MailerLite
Simple email marketing - European alternative based in Lithuania
Quick Overview
| Company | MailerLite |
|---|---|
| Category | Email Marketing |
| Headquarters | Vilnius, Lithuania |
| EU/European | Yes - Lithuania |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Main Features | Email campaigns, Automation, Landing pages, Forms, E-commerce features |
| Pricing | Free tier / From €10/month |
| Best For | Small businesses and creators |
| Replaces | Mailchimp, ConvertKit |
Detailed Review
MailerLite is an email marketing platform headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, that has earned a strong reputation for making email marketing accessible, affordable, and effective for small businesses and creators. Founded in 2010, the company has grown to serve hundreds of thousands of users worldwide while maintaining its core philosophy of simplicity and ease of use. MailerLite has consistently been recognized as one of the best email marketing tools for beginners, winning the Best Email Marketing Tool for Ease of Use award for three consecutive years from 2023 through 2025.
As a Lithuanian company operating within the European Union, MailerLite is fully subject to GDPR and other EU data protection regulations. This makes it a natural choice for European businesses that need to ensure their email marketing activities comply with European privacy laws. Unlike US-based alternatives such as Mailchimp or ConvertKit, MailerLite processes and stores data under European jurisdiction, providing an additional layer of legal certainty for data-conscious organizations.
Email Campaign Builder
At the heart of MailerLite is its intuitive drag-and-drop email editor, which allows users to create professional-looking email campaigns without any coding knowledge. The editor provides a range of content blocks including text, images, buttons, social links, video embeds, countdown timers, and product listings for e-commerce businesses. Users can also switch to a rich-text editor for simpler emails or use the custom HTML editor for full control over email design.
MailerLite offers a library of pre-designed email templates that cover a wide range of use cases, from newsletters and promotional campaigns to product announcements and seasonal communications. The templates are modern, mobile-responsive, and customizable, giving users a solid starting point for their campaigns. The platform also supports A/B testing, allowing users to test different subject lines, sender names, and email content to optimize open rates and engagement.
Marketing Automation
MailerLite's automation capabilities allow users to set up triggered email sequences based on subscriber actions. The visual automation builder makes it straightforward to create workflows for common scenarios such as welcome sequences for new subscribers, abandoned cart reminders for e-commerce customers, and re-engagement campaigns for inactive contacts. Triggers can be based on events like form signups, link clicks, specific dates, and custom field updates.
The platform supports multi-trigger workflows, meaning a single automation can be initiated by multiple different events. While the automation builder covers the needs of most small and medium businesses effectively, it is worth noting that the automation capabilities are less advanced than those found in enterprise-level platforms. Businesses with very complex automation requirements involving dozens of conditional branches and deep behavioral scoring may find the feature set somewhat limiting.
Landing Pages and Websites
One of MailerLite's distinguishing features is its built-in landing page and website builder. Users can create standalone landing pages for lead generation, product launches, or event registrations without needing a separate tool or website hosting service. The landing page builder uses the same intuitive drag-and-drop interface as the email editor, ensuring a consistent and familiar experience.
Beyond landing pages, MailerLite also offers a full website builder that allows users to create simple websites with blog functionality. This is a unique offering in the email marketing space and provides significant value for solopreneurs and small businesses that need an online presence but do not want to invest in a separate website platform. The websites are hosted by MailerLite and can be connected to custom domains.
Subscriber Management and Segmentation
MailerLite provides robust subscriber management tools that allow users to organize their contact lists using groups, segments, and custom fields. Subscribers can be tagged based on their behavior, interests, or demographics, enabling targeted email campaigns that deliver relevant content to the right audience. The segmentation engine supports conditions based on subscription date, email engagement, location, and custom field values.
The platform includes built-in subscription form builders that can be embedded on websites or displayed as pop-ups. Forms are customizable and can include custom fields to collect additional subscriber information at the point of signup. MailerLite also provides GDPR-compliant double opt-in functionality, ensuring that subscriber consent is properly recorded and documented.
E-commerce Integration
MailerLite integrates with popular e-commerce platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. These integrations allow online store owners to sync their customer data with MailerLite, create targeted campaigns based on purchase history, and set up automated email sequences for cart abandonment, post-purchase follow-ups, and product recommendations. The platform also supports a built-in digital product selling feature, allowing creators to sell subscriptions, downloads, and other digital products directly through MailerLite.
For online stores, the ability to segment customers based on their purchasing behavior and engagement patterns is particularly valuable. MailerLite tracks revenue generated from email campaigns, giving users clear visibility into the return on investment of their email marketing efforts.
Analytics and Reporting
MailerLite provides comprehensive campaign analytics that track key metrics including open rates, click rates, unsubscribe rates, and bounce rates. The reporting dashboard presents data in a clear, visual format that makes it easy to understand campaign performance at a glance. Click maps show which links in an email received the most engagement, helping users optimize future campaigns.
The platform also tracks subscriber growth over time, showing how the mailing list is expanding and which signup sources are most effective. While the analytics are well-suited for most small business needs, users requiring advanced attribution modeling, detailed funnel analysis, or cross-channel reporting may need to supplement MailerLite's built-in analytics with external tools.
Pricing and Value
MailerLite is known for its competitive pricing, which is significantly lower than many competitors. The Free Forever plan allows users with up to 500 subscribers to send up to 12,000 emails per month, including access to the drag-and-drop editor, landing pages, signup forms, and basic automation. This makes it an excellent entry point for new businesses and creators just getting started with email marketing.
Paid plans start at $10 per month for the Growing Business tier, which unlocks unlimited email sending, advanced automation, A/B testing, and the ability to remove MailerLite branding from emails. The Advanced tier adds features like Facebook integration, promotion pop-ups, multiple automation triggers, and unlimited account users. Pricing scales with the subscriber count, but remains competitive at every tier compared to alternatives like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign.
Deliverability and Compliance
Email deliverability is a critical factor in the success of any email marketing effort, and MailerLite takes this seriously. The platform maintains strong sender reputation through strict anti-spam policies, automatic bounce handling, and list hygiene tools. MailerLite also provides built-in tools for setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, which help ensure that emails reach subscribers' inboxes rather than being flagged as spam.
On the compliance front, MailerLite provides comprehensive GDPR tools including consent tracking, data processing agreements, and easy subscriber data export and deletion capabilities. The platform's European hosting ensures that subscriber data stays within EU jurisdiction, which is an important consideration for businesses subject to GDPR requirements.
Integrations and Ecosystem
MailerLite integrates with a wide range of third-party tools and services, including WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier, Stripe, and many more. The Zapier integration alone opens up connections to thousands of additional apps, allowing users to automate data flows between MailerLite and virtually any other business tool. The platform also provides a developer API for custom integrations, giving technically inclined users the flexibility to build their own connections.
While the direct integration list is smaller than what some larger competitors offer, the combination of native integrations, Zapier connectivity, and the API ensures that MailerLite can fit into most business technology stacks without difficulty.
Who Should Use MailerLite
MailerLite is an outstanding choice for small to medium-sized businesses, bloggers, content creators, freelancers, and solopreneurs who need a powerful yet affordable email marketing solution. Its combination of ease of use, competitive pricing, and European data protection makes it particularly appealing to businesses operating in or serving European markets. The built-in website and landing page builders add exceptional value for users who want an all-in-one marketing platform without the complexity or cost of enterprise solutions.
Larger enterprises with complex automation needs, extensive A/B testing requirements, or deep CRM integration needs may find MailerLite's feature set somewhat limited for their purposes. However, for the vast majority of small business email marketing needs, MailerLite delivers excellent value, ease of use, and reliable performance, all from a company rooted firmly in Europe.
Alternatives to MailerLite
Looking for other European Email Marketing solutions? Here are some alternatives worth considering:
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, MailerLite is fully GDPR compliant. Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, the company operates entirely within the European Union and is subject to all EU data protection regulations. MailerLite provides built-in GDPR tools including consent tracking, double opt-in functionality, data processing agreements, and easy subscriber data export and deletion capabilities. Subscriber data is hosted within EU jurisdiction.
MailerLite is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. Founded in 2010, the company has grown to serve hundreds of thousands of users worldwide while maintaining its European base. Being in the EU means all data processing is subject to European privacy laws, providing strong legal protections for subscriber data.
MailerLite offers a Free Forever plan for up to 500 subscribers with 12,000 monthly emails. Paid plans start at $10/month for the Growing Business tier, which includes unlimited email sending, advanced automation, and A/B testing. The Advanced tier adds features like Facebook integration, multiple automation triggers, and unlimited account users. Pricing scales with subscriber count but remains very competitive.
MailerLite is a European alternative to Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Constant Contact. It provides comparable email campaign creation, automation workflows, landing pages, and subscriber management while keeping your data in Europe under GDPR protection. The platform's ease of use and lower pricing make it especially attractive for users migrating from these US-based tools.
Yes, MailerLite offers a generous Free Forever plan that supports up to 500 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails. The free plan includes access to the drag-and-drop email editor, landing page builder, signup forms, and basic automation workflows. This makes it an excellent starting point for new businesses and creators just beginning their email marketing journey.
Yes, MailerLite includes a built-in landing page builder with a drag-and-drop interface. You can create standalone landing pages for lead generation, product launches, or event registrations. Beyond landing pages, MailerLite also offers a full website builder with blog functionality, making it possible to create an entire online presence from within the platform without needing separate hosting.
Yes, MailerLite integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce among other e-commerce platforms. These integrations allow you to sync customer data, create targeted campaigns based on purchase history, and set up automated sequences for cart abandonment and post-purchase follow-ups. MailerLite also tracks revenue generated from email campaigns to show your marketing ROI.
MailerLite maintains strong deliverability through strict anti-spam policies, automatic bounce handling, and list hygiene tools. The platform provides built-in tools for setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email authentication, which help ensure your emails reach subscriber inboxes rather than spam folders. Enterprise-tier users can also access dedicated IP addresses and deliverability consultations.
MailerLite provides a visual automation builder for creating triggered email sequences. You can set up workflows for welcome series, abandoned cart reminders, re-engagement campaigns, and more. Triggers include form signups, link clicks, specific dates, and custom field updates. The platform also supports multi-trigger workflows, allowing a single automation to respond to multiple events.
Absolutely. MailerLite is widely regarded as one of the most beginner-friendly email marketing platforms available, winning the Best Email Marketing Tool for Ease of Use award for three consecutive years. The drag-and-drop interface requires no coding knowledge, pre-designed templates provide starting points for campaigns, and the learning curve is gentle. The generous free plan also means beginners can start without any financial commitment.