MailerLite and Brevo are the two names that come up whenever someone asks for email marketing that does not cost much, and on the surface they look almost identical: both have a free plan, both start paid plans near ten dollars, and both promise automation. The difference that actually decides your bill is quieter. MailerLite charges you for the subscribers you keep, while Brevo charges you for the emails you send, and that one difference flips which tool is cheaper depending on how you send.
Most comparison pages make this harder than it needs to be, because many still quote MailerLite’s old free plan of 1,000 subscribers, a limit that was cut to 250 in June 2026. So this MailerLite vs Brevo comparison was rebuilt in October 2026 straight from the two official pricing pages, tier by tier. One of the pair is no stranger to us: our own newsletter runs on MailerLite, and the limits quoted for it below are the very ones our account shows. This head to head is part of our wider guide to the best email marketing tools, where both tools are also compared against seven others.
The quick facts
- Free plan size: Brevo lets you send 300 emails daily, and its free storage ceiling is 100,000 contacts. MailerLite’s free tier holds a list of 250, with 2,500 emails a month.
- How they charge: Brevo’s bill follows your sending. MailerLite instead counts the people saved in your account.
- First paid step: Brevo Starter, nine dollars monthly. MailerLite’s first paid tier, Comfort, is $12 a month.
- More than email: Brevo bundles a basic CRM, transactional sending and SMS in one account. MailerLite bundles forms, landing pages and a small website builder.
MailerLite vs Brevo at a glance
| MailerLite | Brevo | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | A list of 250 | 100,000 contacts stored |
| Sending on free | 2,500 monthly emails | 300 daily emails |
| Automation included free | Yes, 3 automations can run at once | Yes, while the audience stays under 2,000 contacts |
| First paid plan | $12 a month (Comfort, 500 subscribers) | $9 a month (Starter, 5,000 emails a month) |
| Pricing model | Per subscriber stored | Per email volume sent |
| Beyond email | Landing pages, forms, website builder, digital product sales | Basic CRM, transactional email, SMS and WhatsApp |
Read the table with one question in mind: which meter will move faster for you? If your list grows quickly but you email it rarely, a per subscriber model bills you for people you are not writing to. If you email a small list several times a week, a per send model bills you for every campaign. Everything below follows from that.
MailerLite
Of the two, MailerLite is the gentler ride, and it happens to be the tool behind this site’s own newsletter. Nothing in the editor fights you, and the free plan packs the starter kit into one account: a list of 250 subscribers, 2,500 sends a month, signup forms, landing pages, a simple website builder and up to 3 automations running at once. A welcome series, the automation most new senders actually need, works from day one without paying.
The catch sits in the free plan’s size. A June 2026 cut took it from 1,000 subscribers down to 250, which makes it a launchpad, not a long term home. Comfort, the entry paid tier, is $12 if you pay monthly, $10.80 a month if you pay yearly, and it covers a list of 500 with 5,000 monthly sends. Power, at $25 a month, takes the ceiling off sending altogether. And because MailerLite charges per subscriber, a large list you rarely email still costs you every month, which is the honest weakness of its model.
What we like
- Calm, simple editor that beginners pick up fast
- Forms, landing pages and automation cost nothing extra
- Power tier at $25 a month lifts the send cap completely
What could be better
- Free list shrank to 250 subscribers in June 2026
- Stored subscribers bill you even in quiet months
- SMS and transactional email are separate products here
Brevo
Brevo counts what you send, not what you store, and that single choice gives its free plan far more room than MailerLite’s. It stores as many as 100,000 contacts and lets you send 300 emails daily, close to 9,000 in a month, and opening an account needs no card. Free automation covers audiences up to 2,000 contacts, and one account also holds a basic CRM, transactional email and SMS, a bundle neither MailerLite nor most rivals match at this price.
The paid steps stay gentle. Starter begins at 5,000 emails a month for $9 monthly or $8.08 on yearly billing, though dropping the Brevo logo on that tier is a $12 a month add-on. Standard at $18 a month removes the logo, and unlocks the full automation workflows, A/B testing and landing pages. The honest catches are the daily sending cap, which spreads a big launch across several days instead of one send, and an interface that feels busier than MailerLite’s because of everything else it is trying to be.
What we like
- Send 300 a day free, and keep up to 100,000 contacts on file
- CRM, transactional mail and SMS without a second account
- Paid tiers start at only nine dollars a month
What could be better
- Free sends wear Brevo’s branding, and Starter asks $12 a month more to remove the logo
- Large sends are drip fed by the 300 daily cap
- Interface feels crowded next to MailerLite
The first year cost, side by side
On the smallest paid tier of each tool, billed yearly, the first paid year comes out like this. Both were read on the official pricing pages in October 2026.
| MailerLite Comfort | Brevo Starter | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly billing | $12 a month | $9 a month |
| Billed yearly | $10.80 a month, $130 a year | $8.08 a month, $97 a year |
| What the tier includes | 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails a month | 5,000 emails a month, from 500 contacts |
| Next step up | Power $25 a month, unlimited emails | Standard $18 a month, full automation, no logo |
MailerLite bills the list you keep. Brevo bills the mail you send. Your winner is whichever meter barely ticks over for you.
Two sending patterns cover most readers. If you email a small list often, say a weekly newsletter to a few hundred people, MailerLite’s subscriber model is predictable and its unlimited send tier is a clean upgrade. If your list is growing fast but you email it once or twice a month, Brevo’s volume model means the growing list itself does not push your bill up, and its free plan can carry you much further before you pay anything at all.
Which one should you choose?
Choose MailerLite if you are starting out and want the calmest tool. Its editor is the easiest here to learn, its free plan includes the forms, landing pages and automations a first newsletter needs, and if your list stays in the hundreds, its pricing is simple to predict. This is the tool we run our own newsletter on, and for a small, regularly emailed list we would pick it again.
Choose Brevo if the list is growing faster than the outbox. The free plan’s headroom is in a different league, the first paid year is cheaper, and having a CRM, transactional email and SMS in the same account saves bolting on extra tools later. An online store that sends receipts and campaigns from one place gets the most from this side of the comparison.
Still torn, with free as the entire budget for now? Our guide to free email marketing tools lines these two free plans up against five more, two of which allow bigger lists than both.
How we checked
- Every limit and price in this comparison was taken from the two vendors’ own pricing pages in October 2026. Where a page prices by list size or send volume, the figure quoted names the size it belongs to.
- We run our own newsletter on MailerLite, and its figures here match both its pricing page and the limits shown inside our account.
- No vendor paid for placement. The order reflects the tools as checked, and where an affiliate program exists it does not change a score.
Our verdict
Brevo takes this one, narrowly, 8.9 to 8.8. Its free plan holds far more, its first paid year costs less ($97 against $130), and the bundled CRM, transactional email and SMS give it the longer runway. MailerLite is still the tool we would hand a complete beginner: calmer to learn, generous with the basics on free, and the better buy if you email a small list often. Pick by the meter that moves slower for you, and either choice is a sound one at these prices.
MailerLite vs Brevo: FAQs
Which is cheaper, MailerLite or Brevo?
At the first paid step, Brevo: $9 a month against $12, and $97 against $130 across the first year billed yearly. Over time it depends on the meter. Brevo meters what you send, so heavy sending to a large list adds up; MailerLite meters your stored list, so a large list you seldom write to still costs money.
Which has the better free plan?
On size, Brevo: 300 sends a day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts, against 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly sends on MailerLite’s free plan. MailerLite’s free plan is friendlier to start with, though, because forms, landing pages and up to 3 automations are all included.
Which is better for beginners?
MailerLite. Its editor is the calmer of the two and everything a first newsletter needs is in the free plan, which is why we run our own newsletter on it. Brevo is not hard to learn, but its wider feature set makes the interface feel busier at first.
Does MailerLite or Brevo include transactional email and SMS?
Every Brevo plan includes transactional sending, and SMS runs from the same account. MailerLite’s marketing plans do not: its transactional email is a separate product called MailerSend, and it has no SMS marketing of its own.
More comparisons and reviews are in our Email Marketing section. Prices and plan limits in this article were checked on official vendor pages in October 2026 and change often. Sources: MailerLite pricing, Brevo pricing.
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