MailerLite vs Mailchimp pricing at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices below were read from the official pricing pages on November 3, 2026, on monthly billing.
How MailerLite and Mailchimp calculate your bill
Both tools price by audience size, but their contact-counting rules and sending limits differ in important ways. MailerLite counts active subscribers — once, no matter how many groups they sit in. Mailchimp counts contacts, including people who unsubscribed. Sending limits differ too: MailerLite caps monthly sends on Comfort and lifts the fixed cap on Power, while Mailchimp caps sends as a multiple of your contact count.
The monthly price is only part of the comparison. Contact-counting rules and sending limits can also affect your total cost.
The headline numbers
Monthly billing, US dollars. Mailchimp prices by contact bands, so 1,000 contacts falls in its 501–1,500 band.
At 5,000 subscribers, the difference is $51 a month.
Comfort
$49/mo
Standard
$100/mo
That’s $612 a year — for these two plans, at this list size.
These plans are not identical. Compare sending limits, automations and integrations before you decide on price alone.
Prices checked November 3, 2026 — monthly billing, from each vendor’s pricing page.
| Subscribers | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | Mailchimp Essentials | Mailchimp Standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $12 | $25 | $13 | $20 |
| 1,000 | $19 | $39 | $26.50 | $45 |
| 2,500 | $33 | $49 | $45 | $60 |
| 5,000 | $49 | $69 | $75 | $100 |
| 10,000 | $89 | $129 | $110 | $135 |
Prices are in USD, based on standard monthly billing as displayed on November 3, 2026. Taxes, promotions and annual discounts are excluded. MailerLite tiers are based on active subscribers, while Mailchimp pricing is based on billable contacts.
These plans are not identical feature-for-feature. MailerLite Comfort is the lower-cost option for many small newsletters, but users with more complex automation or higher sending needs should also compare MailerLite Power and Mailchimp Standard. Comfort is MailerLite’s main plan (it replaced the plan formerly called Growing Business); Power is the higher tier formerly called Advanced. Annual billing takes roughly 10% off MailerLite’s monthly figures.
At the three sizes people ask us about most:
- 1,000 subscribers: MailerLite Comfort $19 vs Mailchimp Essentials $26.50 — or $45 for Mailchimp Standard, which includes additional automation and marketing features. Against Standard the gap is $26 a month, $312 a year.
- 5,000 subscribers: $49 vs $75 (Essentials) or $100 (Standard). Against Standard you save $51 a month, $612 a year.
- 10,000 subscribers: $89 vs $110 (Essentials) or $135 (Standard) — $46 a month against Standard, $552 a year.
Where the real gap comes from
Unsubscribed contacts. Mailchimp bills for contacts in your audience even after they unsubscribe, unless you archive them. An older Mailchimp audience may include unsubscribed or non-subscribed contacts that still count toward the monthly contact limit — check how many you have before comparing plans. MailerLite counts active subscribers only: people who unsubscribed or bounced do not count. One nuance on the MailerLite side: subscribers you add mid-cycle keep counting until your next billing date, even if you remove them before it.
Send caps. Both tools limit monthly sends, at different multiples. MailerLite Comfort allows 10× the top of your subscriber tier (a list in the up-to-1,000 tier gets 10,000 sends a month, whether you have 200 subscribers or 900). MailerLite Power removes the fixed cap, subject to a fair-use policy. Mailchimp Essentials allows 10× your contact count; Standard, 12×. Sending to 5,000 contacts twice a week would use roughly 40,000–45,000 email sends in a typical month — approaching the 50,000-send limit on Mailchimp Essentials, and MailerLite Comfort has the same fixed limit at this subscriber tier.
Band pricing. Mailchimp’s price jumps in bands. Moving from 500 to 501 billable contacts can push Mailchimp Essentials into the next pricing tier — from $13 to $26.50. MailerLite’s tiers step more gently.
The free plans. Both free plans cap you at 250 subscribers or contacts. MailerLite Free includes 2,500 sends a month; Mailchimp Free includes 500, with a 250-per-day limit, and no real automation. For testing a migration, MailerLite’s free plan offers a higher monthly sending allowance to work with.
When Mailchimp can still be the right call
Price is not the whole story, and we would not switch tools over $20 a month alone. Staying on Mailchimp can make sense if your automations are elaborate and already earning — none of them migrate, and rebuilding takes real time. The same applies if a tool you depend on integrates with Mailchimp but not MailerLite, or if you use Standard and Premium features like advanced segmentation daily rather than occasionally.
If your Mailchimp bill has increased while your sending frequency has stayed the same, check your contact tier, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, and any plan changes before assuming you need to switch platforms. Before renewing, compare your current bill with the cost and effort of switching.
The bottom line
MailerLite Comfort is less expensive than Mailchimp Essentials at every audience size in our comparison. At 5,000 subscribers, Comfort costs $49 per month versus $100 for Mailchimp Standard. However, the plans differ in features and sending limits, so price alone should not determine the choice. The structural rules matter over time: Mailchimp charges for unsubscribed contacts, while MailerLite does not — and both cap your sends unless you are on MailerLite Power. If you decide to move, our step-by-step migration guide covers what actually carries over — we tested the importer end to end, including the parts that do not make it across.
Prices checked on mailerlite.com/pricing and mailchimp.com/pricing on November 3, 2026 — the last verified date for this comparison. Both vendors change prices and plan names more often than anyone would like.