The free plan lost half its subscriber cap and about 80% of its send volume, and over-limit accounts get locked out of sending and editing after August 13.

MailerLite reworked its Free plan on June 16. Subscribers drop from 500 to 250. Monthly sends drop from 12,000 to 2,500 — roughly 80% less volume. Feature caps arrive too: 3 automations, 3 forms, 1 landing page, 1 website, 1 digital product.

The date to care about is August 13, 2026. Until then, over-limit free accounts only get notified. After that they enter what MailerLite calls a restricted state: no sending, no importing subscribers, and no creating, activating or editing automations, forms, websites, landing pages or products. Data is not deleted and nobody is auto-billed. You trim back under the caps, or you upgrade.

Do the maths before you panic

2,500 emails across 250 subscribers is ten full-list sends a month. A weekly newsletter to a full 250-person list burns about 1,080 — under half the cap. The send limit is not what will bite most people. The 250-subscriber ceiling is. If your list sits at 300, the email cap is irrelevant; you are already over on subscribers alone.

There is a real give here. Free accounts now get a second seat, the custom HTML editor, extra templates, pop-ups and blogs. The features got better. The room to use them got smaller.

Free tiers, side by side

• Beehiiv — 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends. First paid rung $43/mo.
• EmailOctopus — 2,500 subscribers, 10,000 emails, per its own blog.
• Kit — 1,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts. Creator $33/mo at 1,000.
• Brevo — 100,000 stored contacts but 300 emails/day. Starter from $9/mo.
• Loops — 1,000 contacts, 4,000 sends/mo.
• Buttondown — 100 subscribers free.

The verdict

Under 250 and sending weekly: stay. Nothing breaks and you gained features. Between 250 and 1,000 and not ready to pay: Kit or Beehiiv give you headroom, and leaving is cheapest now while you only have three automations to rebuild — export the CSV, redo the workflows, re-verify the domain. Past 1,000 with automations you depend on: MailerLite's cheapest paid tier starts at $12/mo, which likely beats a weekend of migration.

Either way, the free plan is a trial now, not a starting point.

Reported by Software Crit from the sources above. Every story is confirmed against at least two independent publishers before publication.