Newsletter platform cost calculator
Set your list size, paid-subscriber count, and price. The table shows each platform's cheapest eligible plan and the all-in monthly cost: platform fee + revenue share + card processing.
Gross revenue at these numbers: $2,500/month · At 5,000 subscribers and $10/month, Substack stops being the cheap option above $410/month in revenue (41 paid subscribers).
| Platform | Plan | Platform fee | Revenue cut | Card processing | Total cost / mo | You keep | Effective fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buttondownpartially verified | Standard | $29 | $0 | $147.50 | $176.50 | $2,323.50 | 7.06% |
| beehiivpartially verified | Scale (annual billing) | $43.08 | $0 | $147.50 | $190.58 | $2,309.42 | 7.62% |
| Ghost (Pro)verified | Publisher (up to 5,000 members) (annual billing) | $63 | $0 | $147.50 | $210.50 | $2,289.50 | 8.42% |
| Kitverified | Creator (up to 5,000 subs) (annual billing) | $74.17 | $162.50 | $0 | $236.67 | $2,263.33 | 9.47% |
| Substackverified | Substack | $0 | $250 | $165 | $415 | $2,085 | 16.6% |
Card processing assumes every paid subscriber bills monthly (annual billing reduces per-transaction fees). Platform fees use the cheaper annual-billed rate where one exists.
Buttondown: Tier prices/limits read from the pricing page's JSON-LD Product offers (2026-06-10). Annual-billing discounts (if any) and which features are à-la-carte add-ons vs included per tier still need verification — Buttondown has historically sold features as +$9/+$29/mo add-ons.
beehiiv: PARTIAL DATA: Scale/Max prices were read at the pricing page's default list-size; beehiiv has historically scaled plan price with subscriber count via a slider. Scraper must capture price-by-subscriber-count brackets before we publish cost claims above ~2,500 subs.