Newsletter platform true cost calculator

Plan price at your list size + the platform's cut of paid revenue + Stripe card fees. Six platforms, one number each. Prices last checked 2026-10-19.

1,000 subscribers · 50 paying · gross $400.00/month ($4,800.00/year) · platform billed yearly

Disclosure: links to platforms go through /go/ redirects. Some may become affiliate links, which would pay us a commission at no cost to you. That never changes the numbers or the order of results. Full disclosure.

Estimated monthly and yearly cost per platform, cheapest first
Platform	Plan at this size	Plan / month	Platform fee / month	Stripe fees / month	Total cost	You keep / month	Data
Kit	Free (up to 10,000)	$0.00	$2.40	$26.60	$29.00/mo $348.00/yr	$371.00	Verified 2026-10-19 Details & sources All figures in this row were read on the official page. Sources: kit.com, help.kit.com Visit Kit (opens in a new tab)
MailerLite	Comfort (up to 1,000)	$17.10	$0.00	$26.60	$43.70/mo $524.40/yr	$356.30	Has unverified figures Details & sources Plan price at this list size comes from a third-party source and is not yet confirmed on the official pricing page. Yearly price derived from the month-to-month price minus 10% yearly discount. Platform fee on paid revenue is not explicitly stated on the official site. Sources: emailoctopus.com, emailforbeginners.com Visit MailerLite (opens in a new tab)
Buttondown	Standard (up to 1,000)	$9.00 + $9.00 paid add-on	$0.00	$26.60	$44.60/mo $535.20/yr	$355.40	Has unverified figures Details & sources Plan price at this list size comes from a third-party source and is not yet confirmed on the official pricing page. No yearly-billing price found; month-to-month price used. Platform fee on paid revenue is not explicitly stated on the official site. Sources: buttondown.com, sequenzy.com Visit Buttondown (opens in a new tab)
Ghost (Pro)	Publisher (up to 1,000)	$29.00	$0.00	$26.60	$55.60/mo $667.20/yr	$344.40	Verified 2026-10-19 Details & sources All figures in this row were read on the official page. Sources: ghost.org, ghost.org, luxethemes.com Visit Ghost (Pro) (opens in a new tab)
Substack	Substack (no plan fee)	$0.00	$40.00	$26.60	$66.60/mo $799.20/yr	$333.40	Verified 2026-10-19 Details & sources All figures in this row were read on the official page. Sources: support.substack.com Visit Substack (opens in a new tab)
beehiiv	Lite (up to 1,000)	$49.00	$0.00	$26.60	$75.60/mo $907.20/yr	$324.40	Verified 2026-10-19 Details & sources All figures in this row were read on the official page. Sources: beehiiv.com, beehiiv.com Visit beehiiv (opens in a new tab)

Sorted by total monthly cost, cheapest first. The order is computed only from the numbers, never from whether a platform pays us. “Yearly” plan prices are shown as a monthly equivalent. Payment processing assumes US cards charged monthly at 2.9% + $0.30 (Stripe's standard rate). Taxes, international cards, add-ons and your own time are not included. Full methodology.

What the columns mean

Plan / month: The cheapest self-serve plan that fits your list size and, if you have paying readers, supports paid subscriptions. Buttondown adds its $9/month paid-subscriptions add-on.
Platform fee: The platform's percentage of your paid revenue: Substack 10%, Kit 0.6% (Kit's 3.5% + 30¢ includes card processing), and 0% for beehiiv, Ghost, Buttondown and MailerLite.
Stripe fees: Stripe's per-charge fee on every paying subscriber, every month: price × 2.9% + $0.30.
You keep: Gross subscription revenue minus every cost above. Negative means the newsletter costs you money.
Verified / unverified: “Verified” means every figure in that row was read on the platform's own page on the date shown. Many platforms only show tier prices inside an interactive slider; where we could not read it, we used a dated third-party source and say so.