Switching from MailerLite to Holder

MailerLite exports only the columns you can see on screen at the moment you press the button. Set your columns first and this takes twenty minutes; press export straight away and you'll get a thin file and won't notice until later.

What comes with you

• Contacts: yes. Email addresses, names and every custom field you've created — as long as you set the columns first.
• Consent status: yes. Unsubscribed stays unsubscribed, with the unsubscribe date. Holder keeps a permanent suppression list and checks it at every send.
• History: no. Opens and clicks stay in MailerLite. They aren't in the subscriber export.

Export from MailerLite

Do this once for each status. There is no single file with everyone in it.

• Go to Subscribers
• Click Set columns and switch on every field you want. The export only includes the columns visible on the list at the time of exporting, and this is the step that quietly loses people's custom fields
• Use the status drop-down to choose Active
• Select all subscribers, not just the ones on the current page
• Click Actions > Export CSV
• Repeat for Unsubscribed, Bounced, Unconfirmed and Spam complaints

Take all five. The unsubscribed file carries the unsubscribe date, which is the record you want if anyone ever queries why they stopped hearing from you.

If your groups carry real meaning — a workshop list, a client list — export each group separately as well, so the structure survives as tags rather than being flattened into one list.

Import to Holder

• Upload all the files. A CSV is all we need, and date formats are normalised on import
• Read the column mapping check, and make sure the status column is mapped. That is the one carrying consent
• Combining this with a booking list or another audience: the merge preview matches on email address and shows you the difference field by field before anything is written
• Duplicates are flagged side by side. If one record says unsubscribed and the other says active, the person stays unsubscribed

What Holder rebuilds rather than imports

• Sign-up forms and sequences
• Booking pages, session types, availability and packs, which MailerLite never had
• Under an hour for a working sign-up form and a welcome sequence

What doesn't come with you

• Automations. No export exists. Note down the triggers and delays before you close the account
• Segment rules. Only the contacts export, not the logic that defined them. Write the rules down
• Forms and landing pages. These stay with MailerLite. Screenshot anything you want to reproduce
• Engagement data. No opens, no clicks, no engagement scoring
• Sites and e-commerce. If you built a MailerLite site or sell through it, that is a separate move and none of it comes across

The last step

• Repoint every sign-up form and list link: website footer, link in bio, anything embedded elsewhere
• Send a test to yourself
• Take one address you know unsubscribed in MailerLite and confirm Holder is suppressing it. Do this before your first real send

Deep history imports are a paid one-off service, not part of a trial or a plan. If you want one, send us your export before you start a trial: we'll quote you for it, and tell you honestly what will and won't come with you either way.