Short answer: the three charge in completely different ways, so the cheapest one depends on whether you charge readers. If your newsletter is free, Substack costs nothing at any size. If you run paid subscriptions, Substack’s 10% cut can overtake beehiiv’s monthly fee once your revenue passes a fairly low threshold. MailCheap is the cheapest paid tool for most list sizes when you send weekly, but it is a plain sending-and-website tool: we found no paid subscriptions and no discovery network in its feature list.
Three pricing models
| Substack | beehiiv | MailCheap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Nothing, until readers pay you | Subscribers (tiered) | Emails sent per month |
| Platform fee on paid subs | 10% of each payment | 0% on Lite and Pro | Paid subscriptions not listed |
| Payment processing | Stripe fees apply | Stripe fees apply | n/a |
| Free option | Free to publish, any size | Free plan up to 2,500 subscribers | None, and no free trial |
| Sends | Not metered | Unlimited | 20,000 to 5,000,000 a month by plan |
| Source | Substack support | beehiiv pricing | MailCheap pricing (affiliate link) |
If your newsletter is free
Substack’s publishing cost is $0 whether you have 100 readers or 100,000. Neither beehiiv nor MailCheap matches that above beehiiv’s 2,500-subscriber free tier. Here is what the two paid tools cost for a weekly newsletter (four emails a month, monthly billing):
| Subscribers | Substack | beehiiv | MailCheap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $59/mo Lite | $19/mo Starter |
| 2,500 | $0/mo Free to publish | $79/mo Lite | $19/mo Starter |
| 5,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $109/mo Lite | $19/mo Starter |
| 10,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $139/mo Lite | $39/mo Growth |
| 25,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $199/mo Lite | $79/mo Pro |
| 50,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $299/mo Lite | $79/mo Pro |
| 100,000 | $0/mo Free to publish | $469/mo Lite | $149/mo Scale |
So why would anyone pay? Mostly for control and presentation. On beehiiv or MailCheap your newsletter lives on its own site, under your brand, with no Substack network around it. beehiiv adds growth tools such as a referral program, an ad network and A/B testing. MailCheap sells a low per-send price and no platform badge. Whether that is worth $39 (Growth) or $139 (Lite) a month at 10,000 subscribers is a judgement call, not a pricing one.
If you publish daily, the order between the paid tools changes. beehiiv’s sends are unlimited, while MailCheap’s allowance runs out sooner. At 10,000 subscribers and 30 emails a month, beehiiv costs $139 (Lite) and MailCheap $149 (Scale).
If you charge readers: the 10% math
Substack’s cost grows with your revenue. beehiiv’s grows with your list. That gives a simple break-even point. Substack becomes more expensive than beehiiv when 10% of your monthly subscription revenue exceeds beehiiv’s monthly price. In other words, break-even revenue = beehiiv price ÷ 0.10.
| Subscribers | beehiiv / month | Break-even revenue / month |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $59 | $590 |
| 5,000 | $109 | $1,090 |
| 10,000 | $139 | $1,390 |
| 25,000 | $199 | $1,990 |
| 50,000 | $299 | $2,990 |
| 100,000 | $469 | $4,690 |
A hypothetical example, not real data: a newsletter with 5,000 subscribers, 200 of them paying $8 a month, so $1,600 a month in subscription revenue.
- Substack keeps 10%: $160 a month, plus Stripe fees.
- beehiiv Lite at 5,000 subscribers: $109 a month, plus Stripe fees, with 0% beehiiv take.
- MailCheap Starter: $19 a month for sending, but you would need a separate way to sell and manage paid subscriptions, which adds its own cost and work.
Below the break-even line, Substack’s percentage is the cheaper deal. You pay nothing while you build, and the fee only grows when you earn. Above it, a flat-fee platform keeps more of each payment. Yearly billing on beehiiv lowers its break-even point further, since its yearly prices are lower per month.
Two details from Substack’s fee page are worth knowing. Its 10% is calculated on your web price, even when a reader subscribes through the iOS app, where prices may be raised to cover Apple’s fees. And the Stripe fees are not small at low prices: on a $5 monthly subscription, the $0.30 fixed fee alone is 6% of the payment. That applies on beehiiv too, because both use Stripe. It is one reason many paid newsletters push readers toward annual plans.
What you get on each
| Feature | Substack | beehiiv | MailCheap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid subscriptions | Yes (10% fee) | Lite and Pro (0% fee) | Not listed |
| Discovery and cross-promotion | Recommendations, the Substack app and network | Recommendation network, referral program | Not listed |
| Ads / sponsorship tools | Not compared here | Ad network (Lite and up) | Not listed |
| Website | Substack publication page | Yes, with landing pages | Yes, on your own domain |
| Custom domain | One-time $50 | Yes | Yes, all plans |
| Platform branding | Substack network around your publication | Removed on Pro | No “Powered by” badge |
| Automations, A/B tests | Not compared here | Lite and up | Welcome emails; no A/B testing listed |
| Open source / self-host | No | No | Yes, per MailCheap |
Substack’s own posts describe recommendations as a big source of new subscriptions. Writers recommend each other, and new subscribers see those recommendations right after they sign up (how it works). Neither of the other two has a reader network on that scale. That is the real thing you pay Substack’s 10% for.
Downsides of each
Substack
- 10% of paid revenue, with no upper limit. It is the most expensive option once a paid newsletter is earning well.
- Your publication sits inside Substack’s product and brand, and there is less control over design.
beehiiv
- Above 2,500 subscribers you pay $109 (Lite) or more a month even if you never charge readers.
- Branding removal needs Pro, which costs roughly twice as much as Lite at small list sizes.
MailCheap
- No paid subscriptions, ad network or referral program in its listed features. MailCheap’s own comparison page says beehiiv “has more ways to grow and earn.”
- No free plan or free trial, and partial periods are not refunded.
- A newer product with a shorter track record than either rival.
- Every email counts against the allowance, including tests and welcome emails, and sends pause when you run out.
Who should pick which
Substack
You are starting out and want to pay nothing, you value reader discovery more than design control, or your paid revenue is below the break-even line in the table above.
beehiiv
You run, or plan to run, a paid or sponsored newsletter with meaningful revenue, and you want growth tools such as referrals, recommendations and an ad network on your own brand.
MailCheap
Your newsletter is free (or monetised elsewhere), you send weekly or less, and you want the lowest monthly bill for a branded site and sending, without a platform badge.
Something else
Ghost(Pro) combines paid memberships (0% Ghost fee) with a full publishing site, and Buttondown is cheap at small sizes. Compare them all in the newsletter cost calculator.
See MailCheap pricing (affiliate link) beehiiv pricing Substack fees
FAQ
Is Substack really free?
Publishing is free at any list size. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of each subscription payment, and Stripe charges its own processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment, plus 0.7% for Stripe Billing). A custom domain is an optional one-time $50.
At what revenue does beehiiv become cheaper than Substack?
When 10% of your monthly subscription revenue is more than beehiiv’s monthly plan price. For 5,000 subscribers on beehiiv Lite ($109 (Lite)), that is about $1,090 a month in paid subscriptions. Stripe fees apply on both, so we leave them out.
Can I run a paid newsletter on MailCheap?
We did not find paid subscriptions in MailCheap’s plan feature list when we checked. If you need to charge readers inside the platform, Substack or beehiiv (Lite and up) is the more direct choice.
Which has the best discovery?
Substack. Its recommendations, app and network are built around readers finding new publications. beehiiv has a recommendation network (on its free plan too) and a referral program. MailCheap doesn’t list a discovery network.
Can I move my list later?
Substack lets you export your subscriber list. MailCheap lists imports from beehiiv, Substack and Mailchimp. Moving paid subscribers between platforms involves Stripe and is more work than moving a free list, so check each platform’s migration docs before you commit.