Checked October 4, 2026. Choosing an email tool starts with two numbers: how many people you email, and how many messages they receive. A large contact allowance does not necessarily let you send a whole newsletter in one day.
This comparison uses the providers’ current public documentation. It is not a hands-on review or an inbox-delivery test. The links below are ordinary source links, not affiliate tracking links.
Which should you try first?
Our assessment: choose by your sending schedule before comparing paid features. These recommendations use the published limits, not a hands-on performance test.
- Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails per month: MailerLite Free is worth testing. Include welcome emails and reminders in your monthly total.
- 250 readers receiving twelve issues a month: Brevo Free can fit this schedule if each issue goes out on a different day and your total stays within 300 emails that day.
- 600 readers who need the same announcement today: compare paid plans from both providers. Neither free plan fits that requirement.
When should you pay? Upgrade when a required sending limit, user seat, feature, or branding option prevents your planned campaign. Do not pay solely because your contact list fits a headline storage allowance.
Check MailerLite plans for your audience · Check Brevo plans and add-ons
Free-plan limits rechecked October 10, 2026. These are ordinary provider links; they do not currently earn us a referral commission.
Free plans: compare the limit that affects your next send
| Limit | MailerLite Free | Brevo Free |
|---|---|---|
| Audience storage | Up to 250 subscribers | Up to 100,000 contacts |
| Email allowance | 2,500 per month | 300 per day; unused allowance does not roll over |
| Users | 2 seats | 1 seat |
Sources: MailerLite pricing and Brevo Free-plan limits. Subscriber capacity and sending capacity are separate checks.
Three example newsletters
These are planning calculations, not results from live campaigns. They assume one email per recipient per issue, with no welcome messages, reminders, or other sends.
- 200 readers, four issues a month: 200 × 4 = 800 emails. That fits the listed free allowances of both services if each Brevo issue is sent on a separate day.
- 250 readers, twelve issues a month: 250 × 12 = 3,000 emails. That exceeds MailerLite’s free monthly allowance. Brevo’s daily allowance can accommodate each issue on a separate day, assuming no other sends consume it.
- 600 readers, one time-sensitive announcement: MailerLite’s free audience limit is too small. Brevo Free cannot send to all 600 in one day. Its documentation says campaigns beyond the daily allowance require manual requeuing on later days. If timing matters, compare paid plans.
Do not interpret “fits the allowance” as guaranteed delivery. Account approval, sender setup, and message acceptance still matter. This article does not rank either provider’s deliverability.
What changes when you pay?
MailerLite’s current paid plan names are Comfort and Power. Comfort has a monthly sending allowance; Power lists unlimited monthly emails. Quote the plan for your actual subscriber count rather than relying on older plan names. MailerLite also states that paid accounts move to a higher pricing tier when active subscribers exceed the current limit. Check the resulting charge before importing a larger list. See current MailerLite plans.
Brevo lists Starter from $9/month and Standard from $18/month, before taxes. These are entry prices, not quotes for every audience size. Starter’s 5,000-email tier allows up to 500 stored contacts; the 10,000-email tier allows 1,500. Its paid plans remove the daily cap, but monthly sending and storage limits still apply.
Branding also affects the bill: Brevo lists logo removal on Starter as a $9/month add-on, while Standard includes removal. At the published entry rates, Starter plus this add-on reaches $18/month, the same starting price as Standard. Compare the same contact and sending tier before choosing. Source: Brevo plans and add-ons.
Our recommendation
For a small, occasional newsletter, test the free allowance before buying. For frequent sends, calculate the whole month. For a larger announcement, check whether everyone must receive it on the same day. Those requirements can change the answer even when the audience size stays the same.
Before committing, write down your audience count, issues per month, busiest sending day, required users, and branding needs. Then request matching quotes from both providers, including add-ons and the billing period. Save the quote date so future price changes are easy to spot.
There is no universal cheapest winner here. Choose the plan that meets your actual schedule, and test the workflow with a small permission-based list before moving your main newsletter.