Brevo vs MailerLite (2026): Multi-Channel Suite vs Simplicity Champion

Quick verdict: Brevo and MailerLite are two of the most affordable email marketing platforms on the market, but they take very different approaches. Brevo is a multi-channel marketing suite — email, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, and live chat all in one platform. MailerLite is the simplicity champion — an award-winning drag-and-drop editor, clean interface, and a focus on doing email marketing exceptionally well.

Brevo vs MailerLite at a Glance

Pricing from official websites. G2 ratings from g2.com. All verified March 2026.

Both Brevo and MailerLite sit in the “affordable email marketing” category, and they are two of the most popular options for small businesses, freelancers, and creators who do not want to pay Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign prices (see our Brevo vs ActiveCampaign comparison if automation depth is a priority). But they solve the problem differently.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) has expanded far beyond email. It now bundles SMS, WhatsApp messaging, a built-in CRM, live chat widgets, and even VoIP calling into a single platform. If you want one tool for all your customer communication, Brevo makes a strong case.

MailerLite stays focused. It does email marketing, landing pages, website building, and digital product sales — and it does them with an interface that consistently wins “easiest to use” awards. If you want to send great-looking emails without fighting your software, MailerLite is hard to beat.

We researched both platforms across pricing, features, automation, ease of use, and support to help you decide which one fits your business. For a deeper look at each tool individually, see our Brevo review and MailerLite review.

Pricing Comparison

This is the most important section, because Brevo and MailerLite use completely different pricing models — and choosing the wrong one can cost you significantly more as you scale.

Brevo charges by email volume — the number of emails you send per month. You can store contacts without paying extra, but costs increase as your sending volume grows.

MailerLite charges by subscriber count — the number of active subscribers on your list. All paid plans include unlimited email sends, so you pay based on audience size regardless of how often you email.

Brevo Pricing

Brevo also offers a free plan: 300 emails/day (roughly 9,000/month), up to 100,000 stored contacts, basic automation, and a built-in CRM. Note that Starter plans at 5,000 and 10,000 emails have tight contact limits (500 and 1,500 respectively). Branding removal on Starter requires an add-on at around $10/month.

MailerLite Pricing (Monthly Billing)

All paid MailerLite plans include unlimited email sends. Annual billing saves 10%.

Which Pricing Model Saves You More?

It depends entirely on your sending pattern:

• Large list, infrequent sends: Brevo wins. If you have 20,000 contacts but only send 5,000 emails/month, Brevo Starter costs $9/month. MailerLite Growing Business for 20,000 subscribers would cost significantly more.
• Small list, frequent sends: MailerLite wins. If you have 500 subscribers but send daily campaigns, MailerLite’s unlimited sends at $10/month beats Brevo’s per-email pricing.
• Growing list: MailerLite pricing scales more predictably. Brevo’s contact limits on the Starter plan (500 contacts at 5,000 emails, 1,500 contacts at 10,000 emails) can force you into higher tiers earlier than expected.

For most small businesses sending regularly to a growing list, MailerLite is the more cost-effective choice. For businesses with large contact databases and lower send frequencies, Brevo’s volume-based pricing is the smarter play.

Email Editor and Templates

This is where MailerLite pulls ahead decisively.

MailerLite’s drag-and-drop editor has won “Best Ease of Use” from EmailToolTester multiple years in a row. The interface is clean, the blocks snap into place intuitively, and you can build professional-looking emails without any design experience. MailerLite offers 60+ templates on paid plans — though it is worth noting that the free plan has no templates at all, only a plain editor.

Brevo’s email editor is functional and includes 40+ templates, but it is not as polished. The drag-and-drop builder works fine for basic emails, but the template selection is smaller and the design experience feels a step behind MailerLite’s. That said, Brevo’s editor is still above average for the industry — it is just hard to compete with a platform that has made its editor a flagship feature.

Verdict: MailerLite wins on email editor and templates. If the quality of your email design matters (and it should), MailerLite’s editor is one of the best in the industry at any price point.

Marketing Automation

Both platforms offer visual automation workflows, but the depth depends on your plan tier.

Brevo Automation

• Free plan: Basic automation with limited workflows
• Starter ($9/mo): Basic automation — same as free
• Standard ($18/mo): Full multi-step automation with advanced conditions, A/B testing within workflows, and send-time optimization

Brevo’s automation engine on the Standard plan is genuinely capable. You can build complex multi-step sequences with branching logic, delays, and multiple entry points. For the price ($18/month at 5,000 emails), it is strong value.

MailerLite Automation

• Free plan: Single-trigger automation (surprisingly generous)
• Growing Business ($10/mo): Single-trigger workflows with more options
• Advanced ($20/mo for 500 subs): Multi-trigger automation with enhanced conditions and priority support

MailerLite includes automation even on its free plan, which is a standout feature. The automation builder is visual and easy to use, though it is simpler than Brevo’s Standard-tier workflows. For most small businesses running welcome sequences, abandoned cart flows, or re-engagement campaigns, MailerLite’s automation is more than sufficient.

Verdict: Slight edge to Brevo for automation depth on the Standard plan. MailerLite wins for automation accessibility (available on free). For basic to moderate automation, both platforms will get the job done.

Multi-Channel Marketing

This is Brevo’s strongest advantage and the biggest gap between the two platforms.

Brevo’s Multi-Channel Capabilities

• Email marketing — core platform
• SMS marketing — built-in on all plans, pay per message
• WhatsApp campaigns — available on the Professional plan ($499/month and up)
• Live chat widget — included free, embeds on your website
• Chatbot — automated chat responses
• Meeting scheduling — built-in booking tool
• VoIP calling — make calls from within Brevo
• Built-in CRM — manage contacts, deals, and pipelines on all plans (including free)

Brevo is not just an email tool — it is a full customer communication platform. If you currently pay separately for an email tool, an SMS service, a live chat widget, and a CRM, Brevo can potentially replace all of them.

MailerLite’s Channel Capabilities

• Email marketing — core platform
• Website builder — included on all plans
• Landing pages — 10 on free, unlimited on paid plans
• Digital product sales — 1 on free, 3 on Growing Business, unlimited on Advanced
• Paid newsletter subscriptions — monetize your audience directly
• RSS-to-email — automated blog digests
• iPad subscriber management app — unique mobile tool
• AI writing assistant — Advanced plan only

MailerLite does not offer SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, or CRM functionality. For transactional messaging (order confirmations, password resets), MailerLite relies on its sister product MailerSend, which is a separate platform with separate pricing.

Verdict: Brevo wins by a wide margin on multi-channel. If you need anything beyond email — especially SMS or live chat — Brevo is the clear choice. MailerLite focuses on email, landing pages, and digital product sales, and does those well.

Free Plan Comparison

Both platforms offer genuinely useful free plans, but they are structured very differently.

Brevo Free is better if you have a large contact list and want a built-in CRM. Storing 100,000 contacts at no cost is exceptional — no other major email platform matches that. The 300 emails/day cap means you cannot blast your entire list at once, but for businesses that send smaller, targeted campaigns, it works.

MailerLite Free is better if you have a small list and want more email volume. 12,000 emails/month to 500 subscribers means you can email your list roughly 24 times per month — more than enough for most use cases. The inclusion of single-trigger automation and landing pages on the free plan is generous. The big downside: no email templates. You are stuck with a plain editor until you upgrade.

Important note: MailerLite reduced its free plan from 1,000 subscribers to 500 in September 2025. If you signed up before that date, you may still have the older limit.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Brevo offers 150+ integrations. MailerLite offers 140+. In practice, both connect to the major platforms you likely already use — Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier, Stripe, and most CMS and ecommerce tools.

Brevo has a slight edge in native CRM integrations since it has its own built-in CRM. It also integrates with more sales and customer support tools given its multi-channel nature.

MailerLite integrates well with website builders and ecommerce platforms. Its Shopify and WooCommerce integrations are particularly well-regarded for automated product recommendation emails and abandoned cart workflows.

Both platforms support Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat), so even if a native integration does not exist, you can usually bridge the gap.

Verdict: Roughly even. Both have strong integration ecosystems. Brevo has a slight edge for sales and CRM workflows; MailerLite has a slight edge for ecommerce and content-focused workflows.

A/B Testing

• Brevo: A/B testing available on the Standard plan ($18/month) and above. Not available on Free or Starter.
• MailerLite: A/B testing available on all plans, including the free plan. The Advanced plan adds multivariate testing for more complex experiments.

MailerLite wins here on accessibility — A/B testing on the free plan is rare in the email marketing space. If you want to optimize your subject lines and content from day one without paying, MailerLite makes that possible.

Support

Both platforms offer adequate support for their price range. Neither is known for instant responses, but both have solid knowledge bases and documentation. MailerLite’s 14-day trial period gives free users access to live chat support temporarily, which is helpful during initial setup.

Who Should Choose Brevo

Brevo is the right choice if you:

• Need more than just email. If SMS marketing, live chat, or a built-in CRM are important to your business, Brevo bundles them all. Paying for these separately could easily cost 3-4x what Brevo charges.
• Have a large contact list but send infrequently. Brevo’s email-volume pricing means you can store tens of thousands of contacts and only pay for the emails you actually send. The free plan alone lets you store 100,000 contacts.
• Want a CRM without paying for HubSpot. Brevo’s built-in CRM is basic compared to dedicated CRM tools, but for small businesses that need contact management, deal tracking, and email marketing in one place, it covers the essentials at a fraction of the cost.
• Run an ecommerce store that needs multi-channel outreach. Email + SMS + transactional messaging in one platform simplifies your stack and reduces costs.

Who Should Choose MailerLite

MailerLite is the right choice if you:

• Want the easiest email marketing experience. If you are new to email marketing or simply value a clean, intuitive interface, MailerLite’s award-winning editor makes creating professional emails effortless.
• Have a small-to-medium list and want predictable pricing. Unlimited sends on all paid plans means no surprises. You know exactly what you will pay based on your subscriber count.
• Sell digital products or paid subscriptions. MailerLite includes built-in digital product sales and paid newsletter subscriptions — features that would require additional tools on Brevo.
• Need landing pages and a website builder included. MailerLite’s landing page builder (10 free, unlimited on paid plans) and website builder add value that Brevo does not match.
• Prioritize email design quality. With 60+ templates on paid plans and the best drag-and-drop editor in the affordable email market, MailerLite consistently produces better-looking emails with less effort.

Final Thoughts

Brevo and MailerLite are both excellent platforms that we evaluated thoroughly for this comparison. The right choice comes down to what you need beyond basic email marketing.

Choose Brevo if you want a multi-channel marketing suite that consolidates email, SMS, CRM, and live chat into one affordable platform. You will trade some editor polish for significantly broader capabilities.

Choose MailerLite if email marketing is your primary need and you want the cleanest, most user-friendly experience available at this price point. You will get a better editor, simpler pricing, and useful extras like digital product sales and landing pages — but you will need separate tools for SMS, CRM, and live chat.

Both platforms offer free plans worth trying before you commit. Sign up for both, build a test campaign in each, and the right fit will be obvious within an hour. If neither feels right, explore our list of Brevo alternatives or AWeber alternatives for more options.

Related Comparisons

• Brevo vs Kit: Full Comparison — multi-channel suite vs creator-first platform
• Brevo vs ActiveCampaign: Full Comparison — budget power vs automation king
• AWeber vs GetResponse: Full Comparison — simplicity vs marketing depth
• GetResponse vs Mailchimp: Full Comparison — automation and webinar differences
• Kit vs Mailchimp: Full Comparison — creator tools vs all-purpose marketing hub
• Best Email Marketing for Creators 2026 — full field comparison
• In-depth reviews: Brevo Review 2026 | MailerLite Review 2026
• Explore alternatives: Brevo Alternatives | GetResponse Alternatives | AWeber Alternatives

Last updated: March 2026. We regularly update this content — if something has changed, let us know.