Substack vs emit
Substack is a hosted publication that takes 10% of your paid-subscription revenue. It's not an RSS-to-newsletter pipe and doesn't send from your own domain — you publish on Substack. emit sends your feed to your list from your domain, billed per email.
| emit | Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per email ($0.80/1k) | 10% of paid revenue |
| Pay for inactive subscribers | No | No (free to send) |
| RSS feed → newsletter (native) | Yes | No (it is the publication) |
| API-first / OpenAPI | Yes | No |
| Send from your own domain | Yes (SES, DKIM) | No |
| Paid subscriptions / paywall | No | Yes |
| Best for | Devs & their agents | Writers monetizing |
As of 2026, Substack is free to start and takes ~10% of paid-subscription revenue. Verify current plans on their site. Last reviewed May 2026.
Why developers pick emit over Substack
- You already publish to an RSS feed and just want it emailed automatically.
- You want to own your sending domain and list, not publish on someone else's platform.
- You'd rather pay $0.80/1k emails than give up 10% of revenue.
When Substack is the better choice
Substack is the better choice if you want a turnkey paid-subscription publication with discovery and a built-in reader app, and don't mind the revenue share.
emit pricing
$0.80 per 1,000 emails, prepaid — no subscriber tiers, no monthly minimum, no revenue cut. See pricing, the full comparison, or add a subscribe form.