Best newsletter platforms: fees, prices at your list size and AI

What each platform costs at your list size

Kit Free and Substack’s free newsletter cost nothing at 10,000 subscribers. At 50,000, beehiiv Lite is the cheapest paid plan of the three that charge by list size.

Each platform counts its list its own way. MailerLite bills active subscribers only. Unsubscribed and bounced addresses fall out of its count.

beehiiv counts unique email addresses and rounds up to its next bucket. Kit moves you up a tier automatically, but moving down is a manual request. Your own list size and send volume go into the email marketing price finder.

What each platform takes from paid subscriptions

A paid subscription is a reader paying you monthly or yearly for issues. Two costs come out of each payment: the platform’s own fee and the card processor’s fee.

Substack’s fee is a share of revenue: “10% of paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe card fees” (Substack). beehiiv lists a “0% Take Rate on Paid Subscriptions” from Lite, with Stripe’s 2.9% plus $0.30 per payment on top (beehiiv pricing).

Kit charges 3.5% plus $0.30 a sale, and calls that “the only cost of selling through Kit” (Kit help centre). MailerLite says it “takes 0% commission on your paid subscriptions” and that “Only Stripe fees apply” (MailerLite).

Here is what that means for one example: 2,500 subscribers, 100 of them paying $8 a month, so $800 a month in revenue.

Kit Free costs least in this example, since its $58 already includes card processing and every other row pays Stripe on top. Its sequences and visual automations stay locked until Creator. MailerLite’s row uses Power because its own Substack comparison prices paid newsletters on that plan. Its pricing table lists “Send paid newsletters” without readable plan ticks, so Comfort at $33 is the lower bound.

The break-even with Substack is plain arithmetic. beehiiv Lite at 2,500 costs $79, and 10% of revenue reaches that at $790 a month. Below that, Substack’s share costs less than the plan; above it, the flat plan wins.

The newsletter platforms, one by one

Kit: free to 10,000 subscribers

Kit Free covers “Up to 10,000 email subscribers” with broadcasts, forms, landing pages and A/B testing of broadcasts (Kit free plan). Automated sequences and visual automations start on Creator, $39 a month at the 1,000-subscriber step. Kit pricing shows every tier.

Growth comes from the Creator Network: Free accounts get five Smart Recommendation slots. Earning from Paid Recommendations needs a paid plan. Users praise how easy Kit is to learn (6 of 19 sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). Slow support once a billing or technical problem starts is the most cited complaint (5 of 19: Trustpilot, Trustpilot).

Best for

Solo creators and small newsletter or course businesses under 10,000 subscribers, free without automations or paid with visual automations priced by list size.

Skip it if

you need automated welcome sequences from day one: Kit Free has none, and Creator steps up with every subscriber tier.

beehiiv: subscriptions and ads at a 0% take rate

beehiiv’s Free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends and a website. Paid subscriptions, the Ad Network, the referral programme and paid recommendations all start on Lite, $59 a month up to 1,000 subscribers (beehiiv pricing).

The card shows yearly billing, so its figures sit below the monthly prices in this list. The pricing page marks the Ad Network “not in trial; not in all regions”. beehiiv pricing prices every list size.

The free Recommendation Network brings readers too. Three users in one r/Newsletters thread say recommendations give passive growth once set up (r/Newsletters). Other threads call ad network pay hard to estimate (3 of 19: r/Newsletters, r/Newsletters).

Best for

Newsletter publishers who want a site, paid subscriptions and the ad network in one tool, with under 2,500 subscribers or ready to pay Lite prices.

Skip it if

your list passes 2,500 before it earns: Lite’s price climbs with each subscriber bucket, while Kit Free costs nothing up to 10,000.

Substack: no bill until readers pay

Substack has no monthly plan. A free newsletter costs nothing at any size, and the 10% fee starts with the first paid subscriber.

The network is what writers come for. Restacks and recommendations reach readers outside your own list (3 of 19: r/Newsletters, Trustpilot).

The largest complaint group is readers signed up without their consent (5 of 19: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). Publications suspended without a clear reason sit among the complaints too (3 of 19: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). beehiiv vs Substack sets the two side by side.

Best for

Writers wanting readers to find them in Substack’s network and earning from paid subscriptions, so the 10% fee applies only when money comes in.

Skip it if

your paid revenue passes the break-even above: from there, Substack’s 10% costs more each month than beehiiv Lite’s flat plan.

MailerLite: the cheapest paid plan with AI writing

MailerLite’s Comfort plan costs $12 a month for 500 subscribers and adds the AI writing assistant and smart sending (MailerLite pricing).

The card shows yearly billing; the monthly price above is higher. Free stops at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. MailerLite has no recommendation network or ad network among the features on its pricing page.

MailerLite has two public reviews in our set, too few to show a pattern. Kit vs MailerLite compares the two plan by plan.

Best for

Small lists that want automations, landing pages and AI drafting at a low entry price: Comfort starts at $12 a month for 500 subscribers.

Skip it if

you want AI drafts kept out of model training: MailerLite’s terms 17.3 license it to use AI inputs and outputs to improve AI models.

Ghost: no transaction fee from Publisher, priced by members

Ghost sells hosted plans billed yearly, priced by members. At 1,000 members, billed yearly, Starter costs $18 a month and Publisher $29 a month (Ghost pricing).

Paid subscriptions start on Publisher, and Ghost takes no transaction fee there: “Payment processor fees still apply.” Starter has no paid subscriptions. The pricing page shows no price above 1,000 members and names no AI features.

What the AI writers in these tools do

An AI newsletter generator drafts an issue, rewrites a paragraph or suggests a subject line inside the editor. In these platforms it is a plan feature, so the plan decides whether you get it.

beehiiv puts its AI in the editor from Lite; Free has limited AI usage and no in-editor AI. MailerLite’s writing assistant needs Comfort, and its subject line generator is limited on Free.

Kit’s AI page describes a subject line generator and tester in the broadcast editor but names no plan. Kit’s AI Connectors let ChatGPT or Claude act on your account from Creator (Kit MCP).

Substack’s terms say it “may offer” generative AI tools; its going-paid page and terms name no writing feature or plan. Ghost’s pricing page lists none. AI features in email tools sets these plans beside the general email platforms.

Does your newsletter platform train AI on your issues?

Kit gives the clearest answer. Its help centre says “Kit itself does not train any AI/LLM on Kit data”. The line sits in an FAQ, and the terms say nothing on training. MailerLite’s terms 17.3 grant it a licence “to use your Inputs and Outputs to improve AI models”.

beehiiv’s terms do not mention training, and its pricing page lists “No-training / zero-retention” in the Enterprise column only. Substack’s terms say its AI services run through third-party providers and name no training rule. Does your email tool train AI? reads the same clauses for every email platform.

Left out, and why

Buttondown, Flodesk, Patreon and Medium also host paid writing or newsletters. They have no row in our email price data. Mailchimp and Brevo appear on the general AI email marketing list.

Every AI email marketing page, sorted by job, is in the AI email marketing hub →