Picking a newsletter platform used to be simple: Substack if you wrote, ConvertKit if you sold things. In 2026 the lines have blurred. Beehiiv added an ad network and automations, ConvertKit renamed itself Kit and made its free plan huge, and Substack turned into an app with its own social feed. They now compete for the same people, and the price differences at 10,000 subscribers are large.
Our verdict: beehiiv is the best newsletter platform for most people building a newsletter as a business in 2026. It takes 0% of paid subscriptions, has a built-in ad network and paid recommendations, and gives you a real API and webhooks. Kit is the better pick if you sell courses or digital products, and its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. Substack is still the easiest free start for writers, but its 10% cut gets expensive once paid subscriptions take off.
The Short Version
Best overall: beehiiv. 0% cut of paid subscriptions, an ad network, paid recommendations and webhooks. Free up to 2,500 subscribers, Lite from $49 a month billed yearly.
Best for selling products and automations: Kit. Free up to 10,000 subscribers, visual automations from $33 a month billed yearly.
Best free start for writers: Substack. No monthly fee and built-in discovery, but it keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue.
Best for full ownership: Ghost, which is open source and can run on your own server. Best minimal option: Buttondown, free for your first 100 subscribers.
Prices at a glance
Prices checked October 15, 2026, on each company's own pricing page.
| Platform | Free plan | At 1,000 subscribers | At 10,000 subscribers | Cut of paid subs | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | Up to 2,500 | Lite $49/mo yearly ($59 monthly) | Lite $119/mo yearly ($139 monthly) | 0% (Stripe fees apply) | Paid plans |
| Kit | Up to 10,000 | Creator $33/mo yearly ($39 monthly) | $0 on Free, under 10,000 | 3.5% + 30c, card fees included | Landing pages |
| Substack | Free, no subscriber cap | $0 | $0 | 10% plus Stripe fees | $50 one-time |
| Ghost(Pro) | Self-host only | Publisher $29/mo yearly | Not listed | 0% on Publisher and up | Free on all plans |
| Buttondown | First 100 | Not listed | Not listed | Paid subs are a $9/mo add-on | Sending included, archive $29/mo add-on |
beehiiv: the best platform for a newsletter business
beehiiv is built around running a newsletter as a business. The free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and already includes the recommendation network and API access. Lite starts at $49 a month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers and rises to $119 a month at 10,000. Pro is $95 a month at 1,000 and $199 at 10,000, billed yearly.
The money tools are the reason to pick it. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue, so you only pay Stripe's 2.9% plus 30 cents. Lite and up add the beehiiv ad network, which places sponsors in your issues, and paid recommendations (formerly called Boosts), where other newsletters pay you for each subscriber you send them, or you pay them to grow.
For builders, Lite includes three webhooks and Pro has unlimited. Lite gets 10 live custom automations; Pro removes the limit and adds click-triggered automations. Exporting your list is a few clicks in Settings, with a quick or full CSV that includes custom fields.
The catch: the free plan has no automations or webhooks, and the ad network and paid recommendations aren't available on trials or in every region. At 10,000 subscribers you're paying well over $1,000 a year.
Kit: the best for creators who sell
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is an email marketing tool for creators first and a newsletter host second. Its free plan is the most generous here: up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, tagging, A/B tests on broadcasts, API access and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions.
What Free leaves out is automation. Visual automations, email sequences and RSS campaigns need Creator, which is $33 a month billed yearly ($390 a year) or $39 monthly for 1,000 subscribers. Pro is listed at $66 a month billed yearly, with a first-year promo price of $50. Kit's visual automation builder is the most mature of the three, and it can send webhooks from inside an automation.
Kit charges 3.5% plus 30 cents on product and subscription sales, and that figure includes card processing. Its Creator Network handles free recommendations on every plan, while earning from paid recommendations needs a paid plan and carries a 23.5% fee. Exporting all subscribers as a CSV, with tags and custom fields, is built in.
The catch: Kit's pricing page only shows the 1,000-subscriber price, so you have to check what Creator costs at your list size. And the hosted newsletter website is thinner than beehiiv's or Substack's.
Substack: the easiest free start
Substack costs nothing until you earn. There's no monthly fee and no subscriber cap, and your posts live inside the Substack app, where readers find new writers through recommendations and the feed. For a writer starting from zero, that built-in discovery is worth a lot.
The price shows up when you go paid. Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue, and Stripe takes 2.9% plus 30 cents per card payment plus a 0.7% recurring billing fee on top. At $5,000 a month in subscriptions, that's $500 a month to Substack alone, more than beehiiv Pro costs at 10,000 subscribers. A custom domain is a one-time $50 fee.
You do own your list. Substack lets you export subscribers as a CSV and download a full zip of posts, subscribers and stats from Settings. It offers welcome emails and simple onboarding emails for new subscribers.
The catch: Substack doesn't document a public API or webhooks, its automations are basic, and the 10% cut never goes away. It's a great place to start and an expensive place to scale.
What about Ghost and Buttondown?
Ghost is the pick if you want to own the whole stack. It's open source, so you can run it on your own server, which Ghost's docs say starts at about $10 a month for hosting plus around $15 a month for newsletter email delivery. If you'd rather not manage a server, Ghost(Pro) Publisher is $29 a month billed yearly for 1,000 members, takes 0% of paid subscriptions and includes a free custom domain. The Starter plan, at $18 a month, doesn't support paid subscriptions. If you go the self-hosted route, our VPS guide covers where to run it.
Buttondown is a small, Markdown-friendly tool popular with developers. It's free for your first 100 subscribers and includes sending from your own domain. Paid subscriptions, tagging and analytics are a $9 a month add-on, and automations plus archives on a custom domain are $29 a month. It doesn't have an ad network or a discovery network like the big three.
How to choose
- You plan to earn from ads and paid subscriptions: beehiiv. The 0% cut and ad network pay for the plan quickly.
- You sell courses, templates or coaching: Kit. Its automations and free plan up to 10,000 subscribers fit a product business.
- You just want to write and be found: Substack. Start free and move later if the 10% starts to hurt.
- You want full control of your data and site: Ghost, self-hosted or on Ghost(Pro).
- You need webhooks and an API today: beehiiv Lite or Kit. Substack doesn't document either.
The verdict
beehiiv is the best newsletter platform for most people in 2026. It's the only one of the big three that combines a 0% cut of paid subscriptions, a built-in ad network, paid recommendations, webhooks and a solid API in one place.
Choose Kit if your newsletter sells products, since its automations are the best here and its free plan lasts until 10,000 subscribers. Choose Substack if you want to start writing for free today, and Ghost if owning every piece matters most. Whatever you pick, export your list regularly; all three let you.
FAQ
Is beehiiv better than Substack?
For a newsletter you plan to monetize, yes. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue, has an ad network and offers webhooks and an API, while Substack keeps 10% of paid revenue and doesn't document a public API. Substack is better if you want a free start and its built-in reader discovery.
Is Kit better than beehiiv?
Kit is better for creators who sell digital products and need detailed automations, and its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers versus beehiiv's 2,500. beehiiv is better for ad-supported and paid newsletters, with a 0% subscription cut and a built-in ad network.
How much does Substack take from paid subscriptions?
Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue. Stripe also charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per card payment and a 0.7% recurring billing fee. Free newsletters on Substack cost nothing.
What is the best free newsletter platform?
Kit has the largest free plan, covering up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, but no automations. Substack is free with no subscriber cap until you charge for subscriptions, and beehiiv's free plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers.
Can I move my subscribers if I switch platforms?
Yes. beehiiv, Kit and Substack all let you export your subscriber list as a CSV from the dashboard, and Substack also offers a full zip export of posts and stats.