribers, Sender’s own pages disagree: for 10,000, a September 2026 blog post says $57 without naming a plan, while its calculator says $69 for Standard.

Strengths:

• No daily sending limit on any plan, and 24/7 live chat even on Free.
• Trustpilot shows 4.9 from 1,568 reviews, and recent five-star ones often name the chat agent who helped.

Drawbacks:

• Every account goes through a quality review before its first send, which asks for a website on your sending domain and may ask for the pages where people subscribed. One-star reviews are 2% of the total, and most on the first page describe a suspension, a few before anything was sent. Suspensions aren’t refunded.

Versus MailerLite: the free plan holds 10 times as many subscribers (2,500 against 250) and 6 times the emails. If you’re leaving over a suspension, note that Sender reviews every account too. Sender profile

EmailOctopus, London-based and launched in 2014, makes email marketing for newsletters and small businesses; Three Hearts Digital Ltd runs it independently. Its second product, Connect, routes mail through an Amazon SES account you own.

Price, October 2026: Starter costs nothing up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails, for one user and with EmailOctopus branding. Pro starts at $10 month to month for 500 subscribers, or $9 billed yearly. EmailOctopus’s own blog (October 2, 2026) lists Pro at $12 a month for 1,000 subscribers and $40 for 10,000, both billed yearly; on monthly billing, Tooltester has 10,000 at $44.50. Pro’s sending allowance is about 10 times your list. There’s no free trial; the free plan stands in.

Strengths:

• Pro lets you add unlimited users, and unsubscribed, bounced and complained contacts never count.
• Trustpilot gives it 4.8 from 336 reviews, praised for ease of use, price and the free plan.

Drawbacks:

• No AI writing tools and no official MCP server, and Tooltester lists no A/B tests and no automations triggered by opens or clicks.
• New accounts are reviewed before the first send, and a contact on two lists is billed twice.

Versus MailerLite: at 10,000 subscribers on monthly billing, $44.50 against $89 for Comfort (review-site readings for both), and every extra user is free where Comfort includes 3 seats. MailerLite has its HeyLite AI tools and an MCP server; EmailOctopus has neither. EmailOctopus profile

Moosend sells email marketing and automation to small and mid-size businesses. It has Athens roots and a London registration, and has belonged to Constant Contact since June 2025. Pro includes campaigns, automation workflows, landing pages, forms and A/B tests.

Price, October 2026: Moosend’s blog puts Pro at $9 a month for 500 subscribers. On monthly billing, review sites reading its slider list 1,000 subscribers at $16, 5,000 at $48 and 10,000 at $88. Paying for six months saves 15%, a year 20%. Every Pro tier sends without limit. No free plan; a 30-day trial covers up to 1,000 contacts, no card needed. Seasonal senders can pick credits: 350,000 emails cost $350 and never expire.

Strengths:

• The price follows subscribers, not sends, so a daily newsletter costs the same as a monthly one.
• Reviewers on G2 (4.6 from 744) and Capterra (4.6 from 195) praise ease of use and price.

Drawbacks:

• Trustpilot shows 2.9 from just 85 reviews, and five of the eight newest (October 27, 2026) are billing complaints, including an unwanted renewal and refused refunds. The terms make fees non-refundable and ask for written notice 60 days before a renewal.
• Pro includes 5 team members, chat and email support run 24/5, and there’s no official MCP server.

Versus MailerLite: for 5,000 subscribers mailed daily, Moosend’s $48 compares with $69 on MailerLite Power, whose sends aren’t capped either (fair use applies; review-site readings for both). You give up a free plan. Moosend profile

Known as Sendinblue until 2023, Brevo is a marketing suite from Paris that puts email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, live chat and a CRM under one account.

Price, October 2026: the bill follows emails sent per month, not subscribers. Free allows 300 emails a day and keeps up to 100,000 contacts, with the Brevo logo. Starter is $9 and Standard $18 for 5,000 emails, but the small tiers cap contacts too: 500 at 5,000 emails, 1,500 at 10,000, 2,500 at 15,000. From 20,000 emails ($32 on Starter, $69 on Standard) you can store up to 500,000 contacts. Professional begins at $499 (150,000 emails), and paying yearly takes off 10%.

Strengths:

• A rarely mailed large list stays cheap: from the 20,000-email tier, stored contacts stop driving the price.
• Transactional email by API and SMTP is included on every plan.

Drawbacks:

• On page one of Trustpilot’s one- and two-star filter, 8 of 20 reviews describe a suspension (October 26, 2026); support that opens with a bot comes next. Trustpilot rates Brevo 3.8 from 7,249.
• Removing the logo on Starter costs extra: $12 a month in Brevo’s price list, $9 in its add-ons help article.

Versus MailerLite: 10,000 subscribers mailed twice a month is 20,000 emails, which costs $32 on Brevo Starter ($44 without the logo) against $89 on Comfort. The more often you send, the smaller that gap gets, because Brevo’s price rises with volume while MailerLite’s follows the list. Brevo profile

Entries 5 and 6 suit people who sell through their email, a step past MailerLite’s digital products and paid newsletters.

An Irish-registered company launched systeme.io in 2018 to put an online business in one login: email, sales funnels, websites, online courses, webinars, communities and a checkout.

Price, October 2026: Free covers 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels and one course. For 5,000 contacts, Startup is $17 a month; Webinar is $47 for 10,000, and Unlimited is $97 with no contact cap. Yearly billing gives two months free: $170, $470 and $970 a year. Email sends are unlimited on every plan.

Strengths:

• 0% transaction fees on sales through Stripe or PayPal, and unlimited sub-accounts on every plan.
• An MCP server on every plan, Free included, and 4.9 on Trustpilot from 8,709 reviews.

Drawbacks:

• Plans aren’t refundable, and exceed the plan and you have 3 days to reduce usage before an automatic upgrade. Free is capped at $10,000 in lifetime sales, after which payment pages stop taking orders until you upgrade.
• Recent one-star reviews describe accounts or sending blocked with little explanation. And with affiliates paid 60% of every sale, many review pages online are written by affiliates.

Versus MailerLite: at 5,000 contacts, $17 against $49 on Comfort, and the free plan stores 8 times as many contacts. Email is thinner: G2 and Capterra reviewers cite limited email analytics and basic design options. systeme.io profile

Omnisend is email, SMS and web push for ecommerce. It imports customer, order and browsing data from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix and other platforms, then runs welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase flows on that data.

Price, October 2026: the free tier allows 250 contacts and 500 monthly emails. For 500 contacts, Standard starts at $16 a month, with emails up to 12 times your contacts, and Pro at $59 for 2,500 contacts with unlimited emails under fair use. A first upgrade can prepay 3 months at 30% off. Kanal and Email Tool Tester read 10,000 contacts at $132 on Standard and $150 on Pro. Since May 4, 2026, new subscriptions can add texting only on Pro, paid per message.

Strengths:

• Live chat and email support 24/7 on every plan, Free included.
• Ratings are consistent: the Shopify App Store shows 4.7 from 3,197, Trustpilot 4.4 from 510.

Drawbacks:

• Once a buyer who never opted in receives an automated message, they count toward the bill.

Versus MailerLite: it costs more at both sizes compared: $16 against $12 at 500 contacts, $132 against $89 on Comfort at 10,000. The extra buys segments and flows driven by store data. MailerLite’s Shopify sync has worked both ways since August 27, 2026, so a small shop may not need to move. Omnisend profile

Entries 7 through 9 each push past MailerLite in a single direction: automation, webinars or integrations.

ActiveCampaign is email marketing and automation from Chicago, founded in 2003, with an optional sales CRM. Flows trigger on a signup, click or purchase, then split by each contact’s next move.

Price, October 2026: at 1,000 contacts on yearly billing, the four plans run $15 a month (Starter), $49 (Plus), $79 (Pro) and $145 (Enterprise). Review sites list Starter at $19 on monthly billing. No free plan exists, but a 14-day trial runs without a card. For 10,000 contacts billed yearly, Venture Harbour estimates Plus at about $189 a month.

Strengths:

• Reviewers rate the automation depth highest, and Pro adds predictive send times, conditional content and attribution.
• Through a remote MCP server, Claude or ChatGPT can add contacts, fetch campaign results and send campaigns.

Drawbacks:

• Unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced contacts are billed too on any account opened since November 3, 2025.
• Recent Trustpilot reviews say support is hard to reach; the score is 2.7 from 1,450.

Versus MailerLite: Starter allows 5 actions per automation, against 100 steps on MailerLite Comfort, so the case for moving starts at Plus. At 10,000 contacts billed yearly, that’s about $189 against about $116 for MailerLite Power (review sites’ $129, less 10%). ActiveCampaign profile

GetResponse, founded in Poland in 1998 and based in Gdańsk, covers newsletters, automation, landing pages, funnels, webinars, courses, paid newsletters and websites.

Price, October 2026: Starter is $19 a month at 1,000 contacts, Marketer $59 and Creator $69, or 18% less on yearly billing ($15.58, $48.38 and $56.58). Creator adds webinars for up to 100 attendees, the course builder and paid newsletters. The free plan carries a GetResponse badge and allows 500 contacts and 2,500 newsletters a month. At 10,000 contacts, Email Tool Tester and Style Factory list $79, $114 and $134.

Strengths:

• The price follows contacts only, with no send cap on paid plans.
• Most five-star reviews on Trustpilot praise support, and some name the agent. An MCP server reached every account at no charge on October 5, 2026.

Drawbacks:

• GetResponse doesn’t issue refunds, and about half of the recent one- and two-star reviews are about billing. A contact on two lists counts twice, and one added and deleted in the same month still counts.
• Starter has a single automation workflow.

Versus MailerLite: at 10,000 contacts, Starter’s $79 sits under Comfort’s $89 without the 100,000-email cap, and the free plan holds 500 contacts against 250. Trustpilot rates GetResponse 4.2 from 1,043. GetResponse profile

Mailchimp, owned by Intuit since 2021, is email marketing with more than 300 integrations, ecommerce automation and detailed reporting.

Price, October 2026: Free stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month. For 500 contacts, Essentials begins at $13 a month and Standard at $20; Premium begins at $350 for 10,000. For 10,000 contacts, third-party price tables show about $110 on Essentials and $135 on Standard.

Strengths:

• 300+ integrations, and Standard adds predictive segments such as purchase likelihood and customer lifetime value.
• 24/7 email and chat support on paid plans, and a Mailchimp app inside ChatGPT and Claude, available in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Drawbacks:

• Unsubscribed contacts count toward the plan until you archive them.
• Trustpilot rates it 2.5 from 1,553 reviews, with complaints about technical errors, slow help and unexpected charges.

Versus MailerLite: Mailchimp costs more at every size compared here: $13 against $12 at 500 contacts, and about $110 against $89 at 10,000. MailerLite Free also sends 5 times as many emails. Pick Mailchimp for an integration MailerLite lacks, not for the bill. See the Mailchimp profile and Mailchimp alternatives for more.

Begin with how you send, then check the price at your actual list size:

• Your list fits a free plan. Sender (2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails) or EmailOctopus (2,500 and 10,000). systeme.io if you also sell a course.
• A weekly newsletter to a few thousand people. EmailOctopus Pro or Sender Standard.
• You send every day. Moosend, or GetResponse Starter; both bill by contacts with no send cap.
• You mail a big list a few times a month. Brevo.
• You sell courses, coaching or downloads. systeme.io; GetResponse Creator if you also run webinars.
• You run a store. Omnisend.
• Your automations branch. ActiveCampaign Plus or above.
• You depend on one integration. Mailchimp.

Before you switch, plan for a review. Sender and EmailOctopus check every new account before its first send, GetResponse may check imported lists, and Sender and systeme.io can ask for proof that each contact opted in. Keep MailerLite running until the new account can send.

I wouldn’t leave MailerLite over the June price change alone. At 1,000 subscribers, Comfort went up $4 a month by review sites’ reading, and moving still means a new account review and authenticating your domain again. I’d move when the free plan no longer fits (Sender or EmailOctopus), when you send daily (Moosend), or when you sell more than you write (systeme.io or Omnisend).

If MailerLite suspended you, find out why before signing up elsewhere, because the tools above enforce similar rules. And if that list was prospects who never subscribed, none of them will take it: that’s cold email, what I built Reachkit to do (how that setup works).

Related: the MailerLite profile, Mailchimp alternatives and Klaviyo alternatives.