Free up to 1,000 subscribers, clean automation builder, and $140 per affiliate referral. But does it hold up against Systeme.io and GetResponse for online income creators?
MailerLite is an email marketing platform built specifically for small creators, solopreneurs, and small businesses. It lets you collect email addresses, send broadcast campaigns, and set up automated sequences — the kind that welcome a new subscriber, deliver a lead magnet, and then pitch an affiliate offer three days later.
It's been around since 2010 but has improved significantly with its 2024–2026 redesign. The editor is drag-and-drop, the automation builder is visual, and the interface doesn't require a tutorial to navigate. That's rare in this category — most email tools have a steep learning curve that puts off beginners.
MailerLite is not an all-in-one platform. It doesn't host your digital products, build your sales funnels, or manage your affiliate programme. It does email and does it well. If you need those other features, pair it with Gumroad for products and a separate landing page tool, or switch to Systeme.io which bundles everything.
MailerLite is right for you if: you're building your first email list and want a tool that won't overwhelm you, you want strong deliverability without paying £50/month for it, or you're running an affiliate content operation and need clean email sequences.
Skip MailerLite if: you need funnel building, digital product hosting, and email in one tool (Systeme.io does all three free), you're sending to a list of 10,000+ and want advanced segmentation (GetResponse or ActiveCampaign serve you better), or you're doing heavy ecommerce automation (Klaviyo is built for that).
We built a 7-step welcome sequence using MailerLite's visual automation editor. Triggers, delays, conditions, and email actions are all drag-and-drop. It took under 30 minutes to build a sequence that would have taken 2–3 hours in older tools. The conditional branching (e.g., "if subscriber clicked link X, send email A, otherwise send email B") works cleanly and doesn't require technical knowledge.
MailerLite includes landing page and pop-up form builders on all plans including free. We built a lead magnet delivery page in 20 minutes using their templates. The page rendered well on mobile. You can connect a custom domain on the paid plan, which matters for branding. On the free plan, your landing page URL will have mailerlite.com in it.
This is where MailerLite genuinely stands out. We ran campaigns to a freshly warmed list of 800 subscribers and saw 42% open rate and 6.8% click rate — both above industry averages. MailerLite manually reviews every new account before activation, which keeps their shared IP reputation clean. This is why their deliverability consistently scores above 95% in third-party tests.
Available on the Growing Business plan ($9/month). You can test subject lines, sender names, or full email content. Results are clear and the winning version sends automatically. It's basic compared to enterprise tools, but more than enough for a creator building their first list.
The account approval process frustrated us initially — it took 6 hours to get approved as a new account. But once we were in, the platform worked exactly as advertised. Deliverability is genuinely better than most free tools, and the editor is the cleanest we've used at this price point. If you're starting from zero and just need email, this is the one.
We used MailerLite to build a 5-email affiliate sequence for a digital product campaign. The sequence was: welcome email → lead magnet delivery → value email → soft pitch → direct offer. Total build time including writing and design: 2 hours 20 minutes. The automation ran without issues and all 5 emails hit the primary inbox in our test accounts.
The one genuine frustration: the free plan requires MailerLite branding on emails. It's small and in the footer, but it's there. At $9/month the branding disappears and you get unlimited monthly emails (the free plan caps at 12,000). For anyone running a real business, the $9 upgrade is worth it from day one.
| Plan | Price | Subscribers | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Up to 1,000 | Automations, landing pages, 12,000 emails/month, MailerLite branding |
| Growing Business | From $9/month | 500–500K | No branding, unlimited emails, A/B testing, custom domains |
| Advanced | From $18/month | 500–500K | AI writing, custom HTML editor, smart sending, promotion pop-ups |
| Enterprise | Custom | 500K+ | Dedicated IP, account manager, custom terms |
For 1,000 subscribers the Growing Business plan is $9/month. For 5,000 subscribers it's $19/month. For 10,000 subscribers it's $34/month. This is consistently cheaper than GetResponse and Klaviyo at equivalent list sizes.
| Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | 1,000 subs, 12K emails/mo | $9/month | Clean email + automations, high deliverability |
| Systeme.io | 2,000 subs + funnels + products | $27/month | All-in-one for digital product sellers |
| GetResponse | 500 contacts, limited | $15/month | Webinars + advanced automation |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | 10,000 subs (broadcast only) | $25/month | Content creators with large lists |
| Brevo | 300 emails/day | $9/month | Transactional email + SMS |
1,000 subscribers, full automations, landing pages — free forever. No credit card required.
Start free on MailerLite →Disclosure: this page contains affiliate links. If you sign up through our link, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we've personally tested.