Table of Contents
The Real Cost of Substack's Cut
Substack charges a flat 10% platform fee on paid subscription revenue, on top of standard payment processing fees (roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction through Stripe). There's no volume discount — a newsletter making $500/month in subscriptions pays the same 10% rate as one making $50,000/month.
$5,000/month in subscriptions loses ~$500/month to Substack alone
That's on top of payment processing fees — over a year, a mid-sized paid newsletter can lose $6,000+ to platform commission that a 0%-fee alternative would let you keep.
When the 10% Actually Starts to Hurt
Early on, when a newsletter is small or entirely free, Substack's cut is close to irrelevant — 10% of $0 is $0. The math changes once paid subscriptions become real revenue. Most writers don't notice the cost until they check a full year of statements and see a five-figure number sitting in Substack's pocket instead of theirs.
The 0%-Commission Alternative
beehiiv doesn't take a percentage of subscription revenue — you keep what you charge readers, minus only standard payment processing. It also bundles a website builder, monetization tools (including a built-in ad network), and analytics, aiming to cover more of the "newsletter business" stack than Substack's writing-focused tool.
Migrating an Existing Newsletter
- Export your subscriber list from Substack (available as a CSV from Substack's settings)
- Import it into beehiiv — free subscribers transfer cleanly
- Re-set up paid tiers — paid subscribers generally need to re-enter payment details under the new platform, since billing doesn't migrate automatically between competing platforms
- Announce the move to your list before fully cutting over, so paid subscribers aren't surprised by a re-billing prompt
What You Give Up Leaving Substack
Substack's built-in discovery network (recommendations from other Substack writers) is a real acquisition channel that a self-hosted platform doesn't replicate. If a meaningful share of your subscriber growth currently comes from Substack's recommendation feature, factor that into the decision — the 0% commission has to be weighed against any discovery traffic you'd lose.
Pricing
| Platform | Platform Fee | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | 10% of paid revenue | Unlimited free subscribers |
| beehiiv | 0% | Free up to 2,500 subscribers |
beehiiv's paid plans start once you outgrow the free tier, scaling with subscriber count rather than taking a revenue cut. See beehiiv's current pricing for exact tier breakpoints.
The practical way to decide is to run the math on your own numbers: take your current (or projected) monthly paid subscription revenue, multiply by 0.10, and compare that dollar figure against beehiiv's subscriber-based pricing tier for your list size. For most newsletters past a few hundred paid subscribers, the subscriber-based pricing works out cheaper than a flat revenue cut — and the gap only widens as the newsletter grows, since beehiiv's fee doesn't scale with how much you charge per subscriber the way Substack's percentage does.
FAQs
How much does Substack actually take from paid subscriptions?
Substack takes a 10% platform fee on paid subscription revenue, on top of separate payment processing fees (around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction via Stripe) — so the real cut is closer to 13% once processing is included.
Is beehiiv really 0% commission?
Yes, beehiiv doesn't take a percentage of your subscription revenue — you keep what you charge readers, minus standard payment processor fees. It's free to start with up to 2,500 subscribers.
Can I move my existing Substack subscribers to beehiiv?
Yes, beehiiv supports importing subscriber lists from Substack and other platforms, though paid subscribers will typically need to be re-billed under the new platform's payment system rather than migrating automatically.