Newsletter Ledger vs Substack

Newsletter Ledger is a free calculator that shows the real monthly cost of six newsletter platforms at your list size. It adds the plan price, the platform's share of paid revenue and Stripe card fees. Every price links to the platform's own pricing page with the date checked. Also: a Substack fee break-even calculator, a cheapest-platform table, a public price-change log and a free embeddable calculator. Some platform links are affiliate links; they never change the numbers.

Substack helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter and publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions. No tech knowledge is required. It’s free to get started on Substack. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack will keep a 10% cut of revenues.

Price Comparison

Substack is free to use but takes a 10% cut of paid subscriptions.

Feature Comparison

Newsletter Ledger and Substack both have great feature sets so the right tool for you really depends on your needs.

Features	Newsletter Ledger	Substack
💸 Paid Subscriptions Accept paid subscriptions	❌	✅
➗ Segmentation Create segments of subscribers	❌	❌
🤖 Automation Automate actions based on behaviours	❌	❌
📩 Embeddable Forms Embeddable subscription forms	❌	✅
📄 Landing Pages Create landing pages for your newsletter	❌	✅
🔌 3rd Party Integrations Connect to other services	❌	❌
🖊️ Visual Editor Drag and drop email editor	❌	✅
📝 Markdown Editor Write emails in markdown	❌	❌
👩‍💻 HTML Design emails with HTML text	❌	❌
⚒️ API Integrate with the platform's API	❌	❌
📈 Analytics Get data on your emails' performance	❌	✅
🌍 Custom Domain Use a custom domain for your page	❌	✅
🗣️ Referrals Set up a referral programme	❌	✅
💽 Self Hosting Host on your own server	❌	❌
📢 Recommendations Recommend and be recommended by other newsletters	❌	✅