9 Best Newsletter Platforms of 2026

beehiiv is built around one job: growing a newsletter and turning it into income. The Free plan already includes unlimited sends, landing pages, the recommendation network and API access for up to 2,500 subscribers, and every plan comes with a website, podcast hosting, a community space and digital products. Lite, from $49 per month billed yearly, is where earning starts: paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate, the beehiiv ad network, automations, polls and A/B tests, with room for 100,000 subscribers and three publications. Pro, at $95 per month billed yearly, removes beehiiv branding and adds webhooks, dynamic content, advanced analytics and 24/7 priority support. The trade-off is price at the start. A writer with a few hundred readers pays nothing on Substack until they earn, while beehiiv charges a flat fee before the first paid subscriber. For anyone treating a newsletter as a business, the growth and ad tools justify the cost.

Kit, the company formerly called ConvertKit, gives creators the largest free list on this page: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, unlimited landing pages and forms, tagging and segmentation, plus the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. That makes it a strong place to start a newsletter and test what readers will pay for. Creator, from $33 per month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers, unlocks unlimited visual automations and email sequences, SMS, RSS campaigns, polls, integrations and 24/7 email and chat support, and removes Kit branding. Pro adds the newsletter referral system, engagement scoring, deliverability reports and unlimited users. Where Kit falls short for publishers is the website: it offers landing pages rather than a full publication site, so writers who want a public archive and SEO usually pair it with another tool. Kit also lacks the built-in ad network that beehiiv offers. As an email engine for creators who sell courses or guides, it is hard to beat.

Substack is the easiest way to start a newsletter without paying anything. Publishing is free, with no tiers or contracts, and Substack only earns when you do: writers keep 90% of paid subscription revenue minus credit card fees. The main reason to pick it is the network. Substack says it has 5 million paid subscriptions, that more than half of new subscribers come from its built-in network, and that 30% or more of paid subscriptions start inside that network, through recommendations, Notes and collaborations. It also hosts podcasts and live video, and Substack Defender offers legal support such as pre-publication review. The cost of that simplicity is control. You get fewer automation, segmentation and design options than on Kit, beehiiv or Ghost, and the 10% cut can exceed a flat monthly fee once paid revenue grows. A newsletter earning $5,000 a month hands $500 to Substack, more than beehiiv Pro costs.

Ghost suits publishers who want a real website first and a newsletter attached to it. Ghost(Pro) Starter costs $18 per month billed yearly for up to 1,000 members and includes your own site, a custom domain, the email newsletter and design settings, with unlimited email sends. Paid memberships need Publisher at $29 per month billed yearly, which adds Stripe subscriptions, tips, up to 3 premium tiers, 15 special offers, custom themes, 8,000+ integrations and 3 staff users. Ghost takes 0% of subscription revenue, so a growing paid newsletter keeps more than it would on Substack. Built-in SEO tools, ActivityPub distribution to the social web and whitelabel branding make it the most publisher-like option here. The downsides: there is no free plan, Starter cannot charge readers, and pricing climbs with member count. Ghost also has less growth help than beehiiv, which has an ad network and recommendations built for newsletters.

MailerLite is a general email marketing tool, but its low price and simple editors make it a common choice for creators sending a regular newsletter. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails and still includes campaigns, automations, a website, a landing page, signup forms, 2 user seats and all three email editors. Comfort, from $12 per month, adds unlimited templates, dynamic emails, campaign auto-resend, multivariate testing, an unsubscribe page builder, a preference center and an AI writing assistant. Power, from $25 per month, adds more advanced options for marketers with several revenue streams. MailerLite lets you sell a digital product or bookings, and connects to 100+ integrations. For a creator who wants paid subscriptions, a reader network or an ad network, it is a weaker fit than beehiiv, Substack or Ghost, because it is built as a marketing tool rather than a publication. As a cheap, tidy way to send a weekly newsletter with a welcome series, it works well.

Buttondown is a small, self-funded newsletter tool that favors simplicity. It is free for the first 100 subscribers, and every plan includes a rich text or Markdown editor, sending from a custom domain and hosted newsletter archives. Extra features are sold as add-ons listed on the pricing page, such as paid subscriptions, analytics, RSS-to-email, comments and surveys at $9 per month each, and automations, sponsorships and multiple newsletters at $29 per month each. Writers who like Markdown and an API will find it comfortable: the REST API covers what the app does and supports webhooks. Its sponsorship tool lets sponsors book and pay through Stripe, and Buttondown takes no cut. The add-on model keeps a basic newsletter cheap but means the bill grows as you add features that beehiiv or Kit bundle in. We could not confirm the base plan price in USD on the visible pricing page, so the starting price is marked pending.

EmailOctopus is a plain, inexpensive email tool that works well for a straightforward newsletter. Its free Starter plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, with 1 landing page, 1 form and 1 user, though emails carry EmailOctopus branding and reports last 30 days. Pro starts at $9 per month billed yearly and removes the branding, keeps reports forever, and allows unlimited landing pages, forms and users. The builder supports drag and drop or your own HTML, with 100+ mobile-friendly templates, and campaigns can be spread over up to 24 hours or sent at each reader's likely open time. Plans upgrade automatically as the list grows, and nonprofits get a 20% lifetime discount. What it does not do is help you earn: there are no paid subscriptions, no ad network and no publication website. For a free or sponsor-funded newsletter that needs cheap, dependable sending, it is excellent value.

Flodesk's pitch is flat pricing: both paid plans include unlimited subscribers and unlimited emails, and the price does not rise as your list grows. Email costs $38 per month with annual billing or $46 billed monthly, and adds workflow automations and removes Flodesk branding on top of the free plan's forms, landing pages, designer templates, segmentation, link in bio and email sending. Everything, at $79 per month billed yearly, adds unlimited checkouts, sales pages, upsells, subscriptions, payment plans and sales tax processing, with 2 extra team seats. Flodesk adds no transaction fees on top of Stripe. The flat price is a clear win for a creator with tens of thousands of subscribers, but at 1,000 subscribers it costs more than MailerLite, EmailOctopus or Kit. Flodesk also has no publication website, reader network or ad network, so it fits creators who sell products by email better than publishers.

Mailchimp is the best known email tool, and many businesses already use it for a customer newsletter. The free plan covers up to 250 contacts, and Essentials starts at $13 per month with testing and scheduling features and a 14-day free trial. Premium adds Mailchimp's most advanced tools, unlimited contacts and priority support for teams, and businesses with 10,000+ contacts can save 15% on Standard for their first 12 months. For a creator or publisher, though, Mailchimp is built for marketing rather than publishing. It has no paid subscriptions, no reader recommendation network and no publication website of the kind beehiiv, Substack or Ghost provide, and overages apply if you exceed contact or send limits. It makes sense when your newsletter sits alongside ecommerce, SMS and ad campaigns run from one marketing account. A writer whose newsletter is the product will get more for less elsewhere.