MailerLite vs beehiiv (2026): Which Fits a Budget Newsletter?
MailerLite vs beehiiv (2026): Free plans, prices at 1k–10k, sends, automations, paid newsletters. Comfort costs less; beehiiv Free lasts longer.
MailerLite and beehiiv both send newsletters, host a simple site, and can collect paid subscriptions—but they are built for different jobs. MailerLite is a general email-marketing and website platform: campaigns, automations, forms, landing pages, digital products, and bookings, with prices that start low and scale by active subscribers. beehiiv is a newsletter publication platform: a hosted publication site, unlimited sends on every plan, a recommendation network, an ad network, and paid subscriptions with a stated 0% platform take (Stripe fees still apply).
For a budget newsletter, the free plans and the first paid tier matter most. MailerLite Free covers up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails per month. beehiiv Free covers up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Once you pay, MailerLite’s Comfort plan at 1,000 subscribers is $19/month (or $17.10/month billed yearly). beehiiv Lite at the same size is $59/month (or $49/month billed yearly). You get a lot more newsletter-native tools on beehiiv Lite; you pay less raw dollars on MailerLite Comfort.
This comparison is based on each vendor’s official pricing pages, plan-update FAQs, feature pages, and (for beehiiv) automation help articles, which we checked on November 6, 2026. Prices are in USD. Confirm on MailerLite’s pricing page (tier table also published as pricing.md) and beehiiv’s pricing page before you commit.
How we researched this: This comparison is based on official documentation and pricing pages only. We haven’t run a newsletter on MailerLite or beehiiv for this article, so there are no screenshots from our own accounts, no deliverability results, and no “we tested” claims. AI assistants help with research and drafting. Prices and limits are rechecked against the official pages on the date shown above.
About our links: beehiiv links on this page (/go/beehiiv) are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you sign up through one. That’s the only program we earn from on this page. MailerLite is linked directly to mailerlite.com; we have not applied to MailerLite’s affiliate program yet, so we earn nothing from those clicks. Our take would be the same either way.
The short version
| MailerLite | beehiiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning | Email marketing + websites, forms, digital products, bookings | Newsletter publication platform (site, ads, paid subs, recommendations) |
| Free plan | 250 active subscribers, 2,500 emails/month, 3 automations (5 steps each) | 2,500 subscribers, unlimited email sends, welcome email; no live custom automations |
| Cheapest paid (entry) | Comfort from $12/mo at 500 subscribers ($10.80/mo yearly) | Lite from $59/mo at up to 1,000 ($49/mo yearly) |
| At 1,000 subscribers | Comfort $19/mo ($17.10 yearly); Power $39/mo ($35.10 yearly) | Lite $59/mo ($49 yearly); Pro $109/mo ($95 yearly) |
| Sending on paid | Comfort: 10× your subscriber-tier ceiling; Power: unlimited (fair use) | Unlimited on Free, Lite, and Pro |
| Automations | Free 3 / Comfort 50 / Power unlimited (steps: Free 5, paid 100) | Free none custom; Lite 10 live; Pro unlimited (+ click-triggered) |
| Paid newsletter | Comfort and Power (via Stripe); platform take not stated on the pages we checked | Lite and up; beehiiv states 0% take (Stripe 2.9% + $0.30) |
| Ad / recommendation network | Not presented as a publisher ad network on the pages we checked | Ad network and paid recommendations on Lite+; free recommendation network on Free |
| Annual discount | 10% off | Roughly 17% at the 1,000-subscriber Lite tier ($49 vs $59) |
Our take in one line: if you want the cheapest paid email tool with solid automations and a small site, MailerLite Comfort wins on price. If the newsletter is the product—and you want a long free runway, unlimited sends, and built-in reader revenue and ads—beehiiv is the better fit, even though Lite costs more than Comfort.
See MailerLite pricing · Try beehiiv
Free plans: 250 with a send cap vs 2,500 with unlimited sends
MailerLite Free is $0 for up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails, with 2 user seats and knowledge-base support. MailerLite’s Free-plan update FAQ (June 16, 2026) and pricing.md (last updated September 8, 2026; rechecked November 6, 2026) list 3 active automations (5 steps each), 3 forms, 1 website (up to 5 pages), 1 landing page, and 1 digital product or booking. All three email editors (drag & drop, Simple, custom HTML) are included. Custom domains, logo removal, AI writing assistant, smart sending, and multivariate testing are not on Free.
If you pass 250 active subscribers on Free, MailerLite says sending campaigns and automations is locked, and adding new subscribers (manually, via API, or through integrations) is paused until you upgrade or cut the list. If you hit the 2,500-email cap, campaign and automation sends pause until the next month or you upgrade.
beehiiv Free is $0 forever for up to 2,500 subscribers, with unlimited email sends, a website builder with hosting, the recommendation network, API access (excluding Send API), and 1 team seat / 1 publication. beehiiv’s feature table lists a Welcome email on every plan, including Free, and no live custom automations on Free. Custom domains, paid subscriptions, the ad network, A/B testing, and removing beehiiv branding are paid-plan features (branding removal starts on Pro).
Bottom line: beehiiv Free gives you about ten times the subscriber room and no send cap. MailerLite Free is enough to try the editors, run a tiny list, and learn automations—not to grow a newsletter past a few hundred people without paying.
Pricing at common list sizes
Both vendors price by audience size. MailerLite bills on active subscribers (cumulative within a billing cycle). beehiiv bills on unique email addresses subscribed to your publication. MailerLite Comfort’s monthly email allowance is 10× the ceiling of your subscriber tier (so the up-to-1,000 tier gets 10,000 emails/month whether you have 200 or 900 subscribers). beehiiv’s sends are unlimited on every plan.
Here’s what the official tier tables showed on November 6, 2026 (USD). MailerLite figures are from pricing.md; beehiiv figures are from beehiiv.com/pricing.
Monthly billing
| Subscribers | MailerLite Free | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | beehiiv Free | beehiiv Lite | beehiiv Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $0 (if ≤250) | $12 | $25 | $0 (if ≤2,500) | — (Lite starts at up to 1,000) | — |
| 1,000 | Not available | $19 | $39 | $0 | $59 | $109 |
| 2,500 | Not available | $33 | $49 | $0 | $79 | $149 |
| 5,000 | Not available | $49 | $69 | Not available | $109 | $199 |
| 10,000 | Not available | $89 | $129 | Not available | $139 | $239 |
Yearly billing (effective per month)
| Subscribers | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | beehiiv Lite | beehiiv Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $10.80 | $22.50 | — | — |
| 1,000 | $17.10 | $35.10 | $49 | $95 |
| 2,500 | $29.70 | $44.10 | $69 | $129 |
| 5,000 | $44.10 | $62.10 | $95 | $169 |
| 10,000 | $80.10 | $116.10 | $119 | $199 |
A few ways to read that:
- MailerLite Comfort is cheaper at every overlapping size we checked. At 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, Comfort is $17.10/mo vs beehiiv Lite at $49/mo—about $383/year less by our arithmetic ($205.20 vs $588). At 10,000, Comfort yearly is $80.10/mo vs Lite $119/mo.
- beehiiv Free covers you through 2,500. Between 251 and 2,500 subscribers, MailerLite requires a paid plan; beehiiv can stay at $0 if you don’t need custom automations or monetization.
- MailerLite annual billing saves 10%. beehiiv’s yearly Lite price at 1,000 ($49 vs $59 monthly) is a larger relative discount.
- Plan renames. On June 16, 2026, MailerLite renamed Growing Business → Comfort and Advanced → Power, and updated Free limits (500→250 subscribers; 12,000→2,500 monthly emails). Any comparison still using the old names is out of date.
- Nonprofit discount. MailerLite documents a 30% nonprofit discount on paid plans (with proof of status). We didn’t find a matching nonprofit line on beehiiv’s pricing page.
Full beehiiv tiers: beehiiv pricing explained. Every MailerLite tier up to 200,000, plus billing, overage, and refund rules: MailerLite pricing explained.
Sending limits
This is the biggest structural difference for frequent senders.
- MailerLite Free: 2,500 emails per month. One send = one email to one subscriber, so a campaign to 250 people uses 250 of the allowance.
- MailerLite Comfort: 10× your tier ceiling (5,000 at the 500 tier; 10,000 at the 1,000 tier; 25,000 at the 2,500 tier, and so on).
- MailerLite Power: unlimited monthly emails up to 200,000 subscribers, subject to fair use.
- beehiiv (every plan): unlimited email sends. beehiiv’s FAQ: “Every plan includes unlimited email sends.”
A weekly newsletter to 1,000 people is about 4,000–5,000 emails a month. That fits Comfort’s 10,000 allowance at the 1,000 tier with room left; a daily newsletter would push you toward Power or beehiiv. That’s arithmetic from the published multipliers, not a test we ran.
Automations
| MailerLite | beehiiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 3 active automations, 5 steps each | Welcome email listed; no live custom automations |
| First paid | Comfort: 50 active, 100 steps | Lite: up to 10 live (across the workspace) |
| Higher paid | Power: unlimited active, 100 steps; multiple triggers (up to 3 per automation on the feature page) | Pro: unlimited live; click-triggered automations; A/B split + advanced conditions |
| Builder | Visual / drag-and-drop; templates for welcome, abandoned cart, and more | Trigger + steps (Send email, Time delay, branches) on one canvas |
| Triggers (examples from marketing/help pages) | Form signup, custom-field change, date-based, e-commerce, segment join | Signed up, Email submitted, Tag added/removed, Segment enter/exit, Product purchased, Survey submitted, Unengaged, and more |
MailerLite’s automation feature page describes welcome sequences, date-based triggers, e-commerce triggers, and multi-trigger automations (up to 3 triggers per automation on Power). beehiiv’s overview (updated Oct 1, 2026) and workflow guide (updated Oct 2, 2026) cover the Lite/Pro limits above; see How to create automation workflows on beehiiv and Kit Sequences vs beehiiv Automations for a deeper beehiiv walkthrough.
Honest comparison: MailerLite gives you automations on Free (limited) and a higher active-automation cap on Comfort (50) than beehiiv Lite (10). beehiiv’s paid automations sit next to publication-native triggers (paid subscription, referral, survey). If you only need a welcome series, either Comfort or Lite is enough on paper. If you want many parallel funnels on the cheapest paid plan, MailerLite Comfort’s 50-automation cap is the larger allowance.
Paid newsletters and other monetization
beehiiv documents paid subscriptions on Lite and up with a 0% beehiiv take; you still pay Stripe’s standard processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per beehiiv’s pricing FAQ). Lite includes 1 paid subscription tier; Pro includes unlimited tiers, plus group subscriptions, paid trials, and a sponsorship storefront. Lite+ also includes the ad network and paid recommendations. Free includes the (unpaid) recommendation network.
MailerLite lists Send paid newsletters and Sell recurring subscriptions on Comfort and Power (not Free) in the pricing feature table, via a Stripe integration on landing pages. The paid-newsletter feature page describes collecting payments, delivering paid emails, and automating signup/cancel messages. We did not find a stated MailerLite platform take rate on the pricing.md, pricing HTML, or paid-newsletter feature page we checked on November 6, 2026—only that Stripe processes payments. Confirm fees inside the product or with MailerLite support before you rely on the number. MailerLite also sells digital products and bookings (Free: 1; Comfort: 5; Power: unlimited). We did not see a publisher ad network or paid-recommendation marketplace comparable to beehiiv’s on the pages we checked.
Bottom line: if reader subscriptions and newsletter ads are the plan, beehiiv documents that path clearly (including the 0% take). If you sell digital downloads, bookings, or a general email list for a small business, MailerLite’s product mix is broader.
Websites, forms, and seats
| MailerLite Free | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | beehiiv Free | beehiiv Lite | beehiiv Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sites / landing pages | 1 site + 1 landing page | 10 combined | Unlimited | Website builder + hosting; 1 custom page | Advanced builder; 5 custom pages | Unlimited custom pages |
| Custom domains | No | Yes | Yes | No (feature table) | Yes | Yes |
| Active forms | 3 | 10 | Unlimited | Subscribe forms yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team seats | 2 | 3 | Unlimited | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Remove platform logo / branding | No | Yes (MailerLite logo) | Yes | No | No | Yes (beehiiv branding) |
MailerLite’s Free-plan FAQ says Free websites are limited to 5 pages. beehiiv’s Free plan includes a website builder and hosting; custom domains start on Lite per the feature comparison table. (beehiiv’s Free “what’s included” marketing list also mentions custom domains in one bullet; the detailed feature table marks custom domains as paid. We treat the feature table as the more specific source and flag the conflict.)
Which should you pick?
| If you… | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| Want the longest free runway and unlimited sends while the list is under 2,500 | beehiiv Free (try beehiiv) |
| Need paid automations and a site at the lowest monthly price once you pass ~250–500 subscribers | MailerLite Comfort |
| Send very often (near-daily) and want unlimited sends without buying beehiiv Lite | MailerLite Power, or stay on beehiiv Free/Lite |
| Want paid subscriptions with a documented 0% platform take, plus ads and recommendations | beehiiv Lite or Pro |
| Sell digital products, bookings, or run email for a small business (not only a publication) | MailerLite |
| Want creator automations with a larger Free subscriber cap and no publication site | Compare Kit in Kit vs beehiiv |
| Are choosing between beehiiv and a general ESP like Mailchimp | See beehiiv vs Mailchimp |
We’d give the same advice if the commission were reversed.
Where the docs leave gaps
- MailerLite paid-newsletter take rate. Stripe is named; a MailerLite percentage take is not stated on the pages we checked.
- beehiiv Free “Custom Domains” marketing bullet vs feature table. Feature table says custom domains start on paid plans; one Free marketing list includes the phrase. Confirm in-product.
- beehiiv Free Welcome email scope. Listed on every plan; whether Free is limited to a single email (vs a multi-step series) isn’t spelled out next to the custom-automation limits.
- MailerLite automation help URLs. Several older help-article paths returned 404 during our November 6 fetch; we relied on the live
/features/automationpage,/help/c/automationcategory, pricing.md feature table, and plan FAQs instead. - Exact Comfort email allowance at non-listed tiers. pricing.md states the 10× rule clearly; we did not re-derive every tier’s send cap beyond the examples MailerLite gives.
Our take
For a budget newsletter that is still finding its audience, beehiiv Free is the stronger free plan: 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends beat MailerLite’s 250 / 2,500-email Free limits by a wide margin. Once you need paid features, MailerLite Comfort is the cheaper seat—often by hundreds of dollars a year at the same list size—with more active automations on that first paid tier than beehiiv Lite. beehiiv Lite costs more because it is a different product: publication hosting, unlimited sends, paid subscriptions with a stated 0% take, ads, and recommendations. Pick MailerLite when email marketing price and general-purpose tools matter most; pick beehiiv when the newsletter publication is the business.
See MailerLite pricing · Try beehiiv · MailerLite pricing explained · beehiiv pricing explained · beehiiv vs Mailchimp · Kit vs beehiiv · Newsletter Launch Checklist
Sources
All sources below were checked November 6, 2026.
- MailerLite: Pricing (markdown tier table) (last updated September 8, 2026): Free / Comfort / Power / Enterprise; USD and EUR prices by subscriber tier; feature comparison; annual 10% discount; send-limit rules (Free 2,500; Comfort 10× tier ceiling; Power unlimited)
- MailerLite: Pricing (HTML): plan cards, FAQ (plan overview, subscriber counting, send limits, 14-day trial, nonprofit 30% discount)
- MailerLite: llms.txt (September 8, 2026): plan rename note (Growing Business → Comfort, Advanced → Power on June 16, 2026); pointer to pricing.md as the complete tier source
- MailerLite: Free plan update FAQ: June 16, 2026 Free changes (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails, 3 automations / 3 forms / 1 site / 1 landing page / 1 digital product)
- MailerLite: Paid plans update FAQ: Comfort/Power rename, Comfort limits (50 automations, 10 forms, 10 sites/pages, 5 digital products), Comfort 10× sending, Power unlimited
- MailerLite: Plan and billing: plan overview; Free 250 / 2,500; new pricing note for accounts renewing after June 16, 2026
- MailerLite: Automation feature page: visual builder, triggers, welcome sequences, multi-trigger automations (up to 3)
- MailerLite: Paid newsletter subscriptions feature page: Stripe payments, recurring subscriptions, automated delivery (no stated platform take rate found)
- MailerLite: Affiliate program: 30% lifetime recurring commission (cited only to explain why we have not joined yet; we do not use affiliate links for MailerLite on this page)
- beehiiv: Pricing: Free up to 2,500; Lite/Pro prices by subscriber bucket; feature comparison (automations, monetization, website, seats); FAQ (unlimited sends, 0% take, Stripe 2.9% + $0.30)
- beehiiv: Automations overview (updated Oct 1, 2026): Lite up to 10 live; Pro unlimited; click-triggered and A/B on Pro/Enterprise
- beehiiv: How to create automation workflows (updated Oct 2, 2026)
- AudienceBench: beehiiv pricing explained, beehiiv vs Mailchimp, Kit vs beehiiv for solo newsletter writers, How to create automation workflows on beehiiv, Kit Sequences vs beehiiv Automations