MailerLite Review: Pros and Cons Revealed!

In an era of crowded inboxes and vanishing attention spans, email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach customers.

But with so many providers promising excellent deliverability, beautiful templates, and easy-to-use interfaces at affordable prices, how do you choose? MailerLite Review!

Let’s dive in and find out if this platform offers the right blend of essentials for your email marketing needs.

Background - MailerLite Review

MailerLite is a relatively new player in the world of email marketing, having been founded in 2010. However, their youthful energy has allowed them to create a modern platform that feels intuitive yet robust.

As I researched the company behind this tool, several details stood out that depict their values and approach:

• Global team: MailerLite employees and support staff are located worldwide, ensuring quick assistance regardless of your time zone or native language.
• Multi-language support: The MailerLite platform itself is available in English and Spanish. Their top competitors like GetResponse offer support in more than 20 languages.
• Company values: MailerLite positions itself as a progressive email marketing software centered around simplicity, transparency, and great user experiences.

In March 2022, MailerLite launched a new version of their software while maintaining the classic platform under a different name. This review focuses on the updated MailerLite tool that touts an improved interface, more templates, and an easier pricing structure.

Platform Edition	Key Details
MailerLite Classic	Legacy platform with original features and pricing model
New MailerLite Platform	Launched in March 2022 with interface updates, more templates, and simplified pricing

Why the New Launch?

So what exactly prompted the shift from MailerLite Classic to the rebranded platform?

All in all, the new MailerLite platform retains the acclaimed ease of use from its predecessor while packing enhancements under the hood. Understanding these nuances allows us to dive deeper into specific features and evaluate where this tool truly shines or falls short compared to rivals.

Key Features in MailerLite

Beyond competitive pricing, MailerLite packs an extensive suite of features for core email marketing activities like creating campaigns, building landing pages, automating workflows, and managing subscribers.

Let's analyze some of the critical tools it offers to power modern email strategies:

Design and Deliver Beautiful Email Campaigns

Crafting targeted and appealing email campaigns constitutes the heart of this platform. Right from easy template selection to intuitive editors, MailerLite streamlines newsletter creation.

Flexible Email Types

Reach your audience effectively through varied campaign styles:

• Regular email blasts
• RSS-powered automated digests
• Date-specific reminders
• Surveys and polls
• Autoresponders
• Welcome workflows
• Retargeting messages

User-Friendly Email Editor

The drag-and-drop editor simplifies building responsive emails with a host of elements like:

• Customizable blocks for text, images, videos
• Columns, buttons, dividers
• Interactive carousels, quizzes
• Coupons, countdowns
• Social media embed

It also offers an automated AI writing assistant via the Advanced plan to generate subject lines and content.

Modern and Mobile-Ready Templates

Access to professionally designed templates across categories like welcome series, product updates, events, and promotions jumpstart creation.

Segmentation and Targeting

MailerLite enables sending targeted emails only to specific groups automatically based on criteria like:

• Interests and preferences
• Location
• Purchase history
• Engagement metrics

MailerLite has all the essentials covered to design and deliver captivating email campaigns to retain and convert subscribers.

Launch Stunning Landing Pages

Beyond just emails, dedicated landing pages play a pivotal role in lead generation and sales. MailerLite makes creating beautiful pages easy without needing an external tool.

User-Friendly Drag and Drop Building

Much like the email editor, the landing page maker offers a straightforward drag-and-drop approach to piece together professional pages through:

• Hundreds of flexible templates
• Content blocks for structure
• Integrated forms and payments
• Media and styling options
• SEO optimization

Own Domains and Hosting

Publish landing pages using MailerLite's subdomains or host them on your own domains by connecting custom ones for improved branding.

Lead Capture and Analytics

Integrated forms allow capturing visitor information while handy analytics reveal page-specific metrics to optimize conversion rates.

Having this landing page arsenal natively within MailerLite removes the need for an extra tool like LeadPages which usually costs $25+ per month.

Automate Complex Workflows

Beyond basic auto-responders, MailerLite enables advanced behaviours by stringing together multi-step workflows based on triggers like:

• Form submissions
• Link clicks
• Date-based events
• New subscriber onboarding

Powerful segmentation controls which contacts pass through automated flows while easy personalization options help craft targeted messages to inserted groups.

Workflow analytics provide insight into performance too.

With over 800,000 customers, MailerLite has the automation capabilities fine-tuned for typical small business needs.

Effortlessly Manage Subscribers

Centralized control over managing subscriber lists and profiles becomes easy through:

• Tags and custom fields
• Location-based data
• Advanced segmentation
• Engagement tracking
• Custom metrics

Granular analytics offer a holistic view of list growth, campaign effectiveness, and subscriber engagement too.

Email Campaigns In-Depth

We’ve already covered the flexible email types and intuitive drag-and-drop editor MailerLite provides. Now let’s dive deeper into crafting compelling emails by analyzing:

• The standard and speciality campaign types
• Email editor functionalities
• Personalization capabilities
• Automated optimization

Understanding these facets showcases both the capabilities and limitations of MailerLite versus its rivals in my experience.

Choose from Diverse Campaign Flavors

MailerLite empowers you to send beautifully designed emails swiftly in a few ways.

Standard Full-Fledged Emails

You can send stunning emails by:

• Using existing templates
• Building custom layouts with the drag-and-drop editor
• Leveraging the raw HTML editor

This flexibility allows you to incorporate elements like:

• Images, GIFs
• Videos
• Buttons, dividers
• Social posts
• Dynamic product galleries pulled from your connected e-commerce store

The workflow I use involves:

1. Designing the structure
2. Crafting content
3. Adding headers, footers, styles
4. Reviewing across devices
5. Scheduling or sending

A/B Split Testing

To optimize open and click rates, you can easily A/B test elements like:

• Subject lines
• Content formatting
• Call to action placement
• Sender details

This allows you to determine the best-performing variants based on side-by-side comparisons.

Auto Responders

You can trigger automated workflows when users sign up, purchase, or act by creating sequences like:

• Personalized welcome flows
• Drip campaigns
• Re-engagement series

To cut it short, MailerLite provides diverse ways to relay your message through well-designed emails.

Optimizing Engagement Through Personalization

Beyond core email creation capabilities, tailored content provides engagement lift.

In my testing, MailerLite offers a decent subset of personalization options, which include:

• Dynamic content blocks to target groups
• Granular segmentation parameters
• Basic subscriber profiles
• Integration with your e-commerce data
• Trigger instant messages via automations

However, compared to advanced platforms like GetResponse and ActiveCampaign, some limitations emerge:

• MailerLite lacks a fully-featured built-in CRM for comprehensive profiles
• Sophisticated personalized journeys are tougher to orchestrate

So while MailerLite is adequate for most basic needs, you may desire more customization power that niche tools unlock.

Optimization Using Analytics

Fortunately, MailerLite provides ample analytical capabilities to guide your efforts like:

• 360-degree engagement metrics
• Click tracking and heatmaps
• Location-based analysis
• A/B testing comparisons
• Form conversion metrics

However, limitations exist compared to emerging players like Moosend.

• Lack of advanced machine learning capabilities
• Narrower personalization and predictive modeling

So plan your growth trajectory accordingly based on current and future volume expectations.

In a nutshell, the versatile platform empowers you with core building blocks - but sustained expansion may require complementary solutions.

Landing Pages and Website Builder

Dedicated landing pages are vital for lead generation and driving conversions. MailerLite makes crafting beautiful, optimized pages easy without needing an external tool.

Let's examine the critical components of its landing page builder:

Publishing and Tracking Performance

MailerLite offers a couple of options when publishing landing pages, which include:

• Subdomains: Pages hosted on MailerLite's domain as subpages
• Custom Domains: Connect and map your own domain to pages for unified branding

Furthermore, MailerLite's handy analytics provide insight into:

• Visitor Metrics: Views, unique visits and conversions
• Engagement Analysis: Bounce rates, exit points and flow
• Lead Capture: Form field completion rates

In my testing, these tools aid serious optimization to maximize landing page ROIs across traffic sources.

Use Cases and Examples

MailerLite's versatile editor empowers you to quickly create landing pages like:

• Lead Magnets: Giveaways, discounts or resources in exchange for emails
• Webinar Registration: Sign-up pages for online events
• Service Promotions: Pages detailing offerings to capture leads
• Content Upgrade: Gated guides, cheatsheets or exclusive resources

Bottom Line: MailerLite removes the complexity and added costs of managing dedicated landing page tooling. For small teams and personal brands focusing on their email audience, its built-in functionality is more than sufficient in my experience.

Subscriber Management

It's imperative to have avenues where you can easily build and organize your subscriber list. So how does MailerLite stack up on the crucial jobs of collecting, segmenting and managing contacts?

Let's evaluate the critical components around subscriber management.

Expand Your Lists

MailerLite offers flexible ways to rapidly grow your email list:

• Embedded Forms: Place opt-in widgets anywhere across sites using the form builder
• Lead Ad Forms: Interstitial pop-ups and banners to capture attention
• Import Contacts: Bulk upload via CSV files
• Integrate Feeds: Pull data from CRMs, webinar software, etc.

In my experience, these tools make it effortless to capture more leads automatically from traffic across web and mobile touchpoints.

Organize with Segments

The granular organization enables you to send targeted communications attuned to specific user needs.

You can leverage MailerLite's segments to automatically group subscribers as per:

• Interest areas via tags
• Campaign or form participation
• Location details
• Custom field values
• Engagement metrics

Furthermore, saved segments dynamically update when new users meet the defined criteria. This level of automation reduces overhead in maintaining personalized lists.

While useful for basic needs, compared to ActiveCampaign or GetResponse, I've noticed MailerLite lacks deeper segmentation abilities. Advanced tools allow combining complex filters with email automation for sophisticated personalization.

Analytics for Optimization

Your dashboard provides valuable subscriber and list analytics depicting:

• List growth trends
• Campaign-specific engagement rates
• Open, clickthrough and unsubscribe metrics
• Form conversion tracking

Automation Review

Integrations

Despite a generous core feature set, MailerLite smartly recognizes specialist tools exist that can complement email marketing activity.

It thus offers seamless connectivity with essential third-party platforms.

Let's see what it packs!

Core Platform Integrations

• CRM: Sync contacts, behavioral data with customer management tools like Salesforce, HubSpot and Zoho
• Webinars: Import registrants from GoToWebinar, EverWebinar etc. into custom workflows
• Surveys: Send survey invites, share results automatically to subscriber segments
• Product Catalogs: Showcase ecommerce catalogs dynamically within campaigns
• Forms: Embed MailerLite forms with just a line of code anywhere thanks to tight partnerships
• CMS: Add forms or embed content through native WordPress, Shopify plugins

These native integrations remove tedious tasks like exporting, reformatting and uploading data between platforms.

Zapier Connectivity

Additionally, the Zapier integration enables connecting virtually any marketing or business software tool that plays well with the platform.

It expands possibilities to automate complex multi-channel scenarios.

In my testing though, I did find MailerLite overlaps tools it integrates with occasionally. For example, alternatives like Moosend or GetResponse almost act as a central hub consolidating functionality from ancillary platforms.

Evaluating current tech stacks determines whether consolidation or expansion makes sense.

Either way, MailerLite checks the integration ability box for marketers to execute unified strategies across channels.

Pricing and Discount

Affordability paired with reliability represents a coveted combination for any martech platform.

Let’s examine how MailerLite delivers on both fronts through competitive pricing.

Generous and Free Offerings

MailerLite's permanently free plan allows:

• 1,000 subscribers
• 12,000 emails monthly
• Basic email and landing page builder
• Unlimited automation triggers
• Core analytics

This free offering outpaces competitors by allowing reasonably high volumes despite being a freemium tier.

Tools like ConvertKit completely lack free options, while Mailchimp's free plan only permits 500 contacts.

For early-stage solopreneurs, MailerLite provides ample room to grow without financial commitment.

The paid tiers further expand capabilities around deliverability, compliance and support.

Unbeatable Value on Growing Business Plan

• Costs just $15 monthly for 2,500 subscribers
• Scales up inexpensively from there
• Includes generous email and landing page limits
• Packed with pro features like alternate editors, dynamic content, advanced analytics

Let's specifically compare MailerLite to Mailchimp in term of pricing.

Subscribers	MailerLite	Mailchimp	Savings
2,500	$15	$50	70%
10,000	$73	$100	27%
50,000	$289	$300	4%

MailerLite consistently remains 70% or cheaper for typical mid-sized lists while offering far more features.

The value prop only becomes more compelling at higher tiers thanks to capped transparent pricing.

Tools like ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign can cost exponentially more thanks to add-on fees.

Optimizing Investment Returns

• Extended risk-free trial: Test drive paid plans for free for 30 days instead of just 14 to experience full functionality.
• Annual billing: Paying yearly reduces costs by additional 10% to maximize ROIs.
• Free resources: Leverage Mailerlite's Academy courses to skill up on email marketing at no cost. Implement learnings to recover spends faster.

Bottom Line: Whether you are bootstrapping a venture or managing larger email programs, MailerLite should suit your growth needs at every stage thanks to value-first pricing.

MailerLite vs Mailchimp

With Mailchimp commanding a 75% market share, the inevitable question arises - how does MailerLite stack up against this category leader?

Well, let's see their head-to-head wins by analyzing across crucial capability areas.

Important: You can read my full blog post on MailerLite vs Mailchimp here!

Email Editors

Both tools offer user-friendly drag and drop workflows to design emails:

• Mailchimp enables easier collaborating with multiple simultaneous editors
• But MailerLite provides more dynamic blocks for personalization
• Mailchimp offers more granular styling options
• MailerLite integrates an AI writing assistant

For simpler needs, Mailerlite suffices but advanced users may prefer Mailchimp's fine-tuned controls around styling and collaborating.

Customer Journeys

• Mailchimp's 5 pre-built journey templates and intuitive visual editor allow easy automation creation
• But journey complexity in Mailchimp gets limited beyond a few branches
• MailerLite offers greater flexibility for advanced multi-path scenarios despite less visualization

So MailerLite pips Mailchimp for sophisticated behavioral triggering beyond basic journeys.

Landing Pages

• Mailchimp only allows simple 1-page landers with limited templates
• MailerLite enables full websites through its powerful drag and drop builder
• Dynamic content personalization also proves superior in MailerLite

For anything beyond basic squeeze pages, MailerLite clearly outshines Mailchimp in the landing page arena.

Contacts and Data

• Mailchimp offers tag-based Groups and segmenting like MailerLite
• It also provides more custom contact field types like drop-downs
• Mailchimp's reporting and tracking abilities fare better for large volumes

Mailchimp edges out in terms of custom field flexibility resulting in more fine-tuned segmentation and analytics.

Support and Resources

• Mailchimp provides stellar learning resources across formats like guides, videos, and webinars
• MailerLite offers limited onboarding education beyond documentation
• But 24/7 live chat and in-app messaging score over Mailchimp's ticketed assistance

For self-education, Mailchimp has the edge but MailerLite provides quicker support avenues.

Compliance and Security Controls

• Mailchimp's matured certification with privacy frameworks outpaces MailerLite
• It offers dedicated IP and domain alignment for security
• MailerLite publishing protections seem more basic currently

For enterprise-grade compliance and security, Mailchimp wins over MailerLite.

Pricing Differences

• MailerLite costs almost 50% lesser across lower tiers
• Savings reach 70% for mid-sized lists around 2,500 subscribers
• At higher tiers beyond 15k subscribers, Mailchimp pricing matches MailerLite

MailerLite maintains significant price savings for typical small business list sizes, though margins narrow eventually.

Evaluating specific features determines the better platform for your needs. But broadly speaking, Mailerlite punches above its weight with more well-rounded capabilities despite affordability advantages.

MailerLite FAQs