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The 9 closest of 12, each with its real monthly cost at 5,000 contacts and what it does that Substack does not. See all 18.
Every platform here that costs less than Substack gives up something we verified. There is no cheaper like-for-like, so the question is which feature you are willing to trade, and the cards below name it for each one. That is a point in its favour, not a dodge.
The 10% cut grows with revenue, and the about page lists no automation, segmentation, A/B testing, forms or API, so it is a publishing platform rather than an email marketing tool.
It runs $0 a month at 5,000 contacts with the add-ons it forces on you included. Nothing else we list in email marketing and newsletter platforms costs less than that.
Ranked by how much of what we record for Substack each platform also does. Flodesk is the nearest, and it is $52 a month dearer at 5,000 contacts. On every feature this site records, the two are level.
$52 a month dearer$32 at 2,500 contacts
A creator or small business that wants beautiful templates and the least to learn, with checkout and subscriptions available when they start selling.
Prices are the real monthly cost at 5,000 contacts, or the equivalent size on whatever each one charges by, with the add-ons each platform forces on you included, from the same engine the shortlist quiz uses.
$109 a month dearer$0 at 2,500 contacts
A writer or publisher whose product is the newsletter itself and who wants paid subscriptions, a referral programme, an ad network and a website in one place without a cut of the revenue.
$49 a month dearer$33 at 2,500 contacts
A small business or creator who wants the full toolset, including landing pages, paid newsletters and digital products, at the lowest paid price in the category.
$60 a month dearer$35 at 2,500 contacts
A small business or solo creator who wants a long-established, support-heavy email tool with landing pages and simple selling built in, and a free plan to start on.
Same money$0 at 2,500 contacts
A creator or newsletter writer who wants a generous free tier, paid subscriptions and digital products built in, and does not need corporate marketing features.
$54 a month dearer$29 at 2,500 contacts
A business that wants email, landing pages, funnels, webinars and courses under one roof and is happy to step up a plan to unlock automation.
$31.50 a month dearer$20 at 2,500 contacts
A small list that wants the cheapest honest email tool, starting on a real free plan and paying very little as it grows.
$32 a month dearer$32 at 10,000 emails
A small business with a large list that sends occasionally, because the bill follows emails sent rather than contacts, and that wants transactional email and SMS in the same account.
$48 a month dearer$32 at 2,500 contacts
A small business that wants full marketing automation, landing pages and transactional email at one of the lowest per-contact prices going.
A writer or creator who wants to publish and charge for a newsletter with nothing to pay until readers pay.
On this site it is the pick for a creator's newsletter, monetising a newsletter and a free plan you can run on. Which is why nothing cheaper here matches it.
The pairs people actually search for, each one priced at the same four sizes off both vendors' own pages.
Every cheaper option we price gives something up against Substack, which is a point in its favour.
Nothing, at the sizes we price. Substack's Free to publish plan covers 1,000 to 100,000 contacts, so the figure in our table is $0 at all four. Paid plans add features rather than seats.
The 10% cut grows with revenue, and the about page lists no automation, segmentation, A/B testing, forms or API, so it is a publishing platform rather than an email marketing tool.
We compare 12 of them here, every one priced at the same size off its own pricing page, and the whole list of 18 is on the email marketing page.
Should yours be on this list? If you make email marketing and newsletter platforms and it is not compared here, ask to be shortlisted. Listings are free and cannot be bought.
Two features were checked against each vendor's own pricing page: a price that does not move with the list and a free plan. Those are the ones written above as does and does not. The other twelve are read out of each vendor's own pricing page, so an absence there means we did not find it listed, not that the product lacks it, and those lines say lists and does not list instead. How all of this gets checked.
This page compares everything to Substack. The shortlist asks 6 questions about what you send and how big your list is, and gives you four picks priced at your own list size, which is a better question than “what is like the one I already have”.
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