Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best Newsletter Platforms (2026)
The cheapest newsletter platforms is beehiiv at $0/mo. 8 offer a free tier (beehiiv, Buttondown, Curated). This page compares 8 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
8 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: beehiiv at $0/mo (Launch).
- Typical paid price: from $12/mo, median $32/mo, up to $49/mo — across 6 with published pricing.
- Free tier: beehiiv, Buttondown, Curated, Flodesk, Ghost, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), MailerLite, Substack.
- Tracked: 8 vendors, data current through 2026-06-18.
Comparison
| # | Newsletter Platform | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | beehiiv | $0/mo Launch | Yes | — | Yes | newsletter monetization | beehiiv.com |
| 2 | Buttondown | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | developer-writers | buttondown.com |
| 3 | Curated | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | curated content newsletters | curated.co |
| 4 | Flodesk | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | design-conscious creators | flodesk.com |
| 5 | Ghost | $0/mo Self-hosted (open source) | Yes | — | — | independent publishers | ghost.org |
| 6 | Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | $0/mo Newsletter | Yes | — | — | content creators | kit.com |
| 7 | MailerLite | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | solopreneurs | mailerlite.com |
| 8 | Substack | $0/mo Free to publish | Yes | — | — | writers | substack.com |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest newsletter platforms?
beehiiv has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Launch), as of 2026-06-18.
How much does newsletter platforms cost per month?
Across the 6 newsletter platforms with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $32/mo, ranging from $12/mo to $49/mo, as of 2026-06-18. 8 also offer a free tier.
Which newsletter platforms have a free plan?
beehiiv, Buttondown, Curated, Flodesk, Ghost, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), MailerLite, Substack offer a free tier.
More software comparisons
How we compiled this
Re-verified by fetching each vendor's official pricing page via WebFetch on 2026-06-18: beehiiv.com/pricing, ghost.org/pricing/, buttondown.com/pricing, kit.com/pricing, mailerlite.com/pricing, flodesk.com/pricing, curated.co/pages/pricing.html, substack.com/about + substack.com/going-paid. Dynamic slider prices (MailerLite, Flodesk, Kit, Buttondown) corroborated via WebSearch against multiple 2026 third-party pricing trackers. KEY VERIFICATIONS: beehiiv Scale $49/mo monthly ($43 annual), Max $109/mo monthly ($96 annual); Kit Creator $39/mo monthly ($33 annual), Pro $79/mo monthly ($66 annual) — official page headlines the annual figure but monthly billing is higher; Ghost Starter $18/$15, Publisher $35/$29, Business $239/$199 (monthly/annual); MailerLite Comfort/Power are the CURRENT LIVE names (Free/Comfort/Power/Enterprise) with Comfort $12 and Power $25 starting at 500 subs, 10% annual discount; Flodesk retired its flat unlimited plan for new members Dec 2, 2025 and now prices by subscriber tier (Lite $25/$19, Pro $28/$25, Everything $54/$49 at 1,000 subs); Curated's live pricing URL is curated.co/pages/pricing.html (curated.co/pricing returns 404); Substack is free to publish with a 10% revenue cut. CORRECTION vs draft: the draft asserted Substack's about/pricing URL returned 404 — it actually returns HTTP 200; provenance corrected. Compliance set true only where explicitly stated (beehiiv SOC 2 Type II + GDPR on /enterprise). accessedAt 2026-06-18.
Last verified 2026-06-18. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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