Starting a paid newsletter comes down to where you host it, what you charge and which issues you keep free. Substack is the easiest place to start because it costs nothing until you earn, then keeps 10% of subscription revenue plus Stripe fees. Kit’s free plan charges an all-in 3.5% + $0.30 per payment, and beehiiv and Ghost take 0% and charge a monthly plan, so all three keep you more money once you have readers.
The rest of this guide covers each decision in order, with prices as of October 2026. Worked examples are arithmetic on published fees, not results from real newsletters.
Which platform should you use for a paid newsletter?
Pick Substack if you are starting from zero and want its reader network. Pick Kit if you can bring your own readers and want the lowest fees below 10,000 subscribers, and beehiiv or Ghost if you want a full website and newsletter business on a flat monthly price.
| Platform | Platform fee | Cheapest plan that sells subscriptions | Card processing | You keep from 100 payments of $10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | 3.5% + $0.30 per payment in USD | Free plan, up to 10,000 subscribers | Included in Kit’s fee | $935 |
| Ghost | 0% | Publisher, $35 monthly or $29 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 members | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% Stripe Billing | $899 |
| beehiiv | 0% | Lite, $59 monthly or $49 a month billed yearly, for 1,000 subscribers | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% Stripe Billing | $875 |
| Substack | 10% | Free | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% Stripe Billing | $834 |
The last column is arithmetic on published fees from our platform reviews, using the monthly price of the cheapest plan that can take payments.
beehiiv’s free plan holds up to 2,500 subscribers but cannot sell paid subscriptions. Ghost’s Starter plan cannot either, so Publisher is the real entry point on Ghost. Ghost’s software is open source under the MIT license, so a technical writer can self-host it and pay only for hosting and Stripe.
Plan prices on beehiiv, Ghost and Kit rise as your list grows, so check the tier for your actual subscriber count. For full fee breakdowns, see our Substack vs beehiiv, Substack vs Ghost and beehiiv vs Kit comparisons.
When does a 0% platform beat Substack?
A flat-fee platform beats Substack once 10% of your monthly paid revenue is larger than the plan price. That break-even is simple arithmetic on the published prices.
| Compared with Substack’s 10% | Monthly plan cost | Break-even paid revenue per month |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost Publisher, billed yearly | $29 | $290 |
| Ghost Publisher, billed monthly | $35 | $350 |
| beehiiv Lite, billed yearly | $49 | $490 |
| beehiiv Lite, billed monthly | $59 | $590 |
These are entry prices for about 1,000 subscribers, and Stripe charges apply on every platform, so the comparison only covers the platform’s own take. Below about $300 a month, Substack costs less than Ghost or beehiiv. Above about $600 a month, Substack’s 10% costs more than either, and the gap widens with every subscriber. Kit’s free plan has no monthly cost, so it undercuts Substack at any revenue level, but it lacks Substack’s reader network.
Our view is that most new writers should start on Substack and plan to revisit the choice at that point. The fee is easy to swallow while revenue is small, and Substack’s recommendation network matters most when you have no audience of your own.
How much should you charge?
Charge enough that card fees stay small and the price signals a real product. Substack’s minimum is $5 a month and $30 a year for US dollar accounts, and the same floor is a sensible minimum anywhere.
Low prices lose more to fees because Stripe’s 30 cent charge is fixed. On a $5 monthly payment, Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 comes to about $0.45, roughly 9% of the price. On an $8 payment it is about $0.53, or 6.7%. On a $60 annual payment it is $2.04, or 3.4%, paid once instead of twelve times.
Here is a worked example on Substack’s published fees, not a real publication. With 200 paid subscribers at $8 a month, gross revenue is $1,600. Substack keeps $160. Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 on 200 payments is about $106, and the 0.7% billing fee is about $11, which leaves roughly $1,322. Moving half of those readers to an annual plan cuts the per-payment fees sharply.
A few pricing moves are worth using from day one:
- Offer an annual plan at a discount, such as two months free, to cut card fees and churn
- Add a higher founding member tier on Substack for readers who want to pay more
- Raise prices for new subscribers as the archive grows, rather than discounting
If you sell inside the Substack iOS app, note that Apple’s in-app purchase adds a fee. Since August 2025, Substack by default raises the iOS price so your payout stays close to the web price, and US readers can choose web checkout from inside the app.
What should be free and what should be paid?
Keep the work that brings new readers free, and charge for the work your existing readers would miss. Free issues are your marketing, so they need to be good enough to forward.
Three structures work well:
- A free weekly issue plus a paid extra issue, the clearest offer
- Free posts with a paid second half, which Substack supports with an in-post paywall and a free preview emailed to free subscribers
- A free newsletter with paid extras such as an archive, community chat or downloads
Avoid paywalling everything on day one. A newsletter with nothing to read for free has no way to show strangers why it is worth paying for, and recommendation networks have nothing to recommend.
How do you grow a paid newsletter?
Growth comes from mechanisms that put your newsletter in front of people who already read newsletters. Recommendation networks, referral programs and search are the three that compound.
Recommendation networks
Each platform lets newsletters recommend each other at sign-up, so a new subscriber to one publication sees a short list of others.
| Platform | Recommendation feature | How money changes hands |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | Recommendations shown when a reader subscribes | Free exchange between publications |
| beehiiv | Recommendations, plus the Boosts marketplace | Boosts pay per new subscriber, and beehiiv keeps 20% |
| Kit | Creator Network recommendations, plus Paid Recommendations | Paid Recommendations pay per confirmed referral, and Kit keeps a 20% service fee plus 3.5% |
| Ghost | Recommendations built on Webmentions, so they can point to sites outside Ghost | Free exchange between sites |
Substack told TechCrunch in February 2024 that recommendations drove 50% of all new subscriptions on the platform and 25% of new paid subscriptions. That is a network-wide figure reported by Substack, not a promise for any one writer, but it explains why the network is Substack’s main advantage.
Paid recommendation markets work both ways. On beehiiv, if an advertiser sets a $1 cost per subscriber, the publisher recommending it sees an offer of $0.80, because beehiiv’s 20% fee is built in. Earning from these markets can fund a newsletter before paid subscriptions do. On Kit, earning from Paid Recommendations requires a paid plan.
Referral programs
Referral programs reward readers for bringing in new subscribers. Substack’s subscriber referrals give readers a public leaderboard and, on paid publications, default rewards of complimentary paid subscriptions. beehiiv’s referral program, available on paid plans, lets you set milestones with rewards such as digital files, promo codes or paid subscription gifts.
Search and social
A newsletter archive published as a website can rank in search and keeps working after an issue is sent. Substack, beehiiv and Ghost all publish posts as web pages, and Ghost and beehiiv give you more control over the site. Use social posts to point people to one free sign-up page, and keep that page in your profile link.
Can you move your newsletter later?
Yes, and you should keep that option open. Substack lets you export your full subscriber list as a CSV, filter it to paid subscribers with their plan type, and export your posts. Paid subscriptions on Substack run through your own connected Stripe account.
Moving paid subscribers still takes care, because the new platform has to take over billing without charging readers twice. Before you commit, check the destination platform’s migration guide for paid members, and keep regular exports of your list wherever you publish. For a broader comparison of who owns the audience on each platform, see how to choose a creator platform and our list of the best platforms for writers.