A newsletter with 100 paying readers at $8 a month sounds like $800. After the platform takes its cut and the card processor takes its own, the number you actually see in your bank account depends heavily on which of two tools you picked on day one. That gap is the whole argument of this comparison.
Substack and beehiiv both let a solo writer, consultant or niche expert turn an email list into income. They disagree on how they get paid for it. Substack charges nothing up front and takes a percentage of what you earn. beehiiv takes no percentage of your paid-subscription revenue and charges a flat plan fee instead. Everything below is built on what the two companies publish, read on 27 October 2026.
Figures read on 27 October 2026. Substack’s cost page says publishing is free and that it takes 10% of each subscription payment once you turn on paid subscriptions, plus Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment. The beehiiv pricing page lists a free plan up to 2,500 subscribers, Lite at $49 a month and Pro at $95 a month (both shown under yearly billing), and says beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue, with Stripe’s standard fee still applying. Prices change without notice, so check both pages before you commit.
Two ways of getting paid, side by side
| Substack | beehiiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | Free, any list size | Free plan up to 2,500 subscribers |
| Cut of paid subscriptions | 10%, only once paid subscriptions are on | 0% |
| Card processing (Stripe) | 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction |
| Fixed monthly cost for paid subscriptions | None (optional $50 one-time custom domain) | Lite, $49 a month on yearly billing |
| Subscriber list export | Free and paid lists as separate CSV files (per Ghost’s migration guide) | CSV from Settings, on all plans, per beehiiv’s help article |
Notice that the processor fee is the same on both sides. The only moving part is the 10% against the $49.
The break-even point is a subscriber count, not a feeling
Take the 10% Substack keeps and compare it with beehiiv’s flat $49. The two cost the same when 10% of your monthly paid revenue equals $49, which is $490 a month. At $8 per subscriber that is about 61 paying readers. Below that, Substack costs you less. Above it, every extra subscriber widens the gap in beehiiv’s favour.
| Price per subscriber | Paying readers where the two cost the same |
|---|---|
| $5 a month | 98 |
| $8 a month | 62 |
| $15 a month | 33 |
| $30 a month | 17 |
These break-even figures are my own arithmetic from the published numbers: $49 divided by 10% of the subscription price, rounded up. They leave out Stripe’s recurring-billing surcharge and any annual-plan discount, and they assume you would pay beehiiv’s Lite plan, which is the cheapest tier its pricing page lists as including paid subscriptions.
What 100 readers at $8 leave you
Run the same example through both. Stripe takes $0.53 on each $8 payment on either platform ($0.23 plus $0.30). On Substack the platform adds $0.80, leaving about $6.67 per payment, or roughly $667 for 100 readers. On beehiiv the platform takes nothing, leaving about $7.47 per payment, or roughly $747, minus the $49 plan, so about $698. At that size beehiiv comes out around $31 a month ahead. At 40 readers the maths flips: Substack leaves about $267, beehiiv about $250 after the plan fee.
So the honest summary is that you are choosing between a variable cost that grows with your success and a fixed cost that does not. If you do not yet know whether anyone will pay, the variable cost is the safer bet.
Get the free Freelancer Tool Stack
Where Substack is the better fit
Substack suits the writer whose first goal is to find out whether the idea works. You can publish to any number of subscribers without paying, and the fee only arrives with revenue. If your newsletter is a side channel for a service business, a few paying readers are a bonus rather than the plan, and a tool with no fixed bill is hard to beat. Its other draw is discovery: it is a large, writer-oriented network, so a new publication can pick up readers inside the platform. Treat that as a possibility, not a promise, since results vary widely between publications.
Where beehiiv is the better fit
beehiiv suits the person who already has an audience and a price. If you expect to clear the break-even numbers above within a few months, the zero-percent cut is easier to justify than a bill that scales with every new reader. The free plan, capped at 2,500 subscribers, also lets you build the list first and only move to Lite when paid subscriptions become the point. One thing to check yourself: the pricing page I read does not state a monthly-billing price for Lite or Pro, only the yearly-billing figure, so the real first-month bill may be higher than $49.
The part people check last: moving out
Both platforms let you take your list with you. beehiiv’s help article says subscriber export is available on all plans, as a CSV with each subscriber’s email, status and tier. Substack’s list comes out as separate free and paid CSV files, according to Ghost’s migration guide, and paid subscribers can only move cleanly if the receiving tool uses the same Stripe account. The guide adds that Substack keeps charging its 10% on existing paid subscriptions after you move, which is worth knowing before you promise anyone a clean break. Test an export in your first week, whichever you choose, the same way you would check what happens to your list before outgrowing a free email tool.
If you also sell something else
A newsletter rarely stands alone for a solo business. If you sell a template, a course or a digital product next to it, the fee comparison changes shape, and our guides to what a $29 sale actually leaves you and what link-in-bio tools take when you start selling show the same percentage-versus-flat-fee trade-off in a different setting. For the wider money picture, browse our freelance business and money category.
Who should pick which, and who should skip both
Pick Substack if you have fewer than about 60 paying readers in sight, want zero fixed costs and value being inside a reader network. Pick beehiiv if you already have a list that will convert and you would rather pay a known amount than a share. Skip both if you only want to send occasional client updates; a plain email tool is enough, and paying for a publishing platform adds a fee structure you do not need.
Whichever you start with, set a calendar reminder for the day you pass the break-even number in the table above. That is the moment to redo the sums, not before.
Sources
- Substack: how much does Substack cost, 10% fee, Stripe fees and custom domain, read 27 October 2026.
- beehiiv pricing page, plans, 0% paid-subscription cut and Stripe fee, read 27 October 2026.
- beehiiv help: how to export subscribers, read 27 October 2026.
- Ghost docs: migrating from Substack, export files and fee after moving, read 27 October 2026.
- Substack on Wikipedia, background and typical 10% cut, read 27 October 2026.
Get the free Freelancer Tool Stack
The 18 tools that run a one-person business — invoicing, contracts, time, AI writing, automation and money. One checklist, no fluff.