MailerLite vs. Substack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
MailerLite
Score 8.6 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
MailerLite is an email marketing platform for small businesses, creators, and ecommerce brands, used to automate the customer journey and grow a customer list. Users can send unlimited emails with every plan. Pricing starts at $10/month. MailerLite enables users to: Grow and engage their audience - Build newsletters, forms, pop-ups, landing pages, and even full websites with a Drag and drop builder that offers total creative control over designs. 150 customizable…
$10
per month
Substack
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Substack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform.N/A
Pricing
MailerLiteSubstack
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
per month 1 user
Growing
$10
per month 3 users
Advanced
$20
per month Unlimited users
Enterprise
Custom pricing
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MailerLiteSubstack
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAdditional 30% discount available to Non-profit organizations. Up to a 10% for paying yearly.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MailerLiteSubstack
Features
MailerLiteSubstack
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
MailerLite
8.6
85 Ratings
8% above category average
Substack
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor9.574 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.966 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content6.960 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.265 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.652 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.267 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.275 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.174 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.749 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
MailerLite
6.9
74 Ratings
10% below category average
Substack
-
Ratings
Dashboards6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.674 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
MailerLite
9.3
67 Ratings
16% above category average
Substack
-
Ratings
Email Previews9.367 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MailerLiteSubstack
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 9.3 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MailerLiteSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(88 ratings)
8.7
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MailerLiteSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
Mailerlite
I didn't have much luck when testing other similar tools and since we tested with free plan, we couldn't commit to something else if we couldn't get basic stuff fixed. That's when we switched to MailerLite, and their support was great and super helpful all the way (during our free plan, especially). Plus, they're super budget-friendly for startups, so I highly recommend.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
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Pros
Mailerlite
  • Offers a user-friendly interface, making it simple to create beautiful forms, group subscribers, and automate emails.
  • Includes email automation workflows in their free plan - the only provider I know of that doesn't charge you after one month or hit you with "transaction fees".
  • Excellent video tutorial library so you can learn email marketing as a beginner without feeling overwhelmed.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
  • Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable.
  • Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post.
  • Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers.
Read full review
Cons
Mailerlite
  • EVERYONE should be allowed to at least use the AI bot chat feature. This doesn't take a person and is such basic customer service that it should be offered at all levels.
  • It would be nice if MailerLite worked better with AddEvent icons
  • When emailing support it took days to get a response (after an agent escalated the issue). Some concerns are more urgent and email support shouldn't mean bad support.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
  • editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options
  • integrate with google analytics
  • percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling.
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Likelihood to Renew
Mailerlite
Mailerlite is awesome and it does everything I need and then some. They're always innovating and adding new features, and their team is flippin' amazing. Can't see myself ever switching. They may not have everything, but looking at how well their team works, they'll get there for sure and I'm willing to wait.
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Substack Inc.
No answers on this topic
Usability
Mailerlite
I find it very easy to use, intuitive with a clean interface and drag and drop functionality where that adds value. It's quite configurable for our brand and the template and duplication options are very useful as we reuse a lot of content.
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Substack Inc.
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Mailerlite
Whenever I contact Support, either via email or through online chat, I always get a speedy response that gives me the answer I need. The AI Agent on the online chat is excellent and has helped me so much on numerous occasions.
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Substack Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Mailerlite
MailerLite has similar features to the tools mentioned above. The main advantage is that it is very complete in its free version. This is ideal for those who are starting out and want to try a complete email marketing platform.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
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Return on Investment
Mailerlite
  • Gives us the ability to track the popularity of content in our email as well as who has read the content.
  • The customizable layout gives us the opportunity to be creative and have our culture shine through our company communication.
  • The ability to see who has un-subscribed helps our HR department to see who isn't receiving important company information so we can ask them to re-subscribe.
  • Helps our company to be more transparent and communicate more effectively.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
  • I haven’t made any money from it
  • Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience
Read full review
ScreenShots

MailerLite Screenshots

Screenshot of reports, that can include unsubscribe count, spam complaints, bounces, link activity and other metrics that are critical to measuring success.Screenshot of automations for every subscriber journeyScreenshot of the MailerLite landing page builderScreenshot of an example newsletterScreenshot of some of the over 150 templates availableScreenshot of where to find MailerLite's integrations