Move from MailerLite
Export your MailerLite subscribers by status, bring unsubscribes, bounces and complaints across, move your email designs and rebuild your automations.
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This page takes you from MailerLite to a working IGSendMail account. Subscribers and suppressions take about 20 minutes. Email designs and automations take longer, depending on how many you have. The steps are for the current MailerLite; MailerLite Classic accounts have different screens.
Stuck on a step?
Reply to the email this guide came in, or write to us from the contact page. We answer migration questions by email, usually within a working day.
Do it in this order
Set up your sending domain first, because DNS changes can take a few hours. Keep MailerLite running until your first IGSendMail campaign has gone out, so there's never a gap.
What comes across, and what doesn't#
| From MailerLite | How it moves | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Active subscribers, fields and groups | Export a CSV, import it into a list | Minutes |
| Unsubscribed, bounced and spam-complaint subscribers | Export each status, import into your Blacklist | Minutes |
| Email designs | MailerLite doesn't export HTML; paste your own HTML or rebuild | 15 to 60 minutes each |
| Automations | Can't be exported; rebuild each one | 20 to 60 minutes each |
Step 1: Set up your sending domain#
Go to Sending domains, add the domain you send from, and publish the DNS records it shows you. Authenticate your domain walks through each record.
MailerLite had you add a DKIM record, an SPF record and a verification record (under Account settings > Domains). Your domain may only have one SPF record, so add our include to the existing record rather than creating a second one. Once MailerLite has sent its last email, remove its records and its part of the SPF record. Keep your DMARC record.
Step 2: Export your subscribers#
You need to be an account administrator to export. MailerLite exports the columns shown on screen, so set those up first.
Show the columns you want
Go to Subscribers. Choose Set columns and add every field you want to keep, plus Groups.
Select everyone and export
Make sure the dropdown shows Active subscribers. Use the arrow next to the Subscriber column to select the whole list, then choose Actions and export as CSV file.
Export the other statuses
Change the dropdown to Unsubscribed and export again. Do the same for Bounced and for subscribers who sent spam complaints. You'll use these three files in step 4.
Step 3: Import your subscribers#
Create the list and its fields
Go to Lists and create a list. Add a field under ListsFields for each field you exported, and a text field called Groups.
Import and map
Import the active file and map each column to its field. Map Groups to your Groups field and you can build segments on it, for example "Groups contains Customers". Import contacts covers the mapping screen and the import summary.
Plan size
The Free plan holds 2,500 contacts. Every paid plan has unlimited contacts, so if your list is bigger than that, choose a paid plan before you import.
Step 4: Bring your suppressions across#
Go to Blacklist and import the unsubscribed, bounced and spam complaint files one at a time. The Blacklist import reads the email address from the first column, so move the email column to the front first if it isn't there already.
Don't skip this. Emailing someone who unsubscribed from you on MailerLite earns spam complaints and may break the law, and emailing addresses that bounced damages your sender reputation. Blacklisted addresses are never emailed, from any list. Blacklist and suppression explains how it works.
Step 5: Move your email designs#
MailerLite doesn't export email HTML. Its only content export is a PDF (open a sent campaign's report, View email, then More > Save as PDF), which is useful as a reference but not as a template.
- If you built the email in MailerLite's custom HTML editor, you already have the HTML: open it, copy the code, and paste it into a new IGSendMail template using your own HTML.
- Otherwise, rebuild it in the email builder, with the PDF open beside you. Most newsletters are a header, a few content blocks and a footer, which takes about 15 minutes.
Then replace MailerLite's merge tags. {$name}, {$name|default('Friend')} and {$unsubscribe} won't work here; insert tags with the editor's personalization control, as described in Personalization tags. Check the footer has your unsubscribe link and postal address.
Step 6: Rebuild your automations#
MailerLite automations can't be exported, so each one is rebuilt by hand. Before you start, open each automation and write down (or screenshot):
- What starts it: joining a group, a date field, completing a form.
- Each email and the delay before it. Save each email as a PDF while you're there.
- Any conditions or branches.
Then build it under Automations. A MailerLite group trigger becomes a list or tag trigger here; see Triggers and timing. Build a workflow covers the editor, and Welcome series is a worked example.
Switch each automation on here only when you switch the MailerLite one off, so nobody gets the same email twice.
Step 7: Before your first send#
- Verify the list. Old lists always contain dead addresses. Run email verification before your first campaign.
- Start with your most engaged people. Your domain is new to our servers, so send to recent openers first and build up over a week or two. Warm up a new domain has a schedule.
- Replace your signup forms and pop-ups with IGSendMail forms, or new subscribers will keep landing in MailerLite.
Last updated September 25, 2026