If you’re searching mailerlite vs mailchimp, you’re probably not looking for a “feature checklist”—you want to know which tool will actually help you grow a list, ship campaigns fast, and not hate your billing dashboard six months from now. I’ve used both styles of platforms (simple newsletter-first vs automation-first), and the truth is: the “best” choice depends on how complex your lifecycle marketing really is.
Pricing and scaling: the hidden tax is complexity
MailerLite generally wins early-stage economics: it’s designed to get you from zero to “sending consistently” without punishing you for basic segmentation or landing pages. Mailchimp, on the other hand, often becomes expensive as your list and needs grow—especially if you rely on multiple audiences, advanced segmentation, or higher send volumes.
Opinionated take: if your revenue model is still being validated, you want a tool that keeps your burn rate boring. MailerLite tends to be more predictable; Mailchimp tends to be more “enterprise-y” in both pricing behavior and feature sprawl.
A practical way to decide is to map your next 90 days:
- If you mostly need newsletters + a couple of automations (welcome, abandoned lead magnet), you’ll feel lighter in MailerLite.
- If you’re already doing multi-step journeys with branching logic and attribution, you’ll quickly compare Mailchimp against ActiveCampaign or GetResponse, because automation depth becomes the core value.
Automation and segmentation: where the gap actually matters
Both platforms can do welcome series, basic tagging, and scheduled sends. The difference shows up when you try to model real behavior:
MailerLite
- Strong “good enough” automations for creators and small teams
- Clean UX for building simple flows
- Segmentation is straightforward, but you can hit limits when you want deeply nested logic
Mailchimp
- More knobs: templates, testing options, reporting, integrations
- Better suited to teams that treat email as a channel with process (approvals, repeated experiments)
- Segmentation and customer journey features can be powerful, but they can also feel like you’re paying to manage complexity
If you’re the kind of marketer who wants to trigger email based on product events (trial started, feature used, plan upgraded), you may find that neither is perfect without a solid event source. That’s when Brevo (for broader “CRM-lite” workflows) or ActiveCampaign (for automation depth) often enters the conversation.
Deliverability and templates: boring stuff that impacts revenue
Deliverability isn’t magic; it’s usually the outcome of:
- list hygiene (double opt-in, pruning inactive subscribers)
- content consistency
- domain authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)
- sending behavior (volume spikes, complaint rates)
Both MailerLite and Mailchimp can deliver well if you do the basics. What’s more relevant day-to-day is how fast you can produce campaigns that don’t look broken.
MailerLite’s editor is fast and minimal. Mailchimp’s editor and template ecosystem can be richer, but also easier to over-design. My bias: simple layouts win. Fancy emails often become fragile across clients.
Actionable example: stop blasting inactive subscribers
Here’s a lightweight rule you can implement in either platform: mark subscribers “inactive” after 60 days of no opens/clicks, and exclude them from regular campaigns (or put them into a re-engagement flow).
SEGMENT: Engaged (last 60 days)
- (opened_any_campaign in last 60 days) OR (clicked_any_campaign in last 60 days)
SEGMENT: Inactive (no engagement 60 days)
- NOT Engaged
AUTOMATION: Re-engagement
Trigger: subscriber enters Inactive
Email 1: “Still want these updates?”
Wait: 7 days
Condition: clicked/opened?
- Yes -> move back to Engaged
- No -> Email 2: “One click to stay subscribed”
Wait: 7 days
- No engagement -> unsubscribe or suppress
This one change usually improves deliverability, reduces costs, and makes reporting less misleading.
Integrations and workflows: choose the tool that fits your stack
Mailchimp historically has broad integrations, especially with website builders and ecommerce platforms. MailerLite integrates well too, but the key question is what you’re integrating with:
- Ecommerce (Shopify/Woo/etc.): Mailchimp can be convenient, but many teams eventually want richer lifecycle automations. This is where GetResponse or ActiveCampaign can outperform both.
- Creator stack (paid newsletter, digital products, course platforms): MailerLite is typically “less ceremony,” and ConvertKit often becomes the comparison point because it’s optimized for creators and tagging-based flows.
- Sales-led funnels: If you need pipelines, deal stages, and sales tasks, you may outgrow both and prefer something like Brevo or ActiveCampaign.
My rule: don’t pick an email platform for a hypothetical future. Pick it for the integrations you will actually configure this month.
So which should you pick?
MailerLite vs Mailchimp isn’t a battle of “good vs bad.” It’s a choice between speed + simplicity and breadth + process.
- Pick MailerLite if you want a clean UI, solid automations, predictable scaling, and you value shipping emails weekly more than building complex journeys.
- Pick Mailchimp if you’re on a team that needs more built-in reporting, extensive template workflows, and you don’t mind paying for a wider platform surface area.
If you’re still unsure, run a 2-week proof: migrate a small segment, rebuild one automation, and ship two campaigns. The winner is the platform that lets you execute without friction. And if you discover your real need is deep behavior-driven automation, it’s worth briefly evaluating ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, or ConvertKit—not as a replacement by default, but as a sanity check on what “automation-first” actually feels like.
