Best newsletter platforms and Substack alternatives

The best newsletter platforms compared

Here's how the 6 platforms compare on price, revenue fees and community features, as of October 2026.

The 6 best newsletter platforms

Substack

Free to publish, with a large reader network: Substack cites 5 million paid subscriptions and says "More than half of new subscribers come from Substack's built-in network." The trade-off is a 10% cut once readers pay; the lowest subscription price you can set is $5/month or $30/year.

• Free tier: free to publish, no matter how many subscribers you have.
• Paid from: no monthly fee; a custom domain is a one-time $50.
• Revenue fee: 10% to Substack, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per payment and 0.7% for recurring billing.
• Best for: writers who want discovery, comments, Notes and Chat out of the box.

beehiiv

A flat monthly fee instead of a revenue share. Lite adds paid subscriptions and ad monetization and is sold up to 100,000 subscribers; Pro covers up to 250,000.

• Free tier: up to 2,500 subscribers.
• Paid from: Lite at $49/month billed yearly ($588) or $59 month to month, priced at 1,000 subscribers; Pro at $95/month billed yearly.
• Revenue fee: 0% of paid subscription revenue; you pay only Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
• Best for: paid and ad-supported newsletters that have outgrown Substack's 10%.

Ghost

Website, newsletter and paid memberships in one open-source (MIT) package, with a custom domain on every plan. You need Publisher, not Starter, to sell subscriptions. Our Ghost vs Substack guide goes deeper.

• Free tier: free to self-host; Ghost(Pro) has a 14-day trial instead of a free plan.
• Paid from: Starter $15/month billed yearly ($18 monthly) for up to 1,000 members; Publisher $29/month billed yearly ($35 monthly) with paid subscriptions.
• Revenue fee: 0%; you pay only Stripe's processing fees (2.9% + 30 cents).
• Best for: publishers who want a real website and memberships on their own domain.

Kit

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email and landing page tool, not a publishing platform, and it has the biggest free list here among tools that charge by list size. You can sell paid newsletters and digital products on the free plan.

• Free tier: up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited emails and forms.
• Paid from: Creator at $39/month or Pro at $79/month (1,000 subscribers, billed monthly); yearly billing gives 2 months free.
• Revenue fee: 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction, which includes card processing.
• Best for: creators who sell products alongside their emails.

Buttondown

A lean newsletter tool with add-ons, so you pay only for the features you use.

• Free tier: up to 100 subscribers.
• Paid from: Basic $9/month (1,000 subscribers), Standard $29 (5,000), Professional $79 (10,000); paid subscriptions and comments are $9/month add-ons each.
• Revenue fee: 0%. Buttondown says: "Keep all of the money you make after credit card fees."
• Best for: smaller lists that want low fixed costs.

MailerLite

A budget email platform with landing pages and a website builder. Custom domains and paid newsletters need a paid plan.

• Free tier: up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month.
• Paid from: Comfort at $12/month, or $10.80/month billed annually, at 500 subscribers; Power at $25/month ($22.50 annually).
• Revenue fee: no MailerLite commission on digital products, only Stripe's fee; paid newsletters need Comfort or Power.
• Best for: small lists and digital product sellers.

beehiiv vs Substack: which costs less?

With a free newsletter or your first few paid readers, Substack costs less because there's no monthly bill. Once paid revenue is steady, the 10% catches up.

Substack's 10% equals beehiiv Lite ($49/month billed yearly) at $490 a month in paid revenue, or $5,880 a year. Against Ghost Publisher ($29/month billed yearly), the break-even is $290 a month, or $3,480 a year. Above those points, a flat plan costs less.

Example: at $2,000 a month in paid subscriptions, Substack keeps $200 a month ($2,400 a year). beehiiv Lite costs $588 a year and Ghost Publisher $348 a year at their 1,000-subscriber tiers; both prices rise as your list grows.

Note: Stripe's processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment) apply on all three platforms, so compare the platform fee, not the total.

Which platforms have comments and community?

If you want readers talking under your posts, the list gets short. Our guide to building a newsletter community covers the tactics.

• CommentCamp: free comments and community spaces for the newsletter archive on your own site, with threaded replies, member profiles, automated spam filtering and a moderation queue, at $0 for site owners and with no ads. Your newsletter tool keeps sending the email.
• Substack: comments, likes and restacks, plus the public Notes feed and subscriber Chat. Per post, you choose who can comment: everyone, free or paid subscribers, paid only, founding members or no one.
• beehiiv: post comments, but readers must subscribe to comment, plus a separate Community product.
• Ghost: native comments for members, free or paid, and you can limit them to paid members.
• Buttondown: built-in comments on your archive, as a $9/month add-on.
• Kit and MailerLite: Kit has no reader comments, and MailerLite doesn't list comments among its plan features.

Own your list and your website

Whatever you choose, export your list regularly. In Substack, Settings, then Exports, gives you a ZIP with posts, subscribers and stats, and Ghost exports members as a CSV. No website yet? Compare the best blogging platforms.

Tip: Download your subscriber CSV on a schedule. An up-to-date backup makes switching tools painless.

Your website is also where readers can talk. CommentCamp adds free comments and community spaces to it, with unlimited comments, automated spam filtering, a moderation queue and optional Q&A, reactions, member levels and quests, at $0 for site owners, forever, funded by optional member Pro instead of ads. It's in private early access and launches with an official WordPress plugin and a universal embed script; join the early-access waitlist to get an invite.

Disclosure: CommentCamp is our product.