The 3 best Substack alternatives
Short answer
The best Substack alternatives are beehiiv, ConvertKit, Ghost. beehiiv is our top pick — it scores 9.2/10 and is best for Newsletter-first creators. The right choice depends on your budget, team size, and which features matter most.
Why look for a Substack alternative?
Substack scores 7.8/10 in our review and works well for many teams — but it is not the right fit for everyone. The most common reasons readers look elsewhere:
- ✗10% revenue cut becomes expensive at scale
- ✗Very limited customization
- ✗No advanced analytics or growth tools
- ✗Hard to migrate subscribers out
Substack alternatives, ranked
beehiiv
Top pickThe newsletter platform built for growth
beehiiv is a newsletter platform built by ex-Morning Brew engineers. It combines newsletter publishing, subscriber management, monetization (paid subscriptions, boosts, ad network), and basic website hosting in one tool. The growth infrastructure — referral programs, recommendations, segmentation — is unmatched at any price.
Strengths
- ✓Best-in-class growth tools (referral program, boosts, recommendations)
- ✓Built-in ad network for monetization
- ✓Generous free tier up to 2,500 subscribers
Best for
- →Newsletter-first creators
- →Creators wanting audience monetization built in
- →Anyone coming from Substack wanting more control
ConvertKit
Email marketing built for creators
ConvertKit (now rebranding to Kit) is the most creator-focused email marketing platform. It excels at automations, segmentation, and selling digital products directly from email. The visual automation builder is powerful and beginner-friendly. ConvertKit has the deepest integration ecosystem for creators — connecting to Teachable, Gumroad, Shopify, and dozens of other creator tools.
Strengths
- ✓Excellent visual automation builder
- ✓Best integrations ecosystem for creators
- ✓Sell digital products and subscriptions natively
Best for
- →Creators with complex email automations
- →Anyone selling multiple digital products
- →Creators deeply integrated with other tools
Ghost
The professional publishing platform for serious creators
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform purpose-built for professional content creators, newsletters, and membership sites. Unlike Substack, Ghost is self-hostable (free software, you pay hosting) or available as a managed service via Ghost(Pro). It takes 0% of membership revenue — you keep everything minus Stripe's payment processing fees. Ghost has superior SEO tools, custom themes, and a professional CMS feel compared to any newsletter-first tool.
Strengths
- ✓0% platform fee on membership revenue (only Stripe transaction fees)
- ✓Excellent SEO — structured data, sitemaps, canonical URLs built in
- ✓Open source — full data ownership if self-hosted
Best for
- →Serious writers who want full control and 0% revenue cut
- →Creators who care deeply about SEO and content ownership
Substack vs. the alternatives
| Tool | Score | Starting price | Free plan | Ease of use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack(current) | 7.8/10 | — | Yes | 9.5/10 |
| beehiiv | 9.2/10 | — | Yes | 8.5/10 |
| ConvertKit | 8.8/10 | — | Yes | 8/10 |
| Ghost | 8.5/10 | — | Yes | 7.5/10 |
Substack alternatives — FAQ
What is the best Substack alternative?
beehiiv is our top-rated Substack alternative, scoring 9.2/10. It is best for Newsletter-first creators.
Is there a free Substack alternative?
Yes — beehiiv, ConvertKit, Ghost offer a free plan you can use to evaluate the tool before paying.