On this page
- At a glance
- Free plans in 2026
- Paid plans and real costs
- Round 1: Designing emails
- Round 2: Sequences and drips
- Round 3: Running campaigns week to week
- Round 4: Fit with WordPress
- Round 5: Automation depth
- Round 6: Teams
- Moving from MailerLite to DoubleScale
- When DoubleScale is not the answer
- Choose by situation
- FAQ
MailerLite earned its reputation as the friendly, affordable email platform. In 2026 it renamed its plans (Free, Comfort, Power, Enterprise) and cut the free plan to 250 subscribers. MailPoet is still the default newsletter plugin for WordPress. And DoubleScale, which we build, approaches the same job from the CRM side.
If your site runs on WordPress, here is how the three compare today, from free plans to sequences and automations.
Full disclosure: we make DoubleScale. We have kept the two other tools’ strengths in, quoted every price from their own pricing pages, and listed the cases where DoubleScale is the wrong choice.
Below is our MailPoet vs MailerLite vs DoubleScale comparison, round by round.
At a glance
Newsletters, post notifications and WooCommerce emails from wp-admin, with sending included.
Excellent editor, landing pages, websites, A/B testing and paid newsletters in one hosted tool.
Unlimited contacts in WordPress, email sequences and automations, plus a full CRM. Imports MailerLite contacts directly.
Free plans in 2026
| MailPoet | MailerLite | DoubleScale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | 500 (1,000 with own sending) | 250 | Unlimited |
| Emails per month | 5,000 | 2,500 | Limited only by your sending provider |
| Automation | Welcome, post notifications, WooCommerce basics | 3 automations, 5 steps each | Tag, list and contact workflows |
| Branding | MailPoet branding | MailerLite logo | None |
| Sending | MailPoet Sending Service | MailerLite | Your provider |
Paid plans and real costs
MailerLite Comfort starts at $12 a month for 500 subscribers ($10.80 billed yearly) with sends capped at 10× your tier; Power starts at $25 with unlimited emails and automations. MailPoet Business is $10 a month at 500 subscribers with unlimited emails. DoubleScale Pro starts at $99 a year for one site with unlimited contacts.
| List size | MailPoet Business | MailerLite Comfort | MailerLite Power | DoubleScale Basic + SES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $120/yr | $144/yr | $300/yr | $101/yr |
| 2,500 | $360/yr | $396/yr | $588/yr | $111/yr |
| 10,000 | $960/yr | $1,068/yr | $1,548/yr | $147/yr |
Yearly cost on monthly billing, 4 campaigns a month to the whole list. Vendor pricing pages, checked October 17, 2026. DoubleScale includes Amazon SES at $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
Four campaigns a month, monthly billing (MailerLite yearly billing saves 10%).
Round 1: Designing emails
MailerLite has the best editor here, and landing pages and a website builder to go with it. MailPoet is simpler, with 70+ templates on every plan. DoubleScale’s builder covers the essentials free and adds images, products, timers, video, saved sections and a template library on Pro.
Round winnerMailerLite
Round 2: Sequences and drips
MailerLite automations handle drips well on paid plans. MailPoet covers welcome emails and post notifications, with more on paid plans. DoubleScale Pro has a dedicated sequence builder: a visual series of emails with delays between them, separate from your automations.
Round winnerTie: MailerLite and DoubleScale
Round 3: Running campaigns week to week
All three list your campaigns with status and results. DoubleScale also shows SMS and WhatsApp campaigns in the same place on Pro, and automated campaigns that send when you publish a post.
Round winnerTie
Round 4: Fit with WordPress
MailPoet and DoubleScale run inside WordPress and store contacts in your database. MailerLite connects through its official sign-up forms plugin (3.0★ from 40 reviews on WordPress.org) and WooCommerce plugin (2.8★ from 64), and keeps subscribers on its platform. DoubleScale can import your MailerLite contacts in one step.
Round winnerMailPoet and DoubleScale
Round 5: Automation depth
MailerLite’s free plan allows 3 automations of 5 steps; Comfort raises it to 50, and Power removes the limits and adds multiple triggers per workflow. MailPoet covers welcome emails, post notifications and WooCommerce flows, with branching on paid plans. DoubleScale’s free builder handles tags, lists and contact updates; Pro adds email actions, conditions and triggers from WooCommerce, forms, deals, bookings, tickets, LMS and membership plugins, with no limit on workflows.
Round winnerMailerLite Power and DoubleScale Pro
Round 6: Teams
MailerLite gives 2 seats on Free, 3 on Comfort and unlimited on Power. MailPoet uses WordPress users. DoubleScale uses WordPress users with its own per-module roles, so you can give a colleague campaigns without giving them invoices.
Round winnerTie
Moving from MailerLite to DoubleScale
- Install DoubleScale free and connect a sending provider.
- Use the built-in MailerLite importer to bring in subscribers, groups and fields.
- Point your forms at DoubleScale.
- Rebuild your key automations (welcome, re-engagement) and send a test to yourself first.
When DoubleScale is not the answer
- There is no built-in sending service. You connect your own provider (Amazon SES, Brevo, Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark and more) and add its DNS records once.
- No A/B testing yet.
- We are new on WordPress.org, so there are fewer tutorials and community answers than for the big names.
- Automations that send email, sequences, automated campaigns, WooCommerce triggers, SMS and WhatsApp need a Pro plan (from $99 a year). The free automation builder handles tags, lists and contact updates.
- If you want landing pages, a website builder or paid newsletter subscriptions, MailerLite does that and we do not.
Choose by situation
| Situation | Choose |
|---|---|
| WordPress site, simple newsletters, no SMTP | MailPoet |
| No website, or you want landing pages and paid newsletters | MailerLite |
| A/B testing and a top-class editor | MailerLite |
| Large list, unlimited contacts, inside WordPress | DoubleScale |
| Email plus deals, invoices, bookings or support | DoubleScale |
Two-way comparison: MailPoet vs MailerLite. Head-to-head: DoubleScale vs MailerLite.
How we compared: prices were read on each vendor’s pricing page on October 17, 2026 (USD, monthly billing unless noted); the cost examples assume 4 campaigns a month to the whole list; DoubleScale screenshots are from DoubleScale 1.6 on a test site.
FAQ
How many subscribers does MailerLite's free plan allow in 2026?
250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, with 2 user seats and 3 automations. MailPoet’s free plan allows 500 subscribers; DoubleScale’s free plugin has no contact limit.
Can I import MailerLite contacts into DoubleScale?
Yes. DoubleScale’s free plugin includes a MailerLite importer, along with ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Pipedrive, GoHighLevel, FluentCRM and CSV imports.
Does DoubleScale have landing pages?
No. DoubleScale uses your WordPress pages and connects to 17 form plugins. MailerLite includes landing pages and a website builder.
Which is cheapest for 2,500 subscribers?
In our example, DoubleScale Basic with Amazon SES is about $111 a year, MailPoet Business $360, MailerLite Comfort $396 and Power $588.
Is MailerLite cheaper than MailPoet?
At the sizes we tested, no: MailPoet Business costs $360 a year at 2,500 subscribers against $396 for MailerLite Comfort on monthly billing. MailerLite’s yearly billing narrows the gap by 10%.
Does DoubleScale limit the number of automations?
No. DoubleScale does not limit workflows or contacts; Pro is priced by the number of sites.
DoubleScale imports MailerLite contacts and runs campaigns, sequences and automations with unlimited contacts.
Mohamed Magdy, Founder & CEO, DoubleScale
Mohamed Magdy is the founder and CEO of DoubleScale, the all-in-one CRM for WordPress. He writes about CRM, email marketing and automation for WordPress businesses.
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