Free Substack alternatives
Substack costs nothing to publish at any subscriber count, which makes 'free Substack alternative' an odd search until you realise what people mean by it: free without giving up 10% of every payment once the newsletter earns.
So this page compares free plans on two axes — what you can send for nothing, and what it costs you once money is involved.
Free to publish, and what happens when you charge
Substack's row is here for reference. The third column is the one that matters once the newsletter makes money.
| Provider | Free tier | What it costs once you monetise | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | Publishing is free at any list size | 10% of every payment, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 — forever | Permanent |
| beehiiv | Up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends | 0% take rate on paid subscriptions; Scale is $43/mo at 1,000 subscribers | Permanent |
| Ghost | None on Ghost(Pro), but the software is free to self-host | 0% transaction fee; Ghost(Pro) from $18/mo, or self-host free | Self-hosted |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Up to 10,000 subscribers with one basic visual automation | A transaction fee on digital products; Creator is $33/mo at 1,000 | Permanent |
| Buttondown | Up to 100 subscribers | Paid subscriptions are a +$9/mo add-on | Permanent |
| Email Bump | 5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails a month | No commerce at all — you'd run payments through Stripe yourself | Permanent |
| EmailOctopus | 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with EmailOctopus branding | No commerce; $9/mo billed yearly removes the branding | Permanent |
| Sender | 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with automation included | No commerce; paid plans priced by subscriber count | Permanent |
| MailerLite | 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, 2 seats, 3 automations | Digital products and paid newsletters on paid plans | Permanent |
| listmonk, Mautic, Keila, Sendy | Free or one-time licence | The software costs nothing; your sending provider and your time still do | Self-hosted |
From each vendor's own pricing page. Free tiers change more often than paid ones — check before you commit a launch to one.
Where 10% stops being free
Substack takes 10% of each transaction plus the card fee, and nothing else. At £0 in revenue that's the best deal on this page. At $1,000 a month in subscriptions it's $100 a month. At $10,000 it's $1,000 a month, every month, against beehiiv's $43 flat.
There is no volume at which the percentage improves. What you're buying with it is discovery — the recommendation network and the reader app genuinely grow lists, and nothing on this page replicates that. For a newsletter still finding an audience, that's worth real money.
The crossover arrives earlier than most writers expect: somewhere around $400–500 a month in subscription revenue, a flat-fee platform becomes cheaper and stays cheaper forever.
Then Substack really is free, and so are these
For a free newsletter at any size, Substack costs nothing and takes nothing. beehiiv's free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sending and a hosted website. Kit's covers 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts. Ghost is free to self-host.
The question that decides it isn't price — it's whether you want your readers inside someone else's app being recommended other newsletters. That's the trade Substack asks you to make in exchange for the discovery, and it's a reasonable one right up until the list is large enough to stand on its own.
Substack alternatives, asked and answered
Is there a free Substack alternative?
beehiiv gives 2,500 subscribers free with unlimited sending, a hosted website and — on paid plans — a 0% take rate on subscriptions. Kit gives 10,000 free subscribers. Ghost is open source and free to self-host.
Substack itself is free to publish at any size, so the real comparison is what each takes once you start charging readers.
How much does Substack actually cost?
10% of each transaction plus the card fee of 2.9% + $0.30 — roughly 13% of subscription revenue, permanently, with no monthly fee.
Free newsletters cost nothing at any subscriber count, which is why it's such a good place to start and such an expensive place to stay.
Which alternatives take 0% of subscriptions?
beehiiv takes 0% on paid subscriptions — you pay only Stripe's fee — and Ghost charges no transaction fee either, whether on Ghost(Pro) or self-hosted.
Both charge a flat monthly fee instead, which is the trade: predictable cost rather than a share of revenue.
A flat fee, and no cut of anything
5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails free, then $19/mo at 10,000 — with flows, live segments and a transactional API, and no percentage of what you earn.