---
title: "The True Cost of Newsletter Platforms, Q4 2026"
description: "Kit vs beehiiv vs MailerLite vs Substack: what you actually pay from 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers. Every price sourced and dated, with a JSON dataset for AI agents."
as_of: 2026-10-14
---

# What does your newsletter platform really cost?

**Kit vs beehiiv vs MailerLite vs Substack, Q4 2026 edition.** Prices from 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers, transaction fees included, with an EU/GDPR lens. Every number is sourced, dated and confidence-rated.

## 3 free findings from the report

1. **MailerLite has the lowest list price at 6 of 7 list sizes we priced.** Its Comfort plan is $19/mo at 1,000 subscribers and $439/mo at 100,000. beehiiv Lite is cheaper at 50,000 ($299 vs $319). *Source: https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing.md, https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing, as of 14 Oct 2026.*
2. **Kit's free plan can run a paid newsletter for $0/month under 10,000 subscribers.** You pay only Kit's 3.5% + 30¢ checkout fee. You do give up automations. *Source: https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan, https://kit.com/pricing.*
3. **Substack's 10% fee makes it the most expensive option once paid revenue grows.** With 8,000 subscribers, it costs more than MailerLite above about $645 MRR. At $25,000 MRR it costs about $4,150/mo, vs about $1,900–2,500 elsewhere. *Calculated from https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037607131-How-much-does-Substack-cost and vendor pricing.*

## Free preview: list price at 10,000 subscribers (monthly billing)

| Platform | Cheapest plan with automations | Paid-subscription take |
|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Comfort $89/mo | 0% (Stripe fees only) |
| Kit | Creator $139/mo (Free plan: $0, no automations) | 3.5% + 30¢ incl. processing |
| beehiiv | Lite $139/mo | 0% (Stripe fees only) |
| Substack | $0 | 10% + Stripe |

*The full report has every tier from 1k to 100k+, annual pricing, four worked paid-newsletter scenarios, and the EU data-residency comparison.*

## What's inside (12 sections)

- Executive summary and quick picks by persona
- Full price ladders for all four platforms (Kit 44 tiers, beehiiv 11, MailerLite 29, in USD and EUR)
- Paid-newsletter scenarios at 8k, 25k and 100k subscribers, all-in cost with % of MRR
- Monetization economics (take rates, ad network, paid recommendations)
- Feature-fit matrix, deliverability and support tiers
- **EU/GDPR lens:** where your subscribers' data lives, DPAs, sub-processors, and the Data Privacy Framework status flag on one vendor
- AI/agent readiness (MCP servers, llms.txt, APIs)
- Migration and lock-in, plus a price-change log and source register

## Formats and pricing

| Edition | Includes | Price |
|---|---|---|
| **Personal** | PDF + web/Markdown version | **$39** |
| **Data / Team** | PDF + `report.json` (full structured dataset) + internal-use licence | **$119** |
| **Pricing Watch** | All updates, monthly change digest, JSON feed | **$15/mo or $129/yr** |

[Buy the report →](PLACEHOLDER-CHECKOUT) · [Get the free price cheat-sheet (JSON/CSV) by email →](PLACEHOLDER-SIGNUP)

## For AI agents and developers

A machine-readable summary is at `/report-summary.json`. Each record carries `source_url`, `as_of` and `confidence`. Site guide: `/llms.txt`.

## Method and independence

- Prices come from official vendor sources: pricing pages, machine-readable pricing files, help centres and legal pages. Kit's tier table was taken from kit.com's own pricing code and checked against two independent captures.
- Rankings are pure cost formulas, published in the report and fixed before data collection.
- **Disclosure:** we may earn affiliate commissions from Kit, beehiiv and MailerLite. That never changes a calculation. Not legal or tax advice.