The best MailerLite alternative is Brevo if you hold a large list and pay for holding it, Kit if you are a creator monetising an audience, and Nitrosend if you want an AI agent sending over API, MCP or CLI with unlimited contacts.
Most people arrive here for one reason. MailerLite repriced, the free plan halved, and the tool that was the cheap sane option stopped being obviously cheap.
The short version
Brevo if the list is large and the sending is not, because it charges on emails rather than subscribers. Kit if your list is an audience you publish to rather than customers you sell to. Nitrosend if you want Claude, Codex or Cursor to operate the account, or you want transactional and marketing mail in one place with unlimited contacts. ActiveCampaign if you have outgrown MailerLite's automation. Omnisend if you run a store. Sender if you are optimising the free tier above all else. Mailchimp if you want landing pages, ads and social in the same dashboard.
If none of those describe you, staying is a perfectly good answer. MailerLite is still one of the best-built newsletter tools in the category, and a reprice on its own is a weak reason to move a working list.
Why people leave MailerLite
This is a story about a moat, not about a betrayal.
MailerLite's whole competitive position was being the sane, stable, cheap one while Mailchimp and Klaviyo repriced around it. Then in 2026 it repriced too. The free plan went from 500 active subscribers and 12,000 emails a month to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails, documented at the time by the review site getomnichannel.com. Paid plans moved up roughly 10 to 30% across every subscriber tier, and the top-tier plan at 1,000 subscribers went from $30 to $39 a month, about $108 a year more for the same list. MailerLite had taken private equity investment, which is the usual precondition for this pattern, and having sold SmartrMail into private equity myself I am not going to pretend it is a scandal. It is arithmetic.
The published position today, read from the pricing page on 7 September 2026: free at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, Comfort from $12 a month, and email sending via the API and the MCP server on paid plans only, which the page states directly. That last line matters more than it looks. A free MailerLite account cannot be driven by software at all.
Where it bites hardest is the threshold. We pay attention when a customer tells us they have 800 or 900 subscribers, because that is the point where a free plan stops being free and a decision arrives that nobody planned for. Halving the ceiling to 250 pulls that moment forward by months for most newsletters.
There is also a shift in who is leaving. Legacy MailerLite users are the natural migration group, because the newer experience costs them more than the plan they were on. Agencies are moving client work to AI-native platforms, and builders increasingly pick a platform an agent can operate over a traditional dashboard tool. Nick, who answers our support and deliverability questions, learned the other side of that at SmartrMail and now argues against generous free plans on principle, because a free tier full of people who will never pay is a support cost, not a funnel. MailerLite has clearly reached the same conclusion. It just reached it after you signed up.
How they compare
Scores are out of 10 against criteria whose weights add to 100. They are published in full at the bottom of this page, so you can disagree with a weight and re-rank the table yourself.
Every price came from the vendor's own pricing page on 7 September 2026 and they all move.
We make Nitrosend. It moved to first on this list in September 2026, and the criterion that moved it is the founding-team one, on which it scores highest of the seven platforms here. That criterion is scored on the same four questions for every vendor, the workings are published at the bottom of this page, and if you weight it at zero the platform at the top of this table is Brevo.
MailerLite alternatives compared
Checked| Platform | Rank | Best for | Pricing model | Free tier | From | At 10k contacts | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrosend Agent-native | 1 | Agent-driven email | per send | 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month | $20/mo | n/a | 9.0 |
| Brevo | 2 | Large lists | per send | 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts | $9/mo | n/a | 8.2 |
| Kit | 3 | Creators | per contact | Free up to 10,000 subscribers | $33/mo | n/a | 7.9 |
| ActiveCampaign | 4 | Deep automation | per contact | 14-day trial | $15/mo | $149/mo (Starter) | 7.6 |
| Omnisend | 5 | Small stores | per contact | 250 contacts, 500 emails a month | $16/mo | $132/mo (Standard) | 7.3 |
| Sender | 6 | Free tier | per contact | 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails a month | $10/mo | $57/mo (Standard) | 6.7 |
| Mailchimp | 7 | All-in-one suite | per contact | 250 contacts, max 500 emails/mo or 250/day | $13/mo | $135/mo (Standard) | 6.6 |
1. Nitrosend
Best for: newsletters run by an AI agent, and anyone who wants transactional mail in the same account.
Pricing is on emails sent with unlimited contacts on every tier, so subscriber growth never triggers a plan change. Free is 8,000 emails to start then 500 a month, with up to 100 / 500 / 5,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Free Probation / Standard / Trusted, and full API, MCP and CLI access on every plan including the free one, which is the specific thing MailerLite reserves for paid accounts. Paid starts at $20 a month for 20,000 emails.
The reason to pick it is the operator, not the discount. You connect Claude, Codex or Cursor over MCP and ask for the work: draft the issue, segment the list, schedule the send, tell me what happened. The MCP server exposes 28 nitro_* tools and nothing sends without your approval. Transactional and marketing sit in one account with the streams separated internally, so a password reset never queues behind a newsletter. Builders and agencies moving client work off MailerLite are mostly moving for that, not for a lower invoice.
Where it loses. For a pure newsletter with a drag-and-drop template and no code anywhere near it, MailerLite and Kit are better tools and I would not argue otherwise. We have no on-site popups or browse-abandonment tracking, no inbound email parsing over REST, and no cold outreach. A MailerLite connector is an obvious thing for us to build and it is not shipped, so today an import is a CSV rather than a sync. The point-by-point version is in our Nitrosend and MailerLite comparison.
- Nitrosend at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- newsletters operated by an AI agent, and teams that want transactional mail in the same account
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month
- Entry paid plan
- $20/mo (20,000 emails a month, 5 brands, 3 domains, up to 1,000 / 10,000 / 100,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Pro Probation / Standard / Trusted)
- At 100,000 emails a month
- $100/mo (Ultra)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: docs.nitrosend.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: docs.nitrosend.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing
- Founding team
- George Hartley and Kam Low ran SmartrMail, an email and SMS platform whose buyer Relay Commerce still operates it and publicly lists more than 8,000 brands on it. Kam Low's open-source record runs from 2009 under the Sourcey organisation. All three founders are in post.
- Founding team score
- 9.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- First-party MCP server, a listed app in the ChatGPT app marketplace, and Brand Kit (automatic on-brand email design generation from a scraped brand) -- all three verified.
- AI-native score
- 10 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- MailerLite and Kit are better pure newsletter tools
- No direct MailerLite connector yet, so imports are CSV
- No on-site popups or browse-abandonment tracking
- No inbound email parsing over REST
- Facts checked
2. Brevo
Best for: large contact lists that are emailed occasionally.
Brevo charges on emails sent rather than subscribers held, which is the single change that helps most people leaving MailerLite over the reprice. Its free tier has no contact ceiling and allows 300 emails a day, and paid starts at $9 a month from 5,000 emails. SMS, WhatsApp, chat and a basic CRM come with it, which makes it a consolidation move as well as a cost one.
Two honest caveats. The editor and the general polish are a step down from MailerLite, which is the thing people miss first. And Brevo enforces its sending thresholds automatically and fast, taking the account reporting with it when it fires, which we documented on the Brevo alternatives page. Clean your list before you point it here.
- Brevo at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- large contact lists that are emailed occasionally
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts
- Entry paid plan
- $9/mo (from 5,000 emails a month)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- yes
- Owner
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, independent)
- Support
- Help center: help.brevo.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.brevo.com
- Status page
- System status: status.brevo.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: brevo.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Armand Thiberge founded Brevo in 2012 and is still chief executive, though ownership is now heavily institutional after the December 2025 round.
- Founding team score
- 5.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Has a first-party MCP server for agent-callable access, but no verified on-brand automatic design generation (Brand Kit-style) or ChatGPT app marketplace listing.
- AI-native score
- 4 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- The editor and general polish are a step down from MailerLite
- Enforcement is automatic and takes the reporting with the account
- The CRM is basic next to a sales tool
- Facts checked
3. Kit
Best for: creators and writers whose list is an audience.
Advanced visual automations, digital product sales, a recommendation network and referral tooling. If your MailerLite account is a newsletter you are trying to turn into a business, this is a better-shaped tool and the growth features do not exist anywhere else on this list.
The pricing page carries a $0 plan described as free up to 10,000 subscribers alongside a Creator plan at $33 a month for 1,000 email subscribers, which is a strange overlap and worth checking in a browser before you plan around it. No SMS, no store triggers, and the commerce features assume you sell your own products.
- Kit at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- creators and writers turning a newsletter into a business
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- Free up to 10,000 subscribers
- Entry paid plan
- $33/mo (1,000 email subscribers, $390 billed yearly)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- no
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
- Support
- Help center: help.kit.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.kit.com
- Status page
- System status: status.kit.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: kit.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Nathan Barry founded Kit in 2013, took no venture capital and is still chief executive. No engineering reputation attached to a named person.
- Founding team score
- 6.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No SMS and no store triggers
- Commerce features assume you sell your own products
- The free and paid subscriber limits on the page overlap oddly
- Facts checked
4. ActiveCampaign
Best for: teams that have outgrown simple automation.
Behaviour-based triggers, a real CRM and branching that holds up under complexity. If you left MailerLite because a flow could not do what you needed, this is the level above it.
Price it before you commit. No free tier, only a 14-day trial. Starter lists at $15 a month for 1,000 contacts on annual billing and $149 a month at 10,000 contacts, and new accounts opened from November 2025 are billed on all contacts including unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed. That is a stricter version of the per-subscriber model you already have. More on the ActiveCampaign alternatives page.
- ActiveCampaign at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- teams that left because an automation could not do what they needed
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 14-day trial
- Entry paid plan
- $15/mo (1,000 email contacts, 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation; billed annually)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $149/mo (Starter)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: help.activecampaign.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.activecampaign.com
- Status page
- System status: status.activecampaign.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: activecampaign.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Jason VandeBoom founded ActiveCampaign in 2003 and is still chief executive after thirteen bootstrapped years and three funding rounds.
- Founding team score
- 7.00 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No free tier, only a 14-day trial
- Cost climbs steeply with contact count
- New accounts are billed on all contacts including unsubscribed and bounced
- Facts checked
5. Omnisend
Best for: small stores that need product triggers rather than a newsletter.
Email and SMS in one automation with pre-built e-commerce workflows and product recommendations, free to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month. If your MailerLite account is attached to a shop, this is the specialist version of what you have been doing by hand.
Reporting is thinner than Klaviyo's, the integration list is shorter, and the entry price on the page carried a 30% promotional discount when we read it, so treat the figure in the table as promotional until you have a quote.
- Omnisend at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- small stores that need product triggers rather than a newsletter
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 contacts, 500 emails a month
- Entry paid plan
- $16/mo (500 contacts, 3,000 emails a month, unlimited web push notifications; billed monthly)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $132/mo (Standard)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: support.omnisend.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: api-docs.omnisend.com
- Status page
- System status: status.omnisend.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: omnisend.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Rytis Lauris co-founded Omnisend in 2014 and is still chief executive. A second co-founder is named only by Wikipedia and appears nowhere on the company's own site.
- Founding team score
- 5.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Reporting is thinner than Klaviyo's
- The entry price on the page was a promotional figure
- Fewer integrations outside the main platforms
- Facts checked
6. Sender
Best for: squeezing the most out of a free tier.
Sender is on this list because its free plan is the reason people name it, and it covers email, automation and SMS in one product at the low end of the market.
Be careful how you read the pricing page, because it works against you twice. It geo-defaults to local currency and to Annual Billing, and the 30% off badge is a first-year discount for first-time users rather than a list price, which is what the $7 and $14 figures are: annual rates billed $84 and $168 for the first year. Set the currency to USD and the toggle to Monthly Billing and the list prices appear. At the 1,000-subscriber slider position, Standard is $10 a month for up to 12,000 emails and Professional is $20 a month for up to 24,000. At 10,000 subscribers Standard is $57 a month with 120,000 emails and Professional is $120 with 240,000. Enterprise is quote-only, and Professional bundles free SMS to the value of the plan's monthly price. Read 7 September 2026.
- Sender at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- people optimising the free plan above everything else
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 2,500 subscribers, 15,000 emails a month
- Entry paid plan
- $10/mo (1,000 subscribers, up to 12,000 emails a month, 3 role-based seats, no Sender branding)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $57/mo (Standard)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: help.sender.net
- Developer docs
- API documentation: api.sender.net
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: sender.net/pricing
- Founding team
- No founder is named. The service is operated by UAB Sender, a Lithuanian private company in Vilnius.
- Founding team score
- 3.50 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- The pricing page geo-defaults to local currency and annual billing, so the badged rate is not list price
- Sender branding stays on the free plan's emails; removing it is a paid feature
- A smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations than the leaders
- Facts checked
7. Mailchimp
Best for: teams that want the whole marketing suite in one dashboard.
Segmentation, landing pages, social posting, ads and the deepest template and integration ecosystem in the category. It is the original email service provider and it carries twenty years of accumulated weight, which shows in both the breadth and the speed.
The economics run the wrong way for a MailerLite refugee. Free is 250 contacts and a maximum of 500 emails a month, Essentials starts at $13 a month for up to 500 contacts, and at 10,000 contacts Standard lists at $135 a month. It bills on contacts including unsubscribed ones until you archive them, so you would be moving to a stricter version of the model that just repriced on you. The Mailchimp alternatives page has the detail.
- Mailchimp at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- teams that want landing pages, ads and social in the same dashboard
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 contacts, max 500 emails/mo or 250/day
- Entry paid plan
- $13/mo (0-500 contacts, monthly email sends 10x contacts, 3 seats, 3 audiences, up to 4 flow steps)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $135/mo (Standard)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Intuit
- Support
- Help center: mailchimp.com/help
- Developer docs
- API documentation: mailchimp.com/developer
- Status page
- System status: status.mailchimp.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing
- Founding team
- Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius bootstrapped Mailchimp from 2001 to a twelve billion dollar sale to Intuit in 2021. Chestnut stepped down in 2022 and an Intuit senior vice president runs it.
- Founding team score
- 4.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Bills on contacts including unsubscribed ones until archived
- The free plan is capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month
- Twenty years of accumulated product weight shows
- Facts checked
Which MailerLite alternative has the best free plan?
It depends on which limit binds you. Brevo has no subscriber ceiling and caps you at 300 emails a day, which suits a big list emailed rarely. Kit lists a $0 plan up to 10,000 subscribers. Omnisend and Mailchimp are both free to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, so neither is an upgrade on MailerLite's 250 and 2,500. Nitrosend gives 8,000 emails to start then 500 a month with unlimited contacts, and unlike MailerLite it allows API, MCP and CLI sending on the free plan. Sender is the most generous here on the free tier: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, one seat, no card, with Sender branding left on the emails.
Is it worth leaving MailerLite over the price rise?
Usually not on its own. The increase is real, roughly 10 to 30% on paid tiers with the free plan halved, but a migration costs you rebuilt automations, a warm-up period and a stretch of unfamiliar tooling. Move if the pricing model is wrong for your usage pattern, which mostly means a large list you email occasionally, or if you need something MailerLite does not do, such as sending from software on a free account, transactional mail in the same place, or an agent operating the account. Do not move for a $9 a month difference.
Can I move only part of my sending off MailerLite?
Yes, and it is the low-risk way to test an alternative. Add the new sender's DKIM record alongside MailerLite's and put both senders in the single SPF record on your sending domain. Then move one message type, usually the automated or transactional mail, and leave the main newsletter where it is until the new sender has a track record on your domain. Watch bounce and complaint rates on both for a full cycle before you decide.
How to move off MailerLite without losing deliverability
- Export subscribers with engagement history, not just addresses. Engagement history is what lets you choose a safe first segment on the new platform.
- Verify the list before importing. Newsletter lists rot quietly, and the email blacklist checker shows what you are carrying.
- Authenticate the new sender and keep both senders in one SPF record during the overlap. The email authentication guide covers the records.
- Rebuild your welcome sequence first. It is the flow that runs most often and the one you will notice missing.
- Warm up rather than switching in a single send. How to warm up an email domain has the ramp, and run an inbox placement test before the first full issue.
- Keep the MailerLite account open for one billing cycle so you can compare open and click rates on the same list before cancelling.
FAQ
What is the best MailerLite alternative?
Brevo for a large list emailed occasionally, because it charges on emails sent rather than subscribers held. Kit for creators and writers. Nitrosend, which we make, if you want an AI agent to operate the account or you need transactional mail in the same place. ActiveCampaign if you outgrew the automation. Omnisend for a store. Mailchimp if you want the full marketing suite.
What changed in MailerLite's pricing?
The free plan was cut from 500 active subscribers and 12,000 emails a month to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails, and paid plans rose roughly 10 to 30% across the subscriber tiers. The top-tier plan at 1,000 subscribers moved from $30 to $39 a month, about $108 a year more for the same list. MailerLite had taken private equity investment before the change.
Is there a cheaper alternative to MailerLite?
Yes, and the honest comparison depends on your send volume rather than your subscriber count. Brevo starts at $9 a month from 5,000 emails with no contact ceiling on free. Nitrosend starts at $20 a month for 20,000 emails with unlimited contacts. MailerLite's own Comfort plan is $12 a month. If you hold many subscribers and email them rarely, the per-send platforms win easily. If you email a small list constantly, MailerLite is competitive.
Can I use the MailerLite API on the free plan?
No. MailerLite's pricing page states that email sending via the API and the MCP server is available on paid plans only, so a free account cannot be driven by software. If sending from code or from an AI agent on a free account matters to you, that alone is a reason to look elsewhere.
Does Nitrosend import from MailerLite?
Today you move a CSV export with engagement history, then rebuild the automations. A direct MailerLite connector is an obvious thing for us to build and it is not shipped, so we are not going to imply it exists. Contacts, tags and engagement history all come across in the export, and templates and flows are rebuilt on any platform you move to.
Will my open rates change after moving?
Almost certainly, and the platform is rarely the reason. Providers count proxy fetches and privacy-protected opens differently, so the same list can report different open rates on two tools in the same week. Compare clicks and replies across the move, keep the old account open for a cycle, and do not read the first send on a new domain as a verdict on anything.
How this list is ranked
Seven criteria, weighted, adding to 100. Newsletter craft carries real weight here, because that is what MailerLite is good at and what you are trying not to lose.
- Fit for the stated job, 21%. Built for the use case rather than adapted to it.
- Pricing model honesty, 21%. Whether the bill tracks sending or stored subscribers, and how stable it has been.
- Free tier and entry price, 13%. What you get before you pay, and what the first bill looks like.
- Automation depth, 13%. How far the flows go before you hit a wall.
- Agent and API surface, 9%. Whether software can operate the account, and on which plan.
- Migration cost, 8%. What it takes to move subscribers, templates and engagement history.
- Founding team and track record, 15%. Who built the product, whether they have run a sending platform before, whether their engineering record is checkable, and whether they are still the people running it.
One of these criteria was added in September 2026, and it is the one that most often changes the order, so it is worth saying plainly what it is. Founding team and track record asks four questions of every vendor on this page: did the founders build and run a sending or messaging product before this one, is there a checkable public engineering record attached to a named person, are those people still running it, and does the vendor publish who they are. Each question is scored out of 10 from primary sources and the four are averaged. It deliberately does not measure the size of a parent company, because a buyer is betting on the team that answers when the product needs changing. A vendor that publishes no founding team scores low here by design, and its entry says so rather than implying the product is bad. Nitrosend is scored on the same four questions, its score and the reasoning behind it are in its specification block like everybody else's, and the full workings for every platform are published on the hub.