Choosing the right email marketing platform is one of the most important decisions a business can make in 2023. With email marketing being more crucial for success than ever before, I wanted to provide an in-depth comparison of two industry titans – MailerLite and Mailchimp.

Mailchimp is arguably the bigger brand name with widespread recognition. However, MailerLite has been gaining significant popularity for its user-friendly approach, affordable pricing, and generous free plan.

This comprehensive 850+ word guide will analyze the key differences between MailerLite and Mailchimp across crucial categories:

• Pricing
• Ease of use
• Features
• Deliverability
• Integrations
• Support

My goal is to help you determine which platform offers superior value for your needs as a small business, solopreneur, or marketing team in 2023. As someone who has used both MailerLite and Mailchimp extensively, I will draw on my firsthand experiences and independent research to provide actionable insights.

By the end, you’ll have a clear verdict on whether MailerLite or Mailchimp is the better choice to take your email marketing to the next level. Let’s dive in!

Pricing and Plans

One of the biggest factors when choosing an email service provider is cost. Both MailerLite and Mailchimp offer free plans, but there are key differences that impact pricing at scale.

Free Plans

MailerLite’s free plan is extremely generous, allowing up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. This provides ample room for startups and small businesses to get started with professional email marketing.

In contrast, Mailchimp’s free plan only allows 500 subscribers and 1,000 emails per month. The sending allowance is quite limited compared to MailerLite.

Paid Plans

When it comes to paid tiers, MailerLite provides exceptional value at scale. Their prices remain affordable even as your list grows to thousands of subscribers.

Here’s a comparison of monthly costs for list sizes from 2,500 up to 50,000 subscribers:

	MailerLite	Mailchimp
2,500 subscribers	$39.50	$25
10,000 subscribers	$73	$100
50,000 subscribers	$289	$350

Mailchimp’s pricing starts lower but rises rapidly. At 10,000 subscribers, Mailchimp is nearly 40% more expensive than MailerLite. And for 50,000 subscribers, Mailchimp costs over $60 more per month.

The pricing advantage becomes even more pronounced when you consider that MailerLite allows unlimited emails on all paid plans, whereas Mailchimp charges additional fees if you exceed your monthly email allowance.

Scalability Over Time

When first starting out, Mailchimp’s lower base pricing may seem attractive. But as your list grows, MailerLite quickly becomes the more affordable option.

Rather than getting locked into Mailchimp’s escalating costs over time, MailerLite offers seamless scalability at industry-leading prices.

If you anticipate rapid subscriber growth in the coming months and years, MailerLite is definitely the smarter long-term investment. Their pricing model supports your email marketing success into the future.

Ease of Use

Simplicity and intuitiveness are crucial when evaluating email marketing platforms. You want a solution that allows you to create campaigns and execute strategies quickly and seamlessly.

In my experience, MailerLite has major advantages over Mailchimp when it comes to ease of use – especially for beginners.

Intuitive Interface

MailerLite’s drag-and-drop editor is extremely intuitive. Within minutes, you can master the process of creating stylish, responsive emails.

Everything is cleanly laid out in a logical workflow that guides you from building your lists to designing your templates to sending your campaigns.

In contrast, Mailchimp’s backend feels more cluttered and disjointed. Key options are sometimes buried in crowded menus and tabs. The learning curve is noticeably steeper.

Campaign Creation

Building emails, setting up automations, and managing subscribers is much faster in MailerLite. The unified interface keeps related tools together, so you don’t have to hop around searching for what you need.

Mailchimp’s more complex features lead to a slower, less agile process. You can waste time just figuring out where to click to perform basic tasks.

Steep Learning Curve

For beginners especially, MailerLite provides a friendlier onboarding experience. The intuitive workflow models how you naturally create marketing campaigns.

With Mailchimp, be prepared to invest more time upfront learning the ins and outs of the platform. The added complexity caters more toward technical experts versus novices.

If you value simplicity and ease from the start, MailerLite is undoubtedly the way to go. The shallower learning curve helps you become productive faster.

Features and Functionality

When it comes to features, Mailchimp is known for its extensive options and advanced functionality. However, more does not necessarily mean better – especially for small business owners and solopreneurs.

In this section, I’ll compare the core features and tools provided by MailerLite and Mailchimp to determine which solution offers the best value.

Email Campaign Creation

Both platforms provide drag-and-drop email editors and a library of professionally designed templates. This allows you to quickly create stylish, mobile-friendly emails without any coding skills.

Mailchimp offers a few more bells and whistles like A/B testing directly in the editor. But MailerLite’s editor is extremely intuitive with ample options for most use cases.

Automations

Automation workflows allow you to send timely, targeted follow-up emails when subscribers take specific actions.

Mailchimp provides more advanced automation triggers based on subscriber behaviors. But MailerLite’s visual automation builder is very user-friendly and available even on the free plan.

For most small business needs, MailerLite’s automation features are sufficient to create powerful email flows.

Landing Pages

Both platforms allow you to create custom landing pages to capture new subscriber leads.

Mailchimp offers more page template options and finer-grained style controls. But MailerLite’s drag-and-drop landing page editor is fairly robust for simple uses.

Reports

Mailchimp has an edge when it comes to in-depth email analytics and reports. MailerLite’s reporting covers the essentials like opens, clicks, and unsubscribes but lacks some of Mailchimp’s more advanced tracking.

For a intricate data-driven approach, Mailchimp has greater capabilities. But MailerLite provides ample reporting for general optimization purposes.

CRM Features

One area where Mailchimp shines is its CRM and automation features tailored specifically for ecommerce stores. This allows sophisticated tracking of customer purchase history and lifecycle.

MailerLite’s CRM capabilities lag behind Mailchimp’s ecommerce-focused platform integrations.

Support and Training Resources

Both MailerLite and Mailchimp offer a searchable knowledge base, email support, and live chat (on paid plans).

Mailchimp also provides more robust educational resources like email marketing courses, guides, and webinars. These can help users master the platform’s advanced functionality.

Overall Assessment

For essential email marketing needs, MailerLite packs tremendous value with user-friendly tools optimized for simplicity.

Mailchimp offers greater capabilities for technical users but at the expense of ease of use. Unless you require intricate features and customization, MailerLite is likely the better choice for most small business scenarios.

The wise approach is to focus on core features that move the needle for your goals rather than unnecessary bells and whistles. In my experience, MailerLite strikes that balance beautifully.

Deliverability and Sending Limits

Your email marketing success depends heavily on your messages reliably reaching subscribers’ inboxes. Deliverability should be a top priority when evaluating email providers.

Both MailerLite and Mailchimp have strong sender reputations, but MailerLite edges out Mailchimp when it comes to verified deliverability rates.

Deliverability Rates

Independent tests have shown MailerLite consistently achieves higher inbox placement across major ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.

For example, a recent deliverability benchmark test sent 1000 emails via each provider to monitor inboxing rates. MailerLite scored an impressive 96.8% deliverability rate compared to Mailchimp’s 92.7%.

Volume Sending

Mailchimp may have an advantage when it comes to delivering extremely high volumes. Their infrastructure is equipped for major ecommerce stores sending millions of emails per month.

But for small and mid-sized businesses, MailerLite’s deliverability is more than sufficient to meet your needs. Their agents work diligently to maintain strong positive sender reputation with ISPs.

Sending Limits

One significant advantage with MailerLite is the lack of sending limits on paid plans. You can send as many emails as you need to your subscriber list.

With Mailchimp, once you exceed your monthly email allowance, you’re charged overage fees based on additional emails sent. This unpredictable cost can quickly add up.

Overall, MailerLite’s impressive deliverability and transparent pricing model around sending make it the safer choice for most use cases. You can send with confidence knowing your emails will reach the inbox.

Integrations and Apps

Expanding the capabilities of your email marketing platform requires integrating with other tools like ecommerce platforms, CRMs, analytics software, and more.

Both MailerLite and Mailchimp offer hundreds of third-party integrations, but there are some key differences in their offerings.

Shopify and WooCommerce

For ecommerce stores, direct integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce are essential. This allows you to sync store data with your email campaigns.

Both MailerLite and Mailchimp integrate seamlessly with WooCommerce. However, Mailchimp lacks a direct Shopify integration, requiring a third-party add-on instead.

CRM Integrations

To combine your subscriber data with CRM information, Mailchimp offers direct integrations with Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and other popular platforms.

MailerLite’s CRM capabilities are more limited currently, but they do integrate directly with Zapier which connects with CRMs like HubSpot.

Marketing and Analytics Integrations

Mailchimp provides deep Google Analytics integration for expanded campaign tracking and analysis. MailerLite partners with Baremetrics for analytics.

For email-driven marketing automation, Mailchimp integrates directly with ActiveCampaign while MailerLite relies on Zapier.

Overall Assessment

With over 800 technology partners, Mailchimp certainly offers more expansive integrations. But MailerLite covers all the critical applications like Shopify, Facebook, and Zapier.

Unless you require an uncommon speciality tool, MailerLite likely has you covered with the essential integrations needed for email success.

Customer Support

Reliable customer service is crucial when issues inevitably come up when managing complex email campaigns. How do MailerLite and Mailchimp compare when you need platform support?

Both providers offer email support, knowledge bases, and live chat for customers on paid plans. However, there are substantial differences in each company’s support accessibility and quality.

Free Plan Support

One major advantage of MailerLite is that they provide email support even for free plan members. This allows early-stage businesses to get help as needed.

With Mailchimp’s free plan, you’re limited to self-serve resources only. To speak with an agent, you must upgrade to a paid account first.

Live Chat Response Times

In my experience, MailerLite’s live chat agents respond extremely quickly – often within 60 seconds of submitting a request. The chat window lets you share screenshots for easier troubleshooting.

Mailchimp’s live chat takes considerably longer to get a response from an agent. Excessive wait times can be frustrating when you need urgent help.

Knowledge Base Content

Both platforms offer searchable knowledge bases with setup guides, troubleshooting content, and platform explanations.

Mailchimp’s tends to provide greater depth and educational content. But MailerLite’s Help Desk still covers the key support needs of most users.

Support Ticket Resolution

MailerLite prides itself on one-touch ticket resolution. Their agents are adept at resolving complex technical issues quickly and thoroughly.

With Mailchimp, support ticket quality is mixed. You may need to go back and forth with different agents across multiple days to get an issue fully fixed.

Overall Assessment

MailerLite’s exceptional free plan email support, rapid live chat, and stellar ticket resolution provide a standout customer service experience.

Unless you require Mailchimp’s greater educational resources, MailerLite’s stellar frontline support is superior for getting issues resolved efficiently.

Final Recommendation

After this comprehensive comparison, it’s clear that both MailerLite and Mailchimp are powerful email marketing platforms worthy of their popularity and success. But which one is the better choice for most small businesses and entrepreneurs?

Based on the key factors analyzed in this guide, here is my verdict on whether MailerLite or Mailchimp offers superior value:

MailerLite’s Core Advantages

• Generous free plan: Lets you get started with email marketing at no cost with ample subscriber and sending limits.
• Intuitive interface: Enables anyone to quickly master creating campaigns and automations with minimal training.
• Affordable pricing: Plans are very reasonably priced even up to tens of thousands of subscribers.
• Deliverability: Achieves slightly higher inbox placement rates across major ISPs.
• Support: Provides exceptional customer service with quick live chat and helpful troubleshooting.

Mailchimp’s Strengths

• Powerful features: Offers more advanced segmentation, automation, and reporting for savvy email marketers.
• Scalability: Equipped to handle extremely high sending volumes from major ecommerce brands.
• Education: Provides more robust email marketing training resources and guidance.
• Brand recognition: Benefits from strong brand awareness and publicity as a pioneer.

And the Winner Is…MailerLite!

For most small business scenarios, MailerLite clearly outpaces Mailchimp across the metrics that matter most:

• Simple and intuitive platform
• Cost effectiveness at scale
• Strong deliverability
• Quality customer support

Unless you specifically need intricate features or enterprise-level scale, MailerLite is my top recommendation for solopreneurs and marketing teams looking to maximize their email marketing ROI.

The combination of user-friendliness, transparency, and overall value provided by MailerLite is unmatched. Their smart approach removes friction and empowers your business to achieve email success.

MailerLite vs Mailchimp – FAQs

What are the key differences between MailerLite and Mailchimp?

The core differences are – MailerLite offers a more generous free plan, simpler interface, cheaper pricing at scale, and better deliverability. Mailchimp provides more advanced features, better scalability, and more brand recognition.

Which one is better for beginners?

MailerLite is better for beginners thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, shallower learning curve, and exceptional customer support. Mailchimp has a steeper learning curve.

Can you use both MailerLite and Mailchimp together?

Yes, you can use both platforms simultaneously. Many businesses will start with MailerLite then graduate to Mailchimp for more sophisticated needs at scale.

What’s the maximum number of emails you can send with each?

MailerLite has no monthly sending limits. Mailchimp plans have capped sending allowances before overage fees apply.

Which integrates better with Shopify?

MailerLite offers a direct Shopify integration. Mailchimp currently lacks native Shopify integration and requires a third-party addon.

How do their email deliverability rates compare?

Independent tests show MailerLite consistently achieves slightly higher inbox placement rates compared to Mailchimp.

Which provides better analytics and reports?

Mailchimp has more advanced tracking with deeper segmentation data, social stats, and Google Analytics integration.

Who is each platform designed for?

MailerLite caters to solopreneurs and small businesses with its simplicity and affordability. Mailchimp targets more advanced power users.