Substack is the best place to start a newsletter if you have no audience yet. It's free to publish, its Recommendations, Notes and app put your work in front of readers who have never heard of you, and you pay only when you earn. The price is a 10% cut of paid revenue and less control over the reader relationship than you'd have on your own stack.
We assessed Substack alongside the rest of our newsletters & email reviews, including Buttondown, beehiiv and Kit, so the score below is relative to that field.
What it does well
Distribution is the product. Substack's features page lists Recommendations (writers recommending each other's publications), Notes, category leaderboards and reader referrals. No other newsletter platform builds in a reader network this size, which is why new writers often grow faster here than on tools where every subscriber has to come from outside.
The writing side stays out of the way. One post goes out by email and lives on your Substack site and in the app, and comments and Notes give you a community layer without a separate forum.
Starting costs nothing. Substack says publishing is free with no subscriber limit, and its features page lists custom domains, RSS feeds, sitemaps, SEO metadata, Google site verification and GA4 support.
On paper, ownership is decent. Substack's features page says you can export posts, subscriber lists and stats at any time, payments run through Stripe Connect, and its terms say your subscriber list remains yours.
Where it falls short
The 10% stings as you grow. Substack's going-paid page says writers keep 90% of their revenue minus credit card fees. A flat-fee platform costs the same whether you earn $500 or $50,000 a month; Substack's cut grows with every subscriber.
Owning the list isn't the same as owning the relationship. Your export carries emails, not the Recommendations, Notes followers and app readers who found you inside Substack. Ghost's Substack migration guide also says Substack keeps taking its 10% on existing paid subscriptions after you move unless the fee is removed. That's a competitor's account, so confirm it with Substack before migrating.
Design is limited to Substack's templates, with no custom themes or page builder.
The feed keeps getting more algorithmic. Notes and the app push Substack's own discovery, which helps growth but means readers meet you inside Substack's product, next to everyone else.
Pricing in practice
There's one plan, and no Pro or paid tier:
- Free: $0 to publish. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of that revenue. Stripe's fees come on top: Substack's help center lists 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment and a 0.7% Stripe Billing fee on recurring payments. A custom domain is optional and costs a one-time $50.
Example (assumptions: 1,000 paid subscribers at $5 a month, billed monthly, all paying by US card on the web, with the Stripe fees Substack's help center lists: 2.9% + 30 cents per card payment and a 0.7% Billing fee on recurring payments): $5,000 a month in revenue, $500 to Substack and $480 to Stripe ($445 in card fees plus $35 for Billing), so about $4,020 reaches you. Annual plans cut the per-charge cost.
At that size, the 10% is the biggest line on the bill, which is when flat-priced platforms start to look cheaper.
Who should pick it (and who shouldn't)
Pick Substack if you're starting from zero, want to focus on writing, and value discovery over control. Skip it if you want deep design customization or a site that is clearly your own brand, or if your paid revenue is big enough that 10% outweighs a flat monthly fee.
Alternatives worth comparing
- beehiiv: plan-based pricing, growth tools and ads. See beehiiv vs Substack.
- Ghost: own the site and membership stack with 0% Ghost transaction fees.
- Buttondown: a minimalist option with 0% Buttondown fees on paid subscriptions.
- Our Substack alternatives page and best newsletter platforms roundup cover the rest.
What changed (Oct 7, 2026)
- Plan names, prices and limits now match Substack's official pricing page as checked on Oct 7, 2026.
What changed (Oct 31, 2026)
- Fees now follow the fee table in Substack's help center (substack.com/pricing returns a 404): 10% of each subscription payment, Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment, and a 0.7% Stripe Billing fee on recurring payments.
- The worked example now includes the Billing fee: $480 to Stripe and about $4,020 kept on $5,000 a month (was $445 and $4,055).
- Added the optional one-time $50 custom-domain fee.
SOURCES (CHECKED OCT 31, 2026)
| Claim | Source URL | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Fee table: 10% of each subscription payment; Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment; Stripe Billing 0.7% on recurring payments; optional custom domain one-time $50; publishing free at any subscriber count (article updated Oct 29, 2026; read via the help center public API) | https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037607131-How-much-does-Substack-cost | 2026-10-31 |
| Writers keep 90% of revenue minus credit card fees | https://substack.com/going-paid | 2026-10-31 |
| Official product site | https://substack.com | 2026-10-19 |
| PLAN | PRICE | WHAT YOU GET |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 /mo | no fee to publish; Substack keeps 10% of paid-subscription revenue, plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment and 0.7% Billing fee on recurring payments (per Substack's help center); optional custom domain, one-time $50 |
Writers building an audience from zero.
Skip it if you want deep design customization beyond Substack's simple templates. — if that's a dealbreaker, see every newsletters & email tool we've reviewed.
- Is Substack worth it in 2026?
Distribution dressed as a publishing platform. We rate it 7.9/10, and it's the strongest pick for writers building an audience from zero.
- How much does Substack cost?
Substack is free to publish on. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of that revenue, and Stripe's fees come on top: 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment plus a 0.7% Billing fee on recurring payments, per Substack's help center. A custom domain is optional, at a one-time $50. There is no paid plan or Pro tier.
- What are the downsides of Substack?
You own the subscriber list, not the Substack network and app that helped grow it. 10% take on paid subscriptions stings. Algorithmic feed creep is real.
- How did BestCreates review Substack?
Editorially reviewed: An editorial evaluation of verified product information, official documentation, pricing and features, informed by Carlos Gil's professional experience. Available demos and screenshots may inform the review; documented product use is required for a hands-on label. The score is relative to the other tools we cover in this category.
Distribution dressed as a publishing platform.
Editorially reviewed. An editorial evaluation of verified product information, official documentation, pricing and features, informed by Carlos Gil's professional experience. Available demos and screenshots may inform the review; documented product use is required for a hands-on label. Read our review standards.
BestCreates is written and edited by Carlos Gil. Every tool is assessed against the same documented framework — the jobs creators hire it for, ease of use, pricing accuracy, support and integrations — and each review states in the open how it was assessed.
LAST UPDATED OCT 31, 2026
SIGNED BY CARLOS GIL · FOUNDER & EDITOR, THE BEST NETWORK · OUR DISCLOSURE POLICY