Best MailerLite Alternatives That Help You Scale

MailerLite has been a go-to for many businesses to boost their email marketing efforts online while on a budget. It offers unlimited contacts, transactional emails, excellent email deliverability, and other basic features for marketing automation.

However, you might be looking at other email marketing services that offer more advanced features at a similar or cheaper price. This guide will show four of the best MailerLite alternatives that will help scale your business. We’ll also go through their key features to help you check which is an excellent fit for your marketing needs.

Read on to find out more..

1. MailWizz

MailWizz self-hosted email marketing software

MailWizz Main Features

Self-hosted Email Marketing Software

MailWizz offers a self-hosted environment where you can customize email deliverability, contact management, delivery servers, and more. Compared to cloud-hosted email marketing tools like MailerLite, MailWizz allows you complete control over your data infrastructure since it operates under your server, making it one of the best MailerLite alternatives. Its tools also have an intuitive user interface suited for email marketing beginners.

Robust Advanced Features

The platform contains various advanced features that can help boost your email marketing strategy. This includes a drag-and-drop email builder for creating eye-catching emails, email templates, campaign dashboards, A/B testing, reporting and analytics features, and other email automation tools. You can also create landing pages through its intuitive landing page builder.

Cost-effective Email Marketing Platform

Unlike email marketing software with expensive monthly plans, MailWizz offers a cost-effective, one-time license fee It includes full access to all features, including unlimited contacts, emails, basic tools for email marketing campaigns, and email list segmentation to deliver personalized messages to your contacts.

Price

MailWizz price plans

MailWizz offers the following one-time licensing plans:

  • Regular – The Regular license costs $65 and is great for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers unlimited access to the email marketing platform’s essential features, including unlimited emails, a drag-and-drop editor, email templates, audience segmentation tools, and more. It also comes with free support for the first six months.
  • Extended - The Extended license starts at $275 and is ideal for marketers using MailWizz as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It includes everything from the Regular plan, priority support and additional features for ecommerce businesses, such as the ability to set up payment gateways, price plans, order history, etc.

Check here to learn more about MailWizz’s licensing plans.

Why Choose MailWizz over MailerLite

While both platforms offer affordable paid plans, MailWizz has a one-time license fee, eliminating the hassle of monthly subscriptions. Since it’s self-hosted, MailWizz grants you more control over your system and, most importantly, your data—a feature many services can’t provide. MailWizz also has a proactive support team that strongly considers its clients, compared to MailerLite’s customer support.

2. SendPulse

SendPulse suite page

SendPulse Main Features

Generous Free Plan

SendPulse has a robust free plan that includes up to 15,000 monthly emails sent and 500 subscribers. It provides a few features for basic email campaigns, such as access to the platform’s marketing automation tool (Automation 360), live chat support, and email verifier.

All-in-one Sales and Email Marketing Solution

Besides being an effective email marketing service, SendPulse can help you boost your business through its built-in customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It allows you to create multiple sales pipelines and task boards for your clients, effectively streamlining your sales workflow. SendPulse also offers third-party integrations with various ecommerce platforms, such as WooCommerce and Shopify.

Robust Marketing Tech Stack

What makes SendPulse a great MailerLite alternative is its diverse marketing tech stack, which includes web push notifications, SMS marketing, live chat for your site, chatbots for various platforms, etc., for constant customer engagement. They also offer tools for direct Viber and SMS messages.

Price

SendPulse price plans.

SendPulse offers these pricing tiers (estimates are set at 500 subscribers max.) They offer discounts for bi-annual and yearly payments:

  • Free – The Free plan lets you access SendPulse’s core features, including 15,000 monthly email sends for up to 500 subscribers, 100 MB of image storage, the landing page builder, three sender email addresses, 100 verifications for the email verifier, and access to Automation 360, the platform’s marketing automation tool.
  • Standard - The Standard plan costs $8 monthly and is excellent for growing businesses. It includes everything from Free, plus unlimited email sends, 200 MB image storage, 100 sender email addresses, ten flows and events in A360, and access to the full A/B testing suite.
  • Pro - The Pro plan starts at $9.60 monthly and is ideal for marketing professionals and businesses dealing with large contact lists. It offers everything from Standard, plus up to 300 sender email addresses, 50 flows and events in A360, and up to 1,000 verifications in the email verifier. You’ll also have unlimited segments and tags for list segmentation.
  • Enterprise - The Enterprise plan starts at $13.44 monthly and is recommended for large businesses. It offers everything from the Pro plan, including 5 GB of image storage, an unlimited number of domains, and advanced segmentation options. You’ll also have an unlimited number of flows and events in A360.

Why Choose SendPulse over MailerLite

SendPulse is an effective marketing automation platform over MailerLite due to its robust marketing tech stack, which includes a live chat plugin, chatbots for different social media platforms, web push notifications, and more. It also has an in-built CRM and an allowance of 12,000 monthly transactional emails on the Basic plan.

Cons of SendPulse

Compared to MailerLite, SendPulse’s paid plans can be expensive, especially for businesses with more extensive contact lists. Their drag-and-drop email builder is slower, and automation on MailerLite is more accessible to set up, unlike SendPulse’s A360, which is less intuitive. MailerLite also has social media tracking tools for its paid plans, a feature that SendPulse lacks.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact homepage

Constant Contact Main Features

Event Management and Social Media Tracking Tools

Besides being an effective email marketing tool, Constant Contact is excellent for ecommerce businesses that need event management features. It offers an intuitive event management dashboard where you can manage essential metrics for online events, like event invites, tickets, and registrations. The platform also has features for social media management, expanding your brand reach even more.

Robust Third-party Integrations

Constant Contact offers a diverse set of integrations with key ecommerce platforms (e.g., Etsy, WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix, etc.) for seamless digital product selling. It also has integrations with Canva and Vimeo, allowing you to create eye-catching emails, landing pages, and social media posts.

Robust Reporting and Analytics Features

The platform has excellent reporting and analytics features that track primary data for your email campaigns (e.g., click rate, open rate, bounce rate, etc.) and advanced metrics, such as a click-tracking heat map, engagement reports, mobile open rate, and more.

Price

Constant Contact price plans page.

Constant Contact has the following paid plans:

  • Lite – The Lite plan starts at $12 monthly and is ideal for startups and growing businesses. It has 500 contacts and up to a 10-times-contact monthly email send limit. It gives access to the platform’s marketing CRM, third-party integrations, and social media marketing and event management tools. You can also access their drag-and-drop editor to create signup forms, landing pages, and custom email templates.
  • Standard - The Standard Plan costs $35 per month and is excellent for growing businesses. It has everything in Lite, including up to 12-times-contact monthly email sends, contact segmentation, automation features, A/B testing, and reporting and analytics tools.
  • Premium - The Premium plan costs $80 monthly and is recommended for businesses with large contact lists. It includes everything in Standard, plus up to 24-times-contact monthly email sends, custom automation and segmentations, SMS marketing tools, access to Google Ads Manager, and SEO recommendations.

Why Choose Constant Contact over MailerLite

Besides being an effective email marketing platform, Constant Contact is an excellent MailerLite alternative because of its event management tools, appointment scheduling, and digital product selling features. However, the platform’s event management features come at a cost (5.4% + $0.80 for each successful ticket transaction).

Cons of Constant Contact

Unlike MailerLite, Constant Contact only offers basic automation and lacks tools for advanced workflows. Their email templates aren’t up-to-date, and the forms lack customization options. Constant Contact also lacks a free plan and more expensive paid plans, which might not be worth considering its features.

4. GetResponse

GetResponse homepage

GetResponse Main Features

Robust Email Marketing Automation Tools

GetResponse is an excellent email service provider with robust automation features, such as its Autoresponder feature, which is set up based on significant customer actions (e.g., confirmation emails, product offers, follow-ups, etc.). One of its marketing automation options includes Abandoned Cart, which lets you segment contacts with abandoned purchases and create discount or promotional codes to help them continue their purchase.

Ecommerce-centered Features

Besides being an effective email marketing tool, GetResponse has many third-party integrations with key ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and more. It also has various tools for ecommerce automation, like advanced segmentation for targeted campaigns and product recommendations and pre-built automation workflows for ecommerce.

Diverse Lead Generation Tools

What makes GetResponse arguably the best MailerLite alternative is its lead generation features. It contains multiple drag-and-drop builders for creating signup forms and landing pages, helping you gain leads. The Conversion Funnel feature allows you to build an entire sales funnel, helping you nurture your leads and convert them to paying customers. You can also access additional lead generation tools like lead magnets, live chat, and the ability to hold webinars.

Price

GetResponse price plans page.

GetResponse offers these paid plans (estimated at 1,000 contacts). They offer discounts for annual and biennial payments:

  • Email Marketing – The Email Marketing plan starts at $19 monthly and is great for SMBs. It includes all basic email marketing features, autoresponders, chat support, and multiple drag-and-drop builders for emails, landing pages, web pages, forms, etc. It also offers AI-powered tools, such as its AI email and campaign generator.
  • Marketing Automation - The Marketing Automation plan costs $59 and is ideal for businesses needing marketing automation tools. It has everything in Email Marketing, including key marketing automation features (e.g., Conversion Funnel), event-based workflows, advanced list segmentation, contact scoring, and its webinar builder.
  • Ecommerce Marketing - The Ecommerce Marketing plan starts at $119 monthly and is excellent for growing ecommerce businesses. It includes everything from Marketing Automation plus key third-party ecommerce integrations, transactional emails, abandoned cart recovery, product recommendations, and web push notifications.
  • GetResponse MAX - The GetResponse MAX plan costs $1,099 monthly and is recommended for large enterprises needing advanced email marketing and automation features. It offers everything needed for e-commerce marketing, including priority onboarding, a dedicated IP, SMS marketing, AI recommendations, transactional emails, and tools for users and role management.

Why Choose GetResponse over MailerLite

While both offer similar email marketing tools and have a robust free plan, ecommerce features, and marketing automation, GetResponse gets the edge regarding lead generation and sales tools. It has a Conversion Funnel for generating different sales funnels, a webinar builder, and live chat widgets. GetResponse also has more robust contact management and reporting features, such as advanced segmentation and contact scoring.

Cons of GetResponse

GetResponse is one of the more expensive MailerLite alternatives, especially when you need advanced contact segmentation tools and email automation features. For comparison, you can get a complete set of MailerLite’s automation features and more at $18 per month (Advanced plan), compared to GetResponse’s Marketing Automation plan, which starts at $59 monthly. While the platform has robust features and integrations for ecommerce businesses, its e-commerce marketing plan is expensive at $119/mo.

Conclusion

MailerLite is a great email marketing platform that offers excellent value for money. However, it lacks some advanced features, especially for automation, data security, and ecommerce features. If you’re looking for a cheaper MailerLite alternative for transactional emails and an excellent marketing tech stack, you can consider SendPulse. Constant Contact is an ideal choice if you’re an ecommerce business that wants email marketing and event management tools on a single platform.

However, if you want complete control and the best customer support, the best MailerLite alternative is MailWizz. It’s self-hosted, secure, and contains all core online marketing features you may need at an affordable, one-time licensing fee.

Explore MailWizz today and see how our diverse feature offerings compare against MailerLite, effectively assisting you in increasing email engagement on your campaigns.

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