“I can’t leave Substack, the alternatives charge monthly fees!”
For a mid-sized paid newsletter, you will pay:
Ghost Pro: $149–$269/month
Beehiiv: $131–$218/month
Buttondown: $239/month
Mailchimp: $285/month
Substack: $700/month
(this is based on assumptions of 20,000 members, 7% paid at $5/mo. twiddle the math as you see fit)
Cheapest option is self-hosting, though of course there is added time cost and a technical barrier to entry. I pay $100–$150/mo to self-host Ghost with a bit over 25,000 subscribers.
For free newsletters, Beehiiv is free for up to 2,500 subscribers. ConvertKit is free up to 10,000.
Adding to this thread because a bunch of people are asking: newsletters are expensive to run because of mailsending, not because of hosting costs. ~70% of my cost is for bulk email. A plain old static blog can be hosted for a couple bucks a month.
@molly0xfff What do you use to send emails? Button down?
@sashin I self-host Ghost, which sends emails via Mailgun
@molly0xfff Ah, that's exactly what I've been doing!