Mailchimp vs Constant Contact vs MailerLite

Written head to head: Mailchimp vs MailerLite · Mailchimp vs Constant Contact, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Mailchimp Free plan · from $13/mo VisitRemove	Constant Contact Free trial · from $10.20/mo VisitRemove	MailerLite Free plan · from $10.80/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Intuit's email and SMS marketing platform, free for 250 contacts, with AI writing on Standard and Premium	Email, SMS and social marketing for small businesses, priced by contacts, with live phone and chat support	Email marketing with a free plan for 250 subscribers and paid plans priced by list size and sending
Free plan	Up to 250 contacts; 500 email sends a month with no more than 250 a day; 1 user seat and 1 audience; limited pre-built templates; no automation flows, email scheduling or A/B testing; Mailchimp branding stays on; email support for the first 30 days only. Sending pauses if the contact or send limit is exceeded.	No	Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; 3 active automations with up to 5 steps; 1 website and 1 landing page; 3 active forms; 1 digital product or booking; 2 user seats; MailerLite logo on emails; API and MCP access limited, with no sending through them; community support. Sending locks above 250 active subscribers.
Cheapest paid plan	$13/mo (Essentials)Mailchimp pricing	$10.20/mo billed annually (Lite)Constant Contact pricing	$10.80/mo billed annually (Comfort)MailerLite pricing
What it covers	Starting price for the 0-500 contacts tier; email sends up to 10x the contact count (5,000 a month at 500 contacts); 3 user seats. The price rises with the contact tier, up to $385/month for 50,000 contacts. Overages are billed if contact or send limits are exceeded. Annual plans exist only for Standard and Premium at 10,000+ contacts, through sales.	For 0-500 contacts; email sends up to 10x contacts; 1 user. $10.20/mo when prepaid for 12 months. Sends over the allowance cost $0.002 each. The price rises with the contact tier ($25.50/mo prepaid at 501-1,000 contacts).	For up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month; $129.60 billed yearly (10% off); 3 user seats, 50 automations, 10 forms. The price rises with subscriber count, and the plan moves to the next tier automatically when the limit is passed.
Free trial	14-day free trial of Essentials or Standard (payment details required at sign-up); a 1-month Premium trial for qualified new customers through sales	Free trial with no credit card required (length not stated on the pricing page); 30-day money-back guarantee	14-day trial of premium features on every new account, no credit card required
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, API	Web, iOS, Android	Web, iOS, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	300+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Canva, Zapier, Square, Stripe and Salesforce	300+ integrations including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Canva, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Zapier, Shopify and Eventbrite	100+ integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, ChatGPT and Claude
Open source	No	No	No
Good for	Small businesses sending regular newsletters to a few thousand contacts Ecommerce stores that want automated flows tied to Shopify or WooCommerce data Trying email marketing free with a list under 250 contacts	Small businesses and nonprofits that want live phone and chat support Promoting events with registration and payments alongside email Running email and social posting from one account	Small businesses sending regular newsletters on a tight budget Creators selling digital products, bookings or paid newsletters Teams that want the full feature set without moving to a higher tier
Watch out for	The free plan stops at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation flows or scheduling Essentials automation flows are limited to 4 steps; generative AI features need Standard or Premium Overage charges apply on paid plans when contact or send limits are exceeded	No free plan; a free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee instead Lite has 1 user, 1 automation template and no email scheduling Custom automations and dynamic content need Premium	The free plan stops at 250 subscribers and sending locks when the limit is passed Comfort caps sending at 5,000 emails a month at 500 subscribers and allows 50 automations and 10 forms Transactional email is a separate product, MailerSend
Made by	The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a Mailchimp (part of Intuit)	Constant Contact, Inc.	MailerLite Limited

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in email marketing tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.