MailerLite is an email marketing platform that competes on simplicity and price. Ignas Rubezius founded it in 2010 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The product serves small businesses and creators who need professional email marketing without the complexity or cost of platforms like HubSpot or ActiveCampaign.
The drag-and-drop email editor is clean and fast, with blocks for text, images, buttons, video, social links, countdown timers, and product listings. A website and blog builder is included in the platform, letting users create landing pages and even full websites without touching code. The addition of a paid newsletter feature positioned MailerLite as an alternative to Substack for creators who want more control.
Automation in MailerLite handles the essentials: welcome sequences, abandoned cart emails (via Shopify integration), date-based triggers, and conditional workflows based on subscriber behavior. It won’t match the complexity of Drip or ActiveCampaign, but for straightforward automation needs, it covers the ground well.
The free plan is generous — up to 1,000 subscribers with 12,000 monthly emails, the drag-and-drop editor, landing pages, and sign-up forms. Paid plans start at $9/month for 500 subscribers and unlock automation, A/B testing, dynamic content, and the ability to remove MailerLite branding.
MailerLite has grown to over 1.5 million users globally without taking external funding. The company is entirely bootstrapped and profitable, which is unusual for a platform of its scale. The team is distributed across 40+ countries. MailerLite’s strength is doing the fundamentals well at a price point that makes Mailchimp’s paid plans look expensive.
