MailerLite vs Lighthouse: Which Fits an Indie Launch? (2026)

MailerLite is a full email marketing platform with automations, a landing-page builder, transactional email, and a generous free tier up to 1,000 subscribers. Lighthouse is a launch toolkit where email is one of four pieces (waitlist landing page with survey on signup, newsletter, feedback page, REST API). They both send email, but they solve different jobs. This is the honest comparison from someone who has used both for different things.

I have shipped 7 indie apps over 8 years and ended up building two tools for myself along the way: Spaceport, a SwiftUI starter that gets a paid iOS app live in days, and Lighthouse, the launch toolkit this post is mostly about. Different audiences, same indie-dev frustration: every new project rebuilt the same pre-launch plumbing.

Table of contents

• What each tool actually is
• Side-by-side comparison
• Where MailerLite wins
• Where Lighthouse wins
• Who should pick which
• Using both together
• Frequently asked questions

What each tool actually is

MailerLite is a full email marketing platform. Drag-and-drop editor, visual automation builder, landing-page templates, embedded and pop-up signup forms, transactional email on higher tiers, and a real deliverability team behind it. Priced by list size, with a free tier up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. It is the tool most newsletter runners and small ecommerce shops start on when they outgrow a hobby list.

Lighthouse is a launch toolkit for indie SaaS founders. A waitlist landing page with survey questions on the same form, a newsletter for keeping the list warm after launch, a feedback page for once people are using your thing, and a REST API on Pro. Flat indie pricing that does not scale with list size. Built for people whose product is a SaaS or an app, where the email is one piece of a launch arc.

Side-by-side comparison

Two tools shaped for two different jobs. The matrix below is the honest version.

Where MailerLite wins

Be honest about this part. MailerLite is the right tool for a real list of jobs:

• Serious email marketing at higher volume. Once your list is a few thousand engaged subscribers, MailerLite is a mature platform with deliverability, IP reputation management, and paid support behind it. Lighthouse is built for the first thousand, not for a list of 50,000.
• The free tier up to 1,000 subscribers. If you are not sure the newsletter will stick, MailerLite lets you validate the habit before paying anything. Lighthouse charges $19 a month from day one (with a free trial, but no long-term free tier).
• Visual automations and drip sequences. A real automation builder with triggers, conditional branches, timers, and re-engagement flows. Lighthouse broadcasts to a list; it does not run multi-step drips.
• Landing-page and pop-up template library. If you need a dozen different landing pages (one per lead magnet, one per campaign), MailerLite has the template library and the drag-and-drop builder for it. Lighthouse gives you one shape (waitlist), done well.
• Transactional email in the same place. If you also need order confirmations, password resets, and receipts, MailerLite has that on the higher plans. Lighthouse does not touch transactional email.

Practical rule: if you already have a list and email marketing is the whole job, MailerLite is the honest answer.

Where Lighthouse wins

Lighthouse is the better fit when the email is one piece of an indie launch arc:

• Waitlist landing page with a goal counter. MailerLite builds signup forms and landing pages; Lighthouse builds the full pre-launch page, branded, with a visible “47 of 100 signups” counter that motivates people to share. See what to put on your waitlist landing page for the layout that converts.
• Survey questions on the signup form, as the default. Lighthouse treats the survey-on-signup pattern as the main pattern. MailerLite has custom fields, but the survey UX, the answer segmentation, and the “email people who answered X” flow are not there. See why answers beat emails for the reasoning.
• Feedback page after you launch. MailerLite is a send-email platform. Lighthouse keeps going with the feedback inbox that handles bugs, feature requests, and praise after launch, on the same dashboard. See best product feedback tools for where dedicated feedback tools fit.
• Flat indie pricing. $19 a month does not change when you cross 1,000, 3,000, or 5,000 subscribers. MailerLite's pricing steps up at each list-size band, which is fine for a growing newsletter and painful for a waitlist that pulses at launch.
• REST API shaped for SaaS onboarding. Lighthouse Pro exposes waitlist signups, survey answers, and feedback as REST endpoints your product can pull. See how to add a TestFlight beta waitlist to your iOS app for the pattern.

Who should pick which

The choice is rarely “which one is better”. It is “which job is this for”. Five founder shapes:

The established newsletter runner

You have 5,000 engaged subscribers, you send weekly, and you want automations, deliverability, and paid support. MailerLite, every time. Lighthouse is not built for a mature newsletter audience.

The pre-launch indie founder

You are weeks from beta and you need a public landing page with a signup form, survey questions on the form, and a way to email the list when you launch. Lighthouse, every time. With MailerLite you end up stitching a landing page, a signup form, and a broadcast list, and recreating the waitlist semantics (goal counter, share-lever, survey answers on the same form) by hand. See Carrd alternatives for a data-led waitlist for why the stitched route falls short.

The founder raising capital

You are raising and the bottleneck is the raise itself. Neither MailerLite nor Lighthouse is the headline tool here. Dedicated platforms like Funding Banker, a curated investor directory with pitch and outreach tracking, handle the investor side. Pick Lighthouse for the public waitlist; pick MailerLite for the monthly investor update if your list of investors is growing past what a bcc comfortably handles.

The post-launch SaaS founder

You shipped, you have customers, you want to send updates and collect feature requests. Lighthouse for the bundled flow (newsletter and feedback inbox in one dashboard). MailerLite for when you outgrow the bundled newsletter and need automations and deliverability at scale (typically once you cross a few thousand engaged subscribers).

The indie iOS developer

You want a beta waitlist with survey questions and the data flows into your iOS app for onboarding personalisation. Lighthouse on Pro. The waitlist-shaped REST API is the differentiator. MailerLite has a marketing API, but the shape of the data is subscriber-and-campaign, not waitlist-with-survey-answers; you would build the semantics yourself.

Using both together

Sometimes the right answer is both. Two patterns I have seen work:

• Lighthouse for pre-launch, MailerLite for the mature newsletter after year one. Use Lighthouse to fill the waitlist, run the launch email, and handle the first year of monthly updates and feedback. Once the list crosses a few thousand engaged subscribers and you want automations and deliverability at scale, migrate the newsletter to MailerLite.
• MailerLite for the marketing newsletter, Lighthouse for the product waitlist and feedback. You already run a MailerLite newsletter for your existing audience; you use Lighthouse for the waitlist landing page, survey answers, and feedback inbox of the new product. Two lists, two jobs, no overlap.

The fit-for-purpose rule: each tool does the job it was built for and you do not try to make one do the other.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use MailerLite for a waitlist?

You can build a landing page with a signup form and call it a waitlist. What you lose is the goal counter, the cap on signups, the survey-on-signup pattern as the default, the share-lever framing, and the “send a launch email to everyone who signed up” flow as one click. For a quick test it works; for the full launch arc it is missing the waitlist-shaped pieces.

MailerLite has custom fields. Isn't that a survey?

Different shape. Custom fields let you add extra data columns to a subscriber (city, plan, source). A survey-on-signup is a multi-question form where the answers are segmentable categories with their own analytics, and you can send a campaign to “everyone who answered X” in one click. MailerLite does the first; Lighthouse does the second as the default.

How does MailerLite's free tier really hold up?

Solid. Free up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month, with most features unlocked. Paid tiers step up in list-size bands and add automations, the landing-page builder, and support. For a mature newsletter it holds well; for a waitlist that pulses at launch (2,000 signups over a weekend), the list-size band pricing gets awkward.

Can Lighthouse send the launch email to my waitlist?

Yes. That is the second piece of the toolkit. Compose a campaign in the dashboard, pick the list (your waitlist signups), send. For the shape that converts, see how to write your first launch email.

Do I need both?

No. Most indie founders pick one. Choose by the job: a mature email marketing platform for a growing newsletter picks MailerLite; a launch toolkit with the email as one piece of the pre-launch arc picks Lighthouse. Use both only when you have clearly separate uses (existing marketing newsletter on MailerLite, product waitlist on Lighthouse).

Pick the tool that fits the actual job. If you need a full email marketing platform with automations, deliverability at scale, and a template library, MailerLite is the honest answer. If you need the launch arc (waitlist landing page, survey on signup, newsletter for the list, feedback after launch), Lighthouse covers it in one place. Most of the disappointment with either tool comes from buying it for the job it was not built for.

Lighthouse gives you the waitlist with survey questions, the newsletter for keeping the list warm, and the feedback page for after you launch, in one place. Free trial, indie pricing. From the same indie dev behind Spaceport, a SwiftUI starter kit for shipping paid iOS apps fast.