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 ยท 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiivpartially verified | Scale (annual billing) | $43.08 | $0 | $147.50 | $190.58 | $2,309.42 | 7.62% |
| Ghost (Pro)partially verified | Business (annual billing) | $199 | $0 | $147.50 | $346.50 | $2,153.50 | 13.86% |
| Substackverified | Substack | $0 | $250 | $165 | $415 | $2,085 | 16.6% |
| Kitpartially verified | No published tier fits this list size (custom pricing only) | ||||||
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.
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.
Ghost (Pro): PARTIAL DATA: only yearly-billed prices were readable; monthly-billing prices and member-count slider brackets (prices rise with member count) need the scraper.