MailerLite

MailerLite is the email tool you pick when you want a list, a form, and a campaign, not a whole creator platform. You collect addresses. You send the episode note. You run a simple automation. Free is real: 250 active people and 2,500 sends in thirty days. Paid is Comfort and Power now. Those names used to be Growing Business and Advanced. That rename landed 16 June 2026.

It fits a host who needs show-drop mail and a signup box on the site. It fits a small team that does not want Kit's creator stack or Beehiiv's media CMS. It does not fit someone who wanted writing and charging in one Substack. It does not fit a shop already living in Mailchimp. SparkLoop can sit on top of this list. MailerLite is still the list.

What people keep it for is the drag-and-drop campaign and the price at the bottom of the market. Comfort is the regular newsletter. Power is the heavy sender. Help is plain: Comfort caps sends at ten times your subscriber tier. Power is unlimited under fair use. Annual knocks 10% off. You pay in USD or EUR by address.

The later pain is the Active count. Unsubscribed and bounced do not count. Anyone who was Active in the cycle still counts, even if you deleted them later. The reset is your billing anniversary, not the day you cleaned the list. Go over subscribers or sends on a monthly plan and they auto-upgrade you. If you were on an old paid plan before 16 June 2026, the new dollars wait for renewal unless you change the plan yourself.

Check the live calculator for your list size before you pick Comfort versus Power. Turn off auto-upgrade in your head: watch Active, not total rows. Keep a form and one welcome automation. Send from your own domain so inboxes do not bury the letter. If you outgrow 250 people, move before the free send cap starts failing campaigns. Pause instead of cancel if you only need a quiet month.

MailerLite is a list with a campaign button. The deal is cheap mail for a show that already exists. If you wanted a writing home with built-in growth, people already pick Beehiiv or Substack. If you wanted episode mail without the platform, this is the usual budget vote.