Newsletter Platform Fees Compared: Who Takes the Biggest Cut?

Most newsletter creators pick a platform based on features, design, or what their favorite creator uses. The fee structure gets a glance at best. That is a mistake, because on a $10,000/month newsletter, the difference between platforms can be $700 or $7,000 per year in fees.

I compared the actual costs across six newsletter platforms: Substack, beehiiv, Ghost, Kit, Buttondown, and Flodesk. Not just the headline "platform fee" number, but the full stack of costs including Stripe processing, minimum plan requirements, and the hidden surcharges that show up on your statement.

The Quick Comparison

Here is what each platform charges on paid newsletter subscriptions, broken down into the components that make up your total cost:

• Substack: 10% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe + 0.7% recurring billing surcharge
• beehiiv: 0% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe (requires Scale plan at $49/month)
• Ghost: 0% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe (requires Publisher plan at $29/month)
• Kit: 3.5% + $0.30 bundled fee (includes Stripe, available on free plan)
• Buttondown: 0% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe (requires Standard plan at $29/month)
• Flodesk: 0% platform fee + ~3% + $0.30 Stripe (requires Everything plan from $54/month)

For a full breakdown of which platform is best for what, see my newsletter platforms guide.

What Each Platform Actually Charges

Substack: 10% of Everything, Forever

Substack is free to use. No monthly fee, no plan tiers. You sign up, start writing, and only pay when you start charging subscribers. The cost: 10% of all paid subscription revenue, with no cap and no volume discount. That percentage stays the same whether you make $100/month or $100,000/month.

On top of that 10%, Stripe charges its standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Since mid-2025, Stripe also applies a 0.7% recurring billing surcharge on subscription payments. This used to be 0.5% for early adopters, but that grandfathered rate expired in June 2025.

The total cost on a $10/month subscriber: roughly $1.66 per transaction. That is about 16.6% of every payment. On $5,000/month in subscription revenue, you are paying approximately $830/month in combined fees. On $10,000/month, that is roughly $1,360 to $1,660.

beehiiv: 0% Platform Fee, but You Need the Scale Plan

beehiiv charges zero platform fees on paid subscriptions. You keep 100% of your subscriber revenue minus only Stripe's processing fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction).

The catch: paid subscriptions are not available on the free Launch plan. You need at least the Scale plan, which starts at $49/month for up to 1,000 subscribers and increases with your list size. At 10,000 subscribers, Scale costs around $99/month. At 100,000, it reaches $329/month.

On a $10/month subscriber, you pay about $0.59 in Stripe fees and keep $9.41. Add the $49/month minimum plan cost, and your effective fee rate depends entirely on how many paying subscribers you have. With 50 paying subscribers at $10/month ($500 revenue), your effective total cost is about 12.7% ($49 plan + $29.50 Stripe fees). With 500 paying subscribers ($5,000 revenue), it drops to about 2%.

Ghost: 0% Fee With the Cheapest Entry Point

Ghost takes zero commission on membership revenue. Like beehiiv, you only pay Stripe's standard processing fees.

Ghost(Pro) updated its pricing in July 2025. The Starter plan went from $9/month to $15/month, and paid memberships were removed from it entirely. To run paid subscriptions on Ghost(Pro), you now need the Publisher plan at $29/month. That makes Ghost the cheapest entry point for a 0% commission newsletter platform.

Self-hosting Ghost is free (it is open source), but you will pay for a VPS ($4 to $12/month) and an email sending service like Mailgun. After Mailgun doubled its rates in December 2025, self-hosting costs roughly $15 to $25/month for a small publication. At higher volumes, Ghost(Pro) Publisher with its unlimited sending often works out cheaper than self-hosted.

Kit: 3.5% Bundled Fee, Available for Free

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) bundles its margin and Stripe processing into a single 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction fee. According to Kit, only about 0.6% of that goes to them, with the rest covering card processing.

The significant advantage: commerce features are available on all plans, including the free Newsletter plan. No monthly cost to start selling paid subscriptions or digital products. That makes Kit the cheapest option for creators just starting to monetize, since you pay nothing until you make a sale.

On a $10/month subscriber, the total cost is $0.65 per transaction. That is about 6.5%, which is higher per transaction than beehiiv or Ghost (5.9%), but there is no monthly platform fee eating into small revenue numbers. Kit becomes more expensive than the 0% platforms only after you are earning enough that the monthly plan cost becomes negligible compared to the per-transaction savings.

Buttondown: 0% Fee for Developers

Buttondown charges zero platform fees on paid subscriptions. You pay only Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30. Paid subscriptions require the Standard plan at $29/month (same price as Ghost Publisher).

The free plan only covers 100 subscribers and does not include paid subscriptions. The Basic plan ($9/month, 1,000 subscribers) does not include them either. You need Standard ($29/month, 5,000 subscribers) or Professional ($79/month, 25,000 subscribers) to unlock monetization.

Flodesk: 0% Fee, but the Most Expensive Plan Requirement

Flodesk charges no platform fee on transactions processed through its Checkout feature. You only pay Stripe processing (approximately 3% + $0.30).

The problem: Checkout requires the Everything plan, which starts at $54/month for 1,000 subscribers and scales with your list. At 5,000 subscribers, that is $107/month. At 10,000, it is $137/month. Flodesk also dropped its famous flat-rate pricing in December 2025, so new users no longer get the unlimited $38/month deal that made it popular.

Flodesk is primarily a design tool, not a newsletter monetization platform. If paid subscriptions are your priority, the other options on this list are better fits.

What You Actually Pay at $1K, $5K, and $10K/Month

The platform fee is only part of the equation. The minimum plan requirement changes the math significantly at lower revenue levels. Here is what each platform costs in practice:

At $1,000/month in subscription revenue

• Substack: ~$136/month total ($100 platform + $36 Stripe). No plan cost.
• beehiiv: ~$108/month total ($49 plan + $59 Stripe). Effective rate: 10.8%.
• Ghost: ~$88/month total ($29 plan + $59 Stripe). Effective rate: 8.8%.
• Kit: ~$65/month total ($0 plan + $65 bundled fees). Effective rate: 6.5%.
• Buttondown: ~$88/month total ($29 plan + $59 Stripe). Effective rate: 8.8%.

At $5,000/month in subscription revenue

• Substack: ~$680/month total ($500 platform + $180 Stripe).
• beehiiv: ~$344/month total ($49 plan + $295 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.9%.
• Ghost: ~$324/month total ($29 plan + $295 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.5%.
• Kit: ~$325/month total ($0 plan + $325 bundled fees). Effective rate: 6.5%.
• Buttondown: ~$324/month total ($29 plan + $295 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.5%.

At $5,000/month, Ghost, Kit, and Buttondown are nearly identical in total cost. beehiiv is slightly more expensive because of its higher plan cost. Substack costs more than double any other option.

At $10,000/month in subscription revenue

• Substack: ~$1,360/month total ($1,000 platform + $360 Stripe).
• beehiiv: ~$639/month total ($49 plan + $590 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.4%.
• Ghost: ~$619/month total ($29 plan + $590 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.2%.
• Kit: ~$650/month total ($0 plan + $650 bundled fees). Effective rate: 6.5%.
• Buttondown: ~$619/month total ($29 plan + $590 Stripe). Effective rate: 6.2%.

At $10,000/month, Substack costs roughly $720/month more than Ghost or Buttondown. That is $8,640/year in savings by switching. The 0% platforms have now clearly overtaken Kit, though the difference between them is only about $30/month.

The Costs Nobody Talks About

Stripe's recurring billing surcharge

Since mid-2024, Stripe charges an additional 0.7% on recurring subscription payments. This applies to every platform that uses Stripe for subscriptions, not just Substack. Most platform pricing pages do not mention this surcharge. On $10,000/month in subscriptions, that is an extra $70/month that is not reflected in any platform's advertised rates.

International card surcharges

Stripe charges 1% extra for international cards (3.9% + $0.30 instead of 2.9% + $0.30), plus up to another 0.5% for currency conversion. If your audience is global, your effective Stripe rate could be 4.4% + $0.30 rather than 2.9% + $0.30. This affects all platforms equally but can add 50% to your processing costs.

Plan cost scaling

beehiiv's Scale plan starts at $49/month but increases with subscriber count. At 10,000 subscribers it is $99/month, at 50,000 it is $229/month, at 100,000 it is $329/month. Ghost(Pro) Publisher also scales with member count. These increases are modest compared to percentage-based fees, but they are worth factoring in.

Which Fee Model Actually Saves You Money

The answer depends on your revenue:

• Under $2,000/month: Kit's free plan with 3.5% bundled fee is cheapest. No monthly cost means every dollar of revenue goes further.
• $2,000 to $5,000/month: Ghost Publisher ($29/month) or Buttondown Standard ($29/month) edge out Kit on per-transaction savings. The crossover point is roughly $2,000/month.
• Over $5,000/month: beehiiv, Ghost, or Buttondown. All three charge 0% platform fees, and the monthly plan cost becomes negligible relative to revenue. Choose based on features, not fees.
• Any revenue level where simplicity matters more than optimization: Substack. You pay more in fees, but you pay nothing upfront and the platform handles everything. That 10% is the price of zero friction.

The Bottom Line

Substack's 10% cut is the most expensive fee structure on this list at every revenue level above $0. The convenience tax is real: a creator earning $120,000/year on Substack pays roughly $12,000 in platform fees alone that would cost $0 on beehiiv, Ghost, or Buttondown.

But "0% platform fee" is not the same as "free." Every 0% platform requires a paid plan to unlock monetization. Ghost Publisher at $29/month is the cheapest entry point. beehiiv Scale at $49/month is more expensive but includes growth tools (ad network, referral programs, Boosts) that Substack and Ghost lack.

Kit is the dark horse for small creators. The 3.5% bundled fee is higher per transaction, but the free plan with full commerce features means you start paying only when you start earning. For newsletters under $2,000/month in revenue, that math works out cheaper than any 0% platform with a monthly plan cost.

Pick based on where you expect to be in 12 months, not where you are today. Migrating newsletters is possible but painful. Getting the fee structure right from the start saves both money and hassle.