SKIP TO CONTENT
BESTCREATES.
★ 0
NEWSLETTERS & EMAIL · 1970

Best tools for newsletter writers.

Pick the platform you can leave, then spend your energy on the list and the writing.

BY THE BESTCREATES DESK·LAST TESTED MAY 8, 2026·11 TOOLS · 4 JOBS
DISCLOSURE · Some links on this page are affiliate links. We only recommend tools we'd use ourselves, and partners never see reviews before you do. How we make money.
WHO THIS IS FOR

This guide is for writers who send something to an email list on a regular cadence and want the tooling to stop being a distraction. It covers four jobs: the platform that stores your list and sends the email, the writing and scheduling routine around it, the machinery of getting new subscribers, and the parts that turn attention into money.

The most consequential decision is the platform, and not for the reason most comparisons suggest. Deliverability differences between the major options are small at creator scale; what varies enormously is what happens when you want to change something. Some platforms own your audience relationship and your discovery, which is powerful while you are growing and painful the day you want to leave. Others hand you a plain list you can export and a sending engine you control, which feels like more work up front and much less risk later. Ask yourself whether you are trying to be found by new readers or trying to own an asset, and choose accordingly — those are different products.

The second thing writers get wrong is treating list building as a launch activity. A newsletter grows through a small number of repeatable sources: a landing page that states clearly what the reader gets, recommendation networks or referrals inside your platform, cross-posting to a social feed where your writing already lands, and the occasional guest appearance. Tooling helps with each, but only if the offer is specific.

The third is monetisation. Advertising, paid subscriptions and selling your own product all work at different list sizes and demand different tools. Sponsorships need a media kit and clean numbers. Paid subscriptions need frictionless billing and a reason to upgrade. Products need a checkout and a delivery mechanism. We have used every tool below on real sends, and where a free option is genuinely sufficient we say so.

NEWSLETTER PLATFORM

The one decision that is hard to reverse

All four of these send email reliably. They differ on who owns discovery, how much automation you get, and what leaving costs you. Decide that first and the rest of the stack follows.

BEST FOR GROWTH-MINDED NEWSLETTERS

Beehiiv

9.0 / 10 · $$ · Growth-focused newsletters

beehiiv is the platform we recommend most often to writers who intend to treat the newsletter as a business. Growth tooling is native rather than bolted on: a recommendation network that reliably adds subscribers, a referral programme with rewards you configure, segmentation that actually works, and an ad network that will place sponsors for you once your list is large enough. The editor is pleasant, the web archive is fast and decent for SEO, and analytics go beyond opens into per-post and per-cohort behaviour. It is not the cheapest as you scale, and the sheer surface area of features can distract a writer who mainly needs to write. Some monetisation features only become meaningful at size, so early on you will pay for potential. Still, growth features you have and do not use beat growth features you cannot add later, which is how it earns its rating.

TRY BEEHIIV →READ THE BEEHIIV REVIEW →
PRICING
Beehiiv pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /moup to 2,500 subscribers
Growthsee vendorscales with subscriber count
Enterprisesee vendorcustom
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST FOR WRITERS WHO WANT DISTRIBUTION HANDED TO THEM

Substack

7.9 / 10 · FREE · Writers building an audience from zero

Substack removes almost every decision. There is nothing to configure, the reading experience is clean, paid subscriptions work out of the box, and the network — recommendations, notes and the app — genuinely sends readers you would not otherwise reach. For an essayist starting from zero, that discovery is the strongest argument any platform on this list makes. The costs are structural rather than technical. A percentage of your paid revenue goes to Substack indefinitely, which gets expensive at scale in a way a flat fee does not. Design control is minimal, automation is thin, and the platform's own network shapes how readers experience your work. You can export your list, but not the discovery you built. Choose it if being found matters more than owning the surface, and revisit the decision once paid revenue is meaningful.

TRY SUBSTACK →READ THE SUBSTACK REVIEW →
PRICING
Substack pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /motakes 10% of paid subscriptions
Prosee vendorlower fees, added features
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST FOR AUTOMATION AND SELLING TO A LIST

Kit

8.4 / 10 · $$ · Creators selling digital products

Kit is built for the writer whose newsletter is one part of a business rather than the whole thing. Visual automations let you branch a sequence on what someone clicked or bought, tagging is granular, and landing pages and forms are strong enough that you do not need a separate site tool to run a lead magnet. Its creator network adds recommendation-driven growth, and commerce features mean you can sell a product to the list without adding a separate checkout. In return you accept a plainer reading experience — the email design tools are deliberately simple, and the web archive is not the draw it is elsewhere. Pricing scales with subscriber count and can sting if a big list does not yet monetise. If you run launches, courses or products alongside the writing, the automation depth pays for itself; if you only ever send one broadcast a week, it is more machine than you need.

TRY KIT →READ THE KIT REVIEW →
PRICING
Kit pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /mobasic newsletter tools
Creatorsee vendorpaid subscriptions, takes a % fee
Creator Plussee vendorpremium features
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST MINIMAL, OWN-YOUR-LIST OPTION

Buttondown

7.6 / 10 · $ · Independent writers who want a fast, no-frills newsletter tool

Buttondown is the anti-platform: a small, fast, honest tool that sends your newsletter in plain markdown and gets out of the way. There is no algorithm, no network, no feature carousel — just a subscriber list you control, clean archives, an API for anything unusual, and prices that stay low as you grow. Writers with a technical bent and writers who resent software both tend to love it. What you give up is growth machinery. There are no recommendations, no referral network and no ad marketplace, so every subscriber comes from something you did elsewhere. Automation is basic and the design options are intentionally limited. If your newsletter grows through your own audience, your website or your reputation, this is the least distracting way to send it, and the cheapest place for a large list to live.

TRY BUTTONDOWN →READ THE BUTTONDOWN REVIEW →
PRICING
Buttondown pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /moup to 100 subscribers
Standard$9 /mostarts at 1,000 subscribers, scales with list size
Premiumsee vendor /mohigher volume and priority support
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
WRITING & SCHEDULING

The routine matters more than the software

Nothing here writes the newsletter for you. These tools shorten the distance between a rough idea and a scheduled send, and keep your writing working after it lands in inboxes.

BEST DRAFTING AND EDITING PARTNER

Claude

8.5 / 10 · $ · Creators drafting scripts, newsletters, and long-form writing

Claude is the AI writing tool we actually keep open while working on a newsletter, because it is best at the jobs that are not writing the piece: pressure-testing an argument, cutting a bloated draft by a third without flattening the voice, generating twenty subject-line options so you can reject nineteen, and summarising research you have already gathered. Long context means you can paste a back catalogue and ask what you are repeating. Used that way it removes friction from a weekly cadence. Used to generate finished issues, it produces the smooth, characterless prose readers unsubscribe from, and no tool will fix that. It is inexpensive, and the discipline it requires is entirely yours: draft in your own voice, let the model edit and challenge, and never publish a paragraph you would not defend in your own words.

TRY CLAUDE →READ THE CLAUDE REVIEW →
PRICING
Claude pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /molimited daily messages
Pro$20 /mohigher usage limits, priority access
Team$30 /mo per seatshared workspace features
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST FOR SCHEDULING AND CROSS-POSTING THE PROMO

Typefully

8.3 / 10 · $ · Writers and operators on X / LinkedIn

Typefully is the calmest way to turn a newsletter issue into social distribution. Draft threads in a clean writing view, schedule them to land when your audience is awake, queue evergreen reposts of the pieces that performed, and see which openings earn reads rather than just likes. For a writer, the value is that the promotional pass feels like writing rather than posting — you are editing a thread, not fighting a scheduler. It is text-platform-focused, so it is a poor fit if your growth happens on video. Analytics are useful but shallower than a full social suite's, and the queue rewards consistency you have to supply. Pair it with the discipline of pulling one genuine idea out of each issue instead of posting a link and hoping: that habit, plus scheduling, is most of how text newsletters grow.

TRY TYPEFULLY →READ THE TYPEFULLY REVIEW →
PRICING
Typefully pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /molimited scheduling
Basic$12.50 /mobilled annually, unlimited scheduling
Pro$27 /mobilled annually, analytics and more
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
LIST BUILDING & DESIGN

Every subscriber comes from a specific promise

Growth is a landing page with a clear offer, a reason to refer, and creative that looks like you. These tools handle the last mile once you have decided what you are promising.

BEST CHEAP FORMS, LANDING PAGES AND AUTOMATION

MailerLite

8.0 / 10 · $ · Small creators and side-project newsletters watching costs closely

MailerLite is the value pick for the plumbing around a list: sign-up forms, pop-ups, landing pages and straightforward automations, at a price that stays gentle as your list grows, with a free tier that covers a genuinely useful subscriber count. The drag-and-drop builder is friendlier than most, and deliverability has been solid in our sends. Writers use it two ways — as their whole newsletter platform when the writing is the product and the budget is small, or as a cheap lead-capture layer feeding a list elsewhere. The limits show at the edges: automation branching is simpler than Kit's, reporting is basic, and approval friction can slow a new account down. There is no growth network either. But if you want a landing page live this afternoon and a welcome sequence running by tomorrow, it is the fastest inexpensive route.

TRY MAILERLITE →READ THE MAILERLITE REVIEW →
PRICING
MailerLite pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /moup to 1,000 subscribers
Growing Business$9 /mostarts at 500 subscribers, scales with list size
Advanced$18 /momore automation and segmentation
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST FOR HEADER ART, SOCIAL CREATIVE AND LEAD MAGNETS

Canva

8.5 / 10 · $ · Anyone who isn't a designer (and many who are)

Canva is where the visual layer of a newsletter gets made: issue headers, quote cards for the promo posts, a tidy PDF lead magnet, and the sign-up graphics you put in front of the landing page. Brand kits keep fonts and colours consistent so a subscriber recognises your work in a crowded feed, templates mean a repeating asset takes two minutes, and the background remover handles author photos without a design tool. For a writer, the point is not beautiful design — it is not having to think about design every week. Its weaknesses are real for brand-defining work: template-driven output looks templated, and typographic control is limited compared with a proper design tool. If your identity needs to be distinctive, build the master template in Figma and use Canva to fill it in each week.

TRY CANVA →READ THE CANVA REVIEW →
PRICING
Canva pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /molimited premium content
Pro$12.99 /mobilled annually, full library
Teams$10 /seat/momin 3 seats
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
MONETIZATION

Three ways to get paid, three different tools

Sponsorships need clean numbers, paid subscriptions need frictionless billing, and products need a checkout. Pick the model that matches your list size and reader intent before you pick the tool.

BEST FOR PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS YOU CONTROL

Memberful

7.9 / 10 · $$ · Creators who want a fully branded membership site

Memberful adds paid memberships to a newsletter without handing your revenue relationship to a platform. It handles billing through Stripe, gates content, manages plans, trials and cancellations, and syncs member status to your email tool so paying readers get the paid edition automatically. Because it sits alongside your own site and list rather than replacing them, you keep the audience, the archive and the ability to move. That is the whole argument against taking Substack's percentage once paid revenue is real. It is not a publishing platform — you need a site and a newsletter tool to attach it to — and setup involves more decisions than flipping a switch. For a writer with an existing audience converting to paid, the flat fee plus payment processing usually costs far less than a revenue share, and the maths gets more favourable every month you grow.

TRY MEMBERFUL →READ THE MEMBERFUL REVIEW →
PRICING
Memberful pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Starter$25 /moplus 4.9% + fees on transactions
Pro$100 /molower per-transaction fee
Premiumsee vendorcustom volume pricing
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST FOR SELLING A PRODUCT TO YOUR LIST

Gumroad

7.8 / 10 · $ · Selling a single thing to your audience

Gumroad is the fastest way to sell something to readers today: upload a file, set a price, share a link, get paid. For newsletter writers that usually means a paid guide, a template pack, a back-catalogue archive or a workshop recording — the natural upgrade for a reader who already trusts you. Checkout works, delivery is handled, VAT and licences are handled for you, and there is nothing to configure. The trade-off is the cut it takes on every sale, which is fine at small volume and expensive once a product sells steadily. The storefront is also unmistakably Gumroad, so it carries less of your brand than a checkout on your own site. Start here to validate that readers will pay for something, and move to a lower-fee setup once the revenue justifies the migration.

TRY GUMROAD →READ THE GUMROAD REVIEW →
PRICING
Gumroad pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /mo10% transaction fee
Premium$10 /molower transaction fee
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
BEST BUILT-IN SPONSORSHIP PATH

Beehiiv

9.0 / 10 · $$ · Growth-focused newsletters

If advertising is your intended model, beehiiv is the only platform on this page that will actively help you sell. Its ad network matches newsletters with advertisers and handles placement and payment once your list crosses a size threshold, and the analytics give you the open, click and cohort numbers a sponsor will ask for before they commit. Even outside the network, having per-post and per-segment data in one dashboard makes a media kit an export rather than a spreadsheet project. The caveats are size and control: below a few thousand engaged subscribers the network has little to offer you, and network-sourced ads are not always the sponsors you would choose. Direct deals still pay better. Treat the network as a floor under your ad revenue rather than the plan, and use the numbers to sell your own placements.

TRY BEEHIIV →READ THE BEEHIIV REVIEW →
PRICING
Beehiiv pricing plans
PLANPRICEWHAT YOU GET
Free$0 /moup to 2,500 subscribers
Growthsee vendorscales with subscriber count
Enterprisesee vendorcustom
LIST PRICES CHANGE OFTEN — CHECK THE VENDOR BEFORE YOU BUY.
EVERYTHING SIDE BY SIDE

The whole stack, one table.

Best Tools for Newsletter Writers 1970 — Tested Picks — every pick compared on job, rating, price and best use
TOOLJOBSCOREFROMBEST FORGET IT
BeehiivNewsletter platform9.0$0/moBest for growth-minded newslettersTRY IT →
SubstackNewsletter platform7.9$0/moBest for writers who want distribution handed to themTRY IT →
KitNewsletter platform8.4$0/moBest for automation and selling to a listTRY IT →
ButtondownNewsletter platform7.6$0/moBest minimal, own-your-list optionTRY IT →
ClaudeWriting & scheduling8.5$0/moBest drafting and editing partnerTRY IT →
TypefullyWriting & scheduling8.3$0/moBest for scheduling and cross-posting the promoTRY IT →
MailerLiteList building & design8.0$0/moBest cheap forms, landing pages and automationTRY IT →
CanvaList building & design8.5$0/moBest for header art, social creative and lead magnetsTRY IT →
MemberfulMonetization7.9$25/moBest for paid subscriptions you controlTRY IT →
GumroadMonetization7.8$0/moBest for selling a product to your listTRY IT →
BeehiivMonetization9.0$0/moBest built-in sponsorship pathTRY IT →
BUYING GUIDE

What to buy at every budget.

$0 / MO
Free

Publish and grow at no cost. Substack if you want discovery, MailerLite's free tier if you want a list you fully control, plus Canva for the creative.

$0–50 / MO
Starter

A paid platform tier, a drafting partner and a promo queue. This is where most serious newsletters live for their first year.

$50–200 / MO
Working writer

Growth network plus real automation, a paid tier you own, and consistent creative. Suits a list in the tens of thousands with revenue attached.

$200+ / MO
Media business

Multiple lists, deep automation, a self-hosted publication, owned subscriptions and site analytics for attribution.

THE WORKFLOW

Need → solution, step by step.

  1. 1. Decide who it is for
    A PROMISE SPECIFIC ENOUGH TO SIGN UP FOR

    Write the one-line promise before the first issue. "Weekly, for X, about Y, in five minutes" beats any growth tactic.

  2. 2. Choose a platform you can leave
    A LIST YOU CAN EXPORT AND REVENUE YOU KEEP

    Pick for discovery (Substack), growth tooling (beehiiv), automation (Kit) or minimalism (Buttondown) — and check the export path before you commit.

    BEEHIIVSUBSTACKKITBUTTONDOWN
  3. 3. Build the capture layer
    A LANDING PAGE AND A WELCOME SEQUENCE

    Put the promise on a landing page, add a form to every page you own, and write three welcome emails that deliver value immediately.

    MAILERLITEKIT
  4. 4. Draft the issue
    A FINISHED PIECE, NOT A BLANK PAGE

    Write the draft in your own voice, then use AI to cut it down, challenge the weak argument and generate subject lines to choose from.

    CLAUDE
  5. 5. Make the creative
    A HEADER AND TWO SOCIAL CARDS

    Reuse a locked template so the visual layer takes minutes and every issue looks like yours.

    CANVAFIGMA
  6. 6. Send and schedule the promo
    DISTRIBUTION AFTER THE SEND

    Schedule the issue, then queue a thread that stands on its own with the link at the end, plus one evergreen repost later in the week.

    TYPEFULLYBUFFER
  7. 7. Turn on referrals and recommendations
    GROWTH THAT COMPOUNDS WITHOUT AD SPEND

    Enable your platform's recommendation network and set one achievable referral reward. Ask once per issue, in the same place.

    BEEHIIVKIT
  8. 8. Add a way to pay you
    REVENUE THAT MATCHES READER INTENT

    Sponsorships if the list is large and niche, an owned paid tier if readers want more of you, a product if they want an outcome.

    MEMBERFULGUMROADBEEHIIV
STRAIGHT ANSWERS

Questions we get asked.

What is the best newsletter platform in 1970?
beehiiv if you want built-in growth and sponsorship tooling, Substack if you want the platform's discovery to do the work, Kit if you sell products to the list, and Buttondown if you want a cheap, minimal tool you fully control.
Can I start a newsletter for free?
Yes. Substack is free until you charge readers, and MailerLite's free tier covers a useful subscriber count with landing pages and automations. Add Canva for creative and you can publish at zero cost.
Substack or beehiiv for a paid newsletter?
Substack takes a percentage of paid revenue indefinitely but gives you real discovery. beehiiv charges a flat platform fee and keeps more of your money as you scale. If paid revenue is already meaningful, the flat fee usually wins.
How do newsletter writers actually make money?
Three routes: sponsorships, which need a few thousand engaged subscribers and clean stats; paid subscriptions, best run through something you own like Memberful; and selling your own product, which Gumroad handles in an afternoon.
KEEP GOING

Discover more creator tools.

Every tool on this page has a full review, tested on a paid plan. Browse the rest of the desk by category, or see which head-to-head fits your shortlist.

BROWSE ALL CATEGORIES →ALL NEWSLETTERS & EMAIL REVIEWS →SEE THE COMPARISONS →
// RELATED

Related reviews and comparisons.

// THE BEST NETWORK

Related content from The Best Network.