MailerLite is a popular email marketing platform for bloggers and small businesses. With its affordable prices and powerful features, MailerLite can help you build, nurture, and sell to a list of subscribers. But its analytics may not be as robust as some other pricier platforms. In this unbiased MailerLite review, I’ll take a closer look at this email marketing platform so you can decide if it’s right for you and your online business.

• MailerLite review: What is MailerLite?
• Plans and features
• Customer support
• Pros
• Cons
• Pricing
• How to sign up for MailerLite
• MailerLite vs. Mailchimp
• Who’s MailerLite best for?
• Who’s MailerLite not right for?
• Final thoughts

MailerLite review: What is MailerLite?

MailerLite is an email marketing platform that offers bloggers, online business owners, and other content creators tools to collect subscribers, design landing pages and forms, and send emails.

Created in 2010, MailerLite was initially designed to help bloggers grow their blogging businesses. Since that time, it has grown to become a major email marketing platform with over 1.1 million users worldwide.

MailerLite has a 100% free plan if you have less than 1,000 subscribers. Plus, you can try out its premium plan for free for 30 days by clicking on the banner below.

MailerLite plans and features

MailerLite makes it easy to collect subscribers, design forms and landing pages, and send emails to your list. One major pro of MailerLite is its user-friendly dashboard, which is easy to navigate even if you’re an email marketing newbie.

Here are a few other sweet features included in MailerLite’s platform:

Beautifully-designed forms and landing pages

MailerLite has lots of beautifully-designed templates for you to choose from when creating forms and landing pages. You can create a variety of forms, including traditional pop-ups, full-screen pop-ups, and embedded forms.

You don’t need to know any coding to create a gorgeous design; simply use MailerLite’s drag-and-drop editor to design your forms and landing pages.

Plus, you can customize them to match your site’s branding and color scheme. MailerLite’s forms are responsive, meaning they’ll resize automatically to fit whatever device a user is viewing them from.

You can also set rules to determine when your forms show up; for instance, immediately, after a set period of time, or when a user is about to finish reading your page.

As for the landing pages, you can add cool features to increase conversions, such as a countdown clock or an embedded survey to collect customer data and feedback.

Lots of email templates

MailerLite also offers a lot of email templates for you to design beautiful emails and newsletters to send to your list.

You can keep your emails simple, or add visuals to make them pop. Again, MailerLite offers a variety of newsletter templates with a drag-and-drop builder, so no coding or design skills are required:

Groups and segments for subscribers

The purpose of email marketing platforms is to help you capture subscribers, nurture leads, and build an audience of fans and customers.

But you might want to divide your subscribers into different buckets, depending on when they subscribed, for example, or what their main interest or pain point is.

MailerLite lets you manage your subscribers easily with its groups and segments. Basically, you design a set of rules for each of your segments, and subscribers can only appear in a segment if they fit those rules.

As for groups, you can tag certain subscribers, and those with the same tag will appear in one group. You can do this manually or automatically.

For example, you can tag those who view your emails on their mobile phones with a blue tag, or those who never click on the links in your email with a yellow tag.

This type of categorization can help you organize your marketing efforts and send more targeted, effective emails.

Easy email automations

Email marketing works best when you can set it on autopilot, and MailerLite lets you do that.

You can set up automations so that when a subscriber joins a form, they automatically receive an email or a series of emails.

You decide when your emails send, e.g., every day, every other day, etc. MailerLite’s time zone feature also lets you send emails at the same time of day to everyone on your list, regardless of where they’re located.

You can also use MailerLite’s “auto resend” feature to resend emails to subscribers who didn’t open them. For instance, you can resend them with a new subject line, with a new personal message above your email, or with new email content entirely.

Integrations with third-party apps

MailerLite integrates with lots of third-party applications and tools such as PayPal, Magneto, Zapier, Magneto, Trello, Google Docs, Slack, ClickFunnels, and more.

These integrations make it easy to connect your other platforms with your email list, as well as set up e-commerce campaigns to sell products to your list.

Bounce rate management

Since it would be pointless to keep sending emails to subscribers who have invalid email addresses or full mailboxes, MailerLite comes with a bounce feature.

This feature moves bounced subscribers to a bounce folder and removes them from any groups they previously appeared.

Thanks to this automatic feature, you’re not getting false metrics about the number of subscribers on your list or paying for people who aren’t opening your emails.

A/B split testing and other email campaign options

MailerLite comes with a feature that allows you to create high-converting email campaigns to increase engagement. You have the option of choosing any of the four campaigns listed below:

• A/B split testing: You can come up with multiple email drafts and send them to different groups or demographics. Let’s say you have 2,000 subscribers. You can choose 100 to receive Draft A, and another 100 people to receive Draft B. See which email had the most engagement, and then send that one out to your entire subscriber list.
• Auto-resend: As mentioned above, this feature lets you resend emails to subscribers who did not open it the first time. You can change the subject line and contents of the email to attract the subscriber’s attention.
• RSS campaign: You can set up a campaign so that subscribers receive automated emails every time you publish a new post on your blog.
• Regular: This is the standard everyday email that you design to market your blog posts and nurture your list.

Below is a summary of all of MailerLite’s features:

Customer support

MailerLite has an excellent customer support team. With its free plan, you get unlimited email support. Its customer support representatives usually respond in less than two hours.

MailerLite’s paid plans come with 24/7 live chat and priority email support services. On these plans, a MailerLite representative can help you design your emails and import your contacts, among other tasks.

MailerLite does not offer phone support.

Pros of MailerLite

MailerLite has a lot of pros for bloggers and small business owners looking for a powerful, easy-to-use email marketing services. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Beautiful designs: MailerLite has beautiful templates for newsletters, forms, and landing pages, so you can create great, professional designs that match your site’s branding.
• Drag-and-drop builder: You don’t need any coding or design experience to create forms and emails thanks to MailerLite’s drag-and-drop functionality.
• Affordable: MailerLite has been designed to accommodate beginners and users who are on a budget.
• Has a free plan: MailerLite offers a free plan for life if you have less than 1,000 subscribers! Despite missing certain features, it’s still a great option for beginner bloggers.
• Mobile-friendly: All the landing pages, newsletters, and emails designed on MailerLite are optimized to look just as good on smartphones and iPads as they do on desktop. You don’t have to worry about any device compatibility issues.
• Easy to use: Thanks to its simple interface, beginners and advanced users can easily navigate this software.
• Detailed videos and webinars: MailerLite frequently uploads free videos and webinars to educate its users on maximizing the available features. If you’ve just started blogging recently and you have no experience using email marketing tools, MailerLite’s video tutorials give you the confidence you need to succeed in your niche.

Cons of MailerLite

Here are a few downsides to consider before choosing MailerLite as your email marketing software:

• Rigorous approval process: For your MailerLite account to be activated, you will need to undergo a relatively lengthy approval process. You’ll need to enter your site URL, as well as an email domain that goes with your website. The approval process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a day.
• Missing some pro features: MailerLite does not come with some pro features such as spam testing, advanced automation, and detailed statistics reports.

MailerLite pricing

One frequently asked question about MailerLite is, “Is MailerLite free?” Well, the answer is yes and no.

MailerLite offers a plan that’s 100% free if you have less than 1,000 subscribers. This free plan allows you to collect subscribers and send emails, but it’s missing some key features. Plus, it doesn’t let you remove the MailerLite logo from your forms and emails, so you’re basically providing free marketing for MailerLite.

To get rid of the logo and access all the features (or if you have more than 1,000 subscribers), you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan. These plans start at $10 per month and increase from there, depending on how many subscribers you have.

Compared to other email marketing services, MailerLite is one of the most affordable. Note that anyone can start on a free plan that lets you send up to 12,000 emails to 1,000 subscribers for 30 days without spending a dime.

Add-ons

Here are a few optional add-ons to consider when you sign up for MailerLite:

• MailerPro at $100 per month: The MailerPro plan comes with quick live chat or email customer support anytime you need help. A MailerLite team member will help you improve your metrics, design email templates, import subscribers, and create GDPR-compliant web forms. (GDPR is a regulation in European Union law that aims to protect the privacy and data of European Union citizens.)
• Dedicated IP’s at $50 per month: This feature is useful if you intend to send out more than 50,000 emails a week as it improves your deliverability rate. It gives your email a professional feel, reducing the chances of such emails being marked as spam.
• SitesPro at $10 per month: This add-on gives you unlimited access to MailerLite’s site-building features. For an extra $10 per month, you can design unlimited websites and landing pages.

How to sign up for MailerLite

To sign up for MailerLite, head over to MailerLite.com, and click on the Sign Up button at the top right corner of the home page.

On the next page, provide the name of your business, including your email address and password, and then click Create My Account.

Your email address and password will be your MailerLite login credentials.

After signing up, you’ll be redirected to this dashboard to complete your profile and request approval.

A team member will review your profile and let you know if your account has been approved. According to MailerLite, this process can take as short a time as 15 minutes or as long as a day.

  Try a 30-Day Free Trial of MailerLite

MailerLite vs MailChimp

The internet has its fair share of email marketing platforms with unique features and capabilities. The best email marketing tool for your project depends on your goals as a blogger, content creator, or digital marketer.

For example, let’s compare MailerLite vs MailChimp, another popular email marketing software.

• Ease of use: MailerLite has an extremely easy-to-use interface. You don’t need to have any special tech skills to navigate this tool. MailChimp is not as easy to use; you may need to watch its free webinars to understand how it works.
• Set up: MailChimp is very easy to set up; there is little to no approval process required. As for MailerLite, you’ll need to go through an approval process. For example, if you want to import more than 1,000 subscribers, you’ll be prompted to show evidence of where you got the subscribers.
• Templates: Both MailChimp and MailerLite come with a variety of pre-designed templates that you can customize to your liking. MailerLite’s drag-and-drop builder is especially easy to use.
• Deliverability: According to research conducted by EmailToolTester, MailerLite had a 94.8% delivery rate as of June 2019, while MailChimp had a 90.6% delivery rate. You want to make sure your emails are getting to your subscribers and not ending up in the spam or promotions folder.
• Pricing: MailerLite pricing depends on the number of subscribers you have and any add-ons you may decide to purchase. As for MailChimp, its pricing depends on the plan you choose; different plans have different features. All things considered, MailerLite has more features at a lower price.

Who is MailerLite best for?

• Bloggers and creatives: MailerLite comes packed with various features that are designed with bloggers in mind. These features include RSS campaigns, WordPress integration, and video marketing.
• Beginner bloggers: Thanks to its fair pricing and easy-to-use interface, MailerLite is a great software for bloggers who are just starting out. According to g2.com, 90% of MailerLite customers are small businesses that have less than 50 employees.
• People looking for a lightweight tool: MailerLite’s interface and features strike the perfect balance between elegance and functionality. Its minimalism makes it easier for beginner bloggers to understand.
• Bloggers on a budget: If you’ve just started blogging and have a small number of subscribers, MailerLite is a good choice. It is reasonably priced compared to other tools like MailChimp, without compromising on quality and features.

Who is MailerLite not suitable for?

• Bloggers in need of complex automation: MailerLite lets you set automation based on basic triggers, such as when someone joins a subscriber list. However, you may not be able to set up automation for advanced triggers, such as when someone who is not on your subscriber lists visits a page on your blog.
• Bloggers looking for comprehensive analytics: MailerLite only offers basic analytics data, such as how many people open your email and how many clicks a link receives. If you want more in-depth analytics, you might consider an alternative email marketing platform like MailChimp or ConvertKit.

MailerLite review: Final thoughts

MailerLite has everything a blogger with a relatively small subscriber list needs. It comes with a user-friendly interface that any newbie can understand without watching countless video tutorials. Compared to other similar platforms such as Sendfox vs MailerLite or MailChimp, MailerLite is very affordable and gives you a ton of value for your money.

If you have a huge list and want super in-depth analytics, you might be better off with another tool. But if you’re looking for a platform that helps you easily design beautiful forms, landing pages and newsletters, organize your subscribers into group and segments, and set up optimized email automations, MailerLite could be a great tool for you and your online business.

  Try a 30-Day Free Trial of MailerLite

Are you interested in learning about other email marketing platforms? Check out my list of the best email marketing software for bloggers. 

About Rebecca Safier

Rebecca Safier is a blogger and digital marketer who teaches others how to use SEO and other best practices to build profitable blogging businesses.