Mailerlite Review – Mailerlite vs Mailchimp

Let's face it, email marketing is here to stay, but the problem is finding an autoresponder that is user friendly and doesn't cost an arm and a leg! Over the years I have used Aweber, GetResponse, MailChimp, but now I have found something better. In this MailerLite review, I will show you everything about this email autoresponder and why you may want to consider switching.

As you can see in the image on the right, MailerLite is completely free forever, for less than 1000 subscribers which makes it the perfect solution for someone new in the email marketing field.

MailerLite Review

I switched over to MailerLite in February of 2017 after hearing about the product from a friend. I didn't want to move all of my subscribers until I had the chance to evaluate MailerLite and determine if it was worth switching to. 

I took 500 of my subscribers and moved them over to MailerLite in order to determine the quality of the program, deliverability, open rates, etc.

After all, it was completely forever free, so what did I have to lose?

I can tell you that I have been impressed with MailerLite, so much so, that I have moved all of my subscribers over to them, saving me $40 per month!

Let's get on with the MailerLite review so I can show you the features and advantages of using this program.

MailerLite Pricing

I think you'll agree with me when I say that saving money, a lot of money, is a good thing as long as you are not giving up the features or service that you need.

That is exactly what I found when I switched from MailChimp to MailerLite. I gave up nothing and I was saving a ton of money!

I moved just under 10,000 subscribers from MailChimp to Mailerlite and as you can see below I went from $75 per month to $35 per month!

I should add that the free version from MailerLite comes with access to all of the features including autoresponders and landing pages, while the free version from MailChimp only offers limited features.

As you can see, the price difference between MailerLite and MailChimp is dramatic, but it is not the only reason you should consider using MailerLite.

Let's take a closer look at MailerLite vs MailChimp.

MailerLite vs MailChimp

We have looked at the price differences between MailerLite and MailChimp, now let's look at the features of both and how they differ.

One thing that you will find with MailChimp is that when you are using their service for free, you do not have access to all of their features.

For instance, you sign up for free, get some subscribers and look around for how to set up your autoresponder to send some automated emails.

Guess what?

Sending automated emails is a paid feature in MailChimp!

Let's Compare the features of MailerLite with MailChimp so you can get a clear idea of which is better.

As you can see in the MailerLite vs MailChimp table above, there are a number of important features that are only include in the paid version of MailChimp, while MailerLite includes them in their free version.

I think it is pretty clear that MailerLite is the best free alternative to MailChimp.

Let's take a closer look at the MailerLite Features.

MailerLite Features

MailerLite has  a number of features that make sending emails and managing subscribers and building your email list a breeze!

1. Drag and Drop Editor

The drag and drop editor is very user friendly and quite extensive.

Drag and drop features that you can add to your emails.

• Text
• Images
• Buttons
• Dividers
• Videos
• Products
• Social Links
• HTML Code
• RSS Items
• Signature

All of these items, you simply drag and drop into your email and they work flawlessly!

2. Free Newsletter Design Templates

They offer a whole host of email templates that you can use. I prefer to create my own, but I must say, they have some attractive options.

Here a few of the options.

Built in Photo Editing Feature

This is a very cool MailerLite Feature. You can edit and manage your photos and images right inside of MailerLite. No need for a separate image editor.

It is very user friendly and you can do everything with it!

• Resize Images
• Crop Images
• Put Text on Images
• Add Filter and Effects to Images
• Adjust Brightness
• Adjust Contrast
• Add Frames
• Change Orientation
• Enhance Images
• Draw on Images
• And More!

It is a very powerful image editor in a simple to use format!

Subscriber Management

MailerLite Makes it simple to manage your subscribers with a very simple system for importing subscribers.

You can add subscribers manually or via CSV, TXT or Excel files. Duplicate subscribers and incorrect records are removed automatically!

I can't tell you how much time I used to spend when I was with GetResponse, eliminating duplicates emails!

Here at MailerLite, it is done automatically!

They also make it very simple to segment your subscribers into separate lists based on previous engagement, location, social statistics, age or whatever you determine to be relevant to your business.

Pop Up Subscribe Forms

MailerLite includes the ability to design, implement and integrate pop up subscribe forms on your site.

And yes, they are included with the forever free account!

This is huge if you are just starting out and don't want to invest a large amount of money in a product like LeadPages or my favorite, Thrive Landing Pages.

Using Pop ups with MailerLite could not be more user friendly.

1. Design your own pop up or choose from their templates.
2. Set the popup behavior - Choose when to show the pop up.

As you can see in the image above, you can show the pop up after a certain amount of time or when a visitor scrolls a certain amount down the page, or my favorite, upon exit intent!

They have also made it incredibly easy to create the landing pages for the pop ups with their user friendly drag and drop landing page creator.

You can start from scratch or choose one of their templates and simply drag and drop to edit and change to your liking.

They also have embeddable forms that you can put in your content or in a widget in your sidebar.

Unsubscribe Page Builder

This a feature that I think is extremely important and valuable and one of the things that stands out in the MailerLite vs MailChimp comparison.

MailChimp does not offer this important feature, nor does GetResponse.

None of us want to see one of our subscribers unsubscribe, but with MailerLite, you can build a custom page that they will see when they hit that button.

Think of it as another point of contact, or a way to say something important to a person that is about to walk out of your life.

For the subscriber, it could be a cold, sterile experience, or you could leave them with a memory that may have them coming back someday.

Campaign Reports

I love the campaign reports dashboard at MailerLite. It is extremely user friendly and allows you to track any metrics that you choose related to your email.

You can keep track of:

• Total Emails Sent
• Open Rate
• Click Rate
• Which Links Were Clicked
• Unsubscribed
• Spam Complaints
• Hard Bounces 
• Soft Bounces
• Top Email Clients
• Reading Environment
• Opens By Location

All in an easy to use dashboard.

Auto Resend Campaigns

This is another one of the MailerLite Features that is not offered by MailChimp.

This is a very powerful tool that is needed in an email marketing campaign.

It allows you to resend an email to people that did or did not perform a chosen action in your first email.

MailerLite has tested this and found that you can increase your open rate by 30%, simply by resending an email to those subscribers who didn't open it the first time!

This feature sends a new email to the subscribers that did or did not do something. You can choose from:

• Didn't open email
• Didn't click a link
• Did open email 
• Did click a link

There are 3 types of Auto Send Campaigns.

• You can change the subject and send the same content.
• You can change the subject and some of the content.
• You can send a personal follow up message.

Following up with a personal message is the most powerful.

It sends a personal message above the original email and looks like this:

Email Automation - Autoresponder

This another Feature that sets MailerLite apart from MailChimp, as MailChimp does not include an autoresponder with their free platform.

MailerLite's email automation is once again very user friendly where you simply drag and drop boxes where you need them.

You first choose a condition like - When someone subscribes.

You then choose a specific time or delay - Like wait until 8pm.

You then choose an email to send.

Next you choose another time or delay - Like wait one day.

And choose another email to send.

You can also choose which email to send based on whether the subscriber clinked a link or not.

This a very powerful marketing tool.

RSS Campaigns

If you are into automation the MailerLite's RSS Campaigns feature may be what you are looking for.

This feature uses your websites RSS feed to automatically send an email to your list when you publish a new post.

I prefer to compose an original email every time I publish something new, but I know a number of bloggers that use the RSS feature.

It is very simple to set up and you can just set it and forget it.

MailerLite Deliverability

One of my concerns when I moved my some of my subscribers to MailerLite was deliverability.

I have found the MailerLite Deliverability to be as good or better than MailChimp and GetResponse.

I did, however take some steps to insure that the MailerLite Deliverability would meet my expectations.

The process is to authenticate your domain that the emails you are sending is attached to.

The steps were very simple and require access to your domains DNS records.

This is not necessary in order to get started with MailerLite. You can choose to allow them to authenticate your email.

I tried the option to let MailerLite authenticate my email first and when I added the manual authentication, I didn't see a difference in MailerLite deliverability.

However, MailerLite does recommend the manual authentication for improved deliverability, so you may want to do that.

MailerLite Review - Integrations

MailerLite integrates very easily with all of your favorite web services to provide seamless implementation.

Here are some of the more popular MailerLite integrations:

• Thrive Landing Pages
• Shopify
• WordPress
• Facebook
• OptinMonster
• CreateForm
• Privy
• Ninja Popups
• Zapier
• MailMunch
• SyncSumo
• Squarespace
• PopupDomination
• Gleam
• Landingi
• GetSiteControl
• ConvertPlug
• UpScribe
• BookFunnel
• Project Manager
• Sumo
• MiloTree
• ConvertPlayer 
• SendOwl

As you can see the MailerLite Integrations are extensive and they are constantly adding more as new apps come out.

MailerLite WordPress Integration

Many of you have asked about MailerLite WordPress integration, so I have added this section to show you how easy it is the integrate MailerLite with WordPress.

All of us at Wealthy Affiliate build our websites with WordPress, so this integration is important to us.

You can use the web forms and popups in MailerLite to add to your WordPress site or you can use on e of the third party tools.

I use Thrive Leads on my WordPress sites and the MailerLite integration is simple.

Let's take a look at the MailerLite WordPress integration process step by step.

Step 1. Sign up for a free MailerLite Account. Once you are logged in, click on your photo at the top right hand side and a drop down menu will appear. Select Integrations.

Step 2. In the MailerLite Integrations select Developer API and this will reveal your API key. Copy your MailerLite API Key and head over to your WordPress Dashboard.

Step 3. Inside my WordPress Dashboard, I go to the Thrive Dashboard and click on API Connections.

Step 4. Inside the API Connections choose MailerLite.

Step 5. Here is where you enter your MailerLite API and click connect.

If your MailerLite WordPress integration is successful, you will see the following:

Once you have entered your MailerLite API and successfully connected MailerLite with WordPress, you can then connect any of your web forms, landing pages and pop ups with MailerLite.

Those instructions apply if you are using Thrive Leads or Thrive Landing Pages.

If you want to use the MailerLite web forms and landing pages, the MailerLite WordPress integration is also very simple.

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard and install the MailerLite Plugin.
2. Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will be able to access all of your MailerLite web forms and you can also create new ones.
3. Place the web form in a sidebar widget or add directly to your content with a shortcode.
4. The plugin automatically connects MailerLite with WordPress!

That is the simplest MailerLite WordPress Integration method.

If you are looking for the best autoresponder, the choice is clear.

MailerLite Review Summary

I have tried to cover everything and answer any questions that you may have in my MailerLite Review.

If you are looking for a email marketing solution that is inexpensive and free to get started with (up to 1000 subscribers), the MailerLite is a feature rich choice that will save you time, money and headaches as you build your email list.

When you read through the features of MailerLite above it becomes abundantly clear that it wins hands down in the MailerLite vs MailChimp comparison and is the perfect free alternative to MailChimp.

I hope that you found my step by step tutorials on MailerLite Integrations helpful. 

The MailerLite WordPress Integration could not be simpler with the use of the MailerLite Plugin.

If you have found my MailerLite Review helpful, please leave a comment below!