Comparing Pricing Structures

I don’t think any buying decision should be based on price alone, but it is often a factor we have to consider.

Beehiiv, Substack and Ghost all have very different pricing structures and each offers different features and opportunities. Deciding which one to use definitely isn’t as simple as picking the cheapest one. It will depend on what your plans and objectives are for your publication both short-term and long.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how each platform makes its money and when it might be the best option.

Table of Contents

• Substack Pricing

• Beehiiv Pricing

• Ghost Pricing

• A Basic Comparison

• Pros and Cons of Each Platform

• Quick Comparison of Features

• Final Thoughts

Substack Pricing

Substack probably has the most straightforward pricing model. If you only have free subscribers, it’s completely free no matter how many subscribers you have.

You only start paying when you start getting paid subscribers. At this point, Substack takes 10% of each transaction. You’ll also pay a small processing fee to Stripe for each transaction.

And that’s it - you pay as you earn. Simple.

Beehiiv Pricing

Beehiiv pricing is a little more complicated as it is based on whether you pay monthly or annually, how many subscribers you have and what features you want access to.

Let’s ignore the custom pricing for now as most of us won’t be starting with 100,000 subs and can do without concierge onboarding.

The free plan (Launch) is always free but is capped at a maximum of 2500 free subscribers. The free plan doesn’t allow you to offer paid subscriptions or use their ‘ad’ or ‘boost’ features, so if you’re set on monetising your publication you’ll need a paid plan.

Depending on what features you want and how many subscribers you have, here’s a quick breakdown of the pricing.

Some of those prices at the bottom might look a little hefty, but you’re only going to be paying them when you need all the bells and whistles and have a big subscriber list. So let’s look at a more realistic starting point.

If you’re starting from scratch and aren’t sure whether you’ll be monetising your content, the free plan is actually very generous. You can always upgrade to a paid plan once you’ve built a loyal following and are confident you can turn some of your free followers into paying subscribers or are in a position to make money from ad placements and boosts.

And of course, you can still advertise your products and services in your posts and newsletters so you can still use the free plan to make money, just not through subscriptions and ads.

As I said, the free plan is very generous. You can have up to 2500 subscribers, three publications and unlimited email sends. You can also use your existing domain name for emails which you can’t do for free on the other platforms. And it has one of my favourite features (more on that shortly).

Ghost Pricing

Ghost doesn’t offer a free plan at all (although they do offer a 14-day free trial). But don’t let that put you off.

The ‘Starter’ plan is $11 per month or $108 per year. This allows you to have up to 500 subscribers on free or paid subscriptions (although they refer to them as members).

The pricing then gradually increases (similar to Beehiiv) depending on the features you want and the number of members you have.

There are two tiers on the Starter plan. For up to 500 members it’s $11 per month ($9 if you pay annually so $108 for the year). For up to 1000 members it’s $19 per month (or $15 if you pay annually so $180 for the year).

The Business plan is $249 per month or $199 if you pay annually ($2388 per year) up to 10,000 members. After that the price increases for every 5000 members.

The Creator and Team plans have over 30 tiers each. From 10k members, the price increases every additional 5k up until 105k, then every additional 20k all the way up to 400k. I’m not going to list them all, so I’ll just list the ones that most closely match the Beehiiv tiers.

So if we are simply comparing plans, Beehiiv’s ‘Scale’ plan and Ghost’s ‘Creator’ plan aren’t too different in price up to 10,000 subs, with Beehiiv being slightly more expensive). After 10,000 subs, Ghost becomes quite a bit more expensive.

If we compare the ‘Max’ and ‘Team’ plans, Beehiiv is quite a bit more expensive until we get to 25,000 subs and then Ghost becomes the more expensive of the two.

A Basic Comparison

To get an idea of how all three platforms compare, here’s a very crude comparison

Of course, this just shows pricing based on subscriber numbers and assumes all subscribers are paying the same.

The Substack fees would be variable based on whether you had different monthly fees versus annual subscriptions. Beehiiv makes it super easy to set up ads and boosts on their scale plan so you could earn additional money that way. And Ghost enables you to offer tiered pricing and add product pages to your site so your income could vary.

Pros and Cons of Each Platform

Substack

Substack has a social media element to it with the app, feed, community and chat. It’s also completely free if you aren’t offering paid subscriptions, which makes it ideal if you just want somewhere to share your content or you want to stay in touch with clients and potential clients and promote your products and services.

My favourite feature

I love the ‘notes’ feature which lets you post short updates. This is ideal for my New Brew Thursday publication as I can share quick updates about what beers I’m drinking each week.

Pros

It’s completely free to use if you don’t offer paid subscriptions. You can also have multiple publications.

Cons

The more paid subscribers you get, the bigger your fees will get.

Beehiiv

Beehiiv is definitely geared up towards monetising your publication with a built-in ad network and boost network once you upgrade to the scale plan. However, the free plan is very generous, so you can start there while you build your subscriber list and then upgrade when you’re ready.

My favourite feature

I love that you can customise your ‘sent from’ email address on the free plan. Substack charges a one-off fee of $50 and you have to upgrade to the Creator plan on Ghost if you want a custom sending domain. But my favourite features has to be the free custom mobile app you get on the free plan.

Yes - that’s right, you get your own app for your publication. You can add mine now if you’re a subscriber and you’re reading this on mobile. Just click on your profile pic in the top right corner and select Add App to Home Screen.

Pros

The free plan is very generous and allows up to three publications. The paid plans also include lots of great features such as the ad network, boost network, and the ability to easily add polls and surveys to your emails and posts.

Cons

I’m struggling to find many downsides to Beehiiv. The paid plans are more expensive than Ghost when comparing on subscriber numbers only, but with all the additional features, the ‘Scale’ plan is still great value.

Ghost

When you set a publication on Ghost, it’s more like having a basic website and blog with the ability to capture email addresses so you can stay in touch with readers. So if you want a basic website, Ghost is an extremely low-cost option, starting at $108 for a year (plus the cost of a domain name if you don’t want to use their free one).

My favourite feature

I love that I can add product pages - I set one up for my book and will eventually add my courses. I also like that you can add your page to the ‘explore’ section to help people find it.

Pros

Ghost allows you to set tiered pricing so you can have different subscription levels, for example, bronze, silver, and gold.

Cons

You can’t customise your sending domain unless you are on the Creator plan (although you can customise your site domain). There is no free version (although there is a 14-day free trial).

A Quick Comparison of Features

Final Thoughts

At the time of writing this, I'm using the free versions of Substack and Beehiiv and the cheapest plan on Ghost so I don’t have access to all the features.

What I would say is that the free/basic plans on each all three platforms offer something different and the right platform for you will depend on your long-term goals.

If you are looking for a basic website or blog, Ghost is a great option at $108 (that’s way less than I pay for hosting my WordPress site). If your priority is monetisation, Beehiiv has some great features on the paid plan and will work out cheaper per year than Substack once you get past 100 paid subscribers. But if you’re looking for something that offers a more social media or community-type feel, Substack gives you that.

As I said at the very start, I wouldn’t make a decision based purely on price. Think about what you want from your publication and what your long-term objectives are and make your decision from there.

Keep in mind that you can always switch from one platform to another - it’s relatively simple to export and import subscribers and posts on all three platforms. The look of your publication would change slightly and you’d have to get used to using a new platform but it is always an option.

I will be creating more content around the features and benefits of the different platforms as I use them more and upgrade where appropriate. So if you aren’t already subscribed to this publication, hit the subscribe button now for weekly updates and new content.