For a tiny list inside the Hostinger dashboard, Hostinger Reach wins on simplicity — it is free up to 100 contacts and its AI drafts your first campaign for you. But the moment you need real automation or your list starts growing, MailerLite is the better tool: its Comfort plan starts at $12/mo for 500 subscribers with genuine automation, while Reach is still a single-campaign sender. Brevo beats both on price if your list is large but you email it rarely.
Decision table: Reach vs MailerLite vs Brevo
| Hostinger Reach | MailerLite | Brevo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 100 contacts, 200 emails/mo | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/mo | 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts |
| Entry paid price | Paid tiers scale by recipient count (see product page) | Comfort from $12/mo — 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails (checked Oct 9, 2026) | Starter $9/mo — 5,000 emails/mo (checked Oct 4, 2026) |
| Automation | Single AI-generated campaigns; no drip sequences yet | 50 automations on Comfort, unlimited on Power | None on Starter; full automation from Standard $18/mo |
| AI features | AI campaign generation, subject lines, send-time optimization on every plan | AI writing assistant and subject-line generator (paid plans) | AI email generation and segmentation |
| Billing model | By recipient count | By subscriber count | By emails sent — contacts unlimited |
| Best for | First newsletter, tiny list, Hostinger users | Creators and small businesses wanting automation cheap | Large lists emailed infrequently |
All competitor prices above are list prices for monthly USD billing, verified against the sources named in October 2026. MailerLite offers 10% off annual billing; Brevo’s annual equivalent runs about 10% below monthly.
What Hostinger Reach actually is
Reach is Hostinger’s email marketing tool, built for people who have never run a campaign. It lives inside the Hostinger dashboard — no second account, no DNS verification on another platform, no new bill from a new vendor. The free tier covers 100 contacts and 200 emails a month, which is genuinely enough for a first newsletter to friends, early customers, or a waitlist.
Its signature feature is AI campaign generation: describe your business in a prompt and Reach drafts the subject line, body copy, and layout. For a first-time sender, the blank-page problem is the real obstacle, and this solves it. It also handles smart send-time optimization, spam checks before sending, and automatic unsubscribe/GDPR/CAN-SPAM compliance.
The honest limitation: as of 2026, Reach is a single-campaign sender. It does not do drip sequences, welcome series that adapt to clicks, or abandoned-cart flows. If your marketing brain already thinks in automations, Reach will feel like a bicycle when you need a car.
What MailerLite gives you for $12/mo
MailerLite’s Comfort plan — from $12/mo for 500 subscribers with 5,000 emails (checked Oct 9, 2026) — is the price-performance pick for most small businesses, and the comparison with Reach is not close once you look past the free tier:
- Real automation: 50 active automations on Comfort — welcome sequences, re-engagement flows, click-triggered follow-ups. This is the single biggest functional gap vs Reach.
- A proper editor: drag-and-drop builder plus newsletter templates, landing pages, signup forms, and pop-ups. Reach’s editor is fine; MailerLite’s is a professional tool.
- Segmentation and dynamic content: send different content to different subscriber groups without manual list-splitting.
- Room to grow: the pricing ladder runs smoothly to 200,000 subscribers, so you are not forced into a painful migration at 5,000 contacts.
The catch, and it is worth naming: MailerLite cut its free plan twice — from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025, then to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month in 2026. The free tier is now smaller than Brevo’s and barely bigger than Reach’s. MailerLite’s value is in the paid plans, not the free one.
Where Brevo beats them both
Brevo bills by emails sent, not contacts stored — and that single difference makes it dramatically cheaper for one common pattern: a large list you email rarely. A quarterly product update to 20,000 contacts costs almost nothing on Brevo’s send-based pricing ($9/mo Starter covers 5,000 emails; scale the tier to your send volume), while MailerLite would charge you per subscriber every month regardless of how often you mail them.
Brevo’s free plan is also the most generous for send volume: 300 emails/day with up to 100,000 contacts. The trade-offs: no automation on Starter (you need Standard at $18/mo, checked Oct 4, 2026), and removing the Brevo logo from emails costs extra on the entry tier. Read our Reach vs Mailchimp comparison for the full four-way breakdown.
Cost at three list sizes
| List size | Hostinger Reach | MailerLite Comfort | Brevo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 contacts | Free | Free (within 250-subscriber limit) | Free (within 300/day) |
| 500 subscribers | Paid tier (by recipient count) | $12/mo (checked Oct 9, 2026) | $9/mo Starter for 5,000 emails (checked Oct 4, 2026) |
| 5,000 subscribers, 1 email/mo | Paid tier (by recipient count) | $49/mo (checked Oct 9, 2026) | $9–$29/mo depending on send volume — the send-based model wins here |
The pattern: at small sizes everyone is cheap or free, and convenience (Reach, inside your hosting dashboard) is a legitimate tiebreaker. As the list grows, the billing model matters more than the headline price — contact-based pricing punishes growth, send-based pricing punishes frequency. Know which one you are.
The hidden costs nobody puts in the headline
Three line items routinely surprise first-time buyers. Logo removal: Brevo’s Starter keeps its branding in your footer unless you pay for the removal add-on (about $12/mo, checked Oct 2026) — which makes a “real” Starter cost the same as Standard at the entry tier. MailerLite includes logo removal on all paid plans; Reach has no third-party branding issue to begin with. Extra users: MailerLite’s free plan allows 2 seats and Comfort allows 3; Brevo’s Starter is single-user. If two people run your newsletter, check the seat math before the subscriber math. Overages: MailerLite caps Comfort sends at 10x your subscriber tier — exceed it regularly and you are on Power (from $25/mo) whether you planned to be or not. The cheapest plan is only cheap if you stay inside its fences.
Who should pick which
Pick Hostinger Reach if you host with Hostinger, your list is under ~100 people, and you have never sent a campaign. The AI generation removes the blank-page block, and $0 is the right price for an experiment. Revisit the decision when you outgrow the free tier — at that point you are choosing a paid email tool anyway, so choose the best one.
Pick MailerLite if you are a creator, blogger, or small business that wants a clean editor, real automation, and the lowest bill among the contact-priced tools. Comfort at $12/mo is the sweet spot for lists from a few hundred to a few thousand engaged subscribers.
Pick Brevo if your list is large but your sending is light — newsletters a few times a year, product announcements, event invites. Also pick it if you want transactional email, SMS, and a basic CRM in the same account; neither Reach nor MailerLite bundles those.
And if the worry is deliverability rather than the tool: campaigns sent from a proper mailbox on your own domain perform better than anything sent from a free address. Our Business Email guide covers professional mailboxes, and the email hosting roundup compares the mailbox side of the equation.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hostinger Reach really free?
Yes, with limits: 100 contacts and 200 emails per month on the free tier. Paid tiers scale by recipient count. It is a genuine free plan, not a trial — but the ceiling is low by design.
Does Hostinger Reach do email automation?
Not yet, as of 2026. Reach focuses on single AI-generated campaigns — no drip sequences, welcome series, or abandoned-cart flows. If automation is the requirement, MailerLite (from $12/mo) or Brevo Standard ($18/mo) is the honest pick.
Why is MailerLite’s free plan so small now?
MailerLite cut the free plan from 1,000 subscribers to 500 in September 2025, then to 250 subscribers / 2,500 emails per month in 2026. The paid Comfort plan still starts at $12/mo (checked Oct 9, 2026), so the value moved to the paid tiers.
MailerLite vs Brevo: which is cheaper?
It depends on your sending pattern. MailerLite bills per subscriber (Comfort from $12/mo for 500); Brevo bills per email sent (Starter $9/mo for 5,000 emails, checked Oct 2026). Large list + rare sends = Brevo wins. Small list + frequent sends = MailerLite wins.
Can I migrate my list from Reach to MailerLite later?
Yes — both import contacts via CSV, and switching costs are low at small list sizes. The natural moment to move is when Reach’s free tier no longer covers you or you need automation Reach cannot do. Export early and keep a backup regardless.
Do I need a custom domain to use these tools?
You do not need one to start, but you should get one before sending anything serious — campaigns from your own domain land in inboxes far more reliably than anything sent from a free address. A .com costs $0.01 for the first year on Hostinger ($19.99/yr renewal, checked Oct 8, 2026).