Newsletter LedgerSubstack alternatives that cost less than the 10% fee
Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue on top of Stripe's card fees. Every platform below charges a flat plan price instead, and most take 0% of your revenue. The question is the revenue at which the flat price beats 10%, and whether you can move your paying readers without them re-subscribing. Checked .
When leaving pays off: 5,000 subscribers at $8/month
| Platform | Cheapest plan with paid subscriptions | Plan / month (billed yearly) | Platform fee | Cheaper than Substack above | Keeps paid billing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Free | $0.00 | 0.6% | Any revenue | No |
| Buttondown | Standard | $38.00 | 0% | $380.00/mo | Yes |
| MailerLite | Comfort | $44.10 | 0% | $441.00/mo | No |
| Ghost (Pro) | Publisher | $63.00 * | 0% | $630.00/mo | Yes |
| beehiiv | Lite | $95.00 | 0% | $950.00/mo | Yes |
"Cheaper than Substack above" is the monthly paid revenue at which the plan price is covered by the fee you no longer pay Substack. Stripe's card fee is the same everywhere and is left out. * = includes a figure not yet confirmed on the vendor's own page. Try your own list size and price in the Substack break-even calculator.
Disclosure: links to platforms go through /go/ redirects. Some are affiliate links (currently beehiiv and Systeme.io): if you sign up and pay, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. That never changes the numbers or the order of results. Full disclosure.
The five alternatives
Kit
- Cost: Free, $0.00/month billed yearly at 5,000 subscribers; platform fee 0.6% plus Stripe.
- Moving paid subscribers: Kit says "there is no convenient method of migrating your paid subscribers' subscriptions"; paid readers re-subscribe. Official migration guide.
- Suits: Lists under 10,000 that want $0 platform cost and can ask paid readers to re-subscribe.
Buttondown
- Cost: Standard, $38.00/month billed yearly at 5,000 subscribers; platform fee 0% plus Stripe.
- Moving paid subscribers: Connect the same Stripe account so readers do not re-enter cards; Buttondown also offers a free migration service. Official migration guide.
- Suits: Small, text-first newsletters that want a low fixed price and to keep Stripe billing.
MailerLite
- Cost: Comfort, $44.10/month billed yearly at 5,000 subscribers; platform fee 0% plus Stripe.
- Moving paid subscribers: MailerLite suggests segmenting paid readers and sending a re-subscription campaign. Official migration guide.
- Suits: Writers who also want general email marketing tools at a low price.
Ghost (Pro)
- Cost: Publisher, $63.00/month billed yearly at 5,000 subscribers; platform fee 0% plus Stripe.
- Moving paid subscribers: Use the same Stripe account that is connected to Substack; Ghost has a built-in Substack importer. Official migration guide.
- Suits: Writers who want a full website with 0% fees and existing paid subscriptions carried over.
beehiiv
- Cost: Lite, $95.00/month billed yearly at 5,000 subscribers; platform fee 0% plus Stripe.
- Moving paid subscribers: Transfer Substack's Stripe customers to the Stripe account connected to beehiiv and map tiers. Official migration guide.
- Suits: Writers who want 0% fees plus an ad network and referral program, and can pay for the Lite plan.
Moving paid subscribers safely
- Use the same Stripe account that Substack uses wherever the new platform allows it (beehiiv, Ghost, Buttondown). Readers then keep their card and billing date.
- Do not disconnect Stripe from inside Substack's dashboard: Buttondown's guide warns this cancels and refunds all paid subscriptions.
- Substack keeps taking its 10% on existing subscriptions until it removes its application fee. Ghost's and Buttondown's guides both explain asking Substack support to remove it.
- Comped, gifted and iOS app subscribers are not in Stripe and need manual handling (beehiiv's guide covers this).
Questions
Is there a free Substack alternative with paid subscriptions?
Kit's Free plan sells subscriptions at $0 up to 10,000 subscribers, with Kit taking 0.6% per payment on top of card processing. Paying readers would need to re-subscribe.
Which alternatives keep my paying subscribers' billing?
beehiiv, Ghost and Buttondown, by reusing the Stripe account connected to Substack. Kit and MailerLite need paid readers to sign up again.
We have not migrated a publication ourselves; this page summarises each platform's published prices and official migration guides. See the methodology.