At 5,000 contacts, Mailchimp Essentials costs $75/month while MailerLite Comfort costs $49/month — and the gap widens as lists grow. MailerLite is cheaper at virtually every list size in 2026, with fairer billing: only active subscribers count. This comparison gives exact prices at every size and names where Mailchimp still wins.
In this comparison
- Head-to-head pricing at every list size
- The billing models: why MailerLite’s is fairer
- Free plans compared
- What each platform gives you for the money
- Automation compared
- Templates, builder, and ease of use
- The cases where Mailchimp wins
- The honest verdict
- Key takeaways
- FAQs
Head-to-head pricing at every list size
All figures as of Sept 2026: Mailchimp from 2026 verified pricing (https://www.retainful.com/blog/mailchimp-pricing), MailerLite from the Sept 2026 pricing guide (https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/reviews/mailerlite/pricing/). Monthly billing, USD. Check both vendors’ current pricing pages before buying.
| List size | Mailchimp Essentials | Mailchimp Standard | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13/mo | $20/mo | $12/mo | $25/mo |
| 1,000 | ~$27/mo | ~$45/mo | $19/mo | $39/mo |
| 2,500 | $45/mo | $60/mo | $33/mo | $49/mo |
| 5,000 | $75/mo | $100/mo | $49/mo | $69/mo |
| 10,000 | $110/mo | $135/mo | $89/mo | $129/mo |
| 25,000 | $270/mo | $310/mo | ~$179/mo | ~$239/mo |
| 50,000 | $385/mo | $450/mo | $289/mo | $389/mo |
The pattern is unambiguous: MailerLite Comfort undercuts Mailchimp Essentials by 8% at 500 contacts and by 25–35% at 5,000–50,000 contacts — while including features (like multi-step automation) that Mailchimp reserves for Standard. At 10,000 contacts, MailerLite Comfort ($89/mo) costs less than Mailchimp Essentials ($110/mo) and roughly a third less than the comparable Mailchimp Standard ($135/mo).
Put differently: a business paying $100/month for Mailchimp Standard at 5,000 contacts could get MailerLite Power — unlimited emails, unlimited automations — at $69/month and still save $31/month. For the individual deep dives behind these numbers, see our Mailchimp review and MailerLite review.
The billing models: why MailerLite’s is fairer
The price tables understate MailerLite’s advantage, because the billing mechanics differ in MailerLite’s favor:
Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts toward your total — only archived, cleaned, or deleted contacts are excluded. A list of 5,000 “contacts” that includes 1,500 unsubscribes bills as 5,000. Duplicates across audiences count multiple times. Overages apply automatically when you exceed your tier.
MailerLite counts only active subscribers — those emailed in the past 30 days. Inactive contacts don’t inflate the bill. There are no audience-duplication traps, and the model is simply subscriber count, transparently tiered.
The practical effect: Mailchimp’s billed contact count is almost always higher than your mailable list, while MailerLite’s billed subscriber count tracks your actual sending audience. A business with a 6,000-person Mailchimp audience including 1,500 unsubscribes pays the 5,001–10,000 tier ($110/mo Essentials); the same audience on MailerLite bills only for active subscribers. This is why our how to clean your email list guide matters far more for Mailchimp users — on Mailchimp, hygiene directly lowers the invoice.
For the full taxonomy of pricing models across the industry, see email marketing pricing explained.
Free plans compared
Both platforms cut their free plans in 2026:
| Mailchimp free | MailerLite free | |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts/subscribers | 250 | 250 |
| Sends | 500/month (250/day cap) | 2,500/month |
| Automation | None | 3 automations (5 steps each) |
| Templates | Limited | Limited |
| Extras | — | 1 landing page, 1 website, 1 digital product |
| Support | Email, first 30 days | Knowledge base/webinars |
MailerLite’s free plan sends 5x more emails, includes working automation, and bundles a landing page, website, and product sale — Mailchimp’s includes none of those. Neither free plan is a long-term home anymore, but MailerLite’s is the more useful evaluation. The broader free-plan landscape is ranked in our best free email marketing software guide.
What each platform gives you for the money
Price is only half the comparison — here’s what the money buys at the comparable tiers (Mailchimp Standard ~$20/mo vs MailerLite Comfort ~$12/mo at 500 contacts):
Email builder: MailerLite’s editor is widely regarded as the cleaner, faster tool with the shorter learning curve. Mailchimp’s builder is capable with more blocks, but the experience is busier. For day-to-day campaign creation, most users will be faster in MailerLite.
Templates: Mailchimp’s 380+ template library dwarfs MailerLite’s 100+ (paid plans). If you run varied, design-heavy campaigns, this is Mailchimp’s strongest non-price advantage.
AI features: Both offer AI writing assistance — Mailchimp’s Intuit Assist (Standard+) and MailerLite’s AI writing assistant with smart sending (Comfort+). Comparable in practice; neither is category-leading.
Landing pages and websites: MailerLite includes a real website builder (1 site free, 10 on Comfort, unlimited on Power) and landing pages on every plan. Mailchimp’s website product is a separate offering with its own pricing. For a small business wanting email + web presence in one account, MailerLite bundles more.
Monetization: MailerLite lets you sell digital products, bookings, and paid subscriptions from landing pages (5 products on Comfort, unlimited on Power). Mailchimp has no native equivalent at these tiers.
SMS and transactional: Mailchimp offers SMS as a paid add-on ($20+/month for credits) and transactional email via Mandrill ($20 per 25,000 emails) on Standard+. MailerLite’s SMS/transactional story is thinner — neither platform is the pick for SMS-heavy strategies (see Brevo for that).
Automation compared
MailerLite: automation on every plan including free (3 automations). Comfort allows 50 automations with 100 steps each; Power is unlimited with multiple triggers per automation. The visual builder handles welcome sequences, abandoned carts, and re-engagement well. Branching logic is thinner than enterprise tools but adequate for small-business workflows.
Mailchimp: no automation on free; Essentials caps flows at 4 steps; Standard unlocks the full journey builder (200 steps, branching, 100+ templates, predictive triggers, Shopify behavior events). Mailchimp’s ceiling is higher — predictive segmentation and behavioral triggers on Standard exceed anything MailerLite offers.
The honest read: MailerLite gives you more automation per dollar up to the mid-market; Mailchimp’s automation goes deeper at the top end. A small business running standard lifecycle flows gets more from MailerLite Comfort ($12–$49/mo) than from Mailchimp Essentials — and would need Mailchimp Standard ($20–$100/mo) to match MailerLite’s mid-tier automation depth.
New to automation concepts? Our marketing automation explained guide covers what beginners should know before choosing.
Templates, builder, and ease of use
Ease of use favors MailerLite clearly — it’s the simplest full-featured platform to learn, with new users sending competent campaigns quickly. Mailchimp’s interface, expanded over years of feature additions, is powerful but busier; onboarding takes longer.
The template gap (380+ vs 100+) is real but narrower in practice than on paper: most businesses rotate among a handful of layouts, and MailerLite’s 100+ modern templates cover the common cases. The gap matters most for agencies and high-volume campaign producers who need constant variety.
Deliverability is a wash with a slight MailerLite edge in reputation — its strict manual account approval keeps shared infrastructure clean, supporting strong inbox placement. Mailchimp advertises 99%+ delivery rates. Sender practices dominate either way; see email deliverability basics.
The cases where Mailchimp wins
Intellectual honesty requires naming them — Mailchimp’s premium isn’t pure brand tax:
- Deep ecommerce automation. Predictive segmentation, 100+ flow templates, Shopify behavior triggers (browse, search, cart events), and churn-risk predictions on Standard. Stores using this depth will earn back the premium.
- Template-heavy production. Agencies and content teams producing varied campaigns weekly benefit from 380+ templates.
- High-frequency sending to small lists. Mailchimp’s 10–12x send multipliers favor daily senders; MailerLite’s Comfort email caps (10x subscriber tier) are comparable, but Mailchimp Standard’s 12x gives headroom.
- Retargeting ads and multivariate testing built into the platform (Standard+).
- 24/7 chat support from the $13 tier — MailerLite reserves live chat for Power ($25/mo+).
If none of these describe you — and for most small businesses, none do — the premium buys features you won’t open.
The honest verdict
Choose MailerLite if: budget matters (it does for most small businesses); you want the simplest capable platform; you value fair billing that doesn’t punish inactive contacts; you want landing pages, a website, and product sales bundled in; or you’re a beginner who wants to be productive today. At $12/month starting, it’s the default recommendation for the broad middle of small businesses.
Choose Mailchimp if: you run a Shopify store that will genuinely use predictive segmentation and behavior-triggered flows; template breadth is a production bottleneck; or you need 24/7 chat support at the cheapest tier. Go in on Standard ($20/mo+), not Essentials — Essentials is the worst value in this comparison, costing more than MailerLite Comfort while offering less automation.
The bottom line: MailerLite costs less at every list size, bills more fairly, and includes more for the money up to the mid-market. Mailchimp justifies its premium only for ecommerce depth and template volume. For everyone else, this comparison has a clear winner — which is why MailerLite, not Mailchimp, is our default small-business pick in the cheapest email marketing software roundup.
- MailerLite Comfort undercuts Mailchimp Essentials at every list size: $49 vs $75 at 5,000 contacts; $89 vs $110 at 10,000; $289 vs $385 at 50,000.
- MailerLite bills only active subscribers (emailed in the past 30 days); Mailchimp bills subscribed + unsubscribed + non-subscribed contacts.
- MailerLite’s free plan (2,500 sends, 3 automations, landing page + website) outclasses Mailchimp’s (500 sends, no automation).
- Mailchimp’s advantages: 380+ templates, deeper ecommerce automation (predictive segmentation, Shopify behavior triggers), 24/7 chat from $13/mo.
- MailerLite’s advantages: cleaner builder, fairer billing, bundled website/landing pages/product sales, automation on every plan.
- Mailchimp Essentials is the weakest value in this comparison — Standard ($20/mo+) is the only Mailchimp tier worth considering.
- All pricing as of Sept 2026; check both vendors’ current pricing pages before buying.
FAQs
Which is cheaper, Mailchimp or MailerLite?
MailerLite, at every list size. At 5,000 contacts it’s $49/month (Comfort) versus $75/month (Mailchimp Essentials); at 10,000 it’s $89 versus $110. The gap widens further once Mailchimp’s billing of unsubscribed contacts is factored in.
Why is MailerLite cheaper than Mailchimp?
Lower base prices at every tier, plus a fairer billing model — MailerLite counts only active subscribers emailed in the past 30 days, while Mailchimp bills for unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts too. MailerLite also bundles landing pages, websites, and product sales that Mailchimp charges separately for or lacks.
Should I switch from Mailchimp to MailerLite?
If you’re paying for Mailchimp Essentials, or your Mailchimp bill is inflated by unsubscribed contacts, switching usually cuts the bill 25–40% with no meaningful feature loss for standard small-business use. See our how to switch email platforms guide for the migration process.
Is MailerLite good for ecommerce?
For basic ecommerce (welcome series, abandoned carts, post-purchase flows), yes — and cheaper than Mailchimp. For advanced ecommerce (predictive segmentation, behavior-triggered lifecycle marketing), Mailchimp Standard is deeper.
Does MailerLite have a free plan?
Yes — 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month, 3 automations, 1 landing page, 1 website, and 1 digital product. It’s more generous than Mailchimp’s free plan but no longer a long-term home for growing businesses.
Conclusion
Mailchimp vs MailerLite in 2026 is the rare comparison with a clear price winner: MailerLite costs less at every list size, bills more fairly, and bundles more of what small businesses need. The June 2026 overhaul narrowed MailerLite’s free plan but left its paid value intact — Comfort at $12/month remains the best-priced complete email platform for small businesses.
Mailchimp keeps its crown in exactly two arenas: deep ecommerce automation and template volume. If you live in those arenas daily, pay the premium on Standard and don’t look back. For everyone else — the newsletter senders, the small stores, the budget-conscious — MailerLite delivers 90% of the capability at 60–75% of the price, with a billing model that doesn’t punish you for contacts you can’t email. That’s not a close call.