Molly White

Yep. I saved hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month just from switching from Substack to self-hosted Ghost.

I pay a roughly flat $85/month now (~$75 for mailsending, $10 for hosting), vs. 10% of all my subscription income.

Here’s some napkin math for how expensive Substack is compared to its competitors:

Spreadsheet comparing pricing of newsletter platforms: 7% paid @ $5/mo
Substack Ghost Pro Self-hosted Ghost* Beehiiv Buttondown Mailchimp**
10 subscribers (1 paid) $0.50 $9 $12 $43 $9 $20
50 subscribers (4 paid) $2 $9 $12 $43 $9 $20
100 subscribers (7 paid) $3.50 $9 $12 $43 $9 $20
250 subscribers (18 paid) $9 $9 $12 $43 $9 $20
500 subscribers (35 paid) $17.50 $9 $27 $43 $9 $20
1,000 subscribers (70 paid) $35 $15 $27 $43 $29 $45
5,000 subscribers (350 paid) $175 $65 $27 $78 $79 $100
10,000 subscribers (700 paid) $350 $99 $27 $96 $139 $135
25,000 subscribers (1,750 paid) $875 $165 $87 $149 $239 $310
50,000 subscribers (3,500 paid) $1,750 $315 $217 $219 $319 $450
100,000 subscribers (7,000 paid) $3,500 $565 $412 $290 - $800

* Assuming $12 hosting fees, but you can get this number down lower. Assumes ~weekly email sending.
** There may be additional fees to monetize MailChimp newsletters since it’s not built-in. This also assumes ~weekly email sending.
Flat fees calculated based on cheapest plans. Also calculated based on annual billing, if month-to-month amounts differ.

« Back to the activity feed

« Back to the microblog feed

Have you responded to this post on your own site? Send a webmention! Note: Webmentions are moderated for anti-spam purposes, so they will not appear immediately.