What does a newsletter actually cost?
Most platforms bill by how many subscribers you have — so a big list you email occasionally gets expensive fast. emit bills by how many emails you actually send. Slide to your numbers and compare the real monthly cost, side by side.
Assumptions & how this is calculated
Per-subscriber platforms are charged at their cheapest plan that supports your list size and send volume; pay-per-email platforms are charged for 20,000 emails/month (subscribers × sends). Substack is free to send but takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue, so its send cost shows as $0 (it's not comparable if you monetize). Real invoices vary with annual discounts, add-ons, and plan changes — treat this as a directional comparison, not a quote.
Why emit is cheaper for RSS-style sending
If you publish to an RSS feed and email each post, you tend to have a large list you mail on a schedule — exactly the case per-subscriber pricing punishes. emit is $1.60 per 1,000 emails, prepaid, no subscriber tiers and no monthly minimum. See the full comparison, the pricing, or read emit vs Mailchimp / vs Substack.