Creator The short answer
MailerLite and MailerSend aren’t really rivals. They come from the same company and do different jobs:
- MailerLite is for marketing email: newsletters, campaigns, automations, signup forms, landing pages and a website, sent to your list.
- MailerSend is for transactional email: one-to-one messages your app, shop or site triggers, like receipts and password resets, sent through an API or SMTP relay.
If you write a newsletter, you need MailerLite (or another newsletter tool), not MailerSend. You only need MailerSend as well if you run software or a store of your own that has to send automatic emails to individual people.
Start free on MailerLite See MailerSend pricing
The MailerLite button is an affiliate link: we may earn a commission if you buy a paid plan, at no extra cost to you. The MailerSend button is a plain link.
Marketing email vs transactional email
MailerSend’s own help center draws the line this way: transactional emails often carry information unique to the recipient, such as the details of an order they placed, so each one goes to a single person, while marketing emails go out to whole lists. Examples MailerLite gives on its transactional email page include purchase confirmations and password resets.
The two kinds of email are built and sent differently. A newsletter is written in an editor and scheduled to thousands of subscribers at once. A password reset is triggered by code the moment someone clicks “forgot password,” and it has to arrive in seconds. That’s why MailerLite and MailerSend are separate products with separate pricing.
MailerLite vs MailerSend side by side
| Dimension | MailerLite | MailerSend |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Newsletters and marketing email to a list | Transactional email triggered by an app, store or website |
| How you send | Drag-and-drop editor, campaigns and automations | Email API or SMTP relay, with a drag-and-drop template builder |
| What you pay for | Active subscribers | Emails sent each month |
| Free plan | Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month | 500 emails a month; a credit card is required |
| Cheapest paid plan | Comfort from $12 a month (500 subscribers) | Hobby, $7 a month for 5,000 emails |
| Free trial | 14-day premium trial, no payment method needed | 14 days of the Professional plan, then back to Free with no automatic charge |
| Also includes | Website builder, landing pages, paid newsletters, digital products | Webhooks, activity logs, sender domains; an SMS API (US and Canada) from Starter |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
MailerLite points transactional email to MailerSend
MailerLite doesn’t send transactional email for your own app itself. Its help center says, “We don’t offer an SMTP infrastructure at the moment,” and adds that “our partner company, MailerSend, does offer SMTP relay.” On MailerLite’s pricing page, the “Transactional emails” row reads “Try MailerSend” on the Free, Comfort and Power plans alike.
MailerLite’s transactional email page says one login works for both products, so you can use your MailerLite account to sign in to MailerSend. Your MailerLite plan doesn’t include MailerSend sending, though: MailerSend has its own plans, below.
One exception matters to creators. If you sell digital products through MailerLite itself, MailerLite sends the order confirmation email to buyers after checkout; its help article on creating a digital product covers how to edit it. You don’t need MailerSend for that.
MailerSend plans and prices
MailerSend prices by monthly email volume. Here’s what its pricing page listed on October 9, 2026, billed monthly:
| Plan | Monthly price | Emails included | Notable limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 a month | 1 sending domain, 1 template, 1 user (plus an accountant seat), 100 API requests a day, 1 day of activity history; credit card required |
| Hobby | $7 | 5,000 a month | 1 domain, 10 templates, 5 users, 1,000 API requests a day; extra emails $1.50 per 1,000 |
| Starter | From $35 | 50,000 a month | 10 domains, 250 templates, 7 days of activity history, option to remove the MailerSend logo, SMS API (US and Canada) |
| Professional | From $110 | 50,000 a month | Unlimited users, domains and templates, 30 days of activity history, dedicated account manager |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Starter and Professional scale with volume. MailerSend’s FAQ gives the example of a $68 Starter subscription that includes 100,000 emails a month. Its pricing page also offers a discount for yearly billing (the page shows the yearly figures inconsistently, so confirm the yearly price at checkout), a 30% nonprofit discount that can’t be combined with yearly billing, and a 14-day Professional trial that moves you to the Free plan afterwards rather than charging you. MailerSend says the card on the Free plan is there to prevent abuse.
By our arithmetic, a small shop or app sending a few hundred receipts a month fits inside the Free plan, and Hobby covers up to 5,000 emails a month for $7.
When you need one, the other, or both
MailerLite only
- You write a newsletter, run welcome sequences, or sell digital products and paid subscriptions through MailerLite’s own checkout.
- Your other tools (a course platform, a shop builder) already send their own receipts and login emails.
That covers most newsletter writers. MailerLite’s Free plan takes you to 250 subscribers, and Comfort starts at $12 a month for 500. Start free on MailerLite (affiliate link).
MailerSend only
- You’re building an app or site that needs to send sign-up confirmations, password resets or notifications, and you don’t send a newsletter.
- Note that MailerSend’s help center says configuring its SMTP relay to send regular emails is not recommended, so it isn’t a cheap way to send a newsletter.
Both
- You send a newsletter and run your own software or store that sends automatic one-to-one emails. Keeping the two apart is the setup MailerSend recommends: its help article argues for dedicated tools for each kind of email.
- You sign in to both with one account, but each product has its own plan and bill.
If you’d rather have transactional email bundled into your newsletter tool, some competitors include it. Sender, for example, lists transactional email by API and SMTP on every plan; see our MailerLite vs Sender comparison.
FAQ
Is MailerSend part of MailerLite?
They’re separate products with separate pricing. MailerLite’s help center calls MailerSend its “partner company,” and one login works for both.
Is MailerSend free?
Its Free plan covers 500 emails a month, with a credit card required. Hobby is $7 a month for 5,000 emails.
Can you send a newsletter with MailerSend?
It isn’t built for that. MailerSend’s help center says using its SMTP relay for regular emails is not recommended. Use MailerLite or another newsletter tool for your list.
Does MailerLite send transactional email?
MailerLite sends its own order confirmations for digital products sold through it, but it doesn’t offer SMTP or a transactional API for your own app. Its help center and pricing page point you to MailerSend.
Related
- MailerLite for creators · MailerLite pricing · MailerLite free plan
- MailerLite vs Sender · MailerLite vs Brevo
- All comparisons
Sources (checked October 9, 2026)
- MailerLite pricing page: plans and prices, and the “Transactional emails: Try MailerSend” row
- MailerLite help: does MailerLite offer SMTP?: no SMTP infrastructure; MailerSend offers SMTP relay
- MailerLite transactional emails page: one login for both products, transactional email examples
- MailerLite help: create a digital product: order confirmation emails
- MailerSend pricing page: plans, limits, yearly and nonprofit discounts, trial and FAQ
- MailerSend help: transactional vs marketing email
- MailerSend help: SMTP relay: not recommended for regular emails
MailerLite and MailerSend are trademarks of their owners. We run Creator Mail Stack independently, and it is not endorsed by either company. We’re in MailerLite’s affiliate program, as described in the disclosure, and have no relationship with MailerSend. Found something out of date? Tell us.