Creator Beehiiv
A publication website, unlimited sends and a recommendation network on the free plan (up to 2,500 subscribers). Referral program, ads and paid subscriptions on Scale.
Best newsletter tools for creators (2026): a pick for every kind of creator
My decision-oriented shortlist, not a paid ranking. The criteria I used: solo-creator fit, publishing workflow, automation depth, and cost clarity. Every free-plan limit and starting price below comes from the vendors' own pages. Pricing and features change, so confirm on each vendor's site.
How I made this page: I worked from each vendor’s public pricing pages, product docs and help centers, checked on September 25, 2026 (sources at the bottom). I have not done hands-on paid testing of these tools, and I don’t claim to. Affiliate status: My Beehiiv, Buttondown, Systeme.io and EmailOctopus links are partner referral links, so I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Kit, MailerLite, GetResponse and Flodesk are not affiliates, and I link to their plain official URLs. The same goes for the other six tools in More email tools worth a look. See the disclosure.
Quick picks by creator type
Kit
Tagging, visual automations and sequences on paid plans. Digital products and paid newsletters work on every plan, including Free (up to 10,000 subscribers).
Beehiiv
Podcast hosting and distribution sit next to the newsletter on every plan, and you can import an existing show by RSS feed.
Kit (or Beehiiv)
Kit's free plan covers the biggest list of any tool here. Pick Beehiiv if you want a newsletter website and link-in-bio page too.
Buttondown
A rich text or Markdown editor, custom sending domain and hosted archive, free for your first 100 subscribers. You add features à la carte.
MailerLite
A Free plan for up to 250 subscribers, and paid plans from $12/month with forms, landing pages, a website builder and automations.
Flodesk
Design-forward emails with unlimited sends on every paid plan. The Free plan builds your list but doesn't send.
GetResponse
Its Creator plan bundles premium newsletters, a course creator, webinars and a website builder in one account.
Ghost
A branded publication website with newsletters and memberships. Ghost(Pro) takes no transaction fee on paid subscriptions from the Publisher plan up.
Free plans and starting prices compared
All figures come from each vendor's official pricing page or help center, checked September 25, 2026, in USD. "Starts at" is the lowest published paid price, usually for about 1,000 subscribers or contacts, and every tool here charges more as your list grows.
| Tool | Free plan (per vendor) | Paid plans start at | Paid newsletter / subscriptions | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beehiiv | Launch: up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sends, custom domain, website | Scale $49/mo monthly, or $43/mo billed annually (up to 1,000 subscribers) | Scale and Max; 0% take rate (Stripe fees apply) | beehiiv.com My Beehiiv guide |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms | Creator $33/mo billed yearly (1,000 subscribers) | All plans; 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card processing included | kit.com Kit vs Beehiiv |
| MailerLite | Up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month | Comfort "starting $12/month" | Comfort and Power, through Stripe | mailerlite.com My MailerLite guide |
| Buttondown | Free for your first 100 subscribers | Set by list size on the pricing slider; add-ons from +$9/mo | Paid subscriptions add-on (+$9/mo); Buttondown takes no cut beyond card fees | buttondown.com |
| Flodesk | Forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages; no email sending | Lite $25/mo, or $19/mo billed annually (1,000 subscribers) | Everything plan ($54/mo at 1,000 subscribers) | flodesk.com My Flodesk guide |
| GetResponse | Up to 500 contacts and 2,500 newsletters/month; premium features for the first 14 days | Starter $19/mo monthly (1,000 contacts, US pricing) | Premium newsletters on Creator ($69/mo at 1,000 contacts, monthly) | getresponse.com My GetResponse guide |
| Ghost(Pro) | Hosted plans are paid (Ghost itself is open source) | Starter $18/mo billed yearly (1,000 members) | Publisher and up ($29/mo billed yearly); 0% Ghost transaction fees | ghost.org |
| Mailchimp | Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month (250 a day) | Essentials, priced by contact count (see pricing page) | Not a focus of this shortlist | mailchimp.com |
| Substack (for reference) | Publishing is free at any list size | No plan fee | Substack takes 10% of each paid transaction, plus Stripe fees | substack.com |
Sources are listed at the bottom of the page, all checked September 25, 2026. GetResponse prices are from the US view of its pricing page, and it shows other currencies in other regions. Ghost prices are the yearly-billing figures shown on ghost.org/pricing.
Reading the free plans honestly. "Free" means very different things here. Kit's free plan holds the most subscribers (10,000). Beehiiv's has the most publishing tools (a website, podcast hosting and unlimited sends, for up to 2,500). MailerLite (250 subscribers) and Mailchimp (250 contacts) suit a test list more than a growing newsletter. Flodesk's Free plan doesn't send at all, and GetResponse's switches off scheduling and automations after 14 days.
The shortlist, tool by tool
Beehiiv: best for newsletter-first creators and podcasters
Why it's here: it treats the newsletter as a publication, with a website, recommendations and (on paid plans) a referral program, the Ad Network, paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate, and digital products. Podcast hosting is on every plan: 1 episode a month on Launch, 4 on Scale, unlimited on Max. Watch-outs: automations beyond a single welcome email start on Scale, branding removal needs Max, and prices rise with your list (Scale is $109/month on monthly billing at 10,000 subscribers). Details are in my Beehiiv guide.
Kit: best for selling courses, products and paid newsletters by email
Why it's here: tagging, segmentation, visual automations and sequences are the core of Kit's paid plans. Commerce (digital products, recurring subscriptions, paid newsletters and tip jars) works on every plan for 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, which Kit says includes card processing. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. Watch-outs: visual automations and sequences are listed from Creator, and Kit's pricing page doesn't list podcast hosting. See Kit vs Beehiiv.
MailerLite: best for budget-conscious, design-flexible email
Why it's here: campaigns, forms, landing pages, a website builder and automations with predictable pricing. Paid newsletters and digital products through Stripe start on Comfort. Watch-outs: the Free plan is small (250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month), and Comfort caps monthly emails at 10× the top of your subscriber tier. See my MailerLite guide and Beehiiv vs MailerLite.
Buttondown: best for minimal, writing-first newsletters
Why it's here: a rich text or Markdown editor, sending from a custom domain and hosted archives, free for your first 100 subscribers. You pay for extras à la carte: tagging, paid subscriptions, analytics and RSS-to-email are each +$9/month, and automations are +$29/month. Buttondown says it takes no cut of paid-subscription revenue beyond card fees and charges only for active subscribers. Watch-outs: Buttondown's prices assume at most one email a day to your whole list. More than that needs usage-based pricing. See Buttondown.
Flodesk: best for visual brands that send polished emails
Why it's here: design-led templates with unlimited email sends on every paid plan, priced by active subscribers. Watch-outs: the Free plan covers forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages but doesn't include email sending or workflow automations. Recurring subscriptions need the Everything plan. See my Flodesk guide.
GetResponse: best for creators who teach (courses, webinars, newsletter)
Why it's here: unlimited monthly sends on paid plans, and a Creator plan that GetResponse describes as "everything you need to create, market, and monetize your knowledge". Watch-outs: the Free account (500 contacts) keeps premium features only for the first 14 days, and premium newsletters need the Creator plan. See my GetResponse guide.
Ghost: best for owning a branded publication site
Why it's here: a publication website with newsletters and memberships. Ghost(Pro) Starter is $18/month billed yearly for up to 1,000 members, and paid subscriptions start on Publisher ($29/month billed yearly) with no Ghost transaction fees (payment processor fees still apply). Watch-outs: Starter doesn't include paid subscriptions, and hosted Ghost is a paid service. See ghost.org.
Mailchimp: familiar, but more than most solo newsletters need
Why it's here: many clients and collaborators already use it. Watch-outs: its Free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day), and Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward your total, per its help center. See mailchimp.com.
More email tools worth a look
These eight tools aren't on my main shortlist, but each one fits a particular kind of solo creator. As with the rest of this page, this is research from each vendor's official pricing and help pages, checked September 25, 2026, not hands-on testing. None of these are affiliate links except EmailOctopus's and Systeme.io's, which are partner referral links, so I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Each of the other cards links to the vendor's plain pricing page. When a vendor shows paid prices only on a list-size slider, I've left the figure out rather than guess.
Sender (sender.net)
Sender suits a solo creator who wants a generous free plan with automation and signup popups included. Its Free Forever plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month. It includes newsletters, email automation, landing pages, signup forms and popups, and transactional emails.
Sender's paid plans are priced by list size on a slider, so I'm not quoting a figure. Sender says its 30% annual-billing discount is for first-time users, and its prices exclude VAT.
Limitation: the free plan has 1 seat and puts Sender branding on your emails, forms and popups. Branding comes off on paid plans.
AWeber
AWeber suits creators who want established email marketing with landing pages, RSS-to-email and built-in selling. I didn't find a free plan on its pricing page, which offers a 14-day free trial instead.
Lite starts at $15/month on monthly billing for up to 500 subscribers, shown as $12.49/month billed annually. Plus is $30/month on monthly billing at 500 subscribers ($19.99/month billed annually) and unlocks unlimited lists, landing pages and automations.
Limitation: Lite caps you at 1 email list, 3 landing pages, 3 email automations and 1 custom segment. Its sales transaction fee is 1.0%, versus 0.6% on Plus.
EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus suits writers who want a simple, low-cost newsletter tool without many extras. Its free Starter plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, with no time limit and no credit card. There's no free trial; EmailOctopus points you to the free plan instead.
The paid Pro plan is priced by list size on a slider, so I'm not quoting a figure. Yearly billing saves 10%. Pro adds full design control, reports that don't expire, unlimited landing pages and forms, and unlimited users.
Limitation: on Starter, your emails carry EmailOctopus branding, reports last only 30 days, and you get 1 landing page, 1 form and 1 user.
Podia
Podia suits creators who sell courses, digital downloads, coaching or a community and want email in the same place. There's no free plan. You get a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and after that you need a paid plan to keep using Podia Email.
Mover is $49/month billed monthly or $42/month billed annually, with a 5% Podia transaction fee. Shaker and Earthquaker have no Podia fee, though Stripe or PayPal still charge their own.
Limitation: Mover includes Podia Email for only 100 subscribers (Shaker 500, Earthquaker 1,000). A growing list means paying for more subscribers or moving up a plan.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign suits creators and small businesses whose email runs mostly on automation: multi-step sequences, segmentation and CRM-style contact records. There's no free plan; the pricing page offers a 14-day free trial.
Its pricing summary lists Starter from $15/month, Plus from $49/month and Pro from $79/month, all billed annually. Starter and Plus allow monthly email sends up to 10× your contact limit.
Limitation: Starter allows only 5 actions per automation, 1 user and limited segmentation, and landing pages start on Plus. The automation depth ActiveCampaign is known for costs more than the entry price suggests.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact pitches itself to small businesses. It fits creators with a business side, like local events, a studio or a nonprofit, better than it fits newsletter-first writers. There's no free plan (it calls itself "a paid platform"), but there's a free trial with no credit card, and new plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Lite starts at $12/month, or $10.20/month if you prepay for 12 months. Prices rise with your contacts and email sends.
Limitation: Lite gives you 1 user, 1 automation template, and monthly sends up to 10× your contacts. Sends beyond your allowance cost $0.002 each.
Moosend
Moosend suits creators who want automation workflows, landing pages and forms at a modest price and don't mind starting with a trial. The 30-day free trial needs no credit card and includes unlimited sends for up to 1,000 contacts, but only 1 published automation, plus 1 form and 1 landing page that stay unpublished.
The Pro plan is priced by contact count on a slider, so I'm not quoting a figure. Moosend says bi-annual billing saves 15% and annual billing saves 20%. There's also a pay-as-you-go option with email credits that never expire.
Limitation: there's no free plan. After 30 days you have to buy a subscription or credits to keep sending.
Systeme.io
Systeme.io suits creators on a tight budget who want email, sales funnels, courses and a website under one login. Its free plan covers up to 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 course, 1 blog and 1 custom domain. Email sends are unlimited and you don't need a credit card.
Startup is $17/month for 5,000 contacts, unlimited funnels and 5 courses. The pricing page also offers annual billing with "2 months free", and systeme.io says every plan has 0% transaction fees.
Limitation: the free plan caps you at 3 funnels and 1 course. If you cancel a paid plan with more than 2,000 contacts, the contacts over the limit are archived until you upgrade again.
What changes as your list grows
Free plans are where most creators start, so it helps to know where each one ends. Based on official pricing and docs, checked 2026-09-25:
- At 100 subscribers you outgrow Buttondown's free tier. Its base price then follows the list-size slider on its pricing page, and each add-on is extra.
- At 250 you reach the limit of MailerLite's Free plan (250 subscribers) and Mailchimp's (250 contacts, counting unsubscribed contacts).
- At 500 you reach the limit of GetResponse's Free account.
- At 2,500 you outgrow Beehiiv Launch. Scale is $69/month on monthly billing at that size.
- At 10,000 you outgrow Kit's free plan. For comparison, Beehiiv Scale is $109/month on monthly billing at 10,000 subscribers.
If you plan to charge readers, a quick example shows why fees matter as much as plan prices. On $1,000 a month of paid subscriptions, Substack's 10% is $100 before Stripe fees. Beehiiv takes 0% on Scale, but the plan itself starts at $49 a month on monthly billing. Kit charges 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction with card processing included, so your cost there depends on how many payments make up that $1,000.
How to pick in three questions
- Is the newsletter the product, or a sales channel? Product: Beehiiv, Ghost or Buttondown. Sales channel: Kit, MailerLite, GetResponse or Flodesk.
- How many subscribers will you have in 12 months? Price the tool at that size, not today's. Kit's free plan lasts longest; Beehiiv's covers up to 2,500.
- Will you charge readers? Compare take rates. Beehiiv is 0% on paid plans, Buttondown takes no cut (with the +$9/month add-on), Kit charges 3.5% + 30¢ including card processing, Ghost(Pro) is 0% from Publisher up, and Substack takes 10%.
For the long version, read how to choose a newsletter tool, then see how the pieces fit in the Creator Mail Stack.
FAQ
What is the best free newsletter platform?
It depends on what "free" needs to cover. For the biggest free list, Kit (up to 10,000 subscribers). For unlimited sends plus a website on a free plan, Beehiiv (up to 2,500 subscribers). For free publishing with no subscriber cap, Substack, which takes 10% only if you charge. All checked September 25, 2026.
What software should I use for a newsletter?
Use a newsletter platform or email service provider, not your personal inbox. Pick by job: Beehiiv or Ghost to publish, Kit or MailerLite to market and sell, and Buttondown to keep things minimal. The quick picks above map each creator type to a tool.
What is the best newsletter platform for monetization?
On platform fees alone: Beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscriptions on Scale and Max and has an Ad Network. Ghost(Pro) takes 0% from Publisher up. Buttondown takes no cut with its paid-subscriptions add-on. Kit charges 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction including card processing, on every plan. Substack takes 10%. Card processing fees apply everywhere.
What's the best newsletter platform for beginners?
Start on a free plan that fits your first year: Beehiiv if you want a newsletter website, Kit if you expect a large free list, or Buttondown if you want the simplest editor. Upgrade when you need automations or paid subscriptions.
Is Substack free?
Substack's help center says publishing is free no matter how many subscribers you have. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of each transaction and Stripe charges its own fees.
Is Kit the same as ConvertKit?
Yes. Kit describes itself as "formerly ConvertKit" on its own site, so older guides and reviews that mention ConvertKit are talking about the same product.
Why aren't there star ratings?
Because I haven't done hands-on paid testing of these tools, and ratings would imply I had. Everything here comes from official pricing and docs, with dates.
All guides and comparisons
- Beehiiv for creators: pricing, free plan limits and setup
- MailerLite for newsletter creators (plans, limits, setup)
- GetResponse for newsletter creators (plans, limits, setup)
- Flodesk for newsletter creators (plans, limits, setup)
- Kit vs Beehiiv
- Beehiiv vs MailerLite
- Beehiiv vs Substack
- How to choose a newsletter tool
- All guides · All comparisons
- Full Creator Mail Stack
- How affiliate links work on this site
Sources (checked September 25, 2026)
- https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing and https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing.md: Beehiiv plans and tier prices
- https://kit.com/pricing: Kit plans, prices and fees
- https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing: MailerLite plans and limits
- https://buttondown.com/pricing and https://buttondown.com/features/paid-subscriptions: Buttondown pricing, add-ons, paid subscriptions
- https://flodesk.com/pricing: Flodesk plans and FAQ
- https://www.getresponse.com/pricing and https://www.getresponse.com/pricing/free: GetResponse plans and Free account
- https://ghost.org/pricing/: Ghost(Pro) plans; https://ghost.org/: "Ghost is open source"
- https://mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/: Mailchimp Free plan limits
- https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037607131-How-much-does-Substack-cost: Substack fees
- https://www.sender.net/pricing/: Sender Free Forever plan, paid-plan features and FAQ (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://www.aweber.com/pricing.htm: AWeber Lite and Plus plans, pricing tiers and 14-day trial (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://emailoctopus.com/pricing: EmailOctopus Starter and Pro plans and FAQ (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://www.podia.com/pricing: Podia plans, transaction fees and Podia Email subscriber limits (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://www.activecampaign.com/pricing and https://www.activecampaign.com/lp/pricing-summary: ActiveCampaign plans, send limits, free trial and starting prices (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://www.constantcontact.com/pricing: Constant Contact plans, free trial, send limits and overage fees (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://moosend.com/pricing/: Moosend free trial, plans, billing discounts and credits (checked 2026-09-25)
- https://systeme.io/pricing: Systeme.io plans, free plan limits and pricing FAQ (checked 2026-09-25)
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. I run Creator Mail Stack independently, and none of these vendors endorse it. Found something out of date? Tell me.