MailerLite vs Brevo for Nonprofits (2026)

MailerLite vs Brevo for Nonprofits: Full Overview

MailerLite and Brevo take fundamentally different approaches to email pricing. MailerLite charges based on how many contacts you store — the more donors, members, and volunteers in your database, the more you pay each month, regardless of how often you email them. Brevo inverts this model: contacts are always free to store, and you pay only for emails sent. For nonprofits, which model is cheaper depends entirely on the ratio of list size to send frequency.

MailerLite launched in 2010 and has built a reputation for clean, well-designed email campaigns and a genuinely simple editor. Its free plan (1,000 contacts, 12,000 emails per month) remains among the most generous in the market. In 2022, MailerLite introduced a direct nonprofit discount of 30% — notable because it bypasses TechSoup entirely, making it accessible to nonprofits in any country and to smaller organisations that haven't registered with TechSoup.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) rebranded in 2023 and has expanded from an email tool into a multi-channel communication platform including CRM, SMS, live chat, and transactional email. Its free plan stores unlimited contacts with a 300-email daily send limit. For nonprofits with large historical donor lists but infrequent communication, this unlimited-contact storage is a genuine operational advantage.

Core Email Features Compared

Both MailerLite and Brevo include drag-and-drop email editors, contact segmentation, signup forms, and basic campaign analytics. The differences emerge in automation depth, extra tools, and where those features sit in the pricing tiers.

MailerLite gates automation behind the Growing Business plan ($9/mo at 500 contacts). The automation builder covers welcome sequences, birthday emails, and tag-based triggers — adequate for most nonprofit onboarding and re-engagement flows. A/B testing and multi-user access are also Growing Business features. The free plan is limited to basic sends and the core editor.

Brevo includes automation on the Business plan and above. The free and Starter plans lack automation sequences, which limits Brevo's utility for nonprofits that want to onboard new donors automatically. Brevo's strength over MailerLite is breadth: CRM contact management, SMS sending, and transactional email are all included in the same platform.

Where MailerLite Adds Value for Nonprofits

MailerLite's strongest case for nonprofits starts with its free plan and nonprofit discount. The free tier (1,000 contacts, 12,000 emails/month) covers a full year of monthly newsletters to a 1,000-person list at zero cost. When you outgrow the free plan, the 30% nonprofit discount is applied directly through MailerLite without TechSoup registration, making it accessible to nonprofits in any country and any size.

MailerLite's editor is consistently praised for its simplicity. The interface does not expose CRM tabs, SMS dashboards, or transactional email settings unless you choose to use them — which makes it easier to hand off to a non-technical volunteer coordinator who just needs to write and send a newsletter.

Landing pages are included on all MailerLite plans, including free. For nonprofits running a donation drive, volunteer recruitment campaign, or event sign-up, being able to build a landing page without a separate tool is a practical advantage. Brevo does not include a landing page builder at the same accessibility level.

Where Brevo Adds Value for Nonprofits

Brevo's most significant advantage for nonprofits is its per-email pricing model combined with unlimited contact storage. A nonprofit that has collected 8,000 donor addresses over a decade but only sends quarterly can store all 8,000 contacts in Brevo for free and pay only when they send. At two sends per month to a 10,000-person list, Brevo Starter costs around $29/mo — compared to MailerLite's $73/mo (before any discount) for 10,000 contacts.

The built-in CRM is Brevo's second differentiator. While not a substitute for a dedicated nonprofit CRM like Bloomerang or Little Green Light, Brevo's CRM allows basic donor contact tracking — interaction history, notes, deal stages — without adding another tool subscription. For small nonprofits managing a few hundred major donors alongside a large general list, this consolidation reduces overhead.

Brevo's EU data storage (France) matters for nonprofits with European members or donors. Because data is stored within the EU by default, GDPR compliance does not require additional Standard Contractual Clauses for EU-to-EU data transfers. SMS capability is also included — useful for nonprofits that want to send text updates for events or urgent appeals alongside their email campaigns.

Free Plan Comparison for Nonprofits

The two free plans serve different nonprofit profiles. MailerLite's free plan allows 1,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month — a sufficient budget for monthly newsletters to a growing list. Brevo's free plan stores unlimited contacts but caps sends at 300 emails per day, translating to roughly 9,000 emails per month if you send daily but limited batch sizes if you need to send a single campaign to a large list.

The practical constraint on Brevo's free plan is the daily cap, not the monthly total. Sending a single newsletter to 2,000 donors requires seven days on the free plan (300 per day). For most nonprofits, that is operationally unworkable — you want your newsletter to arrive in a single wave, not staggered over a week. Upgrading to Brevo Starter ($9/mo for 5,000 emails/month) removes the daily cap.

For a nonprofit building its first list from scratch, MailerLite's free plan is the better starting point: send your full list in one go, include automation sequences, and stay free until you reach 1,000 contacts. For a nonprofit that already has thousands of contacts but sends infrequently, Brevo's free unlimited contact storage lets you import everyone immediately without paying for storage.

Migration and Setup Considerations

Moving between MailerLite and Brevo is technically straightforward. Both platforms accept CSV imports of contact lists. Neither exports email campaign history or automation logic — you rebuild automations from scratch on the new platform. Plan for 2-4 hours of setup for a typical nonprofit account with basic segmentation.

One practical difference: MailerLite manually reviews new accounts before allowing sends, which can delay your first campaign by 24-48 hours after signup. This review is designed to prevent spam but surprises some new users. Brevo does not have the same review gate for standard accounts.

If considering Groupmail as an alternative to either platform, the migration is simpler — export contacts from MailerLite or Brevo as a CSV, import into Groupmail, and start sending. There are no automation workflows to recreate. Groupmail's Continuity plan ($29/mo) includes migration assistance and an annual handover call for when your coordinator changes.

For Nonprofits Specifically

Neither MailerLite nor Brevo was built for nonprofits. MailerLite was built for bloggers, creators, and small businesses. Brevo was built for ecommerce and transactional email. Both have added nonprofit-facing features over time — MailerLite with its direct discount, Brevo with its CRM and EU hosting — but the platforms were not designed around the operational realities of nonprofit organisations.

The two issues most relevant to nonprofits: first, the pricing model. MailerLite's per-contact charging means that a nonprofit that has accumulated 15,000 email addresses over 20 years faces a bill based on the total stored. Brevo's unlimited contact storage avoids this problem. Second, volunteer transitions. Neither MailerLite nor Brevo offers any form of account transition support. When your communications director changes, you update the login email yourself.

For nonprofits where volunteers rotate every 1-2 years and where the contact list includes years of historical data, Groupmail's flat $15/month pricing (unlimited contacts) and Continuity plan's handover call ($29/mo) address both problems directly. The tradeoff is fewer automation features — Groupmail is focused on sending email to members, not on building marketing funnels.

The right choice depends on your situation. Large list, infrequent sends, EU donors: Brevo. Small or growing list, frequent sends, want an accessible nonprofit discount: MailerLite. Tight budget, simple needs, volunteer-led organisation that prioritises support and flat pricing: Groupmail.