MailerLite

What it is

MailerLite is an email marketing tool: you collect subscribers through forms and landing pages, write a campaign in a drag-and-drop editor, send it to a segment of your list, and see what happened afterwards. Around the campaigns sits a visual automation builder for sequences that run on their own, such as a welcome series triggered by a new signup.

The parts that usually cost extra elsewhere are included in the same product: a website and landing page builder, signup forms and pop-ups, A/B testing and segmentation. There are over 100 integrations, including Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, ChatGPT and Claude.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits creators, freelancers and small businesses who send a regular newsletter and want one tool rather than an email service plus a landing page product plus a form builder. If your list is in the hundreds or low thousands and your automations are simple sequences rather than branching logic, this is the right weight of tool.

It is a weaker fit for ecommerce businesses whose email depends on purchase behaviour, product feeds and revenue attribution, which is a different category of product. It is also not the choice if you need many users in the account, since the free plan includes 2 user seats and the product is built around a small team.

Pricing

MailerLite is freemium and the free plan is genuinely usable: up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails per month, 2 user seats, 1 website, 1 landing page and 3 signup forms. Comfort starts at $12 per month, where your monthly email allowance is ten times your subscriber tier, so 1,000 subscribers gives you 10,000 emails. Power starts at $25 per month with unlimited emails, and Enterprise covers 200,000 or more subscribers.

The number to watch is not the plan price, it is the subscriber tier. Email pricing rises with list size on every tool in this category, so the honest budgeting question is what you will pay at the list size you expect in a year, not today.

Set it up

Official guide: How to get started with MailerLite

1. Click "Sign up", enter your company or organization name, your email address and a password, then click "Create my account". A 14-day premium trial starts first. After it, the account moves to the Free plan: up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. MailerLite's Terms of Use say it approves a new account before you can send, and it emails you the decision. Have an email address on a domain you own ready as your sender. Your account is now on the trial.
2. Go to "Account settings", open the "Domains" tab, click "Add domain", enter your sender address and click "Save". MailerLite requires this proof that you own the domain. If a popup offers automatic setup, click "Continue" and follow it. It appears only when your domain provider, the company where you bought your web address, works with MailerLite. After setup, your domain is now authenticated.
3. Skip steps 3 and 4 if step 2 finished the setup. Otherwise choose "Or manually authenticate your domain", pick your provider and click "Continue". In your provider's DNS settings, where your web address keeps its records, add the DKIM CNAME record and the Domain verification TXT record, copying the "Name" and "Value" MailerLite shows. You now see these two records in your DNS list.
4. Still in your DNS settings, look at your TXT records. If an SPF record already exists (TXT starting v=spf1), add the include: part of MailerLite's SPF value to it before ~all and never add a second one: a second SPF record can send all your company's email to spam. If none exists, add MailerLite's SPF record as shown. Click "Authenticate" and "Check DNS Records". Your domain is now authenticated.
5. Go to the "Subscribers" page and click "Add subscribers". Open "Import from a CSV or TXT file", drag in your file (a spreadsheet export) and click "Import subscribers". The Free plan holds up to 250 subscribers, so import no more than that, and only people who agreed to get your emails. Choose a group or select "Add new group", match each column to a field and click "Finish import". Your group now holds your subscribers.
6. Go to the "Campaigns" page and click "Create". Select the "Regular" campaign type, which you cannot change later. Choose "Start from scratch", pick the "Drag & drop" editor, write your email and click "Done editing". Fill in the name, subject and sender, click "Select recipients", choose your group and click "Continue". You now see the "Send or schedule" page.
7. Click "Send a test" and read the test email in your own inbox. The email goes to every subscriber in your group and cannot be called back, so check the subject, text and links in the test first. Then choose "Send now", or "Send later" to set a date, time and time zone, and click "Send now/Schedule". Your campaign is now sent, or it waits in your Outbox if you scheduled it.

When this works, you receive your test email from an address on your own domain, and your subscribers receive the same email.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is scope for the price. A free tier that includes automation, landing pages and forms means a newsletter can start earning its keep before it costs anything, and the paid step at $12 per month is small.

The limitations are ceilings and depth. Two user seats on the free plan makes shared ownership awkward early. The automation builder handles sequences well and is not the place to model complex, behaviour-driven customer journeys. And as with every email tool, the price follows your list size, so growth is the thing that changes your bill, not usage of features.