Best Newsletter Platforms in 2025, Compared Honestly
For a weekly tech newsletter, pick Substack if you want the fastest path to subscribers and zero setup, Ghost if you want to own your stack and your brand, and MailerLite if your real goal is email marketing with automations rather than a public publication. Substack wins on discovery and network effects. Ghost wins on control, since it is open source and you can self-host. MailerLite wins on flexible automations and deliverability tooling. If you want growth features and built-in monetization without giving up your own site, beehiiv is the third option worth testing. The rest of this page explains how we evaluated each and who each fits.
How we evaluated: publishing, growth, monetization, pricing
We judged each platform on four things a newsletter operator actually cares about. Publishing covers the writing experience, the website, and how posts look in the inbox and on the web. Growth covers discovery, referral mechanics, signup flows, and analytics that tell you what is working. Monetization covers paid subscriptions, advertising, and how much of your revenue you keep. Pricing covers what you pay as your list grows, since a plan that is cheap at a thousand subscribers can become painful at fifty thousand. No platform wins all four. The right pick depends on which of these matters most for your specific newsletter and stage.
Best overall and best for growth: beehiiv and Substack compared
Substack is the strongest choice for pure growth from a standing start. Its recommendation network, app, and reader discovery surface your newsletter to people already reading similar writers, which is hard to replicate elsewhere. The tradeoff is that you build on Substack's brand and within its constraints. beehiiv is an all-in-one platform built for creators and publishers, with built-in website building, analytics, an ad network, and paid subscriptions. That combination makes it a credible best-overall pick when you want growth and monetization tools without abandoning your own site and design. If discovery alone is everything to you, Substack edges ahead. If you want more control over presentation and revenue, weigh beehiiv.
Best for control: Ghost; best for simplicity: Buttondown
Ghost is the pick for operators who want to own everything. It is open source, you can self-host, and you control the design, the data, and the membership stack. That freedom comes with more responsibility, since self-hosting means you handle hosting, updates, and deliverability yourself, or you pay for Ghost's managed service. Buttondown sits at the opposite end. It is deliberately minimal, fast to set up, and friendly to writers who want a clean text email without a sprawling dashboard. If you value a simple, no-distraction tool and a small footprint, Buttondown is a strong fit. If you value full ownership and customization, Ghost is the better home.