MailerLite: The best email marketing platform for small businesses?

You've decided email marketing is worth doing. Fabulous, that’s music to my ears.

Now you've opened up a browser, typed in "best email marketing software" and ended up down a rabbit hole of comparison articles, affiliate reviews and pricing pages that all contradict each other.

So let's cut through it.

I've been building email marketing systems in MailerLite for four years. My own, and my clients'. I'm a MailerLite affiliate partner, so yes, I do have an affiliate link if you're interested, but that's not why I recommend it. I recommend it because I use it every day and it does the job well.

Here's what I actually think.

What do you actually need from an email marketing platform?

Before you sign up for anything, it's worth being clear on what you need. As a small service-based business, the chances are your list looks something like this:

• Collect subscribers and grow your list
• Deliver a freebie or lead magnet automatically
• Send a welcome sequence when someone signs up
• Send regular campaigns (weekly, fortnightly, monthly - whatever works for you)
• Segment your audience so you're not emailing everyone about everything
• Sell your services or offers to the right people at the right time

You also want it to be straightforward to use, and either free or reasonably priced.

MailerLite does all of that and here's why it's the one I keep coming back to and why platform migrations are such a popular service.

1. The free plan is genuinely usable

MailerLite's free plan covers up to 250 subscribers. For someone just getting started, 250 people is a decent sized audience. You can run 3 automations, create 3 forms, 1 landing page and send regular campaigns without paying a penny. As of July 1st 2026 you will also be able to add another user to your account (like me) and save template email campaigns to make sending emails just that little bit easier.

Once you hit that limit, the paid plans kick in. I'll let you check the current pricing here: MailerLite pricing, but it's fair for what you get. 

One note, I’m not on the highest tier, Comfort is enough for what I need to do.

Compare that to Mailchimp, where the free plan has become increasingly restricted over the years. While subscriber limits are the same, starting at 250 subscribers, automations are no longer available on the free plan, so no welcome email, no freebie delivery. A lot of people start on Mailchimp because it's the name everyone knows, and then find themselves looking for alternatives within a year or two because it’s not designed for solopreneurs and start-ups.

Flodesk is visually beautiful but requires a paid subscription from the start. While you can start building a list with forms and landing pages, you’re not able to set up an automation or send emails until you’ve committed some hard cash. Once you hit 1,000 subscribers pricing is comparable, however, who starts at 1,000?!

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is popular with content creators with up to 1,000 subscribers on the free plan, but you are limited to only one automation. Once you hit the threshold or want to add more complexity, pricing starts significantly higher than MailerLite and Flodesk.

Email Octopus is a relative newcomer, with up to 1,000 subscribers and good functionality across its free plan. Again, as with most plans, automations are limited, as are the number of landing pages you can create.

A quick note on email features built into platforms like Squarespace and Wix: they exist, they're fine as a starting point, but they're limited. You'll likely outgrow them, and migrating your list later is an extra job you don't want. Or one you’ll have to pay me for!

If you’re scratching your head about the word automation that keeps popping up, don’t worry there is an explainer in section 4.

Prices & plans correct as of 16th June 2026

2. It's straightforward to use without being dumbed down

MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor for emails, landing pages and sign-up forms. It's intuitive without being restrictive.

The sign-up form builder has everything you need for data compliance built in. You can create forms that connect directly to your automations so that the moment someone subscribes, the right thing happens automatically.

There's also a decent bank of stock photos and GIFs you can pull directly into your emails. Small detail, but it can save a bit of faff.

3. Deliverability is strong

MailerLite consistently performs well in independent deliverability tests, which means your emails are more likely to land in the inbox rather than the spam folder. This is partly down to their verification process at sign-up, which some people find a bit lengthy, but it's worth it. Platforms that let anyone sign up and start sending immediately tend to have worse reputations with email providers like Gmail and Outlook, which affects everyone sending through them.

4. Seamless automations and integrations

This is where MailerLite earns its place for me.

A workflow (or automation) is a sequence of emails that gets sent automatically based on a trigger - someone signing up to your list, downloading your freebie, clicking a link in an email. You can build these out as simply or with as much complexity as you like. Each automation can have multiple steps, branches and conditions, so even on the free plan you're not boxed into something basic.

The most common is a welcome sequence. Someone signs up, they get a series of emails introducing them to you and what you do. All automatic and all happening while you get on with everything else.

MailerLite integrates with many platforms which means if you have a course or membership, you can still manage all your email updates and notifications from MailerLite itself rather than having to set them up in your course/membership platform.

4. Seamless automations and integrations

This is where MailerLite earns its place for me.

A workflow (or automation) is a sequence of emails that gets sent automatically based on a trigger - someone signing up to your list, downloading your freebie, clicking a link in an email. The most common is a welcome sequence: someone signs up, they get a series of emails introducing them to you and what you do. All automatic, all happening while you get on with everything else.

On the free plan you get 3 automations with up to 5 steps each, a step being any action: an email, a delay, a yes/no split. That's plenty for a simple welcome sequence or a freebie delivery, which is exactly what most people need when they're starting out.

When you want something more involved, a longer nurture sequence, or branching paths that send people down different routes depending on what they click, that's when you'll move up to the Comfort plan. That jump is generous, giving you 50 automations with up to 100 steps each. So there's no awkward in-between where you feel boxed in. The free plan covers the basics properly and the moment you need more, the next plan opens that up for you.

MailerLite also integrates with loads of other platforms, so if you've got a course or membership you can still manage all your email updates and notifications from MailerLite itself, rather than setting them up separately in your course platform.

5. Groups and segments give you proper list management

Groups in MailerLite are fixed tags. You put someone in a group and they stay there unless you move them. This is useful for things like: attended a specific event, signed up for a freebie, bought a particular product, interested in a specific topic.

Segments are dynamic. They update automatically based on rules you set. So you could have a segment of everyone who has opened at least one email in the last 90 days, and it will always reflect the current picture without you doing anything.

A real world example: say your welcome sequence runs over 10 days. You probably don't want those new subscribers getting your regular campaigns at the same time. So you can build a segment of everyone currently active in that workflow and exclude it from your campaigns. They will drop into your regular email flow once they've finished the sequence.

6. You can create and sell a digital product

If you've got an ebook, a guide, a template pack or anything else you can deliver as a download, you can sell it straight from MailerLite. No need for a separate platform or a fiddly checkout bolted onto your website. You build the product, connect your payments and it sits alongside your list and your emails in one place.

The free plan lets you set up one digital product, which is plenty if you're just dipping a toe in and want to test whether people will actually pay for the thing you've been meaning to make. Because it lives in MailerLite you can group buyers, trigger a delivery email and follow up automatically, all without exporting anyone anywhere.

A nice low-stakes way to find out if your idea has legs before you commit to building something bigger.

7. Support is solid

MailerLite has a good resource library and responsive support. They're based in the US so there's a time difference, but in four years of using the platform and building systems in it for clients, I haven't come across anything we couldn't sort out.

Still the best option in town?

For a small service-based business, I think so, yes. The free plan changes earlier in 2026 made it a touch tighter on numbers, but they also unlocked features that used to be paid-only, and the core of what makes MailerLite good hasn't budged. It's straightforward to use, the deliverability is strong, and even on free you can build real automations rather than stripped-back ones.

Is it perfect? No platform is, but it does the job for freelancers, solopreneurs and small businesses alike. It doesn't make you feel daft for not being techie and when you outgrow the free plan the upgrade is sitting right there - you grow, it grows with you.

That's why, four years in, it's still the one I set my clients up on and the one I'd point you towards.