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Best Newsletter Platforms 2026: 16 Tools Measured, Not Paraphrased
By Arthur Brulard, Founder of OwnLetter. Cross-vendor analyst review across 11 newsletter platforms, aggregating user signals from Reddit, G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and Hacker News. LinkedIn
Published June 12, 2026 · Updated June 12, 2026 · 15 min read
Quick verdict
There is no best newsletter platform; there is a best one for your situation, and the data picks it faster than a ranking. Kit holds our highest published score (8.1/10) for creator automation and products, and pays us nothing. Beehiiv (7.4/10) owns the growth and ad-monetization axis. MailerLite (7.3/10) is the measured price floor with the easiest learning curve. Substack costs nothing until you earn, then takes 10%. Ghost is the ownership exit. Below: all 16 in one table, real prices at three list sizes with verification dates, who raised prices recently, and the question no ranking page asks: who actually owns your audience when things go wrong.
All 16 Platforms, One Table
Eleven platforms carry our full seven data layers (weekly-scraped pricing, the 53-feature matrix, re-themed review corpora, terms-of-service analysis, feature-depth scoring); five more are price-tracked weekly while their other layers build. Free tiers and fee models below are source-verified feature facts; the live prices sit in the 3-tier table further down.
16 platforms by use case, June 2026
Platform | Best for from the data layers | Free tier real ceiling, June 2026 | Paid newsletters platform fee model | Our review published method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kit | Creator automation + digital products | 10,000 subs (1 automation) | 0.6% from free tier | 8.1/10 |
| Beehiiv | Growth + ad monetization | 2,500 subs | 0% on paid Scale | 7.4/10 |
| MailerLite | Price floor, easiest learning curve | 500 subs / 12,000 emails | 0% from Growing Business | 7.3/10 |
| AWeber | Phone support, affiliate-tolerant | 500 subs / 3,000 emails | None native | 6.3/10 |
| Substack | Starting from zero audience | Unlimited | 10% of revenue | 5.4/10 |
| Ghost | Ownership: the self-host exit | None (14-day trial) | 0% from Publisher | review M1 |
| Buttondown | Honest billing, developer control | 100 subs | 0% (paid add-on) | review M1 |
| GetResponse | Courses + webinars + email | 500 contacts | 0% from Creator (3rd plan) | review M1 |
| ActiveCampaign | CRM-grade automation pipelines | None (trial, 100 contacts) | None native | review M1 |
| Mailchimp | SMBs in the Intuit ecosystem | 250 contacts / 500 sends | None native | data tracked |
| WordPress.com | A full website with newsletter attached | Unlimited subs (1 GB) | 10% sliding to 0% by plan | data tracked |
| Brevo | Per-email billing for large quiet lists | 300 emails/day | None native | pricing tracked |
| Flodesk | Design-first emails at a flat price | Trial only | Checkout plan (separate) | pricing tracked |
| Sender | Budget ESP with SMS | 2,500 subs / 15,000 emails | None native | pricing tracked |
| EmailOctopus | Cheap sending on Amazon SES | 2,500 subs / 10,000 emails | None native | pricing tracked |
| Loops | SaaS product + marketing email in one | 1,000 contacts / 4,000 sends | None native | pricing tracked |
Kit
- Best for
- Creator automation + digital products
- Free tier
- 10,000 subs (1 automation)
- Paid newsletters
- 0.6% from free tier
- Our review
- 8.1/10
Beehiiv
- Best for
- Growth + ad monetization
- Free tier
- 2,500 subs
- Paid newsletters
- 0% on paid Scale
- Our review
- 7.4/10
MailerLite
- Best for
- Price floor, easiest learning curve
- Free tier
- 500 subs / 12,000 emails
- Paid newsletters
- 0% from Growing Business
- Our review
- 7.3/10
AWeber
- Best for
- Phone support, affiliate-tolerant
- Free tier
- 500 subs / 3,000 emails
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- 6.3/10
Substack
- Best for
- Starting from zero audience
- Free tier
- Unlimited
- Paid newsletters
- 10% of revenue
- Our review
- 5.4/10
Ghost
- Best for
- Ownership: the self-host exit
- Free tier
- None (14-day trial)
- Paid newsletters
- 0% from Publisher
- Our review
- review M1
Buttondown
- Best for
- Honest billing, developer control
- Free tier
- 100 subs
- Paid newsletters
- 0% (paid add-on)
- Our review
- review M1
GetResponse
- Best for
- Courses + webinars + email
- Free tier
- 500 contacts
- Paid newsletters
- 0% from Creator (3rd plan)
- Our review
- review M1
ActiveCampaign
- Best for
- CRM-grade automation pipelines
- Free tier
- None (trial, 100 contacts)
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- review M1
Mailchimp
- Best for
- SMBs in the Intuit ecosystem
- Free tier
- 250 contacts / 500 sends
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- data tracked
WordPress.com
- Best for
- A full website with newsletter attached
- Free tier
- Unlimited subs (1 GB)
- Paid newsletters
- 10% sliding to 0% by plan
- Our review
- data tracked
Brevo
- Best for
- Per-email billing for large quiet lists
- Free tier
- 300 emails/day
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- pricing tracked
Flodesk
- Best for
- Design-first emails at a flat price
- Free tier
- Trial only
- Paid newsletters
- Checkout plan (separate)
- Our review
- pricing tracked
Sender
- Best for
- Budget ESP with SMS
- Free tier
- 2,500 subs / 15,000 emails
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- pricing tracked
EmailOctopus
- Best for
- Cheap sending on Amazon SES
- Free tier
- 2,500 subs / 10,000 emails
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- pricing tracked
Loops
- Best for
- SaaS product + marketing email in one
- Free tier
- 1,000 contacts / 4,000 sends
- Paid newsletters
- None native
- Our review
- pricing tracked
"Review M1" = full hands-on review scheduled next; "data tracked" = full data layers without a published verdict yet; "pricing tracked" = weekly price tracking only. We publish no score before the method has run.
Pick by Your Situation, Not by a Ranking
A generic ranking answers a question nobody asks. These six situations cover the beginner, the paid-first writer, the course creator, the developer-writer and the operator staring at a bill; each links to the guide or tool that does the real work.
Six situations, six starts
Your situation | Start here and the page that proves it |
|---|---|
| You're on Substack and the 10% or the lock-in started to hurt | Beehiiv or Ghost, routed by trigger in the Substack alternatives guide |
| Your first newsletter, $0 budget | Substack or MailerLite, ranked in the beginners guide |
| You write for paying readers | Ghost or Beehiiv, compared in the writers guide |
| You sell courses or digital products to your list | Kit (8.1/10, our highest score), see the Kit review |
| Your current bill keeps climbing | Run the switch calculator on your own numbers first |
| You've been suspended, or fear it | Self-hosted Ghost or Buttondown; the control matrix below explains why |
You're on Substack and the 10% or the lock-in started to hurt
- Start here
- Beehiiv or Ghost, routed by trigger in the Substack alternatives guide
Your first newsletter, $0 budget
- Start here
- Substack or MailerLite, ranked in the beginners guide
You write for paying readers
- Start here
- Ghost or Beehiiv, compared in the writers guide
You sell courses or digital products to your list
- Start here
- Kit (8.1/10, our highest score), see the Kit review
Your current bill keeps climbing
- Start here
- Run the switch calculator on your own numbers first
You've been suspended, or fear it
- Start here
- Self-hosted Ghost or Buttondown; the control matrix below explains why
Deeper routes: Substack alternatives · beginners guide · writers guide · Kit review · switch calculator · who controls your audience
The Eleven We Measure in Depth
Each entry carries its own data: how many reviews we read, what users actually raise, one line from the terms of service, and the pricing behavior our tracker records. No paraphrased vendor copy.
Kit: our highest score, and it pays us nothing
The creator OS: visual automations, tags, digital products and paid newsletters at a 0.6% fee from a free plan that reaches 10,000 subscribers. Across its 885-review corpus, ease of use (186 mentions) and automation (129) lead, both positive; pricing is the mixed theme (140). The terms are the catch: the acceptable-use policy bans affiliate-heavy sites, post-ban export is at Kit's discretion, and billing counts unsubscribed contacts until you delete them. Kit review (8.1/10) · Kit alternatives
"I send 160k emails and generate thousands of dollars a month - and I only write one email. This is possible due to Kits automations segmentations."Trustpilot reviewer, March 11, 2026
Our take
Where Kit Falls Short
- The affiliate fine printKit's acceptable-use policy bans CPA affiliate-type sites, and its corpus carries 35 suspension mentions. If affiliate content is part of your model, our highest-scored platform is the wrong pick for you.
- Post-ban export is discretionaryThe terms make export after a ban a decision Kit gets to take, not a right you keep. Export monthly, here as everywhere.
- The meter counts people who leftBilling counts total subscribers including unsubscribed contacts until you delete them by hand, the same meter pattern AWeber and Mailchimp use.
- The free plan is wide, not deepFree to 10,000 subscribers, but with one automation and one sequence; deep reporting and multi-branch automations sit on the Pro plan.
Beehiiv: the growth machine
Built by ex-Morning Brew engineers around one idea: the platform should grow the list. Recommendation network free from the first subscriber, ad network and 0% paid-subscription take on the Scale plan, free to 2,500 subscribers. Its 669-review corpus splits on ease of use (70 mentions), monetization (62) and support (60), all mixed. Trust layer: the content licence covers name, voice and likeness, and 15 reviews document suspensions, some with ad revenue held. Beehiiv review (7.4/10) · Beehiiv alternatives
MailerLite: the measured price floor
The cheapest serious paid ladder at most list sizes, the panel's highest measured ease of use (0.92/1.0), and a 1,849-review corpus where the top three themes (support 977, ease 672, price 458) are all positive, a pattern no other vendor here matches. Two honest counterweights: the free plan was cut from 1,000 to 500 subscribers on September 23, 2025, and 87 reviews describe algorithmic suspensions with no human appeal. Billing counts active subscribers only. MailerLite review (7.3/10) · MailerLite alternatives
"Instead of waiting 24+ hours like I did with ActiveCampaign, I now get live chat responses within seconds."Capterra reviewer, September 22, 2025
Substack: $0 until you earn
Unlimited subscribers, no monthly fee, the deepest reader discovery network anywhere, and a 10% cut once readers pay. The 480-review corpus runs negative on support (58 mentions) and billing (42). The trust layer is the real cost: export blocks the moment an account is locked, and the content licence survives your departure. Right at zero; expensive at scale. Substack review (5.4/10) · Substack alternatives
Start free on Substack →AWeber: a human answers the phone
The panel's only published phone line, its #1 theme by far (support, 195 of 833 mentions, dominantly praise), and a permanent free tier (500 subscribers, 3,000 emails) we verified on our own account because the public pricing page hides it. The tracker side: a broad repricing in 2024 (December) ended grandfathered rates, and unsubscribed contacts bill until deleted by hand. No native paywall. AWeber review (6.3/10) · AWeber alternatives
Try AWeber free (to 500 subs) →Ghost: the ownership pick
Open source, run by a non-profit foundation that cannot be acquired, 0% on memberships from the Publisher tier, and the one structural escape from platform risk: self-host it and nobody can suspend you. Its 415-review corpus skews positive (ease 38, editor 22). The honest ledger: no free plan, the Starter tier cannot monetize at all, and self-hosting is a sysadmin job. writers guide · Substack vs Ghost
Try Ghost (14-day trial) →Buttondown: honest billing
Bills active subscribers only (unsubscribes stop counting by themselves), 0% platform fee, full CSV export always available, the friendliest hosted terms we have read, and a small corpus (217 reviews) where support, ease and price all run positive. Counterweights: analytics are off by default, there is no discovery network, and the whole company is one founder. where it fits
Try Buttondown free (to 100 subs) →GetResponse: the all-in-one for knowledge sellers
Email, automation, webinars and courses under one roof, from a bootstrapped company running since 1998. Its 1,040-review corpus runs positive on support (279) and ease (276). Two tracker facts to know before committing: billing is on your monthly PEAK subscriber count, not the average, and the Creator tier that unlocks 0% paid newsletters is the third paid rung. where it fits in the panel
ActiveCampaign: the deepest automation, for a different job
The deepest workflow builder of the panel (1.0 in our depth layer) and the largest corpus we read (1,988 reviews, where automation draws 636 dominantly positive mentions). For a newsletter creator the fit breaks: zero native monetization, the steepest learning curve (ease 0.82, the panel's lowest), documented hikes up to 70% in two years, and terms that cut contact-data access at termination. ActiveCampaign alternatives
Mailchimp: the biggest brand, the most complained-about bill
Across 748 mailchimp community posts and reviews in our corpus that flag pricing (of 2,034 read), the bill is the single largest negative theme in our whole dataset. Mailchimp bills total contacts including unsubscribed and non-subscribed people, the free tier stands at 250 contacts (verified June 2026), and there is no native paid newsletter. Ease of use (773 mentions, positive) is real; so is the bill. MailerLite vs Mailchimp · Substack vs Mailchimp
"it becomes expensive as your contacts grow, and some useful features are locked behind higher-cost plans."G2 reviewer, December 10, 2025
WordPress.com: a website first, a newsletter second
Unlimited newsletter subscribers even on the free plan, attached to a full site builder, with a paid-newsletter fee that slides from 10% (free) to 0% (Commerce) as you upgrade. The catch is that nothing here is newsletter-native: no deliverability dashboard, no sequences, and the terms prohibit affiliate marketing on free-tier sites. Substack vs WordPress
And the five we price-track while their layers build
Brevo (per-email billing that suits large, quiet lists), Flodesk (design-first at a flat price), Sender (budget ESP with SMS), EmailOctopus (cheap sending on Amazon SES) and Loops (product + marketing email for SaaS) sit in our weekly pricing tracker today; their review corpora and trust layers are in progress, so this page does not rank them, it prices them. The 3-tier table below includes all five.
What They Cost at 1K, 5K and 10K Subscribers
Every cell below is the cheapest paid plan covering that list size, computed live from our weekly pricing tracker, with the row's verification date. Snapshot prices without dates are how the pages above us go stale; this table cannot.
| Platform | 1K subs | 5K subs | 10K subs | verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 MailerLiteMailerlite | $15/mo | $39/mo | $73/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 ButtondownButtondown | $9/mo | $29/mo | $79/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 KitKit | $39/mo | $89/mo | $139/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 beehiivBeehiiv | $49/mo | $89/mo | $109/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 AWeberAWeber | $25/mo | $60/mo | $100/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 GetResponseGetResponse | $19/mo | $54/mo | $79/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 GhostGhost | $18/mo | $75/mo | $105/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
 SubstackSubstack | $0 monthly at any size; 10% of paid-subscription revenue | Jun 14, 2026 | ||
 ActiveCampaignActivecampaign | $19/mo | $99/mo | $189/mo | Jun 12, 2026 |
 MailchimpMailchimp | $26.50/mo | $75/mo | $110/mo | Jun 7, 2026 |
 WordPress.comWordPress.com | $9/mo | $9/mo | $9/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
| BbrevoBrevo | $9/mo | $9/mo | $9/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
| SsenderSender | $10/mo | $33/mo | $57/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
| EemailoctopusEmailoctopus | $10/mo | $10/mo | $10/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
| LloopsLoops | $49/mo | $49/mo | $49/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
| FflodeskFlodesk | $25/mo | $25/mo | $25/mo | Jun 14, 2026 |
The sticker is not the bill: AWeber, Kit and Mailchimp count unsubscribed contacts toward these tiers, GetResponse bills on your monthly peak, MailerLite and Buttondown bill active subscribers only. Run your own numbers in the switch calculator.
Who Raised Prices Recently
No page ranking above us tracks this, which is strange, because it is the most common reason people switch. From our tracker and dated public records: AWeber repriced broadly in 2024 (December), ending grandfathered legacy rates; one Reddit user reported a jump from $60 to $185 a month in February 2025. MailerLite cut its free plan from 1,000 to 500 subscribers on September 23, 2025. ActiveCampaign customers documented increases up to 70% in two years with no feature change (Trustpilot, January 2026). Mailchimp's free tier now stands at 250 contacts (verified June 2026). And several 2026 reviews across vendors report increases justified by AI features customers say they do not use.
Who Owns Your Audience When Things Go Wrong
Features converge; terms of service do not. We read every platform's terms and compared the clauses that decide what happens to your subscriber list on suspension, termination or exit. The short version: self-hosted Ghost removes the question, Buttondown keeps the export door always open, and several big names reserve the right to close it.
- GhostFavorable
Self-hosted = zero deplatforming risk by design.
Read the clause
Ghost Pro can terminate "with or without cause, with or without notice." But Ghost is open source, so you can always move to self-hosting and keep everything.source
- ButtondownFavorable
Least aggressive policy; full CSV export.
Read the clause
The license "automatically terminates" on violation, but the prohibited list is short and a full CSV export (email, tags, UTM, IP) is available.source
- MailerLiteMixed
Dashboard access preserved during review (§16.4), a rare positive.
Read the clause
Can terminate "with or without cause" (§16.2), but §16.4 guarantees you keep dashboard access during a review. Abrupt terminations are documented (BBB complaints, late 2024 to early 2025).source
- beehiivMixed
Clear AUP, but post-ban list portability is not documented.
Read the clause
Can "temporarily or permanently suspend" access (§3). CSV export works in active accounts; behaviour after a ban is not spelled out in the terms.source
- GetResponseMixed
5-day window to reclaim your data after termination.
Read the clause
Can terminate "without cause, with immediate effect." The DPA returns data in a machine-readable format, but you have only 5 days to ask before deletion; paid accounts get a 120-day restoration window.source
- WordPress.comMixed
Terminable at any time without cause; posts export as XML but subscriber/email list export is not documented in standard tools.
Read the clause
"We may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause or notice, effective immediately." The standard export (Tools → Export) produces a WXR XML file of posts, pages, comments, and media links — but subscriber and email-list data are not included. The support documentation notes a "Subscriber Migration Tool" via Jetpack plugin as the path for moving subscribers, which adds friction post-termination. No obligation to provide refund on termination: "We will have no obligation to provide a refund of any fees previously paid."source
- KitUnfavorable
Post-ban export "at Kit's discretion"; bans affiliate sites.
Read the clause
Can terminate "in our sole determination" (§12b). AUP: an account can be "closed immediately and without prior notice", export is "at Kit's discretion", and no new account is allowed afterwards.source
- AWeberUnfavorable
"Right to delete all data" on termination.
Read the clause
Can suspend "at any time, and for any reason, without notice." The terms reserve the "right to delete all data, files or other information" if the account is terminated, with no stated grace period.source
- SubstackUnfavorable
Export blocked the moment your account is locked.
Read the clause
Verbatim: "Substack is free to terminate (or suspend access to) your use of Substack, or your account, for any reason at our discretion." Confirmed case (March 2025): a locked account's subscriber list became "not available to view and export."source
- MailchimpUnfavorable
Mailchimp can suspend or close accounts at any time, with or without cause, and no review-access window is guaranteed.
Read the clause
Mailchimp's Standard Terms reserve the right to "refuse service or close accounts at any time" and list broad grounds (AUP violations, spam, purchased lists, prohibited content). No clause guarantees you keep dashboard access during a compliance hold. This matches a recurring pattern in user reviews: opaque suspensions for an unspecified "compliance review" with automations stopping immediately and no clear recourse path.source
- ActiveCampaignUnfavorable
§6.6: "will not have access to or restore any Contact Data."
Read the clause
Verbatim: "Upon cancellation or termination, you will not have access to or be able to restore any Contact Data." Combined with termination "without notice and in our sole discretion" (§23). The harshest data clause in the panel.source
✓ favorable to the creator · ◐ mixed · ✗ unfavorable. Open a row for the verbatim clause and source. Compiled June 2026 from public terms, status pages and the pricing data layer. Re-verified quarterly.
Clause-by-clause detail, with verbatim terms: who controls your audience. Whatever you choose, export your subscriber CSV monthly.
Two minutes to your shortlist
The quiz scores the platforms on what you actually need (growth, billing, monetization, ownership) and names your best fit. It is blind to commission; the engine cannot see who pays us.
Take the platform quiz →The Best-For Guides
One page per kind of creator, each ranking five platforms on the axes that matter for that situation.
Best newsletter platforms for writers
For the paid-first prose writer leaving Substack: five platforms ranked on fees, the writing editor, audience ownership and reader discovery, with a cost calculator at your own numbers.
GhostbeehiivSubstackButtondownKitBest newsletter platforms for beginners
For your first newsletter on a $0 budget: five free starts ranked by what free actually includes, ease of learning, support and what the upgrade costs when you grow.
SubstackMailerLitebeehiivKitAWeberFrequently asked
Best newsletter platforms, the questions that matter
What is the best newsletter platform in 2026?
There is no single winner, and pages that name one are skipping the question that matters: best for what? Our review engine's highest published score is Kit (8.1/10) for creator automation and digital products; Beehiiv (7.4/10) leads for growth and ad monetization; MailerLite (7.3/10) is the price floor with the easiest learning curve; Ghost is the ownership pick. The matrix at the top of this page routes all 16 by use case.
Who owns my audience on each platform?
The terms differ more than the features do. ActiveCampaign's terms cut access to contact data at termination; Substack blocks export the moment an account is locked; Kit makes post-ban export discretionary; AWeber reserves the right to delete all data on termination. Self-hosted Ghost removes the question entirely, and Buttondown keeps full CSV export always available. The control matrix on this page compares all of them, clause by clause. Whatever you pick: export your list monthly.
Who raised their prices recently?
From our tracker and dated public records: AWeber repriced broadly in 2024 (December), ending grandfathered rates; MailerLite cut its free plan from 1,000 to 500 subscribers on September 23, 2025; ActiveCampaign customers documented increases up to 70% in two years (Trustpilot, January 2026); Mailchimp's free tier now stands at 250 contacts. Our pricing tracker re-verifies 17 vendors weekly, so the table on this page carries a verification date per row.
What is the cheapest newsletter platform?
At most list sizes, MailerLite holds the panel's price floor among full-featured tools, and EmailOctopus or Sender undercut it if you only need basic sending. But the cheapest sticker is not the cheapest bill: AWeber, Kit and Mailchimp bill subscribers who already unsubscribed (until you delete them), GetResponse bills on your monthly peak, and Substack's $0 becomes 10% of revenue once you charge. The 3-tier table on this page normalizes real prices at 1K, 5K and 10K subscribers.
Is Mailchimp actually free?
Barely. The free tier covers 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (verified June 2026), and Mailchimp bills total contacts including unsubscribed and non-subscribed people. Pricing is the #1 negative theme in its 2,034-review corpus (748 mentions). For a newsletter starting from zero, Substack (unlimited, $0), Kit (free to 10,000) or MailerLite (500 + 12,000 emails) are honest free starts.
What is the best free newsletter platform?
By ceiling: Kit, free to 10,000 subscribers (with one automation). By completeness: MailerLite, 500 subscribers with 12,000 emails a month and full editor access. By simplicity at any size: Substack, unlimited subscribers with no monthly fee until you monetize. Beehiiv's 2,500-subscriber Launch plan sits between. Free tiers differ most in what they exclude: monetization and automations are the usual locks.
What is the best platform for a paid newsletter?
If you want the lowest fee at scale: Ghost (0% from Publisher) or Beehiiv (0% on Scale) on top of a flat monthly price. If you want zero risk before revenue: Substack, $0 monthly with a 10% cut when readers pay. Kit takes 0.6% from its free tier, the lowest entry barrier with real automation behind it. The writers guide compares these four on real revenue scenarios.
Which platform is easiest to use?
MailerLite, by measurement: its ease-of-use experiential score (0.92/1.0 on the G2 criterion) is the highest of our panel, and ease is its #2 review theme (672 mentions, positive). The hardest is ActiveCampaign (0.82, the panel's lowest), which buys CRM-grade power a newsletter rarely uses.
What is the best platform for newsletter growth?
Beehiiv ships the most growth machinery: a cross-newsletter recommendation network free from the first subscriber, paid Boosts, a referral program and an ad network. Substack's discovery network is the deepest source of organic reader discovery. Nobody else in the panel comes close on this axis; if growth is the constraint, the choice is between those two models.
Do you test deliverability?
Not with seed lists: they violate vendor terms, and we quote nobody's inbox-placement percentages, ours included. Vendors' own deliverability claims are marketing numbers without third-party audits, so we publish none of them as fact. What we do instead: authenticate your domain (DKIM and DMARC), watch your own first month, and treat any platform's published rate as a claim.
How does OwnLetter make money?
Three of the sixteen platforms here (AWeber, Beehiiv, Buttondown) pay us a commission at no extra cost to you; the other thirteen, including our highest-scored platform Kit, pay us nothing. Scores come from a published method where commission is never an input, and the quiz engine cannot see who pays us.
How often is this page updated?
Pricing re-verifies weekly through our automated tracker (each row in the price table carries its date). Trust clauses refresh quarterly. Review corpora re-theme as they grow. The page itself was last verified June 12, 2026, and the claims manifest behind it (with source URLs) is archived and auditable.
How We Built This Page
How we testedVerified June 2026 · 10810 reviews aggregated · MailerLite + Beehiiv + Substack + Kit + AWeber tested · 7 proprietary data layers · 17 vendors price-tracked weekly · methodology public
What we did: Crossed our seven data layers: weekly-scraped pricing for 17 vendors (each row in the price table carries its verification date), the 53-feature matrix source-verified against vendor docs, 10,810 reviews re-themed and read in full across 11 platforms, every platform's terms of service (the audience-control matrix above comes from it), feature-depth scoring, plus first-hand testing on our own MailerLite, Beehiiv, Substack, Kit and AWeber accounts.
What we did NOT do: No seed-list deliverability tests (they violate vendor terms; we publish no inbox-placement percentage for anyone). No combined star rating across platforms (review populations differ too much to average). No score for any platform our method has not fully run on: five of the sixteen are price-tracked only, and the table says so.
Refresh cadence: Pricing weekly (automated tracker). Trust clauses quarterly. Review corpora re-themed as they grow. This page's claims manifest is archived and auditable. (pricing verified June 12, 2026). Full methodology →
Affiliate status, restated: AWeber, Beehiiv and Buttondown pay us a commission; the other thirteen platforms here pay us nothing. Our highest published score (Kit, 8.1/10) goes to a platform that pays us nothing, our lowest (Substack, 5.4/10) to another that pays us nothing, and the routing above sends most situations to non-paying platforms. Commission is never an input to the score; the method is public.
Our verdict
How to actually choose
Match the platform to your situation, then export monthly
Sixteen platforms, one honest answer: the best one is decided by your situation, not by a ranking. If you publish for paying readers, the fee model decides (Ghost and Beehiiv at 0%, Substack at 10%, Kit at 0.6%). If you are starting from zero, the free tier and the learning curve decide (Substack, MailerLite, Kit). If you sell products, automation depth decides (Kit, then ActiveCampaign only if you are really running a pipeline). If you have been burned by a bill or a suspension, the billing model and the terms decide (Buttondown, Ghost).
And one instruction outranks every recommendation on this page: wherever you publish, export your subscriber list monthly. The platforms differ most not in their editors but in what their terms let you keep when something goes wrong.
- Built from 10,810 reviews read in full across 11 platforms, weekly-scraped pricing for 16, and every platform's terms
- Prices dated per row; scores only where the published method has run; no invented numbers
- 3 of 16 platforms pay us; our highest and lowest scores both go to platforms that pay nothing