AWeber vs MailerLite: Free Plans, Prices and Affiliate Rules

AWeber vs MailerLite: the short answer

AWeber vs MailerLite comes down to three checks: free-plan limits, price at your list size, and each provider's rules on affiliate content. AWeber Free covers up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 sends a month ^[2]; MailerLite Free covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails ^[3]. MailerLite's help center lists affiliate marketing among content it does not permit ^[4].

That last line is the one most comparison posts skip. If your plan is to build a list and recommend tools inside it, a provider's content policy is not a footnote — it is the deciding fact. The rest of this article gives you the numbers, the gaps in the public documentation, and a written-question template so you are not guessing from a forum thread.

Both vendors publish their plans and limits on their own sites, and this article uses those pages rather than memory: AWeber's pricing page and its "How much does AWeber cost?" help article ^[1][2], and MailerLite's pricing page and prohibited-content article ^[3][4]. Every figure below was checked against those pages on November 10, 2026. Where a page does not answer a question — and on AWeber's affiliate position, it does not — we say so.

One disclosure, because it is the fair way to read this: Wealth Generation Academy earns money when readers buy through some links on this site. That is exactly why each price and limit carries its source, why we show the arithmetic, and why we are willing to write "ask support" instead of filling a gap with a guess.

Free plans: the limits that actually bind

Free plans are not the same shape, and the difference matters before you import anything. AWeber Free caps subscribers at 500 and sends at 3,000 a month; AWeber describes it as lifetime access at no cost, with an upgrade optional ^[2]. MailerLite Free caps subscribers at 250 and emails at 2,500 a month, and it is one of the four plans on MailerLite's pricing page rather than a short trial ^[3].

Two mechanics deserve a sentence each. On AWeber, once you have used the monthly sends included in your plan, you can upgrade to Lite or Plus to resume sending right away ^[2]. On MailerLite Free, the subscriber cap and the email cap are separate numbers, so one can bind before the other ^[3].

Illustrative example. You have 500 subscribers and send one newsletter a week: 500 × 4 weekly sends = 2,000 emails a month. AWeber Free's 3,000-send allowance covers 2,000, and its 500-subscriber cap is exactly met ^[2]. MailerLite Free's 2,500-email allowance would also cover 2,000, but its subscriber cap is 250, so a 500-person list does not fit ^[3]. The arithmetic is simple; the trap is comparing only the email number.

Prices at 500 and 1,000 subscribers

Paid pricing is where the two vendors stop looking similar. AWeber publishes a tier table with a monthly price and an annual price for each subscriber band ^[1][2]. MailerLite publishes a starting price and prices the plan by active subscriber count and add-ons ^[3]. Read the table with your own numbers, not the headline figure.

One AWeber behaviour belongs in your budget. When you use all of the sends included in your current tier, the account automatically moves up to the next subscriber tier, which comes with more monthly sends, and your sending continues without interruption ^[2]. That protects your schedule, but it also means the amount billed can change without a checkout screen. Budget for the tier above the one you start on.

MailerLite's page does not give a flat table in the section we checked; it gives starting prices and a subscriber slider, with a note that prices may be subject to applicable taxes ^[3]. So at 1,000 subscribers you cannot read the exact bill off the marketing headline. Use the slider on their pricing page, note the date, and check it again the week you upgrade.

Illustrative example. AWeber Lite at 500 subscribers is $15 a month or $150 a year ^[1][2]. Paying monthly for 12 months comes to $180 (15 × 12), so annual billing is $30 less over the year. MailerLite Comfort starts at $12 a month; at that starting rate, 12 months would be $144 (12 × 12), but the page prices by active subscriber count, so the real figure can be higher ^[3]. Neither calculation includes taxes ^[3].

The affiliate-content rule that can decide the whole choice

This is where the comparison stops being about features. MailerLite's help center article on prohibited content lists "Affiliate marketing" among the types of content not permitted under its Terms of Use ^[4]. The same page says violations can lead to account suspension or termination ^[4].

That is not small print for an affiliate newsletter — it is the whole question. The page also lists MLM content, gambling, loans and credit products, and buying or selling email lists, and it requires senders to comply with CAN-SPAM ^[4]. Read the current page yourself and check the date printed on it, because a content policy is only useful in the version live when you sign up ^[4].

MailerLite also runs its own referral and affiliate program for people who recommend MailerLite ^[3]. That can sit alongside a content policy that restricts affiliate marketing in campaigns ^[4]: promoting a provider's partner program is not the same act as running an affiliate newsletter. If your case sits near that line, do not resolve it by assumption. Ask.

On AWeber, the two pages cited in this article — the pricing page and the cost help article — set out plans, prices and sending limits but do not state a position on affiliate content ^[1][2]. We are not going to invent one. If affiliate links are central to your newsletter, send AWeber support the written question below and read the current Terms of Use before you import a list.

The practical consequence is blunt: if every email you plan to send is built around affiliate offers, MailerLite's published list is a flag you must clear in writing before you build there ^[4]. If your list is mostly your own teaching with occasional recommendations, ask both vendors how they classify that pattern. The answer, not the feature list, should pick your tool.

How to check any provider's affiliate rules in 15 minutes

Use this on any email provider, not just these two. It takes about 15 minutes and leaves you with a dated record instead of a vague memory of a YouTube video.

1. Open the Terms of Use and the Anti-Spam Policy from the provider's own site, not from a review post.
2. Search those pages for four words: affiliate, promotional, third-party, prohibited. Read the sentences around every hit.
3. Open the help-center article on prohibited content and note its last-updated date.
4. Send the support question below, describing your exact pattern rather than asking a general "are affiliate links allowed?"
5. Save the reply as a PDF with the date, and put the review date in your content calendar.
6. Re-check quarterly and before any big promotion, because policies change.

The support message to copy

Subject: Affiliate content question before I migrate
Hi [provider] team,
I publish a [topic] newsletter to [number] subscribers. A typical email has one main lesson, one affiliate link to a tool I actually use, a clear disclosure line, and an unsubscribe link. I do not send [anything you want to rule out]. Is this pattern permitted under your Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Policy? If yes, may I keep a copy of your reply on file?
Thank you, [name]

The wording matters. "Are affiliate links allowed?" invites a one-line answer that may not cover your case. Naming the exact shape of your email — lesson, one link, disclosure, unsubscribe — gives support something specific to approve or reject, and it gives you something specific to keep.

A four-email month that keeps promotion in proportion

Once a provider confirms your pattern, the next risk is your own sending habits. A newsletter that reads like a coupon site burns trust and invites complaints, and complaints are what push a provider to review an account. The pattern below keeps promotion in proportion without pretending there is a magic ratio.

Label promotional emails in your own calendar so you can see the mix at a glance. Keep the disclosure line saved as plain text so you never have to invent it under deadline. For the wording, see our FTC affiliate disclosure examples for email. For the legal layer around promotional email, our guide to affiliate links in emails and CAN-SPAM basics walks through what providers expect on top of their own content rules.

If you are still writing the first five emails, the welcome email sequence template gives you five written out. If frequency is your worry, how often you can send affiliate emails sets out a monthly pattern you can copy.

Deliverability is the other half of staying in a provider's good books. A list that marks you as spam cannot earn anything, and our plain-English guide to SPF, DKIM, DMARC and Gmail's rules covers the setup that keeps small senders out of trouble.

Decision table: which fits your situation

Use this as a starting point, then confirm the affiliate rule in writing. "Fits" here means the published limits fit; it does not mean the provider permits your content.

Notice what the table does not do: it does not name a winner. A winner would be a guess about your list, your topic and your tolerance for asking support questions. The cheap mistake is paying for a year before you have 100 subscribers; the expensive mistake is building on a provider whose content policy rejects your core activity.

What to do this week (and what to re-check later)

Here is the short version you can act on tonight without spending anything.

1. Write down two numbers: your current subscriber count and your total sends for the last month.
2. Put both against the free-plan table above and note which cap binds first.
3. Send the support template to the provider you are leaning toward, and ask about your exact email pattern.
4. Open the paid-tier page on the vendor's own site and write today's date next to the price you would pay.
5. Set a calendar reminder to re-check the affiliate policy before your first promotion and every quarter after that.

Every price in this article came from a vendor page on November 10, 2026 ^[1][2][3]. If you are reading this months later, do not trust the numbers; check the vendor page and the last-updated line on the policy page ^[4]. For a longer look at either tool, our AWeber review and MailerLite review sit alongside those same vendor pages, and the email marketing software comparison covers the wider field.

The failure you are worried about — paying for a year of software and quitting in month two — is usually a sequence problem, not a tool problem. Pick the free plan, write ten emails you would send anyway, get the policy answer in writing, and only then pay. That sequence costs nothing to start and makes the paid decision much harder to regret.

This guide is general education. Program terms and tools change; check the linked official pages for the current version. How we write: editorial policy. This page has no affiliate links.