The wrong platform rarely hurts on day one. It hurts after the list, revenue, and automations grow. Decide whether the newsletter is the product, sells the product, or supports a customer journey—then price the entire system at the point you expect to reach.
Start with what the email must accomplish
A publisher needs an archive, discovery, paid subscriptions, and sponsorship tools. A creator selling courses needs tagging, sequences, and commerce. A service business needs lead stages and behavior-triggered follow-up. Those are different operating systems. Choose the job first; otherwise a polished editor can hide a structural mismatch.
Price the behavior, not the headline plan
Forecast active contacts, stored contacts, monthly sends, audiences, seats, automations, and paid revenue at 1,000, 10,000, and 50,000 readers. A subscriber-priced service punishes list growth; a send-priced service punishes frequency; a revenue-share service becomes expensive only after paid conversion. The cheapest starting plan and the cheapest successful plan are often different products.
Make deliverability a launch requirement
Use a domain you control and verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC before promoting the list. Google requires SPF or DKIM for all Gmail senders; senders above 5,000 daily Gmail messages must use SPF, DKIM, DMARC alignment, and one-click unsubscribe for promotional mail. Keep complaints below Google’s 0.3% threshold. A platform can supply infrastructure, but your consent, targeting, cadence, and list hygiene create the reputation.
Treat portability as more than a CSV
Before committing, create test subscribers with source, consent date, tags, custom fields, subscription status, and an unsubscribe. Export everything. Verify that suppression records, paid status, content archives, forms, domains, and automation logic can be preserved or reconstructed. An email address export is useful; a reproducible business is better.
Choose the operating model first
The editor is visible. The billing model, export quality, and automation ceiling are what determine whether you regret the decision later.
The newsletter is the product
beehiiv, Substack, or GhostThese center publishing, archives, subscriptions, and audience growth instead of treating the newsletter as one campaign channel.
Ghost favors brand and payment ownership; beehiiv favors built-in growth and monetization; Substack favors the lowest-friction network launch.Email sells your products or expertise
Kit or MailerLiteBoth connect broadcasts with forms, segmentation, automations, and digital-product workflows without requiring a full CRM.
Kit suits a developed creator business; MailerLite stays compelling when simplicity and controlled cost matter most.Email follows a customer journey
ActiveCampaign, Brevo, or MailchimpBehavior, transactions, segmentation, sales data, and multichannel follow-up matter more than a public publication page.
Use ActiveCampaign for automation depth, Brevo for send-volume economics, or Mailchimp when its ecosystem already fits the operation.I need a clean, inexpensive first list
EmailOctopus or ButtondownThey remove suite complexity. EmailOctopus offers a generous free allowance; Buttondown favors writing-focused, low-friction publishing.
Graduate only when a measured need—automation, commerce, CRM, referrals, or governance—outgrows the simpler system.Four customers. Four different right answers.
New writer · 300 readers · no revenue
- Start with
- EmailOctopus · alternate: Kit
- Why
- EmailOctopus leaves room to grow inside its documented 2,500-subscriber and 10,000-send free allowance. Kit is stronger if products and sequences are already planned.
- Revisit when
- Reconsider when advanced segmentation, a referral loop, paid membership, or a branded publication site becomes a measured requirement.
Creator · 5,000 readers · courses and downloads
- Start with
- Kit · alternate: MailerLite
- Why
- Kit’s tags, sequences, forms, and creator-commerce model align email with sales. MailerLite is the leaner alternative when automations remain straightforward.
- Revisit when
- Reconsider only if a CRM must own the customer journey or if newsletter advertising becomes the primary revenue model.
Paid publication · 10,000 free · 500 paid
- Start with
- Ghost or beehiiv · alternate: Substack
- Why
- At $10 monthly per paid reader, gross subscription revenue is $5,000 monthly. Substack’s documented 10% share is $500 monthly before Stripe; fixed-fee, 0%-take alternatives deserve serious comparison.
- Revisit when
- Choose beehiiv when native growth and ad tools outweigh design control; choose Ghost when brand, site, and Stripe ownership matter more.
Service business · 8,000 leads and customers
- Start with
- ActiveCampaign · alternate: Brevo
- Why
- ActiveCampaign fits behavior-triggered journeys and segmentation. Brevo is the stronger counterproposal when send-volume economics and transactional or multichannel messaging matter more than workflow depth.
- Revisit when
- Do not buy either until three revenue-linked automations are written as event, condition, message, delay, and success metric.
Compare the structural differences
“Paid” means the capability is offered natively; availability and depth can depend on plan. Follow the official source before purchasing.
Run the math before the migration
A 1,000-reader weekly newsletter
About 4,000 sends per month. MailerLite Free allows 2,500, so it does not fit. Brevo Free caps a single day at 300. Kit Free, beehiiv Launch, and EmailOctopus Starter each advertise enough subscriber/send capacity for this pattern.
A free subscriber ceiling means little until it is multiplied by publishing frequency and daily limits.500 paid readers at $10 per month
$5,000 gross monthly revenue. Substack’s 10% platform share equals $500 monthly, or $6,000 annually, before Stripe. Ghost and beehiiv document a 0% platform take, but their subscription or hosting fees and Stripe still apply.
Revenue-share pricing is inexpensive before monetization and can become the largest software line item after it works.1,000 people in three Mailchimp audiences
If each person appears in all three audiences, Mailchimp documents that each appearance counts toward billing: 3,000 billable contacts rather than 1,000.
Use one audience with tags or segments when the same people receive related communications.1,000 contacts on Constant Contact Lite, 12 sends monthly
Lite includes a 10× contact send allowance: 10,000 sends. Sending 12,000 creates 2,000 overage sends. At the documented $0.002 each, that is $4 for the month.
Overages are not automatically disastrous, but frequency must be included in the forecast.Eleven credible starting points—with limits attached
These are not ranked. Each entry identifies the business it fits, the real advantage, and the condition likely to force a change.
Kit
Creators selling courses, downloads, memberships, sponsorships, or services.
Why it earns considerationStrong tagging, forms, sequences, creator commerce, and a free plan advertised for up to 10,000 subscribers.
Where it stops fittingThe free tier has limited automation; paid costs rise with subscriber count. Confirm transaction fees for the exact sales workflow.
Subscriber-tier pricing; automation depth drives the upgrade.beehiiv
Newsletter-first media businesses pursuing referrals, ads, paid subscriptions, or multiple publications.
Why it earns considerationLaunch includes 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends; Scale adds automations, ad tools, digital products, and 0% platform take on paid subscriptions.
Where it stops fittingThe strongest monetization and white-label tools sit on paid tiers. It is not a sales CRM.
Subscriber-tier pricing with unlimited sends; payment processing still applies.Substack
Writers and media creators valuing instant setup and native discovery over deep brand control.
Why it earns considerationNo upfront platform fee or free-subscriber ceiling; web, email, podcast, video, community, discovery, and paid subscriptions are integrated.
Where it stops fittingSubstack takes 10% of paid transactions plus applicable Stripe fees. Automation and design flexibility are intentionally narrower.
At $50,000 annual paid revenue, the 10% platform share is $5,000 before processing fees.Ghost
Independent publications wanting a branded site, SEO, memberships, newsletters, and direct Stripe ownership.
Why it earns consideration0% Ghost transaction fee, exportable member data, themes, publishing control, and payments held in the publisher’s Stripe account.
Where it stops fittingGhost(Pro) is a fixed hosting cost; self-hosting transfers maintenance and email infrastructure responsibility to the publisher.
Fixed hosting/member tiers instead of revenue share.MailerLite
Beginners and small teams needing approachable campaigns, forms, landing pages, and moderate automation.
Why it earns considerationPaid plans expose a broad toolkit; Comfort starts at $12 monthly with sends tied to subscriber tier.
Where it stops fittingThe June 2026 free plan fell to 250 subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. Frequency or automation counts can force an early upgrade.
Active-subscriber tiers plus send limits; Power offers unlimited sends under fair use.Mailchimp
Small businesses already using its integrations, templates, commerce connections, or marketing suite.
Why it earns considerationMature campaign tools, reporting, integrations, audience management, and automation flows.
Where it stops fittingContacts duplicated across audiences are billed repeatedly; plans impose send multiples and overages.
Contact tier + plan + send ceiling; Standard allows 12× the maximum contact count.Brevo
Businesses with larger databases, lower frequency, transactional email, SMS, WhatsApp, or sales workflows.
Why it earns considerationPricing is driven primarily by email volume; Free provides 300 sends daily and paid tiers add deeper multichannel tools.
Where it stops fittingLow-volume tiers constrain stored contacts, and the free daily cap can split a campaign. Branding removal and some capabilities are add-ons.
Monthly sends determine price and contact allowance; prepaid credits suit occasional senders.ActiveCampaign
Service and ecommerce businesses where behavior-triggered automation is central.
Why it earns considerationAdvanced workflows, segmentation, site tracking, ecommerce connections, and optional CRM/multichannel capabilities.
Where it stops fittingMore system than a straightforward newsletter needs. New accounts count all contacts, including unsubscribed and bounced records.
Contact volume + feature tier + add-ons; unique contacts across lists count once.Constant Contact
Local businesses and nonprofits prioritizing events, integrations, phone/chat support, and guided setup.
Why it earns considerationBeginner-oriented plans, live support, social tools, and 300+ integrations.
Where it stops fittingNo permanent free plan; automation depth and send allowances vary sharply by tier.
Contact pricing plus 10×, 12×, or 24× send multiples and per-send overages.EmailOctopus
Budget-conscious beginners needing campaigns, basic automation, forms, and room to learn.
Why it earns considerationFree for 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails; Pro begins at $9 billed yearly.
Where it stops fittingLess sophisticated automation, analytics, and ecosystem depth than full suites.
Subscriber count and send allowance; unsubscribed and bounced contacts do not count.Buttondown
Writers and technical publishers preferring a focused, text-first tool with paid subscriptions and an API.
Why it earns considerationMinimal interface, Markdown-friendly workflow, custom domains, active-subscriber billing, and newsletter-by-email publishing.
Where it stops fittingFewer visual marketing, CRM, ecommerce, and elaborate automation features.
Active-subscriber pricing assumes no more than one full-list email daily.Five traps the pricing page may not make obvious
One person counted more than once
Create the same address in two audiences. Mailchimp explicitly bills duplicate audience appearances; ActiveCampaign counts a unique contact once across lists.
Free plan that cannot send the launch
Multiply subscribers by frequency. Brevo’s 300-per-day and MailerLite’s 2,500-per-month free limits can constrain an eligible list.
Revenue share hidden by “free”
Multiply projected paid revenue by the platform rate. Substack’s 10% equals $100 per $1,000 earned.
An exit file that loses history
Export consent source and date, fields, tags, paid status, bounces, complaints, and unsubscribes—not only active addresses.
Buying automation before defining a trigger
Write the event, condition, message, delay, and success metric. If you cannot, do not pay for the tier yet.
Expect these six migration losses
Automation logic
Most platforms export contacts, not the triggers, delays, branches, and goals that move them.
Diagram every live workflow and record enrollment rules before rebuilding.Suppression and consent context
A clean list can become noncompliant if unsubscribe, complaint, source, or consent history is discarded.
Export suppressed states separately and reconcile counts before any send.Engagement history
Open, click, score, and cohort data rarely transfer as operational history to the new provider.
Export reports for reference and migrate a recent engaged cohort first.Referral and discovery relationships
Platform-native recommendations, referral attribution, ad eligibility, and social graphs generally stay behind.
Quantify how many subscribers and dollars those channels produce before leaving.Design and publishing assets
Templates, web archives, comments, forms, and custom pages may require manual reconstruction.
Archive HTML/PDF copies, source images, copy, URLs, redirects, and form placements.Sending reputation
A new provider does not erase the domain’s history, and a sudden infrastructure or volume change can create delivery problems.
Authenticate first, send to engaged readers in stages, and monitor complaints and bounces.Move the audience without gambling the business
Export active, unsubscribed, bounced, tagged, and paid records.
Counts reconcile and suppression data is separately recoverable.Configure SPF, DKIM, DMARC, From alignment, and a branded sending domain.
Test messages pass authentication in their headers.Recreate a form, welcome automation, preference choice, and unsubscribe path.
A test subscriber completes every state without manual repair.Move a recent, engaged segment before importing the entire list.
Links, replies, complaints, bounces, and inbox placement show no unexplained failure.Keep exports, DNS notes, templates, and old access through two production sends.
The team can restore the old path or document why it is no longer needed.What Maker Signal should choose now
Start Maker Signal on Kit Free; keep beehiiv as the publication-growth alternative.Maker Signal currently needs an owned list, branded forms, broadcasts, segmentation, and future creator-product or affiliate workflows more than paid-newsletter revenue or a native ad marketplace. Kit’s documented free allowance up to 10,000 subscribers lowers early platform risk while preserving a path to sequences and commerce.
Re-evaluate at 5,000 engaged subscribers, when a paid newsletter or sponsorship operation becomes real, or when more than one welcome automation is producing measurable revenue. At that point compare Kit Creator against beehiiv Scale using live quotes and a test export.Score evidence—not familiarity
Natively supports the primary revenue path without a brittle chain of add-ons.
Annual cost at three list sizes includes contacts, sends, seats, automation, and revenue share.
A test export preserves consent, fields, paid state, suppressions, content, and domains.
Custom domain, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, unsubscribe, complaints, and bounces are testable.
Forms, triggers, integrations, and reporting perform the three workflows you will run.
The owner can draft, review, send, and analyze a real issue without specialist help.
Do not choose the platform with the most features. Choose the smallest system that supports today’s revenue model, passes the exit test, and remains affordable after success.
Research behind this guide
Kit — Pricing and Plansbeehiiv — PricingSubstack — Features and Revenue ShareGhost — Pricing and Membership PortabilityMailerLite — PricingMailchimp — Marketing Pricing and Contact RulesBrevo — Pricing PlansActiveCampaign — Plans and Contact ManagementConstant Contact — PricingEmailOctopus — PricingButtondown — PricingGoogle — Email Sender GuidelinesYahoo — Sender Best PracticesFederal Trade Commission — CAN-SPAM Compliance GuideHow we’ll keep this guide current
Material changes to the cited guidance, prices, availability, or commercial terms will trigger a review before this page is republished.