Is Substack's 10% worth it? The best newsletter platforms for UK writers: beehiiv, Kit, Ghost and more

We may earn a commission when you shop through links in this article or on our store pages, at no extra cost to you.

Every newsletter that starts charging runs into the same sum. Substack costs nothing until a reader pays, then keeps 10% of every payment for as long as you stay. beehiiv, Kit and Ghost take nothing from your subscriptions but charge a monthly fee whether anyone pays or not. Which works out cheaper depends on how many readers pay, and this autumn both sides changed: beehiiv raised its prices, and Substack is taking over its writers' VAT.

What is a newsletter platform?

It's the software that collects sign-ups, sends each issue by email, keeps the back issues online as a small website and, if you charge, takes the payments through Stripe. Substack, beehiiv, Kit, Ghost, Buttondown and MailerLite all do those four jobs. They differ in how they make their money, whether they bring you new readers, and how easily you can leave with your list.

Why does the choice matter now?

Paid newsletters have become a proper business in Britain. UK paid subscriptions on Substack passed 500,000 in April 2026, its biggest market outside the US, and Jim Waterson's London Centric had about 5,000 paying readers by May, enough to support two staff (Press Gazette, June 2026). The costs changed this autumn too. beehiiv renamed its plans and raised prices on 1 October 2026, with existing customers moving at their first renewal on or after 1 November (Adbeehiiv, October 2026), and from 1 December 2026 Substack collects and pays VAT on paid subscriptions for its writers (Substack).

What does it cost, and what's the catch?

Starting is free almost everywhere. Charging is where the costs split: Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue on top of Stripe's fees, while the flat-fee platforms charge, at 1,000 subscribers, between about $16.50 a month on Buttondown with its paid add-on and Ad$59 a month for beehiiv's Lite plan paid monthly (October 2026). Nearly all of them bill UK writers in US dollars, so the pound decides part of the bill.

The catch most people miss is leaving. A list of email addresses is easy to export. Readers who pay through Apple's App Store, followers who only exist inside an app and paid plans held in a Stripe account the platform set up are much harder to take with you.

The short answer: for a first newsletter, Substack is free, brings readers through its own network and handles VAT from December. Once the newsletter is a business, beehiiv gives you a website, your own domain, an ad network and paid recommendations from Ad$49 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, after a free plan that covers 2,500. Kit suits writers who sell courses or products too, with a free plan to 10,000 subscribers, and Ghost suits anyone who wants the newsletter to be their own website. More tools are on our email marketing software page.

The newsletter platforms side by side

Prices are October 2026, in US dollars before any tax, for the cheapest yearly plan that lets you charge readers at 1,000 subscribers.

Platform	Suits	Free plan	Paid newsletter from	Cut of subscriptions	The catch
Substack	First newsletters, discovery	Free at any size	Free	10% plus Stripe	Emails come from a substack.com address
beehiiv	Newsletters run as a media business	Up to 2,500 subscribers, no paid tiers	Ad$588 a year	0% plus Stripe	Prices rose on 1 October 2026
Kit	Writers who also sell products	Up to 10,000, selling included	Free	3.5% + 20p, card fees included	Sales run through a Stripe account Kit creates
Ghost	Owning your site, open source	None	$348 a year	0% plus Stripe	Its VAT tool is still in beta
Buttondown	Plain, simple newsletters	Up to 100 subscribers	$90 a year plus $9 a month	0% plus Stripe	Fewer growth tools
MailerLite	Small businesses, EU data	Up to 250, can't charge	$205.20 a year	0% plus Stripe	A monthly cap on emails sent

Is Substack's 10% cheaper than paying beehiiv or Kit?

Only while few readers pay. The sum below takes a newsletter charging £5 a month with one subscriber in twenty paying, at two sizes. Platform fees are the yearly plans converted at HMRC's October 2026 rate of $1.3456 to the pound (HMRC). Card fees use Stripe's rate for a standard UK card, 1.5% + 20p, plus 0.7% for subscription billing (Stripe, Stripe Billing): 31p on each £5 payment. Only Substack confirms the 0.7% applies, so counting it everywhere keeps the flat-fee platforms' totals on the cautious side. Kit's own 3.5% + 20p replaces Stripe's.

A year's costs	1,000 subscribers, 50 paying (£3,000)	10,000 subscribers, 500 paying (£30,000)
Substack, 10% plus card fees	£486	£4,860
beehiiv Lite plus card fees	£623	£2,921
Kit Free, its fee only	£225	£2,250
Kit Creator plus its fee	£515	£3,283
Ghost Publisher plus card fees	£445	£2,645
Buttondown with paid add-on, plus card fees	£333	£2,527
MailerLite Comfort plus card fees	£338	£2,574

At 1,000 subscribers the gaps are small and Substack sits mid-table. At 10,000 it costs about £1,900 a year more than beehiiv and over £2,200 more than Ghost. On these prices beehiiv's Lite plan becomes cheaper than Substack at about 73 paying readers on a 1,000-subscriber list, and at about 177 on a 10,000 list. Kit's free plan is the cheapest at both sizes, though the second sits right on its 10,000 limit and the plan leaves out automations and integrations (Kit).

Writers who have moved describe the same pattern. Sean Highkin told The Verge he pays $2,052 a year for Ghost and an add-on where Substack would take $4,968, and Matt Brown of Extra Points, with 71,000 subscribers on beehiiv, put his Substack bill at over $25,000 a year against roughly $3,000 to beehiiv (The Verge, May 2026).

All of this only matters once readers pay, so I'm curious where readers stand on charging.

Do you charge for your newsletter? / Reader poll

Is Substack still the best place to start?

For most first newsletters, yes. Publishing is free at any size, and Substack says more than half of new subscribers, and over 30% of paid subscriptions, come from within its own network (Substack). Press Gazette reports Will Hayward rebuilt his audience there in about two and a half months, and that a tenth of Vittles' 84,000 subscribers paid £7 a month in March 2025 (Press Gazette).

The costs arrive later. Besides the 10%, your own domain is a one-off $50, yet issues are still sent from a substack.com address (Substack). Readers who subscribe in the iPhone app pay through Apple, which takes 30%, and those subscriptions stay behind if you leave (The Verge). On Trustpilot, Substack scores 1.5 out of 5 from 182 reviews (Trustpilot, October 2026).

Sinem Günel, who has 46,000 subscribers on Substack and has used Kit since 2020, argues the two do different jobs: Substack finds readers, Kit runs the business behind them. She links to Kit as an affiliate.

Sinem Günel explains why she uses Substack to find readers and Kit to sell to them, in "Substack vs Kit: How I'd Build My Business In 2026" (May 2026)

Sinem Günel explains why she uses Substack to find readers and Kit to sell to them, in "Substack vs Kit: How I'd Build My Business In 2026" (May 2026) · Watch on YouTube

Is beehiiv worth paying for?

If the newsletter is the business, it often is. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions and digital products, leaving Stripe's fee, and its paid plans add your own domain, paid tiers, an ad network and paid recommendations. The free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, and beehiiv's pricing page says it's free forever (Adbeehiiv). The same page puts average ad network earnings at $39 a month, and beehiiv says the network pays creators over $1 million a month in all (Adbeehiiv blog). Paid recommendations, where other newsletters pay you for readers you send them, carry a 20% fee (Adbeehiiv).

The new prices are the sore point. In October the old Scale plan became Lite and rose by at least $10 a month; at 10,000 subscribers it now costs $139 a month paid monthly instead of $109 (The Verge, October 2026), or $119 a month billed yearly. beehiiv still scores 4.0 out of 5 from 411 Trustpilot reviews, though some recent ones complain about the plan changes (Trustpilot, October 2026).

Matt Brown still calls beehiiv a bargain next to Substack for his own newsletter, but in a post on r/beehiiv he argued that the new prices aren't worth it for writers under 10,000 subscribers who rely on beehiiv to make most of their money, especially outside the US (The Verge).

r/beehiiv, October 2026: Matt Brown of Extra Points on why beehiiv's new prices suit some writers and not others

Open thread on Reddit ↗

Reddit replies may change. The link opens the original thread.

Is Kit better than beehiiv?

For writers who sell something besides the newsletter, Kit usually is; for a newsletter run like a magazine, beehiiv is. Kit, formerly ConvertKit, has the most generous free plan here: up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. Its commerce fee is 3.5% + 20p in pounds, card processing included, with no monthly charge (Kit). Creator, at $33 a month billed yearly for 1,000 subscribers, adds unlimited automations and integrations and removes Kit's branding. Trustpilot reviewers give Kit 4.0 from 160 reviews (Trustpilot, October 2026).

The trade-off is moving later. Kit creates a new Stripe account for your sales even if you already have one, and beehiiv says paid subscribers held that way can't be moved across, because Kit doesn't expose the payment details needed (Adbeehiiv). That's one rival's account of another, but it matters before the first reader pays.

EmailTooltester's comparison scores Kit a point ahead overall: stronger for funnels, automations and its free plan, while beehiiv wins on sponsorships, referrals and a built-in website.

EmailTooltester's Lisette compares Kit and beehiiv on editors, free plans, growth tools and making money, in "Kit vs Beehiiv: Which Newsletter Platform ACTUALLY Wins? (2026)" (August 2026)

EmailTooltester's Lisette compares Kit and beehiiv on editors, free plans, growth tools and making money, in "Kit vs Beehiiv: Which Newsletter Platform ACTUALLY Wins? (2026)" (August 2026) · Watch on YouTube

Why are writers moving to Ghost?

Because it's the closest thing to owning the whole stack. Ghost is open-source software run by a non-profit, which says its constitution means it can never be bought or sold. Its hosted Publisher plan costs $29 a month billed yearly at 1,000 members, takes no transaction fee, and every plan includes your own domain and member export (Ghost). Ghost says posts can also be followed from Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky and WordPress through the open social web.

The cheaper Starter plan can't take payments, and Ghost's Stripe Tax integration is still in beta, with the tax returns left to you (Ghost). Kristin McTiernan moved her publication Fictional Influence from Substack to Ghost because her work lived on Substack's domain rather than her own, and she says her $31 a month to Ghost roughly matches what Substack's cut would cost her.

Kristin McTiernan on moving Fictional Influence from Substack to Ghost, and how the costs compare, in "Why I'm Leaving Substack for Ghost" (May 2026)

Kristin McTiernan on moving Fictional Influence from Substack to Ghost, and how the costs compare, in "Why I'm Leaving Substack for Ghost" (May 2026) · Watch on YouTube

What are the cheapest platforms with no cut?

Buttondown and MailerLite are the cheapest flat fees here. Buttondown is a small, self-funded newsletter tool, free to 100 subscribers and $9 a month to 1,000, with sending from your own domain included; paid subscriptions are a $9 monthly add-on, and it takes no cut (Buttondown). MailerLite is a general email tool that sells paid newsletters through Stripe on its Comfort plan, $17.10 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, with 0% commission (MailerLite). Its free plan stops at 250 subscribers and can't charge. Trustpilot reviewers give it 4.1 from 3,370 reviews (Trustpilot, October 2026).

A LinkedIn newsletter costs nothing and sends each edition to subscribers by email and notification (LinkedIn), but readers subscribe as LinkedIn members, so the audience lives on LinkedIn rather than on a list or site of your own.

Which platform brings you new readers?

Substack does the most of this for you; the others give you tools to swap readers with other newsletters. Substack's network of recommendations, Notes and its app is the reason many writers start there. beehiiv's recommendation network is free on every plan, and paid recommendations let you buy or sell subscribers. Kit has free recommendations, with a referral programme on Pro, and Ghost has recommendations, a public directory and its open social web reach (Ghost).

Where do most of your new readers come from? / Reader poll

Who owns your subscribers if you leave?

You do on all six platforms here, but some parts travel better than others. Substack exports your list as a spreadsheet, without names (Substack), and Notes followers don't come with it. Paid subscribers billed through your own Stripe account can move: beehiiv's importer copies card details from your old platform's Stripe account into the one linked to beehiiv, so payments carry on, though you cancel the old subscriptions yourself (Adbeehiiv). Ghost exports members on every plan, and Buttondown says it lets you keep your customers and their subscriptions (Buttondown).

Which platform lands in the inbox?

Substack, on one measure. EmailTooltester tracked newsletters arriving in real Gmail inboxes and found 93.1% of Substack's in the main inbox, against 89.4% for Kit, 86.4% for beehiiv and 78.6% for Mailchimp (EmailTooltester, August 2026). Its testers point out that this isn't the same as better deliverability: Substack newsletters tend to read less like marketing, and landing in Gmail's Promotions tab isn't a failure.

What UK rules apply to a newsletter?

Three matter: consent, VAT and where your readers' data goes.

Consent. Under PECR, marketing emails to individuals need their specific consent, and the "soft opt-in" covers only your own previous customers, never bought-in lists; sole traders count as individuals (ICO). People who sign up to a newsletter have asked for it. The risk lies in importing a client list or a pile of business cards, and every email has to say who it's from and give a working address to opt out.

VAT. An email newsletter is an electronic publication, zero-rated since May 2020 unless more than half of it is advertising, audio or video (GOV.UK). Zero-rated sales still count towards the £90,000 registration threshold, though a business selling mostly zero-rated goods can ask HMRC for exemption (GOV.UK). Readers in the EU are taxed where they live, which a UK writer can account for through the EU's non-Union scheme (GOV.UK). From 1 December 2026 Substack works out, collects and pays VAT for you at no extra cost, and says a London subscriber to a digital newsletter sees 0%. Kit collects VAT where you've registered, inside your price, and gives you a report for your returns (Kit). beehiiv and Ghost lean on your own Stripe Tax (Adbeehiiv), at 0.5% a transaction (Stripe), leaving the filing to you.

Data. Substack and Kit send data to the US under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Substack, Kit), and beehiiv relies on standard contractual clauses (Adbeehiiv). MailerLite keeps its data in the EU, and UK customers contract with its Irish company (MailerLite).

Questions people ask

How much does Substack take from a paid newsletter?

10% of each subscription payment, plus Stripe's card fees (Substack). On a £5 monthly payment from a standard UK card that comes to about 81p.

Is beehiiv free?

Yes, up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, and beehiiv says the free plan is free forever. Charging readers, your own domain and the ad network need Lite, from $49 a month billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers.

Is beehiiv better than Substack?

For a newsletter run as a business, beehiiv costs less once enough readers pay (about 73 at £5 a month on a 1,000 list) and gives you your own domain and ad income. Substack is better for starting free and finding readers.

Can I move from Substack to beehiiv?

Yes. Your list exports as a spreadsheet, and on a paid plan beehiiv can carry paid subscribers across by copying their card details between Stripe accounts (Adbeehiiv). Subscribers billed through Apple and Notes followers stay behind.

Do I charge VAT on a paid newsletter in the UK?

An email newsletter is usually zero-rated, so a VAT-registered writer charges UK readers 0% (GOV.UK). Readers in the EU pay their own country's rate, which Substack will handle from December 2026.

What's the best free newsletter platform?

Kit's free plan goes furthest, to 10,000 subscribers with selling included. Substack is free at any size until readers pay, and beehiiv's free plan covers 2,500 without paid tiers.

So which newsletter platform should you use?

Substack remains the easiest start, and the 10% is a fair price while it brings you readers. Once dozens of people pay and the newsletter has sponsors to court, beehiiv's flat fee usually costs less and puts the newsletter on your own domain. Kit makes sense when the newsletter sells courses or products, Ghost when owning the site matters most, and Buttondown or MailerLite when the lowest fee wins.

Our email marketing software page has more tools, a shop emailing customers rather than readers is better served by our guide to Klaviyo alternatives for Shopify, the best social media scheduling tools cover promoting each issue, and Framer vs Webflow helps if the newsletter needs a fuller website around it.

Tagged:Software