Substack Review
Newsletter platform that takes a cut of your subscription revenue instead of charging a monthly fee
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Looking for a Substack alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is Substack?
Substack is a newsletter and publishing platform built around a simple deal: you write, they handle hosting, email delivery, payments, and a built-in discovery network called Notes. You don't pay a subscription fee to use it. Instead, Substack takes 10% of whatever your paid readers pay you, and Stripe takes its usual cut on top of that for processing the card payment.
That means the platform costs nothing if you never charge for your writing, and scales with you if you do. It also means there's no tier to upgrade into for more features. Every publication gets the same tools: a website, an app presence, podcast and video hosting, Notes (Substack's social feed), and Substack-run recommendations that can drive new subscribers from other newsletters.
The tradeoff is that Substack keeps a percentage forever. A newsletter earning $30,000 a month in subscriptions hands over roughly $4,000 of that to Substack and Stripe combined, and that cut doesn't shrink as you grow, unlike a flat monthly software fee.
Substack screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Writers who want to start a paid newsletter with zero upfront cost and no plan to compare
- ✓ Creators who value Substack's built-in discovery (Notes, recommendations) to find new readers
- ✓ Anyone who wants writing, podcast, and video hosting bundled into one product without picking a plan
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ High-revenue newsletters where a flat monthly fee would beat losing 10%+ of revenue forever
- ✗ Creators who want detailed subscriber analytics or marketing automation beyond open and click rates
- ✗ Publishers who want full control of pricing and packaging without Substack's standard subscription model
Pros
- + Free to publish, with no monthly fee gating any core feature
- + Payments, hosting, delivery, and a social/discovery layer (Notes) are all built in, so there's nothing else to wire up
- + Recommendations from other Substack writers can bring in subscribers without you doing outbound marketing
- + One flat 10% cut, not a maze of feature-gated tiers
Cons
- – The 10% cut never goes away and never shrinks, so it gets more expensive in dollar terms the bigger you get
- – Stripe processing fees stack on top of Substack's cut, so the real cost is closer to 13-16% of revenue
- – Analytics are basic (opens, clicks) compared with dedicated email marketing tools
- – A custom domain costs a one-time $50, and full data export or migration off Substack takes extra work
Substack pricing
What you pay for
You don't pay Substack anything to publish. You only pay once you charge readers, and then Substack takes 10% of every payment plus normal card processing fees on top. There's no published price list because there's no flat fee to list, just that revenue cut. A custom domain is a one-time $50 add-on.
No public entry price to compare, so budget depends on a sales quote.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing is quote-only. Contact the vendor for a quote. | ||
Substack has no monthly software fee. Publishing and free newsletters cost nothing. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of that subscription revenue, on top of payment processing costs (Stripe charges roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, plus a 0.7% recurring billing fee; the 0.5% legacy rate for pre-July 2024 subscribers expired June 30, 2025, so 0.7% now applies to everyone). On a $10/month subscriber, that works out to Substack and Stripe keeping around $1.66 combined, leaving you roughly $8.34. A custom domain is a one-time $50 fee per publication. There is no self-serve Pro or Enterprise tier; larger deals are handled case by case with no published price.
Pricing verified July 7, 2026 · source
How Substack's pricing compares
Substack next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | Free tier + custom | revenue-share | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Patreon | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Memberful | $49/mo | flat + transaction fee | Trial (Free until you go live and start accepting real payments) | Partly public |
| Ko-fi | Free tier + custom | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Buy Me a Coffee | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
Is Substack still actively developed?
Last significant update: July 2026. Substack added subscriber perks (discount codes, downloads, event invites for paid readers), saved Notes, scheduled Chats, polls in Notes, new text formatting options, a redesigned podcast player with offline listening and playback speed, RSS-based podcast distribution, and MCP support so tools like Claude and ChatGPT can pull publication analytics.
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Substack FAQ
How much does Substack really cost?+
Nothing to publish. Once you charge for subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of that revenue, and Stripe takes about 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction plus a small recurring billing fee. Combined, that's roughly 13-16% of what readers pay you.
Is there a free plan?+
Yes. Publishing a free newsletter costs nothing regardless of subscriber count. You only pay Substack once you turn on paid subscriptions.
Does Substack have paid plans or tiers for creators?+
No. There's a single model: free to use, 10% of paid subscription revenue if you charge readers. There's no self-serve Pro or Enterprise plan with a published price.
Can I use my own domain?+
Yes, for a one-time $50 fee per publication. You still need to buy the domain itself from a registrar.