How to move your newsletter off Substack (and keep your paid subscribers)

Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links for beehiiv, Kit and MailerLite. If you sign up through them, BestCreates may earn a commission. Ghost, Buttondown and Substack links are plain links. Commissions don't affect the comparison below or the order we discuss destinations in. How we make money.

Review status: Editorially reviewed · By Carlos Gil · Researched Oct 10, 2026

You can leave Substack with your free list, your archive and most of your paying readers. The free list and posts are a download. Paid subscribers are the hard part, and whether they keep paying without re-entering a card depends on where you go. beehiiv, Ghost and Buttondown document a Stripe-based transfer. Kit and MailerLite tell you to ask readers to resubscribe. Before you move, read one warning from Substack's own help center: the "Disconnect Stripe" button refunds and cancels every paid subscription. Don't touch it.

If you haven't picked a destination yet, start with our best newsletter platforms roundup or Substack alternatives. This guide is for creators running a newsletter as a publication or paid product. If you're moving a business marketing list between email tools, our sister site BestSends covers that.

How paid subscribers actually move

Substack runs payments through Stripe Connect. Your paying readers' cards and subscriptions live in a Stripe account connected to your publication, and Substack takes its cut from each payment. Substack's help center lists that cut as 10% of each subscription payment, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment and a 0.7% Stripe Billing fee on recurring payments.

A new platform can take them over two ways:

• Same Stripe account. Ghost and Buttondown connect to the Stripe account Substack already uses and pick up the existing subscriptions. Buttondown's docs say readers won't have to re-enter card details or reconfirm.
• Copy to a new Stripe account. beehiiv has you transfer customer records from the Substack-connected Stripe account into a new beehiiv-connected one, then recreate each subscription at the reader's current price. You then pause billing in Substack so nobody is charged twice.

Kit and MailerLite don't document either route for Substack. Kit's Substack guide says there's "no convenient method" to move paid subscriptions with payment details, and suggests cancelling them in Substack and asking readers to resubscribe. MailerLite's Substack page recommends a re-subscription campaign, with a discount if you like.

App subscribers are the exception everywhere. Readers who paid inside Substack's iOS app paid Apple, not Stripe. beehiiv's guide says those subscriptions can't be transferred. The workaround is to give those readers free access until their paid period ends and ask them to cancel in the App Store and subscribe again on your new site. beehiiv says the same applies to comped and gifted subscriptions, which aren't in Stripe. Buttondown says it detects comps in your export and maps them over as gift subscriptions.

Does Substack keep its 10% after you move?

It depends on the route, and Substack doesn't answer this on any help page we found.

• Ghost's claim: Ghost's Substack migration guide says "Substack will continue to take 10% fees on your existing paid subscriptions," and offers to help get the fees removed. That is Ghost's description of a competitor's billing, not Substack's.
• Buttondown's account: Buttondown calls it a "10% application fee" and tells you to ask Substack support to remove it without cancelling or refunding subscriptions. Its docs say Substack can remove the cut on request.
• beehiiv's route sidesteps the question: the subscriptions are recreated in a new Stripe account and Substack billing is paused. beehiiv doesn't state whether any Substack fee follows.
• Substack's own help says only that if you're moving platforms and need help disconnecting Stripe, you should ask its support widget for a human specialist.

Our read: on any same-Stripe route, assume the 10% continues until Substack confirms in writing that it has removed it. Ask before you switch, not after.

Pre-move checklist

Do these before you import anything.

1. Count your paid readers by type. On your Substack Subscribers page, filter by type: card (Stripe), iOS app, comps and gifts. Each group moves differently.
2. Export everything. Substack's help center says an export from your publication Settings creates a zip with your posts, subscriber list and related statistics. Its features page says posts come as CSV plus HTML. Also export the subscriber CSV with "all columns" (last-opened dates, post views and more), and export iOS subscribers separately.
3. Note expiration and renewal dates. beehiiv recommends using the expiration date column to size free access for app, comp and gift readers.
4. Check your Stripe access. Log in to Stripe directly and confirm you can see the Substack-connected account and its customers. Every transfer route depends on it.
5. Decide on your domain. If your Substack runs on your own domain, you keep the domain and point it at the new platform. If you're on yourname.substack.com, those URLs stay with Substack.
6. Mirror your prices. Set up tiers on the new platform that match your Substack monthly, annual and founding prices before you import paid readers.
7. Ask Substack about the fee. If you're using a same-Stripe route, open a support request first.
8. Pick a switch date after which you stop publishing on Substack.

The migration process, step by step

This is the decision-level process that applies to every destination. For click-by-click instructions, our sister site BestSends has detailed migration steps for moving from Substack to beehiiv and moving from Substack to Kit.

This is the order of operations the vendors' guides share. Exact clicks differ by platform, so follow your destination's own guide for each step.

1. Set up the new publication. Create a default template (beehiiv suggests doing this first so imported posts pick it up) and connect Stripe: the same account Substack uses for Ghost and Buttondown, a new beehiiv-connected account for beehiiv.
2. Import your archive. beehiiv takes your Substack URL for free posts plus the export zip for paywalled ones. Ghost's migrator takes the zip. Buttondown imports the zip from its Emails tab. Kit has no post importer in its Substack guide: you recreate past issues as Broadcasts and backdate them, or ask Kit's migration team. MailerLite's Substack page doesn't describe a post import.
3. Import your free list. Upload the subscriber CSV. Import only people who opted in.
4. Move paid subscribers. Follow your destination's route: same Stripe account (Ghost, Buttondown), customer copy plus recreated subscriptions (beehiiv), or a tagged list plus a resubscribe campaign (Kit, MailerLite). On beehiiv, download the migration preview CSV and check the tier mapping before you start the import.
5. Stop Substack charging. On beehiiv's route, pause subscription billing in Substack (Settings, Payments) indefinitely. Substack's help says pausing freezes billing cycles, blocks new paid signups and doesn't notify subscribers. On same-Stripe routes, ask Substack support to remove its fee without cancelling subscriptions. Buttondown warns not to disconnect from the Substack dashboard.
6. Handle app, comp and gift readers. Grant free access for the time they've already paid for, then email the app subscribers about cancelling in the App Store.
7. Move your domain and redirects. Point your custom domain at the new platform and make sure old links resolve (see below).
8. Fix the details readers notice. Ghost suggests changing your Stripe statement descriptor if it still says Substack. beehiiv suggests turning on Stripe's failed-payment and expiring-card emails, which are off by default in a new Stripe account.
9. Announce and send. Post a short note on Substack, then send your first issue from the new platform.
10. Keep Substack until you've checked. Buttondown recommends confirming that all images in imported posts now load from the new host before deleting your Substack account.

Destinations compared

Facts below are from each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages, checked October 10, 2026. "Paid readers keep paying" means existing card subscriptions continue without readers re-entering payment details, according to that vendor.

Prices in USD. Buttondown's archives on a custom domain are a separate +$29/mo add-on.

Who each fits. beehiiv (visit beehiivAFFILIATE) has the most detailed Substack guide, including app subscribers, and suits newsletters that also earn from sponsors and ads. Ghost (ghost.org) suits writers who want a full publishing site and no platform cut, and are comfortable adding a redirect rule. Buttondown (buttondown.com) has the simplest documented paid transfer and redirects. Kit (visit KitAFFILIATE) and MailerLite (visit MailerLiteAFFILIATE) fit writers whose paid base is small enough to re-sell, or who care more about automations and selling products than keeping every subscription intact. For the platforms head to head, see beehiiv vs Substack, beehiiv vs Ghost and Kit vs beehiiv.

What would change this: a documented Stripe transfer from Kit or MailerLite, or a Substack statement on its fee after a move.

Your domain and redirects

If you publish on your own domain through Substack (Substack charges a one-time $50 to connect one, per its help center), you keep the domain and its search history. Substack post URLs use a /p/ path, so old links look like yourdomain.com/p/post-name. Your new platform has to answer those:

• beehiiv says that when you migrate from Substack, your post URL structure transfers automatically once you connect the domain.
• Ghost uses /p/ for post previews, so its guide gives a redirect rule that sends /p/post-name to /post-name without breaking previews.
• Buttondown says it redirects old URLs for posts migrated from Substack automatically.
• Kit and MailerLite don't document Substack redirects. Plan to set them up yourself or accept broken links.

If you're on yourname.substack.com, old links keep pointing at Substack. Buttondown suggests keeping the Substack account in that case so old posts stay reachable.

What you lose

• Readers who follow but don't subscribe. Notes followers and app readers who never joined your list aren't in your export.
• Network discovery. Recommendations from other Substack writers, Notes and the Substack app send readers to you inside Substack. That growth channel doesn't move.
• Comments. None of the five destinations' guides documents importing Substack comments, and beehiiv lists them as not migrated.
• Engagement history as history. You can carry some fields as columns (beehiiv suggests importing Substack's activity rating as a custom field), but your new platform's analytics start on import day. beehiiv shows the import date as the signup date unless you ask its support to add original dates.
• Subscriber names, possibly. Substack's help center says its subscriber export doesn't include full names, though beehiiv's guide lists a name field. Check your own file.
• Some post types. beehiiv says video posts, podcast posts, photo galleries, category structure and exact paywall placement don't migrate through its importer.

Example timeline

Example. Assumptions: a publication on its own domain with a few hundred paying readers by card and a few dozen app subscribers, moving to a platform with a Stripe transfer. Vendor timings are their claims.

Buttondown puts a self-serve move at 15-30 minutes of active work; Kit's migration team quotes 2-5 business days. Start with Substack's support reply on fees, since you can't control its timing.

For the rest of your setup, see our best tools for newsletter writers and the best newsletter platforms.