Substack vs Beehiiv Revenue Calculator

The Newsletter Platform War

For years, Substack dominated the paid newsletter ecosystem by offering a simple, free-to-use platform that took a 10% cut of your subscription revenue. However, platforms like Beehiiv have disrupted the space by charging a flat monthly SaaS fee and taking 0% of your revenue.

The Substack Tax

Substack is incredible when you are just starting out. Because they don't charge a monthly fee, you have zero overhead. If you make $0, they take $0.

However, as you scale, this 10% "tax" becomes astronomical. If you build a massive newsletter earning $10,000 a month, Substack takes $1,000 every single month. Over a year, you are paying $12,000 for a simple email sending tool.

The Beehiiv Break-Even Point

Beehiiv operates like a traditional SaaS. To charge for premium subscriptions, you need to be on their paid tiers (usually ranging from $39 to $150+ per month depending on your total list size).

The mathematical "break-even" point is surprisingly low. For most creators, the moment you are earning more than $400 to $1,000 per month in paid subscriptions, you will save a massive amount of money by switching to a flat-fee platform like Beehiiv.

Don't Forget Stripe Fees

Regardless of which platform you choose, neither Substack nor Beehiiv acts as the payment processor. They both route payments through Stripe. This means you will always lose approximately 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on top of the platform fees.