Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Kit for Small Business

Your newsletter is working. The list just passed 200 contacts, and the free plan you picked is starting to feel tight: a send cap here, a missing automation there. Before you pay for an upgrade, it’s worth comparing Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Kit on the numbers that matter for a small business.

All three have a free plan, but the limits are very different. Some cap your list at 250 contacts, one goes to 10,000. They also count contacts in different ways, and their prices climb at different speeds as your list grows.

Below, you’ll find free plans, paid plans, forms, automations and selling compared, using only official pages.

Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Kit: the short answer

Choose Kit if you want the largest free list (up to 10,000 subscribers) or plan to sell digital products from the start. Choose MailerLite if you want automations on the free plan and published, low prices as you grow. Choose Mailchimp if you want advanced automation flows with splits and many team seats on its higher plans.

Growing list, small budget: Kit’s free plan, then Creator or Pro as your needs grow.
Want automations without paying yet: MailerLite Free, then Comfort.
Team that needs several seats and audiences: Mailchimp Standard or Premium.
Selling paid newsletters: Kit on any plan, or MailerLite Comfort or Power.

Feature	Mailchimp	MailerLite	Kit
Free plan list size	250 contacts	250 subscribers	10,000 subscribers
Free plan sends	500 a month, 250 a day	2,500 a month	Unlimited broadcasts
Free plan seats	1	2	Not stated
Paid plans	Essentials, Standard, Premium	Comfort, Power	Creator, Pro
Entry paid price	Depends on list size	$12/month (up to 500)	$39/month (up to 1,000)
Who counts toward the limit	Includes unsubscribed contacts	Active subscribers only	Confirmed subscribers only
Selling	Not listed on marketing plans	Paid plans for subscriptions	Every plan, 3.5% + $0.30 per sale

Free plans compared

Mailchimp Free covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a daily limit of 250, according to About Mailchimp Pricing Plans. You get 1 seat and 1 audience. Email scheduling and removing Mailchimp branding aren’t included. If you go over the contact or send limit, sending is paused.

MailerLite Free covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with 2 user seats, 3 automations, 1 website, 1 landing page and 3 sign-up forms, per the MailerLite pricing page. The MailerLite logo stays on the free plan. Above 250 active subscribers, campaigns and automations are locked until you upgrade or remove subscribers.

Kit Free is free while you stay under 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited forms, landing pages and email broadcasts, per The Kit Free plan. Past 10,000 subscribers, you need a paid plan to keep sending. Kit’s free plan page doesn’t state a seat limit.

If you’re still setting up your first list, our guide on how to start an email newsletter covers the sign-up form and welcome email basics.

Paid plans and what they cost as your list grows

Mailchimp has three paid plans. Essentials and Standard start with up to 500 contacts, and Premium’s base price includes 10,000 contacts. Monthly sends are 10 times your contact limit on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium. Seats go from 3 (Essentials) to 5 (Standard) to unlimited (Premium). Mailchimp’s paid prices depend on your list size, so check the Mailchimp pricing page with your exact contact count. On paid plans, going over your contact limit adds an overage charge.

MailerLite lists two paid plans. Comfort includes 3 seats and 10 times your tier’s ceiling in monthly emails (10,000 emails on the up-to-1,000 tier). Power has unlimited emails, subject to a fair use policy, and unlimited seats. If your paid list grows past its tier, MailerLite moves you to the next pricing tier automatically.

Kit lists Creator at $39 a month and Pro at $79 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, per Creator plan vs Creator Pro plan. Kit’s billing article gives $59 a month for Creator’s 3,000-subscriber tier. Creator includes 2 team members; Pro has unlimited. Both have a 14-day trial with no card required, and annual billing gives you 12 months for the price of 10.

Listed prices, billed monthly, in US dollars:

Plan	Up to 500	Up to 1,000	Up to 3,000	Up to 5,000
MailerLite Comfort	$12/month	$19/month	Not checked	$49/month
MailerLite Power	$25/month	$39/month	Not checked	$69/month
Kit Creator	No smaller tier listed	$39/month	$59/month	Not checked
Kit Pro	No smaller tier listed	$79/month	Not checked	Not checked
Mailchimp Essentials, Standard	See pricing page	See pricing page	See pricing page	See pricing page

MailerLite takes 10% off with yearly billing. For example, Comfort up to 1,000 subscribers is $17.10 a month billed yearly, or $205.20 a year.

What one year costs at 1,000 subscribers, billed monthly: MailerLite Comfort is $19 × 12 = $228, and Kit Creator is $39 × 12 = $468.

Prices checked in October 2026. Plans and prices change, so confirm on the official pricing page before you buy (Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit). MailerLite notes that taxes may apply.

Sign-up forms and landing pages

Mailchimp says in About Landing Pages that landing pages are free to all users, with no cap mentioned. The compare plans page lists forms, landing pages and pop-up forms on every plan, though pop-up forms are marked as a beta with very limited availability.

MailerLite includes embedded forms and pop-ups on every plan, but counts how many you can have active: 3 forms, 1 landing page and 1 website on Free, 10 of each on Comfort, unlimited on Power. Custom domains for your pages need a paid plan.

Kit gives unlimited forms and landing pages on every plan, including Free. A custom domain and removal of Kit branding are listed with the paid Creator and Pro plans.

Automations

Mailchimp renamed its Customer Journey Builder to Marketing Automation Flows in June 2025. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps. Standard and higher allow up to 200 steps, up to 3 triggers, and conditional or percentage splits, per Mailchimp’s flows article. Mailchimp’s pages disagree on what the Free plan includes, so check the current plan page before counting on it.

MailerLite includes the visual automation builder on every plan. Free allows 3 active automations of up to 5 steps each. Comfort allows 50 automations with up to 100 steps, and Power is unlimited and adds multiple automation triggers.

Kit includes email sequences and visual automations on Creator and Pro. Kit’s help pages differ on whether the free plan gets a basic automation, so check the current plan page if a welcome sequence on Free matters to you.

Selling and paid newsletters

Kit lets you sell digital products and subscriptions, including paid newsletters, on every plan, including Free. According to Sell digital products with Kit, selling in USD costs 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction. Stripe is the only supported payment platform, and payouts go out weekly on Fridays.

MailerLite lists paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions on Comfort and Power only. Comfort allows 5 active digital products or bookings, and Power is unlimited. You need to connect Stripe, and the minimum product price is $0.50. MailerLite says it takes “zero commission” on its Gumroad comparison page; payments run through Stripe. To create a product, go to the Products tab > Digital products, after connecting Stripe under Integrations > Stripe > Use > Connect Stripe.

Mailchimp‘s marketing plan pages don’t list a selling feature. Its online store page mentions transaction fees on each sale but doesn’t give the rate, so confirm with Mailchimp before planning around it.

Which one should you choose?

Your list will pass 250 soon and you’re not ready to pay: Kit’s free plan has the most room, up to 10,000 subscribers.
You want a welcome series and a few automations for free: MailerLite Free includes 3 automations.
You want the lowest listed monthly price around 1,000 subscribers: compare MailerLite Comfort at $19 with Kit Creator at $39, then check Mailchimp’s price for your count.
You’ll sell from day one: Kit sells on every plan for 3.5% + $0.30 per sale; MailerLite needs Comfort or Power for subscriptions.
Several people will work in the account: Mailchimp Standard gives 5 seats and Premium unlimited; MailerLite Power and Kit Pro also have unlimited seats or team members.

Whatever you settle on in Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Kit, check how each one counts contacts, since that decides when you hit the next price tier.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheapest for 1,000 subscribers?

Of the verified prices, MailerLite Comfort is $19 a month billed monthly for up to 1,000 subscribers, and Kit Creator is $39 a month. Mailchimp’s price depends on your exact contact count, so check its pricing page.

Do unsubscribed contacts count toward my plan?

On Mailchimp, yes: subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count, while archived, cleaned and deleted contacts don’t. MailerLite doesn’t count unsubscribed or bounced subscribers, but anyone active during the billing cycle counts until it resets, per its pricing FAQ. Kit counts only confirmed subscribers, including inactive “cold” ones, according to its subscriber status article.

Can I sell digital products or paid newsletters?

Kit allows it on every plan for 3.5% + $0.30 per USD transaction. MailerLite allows paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions on Comfort and Power, through Stripe. Mailchimp’s marketing plan pages don’t list it.

Which has the biggest free plan?

Kit’s free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, compared with 250 on Mailchimp Free and MailerLite Free. MailerLite Free allows more monthly emails than Mailchimp Free (2,500 vs 500) and includes 3 automations.

Sources

Your Next Step

Today, export your contact list and count three numbers: active subscribers, unsubscribed contacts, and how many emails you sent last month. Put them next to the free plan limits above and you’ll know which side of Mailchimp vs MailerLite vs Kit fits your list right now. For more help, browse our CRM & Email Marketing guides.

Fernando Pompeu

Fernando Pompeu is a journalist and digital content writer with more than 8 years of experience in media outlets and news portals. He writes to explain things clearly and without jargon. At PlainSetup, he publishes step-by-step guides to the everyday tools small businesses run on, based on each tool’s official documentation and written for owners without an IT team.