In-depth two-product comparison
Brevo vs MailerLite
Brevo vs MailerLite for B2B SaaS: price at 1,000 to 25,000 contacts, product-event triggers, transactional email, EU storage and moving between them.
Last updated: 2026-10-07
Short answer
Pick Brevo if product events and transactional mail must live in the same account as your campaigns, or if you mail each subscriber only a few times a month: Standard reads $79 for 30,000 emails at 10,000 contacts and $97 for 50,000 emails at 25,000 contacts, against MailerLite Comfort at $89 and $179. Pick MailerLite if your list is small to mid-sized and you send often, since Comfort at 5,000 subscribers is $49 with a 50,000-email allowance while Brevo needs $69 for even 20,000 emails, or if your program is built around landing pages, forms and webinar sign-ups. The deciding technical gap is triggers: Brevo documents a custom-events API that starts automations, while MailerLite offers seven built-in triggers and no custom-event trigger.
Brevo
Brevo: cheaper when each subscriber gets few emails, with events, transactional mail, SMS and a free pipeline in one place.
MailerLite
MailerLite: cheaper per subscriber when you send often, with generous landing pages and forms, but no custom-event trigger.
These two look alike on a feature list and diverge on arithmetic. Brevo bills for volume, so a SaaS that mails its list rarely pays little regardless of list size. MailerLite bills for people and bundles sending room inside the tier, so a SaaS that mails often pays a predictable amount that rises with the headcount.
Quick comparison
| Decision area | Brevo | MailerLite | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| What sets the price | Monthly email volume; stored contacts are 500, 1,500 and 2,500 on the first three tiers and up to 500,000 from 20,000 emails | Active subscribers; Comfort sends 10 times the ceiling of your tier, Power is unlimited under fair use | Divide your planned monthly sends by your contacts. Below about 4 emails each favours Brevo at 10,000 contacts, below about 6 at 25,000; at 5,000 contacts MailerLite is cheaper at every volume we priced. |
| Free plan | 300 sends a day, storage for 100,000 contacts, 1 seat, automation for 2,000 contacts, transactional email included | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 2 seats, 3 active automations of 5 steps; sending locks above 250 subscribers | Multiply subscribers by sends. 2,500 emails a month is the ceiling on MailerLite; 9,000 a month is the ceiling on Brevo (300 x 30). |
| Price at 1,000 contacts | Standard $35 a month at 10,000 emails (stores 1,500 contacts); Starter $17 | Comfort $19 a month, Power $39 (up to 1,000 subscribers) | MailerLite is cheaper at this size; check whether you need Power for the multiple triggers and unlimited seats. |
| Price at 5,000 contacts | Standard $69 a month at 20,000 emails (4 per contact); $97 at 50,000 | Comfort $49 a month with room for 50,000 emails; Power $69 | Brevo cannot undercut Comfort here because its cheapest Standard stop that stores 5,000 contacts is $69. |
| Price at 10,000 contacts | Standard $79 at 30,000 emails (3 per contact); $97 at 50,000; $139 at 100,000 | Comfort $89 with room for 100,000 emails; Power $129 | Brevo leads by $10 at three emails each and trails by $8 at five emails each ($97 against $89). |
| Price at 25,000 contacts | Standard $97 at 50,000 emails; $139 at 100,000; $179 at 150,000 | Comfort $179 with room for 250,000 emails; Power $239 | The two meet at $179 when each of 25,000 people gets six emails a month. |
| Custom product events | Events API (POST /v3/events at 10 requests a second) and a REST tracker endpoint; events can trigger automations | No event trigger. Seven built-in triggers: joins a group, completes a form, clicks a link, updated field, event anniversary, exact date, joins a segment | Write your top three lifecycle triggers as plain sentences, then check each against the MailerLite trigger list. |
| Transactional email | Included from Free; SMTP relay and an API send endpoint | Not in MailerLite; the pricing page points to MailerSend as a separate product | Count system emails per month (receipts, resets, invites) and price them as a separate line if you choose MailerLite. |
| API ceiling | 10 requests a second on contacts and events on the general tier; higher tiers on Professional and Enterprise | 120 requests a minute in total, with a batch endpoint for bulk work | MailerLite's 120 a minute is 2 a second; a signup spike of 300 users in a minute needs batching. |
| Seats | 1 on Free, up to 3 on Standard (extra seat $9 a month), 10 on Professional | 2 on Free, 3 on Comfort, unlimited on Power | MailerLite Power is the cheaper route to unlimited seats: $69 at 5,000 subscribers against $499 for Brevo Professional. |
| Landing pages and forms | One landing page on Standard, ten on Professional | Ten websites, ten landing pages and ten active forms on Comfort; unlimited on Power | Count the campaign pages you will run in a year; a webinar series alone can use ten. |
| Data location | DPA published; the pages we read do not name a hosting region | States storage in the European Union with an ISO 27001 certificate | If your customer contracts name a storage region, ask Brevo in writing; MailerLite already states one. |
The Brevo figures are Standard stops from its pricing slider and the MailerLite figures are Comfort and Power tiers from its subscriber selector, both in monthly billing and both read on 2026-10-07. Annual billing lowers MailerLite by 10% at its smallest tier ($12 to $10.80 on Comfort) and Brevo by 10% on its yearly toggle; we compare monthly against monthly so neither side gets a discount the other lacks.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Brevo | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| What starts a flow | Custom events sent through the events API or the REST tracker; Brevo's docs describe events as a way to log history, segment by behaviour and trigger automation workflows. | Joins a group, completes a form, clicks a link, updated field, event anniversary, exact date or joins a segment. No custom-event trigger. |
| Multiple entry points | Not described on the pages we read. | Up to three triggers per automation, on Power only. |
| Automation allowance | Free and Starter reach 2,000 contacts; Standard removes the cap on contacts in automation. | Free: 3 active automations of 5 steps. Comfort: 50 active automations of up to 100 steps. Power: unlimited automations. |
| Re-entry rules | Not described on the pages we read; check the automation builder during a trial. | Optional re-entry, but the same subscriber can only trigger a given automation once every 24 hours. |
| API design | REST API v3 with API-key and OAuth authentication; published rate-limit tables for General, Advanced and Extended tiers. | REST API at connect.mailerlite.com with bearer tokens; official libraries for PHP, Go, Node.js, Python, Ruby and Rust. |
| Writing contacts | Contact endpoints are rated 10 requests a second and 36,000 an hour on the general tier. | POST creates or updates a subscriber; omitted fields and groups are not removed, which makes repeated syncs safe. |
| Sending through the API | Available on the Free plan, including transactional SMS and email. | Sending via API or MCP needs a paid plan; Free access is limited and excludes sending. |
| Messaging channels | Email, SMS, web push and chat; WhatsApp campaigns and transactional WhatsApp on Professional. | No SMS or WhatsApp channel appears on its pricing page; transactional email is routed to MailerSend. |
| CRM | Built-in sales tools on every plan: one pipeline and 50 open deals, meeting scheduling and forecasting. | No CRM listed; subscriber profiles and segments only. |
| Site and page building | One landing page on Standard and ten on Professional. | Website builder, landing pages, forms, pop-ups, surveys and quizzes in the plan; digital product and paid-newsletter selling also listed. |
| What the cheaper tier withholds | Starter does not list A/B testing or automation beyond 2,000 contacts; Standard adds them. Custom objects need Professional. | Free holds you to 250 subscribers, 3 automations and 1 landing page; Comfort limits you to 5,000 emails at the 500-subscriber tier and one trigger per automation. |
| Support | Email on Free, priority email on Standard, phone on Professional. | Email support, marked priority on Power; 24/7 live chat on Power and during the 14-day trial. |
Pricing and operating cost
Brevo
Free plan with no end date: 300 sends a day, up to 100,000 stored contacts, one seat, transactional email and automation for up to 2,000 contacts.
Stored contacts follow the email tier at the bottom of the range: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails and 1,500 at 10,000. Brevo upgrades you automatically to the next tier if you cross the limit. Automation on Free and Starter ends at 2,000 contacts, so a 6,000-user trial base needs Standard or Professional to run onboarding for everyone. Custom objects, inbound webhooks, WhatsApp campaigns and a dedicated IP ($251 a year) are Professional features, $499 a month and up. SMS and WhatsApp run on prepaid credits priced by recipient country, outside the plan fee.
MailerLite
Free plan for up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, plus a 14-day trial of premium features that needs no card and removes nothing from your account when it ends.
Billing counts every address that was active at any time in the cycle, even one you delete later, so a messy import that you clean up on day two still counts for that month. Crossing a tier ceiling charges the next tier automatically; on Free, sending locks above 250 subscribers until you pay or remove people. Comfort caps sending at 10 times the tier ceiling; a SaaS that mails 10,000 people 12 times a month needs Power ($129) because Comfort stops at 100,000. Transactional email is not part of any MailerLite plan, so receipts and password resets mean a second vendor and bill.
| Tier or usage case | Brevo | MailerLite |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest paid tier | Starter $9, Standard $18 (5,000 emails, 500 contacts) The $18 Standard tier stores 500 contacts and sends 5,000 emails. | Comfort $12, Power $25 (up to 500 subscribers) Comfort gives 10 times the tier ceiling: 5,000 emails at the 500 tier. Annual billing reads $10.80 and $22.50. |
| 1,000 contacts, up to 10 emails each | Standard $35; Starter $17 The 10,000-email tier stores up to 1,500 contacts. 12 x $35 = $420 a year. | Comfort $19; Power $39 Comfort sends up to 10,000 emails at the 1,000 tier. 12 x $19 = $228 a year. |
| 5,000 contacts, 4 emails each (20,000 sends) | Standard $69; Starter $32 12 x $69 = $828 a year; $97 at 50,000 sends. | Comfort $49; Power $69 12 x $49 = $588 a year, $240 less, with up to 50,000 emails available. |
| 10,000 contacts, 3 emails each (30,000 sends) | Standard $79; Starter $39 12 x $79 = $948 a year. At 5 emails each (50,000 sends) it is $97, or $1,164. | Comfort $89; Power $129 12 x $89 = $1,068 a year, with up to 100,000 emails available. |
| 25,000 contacts, 2 emails each (50,000 sends) | Standard $97; Starter $56 12 x $97 = $1,164 a year; $139 at 100,000 sends; $179 at 150,000. | Comfort $179; Power $239 12 x $179 = $2,148 a year, $984 more than Brevo at this send level. |
| Unlimited sending, 10,000 contacts | Standard $139 at 100,000 sends; Professional $499 Professional starts at 150,000 emails a month and adds 10 seats. | Power $129 (unlimited, fair use) Power adds unlimited seats, unlimited automations and 24/7 live chat. 12 x $129 = $1,548 a year. |
Two ways of counting, and where each one hurts
Brevo's plans article states that the email volume you select sets the price tier, and on the lowest three tiers it also limits stored contacts. MailerLite's pricing page states that billing follows active subscribers, that unsubscribed and bounced addresses are not counted, and that the count is cumulative within a billing cycle. Both paid models auto-upgrade you when you pass a limit.
For a SaaS that mails its list rarely, Brevo's volume meter is the better deal because a list of dormant sign-ups costs nothing to keep. For a SaaS that mails often, MailerLite's subscriber meter wins because every send beyond the first is free inside the Comfort allowance. The turning point depends on size: at 5,000 contacts MailerLite already leads at 4 emails each, at 10,000 contacts the sides swap at about 4 emails each, and at 25,000 contacts Brevo leads until about 6 emails each.
Cost at 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000 contacts
At 1,000 contacts, MailerLite Comfort is $19 a month ($228 a year). Brevo needs its 10,000-email tier to store 1,000 contacts, which is $35 on Standard ($420) or $17 on Starter ($204). If automation, A/B tests and the full feature set matter, MailerLite is $192 a year cheaper.
At 5,000 contacts mailed four times a month (20,000 sends), Brevo Standard is $69 ($828 a year) and MailerLite Comfort is $49 ($588), so MailerLite is $240 cheaper. Brevo Starter is $32 but is limited to 2,000 contacts in automation.
At 10,000 contacts mailed three times a month (30,000 sends), Brevo Standard is $79 ($948) and MailerLite Comfort is $89 ($1,068), so Brevo is $120 cheaper. Mailed five times (50,000 sends), Brevo Standard is $97 ($1,164) and Comfort stays $89, so MailerLite becomes $96 cheaper.
At 25,000 contacts mailed twice a month (50,000 sends), Brevo Standard is $97 ($1,164) and MailerLite Comfort is $179 ($2,148), so Brevo is $984 cheaper. Mailed four times (100,000 sends), Brevo is $139 ($1,668), still $480 cheaper. Mailed six times (150,000 sends), Brevo reads $179, equal to Comfort.
Unlimited volume is the one place MailerLite gives a clean answer. Power at 10,000 subscribers is $129 ($1,548 a year) with no monthly cap under fair use. Brevo prices each volume step separately (Standard reads $139 at 100,000 emails and $179 at 150,000) and its next plan, Professional, starts at $499.
- Prices are monthly-billing readouts from the Brevo pricing page and the MailerLite pricing page, read on 2026-10-07.
- MailerLite's annual discount is visible at its lowest tier (Comfort $12 to $10.80, Power $25 to $22.50); Brevo's yearly toggle shows Standard at $16.17 against $18 at its 5,000-email tier.
- Both vendors add applicable taxes at checkout.
Starting a flow from something your product did
A B2B SaaS lifecycle program mostly runs on app behaviour: a workspace was created, an integration was connected, a seat limit was reached, an invoice failed. Brevo is the only one of the two with a documented route for that. Its events documentation says events log history, segment contacts by behaviour and trigger automation workflows, and its REST tracker takes an email, an event name, properties and an eventdata object. The rate-limit page allows 10 requests a second to POST /v3/events on the general tier.
MailerLite's trigger documentation lists seven defaults and none of them is a custom event. The workaround is to treat state as data: write a custom field or add the subscriber to a group through the API, and start the automation on Updated field or Joins a group. It works for milestones such as 'activated' or 'trial_ended', since the Updated field trigger fires when a field matches the rule you set. It is clumsier for repeated actions, because a group cannot be rejoined without leaving it first and the automation can re-enter a subscriber only once every 24 hours.
The API budgets differ too. MailerLite's global limit is 120 requests a minute, so a bulk sync should use the batch endpoint. Brevo's contact and event endpoints each allow 36,000 requests an hour on the general tier, about five times MailerLite's hourly total of 7,200.
Transactional mail, and what the free plans allow
Brevo's Free plan includes transactional email and SMS alongside campaigns, and its send endpoint is rated at 1,000 requests a second on the general tier, with an SMTP relay for apps that speak SMTP. That means receipts, invites and password resets can live next to your lifecycle mail without a second contract.
MailerLite's plan table marks transactional emails as 'Try MailerSend' on every plan: the product is separate. If you pick MailerLite you will need a second sender for system mail, and you should price it before comparing totals.
The free plans are shaped differently. MailerLite Free is generous with features for 250 subscribers (three active automations of up to five steps, one landing page, three forms) but locks sending above 250 subscribers and keeps API sending off. Brevo Free lets you store 100,000 contacts and send 300 emails a day, which is 9,000 in a 30-day month, and it keeps automation to 2,000 contacts. Brevo Free suits a pre-launch list that you mail occasionally; MailerLite Free suits a tiny, active newsletter.
Sales pipeline, landing pages and data location
Brevo's help article lists free sales tools on every plan: one pipeline, 50 open deals, meeting scheduling, live chat, forecasting and task reminders. Sales Essentials at $31 a month adds unlimited deals, multi-user access and sales automation. A founder-led SaaS can track demos in the same system that sends the follow-up email.
MailerLite points the other way. Comfort lists ten landing pages, ten websites and ten active forms, Power removes those limits, and the plan table also lists pop-ups, surveys and quizzes. A marketing-led SaaS that runs a webinar series, a gated report and a changelog page gets most of that out of the plan price.
On data location, MailerLite states that its storage centre is in the European Union with an ISO 27001 certificate, and that it has the controls needed for GDPR. Brevo's DPA is available on its legal pages, but the pricing material does not name a hosting region, so ask for it in writing if a customer contract needs one.
Moving from MailerLite to Brevo
- Export subscribers from MailerLite using its export guide; export active subscribers and unsubscribed ones as separate files so you can handle consent explicitly.
- Pick the Brevo tier that stores your whole list before importing. A 6,000-subscriber MailerLite list does not fit the 1,500 or 2,500 contact steps, so you start at the 20,000-email tier ($32 on Starter, $69 on Standard).
- Create Brevo attributes for each MailerLite custom field, then use Brevo's import flow and map the columns. If you want MailerLite groups to survive as lists, export or filter one group at a time and import each into its own list.
- Import the unsubscribed file with the blocklist option ticked on the last step.
- Rebuild MailerLite automations in Brevo. Replace the Updated field and Joins a group triggers with events from your app, which Brevo can start workflows from, and move receipts and resets onto Brevo's transactional API.
- Authenticate your sending domain in Brevo and switch the signup forms and API calls over only after a test send reaches your own mailboxes.
Moving from Brevo to MailerLite
- MailerLite publishes a four-step guide for moving from Brevo: import subscribers, recreate forms and landing pages, recreate templates, rebuild automations. Export from Brevo as CSV following its own export guide.
- Bring only subscribers who opted in. MailerLite's import help says imported addresses that are already unsubscribed, bounced or marked as spam are not re-added, so leave them out of the file.
- On the import settings page, choose the group to add people to, map columns to fields and decide whether the new subscribers should trigger any automation tied to that group. Switch that off for the first load or every welcome flow fires at once.
- Check the subscriber count against your tier. MailerLite counts every address active at any point in the cycle, and on Free, sending locks above 250.
- Rebuild each Brevo event-triggered flow as a group-based or Updated field flow, and have your backend write the field or group membership through the API.
- Keep Brevo, or move to MailerSend, for transactional mail; MailerLite does not send it.
Pros and cons
Brevo
Pros
- Standard reads $79 at 30,000 emails and $97 at 50,000, well below MailerLite Comfort ($89 at 10,000 subscribers, $179 at 25,000) for low-frequency lists.
- Custom events API that can trigger automation workflows, with published rate limits.
- Transactional email, SMS and a free pipeline of 50 open deals in the same account, starting on the Free plan.
Cons
- Cheapest Standard stop that stores 5,000 contacts is $69, more than MailerLite Comfort's $49.
- Contact storage is tied to the email tier at the low end, and Free/Starter automation stops at 2,000 contacts.
- Custom objects, dedicated IP and WhatsApp campaigns need Professional at $499 a month.
MailerLite
Pros
- Comfort at $19 for 1,000 subscribers and $49 for 5,000 includes automation, multivariate tests and a preference center.
- Ten landing pages, websites and forms on Comfort; unlimited on Power at $129 for 10,000 subscribers.
- States EU data storage with an ISO 27001 certificate and offers a four-step migration guide from Brevo.
Cons
- No custom-event trigger; the seven defaults cover groups, forms, links, fields, dates and segments.
- Transactional email is a separate product, and API sending is paid-only.
- API ceiling of 120 requests a minute, and a Free plan that locks sending above 250 subscribers.
Who should choose what?
Seed-stage SaaS with 1,000 users and a weekly product update
You want a welcome flow, a weekly update and a trial-ending reminder on a tight budget.
Recommendation: MailerLite. Comfort is $19 a month ($228 a year) at 1,000 subscribers with 10,000 emails; Brevo Standard needs its 10,000-email tier at $35.
Product-led SaaS at 10,000 users, events from the app, receipts from the same vendor
Activation events should start onboarding flows, and receipts must send reliably.
Recommendation: Brevo. Brevo's events API starts automations, transactional email is included, and 30,000 sends reads $79 a month against $89 for Comfort without transactional.
5,000 subscribers, eight emails each per month
A content-heavy program: weekly tips plus lifecycle messages (40,000 sends).
Recommendation: MailerLite. Comfort is $49 for 5,000 subscribers with up to 50,000 emails; Brevo Standard needs the 50,000-email stop at $97, which is $576 more per year.
Founder-led sales motion: demos, texts and a pipeline
Six reps handle about 40 open deals and send SMS reminders before each demo.
Recommendation: Brevo. Brevo gives one pipeline with 50 open deals on every plan and SMS campaigns from Free; MailerLite lists no CRM and no SMS on its pricing page.
Marketing-led SaaS running webinars, gated reports and a launch page
The team builds around registration pages and forms more than product events.
Recommendation: MailerLite. Comfort lists ten landing pages, ten websites and ten active forms; Brevo Standard includes one landing page.
Large base mailed twice a month
25,000 contacts, mostly trial sign-ups, 50,000 sends a month.
Recommendation: Brevo. Brevo Standard reads $97 against $179 for Comfort, which is $984 less a year at this send level.
Each scenario names the number that decides it: sends per subscriber, trigger type, or the extra product the team needs next to email. If none of those describes your team, price both at your real list size and let the lower monthly figure win.
Final verdict
Choose Brevo if
- events from your own product should start automations, and receipts should use the same vendor
- you mail contacts less than about four times a month at 10,000 or more contacts
- sales reps need a pipeline and SMS reminders without a separate CRM
- you want to start on a free plan that stores 100,000 contacts and sends 300 emails a day
Choose MailerLite if
- your list is under 10,000 and you send weekly or more, so Comfort's bundled allowance beats volume pricing
- campaign pages, forms and webinar registrations matter as much as email
- you want unlimited seats and automations cheaply (Power $69 at 5,000, $129 at 10,000)
- a written EU storage statement and ISO 27001 mention helps in procurement
FAQ
Which is cheaper at 10,000 contacts, Brevo or MailerLite?
It depends on sends per contact. At three emails each (30,000 sends), Brevo Standard is $79 and MailerLite Comfort is $89. At five emails each (50,000 sends), Brevo is $97 and Comfort stays $89. For unlimited sending, MailerLite Power is $129 and Brevo's next step is Professional at $499.
Can MailerLite start an automation from an event in my app?
Not directly. Its documentation lists seven default triggers, none of them a custom event. You can have your backend update a custom field or add the subscriber to a group through the API, then trigger on Updated field or Joins a group. Brevo documents a custom-events API that can trigger automation workflows.
Does MailerLite send transactional email?
No. Its pricing table shows transactional emails as a link to MailerSend, which is a separate product with its own plans. Brevo includes transactional email from its Free plan with an SMTP relay and an API endpoint.
What happens when my list outgrows the tier?
On MailerLite paid plans the limit rises automatically and your card is charged for the next tier; on Free, sending locks above 250 subscribers. Brevo does something similar on its lowest tiers: if you reach 1,501 contacts on a 1,500-contact tier it moves you up to the next one.
Where is my subscriber data stored?
MailerLite says its storage centre is in the European Union and carries ISO 27001. Brevo publishes a data processing agreement but its pricing and plan pages do not name a hosting region, so ask its sales team in writing if a contract needs one.
Which free plan is better for a pre-launch SaaS?
For a waitlist you mail once or twice, Brevo Free: it stores up to 100,000 contacts and allows 300 sends a day. For a small, engaged list that needs automation and a landing page, MailerLite Free covers 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month and three automations.