How much of your paid newsletter do you actually keep?
Substack takes 10% of every paid subscription. beehiiv, Ghost, Kit and Buttondown charge a flat monthly fee instead. Enter your numbers to see which costs you less, and by how much each year.
Annual plans
| Platform | Plan fees / yr | Cut + card fees / yr | You keep / yr | vs Substack |
|---|
Prices checked . Highlighted row keeps you the most. Figures marked ≤ are upper bounds.
When does a flat fee beat Substack's 10%?
The short version: under a few hundred dollars a month in paid revenue, Substack's 10% is usually cheaper than any flat plan. Past that point every extra dollar you earn costs you 10 cents on Substack and nothing extra elsewhere, so the gap widens fast as you grow.
Numbers say move? The Newsletter Switch Kit is the step-by-step checklist for doing it without losing paying subscribers or inbox placement.
$19 one-time. Checkout opens early November; join the list for launch.
What this leaves out
Money is only one part of the choice. Substack's network and app send many writers new readers, which a flat-fee platform will not do for you. beehiiv has its own ad network and referral tools; Ghost gives you a full website; Kit is strongest at email automation and selling products; Buttondown is the simplest and cheapest for small lists. If Substack's discovery brings you a meaningful share of new paid readers, count that before you move.
How the numbers work
- Revenue: paying readers × price. Annual payers pay 12 months less your annual discount.
- Card fees: Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30c per charge on every platform except Kit, whose commerce fee is about 3.5% + 30c. Annual payers are charged once a year, so they cost less in fixed fees.
- Plan fees: the cheapest plan on each platform that allows paid subscriptions at your list size. beehiiv and Ghost use annual-billing prices; Kit uses monthly prices (about 16% less if billed yearly); Buttondown is per month.
- Not included: taxes, currency conversion, Stripe Billing or app-store fees, add-ons, and introductory discounts.
Prices change. beehiiv raised its prices for new customers on 1 October 2026. Always confirm on the vendor's own pricing page before you switch. This page is an estimate, not financial or tax advice.
Sources
- Substack fees: SchoolMaker, Substack pricing 2026
- beehiiv: EmailOctopus price-change table, beehiiv's own pricing guide
- Ghost: ghost.org/pricing, Typeflo tier table
- Kit: EmailVendorSelection, Kit pricing (Aug 2026)
- Buttondown: Toolradar, verified Oct 2026