Brevo vs MailerLite: Two Published Price Lists, Opposite Pricing Models

Brevo and MailerLite are the two low-cost email platforms most often weighed against each other by small businesses and creators: 140 searches a month across both directions. Both publish their full price lists. They price in opposite ways, and that decides most comparisons.

We have measured both with the same method. MailerLite scores 3.71 and Brevo 3.58 on our email rubric.

The short answer

MailerLite charges by subscribers and includes a monthly sending allowance. Brevo charges by emails sent and caps the contacts each tier may store. So MailerLite is usually cheaper for a small list mailed often, and Brevo for a large list mailed rarely. Brevo covers far more channels; MailerLite is simpler and better reviewed for support.

## How each one prices

MailerLite. Comfort is $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers, $19 at 1,000, $33 at 2,500, $89 at 10,000 and $319 at 50,000, with ten sends per subscriber band ceiling each month. Power, with unlimited sending, is $25 at 500 ^[26].

Brevo. Starter $9 and Standard $18 at 5,000 emails; the email tier also caps stored contacts at 500, 1,500, 2,500, then 500,000 from 20,000 emails ^[5]. Standard at 50,000 emails is $97 ^[3].

Both publish everything: MailerLite in its pricing page script, Brevo in a public pricing API.

Price at four list sizes

Contacts and sending	Brevo	MailerLite
500, weekly	Starter $9 · Standard $18	Comfort $12
1,000, weekly	Starter $17 · Standard $35	Comfort $19
10,000, weekly (about 43,000 emails)	Starter $56 · Standard $97	Comfort $89
50,000, monthly	Starter $56 · Standard $97	Comfort $319

At small sizes they are close, with MailerLite including logo removal and automation in Comfort, which Brevo puts on Standard. At 50,000 subscribers mailed once a month, Brevo costs less than a third of MailerLite.

## How each counts your list

MailerLite counts active subscribers cumulatively within the billing cycle, so a subscriber deleted mid-cycle still counts until the anniversary . Unsubscribed contacts do not count.

Brevo counts stored contacts against the tier's cap. "If you have more contacts than the limit allowed for a given tier, you won’t be able to select that lower tier." ^[7] You must delete contacts first.

Automatic upgrades

Both move the plan up for you. MailerLite upgrades on subscribers and, on Comfort, on sends. Brevo upgrades on contacts on its first three tiers ^[8], and the terms stop that at 20,000 emails ^[14].

Neither moves the plan down by itself. MailerLite downgrades by hand at the end of the cycle. Brevo requires a cancellation and a new plan, and prepaid credits are lost ^[9].

Free plans

	Brevo Free	MailerLite Free
Contacts	up to 100,000 stored	up to 250 subscribers
Sending	300 a day	2,500 a month
Automation	up to 2,000 contacts	3 automations
Users	1	2

Brevo stores 400 times as many contacts. MailerLite sends more per subscriber and allows two users. For a list over 250, only Brevo's free plan works at all, at the cost of sending in batches of 300 a day ^[6].

Channels and features

Brevo is much broader: SMS, WhatsApp, push, live chat, a sales CRM with deals, a customer data platform, loyalty and transactional email ^[20]. MailerLite sends email only, and sells transactional email as a separate product.

MailerLite is broader in one area: selling. It runs digital products, bookings and paid newsletters through Stripe with no platform commission, and puts websites and a blog on every plan. Brevo's landing pages start at one on Standard.

Choose by what you need beyond the newsletter.

Account access

Both review accounts. Brevo publishes its thresholds, a hard bounce rate above 2%, unsubscribes above 1%, complaints above 0.2%, and a second suspension is final ^[13]. MailerLite pauses sending and landing pages during a review and gives thirty days to respond.

In our review samples, suspension appears in 20 of 100 Brevo reviews and 11 of 100 MailerLite reviews ^[15]. Both are worth planning for; Brevo's is the stricter regime.

Support and reviews

MailerLite has the best support reviews we have measured: 46 positive mentions against 15 negative in its sample. Brevo's split is 19 positive against 27 negative ^[15].

Trustpilot shows MailerLite at 4.1 and Brevo at 3.9, but Brevo's recent sample averages 2.85. Brevo's WordPress plugin, at 4.1 from 285 ^[16], outscores MailerLite's 3.0.

Integrations

Brevo lists more than 150 integrations and an MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude ^[2]. MailerLite lists more than 100 and its own MCP server. Brevo's WordPress plugin is the stronger of the two. On Shopify both are weak: MailerLite's app scores 2.4, and Brevo's listing reads "This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store." ^[17]

A worked example: the same newsletter on both

A newsletter with 4,000 subscribers sends one issue a week and a five-email welcome sequence to about 300 new subscribers a month.

Monthly sends. Four or five issues to 4,000 people is about 17,000 emails, plus 1,500 for the welcome sequence. Call it 18,500 a month.

On MailerLite. 4,000 subscribers sit in the 5,000 band: Comfort at $49 a month, with an allowance of 50,000 emails ^[26]. Logo removal, automation and a website are included.

On Brevo. 4,000 contacts need the 20,000-email tier, the first that stores more than 2,500 contacts ^[5]. Starter costs $32 and Standard $69 ^[3]. The newsletter wants automation for more than 2,000 contacts and no logo, so Standard: $69.

Result. MailerLite is $20 a month cheaper for this newsletter, and includes a website. Halve the sending, to two issues a month, and Brevo's price does not fall, because the contact count still requires the 20,000 tier. This is the clearest case where subscriber pricing wins.

A worked example: an occasional announcement list

A software company keeps 60,000 contacts from trials and webinars and emails them once a month with product news.

On MailerLite. 60,000 subscribers: Comfort at $359 a month ^[26].

On Brevo. 60,000 emails a month on Standard: $104 ^[3], storing up to 500,000 contacts.

Result. Brevo costs less than a third. For a large list mailed monthly, email pricing wins by a wide margin.

Selling, pages and creators

MailerLite was built with creators in mind. It sells digital products, bookings, paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions through Stripe, with no commission taken by the platform, and every plan includes websites and landing pages.

Brevo's strengths lie elsewhere. It has payment links and a loyalty programme, and its Standard plan includes one landing page, Professional ten ^[5]. For a creator whose newsletter is the business, MailerLite's toolset is the more natural fit. For a business that needs SMS reminders, a CRM pipeline or WhatsApp, Brevo's breadth wins.

Leaving each one

MailerLite downgrades by hand at the end of the cycle and refunds only when it ends the service without cause. Brevo requires a cancellation to downgrade, loses prepaid credits on the way, and holds yearly terms to the end ^{[9] [14]}.

Both keep your data after you cancel to the free plan, with conditions. Brevo's free account must be logged into regularly, "every four months to prevent the automatic deletion of your Free account" according to its help centre ^[10]. MailerLite keeps data on its free plan without a published inactivity rule.

Export from either before you close anything. Closing a Brevo account is final: "This action is irreversible, and all data will be permanently lost." ^[12]

A worked example: 10,000 subscribers, weekly

A publisher with 10,000 subscribers sends one issue a week and a short automated sequence to new readers.

Monthly sends. About 43,000 emails for the issues plus 2,000 for the sequence: 45,000.

On MailerLite. The 10,000 band on Comfort costs $89 a month and allows 100,000 emails ^[26].

On Brevo. 45,000 emails needs the 50,000-email tier. Starter costs $56, Standard $97 ^[3]. The publisher wants automation for everyone and no logo, so Standard at $97.

Result. MailerLite is $8 a month cheaper, with room to send twice a week before its allowance binds. Brevo's price would rise with every extra issue: a second weekly send moves it to the 100,000-email tier, $139 on Standard. At weekly frequency the two are close; above it, MailerLite pulls ahead.

AI and assistants

Both vendors connect to AI assistants. Brevo's pricing page lists "MCP for ChatGPT & Claude" on Starter, described as a way to "Manage campaigns and contacts directly from ChatGPT, Claude & other AI tools" ^[2]. It also includes Aura, its AI assistant, on the free plan, and AI send-time optimisation on Standard ^[5].

MailerLite publishes its own MCP server, with sending through it reserved for paid plans, and an AI writing assistant from Comfort.

Neither sells AI as separate credits. Neither publishes the model or the provider behind its built-in tools. For most buyers, AI does not decide between them.

Support compared

MailerLite offers 24/7 email support on Comfort and live chat on Power. Brevo offers email support on Free and Starter, in six languages according to its pricing page, priority email on Standard and phone support from Professional ^{[2] [5]}.

The review evidence is lopsided. MailerLite's support splits 46 positive to 15 negative in our sample; Brevo's splits 19 positive to 27 negative ^[15]. The difference is mostly about suspensions: a Brevo account under review needs a person, and below Professional that person is reached by ticket.

If support quality is your first criterion, MailerLite is the safer choice. If channel breadth is, Brevo is.

Counting both numbers before you choose

Write down two numbers before comparing these vendors: contacts you keep, and emails you send in a typical month. Then read the table below, built from both vendors' published prices.

You have	You send	Usually cheaper
under 1,000	weekly	close; MailerLite includes more
4,000	weekly	MailerLite
10,000	weekly	close
20,000 or more	monthly	Brevo, by a wide margin
any size	several times a week	MailerLite Power, unlimited

The table is a starting point. Logo removal, seats and automation needs can move the answer by a few dollars either way, so price your exact case on both published lists before deciding.

Where each one is strongest

MailerLite's strengths are a simple model, every feature on every paid plan, websites and a commerce layer for creators, and the best support reviews we have measured. Brevo's strengths are the number of channels, the size of its free plan, a public pricing API, and the lowest cost we have found for a large list that is mailed rarely ^[3]. Neither is better in general; each is better for a particular list.

## Which to choose

Choose MailerLite for a newsletter, a creator business or a small list mailed often, especially if you sell digital products or want websites and support you can rely on.

Choose Brevo for a large list mailed rarely, for a business that needs SMS, WhatsApp or a CRM on the same account, or for an app that needs transactional and marketing email together.

Whichever you choose, count both numbers before comparing: how many contacts you keep, and how many emails you send each month. They decide the price on each platform in opposite directions.