Quick Answer
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Brevo and MailerLite are both solid budget-friendly email platforms, but they serve different people. MailerLite wins on deliverability (94.41% vs Brevo’s 88.3%) and ease of use — it’s the better pick for creators, solopreneurs, and small lists under 5,000 subscribers. Brevo wins on pricing at scale and multichannel features (SMS, WhatsApp, built-in CRM) — making it the smarter choice for larger contact lists and ecommerce businesses. This article was last updated May 2026 with verified EUR and USD pricing. EUR prices are approximate — always verify at official pricing pages.
Free plan available
Free plan available
This article was last updated May 2026 with verified current pricing and feature changes. EUR prices are approximate conversions — always verify at official pricing pages before committing.
I’ve tested both platforms across real campaigns and dug into independent deliverability data, thousands of user reviews on G2 and Capterra, and the most recent pricing changes from both companies. Brevo is an all-in-one email marketing and CRM platform founded in 2012 and headquartered in Paris, France. MailerLite is a subscriber-count-based email platform headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, known for its clean interface and industry-leading inbox placement rates. Both platforms offer free tiers and paid plans starting around $9–$10/month.
🔬 How We Compared Brevo vs MailerLite
This comparison is based on hands-on testing of both platforms combined with independent deliverability data from EmailToolTester, verified user reviews from G2 (3,000+ combined reviews) and Capterra, and pricing verified on official pricing pages in March 2026 and reviewed in May 2026. EUR prices are approximate conversions — always verify at official pricing pages before committing.
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Platforms tested
13+
Features compared
3,000+
Reviews analysed
May 2026
Pricing reviewed
Brevo vs MailerLite — What’s the Quick Verdict?
MailerLite delivers 94.41% of emails to the inbox versus Brevo’s 88.3% (EmailToolTester, 2025), making it the better choice for deliverability. Brevo starts at approximately €7.76/month (Starter) and charges per email sent — not per subscriber — making it significantly cheaper for lists above 5,000 contacts. MailerLite starts at approximately €8.62/month for 500 subscribers with unlimited sends. EUR prices are approximate — always verify at official pricing pages.
The short answer: MailerLite is the better pick for email-focused creators, bloggers, and small businesses with lists under 5,000 — higher inbox rates, a cleaner interface, and unlimited sends. Brevo is the better pick if you have a large contact list, need SMS/WhatsApp marketing, or want transactional emails without paying for a separate service. For a broader look at the space, see our best email marketing software guide.
Choose Brevo if you have a large list (5,000+ contacts) and send fewer than 4 campaigns per month, need multichannel marketing (SMS, WhatsApp, live chat), or require transactional emails for an ecommerce store. Choose MailerLite if you run a newsletter, sell digital products, or prioritize inbox placement and ease of use over channel breadth.
BEST FOR LARGE LISTS & MULTICHANNEL
Brevo
From ~€7.76/month · Unlimited contacts · Free plan available
BEST FOR NEWSLETTERS & CREATORS
MailerLite
From ~€8.62/month · 94.41% deliverability · Free plan available
How Do Their Pricing Models Actually Work — and Which Is Cheaper?
Brevo’s paid plans start at approximately €7.76/month ($9/month) for 5,000 emails per month with unlimited contacts. MailerLite’s paid plans start at approximately €8.62/month ($10/month) for 500 subscribers with unlimited emails. Brevo charges by emails sent; MailerLite charges by subscriber count. For lists above 5,000 contacts sending 2–4 emails/month, Brevo is typically €30–40/month cheaper than MailerLite. EUR prices are approximate — always verify at official pricing pages before committing.
💰 Pricing Crossover: Which Is Cheaper at Each List Size? (approximate)
Assuming 2 email campaigns per month. EUR prices approximate — verify at official pricing pages.
| List Size | Brevo (2 sends/mo) | MailerLite Growing | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 contacts | €0 (free) | ~€8.62/month | 🏆 Brevo |
| 1,000 contacts | ~€7.76/month | ~€8.62/month | 🏆 Brevo (marginal) |
| 2,500 contacts | ~€7.76/month | ~€14.66/month | 🏆 Brevo |
| 5,000 contacts | ~€15.52/month | ~€27.60/month | 🏆 Brevo |
| 10,000 contacts | ~€15.52/month | ~€46.57/month | 🏆 Brevo (saves ~€30+/mo) |
| 50,000 contacts | ~€45–€60/month | ~€188.87/month | 🏆 Brevo (major gap) |
Note: Brevo cost assumes 2 sends/month within Starter or Standard plan email limits. EUR prices approximate — verify at official pricing pages.
Brevo Pricing Plans 2026 (USD + EUR)
EUR prices approximate — always verify at brevo.com/pricing. Brevo charges by emails sent per month, not by contact count on paid plans.
⚠️ October 2025 update: Brevo restructured its plans, removing landing pages from the Starter tier and renaming the Business plan to Standard. The plan names used here reflect the current structure as of March 2026. Always verify at brevo.com/pricing.
Free
$0/month
- ✅ 300 emails/day (~9K/month)
- ✅ Unlimited contacts (up to 100K)
- ✅ Transactional emails included
- ✅ Chat widget
- ⚠️ Brevo branding on all emails
- ❌ No marketing automation
Best for: Building large lists before committing
Starter
$9/month
~€7.76/month approx.
- ✅ 5,000 emails/month (no daily cap)
- ✅ Unlimited contacts
- ✅ Transactional emails
- ⚠️ Logo removal: +$9/month extra
- ⚠️ Automation: 2,000 contacts max
- ❌ No A/B testing
- ❌ No landing pages
Best for: Basic campaigns to large stored lists
Standard
$18/month
~€15.52/month approx.
- ✅ Everything in Starter
- ✅ A/B testing
- ✅ Full marketing automation
- ✅ Landing pages
- ✅ Advanced statistics
- ✅ Send-time optimisation
Best for: Growing businesses needing automation
Professional+
Custom
- ✅ 150K+ emails/month
- ✅ SMS + WhatsApp marketing
- ✅ Dedicated IP (add-on: $251/year)
- ✅ Phone & priority support
- ✅ SSO, custom integrations
Best for: High-volume & multichannel teams
⚠️ Brevo Starter: Hidden Automation Limit You Need to Know About
The Brevo Starter plan ($9/month · ~€7.76) limits marketing automation to 2,000 contacts — and this is a lifetime cap, not a monthly reset. Once your automations touch 2,000 unique contacts, you hit the ceiling. Many users only discover this after signing up. If your automation workflows need to reach more than 2,000 contacts, you must upgrade to the Standard plan ($18/month · ~€15.52).
MailerLite Pricing Plans 2026 (USD + EUR)
EUR prices approximate — always verify at mailerlite.com/pricing. Prices shown are for 500 subscribers — costs scale up as your list grows.
⚠️ Free plan change: MailerLite reduced the free plan from 1,000 to 500 subscribers — now fully in effect for all accounts.
Free
$0/month
- ✅ 500 subscribers
- ✅ 12,000 emails/month
- ✅ Drag-and-drop editor
- ✅ Automation builder
- ✅ 10 landing pages
- ❌ No email templates
- ❌ No custom domain
Best for: Beginners building their first list
Growing Business
$10/month
~€8.62/month approx. · 500 subs
- ✅ Unlimited emails
- ✅ All templates
- ✅ Unlimited landing pages
- ✅ A/B testing
- ✅ 24/7 email support
- ✅ Custom domains
- ✅ 3 user seats
Best for: Newsletter creators, solopreneurs
Advanced
$20/month
~€17.25/month approx. · 500 subs
- ✅ Everything in Growing Business
- ✅ Custom HTML editor
- ✅ Multi-trigger automations
- ✅ AI writing assistant
- ✅ Live chat support
- ✅ Unlimited user seats
- ✅ Digital product sales (Stripe)
Best for: Advanced marketers, digital creators
Enterprise
Custom
- ✅ 100K+ subscribers
- ✅ Dedicated IP
- ✅ Custom sending domain
- ✅ Dedicated onboarding
Best for: Large-scale newsletter operations
Which Platform Actually Delivers More Emails to the Inbox?
MailerLite has better email deliverability than Brevo. Independent testing by EmailToolTester shows MailerLite averages 94.41% inbox placement versus Brevo’s 88.3% — a 6.11 percentage point difference. MailerLite won EmailToolTester’s “Best of 5” deliverability award in 2025. For every 100 emails sent, MailerLite delivers approximately 6 more to the inbox than Brevo.
📊 Deliverability & Ratings Comparison
Sources: EmailToolTester deliverability tests (2025), G2 ratings (March 2026)
The short answer: MailerLite’s 6-point deliverability advantage isn’t trivial. On a list of 10,000 subscribers, that’s 600 more people actually seeing your email per campaign. For newsletters where open rates are revenue, that gap compounds quickly. Brevo’s spam landing issues are most common on free and Starter plans sharing IPs with other senders — upgrading helps, but the gap persists in independent tests.
What Features Does Each Platform Actually Offer?
Brevo outperforms MailerLite on multichannel marketing, offering email, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, and a built-in CRM. Transactional emails are included on all Brevo plans. MailerLite outperforms Brevo on deliverability (94.41% vs 88.3%), ease of use, and digital product sales. For businesses comparing providers, our email marketing automation guide covers what to look for at scale.
| Feature | Brevo | MailerLite | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per email sent | Per subscriber | Use case dependent |
| Starting price (paid, approx.) | $9/mo (~€7.76) | $10/mo (~€8.62) | 🏆 Brevo |
| Free plan | 300/day, unlimited contacts | 500 subs, 12K/mo | 🏆 Brevo (large lists) |
| Deliverability | 88.3% | 94.41% 🏆 | 🏆 MailerLite |
| Email editor | Good (drag & drop) | Excellent (70+ blocks) | 🏆 MailerLite |
| Marketing automation | Advanced (lead scoring, web tracking) | Good (multi-trigger: Advanced only) | 🏆 Brevo |
| SMS / WhatsApp | ✅ Yes (paid credits) | ❌ No | 🏆 Brevo |
| Built-in CRM | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | 🏆 Brevo |
| Transactional emails | ✅ All plans | ❌ Separate (MailerSend) | 🏆 Brevo |
| Digital product sales | ❌ No | ✅ Via Stripe (Advanced) | 🏆 MailerLite |
| Website builder | ❌ No | ✅ Full site + blog | 🏆 MailerLite |
| Landing pages | Standard plan+ | All paid plans + 10 on free | 🏆 MailerLite |
| Ease of use | ⚠️ Moderate complexity | ✅ Excellent (award winner) | 🏆 MailerLite |
| 🏆 Best For | Large lists, multichannel, ecommerce, transactional emails | Newsletters, creators, small businesses, deliverability focus | See verdict below |
What Are Brevo’s Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses?
✅ Brevo Strengths
- Large list pricing: Pay per email, not per contact — saves ~€30+ monthly at 10K subscribers vs MailerLite
- All-in-one platform: Email + SMS + WhatsApp + chat + CRM under one roof
- Transactional emails included: No separate service needed for order confirmations
- Generous free tier: Up to 100K contacts stored at no cost
- Advanced automation depth: Lead scoring, website tracking, multi-step workflows on Standard plan
- Brand Library: Store brand assets once, apply across all campaigns
❌ Brevo Weaknesses
- Lower deliverability: 88.3% vs MailerLite’s 94.41%
- Support quality complaints: Slow responses and canned replies cited on G2 and Reddit
- Hidden Starter automation limit: 2,000 contact lifetime cap catches users off guard
- Branding costs extra: $9/month add-on on Starter to remove Brevo logo
- More complex interface: Steeper learning curve, especially in contact management
- Account suspension risk: Strict deliverability algorithm can pause accounts without warning
What Are MailerLite’s Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses?
✅ MailerLite Strengths
- Superior deliverability: 94.41% — EmailToolTester “Best of 5” award winner 2025
- Best email builder in its class: 70+ content blocks, won EmailToolTester Ease of Use award 2025
- Unlimited emails on paid plans: No per-send anxiety, no unexpected usage charges
- Digital product sales: Sell ebooks, courses, paid subscriptions via Stripe
- Full website builder: Complete site + blog, not just landing pages
- Cleaner, simpler interface: Non-technical users get up and running faster
❌ MailerLite Weaknesses
- No SMS, WhatsApp, or live chat: Email-only — need separate tools for multichannel
- No built-in CRM: Contact and sales pipeline management requires a separate tool
- No transactional emails: Need a separate MailerSend account for receipts
- Gets expensive at scale: $54/month at 10,000 subscribers on Growing Business
- Templates locked behind paywall: Zero templates on the free plan
- Advanced automation requires top tier: Multi-trigger workflows only on Advanced plan
The Honest Truth About Account Terminations — Brevo and MailerLite
Both platforms have a reputation for account terminations, and this is worth addressing directly before you commit to either one.
Brevo’s account suspension pattern tends to be algorithmic. Users with low engagement rates or high bounce metrics can find their account paused without clear warning. Brevo’s customer service response times have been particularly criticized — multiple G2 reviews describe canned replies and multiple escalations before getting resolution.
MailerLite’s termination pattern is different but equally frustrating. MailerLite manually reviews new accounts, and rejection can come without explanation. My own MailerLite account was terminated citing cold mailing — even though I hadn’t sent a single email through the platform at that point. When I contacted support, they confirmed the termination was final. Searches across marketing forums show this isn’t isolated — it’s a recurring complaint from affiliate marketers, agency owners, and freelancers whose business models MailerLite’s algorithm flags, sometimes incorrectly.
⚠️ Before Signing Up: Verify Your Business Model is Accepted
Both Brevo and MailerLite have strict anti-spam and acceptable use policies. If your business involves affiliate marketing, cold outreach, reselling email services, or certain high-risk industries, verify your eligibility before migrating a large list. Consider keeping an alternative like GetResponse or Moosend as a backup option.
Who Should Use Brevo — and Who Should Skip It?
If you’re looking for broader options, see our GetResponse vs Brevo comparison and our full GetResponse review for a strong alternative in the same tier.
✅ Choose Brevo if you: have a large contact list (5,000+) and send 2–4 campaigns per month; need SMS or WhatsApp marketing alongside email; run an ecommerce store that sends transactional emails; want a built-in CRM without paying for a separate tool; or need a multichannel approach: email + live chat + messaging in one platform.
❌ Skip Brevo if you: have a small list under 2,000 subscribers and send weekly newsletters; are a beginner who needs an intuitive interface; want to sell digital products or run paid subscriptions; or prioritize inbox placement above all else.
Who Should Use MailerLite — and Who Should Skip It?
MailerLite pairs well with other tools for anyone building a content business — check our best landing page builders guide for complementary tools if you need more conversion infrastructure.
✅ Choose MailerLite if you: run a newsletter, blog, or creator business with a list under 5,000 subscribers; sell or plan to sell digital products (ebooks, courses, subscriptions); prioritize inbox placement; are a beginner or non-technical user; want unlimited emails on paid plans; or need a simple website or blog alongside your email list.
❌ Skip MailerLite if you: have a list above 10,000 subscribers — costs climb steeply; need SMS, WhatsApp, or live chat; run an ecommerce store requiring transactional emails; work in affiliate marketing or certain agency models; or need advanced automation without upgrading — multi-trigger workflows require the $20/month Advanced tier.
LOOKING FOR A THIRD OPTION?
GetResponse — The Best Alternative for Growing Businesses
GetResponse sits between Brevo and MailerLite — excellent automation, solid deliverability, landing pages on all plans, and a fully integrated webinar tool. Starting at $19/month for 1,000 contacts. See our full GetResponse review or compare it in our GetResponse vs Mailchimp comparison.
What’s Our Final Verdict on Brevo vs MailerLite in 2026?
MailerLite rates 8.5/10 for email-focused businesses. The deliverability advantage alone justifies choosing it for most creators and newsletter operators. Add in the cleaner interface, digital product sales, and unlimited sends on paid plans, and it’s a strong all-around option for lists under 5,000 subscribers.
Brevo rates 8.0/10 overall, climbing to 8.5/10 for large-list businesses sending fewer than 4 campaigns per month. At that scale, the pricing advantage is substantial — and no other tool in this price range offers email + SMS + WhatsApp + live chat + CRM under one roof. The deliverability gap is a real concern, but for large-volume senders, the cost savings often outweigh it.
The short answer: MailerLite is the better choice for creators, solopreneurs, and small businesses focused on email newsletters with lists under 5,000 subscribers — it delivers more emails to the inbox (94.41%), is easier to use, and allows digital product sales. Brevo is the better choice for businesses with large contact lists, multichannel marketing needs, or those requiring transactional emails without a separate service. We rate MailerLite 8.5/10 for email-focused businesses and Brevo 8.0/10 overall.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
Under 5,000 contacts
+ Priority is deliverability & simplicity
+ Sell digital products or courses
+ Run a newsletter or blog
from ~€8.62/month
5,000+ contacts
+ Need SMS/WhatsApp alongside email
+ Transactional emails for ecommerce
+ Multichannel marketing in one place
from ~€7.76/month
❌ Consider alternatives if: You’re heavily ecommerce-focused (look at Klaviyo or Omnisend), need advanced CRM (try GetResponse), or work in affiliate marketing and worry about account stability.
For large lists & multichannel
Try Brevo Free
Unlimited contacts · From ~€7.76/month · No credit card required
For newsletters & creators
Try MailerLite Free
94.41% deliverability · From ~€8.62/month · Free up to 500 subscribers
Frequently Asked Questions About Brevo vs MailerLite
📚 Related Reading
- 📊 Best Email Marketing Software in 2026 — 12 platforms tested and ranked
- ⚡ GetResponse Review 2026 — strong Brevo/MailerLite alternative
- 🆚 GetResponse vs Brevo — side-by-side comparison
- 🆚 GetResponse vs Mailchimp — for users evaluating the big names
- 🔧 Email Marketing Automation Guide — what to look for at scale
- 🏠 Best Landing Page Builders 2026 — complement your email platform
- 🔄 Best Mailchimp Alternatives — if you’re switching from Mailchimp
- 📧 Brevo Review 2026 — in-depth Brevo platform review
- 📬 MailerLite vs Mailchimp — MailerLite compared to the market leader
