Brevo vs MailerLite: Which One Should You Choose in 2026?

If you are looking for an email marketing tool, Brevo and MailerLite are two names you will probably come across very quickly.

Both can help you build an email list, send newsletters, create automations, and collect subscribers. But they are not really designed around the same type of user.

MailerLite focuses more on keeping email marketing simple. Brevo goes further into CRM, SMS, transactional email, and multichannel marketing.

So, which one should you actually choose?

In this Brevo vs MailerLite comparison, I’ll look at the things that matter when you are actually choosing a platform: pricing, free plans, ease of use, email marketing, automation, landing pages, CRM, SMS, transactional email, and different real-world use cases.

I’ll also point out where the answer depends on how you use the platform instead of simply declaring one tool better at everything.

Quick answer: MailerLite is the better choice for most beginners, bloggers, newsletter creators, and users who mainly want simple email marketing. Brevo becomes more attractive when you need SMS, transactional email, CRM features, or broader multichannel marketing.

Let’s see which one actually makes more sense for your needs.

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Brevo vs MailerLite: Quick Verdict

Before getting into all the details, here is the short version.

If you need…	Better choice
Simple email marketing	MailerLite
Beginner-friendly experience	MailerLite
Newsletter-focused workflow	MailerLite
Websites and landing pages	MailerLite
SMS marketing	Brevo
Transactional email	Brevo
Built-in CRM capabilities	Brevo
Large contact database with relatively low sending frequency	Brevo
Broader multichannel marketing	Brevo

My preliminary view is simple:

MailerLite is the simpler email-first option, while Brevo is the broader marketing platform.

That doesn’t automatically make one better than the other.

For example, if you are a blogger with 1,000 subscribers and mainly want to send a weekly newsletter, you may not need all the extra functionality Brevo offers.

On the other hand, if you run a small business and want email, SMS, CRM, and transactional messages in one ecosystem, Brevo starts making much more sense.

Try the platforms

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Brevo vs MailerLite Comparison Table

Here is the comparison at a glance.

Feature	Brevo	MailerLite
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Starting paid plan	From $9/month	From $12/month
Free contact limit	Up to 100,000 stored contacts	Up to 250 subscribers
Free sending	300 emails/day	2,500 emails/month
Email campaigns	Yes	Yes
Automation	Yes	Yes
Landing pages	Yes	Yes
Signup forms	Yes	Yes
SMS	Yes	No
Transactional email	Yes	Via MailerSend
CRM	Yes	More limited
Website builder	No dedicated website builder like MailerLite	Yes
Digital products	Not a core feature	Yes
Best suited for	Multichannel marketing	Simple email marketing

These numbers are based on the current plans and documentation available at the time of writing. Brevo’s free plan currently allows up to 100,000 stored contacts but limits sending to 300 emails per day. MailerLite’s current Free plan allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month.

The biggest difference is actually the pricing model.

Brevo is much more focused on how much you send, while MailerLite’s paid plans are more closely tied to your subscriber level and plan.

That difference becomes important as your email list grows.

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Brevo vs MailerLite Pricing

Pricing is one area where I would not simply say that one platform is cheaper.

It depends on how many subscribers you have and how often you send emails.

Brevo pricing

Brevo currently has a Free plan, Starter starting from $9/month, Standard starting from $18/month, Professional starting from $499/month, and Enterprise pricing for larger businesses.

The Free plan is particularly interesting because you can store up to 100,000 contacts, but you are limited to 300 email sends per day.

So having 5,000 contacts in Brevo does not mean you can send a newsletter to all 5,000 people for free on the same day.

You would be limited by the daily sending allowance.

The Starter plan removes the daily sending limit and uses different email-volume/contact tiers. For example, Brevo currently lists 5,000 monthly emails with up to 500 contacts at the starting $9/month level.

MailerLite pricing

MailerLite’s current plans are:

• Free
• Comfort
• Power
• Enterprise

The Free plan allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails.

Comfort starts at $12/month, while Power starts at $25/month on the current displayed pricing.

The important part is that MailerLite’s paid plans are much more closely connected to the size of your subscriber list.

For example, Comfort includes monthly sending of up to 10 times the subscriber limit of your selected tier, while Power offers unlimited monthly email sending subject to fair-use policies.

What happens with 250 subscribers?

If you are just starting and have fewer than 250 subscribers, MailerLite’s Free plan is very attractive.

You get 2,500 monthly emails, three active automations, one website, one landing page, three signup forms, and other basic features.

Brevo gives you a much larger contact-storage allowance, but the 300-email-per-day limit is the important restriction.

So for a small newsletter, I would lean toward MailerLite.

What about 500 subscribers?

This is where things become more interesting.

MailerLite’s Free plan stops at 250 subscribers, so you need to move to a paid plan if your list grows beyond that limit.

Brevo, meanwhile, has paid tiers based partly on email volume and stored contacts.

If you send relatively few emails, Brevo can be interesting because its pricing isn’t simply based on having a large contact database.

What about 2,500 subscribers?

At 2,500 subscribers, I would definitely look at your sending frequency before choosing.

If you send a weekly newsletter to the entire list, that is roughly 10,000 email sends per month before counting other campaigns or automation emails.

In that situation, a subscriber-based platform such as MailerLite and a send-volume-based platform such as Brevo can produce very different costs.

This is why I don’t think the simple statement “Brevo is cheaper” or “MailerLite is cheaper” is very useful.

What about 10,000 subscribers?

This is where Brevo’s model can become particularly interesting.

If you have a large database but don’t email everyone frequently, paying based on sending volume can make more sense than paying primarily for the size of your subscriber list.

But if you regularly send multiple campaigns to your entire audience, the calculation changes.

My pricing takeaway

Don’t choose between Brevo and MailerLite based only on the starting monthly price.

Instead ask yourself:

1. How many subscribers will I have?
2. How many emails will I send each month?
3. Will I need automation?
4. Do I need SMS?
5. Do I need transactional email?
6. Do I need CRM features?

Your answers will tell you much more than the “$9 vs $12” comparison.

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Brevo vs MailerLite Free Plan

Both platforms offer a free plan, but they approach the free tier very differently.

Feature	Brevo Free	MailerLite Free
Contacts/subscribers	Up to 100,000 stored contacts	Up to 250 subscribers
Sending	300 emails/day	2,500 emails/month
Automations	Limited to 2,000 unique contacts entering active automations	3 active automations
Website	Not the same website-building focus	1 website
Landing page	Available with plan limitations	1 landing page
Forms	Yes	3 signup forms
User seats	1	2
Best for	Large database with limited sending	Small newsletter or new business

If you’re also comparing MailerLite with ConvertKit, I’ve covered that comparison separately in our MailerLite vs ConvertKit comparison.
Brevo’s Free plan currently supports up to 100,000 stored contacts, but only 300 email sends per day. Automation entry is also limited to 2,000 unique contacts on the Free plan.

MailerLite’s Free plan is smaller in terms of subscribers, but it gives you a useful collection of features for a small newsletter, including three automations, one website, one landing page, three signup forms, and 2,500 monthly emails.

MailerLite isn’t the only option if you want email marketing combined with other online-business tools. I’ve also compared it with Systeme.io in this Systeme.io vs MailerLite comparison.

So I would look at it this way:

Best free plan for a very small newsletter: MailerLite

Best free plan for storing a large contact database: Brevo

There is no single winner here because the two free plans are designed around different needs.

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Ease of Use

This is one area where I think the difference between the two platforms becomes more noticeable.

MailerLite is built around a relatively simple email-marketing workflow.

You can create campaigns, manage subscribers, build forms, create landing pages, and set up automations without needing a large collection of marketing tools.

Brevo gives you more.

But “more” can also mean more things to understand.

Brevo includes email marketing alongside CRM, SMS, transactional messaging and other customer-relationship features.

If you are completely new to email marketing, that broader platform can feel like more than you actually need.

My testing note

Hands-on test to complete before publication:

Create the same basic workflow in both platforms:

1. Create an account
2. Create an audience/list
3. Add a test contact
4. Create a campaign
5. Edit the email
6. Add an image and button
7. Preview the email
8. Schedule it
9. Open the analytics/reporting section

Then add your actual observations here.

Current verdict

Based on the overall product structure, MailerLite has the simpler focus, while Brevo offers a broader set of marketing functions.

Preliminary winner: MailerLite

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Email Editor and Templates

Both platforms provide visual email-building tools, so this isn’t really a case of one having an editor and the other not having one.

Brevo includes a drag-and-drop email editor, custom templates and reusable sections.

MailerLite offers drag-and-drop, simple and custom HTML editors. Its current plans also include newsletter templates, with more template functionality available as you move into paid plans.

For a typical newsletter, you probably don’t need a huge difference in editor capability.

What matters more is how quickly you can go from:

idea → email → preview → send

MailerLite has an advantage here for users who don’t want to spend time learning a complicated marketing platform.

Brevo may be the better fit if your email campaigns are part of a wider customer-communication system.

My verdict

Winner: MailerLite for simplicity

Winner: Brevo for broader marketing integration

If email editing is the main thing you care about, I would choose MailerLite.

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Email Automation

Automation is important because this is where email marketing starts saving you time.

A simple example would be:

Someone subscribes → welcome email → wait 2 days → send another email → follow up

Both platforms can handle automated workflows.

MailerLite currently offers three active automations on its Free plan, up to 50 on Comfort, and unlimited automations on Power.

Brevo also offers marketing automation, but its Free and Starter plans currently limit the number of unique contacts that can enter active automations to 2,000. Standard removes that contact-entry limitation.

What I would test

For a proper Leufayi hands-on comparison, I would build exactly the same workflow in both:

Trigger: New subscriber

Step 1: Send welcome email

Step 2: Wait 2 days

Step 3: Send follow-up

Step 4: Add a condition

Step 5: Send different emails depending on the result

Then compare:

• How easy the trigger is to create
• How easy delays are to set
• Whether conditions are clear
• How easy branching is
• How easy it is to understand the entire workflow
• What reporting is available

Preliminary verdict

For simple newsletter automation, MailerLite is likely the better fit for beginners.

For larger, more complicated marketing workflows, Brevo’s broader platform becomes more attractive.

I would finalize the winner here after the hands-on workflow test rather than pretending the test has already been completed.

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Forms and Landing Pages

This is another area where MailerLite has a strong argument.

MailerLite currently includes websites, landing pages, signup forms and pop-ups, even on its Free plan with usage limits. The Free plan includes one website, one landing page and three signup forms.

Paid plans expand these limits considerably.

For example, Comfort includes up to 10 websites and landing pages and 10 signup forms, while Power removes those limits.

This makes MailerLite more than just an email sender.

You can use it to build the basic funnel around your email list as well.

Brevo also offers forms and landing-page functionality, but its bigger strength is the broader marketing platform around email, CRM, SMS and transactional messaging.

Who wins?

If your main goal is:

Landing page → signup form → email newsletter → automation

I would lean toward MailerLite.

If your main goal is:

Email → SMS → CRM → transactional communication

I would lean toward Brevo.

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CRM, SMS and Transactional Email

This is where Brevo gets a major advantage.

Brevo describes itself as an all-in-one platform for managing customer relationships through email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat and other channels. Its current Free plan also includes transactional emails and SMS along with email campaigns.

That is a very different proposition from simply being a newsletter platform.

For example, a small business might want to:

• Send promotional emails
• Keep customer information in a CRM
• Send SMS messages
• Send transactional emails
• Manage customer communication from one platform

Brevo makes much more sense for this type of setup.

MailerLite can handle email marketing very well, but transactional email is handled through MailerSend, rather than being the same integrated product experience. MailerLite’s current pricing page specifically directs users to MailerSend for transactional emails.

My verdict

Winner: Brevo

If you need CRM, SMS, transactional email, and multiple communication channels, I would choose Brevo over MailerLite.

This is probably the biggest reason I would recommend Brevo even when MailerLite is easier to use.

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Deliverability

I would be careful with this comparison.

Email deliverability is not something I want to reduce to:

“Tool A has better deliverability than Tool B.”

There are too many factors involved.

Your domain reputation, authentication, list quality, sending practices, content, engagement and other factors can affect whether emails reach the inbox.

Both platforms provide tools and guidance around email sending and authentication.

For a proper Leufayi test, I would compare:

• SPF setup
• DKIM setup
• Domain authentication
• Sending-domain configuration
• Bounce handling
• Unsubscribe handling
• Spam-related guidance
• Reporting
• Reputation controls

Research-based conclusion: I would not claim that Brevo or MailerLite has universally better deliverability without running a controlled test.

This is one of those areas where being honest is more useful than giving readers a confident-sounding percentage that we cannot prove.

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Brevo vs MailerLite for Beginners

If you are completely new to email marketing, I would start with MailerLite.

That doesn’t mean Brevo is difficult.

It means MailerLite’s main workflow is closer to what a beginner normally needs.

You can create your audience, build an email, create a signup form, make a landing page and set up automation without needing to think about a much larger customer-relationship system.

If you’re considering ConvertKit as another option for a creator-focused email strategy, you can also read our ConvertKit review.

Choose MailerLite if:

• You are new to email marketing
• You mainly send newsletters
• You want a simple interface
• You want landing pages and websites
• You want basic automation
• You don’t need SMS
• You don’t need a full CRM system

Choose Brevo if:

• You need email and SMS
• You need transactional email
• You want CRM functionality
• You have a large contact database
• You send relatively infrequent campaigns
• You want broader marketing channels

For most beginners, my choice is MailerLite.

If you’re still not sure which platform to use, you can also check my guide to the best email marketing tools for beginners.

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Brevo vs MailerLite for Small Businesses

This depends heavily on what kind of business you run.

Local service business

Let’s say you run a local service business and want to send promotional emails, keep track of customers, and communicate through SMS.

In this situation, I would look seriously at Brevo.

The CRM and multichannel functionality can be more useful than having the simplest newsletter editor.

Blogger or newsletter creator

If you are a blogger building an audience and sending regular newsletters, I would choose MailerLite.

You probably don’t need SMS or a large CRM system.

You need an easy way to:

collect subscribers → send emails → automate follow-ups → understand your results

MailerLite fits that workflow well.

Small ecommerce business

This one can go either way.

If transactional communication, customer data and multiple channels are important, Brevo can be the stronger option.

If your main focus is newsletters, promotional emails and building a simple marketing funnel, MailerLite can still be a very good choice.

Solo creator selling digital products

MailerLite deserves a close look here.

Its current plans include digital-product functionality, websites, landing pages and email marketing, with more capabilities available on paid plans.

For a creator who wants to keep everything relatively simple, that combination is useful.

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Brevo Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Strong multichannel functionality	Can feel more complex for beginners
SMS capabilities	Pricing requires understanding email volume
Transactional email	Some advanced functionality is plan-dependent
CRM functionality	More than you may need for a simple newsletter
Large free contact-storage allowance	Free plan has a 300-email-per-day sending limit

Brevo’s Free plan currently allows up to 100,000 stored contacts but only 300 email sends per day, so that distinction is important.

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MailerLite Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Beginner-friendly focus	Less comprehensive CRM functionality
Clean email marketing workflow	Transactional email uses MailerSend
Landing pages and websites	Subscriber-based pricing becomes important as your list grows
Digital-product functionality	Fewer built-in communication channels than Brevo
Useful free plan for small lists	Free plan is limited to 250 subscribers

MailerLite’s current Free plan includes 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, while its paid plans expand the subscriber and feature limits.

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Who Should Choose Brevo?

I would choose Brevo if:

• You need SMS marketing
• You need transactional email
• You want CRM functionality
• You have a large contact database
• You don’t send emails to your entire list very frequently
• You want email and other communication channels together
• You expect your marketing needs to become more advanced

Brevo is not necessarily the better tool because it has more features.

It is better when you actually need those features.

If your business is going to use email, SMS, CRM, and transactional communication, I would rather have those tools in one broader platform than build everything around a basic newsletter tool.

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Who Should Choose MailerLite?

I would choose MailerLite if:

• You are a beginner
• You mainly need email marketing
• You run a newsletter
• You want a simple workflow
• You want landing pages
• You want a website builder alongside email marketing
• You sell digital products
• You don’t need built-in SMS
• You don’t need a full CRM system

For a blogger, creator or small website owner, MailerLite is probably the easier recommendation.

You can start small and add more functionality as your audience grows.

If you want a closer look at the platform itself, you can also read our MailerLite review, where I go into more detail about its features and overall experience.

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Brevo vs MailerLite — Final Verdict

So, which one should you choose?

After looking at the current pricing, free plans, features and the different use cases, my answer is:

MailerLite is the better choice for most beginners, bloggers, creators and small businesses that mainly need straightforward email marketing.

Brevo is the better choice when SMS, transactional email, CRM and broader multichannel marketing matter.

I don’t think Brevo is a bad choice for a beginner.

I just don’t think every beginner needs a platform with this much broader functionality.

Similarly, MailerLite isn’t a replacement for every Brevo use case.

If you need CRM, SMS and transactional messaging, Brevo has a clear advantage.

My final comparison

Your priority	Winner
Simplicity	MailerLite
Beginner experience	MailerLite
Newsletter	MailerLite
Landing pages/websites	MailerLite
SMS	Brevo
Transactional email	Brevo
CRM	Brevo
Multichannel marketing	Brevo
Large contact list + lower send frequency	Brevo
Overall for a typical beginner	MailerLite

So my simplest way of remembering the difference is:

Brevo is the broader marketing platform. MailerLite is the simpler email-first platform.

If I were starting a simple newsletter or building an email list for a blog, I would start with MailerLite.

If I were running a business where customer communication went beyond newsletters and included SMS, CRM and transactional emails, I would choose Brevo.

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Frequently Asked Questions