MailerLite’s 2026 Price Overhaul: What Changed and What to Do

MailerLite's June 2026 overhaul renamed plans to Comfort and Power and cut the free plan to 250 subscribers. What changed, who pays more, and what to do.

In June 2026, MailerLite executed the most thorough pricing rebuild of any major email platform this year: Growing Business and Advanced became Comfort and Power, the free plan was roughly halved, and premium features moved around. If you use MailerLite — or are considering it — here’s what changed, who pays more, and what to do. Pricing current as of September 2026.

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In this guide

What changed: the overhaul at a glance

The June 2026 overhaul touched nearly every part of MailerLite’s pricing (sources: EmailToolTester, MailerLite Pricing 2026; EmailVendorSelection, MailerLite Pricing 2026):

  • Renames: “Growing Business” → Comfort; “Advanced” → Power. Same plan positions, new names, some feature reshuffling.
  • Free plan cut: from 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month down to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. MailerLite branding on emails is not removable on free, and the AI writing assistant, smart sending, and landing page A/B testing are excluded.
  • Trial shortened: new users get 14 days of premium features instead of 30, no credit card required.
  • Feature unlocks for free users: alongside the cuts, MailerLite opened some premium features to free accounts — custom campaigns, the HTML editor, landing page templates, a blog on your website, and 100+ integrations.
  • Annual discount: still 10% off for yearly billing; nonprofits get 30% off.

The headline the company would prefer: simpler plan names and more features for free users. The headline users felt: the free plan lost half its capacity, and anyone running a real newsletter on free is now paying.

The new plans: Free, Comfort, Power, Enterprise

Free — $0. 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month, 2 user seats, 3 active automations (5 steps each), 1 website, 1 landing page, 3 active forms/popups, 1 digital product or booking. Enough to test the platform properly or run a genuinely tiny list — and not much more. At 250 subscribers and 2,500 sends, you can email your full list about ten times a month, which sounds fine until your list hits 251 and the whole plan stops working for you.

Comfort — from $12/month (500 subscribers). 5,000 emails/month at the entry tier (scales at roughly 10x the subscriber limit), 50 active automations with 100 steps, AI writing assistant, smart sending, landing page A/B testing, custom domains, preference center, unsubscribe page builder, and email support. This is the plan most small businesses land on: the full practical toolkit without the “everything unlimited” premium.

Power — from $25/month (500 subscribers). Everything in Comfort, plus unlimited emails, unlimited automations (with multiple triggers per automation), unlimited users, unlimited landing pages and forms, 24/7 live chat support, Facebook Custom Audiences, and partner discounts. The jump from Comfort is about control and scale rather than new headline features.

Enterprise — custom pricing. For lists over roughly 200,000–250,000 subscribers: dedicated success manager, priority support, account audits. If you are reading a pricing guide, this probably is not you yet.

Price ladder for reference (monthly billing, as of September 2026): at 1,000 subscribers, Comfort $19 / Power $39; at 5,000, $49 / $69; at 10,000, $89 / $129; at 50,000, $319 / $389 (source: EmailVendorSelection). Annual billing knocks 10% off.

Free plan: what 250 subscribers really gets you

The old free plan (500 subscribers, 12,000 emails) could run a small-but-real newsletter indefinitely. The new one cannot — and that is clearly the point. At 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month, the free plan is now a trial with no expiry date: generous enough to learn the platform, build your first landing page, set up a welcome automation, and send your first campaigns, but not enough to operate.

The math that matters: the free plan breaks the moment you succeed. Subscriber 251 means upgrading to Comfort at $12/month — which is, to be fair, one of the cheapest paid entry points in the industry. MailerLite is betting that users who outgrow free will pay rather than migrate, and at $12/month with the platform already configured, most will.

One genuinely user-friendly detail survives the overhaul: MailerLite counts only active used subscribers — unique subscribers you have actually emailed in the past 30 days — toward your limit. Unsubscribed, inactive, and duplicate contacts do not inflate your tier the way they do on Mailchimp or post-2025 ActiveCampaign accounts. If your list has a long tail of quiet subscribers, this counting method quietly saves you a tier.

Comfort vs Power: which one do you actually need?

For most small businesses, Comfort is enough — and MailerLite knows it. The honest comparison:

Choose Comfort if: you have one to three team members, you send regular campaigns (not daily blasts to a huge list), 50 automations sounds like plenty (it is — most businesses run fewer than ten), and email support with reasonable response times works for you. At $12–$49/month for lists up to 5,000, it is among the best value paid plans in email marketing as of September 2026.

Choose Power if: you need unlimited emails (high-frequency senders — daily deals, news operations), you have more than three collaborators, you want 24/7 live chat instead of email support, you run complex automations needing multiple triggers, or the partner discounts and Facebook Custom Audiences integration matter to your stack. The price gap widens with list size ($40/month difference at 10,000 subscribers), so re-evaluate at each tier.

The common mistake is buying Power “for the AI writing assistant” — it is included on Comfort too. Read the feature table, not the plan names: the names changed in June 2026, but the value logic (Comfort = practical toolkit, Power = unlimited scale) is the same as the old Growing Business vs Advanced split. Our MailerLite review covers the platform itself in depth.

Who pays more after the overhaul — and who doesn’t

Pays more: anyone who was running a real operation on the old free plan (500 subscribers / 12,000 emails). That setup no longer exists — you are now on Comfort at minimum, $12–$19/month depending on list size. Also affected: users who relied on the 30-day trial to evaluate premium features; 14 days is enough to test, but not to run a full campaign cycle.

Pays about the same: existing paying subscribers. Comfort maps closely to the old Growing Business pricing, Power to the old Advanced. If you were paying before June 2026, your invoice should look familiar — verify it, but do not expect a shock.

Effectively pays less: nobody, directly — but the active-subscriber counting and the 10% annual discount remain meaningful savings versus competitors for lists with heavy inactive tails. A 10,000-address list with 6,000 actives bills at the 6,000 tier on MailerLite; on Mailchimp it bills at 10,000 (and unsubscribed contacts count too).

The strategic read: MailerLite used the overhaul to do what Mailchimp did in February 2026 — convert free riders into paying customers — while keeping paid pricing competitive. It is a worse free platform than it was and roughly as good a paid platform. Judge it on the paid plans, because the free plan is no longer where the product lives.

If the new pricing pushes you to shop around, see how MailerLite stacks up dollar-for-dollar against its closest rival in Mailchimp vs MailerLite, and against the broader budget field in our cheapest email software comparison.

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What to do: a playbook for current and prospective users

If you are on the free plan now: check your subscriber count today. If you are under 200 and growing slowly, you have runway — but plan the Comfort upgrade into your budget now ($12/month) rather than hitting the wall mid-campaign. If you are already near 250, upgrade before your next send; MailerLite pauses sending when you exceed the limit.

If you are a paying user: verify your June–September invoices against the new plan names and confirm you are on the tier you think you are on. Renames are when billing errors hide. Then check your active-subscriber count versus your tier — the 30-day active counting may have quietly dropped you into a cheaper bracket.

If you are evaluating MailerLite: use the 14-day trial aggressively — it unlocks premium features, so test automations, the AI writing assistant, and landing pages in week one, not week two. And run the numbers at your 12-month projected list size, not today’s: the free plan will not carry you there anymore.

If you are leaving over the free-plan cut: the natural alternatives are Brevo (free: 300 emails/day, unlimited contacts — the most generous free tier left) and Kit (free: up to 10,000 subscribers, though automation was removed from free in September 2026). Compare total cost at your list size before migrating — our free email software guide has the full breakdown.

Everyone: re-check annually. MailerLite just proved it will rebuild pricing when it needs to. Set a reminder, export your list, and confirm the plan still fits — the five minutes it takes is the cheapest insurance in email marketing.

  • June 2026 overhaul: Growing Business → Comfort (from $12/mo), Advanced → Power (from $25/mo); free plan cut to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails; trial shortened to 14 days.
  • Paying users saw little change — Comfort and Power map closely to the old plans at similar prices, with 10% off annual billing.
  • The free plan is now a trial without expiry: fine for learning, unusable for a real newsletter — budget $12/month once you pass 250 subscribers.
  • MailerLite still counts only “active used” subscribers (emailed in the past 30 days) toward limits — friendlier than Mailchimp’s or ActiveCampaign’s counting.
  • Current users should verify post-rename invoices — active-subscriber counting may have dropped you into a cheaper tier.

Frequently asked questions

What changed in MailerLite’s 2026 pricing overhaul?

In June 2026, MailerLite renamed Growing Business to Comfort and Advanced to Power, cut the free plan from 500 subscribers / 12,000 emails per month to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails, shortened the trial from 30 to 14 days, and opened some premium features (HTML editor, landing page templates) to free users (sources: EmailToolTester, EmailVendorSelection).

How much does MailerLite cost now?

As of September 2026: Free ($0, 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails), Comfort from $12/month (500 subscribers), Power from $25/month (500 subscribers). At 5,000 subscribers: Comfort $49, Power $69. At 10,000: $89 / $129. Annual billing saves 10%. Always check MailerLite’s current pricing page before buying.

Is MailerLite’s free plan still worth it?

For learning the platform or running a list under 250 subscribers, yes — it includes automations, landing pages, and the drag-and-drop builder. As a long-term home for a growing newsletter, no: the 250-subscriber cap means you will upgrade to Comfort ($12/month) as soon as you succeed. Treat it as an extended trial, not a permanent plan.

What is the difference between Comfort and Power?

Comfort ($12+/mo) is the practical toolkit: 50 automations, AI writing assistant, smart sending, A/B testing, email support. Power ($25+/mo) adds unlimited emails, automations, users, landing pages and forms, multiple automation triggers, 24/7 live chat, and Facebook Custom Audiences. Most small businesses are fine on Comfort; Power is for high-frequency senders and larger teams.

How does MailerLite count subscribers?

MailerLite bills on “active used” subscribers — unique subscribers you have actually emailed in the past 30 days. Unsubscribed, inactive, and duplicate contacts do not count toward your limit, which is more forgiving than Mailchimp (which counts unsubscribed contacts until archived) or ActiveCampaign’s newer all-contacts billing.

Should I switch from MailerLite after the overhaul?

Probably not, if you are a paying user — the paid plans barely changed and remain among the best value in the industry. If the free-plan cut pushed you out, Brevo’s free tier (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) is the most generous alternative. Compare at your actual list size before migrating; switching platforms to save $12/month rarely pays once migration effort is counted.

Conclusion

MailerLite’s 2026 overhaul was a free-plan reckoning dressed as a rebrand: Comfort and Power are the same good value the paid plans always were, but the free tier no longer sustains a real newsletter. If you pay, verify your invoices post-rename and let the active-subscriber counting work in your favor. If you are on free, budget the $12/month Comfort upgrade as a when, not an if. And whatever you decide, remember the year’s broader lesson — every platform tightened its free offering in 2026, so choose based on the paid plan you will actually live on. Pricing verified as of September 2026; check MailerLite’s current pricing page before you commit.