Launching a successful career-focused newsletter starts with choosing the right email service provider (ESP). Whether you’re a recruiter sharing job opportunities or a career coach publishing tips, the platform you use will affect how you grow your audience, engage your community, and monetize your content. In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll break down 10 of the best modern newsletter platforms – including Beehiiv, ConvertKit (now called Kit), Brevo, Medium, Ghost, and Substack – to help you make an informed decision.
We’ll cover each platform’s monetization capabilities (paid subscriptions, sponsorships, ads), automation and growth features, deliverability and open rates, ease of use, free vs paid plans, affiliate opportunities, pricing, and best use cases for newsletter businesses. There’s also a quick comparison chart and a final section with tips (and special offers) to help you get started.
What to Look for in a Newsletter Platform
When comparing ESPs, keep these key factors in mind:
- Monetization Options: Can you easily offer paid subscriptions or memberships? Does the platform support sponsorships or built-in ad networks for additional revenue? (E.g. Beehiiv offers an ad marketplace and paid tiers, while Substack enables paid newsletters but takes a revenue cut.
- Automation & Growth Tools: Look at features like email sequences, audience segmentation, referral programs, and recommendation networks. These can help you welcome new subscribers, re-engage readers, and encourage referrals. (For example, ConvertKit excels in advanced automation sequences , and Beehiiv has referral rewards on its paid plans.
- Deliverability & Open Rates: A platform’s infrastructure and sending practices impact how often your emails hit the inbox. Some creator-focused platforms boast high average open rates (Substack emails reportedly average around 50% open rates, thanks to engaged audiences . Others offer tools like A/B testing subject lines or spam score checks to optimize open rates.
- Ease of Use: If you’re a beginner, a simple interface is crucial. Some tools are plug-and-play for writing newsletters (no code or design skills needed), while others offer more power at the cost of complexity. We’ll note which are more beginner-friendly vs. geared toward advanced users.
- Free vs. Paid Plans: Most platforms have a free tier or trial. It’s important to understand the limits (subscriber caps, feature restrictions) and know when you might need to upgrade. We’ll outline what you get for free and when a paid plan makes sense.
- Community & Engagement: Consider whether the platform supports community-building – such as comment sections, discussion threads, or integrations with community tools. Engaging your readers (through comments, polls, etc.) can be valuable for a career-focused newsletter where networking and discussion are key.
Now, let’s dive into the platforms!
1. Beehiiv
Beehiiv is an all-in-one newsletter platform built by the team from Morning Brew (a successful newsletter business), designed for creators serious about growth. It combines a publishing CMS, website builder, and email sending service in one. Beehiiv offers robust tools for both audience growth and monetization – making it a top pick for newsletter entrepreneurs.
Monetization & Revenue: Beehiiv shines here. On Beehiiv’s paid plans you can launch paid subscription tiers and run newsletter ads via its built-in ad network . This means you can charge readers for premium content without giving up a cut (Beehiiv doesn’t take transaction fees on subscriptions), and you can fill your free newsletter with sponsor ads through Beehiiv’s marketplace. Beehiiv also supports “Boosts,” a co-registration feature where you get paid to recommend other newsletters or pay to acquire subscribers . In short, you can monetize through paid newsletters, sponsorships, and even earn by cross-promoting – multiple income streams from one platfor . The only thing it doesn’t natively sell is one-off digital products/courses (you’d need an external tool for that)
Growth & Automation: Beehiiv was built to tackle features older email platforms lacked, so it includes advanced growth tools. You get audience segmentation, automated email sequences, and referral program capabilities (though some features unlock only on higher tiers). For example, Beehiiv’s referral program (available on the Scale plan and above) lets you reward subscribers for referring friends – a strategy Morning Brew used to explode their growth. Beehiiv also has a “Recommendation network” to help newsletters promote each other and Magic Links for one-click subscription flows. These features can significantly boost your subscriber acquisition if you leverage them (e.g. offering a free résumé template once a reader refers 3 friends). Beehiiv’s automation for drip sequences and welcome emails exists, though its automation UI is not as advanced as ConvertKit’s – it focuses more on newsletter-specific growth than complex marketing funnels.
Deliverability: Both Beehiiv and Substack prioritize high deliverability for newsletters. Beehiiv takes measures to maintain a good sender reputation (they manage the sending servers and encourage proper list hygiene) and support A/B testing of subject lines on paid plans to optimize open rates . Users report strong open rates with Beehiiv, comparable to Substack’s ~50% average open rate likely due to Beehiiv’s emphasis on engaged, opt-in audiences. In short, you can expect reliable inbox delivery and solid engagement if your content is good.
Ease of Use: For beginners, Beehiiv is fairly approachable – it has a clean, text-focused editor similar to Substack’s (great for writing letters without needing design skills). Setting up a newsletter, customizing your signup page, and sending emails can be done without coding. However, Beehiiv’s advanced features (segmentation, analytics, referrals) mean there is more to learn as you grow. There’s a slight learning curve to master everything Beehiiv offers In comparison, Substack’s simplicity might feel easier on day one, but Beehiiv’s walkthroughs and knowledge base help new users get started. Overall, it’s beginner-friendly for basic use and powerful enough for advanced needs – a good balance.
Free vs Paid Plans: Beehiiv’s Launch (Free) plan lets you have up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited emails – excellent for getting started. Free plan limitations: you cannot use the ad network, paid subscriptions, or referral program on the free tier. It’s basically enough to build and email your list; once you want to monetize or use growth extras, you’ll need to upgrade. The Scale plan starts at $39/month (for up to 1,000 subs; price increases with list size). Scale unlocks monetization features like the ad network and premium (paid) newsletters, plus extras like surveys, segmentation, and A/B testing. Beehiiv also has a Max plan ($99/mo to start) with priority support and the ability to remove Beehiiv branding from your emails/site . When to upgrade: If your list is nearing 2,500 readers, or you’re ready to start a paid newsletter or inject sponsor ads for revenue, moving to Scale is worth it. (Tip: Beehiiv often offers promotions – e.g. 20% off first 3 months via partner links – that can save you money when upgrading.)
Best For: Beehiiv is ideal for career content creators who want to scale aggressively and monetize in multiple ways. If you plan to run a large free newsletter with sponsor ads (like featuring hiring companies or career service ads) and/or offer a premium subscription tier (e.g. paid access to exclusive job leads or coaching webinars), Beehiiv gives you that flexibility. Its referral program is great for organically growing a community (readers invite peers in exchange for rewards like a free consulting call or swag). While Beehiiv suits experienced newsletter operators, it’s also a solid choice for ambitious beginners who want a platform they won’t outgrow. In short, if you’re building a newsletter business around recruiting or career advice, Beehiiv’s growth and monetization toolkit is tough to beat.
2. ConvertKit (Kit)
ConvertKit – recently rebranded to Kit – is an “email-first operating system for creators.” It’s been a popular choice among bloggers, creators, and online entrepreneurs since 2013, and it remains one of the best ESPs for automation and selling digital products. Kit is not a newsletter publishing platform per se (there’s no public feed of posts like Substack), but it’s excellent for managing and monetizing an email list. For career content creators who might offer courses, ebooks, or coaching in addition to newsletters, Kit is a very powerful tool.
Monetization Capabilities: ConvertKit is built around helping creators make money from their audience. You can sell digital products or paid subscriptions directly through ConvertKit’s commerce features (they integrate Stripe for payments). This means you could charge for an email course, a résumé template, or a premium newsletter and accept payments easily. Unlike Substack, ConvertKit does not take a cut of your sales – you keep all your subscription or product revenue (minus standard credit card fees). Kit also supports paid newsletter subscriptions without platform fees (it launched a subscription feature to compete with Substack). In addition, ConvertKit has an affiliate program for its users: you can earn commission by referring others to use the platform (something to consider if you might recommend tools to your audience). While that’s a nice extra, the main monetization draw is the ability to sell multiple product types – great for a career creator who might offer paid monthly mentorship emails alongside one-off digital products.
Automation & Audience Growth: This is ConvertKit’s bread and butter. Kit offers one of the most advanced automation builders in the industry. You can set up visual workflows that tag subscribers based on their behavior and send targeted sequences. For example, you could create an automation that sends new subscribers a 5-day “Career Tips 101” email course, then moves them onto your weekly newsletter, or triggers a pitch for your coaching services if they click certain links. These kind of sophisticated funnels are harder or impossible to do in Substack or Beehiiv. ConvertKit also provides segmentation (tag and group subscribers by interest or engagement) and handy features like landing page builders and opt-in forms to grow your list. A unique growth feature is ConvertKit’s newsletter recommendation network (similar to Substack’s recommendations): on the free plan, ConvertKit requires you to participate in “Free Recommendations,” meaning your subscribers might see suggestions to check out other creators, and in turn you get exposure to their audiences . On paid plans you can also use Paid Recommendations – essentially an ad swap marketplace where you pay or get paid for subscribers (comparable to Beehiiv’s Boost). Overall, ConvertKit is fantastic for audience nurturing: turn casual sign-ups into engaged readers or customers via automated sequences, which can be very useful if you offer multi-step email courses, challenges, or segmented content for different audience segments (e.g. job seekers vs. recruiters).
Deliverability & Open Rates: ConvertKit has a strong reputation for deliverability. It was designed for creators who often have very engaged lists (like fans of a blogger or YouTuber), and ConvertKit’s sending infrastructure and policies reflect that. They emphasize list cleanliness (removing cold subscribers) and give metrics to help maintain high open rates. While open rates will ultimately depend on your content quality, Kit provides all the tools (A/B testing subject lines on higher plans, resend to unopens, etc.) to maximize them. In practice, many creators see excellent engagement after migrating to ConvertKit from heavier marketing platforms. The platform also supports text-only emails or simple templates, which often land in Primary inboxes rather than Promotions. All told, you can expect reliable deliverability; Kit’s team even offers guidance (and free migration help for larger lists) to keep your newsletter healthy.
Ease of Use: ConvertKit sits in between the simplicity of Substack and the complexity of a full marketing automation tool. Its interface is clean and fairly intuitive, but because it offers so much (forms, landing pages, sequences, broadcasts, tagging, etc.), new users might feel a bit overwhelmed at first. The good news is ConvertKit’s focus on “email first” design means writing and sending a broadcast email is straightforward – you’re not forced to use templates or drag-and-drop editors if you don’t want to. It’s text-centric like a writing tool, with the advanced stuff in the backend. Beginners can start by using it just like a simple newsletter (there’s even a Newsletter preset plan now), and more experienced users can dig into the automation and segmentation when ready. Kit provides a lot of tutorials and a community of creators who share tips. If you have some marketing or tech experience (or are willing to learn), ConvertKit is quite user-friendly for the power it packs. But if you want a dead-simple, no-frills writing experience on day one, a platform like Substack or Medium might feel easier. Think of ConvertKit as easy for sending emails; moderate for mastering automations – the latter might require a learning mindset but can pay off big for your business.
Free vs Paid Plans: ConvertKit’s new pricing under the Kit brand is generous for starters. The Free plan (sometimes called “Newsletter” plan) lets you have up to 10,000 subscribers for $0 – which is one of the most liberal free tiers out there. This free tier includes unlimited email broadcasts, landing pages, forms, and even a basic autoresponder (1 automation and 1 email sequence). Crucially, free users can also enable paid subscriptions and sell products – so you can start earning without a monthly fee . The catch: Free plan has limited automation (just that one sequence) and only 1 user, and it requires showing “Free Recommendations” (promoting other newsletters). To unlock full automation and more customization, you’d move to the Creator plan, which starts at $25/month for up to 1,000 subscribers . As your list grows beyond 1k, the price scales (e.g. $50/mo for ~5k subs, etc.). Creator plan gives unlimited sequences, multiple automations, advanced reporting, integration options, and removes the requirement to show recommendations . There’s also a Creator Pro tier with extras like subscriber scoring and Facebook custom audiences, but most newsletter creators won’t need that initially. When to upgrade: If you want to set up complex funnels (more than one sequence) or if you hit the 10k free subscriber cap, it’s time to go paid. Also, if you prefer not to auto-promote other newsletters in your emails, you’d want to be on a paid plan to turn off the required cross-promotion.
Best For: ConvertKit is best for career content creators who want to do more than just send emails – for example, those who plan to sell courses, digital products, or run automated email challenges. If you’re a recruiter publisher who might offer a paid résumé review service, or a career coach building an email course funnel, ConvertKit gives you the marketing arsenal to do it all under one roof. It’s also great if you value fine-grained control over your audience – tagging who’s interested in what (jobs vs. tips, free vs. paid) and sending tailored content to each group. While ConvertKit doesn’t have a public-facing community or discovery features like Substack/Medium, it integrates well with other tools (you can always use a WordPress or Ghost site for blogging and have ConvertKit handle email signups and delivery). For a pure newsletter that makes money from subscriptions and sponsors, ConvertKit is solid – but it truly shines when your newsletter is one part of a larger creator business. Given its creator-centric approach and no fees on your revenue, many writers use ConvertKit to keep full ownership of their audience and income, making it a trustworthy choice for scaling a newsletter business on your own terms.
3. Substack
Substack is often the first platform that comes to mind for newsletters – it’s a pioneer of the newsletter boom and extremely popular among writers. Substack is essentially a free publishing platform for email newsletters and articles, with an integrated reader community. It’s dead simple to use and handles everything: email delivery, a website for your posts, and even payment processing for paid subscriptions. For many solo newsletter writers (including career bloggers and independent journalists), Substack has lowered the barriers to launching and monetizing content.
Monetization: Substack’s model is straightforward: you can offer free and/or paid subscriptions to your newsletter. Publishing is free for any list size, and Substack only makes money by taking a 10% fee on any paid subscriptions you sell (plus Stripe’s payment fees). There’s no built-in ad network or sponsorship marketplace on Substack – monetization is mainly through readers paying for premium content. This means if you plan to run a paid newsletter, Substack makes it super easy to start charging (no need to integrate Stripe yourself or design paywalls). However, that 10% cut can become significant as you grow: for example, $50k/year in subscriber revenue would mean $5k to Substack. Competing platforms like Ghost or Beehiiv charge no percentage fee, so large publications might earn more off-platform. Substack does allow sponsorships in your newsletters, but you’d have to arrange those yourself (e.g. find a company to sponsor an issue and include their message – Substack doesn’t broker ads for you). On the flip side, there’s zero upfront cost to start on Substack, which is attractive if you’re not sure about going paid yet. You can always run a free newsletter indefinitely with no fees. In summary: great for starting paid subscriptions easily, but keep the 10% commission in mind if your goal is big revenue.
Audience Growth & Community: One of Substack’s biggest advantages is the built-in network effect. Substack will help you grow your list in ways other platforms might charge for. Notably, Substack has a recommendation system: writers on Substack often recommend other newsletters to their readers with a single click, and the platform also suggests related Substacks to new sign-ups for free. This means if you create good career content, you might get organic exposure to Substack’s millions of readers via their app and website. Many newsletter authors have seen their subscriber count snowball thanks to mutual recommendations – a powerful free growth engine. Additionally, Substack provides community features that enhance engagement: each post can have a comments section for readers, there are discussion threads, and even a Substack Notes (a social feed feature) for interacting with your audience. Readers can “subscribe” to comments and have conversations, essentially building a mini-community around your content. For a career advice publisher, this could facilitate discussions among job seekers or recruiters in the comments. Substack recently introduced features like chat (direct messaging to subscribers) and a profile system where readers can discover your work. These social aspects are unique to Substack and Medium. In terms of automation: Substack is minimal – it doesn’t have drip sequences or advanced targeting. Everyone gets the same emails at the same time (aside from the option to send certain posts only to paid subscribers). This keeps it simple but means you can’t do things like welcome emails or segment by interest without manual work. Overall, Substack is fantastic for growing an audience from scratch because of network-driven discovery and for fostering a community with its built-in engagement tools.
Deliverability & Open Rates: Substack handles all the techy bits of email deliverability for you. Their sending infrastructure has proven quite solid – many writers report very high open rates, often 50% or more, on Substack . This is likely because subscribers sign up through Substack’s double opt-in and are highly interested in the content (and the emails are mostly simple text, which inboxes prefer). Substack’s domain reputation is strong and they manage bounces and spam reports centrally. You don’t have to worry about any of that. The platform provides basic analytics: you’ll see how many opens each email got, and how many new sign-ups, etc., in a simple dashboard. While it lacks advanced analytics, it covers the important metrics. Importantly, since Substack emails tend to be plain and content-focused, they often avoid spam filters. Just be aware that if you import a cold email list into Substack, they might monitor engagement and could intervene if the list performs poorly (to protect overall deliverability). But if you grow using their native tools, you’ll likely enjoy excellent deliverability and can focus on writing.
Ease of Use: This is where Substack really shines. It was “built for writers” with as little friction as possible. The editor is extremely straightforward – essentially a blank canvas for text with simple formatting options. There are no complex templates or design modules; every Substack email tends to have a clean, uniform look. This means anyone can start writing a newsletter without technical skills. The platform takes care of sending the email and posting it to a web page automatically. The onboarding process guides you to set up your publication name, import contacts if you have any, and start writing. For a complete beginner, Substack is arguably the easiest way to start a newsletter. The downside of this simplicity is less flexibility – you can’t deeply customize the design or do advanced things like split tests. But most writers find that a worthy trade-off. Substack’s interface for managing subscribers and posts is also minimalistic and clear . In short, if you can use a basic word processor, you can use Substack. This frees you to focus on content, which is great for creators who don’t want to tinker with tech. Substack also handles all the subscription management (people can easily subscribe/unsubscribe, upgrade to paid, etc., with one click, and Substack manages the paywall for paid posts).
Free vs Paid Plans: Substack itself doesn’t have paid plans for creators – it’s free to use. You can have unlimited subscribers and send unlimited emails at no cost. The only time money changes hands is if you enable paid subscriptions, at which point Substack takes its 10% fee from the revenue. In other words, Substack is “free” but with a revenue share model. There are no feature gated tiers; you get everything (publishing, website, community features) from the start. This is fantastic for those starting out because you won’t have any software expense as you grow a free readership. Just note: if you later decide to move off Substack to another platform, exporting your subscriber list is possible (you own the list), but you might need to ask paying subscribers to re-enter payment info on the new platform – a migration pain point. Some creators actually start on Substack, build an audience, then migrate to Ghost or Beehiiv to avoid fees once they’re ready to scale paid offerings beyond a certain revenue. But there’s no obligation to ever leave if Substack meets your needs. When to “upgrade” (or switch): If you strongly want features Substack lacks (like complex automations, or a custom-branded website with more control) or if the 10% fee significantly eats into your earnings, that’s when you might consider alternatives. Otherwise, you can happily stay on Substack’s free infrastructure indefinitely.
Best For: Substack is best for writers who want the simplest path to start a newsletter and build a community around it. If your focus is writing great career content (articles, personal essays, interviews, etc.) and potentially converting a fraction of loyal readers into paying subscribers for bonus content, Substack is a terrific choice. For a recruiter or career coach, Substack could be an easy way to share weekly insights or job postings and charge for a premium tier (like detailed salary guides or one-on-one Q&A posts) once you have fans. It’s also great if you value the community engagement – Substack’s commenting system and network can add a social dimension to your newsletter business that pure email tools lack. On the other hand, if you need advanced marketing tools or non-newsletter features, Substack might feel limiting. But for a content-driven newsletter business, especially in the early stages, Substack’s no-cost, no-hassle approach is very attractive. Many successful newsletter entrepreneurs (even those who later moved platforms) started by proving the concept on Substack. In summary: choose Substack if you want to write and send emails with minimal overhead, tap into a built-in audience network, and you’re okay with its transaction-fee model for monetization.
4. Ghost
Ghost is a powerful open-source platform often seen as a direct alternative to Substack for independent publishers. Unlike the others on this list, Ghost is primarily a CMS (Content Management System) – similar to WordPress – that you can use to run a website and newsletter in one. It’s especially well-suited for those who want full control over branding, design, and membership features. For career content creators who prefer owning their platform (and maybe hosting content beyond just emails, like a blog or resource hub), Ghost is an intriguing option.
Monetization: Ghost has built-in membership and subscription features that rival Substack’s, but with a different business model. With Ghost, you self-host or pay Ghost(Pro) for hosting – either way, Ghost does not take a cut of your revenue from paid subscriptions . You can charge members monthly or annually for premium content, and Ghost just facilitates it via Stripe integration. This means if you want to offer a paid newsletter or gated career resources, you keep 100% of what you earn (minus Stripe fees). Ghost supports tiered membership plans out of the box, so you could even have multiple levels (e.g. free, silver, gold) with different perks. Aside from subscriptions, Ghost being a full website allows you to monetize with other methods: you can place ads or sponsor logos on your site, sell products via integrations, etc. It doesn’t have a native ad network like Beehiiv, but you have the freedom to implement any ads or affiliate links you want on your site. Essentially, monetization is as flexible as on a WordPress site – without needing dozens of plugins. This makes Ghost very appealing if you’re building a broader “career community website” with a newsletter and possibly other revenue streams (like a job board or premium content library).
Features & Community: Ghost is often praised for its clean, modern design and customizable themes. It provides a simple editor for writing posts (supporting Markdown and rich media), and you can publish those posts to your Ghost website and/or send them as emails to your members. So, you get a blog + newsletter combo. Ghost has good support for SEO, custom domains, and even multi-author publications (if you have a team of contributors for your content). While Ghost includes basic community features (members can log in to manage their subscription and leave comments if you enable a comment system), it’s not as community-oriented as Substack in terms of built-in social features. There is an “Explore” section/portal on Ghost (if enabled) that can help your publication get discovered by readers looking for content, somewhat akin to Substack’s recommendation network. But the network effect is smaller since Ghost isn’t a centralized platform – each Ghost site is independent (Ghost does have a directory of sites, but it’s not as integral as Substack’s network). For audience growth, you rely on typical methods: SEO (Ghost sites are well-optimized for search), social sharing, and any referral programs you set up externally. Ghost doesn’t have a native referral tracking like Beehiiv yet, but you could integrate third-party tools. It does support basic automation through integrations (e.g. RSS-to-email, or using Zapier to trigger emails). However, Ghost’s email capabilities are more akin to sending each new post to subscribers or sending newsletters – it’s not built for complex drip campaigns or segmentation. Think of it as a publishing tool with email delivery, rather than an email marketing suite. For most newsletter needs (broadcasting new content to all members), Ghost works great. You might miss advanced automation if you were used to something like ConvertKit, but many Ghost users pair it with an email service like Mailgun or Mailchimp for more sophisticated campaigns, if needed.
Deliverability: Since Ghost is open-source, deliverability can depend on how you host it. If you use Ghost’s official hosted service (Ghost(Pro)), they include email sending via their integration with Mailgun up to a certain limit (usually enough for thousands of subscribers). Ghost(Pro) managed hosting ensures good deliverability because they configure Mailgun and domain authentication for you. If you self-host Ghost, you have to set up an email sending service (like Mailgun, SendGrid, etc.) and maintain that. Assuming it’s set up correctly, Ghost emails have no issues reaching inboxes – they’re usually simple, and you can customize sender domains. The open rates and such would be similar to any self-hosted newsletter; Ghost doesn’t provide aggregate open rate stats across all users like Substack does, since each instance is separate. But because readers subscribe directly to your site and confirm their email, you’re building a high-quality list. Ghost provides analytics for each email (opens, clicks) in the admin interface, though not as in-depth as some ESPs. One thing to note: Ghost by default can send emails to all members (free and paid), or only paid, etc., but it lacks advanced targeting beyond that. In terms of scale, Ghost can handle pretty large lists especially on their paid plans or with a good email backend. If deliverability issues arise, it’s often due to the email service you plugged in (which you can troubleshoot or switch). Overall, Ghost users manage to achieve strong deliverability comparable to dedicated ESPs, especially since you’re likely emailing content people explicitly signed up for.
Ease of Use: Ghost is somewhat in the middle ground. If you use Ghost(Pro) (the paid hosted version), getting started is fairly easy: you sign up, get a new site, and you can use a pre-made theme and start writing posts. The interface is more complex than Substack’s because Ghost has site settings, theme design options, membership settings, etc., in addition to an editor. If you’re comfortable with WordPress or similar, Ghost will feel clean and actually simpler (it doesn’t have plugin chaos – features are built-in). If you’re a total non-technical beginner, there will be a learning curve in understanding how to design your site, set up your navigation, and possibly tweak your theme to match your brand. But you don’t need to know code to use Ghost – many themes let you customize via a GUI, and writing/publishing is straightforward. Self-hosting Ghost is more technical (you’d need to install it on a server, maintain updates, configure a mail server, etc.), which is only recommended if you have web dev experience or hire help. For the sake of comparison, we’ll assume using Ghost’s hosted service, because that’s what most newsletter creators would do if they choose Ghost (to avoid IT headaches). With Ghost(Pro), it’s a polished experience: log in to an admin dashboard that feels like a modern app where you can create content, manage members, and check stats. It’s definitely more complex than a pure newsletter tool because you’re effectively running a website with membership features. But many creators appreciate the control – you can make your site exactly how you want it. Ghost also has a rich ecosystem of themes and integrations (for example, you can integrate a comment system like Disqus or Cove for community features since Ghost doesn’t have native comments out-of-the-box). In summary, Ghost is not as plug-and-play as Substack or Beehiiv, but it’s not overly difficult either, especially if you stick to the defaults. It’s designed to be user-friendly for content creators who want independence from big platforms.
Pricing: Ghost itself is free if self-hosted (just pay for your server/email usage). Ghost(Pro) has tiered plans: starting around $9/month for a Starter plan (which allows up to 500 subscribers), then higher tiers (e.g. $25/mo for 1,000 members, $50/mo for 2,000, and so on, scaling up with membership count). Unlike typical ESPs, Ghost’s pricing is mainly based on member count (free + paid members) and not on email send limits. All plans include core features – higher plans might add more staff users or more advanced theme support, but the ability to have paid subscriptions is included even in the starter tier. So effectively, for $9–$25 a month, you can run a full-fledged membership site with newsletter, which is quite reasonable (and again, no revenue tax on top). For context, if you had 5,000 subscribers, Ghost(Pro) might cost around $50-$100/month depending on the plan, whereas Substack would be free but take 10% of any paid earnings. It’s a trade-off of fixed cost vs. revenue share. When to choose Ghost: It’s not about a free vs paid plan internally (since even the cheapest paid plan gives all features), but rather whether to use Ghost at all. Ghost is best chosen from the start if you know you want that ownership and are willing to invest a bit in the setup. If you’re already on another platform and consider switching to Ghost, it would typically be once you have a solid audience and maybe you want more flexibility or to reduce fees on a now-large paid subscriber base.
Best For: Ghost is ideal for those who treat their newsletter as part of a larger content platform or brand. If you envision having a personal or business website with blog posts, podcast embeds, resource pages, and an email newsletter, Ghost can combine those without needing multiple tools. For example, a career content creator could use Ghost to host a blog with weekly articles, send those articles to newsletter subscribers, and have a members-only section with premium guides or a community forum for paid members. Ghost is also great for people who are a bit more tech-savvy or have access to a web designer, as you can fully customize your site’s look and feel (important for branding a professional career-coaching site, perhaps). Additionally, if avoiding transaction fees is a priority (i.e., you want to keep every dollar from subscription revenue), Ghost’s flat-rate pricing is attractive . That said, if your needs are just a simple newsletter and you don’t care about running a custom website, Ghost might be overkill. It really empowers creators who want to build a sustainable, independent media business – which might start with a newsletter but could grow into a blog, podcast, and more. Recruiters or career services could benefit by using Ghost to post job listings or client testimonials on the site, making the newsletter part of a broader offering. In summary, choose Ghost if you want maximum control and are building a branded content hub, and you’re comfortable with a bit more setup for the long-term payoff of ownership and flexibility.
5. Medium
Medium is a bit different from the other platforms on this list. It’s primarily known as a popular blogging platform and reader community (with around 60 million readers monthly), not a dedicated email service. However, Medium has introduced features that allow writers to operate newsletters and even monetize via the Medium Partner Program. For a career content creator, Medium can be a powerful distribution channel – especially if you want to tap into an existing audience and aren’t as worried about owning every subscriber’s email address.
Content Distribution & Audience: The biggest advantage of Medium is its built-in audience and discovery mechanisms. When you publish on Medium, your content can be surfaced to Medium’s large user base through topic tags, Medium’s homepage, or curations. If an article you write about “interview tips” goes viral on Medium, it could be read by thousands who aren’t on your personal email list yet. Readers on Medium can “follow” you or subscribe to your Medium publication, and Medium will email them your new stories (Medium essentially acts as the ESP, sending out your content to your followers’ inboxes). This functions much like a newsletter – you can even set up a publication and have a “Subscribe via email” option for readers who want updates without checking the site. So, in effect, Medium can send emails on your behalf to your followers whenever you publish. The key difference: those emails are branded Medium and you don’t get a typical email list to export (the relationship is managed by Medium). The upside is extremely easy onboarding of subscribers – anyone who reads and likes your post can follow you on Medium with one click, which is lower friction than getting them to a separate site to sign up. The community aspect is strong: Medium has commenting (called “responses”), the ability for readers to leave “claps” (a form of feedback/like), and writers can follow each other. It’s a very engaging ecosystem. For someone writing career advice, Medium offers potential exposure to a broad audience beyond your own network. On the downside, as mentioned, you don’t “own” the audience in the same way – if Medium changes policies or if you leave the platform, reaching those followers outside of Medium could be a challenge.
Monetization: Medium’s primary monetization for writers is the Partner Program. This is different from subscription models like Substack. With Medium’s Partner Program, all Medium members (readers who pay $5/month to Medium) can read paywalled stories, and Medium pays writers from that membership pool based on how much members engage with your content. Essentially, you get paid for reading time and engagement from Medium members on your stories . You do not set your own price – Medium pays out according to their formula. For many writers, this results in a small trickle of income unless you have huge readership on the platform. Medium has stated that only about 9% of writers earn more than $100/month from the Partner Program . So, it’s not a path to riches for most, but it can be some extra income for doing what you’d do anyway (writing articles). Medium does not currently support you charging your own subscription fees to readers; the model is they charge readers and distribute to writers. That said, nothing stops you from including external monetization in your Medium posts: for example, you could mention your coaching services and link out, or include affiliate links to products (as long as they comply with Medium’s rules). Medium also launched a feature for paid newsletters called “Medium for Publishers”, which allows publications to charge readers on Medium – but this is a relatively new, invite-only type program and not typical. Generally, think of Medium’s monetization as indirect – you might gain clients or attention that leads to income off-platform, and possibly earn some Partner Program royalties, but you’re not directly selling a newsletter subscription through Medium. One advantage: you don’t have to manage payments or customer service for subscribers; Medium handles all payments from members.
Ease of Use: Medium is extremely user-friendly for writing. Their editor is known for its clean design and excellent usability – you just write, add images or embeds if needed, and hit publish. It’s WYSIWYG and produces very nice-looking articles without any need to format emails or worry about templates. Medium also hosts your content on a beautiful site (your Medium profile or publication) with zero setup – no need for custom domain unless you want (you can set one up for a publication, but it’s optional). Essentially, Medium is plug-and-play for blogging. Starting a publication (which is like a collection of articles, possibly by multiple authors, under a cohesive name) is also straightforward on Medium. You could create a publication called “Career Insights Weekly” and publish under that name. There’s a toggle to email your new stories to subscribers – so Medium doubles as a newsletter sender seamlessly. For a beginner who doesn’t want to deal with any technical configuration, Medium is arguably the easiest way to publish content online and reach people’s inboxes aside from Substack. There’s no need to manage an email list, no design decisions – Medium does it all with a standard look. This ease, however, comes with the trade-off of lack of control: your newsletter via Medium will look like a Medium email, with Medium’s branding in places, and you can’t customize the layout much. Also, you won’t get advanced features like segmentation or automation at all. It’s a straight “write and publish” system.
Pros & Cons for Career Creators: On the pro side, Medium can offer great exposure with little marketing effort. If you write high-quality, insightful career articles, the platform’s algorithms and curation might put you in front of many readers. It’s excellent for building a personal brand and credibility (many people have “discovered” experts through their Medium posts). It’s also free to use; you could build an audience without spending a dime on software. Additionally, Medium can function as a content archive – all your posts are accessible on your profile, so new readers can binge your past articles. On the con side, building a business purely on Medium has limitations. It’s hard to break $100/mo via Medium’s internal monetization unless you achieve massive readership. You also don’t get the email addresses of your followers in a way you can export and use (Medium has recently allowed some way to collect subscriber emails for publication owners, but it’s not as straightforward as other ESPs). This means if you ever want to leave Medium, you might have to convince your followers to opt-in somewhere else – a hurdle that could lose you part of your audience. Branding is another con: your newsletter will always carry Medium’s branding and style, not a custom look that’s entirely yours. For someone building a company or distinctive brand, that’s a drawback.
Best For: Medium is best used as a content marketing and audience-building tool rather than a primary monetization platform (for most creators). If you’re a career coach or recruiter, you might use Medium to publish great free content to establish authority and drive interest, while possibly funneling dedicated readers to your own site or newsletter eventually. Some creators run a “hybrid” strategy: they publish free posts on Medium to leverage the audience, and at the end of each post invite readers to subscribe to their own newsletter (off Medium) for extra content or updates. This way, you get the best of both worlds – Medium’s reach and your own email list growth. That said, if you prefer to keep things simple and just stick to Medium, you can succeed by being consistent and engaging with the community there. It’s a good choice if you don’t want to manage the technical side of a newsletter at all, and you’re okay with growing your influence on a platform you don’t fully control. In summary, for recruiter publishers and career bloggers, Medium can be a great starting point to build an audience through great content and networking (many HR and career articles trend on Medium’s “Work” and “Productivity” categories). Just remember that Medium is optimized for exposure and ease, not direct revenue – only a small fraction of writers earn significant income on the platform. Many use it in tandem with another platform (e.g., publish on Medium to get readers, then convert them into email subscribers or clients elsewhere). If your goal is to quickly reach a lot of readers and you value community engagement over immediate monetization, Medium is definitely worth considering.
6. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Brevo, rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023, is a full-featured email marketing service that has become popular for its generous free plan and value for money. It’s not a creator-focused “newsletter community” platform like Substack or Beehiiv; rather, it’s a versatile tool used by businesses for newsletters, marketing emails, transactional emails, SMS, and more. For a newsletter operator who wants a traditional email marketing solution with strong automation and no-nonsense pricing, Brevo is a great choice – especially if you expect to send a lot of emails or have a large list.
Monetization & Use Cases: Brevo itself doesn’t provide specific monetization programs (no paid subscriptions or ad networks built in), but it gives you the tools to implement your own strategy. Since Brevo is essentially an email engine, you can use it to send out any content – free newsletters, sponsored emails, etc. If you want to monetize, you’ll be doing it through external means: e.g. including sponsorship banners in your Brevo emails, or using Brevo to email paying customers who bought access on another platform. Some creators might use Brevo to send a paid newsletter manually by only emailing a certain list of paying subscribers (Brevo allows multiple lists or segments, so you could maintain a “free list” and a “premium list” if you handle payments outside). In short, Brevo gives you the freedom to run your newsletter business your way, but it doesn’t have one-click monetization features. This is more akin to Mailchimp or MailerLite in philosophy – you can collect signups, send emails, and if you want to charge for something, you integrate a payment elsewhere (like a WooCommerce site or a Memberful integration). One monetization-related feature is that Brevo has decent support for affiliate marketing emails – since it’s a general email tool, you aren’t restricted from promoting affiliate links (as long as your content isn’t spammy). Also, Brevo offers CRM features and even a sales pipeline tool. If you provide services (like career coaching sessions), you could manage contacts and track leads inside Brevo. This makes it a bit of a one-stop-shop if you have a business side along with your newsletter.
Automation & Audience Growth: Brevo stands out for its marketing automation workflows, even on the free plan . You can set up automated sequences (e.g., welcome emails, drip campaigns) and even do advanced things like web tracking and lead scoring to see how subscribers engage with your site. For example, Brevo could send an automatic email to someone who clicked a link about “resume template” in your newsletter, offering them your resume review service – very powerful for conversion, though these features are more relevant if you’re running a business funnel, not just a content newsletter. In terms of list growth, Brevo provides customizable signup forms you can embed on your website and integration with landing page builders (though Brevo’s own landing page builder is limited unless on higher plan). It doesn’t have referral programs or network recommendations like Beehiiv or Substack – you’ll rely on your own marketing (social media, website, etc.) to grow subscribers. One unique angle: Brevo supports omnichannel communication. You can manage SMS campaigns, WhatsApp, Facebook ads retargeting, and live chat from the same platform. This might be overkill for many newsletter creators, but if you have, say, a recruiting agency and want to send job alert texts in addition to emails, Brevo makes that integration easy. Brevo is also very flexible with segmentation – you can filter and send to people based on attributes or past actions (e.g., only email subscribers who opened at least one of your last 5 emails, or those who are interested in tech jobs versus finance jobs if you tagged them). These kind of tools can help maintain good open rates and target content effectively, but they do require effort to set up and maintain.
Deliverability & Open Rates: Brevo/Sendinblue has earned a reputation for reliable deliverability, which is critical. In fact, EmailToolTester awarded Brevo “Best Email Marketing Tool for Value” and noted its strong deliverability safeguards. Brevo’s philosophy includes protecting sender reputation – for instance, if you import a list and send a campaign that performs poorly (low opens or high spam complaints), Brevo might temporarily block sending to those new contacts until you can validate them. This can be a bit shocking as a user, but it shows Brevo’s system actively works to keep spam out and maintain high inbox placement for everyone. They aim to keep their IPs clean. Brevo’s emails can be fully customized (HTML or drag-and-drop), so deliverability will partly depend on your email content (plain-text vs image-heavy, etc.). But overall, Brevo is known for good inbox rates and gives you tools like send time optimization and A/B testing (on certain plans) to maximize opens. It also has robust analytics, so you can monitor open/click rates and even geo or device stats. One thing to note is Brevo’s sending might not be instantaneous at huge scale on the free plan (they queue sends to 300 emails/day limit), but on paid plans you can send larger blasts quickly. In summary, Brevo is quite dependable for deliverability and is used by many businesses for that reason.
Ease of Use: Brevo is designed with small businesses in mind, so it balances power with usability. The interface is generally considered user-friendly for the feature set it offers – with a dashboard that clearly lays out campaigns, contacts, and automation. Setting up a simple newsletter campaign (choose list, design email, send) is straightforward. The email editor offers templates and drag-and-drop blocks if you want visual emails, but you can also just paste in text and send a plain email, which many newsletter creators do for a personal feel. Because Brevo has a wide range of features (some hidden in menus like transactional emails, automation, CRM), it can feel a bit complex if you venture into those areas. Beginners might not use 70% of Brevo’s capabilities, and that’s okay. You can ease in with just the basics. One consideration: unlike Substack or Beehiiv, there’s no built-in content hosting or public archive for your newsletters (aside from a basic archive of sent emails). You would typically pair Brevo with a separate blog or site if you want your content accessible on the web. So ease-of-use for a pure newsletter workflow is fine, but if you hoped to have a one-and-done platform, Brevo isn’t it – it’s primarily an email sender. The learning curve for advanced features like multi-step automations is moderate, but Brevo provides a lot of pre-made workflow recipes (for example, “welcome series” template) to help. Their support and documentation are quite extensive as well. Another plus: Brevo is GDPR-compliant and has features to manage subscriber consent and attributes neatly, which can be important in recruiting or career businesses handling personal data.
Free vs Paid Plans: Brevo’s free plan is one of the best out there for email volume. It allows unlimited contacts in your list and up to 300 emails per day sent for free. That’s roughly 9,000 emails per month – plenty if you’re starting out. Importantly, you’re not capped by subscriber count; you could have 10,000 people on your list but you can only email up to 300 per day on free (so you might send to the whole list over multiple days or just send less frequently). The free plan also includes automation workflows (up to 2,000 contacts can go through automations), which is rare – you can set up at least a basic welcome or drip series without paying. You even get features like live chat for your site and basic CRM on free. Brevo really gives a lot for no cost, making it easy to try. Once you need to send more, the paid plans are based on email volume. For example, Starter plan might be around $25/month for 20,000 emails per month (and scales up if you need more) . Their Lite plan starts as low as ~$9/month for 5,000 emails, which is very affordable. These plans remove the daily send limit and add features like A/B testing and advanced statistics. If you have, say, 5,000 subscribers and email them twice a week (so ~40k emails/month), you’d pick a plan to cover 40k sends, which might be around $39/mo – still quite cost-effective compared to subscriber-based pricing on other platforms. Brevo also has a Premium tier for more automation and multi-user support, but most likely not needed unless you have a team or advanced needs (premium is ~$65/mo and up, including things like marketing automation for all contacts, Facebook Ads integration, etc.). When to upgrade: If you start hitting the 300 emails/day limit regularly or want to send big campaigns in one go, it’s time to move to a paid plan with higher volume. Also, if you want to remove the small Brevo logo that appears in free emails or unlock features like send-time optimization, you’d need a paid plan. One good aspect is you can scale up by volume without jumping to an expensive tier – you pay roughly for what you use.
Best For: Brevo is an excellent fit for newsletter senders who want a reliable, cost-efficient email infrastructure with automation – without needing a publisher community platform. If you are a recruiter who has a large email list of candidates or clients and you need to send regular updates, Brevo can handle a big list cheaply. It’s also great if you run a more complex operation like a career coaching funnel, where you want to nurture leads through different stages (Brevo’s CRM and automation can help with that). If you plan to eventually have tens of thousands of subscribers, Brevo’s pricing will likely be far cheaper than creator-focused platforms that charge by subscriber count. It’s also a good choice if you want to keep full control of your data and have flexibility to use the emails in other contexts (because with Brevo, it’s your list and you can export/import freely). On the flip side, Brevo might be overkill if you’re simply writing a personal weekly newsletter to a small audience – in that case, something like Substack (with its built-in community) or Beehiiv (with publishing site included) could be more fun and engaging. Brevo doesn’t give you a public profile or network; it’s just the engine behind the scenes. However, for many professional newsletter creators – especially those with a business mindset – Brevo hits the sweet spot of power and affordability. Think of Brevo as a solid “traditional” ESP that can grow with you: you won’t outgrow its capabilities easily (it can even handle transactional emails if you someday launch a web app or product). It’s not flashy, but it’s dependable. For scaling a newsletter business, Brevo ensures your email delivery scales and your costs stay reasonable – you’ll just need to pair it with your own strategies for content, community, and monetization.
7. MailerLite
MailerLite is a popular lightweight email newsletter platform known for its ease of use and affordable pricing. It caters to individuals, small businesses, and creators who want solid email capabilities without too much complexity. Many content creators (including in the career niche) gravitate to MailerLite because it offers a friendly interface, a decent free plan, and even website/landing page features – striking a nice balance between a traditional ESP and a creator platform.
Monetization Features: MailerLite supports some creator monetization needs, though not as extensively as Substack or Ghost. You can set up paid newsletter subscriptions through MailerLite – they allow integration with Stripe so you can charge for content and manage paid subscribers with 0% transaction fees (MailerLite doesn’t take a cut). This is a big plus if you want to have a premium newsletter: you can create a paid subscriber segment and MailerLite will only send certain emails to those who’ve paid (it automates access control to paid content). Essentially, MailerLite can function similar to Substack’s paid feature, but you control the pricing and there’s no commission beyond Stripe’s fees. Aside from subscriptions, MailerLite is flexible for other monetization like sponsorships or affiliate marketing – you design and send emails freely. It doesn’t have a built-in ad network or referral payments. However, MailerLite recently introduced limited e-commerce features (through their sites/landing pages you can sell digital products or services). For example, you might sell an e-book or a 1-hour consultation via a MailerLite landing page and then use MailerLite emails to deliver or follow up. While not as robust as ConvertKit’s commerce or Ghost’s membership, these tools add monetization potential beyond just a newsletter. Affiliate programs: If you as a creator want to earn affiliate commission by recommending MailerLite, they do have an affiliate program (and likewise you could embed affiliate links in your newsletters; MailerLite is generally okay with that content as long as it’s not spammy).
Automation & Growth Tools: MailerLite offers a drag-and-drop editor for emails and websites, making it friendly for non-coders. It also includes landing pages, pop-up forms, and embedded signup forms to capture subscribers, which is great if you don’t have a separate website. Many writers use MailerLite’s landing page builder to create a simple signup page for their newsletter. In terms of automation, MailerLite has basic but effective automation workflows – you can set up things like welcome sequences, or an email course, or trigger emails based on subscriber actions (clicks, etc.). It’s not as advanced as ConvertKit or Brevo, but it covers most needs for a typical newsletter. For instance, you could tag subscribers who click on a link for “management jobs” and later send a targeted campaign about management career tips to just them. MailerLite also provides RSS-to-email, which can automatically send new blog posts to your list if you use an external blog. Audience growth can be enhanced by MailerLite’s built-in referral tracking – actually MailerLite doesn’t have a native referral program like Beehiiv, but you could manually manage referrals (some creators use Google Forms or simple tracking codes). Overall, MailerLite gives you all the expected tools: A/B testing (on paid plans), list segmentation, and recently even an AI writing assistant to help draft emails . They also have an iPad app for collecting signups in person (useful if you go to events and want to gather subscribers on the spot). The platform is “no-code” oriented, meaning pretty much anyone can leverage its features with a few clicks.
Deliverability: MailerLite has a good track record on deliverability. It might not have the ultra-enterprise infrastructure of a SendGrid, but for most creators it’s more than adequate. It encourages double opt-in for new subscribers (which can improve deliverability by ensuring only real, interested people join). MailerLite’s user base is largely legitimate content senders (bloggers, small businesses), so its sending IP reputation is generally positive. They also allow you to use your own sending domain to improve branding and trust. One limitation noted in comparisons is that MailerLite doesn’t have advanced deliverability tools or consultation – it’s a simpler service, so you won’t get things like lead scoring or certain advanced spam diagnostics that bigger services offer. However, in practice, if you maintain a clean list, MailerLite emails land in inboxes just fine. They provide standard open and click analytics, and a few widgets like tracking read time or geolocation of opens which can be interesting. To keep deliverability high, MailerLite doesn’t tolerate spammy behavior – if you try to import a purchased list, you might run into issues. But for organic lists, you should see open rates comparable to industry averages or better. Also, because MailerLite encourages simple email design (though it has nice templates), many creators send plain text or lightly formatted emails which tend to have higher deliverability.
Ease of Use: Simplicity is where MailerLite shines. The interface is very intuitive, often praised by users who find Mailchimp confusing. Everything from designing emails to setting up a sequence is guided by a friendly UI. If you’re a beginner with no experience in email marketing, MailerLite is one of the easiest to pick up. It also has a clean modern aesthetic in its tools – fitting since they target creators. You won’t find the kind of social/community features like Substack (no commenting system or app for readers, etc.), since it’s a traditional ESP. But as an admin, you’ll likely feel comfortable quickly. MailerLite’s website builder and newsletter editor both use block editors that are drag-and-drop – you can add text, images, buttons, etc., and preview how it looks on desktop or mobile. This is great for those who want nicely formatted newsletters with logos or call-to-action buttons (e.g., “Browse latest jobs” linking to your site). At the same time, if you prefer a minimal text email, you can just use a rich text block and keep it simple. Customer support on MailerLite is generally good, and they have a helpful knowledge base for common tasks. In terms of limitations, MailerLite does lack some depth in features (by design). For example, the automations are linear and not as granular as something like ActiveCampaign’s, and the analytics, while clear, might not satisfy a data nerd who wants very detailed reports. But for a newsletter content creator, it covers the bases without overwhelming you.
Free vs Paid Plans: MailerLite has a well-regarded free tier. The Free plan allows up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. This is quite generous for starting out – you could have 1k people and send them 12 emails a month (almost 3 per week) for free. On the free plan, you get core features: the drag-and-drop editor, basic automations (1 automation workflow), landing pages, and even the ability to create a small website. However, some features are limited or not included in free: for instance, paid newsletters (monetization) and the affiliate program feature require upgrading. Also, things like auto-resend to non-openers or promotional pop-ups are paid-only. The Growing Business plan (their mid-tier) starts around $9–$10/month for 1,000 subscribers. This plan includes the ability to sell subscriptions (monetization), removes a small MailerLite badge, and unlocks advanced automations and A/B testing. As your subscriber count grows, the price increments – e.g., about $15/mo for 2,500 subs, $30/mo for 5k subs, etc. They also have an Advanced plan for even larger lists or extra features, but most likely the basic paid plan is enough until you’re well into tens of thousands of subscribers. The nice thing is MailerLite’s pricing is generally a bit lower than Mailchimp or ConvertKit for equivalent list sizes. When to upgrade: If you cross 1,000 subscribers or if you need a feature like paid newsletter or complex automation, you’ll need to move to paid. Another scenario is if you want to use more than 1 landing page or need more design/template options, as the free version is slightly limited in those aspects. Upgrading is pretty seamless – all your data stays, you just gain features.
Best For: MailerLite is best for creators who want a simple, budget-friendly newsletter solution that still offers professional features. If you are a career blogger or small recruiting firm that wants to maintain an email list for weekly updates, MailerLite will let you do that with minimal hassle. It’s particularly good if you plan to stick mostly to email and perhaps a simple website – it’s not trying to be a social platform, which some may prefer. For example, if you already have a LinkedIn following and you just want an easy way to capture those followers into an email list and send them curated content or job listings, MailerLite is a great choice. It’s also a strong option if you foresee needing a combination of website + email but you don’t want to use something as involved as Ghost; MailerLite can host a basic site or blog for you (with your newsletter signup integrated). For scaling, MailerLite can handle a good-sized list, though if you became huge (hundreds of thousands of subscribers) you might eventually consider more enterprise solutions. But many newsletters with 10k, 50k, even 100k readers use MailerLite effectively. It’s worth noting that MailerLite lacks a built-in community network, so you won’t get the cross-pollination of audience like Substack’s recommendation system or Medium’s feed. You’ll be building your list through your own efforts. For recruiter publishers and career content creators, MailerLite’s stylish templates and landing pages can help create a polished look (useful for impressing potential sponsors or giving your content a professional vibe) . And when you’re ready to monetize, you can flip on paid subscriptions with no commission, which is great for keeping revenue high. In summary, MailerLite is an all-around solid platform: it might not have any one killer unique feature, but it covers monetization, automation, and ease of use quite well, making it a dependable choice for a growing newsletter business.
8. Flodesk
Flodesk is an email marketing service that has gained a following, especially among entrepreneurs and creatives, for its beautiful email designs and unique flat-rate pricing. Launched in 2019, Flodesk’s ethos is about making emails visually stunning and easy to create, while simplifying pricing so you’re not penalized as your list grows. If you’re a career content creator who cares a lot about branding and design consistency – say you want your newsletter to look gorgeous and on-brand each time – Flodesk is worth a look.
Monetization: Flodesk historically was just for email sending, but it has expanded to include a simple checkout feature. Currently, Flodesk offers two plans: Email Marketing and Email + Checkout. The base Email plan allows unlimited emails to unlimited subscribers (more on pricing in a moment), but it doesn’t have built-in sales features. The Email + Checkout plan (a higher tier) lets you sell digital products or services via Flodesk and send automated checkout-related emails . This means you could potentially monetize by selling, for example, an e-book, a workshop, or even a paid newsletter access as a “product.” However, Flodesk’s checkout is more rudimentary compared to a full e-commerce or membership system – it’s a newer addition and geared toward one-off sales or simple subscriptions. Flodesk does not take a transaction fee on sales; you just pay the higher monthly plan. If you’re focusing on newsletter subscriptions for monetization, Flodesk might not be the most straightforward choice (since platforms like Beehiiv, Substack, or MailerLite have more direct subscription features). Many Flodesk users monetize indirectly – e.g., by promoting coaching services or affiliate products within their beautifully designed emails – rather than charging for the newsletter itself. On the affiliate side, Flodesk itself became popular through a referral program where existing users gave new users 50% off and got commission. As a content creator, you could join their affiliate program and recommend Flodesk for some kickback, but in terms of using Flodesk for your audience, you won’t find sponsor marketplaces or anything built-in. In short, monetization with Flodesk is up to you: you can insert ads or affiliate links in your pretty emails, or use the checkout feature to sell something, but Flodesk won’t directly facilitate paid newsletter memberships as seamlessly as some others.
Design & Features: The standout feature of Flodesk is design. It provides gorgeous templates and a very intuitive visual email builder that yields elegant results. Everything from font choices, image layouts, to “shop-like” email designs are tailored to look modern and clean. If you have a strong brand (logos, color scheme) or you just want your newsletter to have a more magazine-like feel, Flodesk excels there. It was built in response to the clunky or bland designs of other tools. For a career newsletter, perhaps you want to include company logos of featured jobs or headshots in a Q&A – Flodesk will make those elements look nicely formatted without much effort. Automation: Flodesk does offer workflow automation, though not as advanced as ConvertKit. You can set up sequences like welcome emails or time-based drip series. However, currently Flodesk’s automation triggers are limited (e.g., trigger when someone subscribes, or when they purchase via Flodesk Checkout, etc.). It doesn’t have dozens of conditions; it focuses on simple needs. Likewise, segmentation exists (called “Segments” and “Segments by behavior”), but the platform is not built for heavy segmentation or dynamic content – it’s more about sending the same beautiful email to everyone or to broad groups. Flodesk also now includes basic forms and landing pages to capture signups, which align with their design-centric approach – the forms look quite nice and can be embedded on your site. Another plus is Flodesk supports multi-user collaboration (for a team) on higher plans, and it allows unlimited emails and subscribers on all plans, so you won’t hit sending caps. This is great for scaling; you never have to worry about paying more as your list grows. Flodesk’s analytics are relatively basic: open rates, click rates, and some data on top-performing links. It’s not the platform for deep data dives, but it covers the health metrics you’d usually want.
Deliverability: Initially, some users questioned Flodesk’s deliverability, since it was newer. Over the past few years, Flodesk has worked to ensure their sending IPs and domains maintain good reputation. They also now allow sending from your own domain (which helps credibility). While Flodesk’s focus is design, they claim to also prioritize inbox placement. One thing to be mindful of: highly designed emails (with lots of images or decorative elements) can sometimes land in Promotions tab for Gmail. If your content’s style in Flodesk is very image-heavy, you might see slightly lower open rates due to that filtering. However, if you use a mix of text and clean design (which Flodesk supports with nice fonts and layout without needing to be image-only), you can still achieve strong deliverability. Flodesk is still not as battle-tested at scale as, say, Brevo or Mailchimp, but many creators send to lists of tens of thousands with it successfully. They also have a policy of no subscriber limits, which means they have to be careful to keep their delivery infrastructure efficient – so far they seem to manage it by the flat fee model which presumably funds robust servers. Users often praise Flodesk for “I can finally make emails that look on-brand and still get opens!” which suggests deliverability is on par with industry standards once you’ve warmed up your list on Flodesk.
Ease of Use: Flodesk is generally regarded as very easy to use, especially for making things look good. Its interface is minimalistic and pleasing – much less cluttered than legacy tools. They intentionally streamlined it: fewer but more impactful features, all accessible without much technical knowledge. Setting up a signup form or automation is done through clear, step-by-step prompts. Flodesk likely has one of the shortest learning curves for achieving professional design results. If you’re not techy and you dread clunky software, Flodesk can be a breath of fresh air. One could argue it’s almost too minimal for power users, but for most creators that’s a worthwhile trade. Their philosophy is also “we’ll handle the messy stuff,” so you don’t worry about things like email credits or deliverability technicalities – you just focus on content and design. They provide a free trial (and often those 50% off first year deals through referrals) so you can test it out risk-free as well.
Pricing: Flodesk’s pricing is a major selling point: flat rate with unlimited subscribers and sends. As of 2025, the Email plan is $38/month (unlimited everything). The Email + Checkout plan is $64/month. They also offer discounts if you pay annually. Importantly, using referral codes can often halve that for at least the first year (many people snag Flodesk for ~$19/month for their first year or more). The flat pricing means that whether you have 500 subscribers or 50,000, you pay the same – $38 (or $64 with checkout). This is incredibly appealing if you anticipate growing a large list; it removes any cost anxiety about expansion. However, if your list is small, $38 might seem steep compared to free or cheaper tiers on other platforms. Basically, Flodesk is most cost-effective for medium to large lists; for very small starters, it’s pricier than using a free plan elsewhere until you grow. But the value is in not having costs skyrocket as you gain subscribers. Also, all features are included – you’re never forced to upgrade for more automation or segments, etc. They intentionally keep it simple: two plans, pick one. When to upgrade: You only “upgrade” if you need the Checkout features for selling things. Otherwise, you just have the flat Email plan and enjoy that indefinitely. If you start on Email and later want to sell directly through Flodesk, you’d go to Email+Checkout. There’s no concept of hitting a cap and needing to upgrade due to list size or email volume.
Best For: Flodesk is best for creators who prioritize aesthetics and a predictable cost, and who have a straightforward email strategy. If you are running a personal brand or a small business in the career space and want your communications to look highly polished – perhaps to stand out to sponsors or to appeal to a professional audience – Flodesk ensures your emails look like a designed newsletter rather than a plain list. For example, a career coach could send a monthly newsletter with sections, nice fonts, and colors matching their brand, which might impress readers and reinforce brand identity. Recruiters could send out beautifully formatted job digests. Flodesk is also great if you find other tools too overwhelming; it lets you focus on content/design creativity rather than fiddling with settings. Another scenario: if you anticipate growth (maybe you plan to run paid ads or leverage partnerships to gain tens of thousands of subscribers), Flodesk’s flat rate can save a lot of money in the long run. On the flip side, if community engagement (comments, social features) is a priority or if you need very complex automations, Flodesk wouldn’t be the right tool – it doesn’t provide a community space like Substack, and its automation is limited to simpler flows. Also, if you’re content with a plain text email style, Flodesk’s key benefit (design) might be less relevant. But many people undervalue design; even in a career advice newsletter, good formatting can improve readability (use of headers, call-out boxes, etc.). Flodesk was “intentionally created to support small business owners” with an emphasis on style and simplicity. For a career content creator who sees their newsletter as part of a brand experience (maybe integrated with Instagram content, YouTube, etc., where visual identity matters), Flodesk is an excellent choice. And knowing that you won’t pay more as your list and business grow is a relief for many. In summary, choose Flodesk if you want beautiful emails, flat pricing, and are okay with a simpler feature set – it’s a favorite for those reasons, especially among creative entrepreneurs and coaches.
9. Buttondown
Buttondown is a lesser-known but beloved platform, especially among indie newsletter writers and developers. It’s a lightweight, Markdown-friendly email tool that emphasizes simplicity, privacy, and a no-frills approach. For a career content creator who values a minimalist workflow (perhaps you prefer writing in plain text or Markdown) and wants to keep costs low without sacrificing key functionality like paid subscriptions, Buttondown could be a perfect fit.
Monetization: Despite its simplicity, Buttondown has solid monetization support. You can charge for your newsletter through Buttondown easily – it integrates with Stripe and notably takes no cut of your subscription fees. Buttondown prides itself on offering “the best terms in the industry” for paid newsletters, meaning you keep all subscriber revenue (aside from Stripe’s processing fee). This is even better than Substack’s 10% fee model or others that might take a slice. Essentially, Buttondown lets you run a paid newsletter in a way that’s very creator-friendly financially. Setting up a paid tier is straightforward; you decide the price and which content is paid-only, and Buttondown handles the rest. Aside from subscriptions, Buttondown doesn’t have an internal marketplace or ads, but because it’s an email sender at heart, you can include sponsorships or affiliate links in your content just like any other email platform. There’s also nothing stopping you from running both free and paid versions (for instance, free subscribers get one email a month, paid get four, etc.). As for affiliate programs, Buttondown itself doesn’t really do that; it’s a small operation (in fact, it was created by a single developer and remains indie). But monetization potential for you using Buttondown is mainly through subscriptions or any deals you include in emails.
Features & Audience: Buttondown is intentionally minimal but has thoughtful features. It’s geared toward people who might write their newsletters like writing an email to a friend – often using Markdown (a plain text formatting syntax) to compose. If you enjoy writing without a lot of GUI and maybe already write in Markdown for things like GitHub or docs, Buttondown will feel natural. You can just type your content (with bold/italics links via Markdown) or HTML if you want, and Buttondown converts it to a nicely formatted email. It also automatically checks for things like broken links or typos, which is a neat perk . In terms of audience management, Buttondown allows tagging and segmentation of subscribers, scheduling emails, and provides a clean dashboard of basic metrics (open rates, etc.). It also supports newsletter website hosting: Buttondown gives you a public archive page for your posts if you want (and you can use a custom domain). This means you do get a simple website for people to read past issues or subscribe – useful if you want a web presence without building one yourself. While it doesn’t have a social network, Buttondown does offer an API and integrates well with other tools (since tech-savvy folks like to hook it up to static site generators or custom forms). Another nice feature: it has a built-in referral system in a basic form, where you can ask new subscribers “who referred you?” and track that, though it’s more manual than Beehiiv’s robust referral program.
Privacy and Deliverability: Buttondown emphasizes privacy (no ads, no selling data, compliance with GDPR) which some creators appreciate. For deliverability, Buttondown leverages reputable email servers and, by keeping content mostly simple text, it usually achieves high inbox rates. Many Buttondown newsletters have very personal tones, which often correlates with engaged readership and high open rates. The platform is smaller scale, which might mean more personalized attention – the founder is known to be responsive to issues. They also support sending via your own domain for authenticity. Given that a lot of tech and professional folks use Buttondown, it likely has a good sender reputation. Buttondown will enforce quality: for example, if you try to import a huge list of emails, they might verify that you have consent, as they want to avoid spam. Assuming you’re building your list organically, you should see deliverability comparable or better than larger platforms, due to the lean nature of emails.
Ease of Use: If you like simplicity, Buttondown is extremely easy to use. Its interface is spartan but clear. You log in and you have a “New Email” button and some settings – that’s about it. The focus is on writing. You won’t find drag-and-drop editors or template galleries; instead, you get a blank text area where you can craft your newsletter content. This can be either freeing or off-putting depending on your style. For a writer who’s not interested in fiddling with design and just wants to type out their insights or curated links (as many professional newsletters do), it’s perfect. The learning curve is almost non-existent if you understand basic computer text editing. They do provide guidance in using Markdown if you’re not familiar, but it’s optional – you could also write in a rich text mode with basic formatting. Uploading images or attachments is supported too, just not in a fancy drag-drop way. Another perk: Buttondown is free for the first 100 subscribers. This means you can start without paying a cent and see if it’s for you. After 100 subs, it requires a subscription (starting at $9/month). That’s a very accessible entry point. Because of this, many tiny newsletters start on Buttondown – and some stay if they like it.
Scalability & Pricing: Buttondown’s pricing after the free 100 subs is a tiered monthly fee based on subscriber count (but it’s quite affordable). For example, $9/mo covers up to maybe 1,000 subscribers, then it scales (to $29 for 2,500, etc., roughly – the pricing page would have specifics). These fees support the service (remember, they don’t take your revenue and they are indie). If you run a paid newsletter, Buttondown also has an option where you don’t pay a monthly fee at all, but instead they take a 5% fee of your revenue – however, they explicitly market “no fees from us” and encourage the flat fee model. Possibly the 5% model was an old thing or alternative; it appears they want to be seen as fee-free for creators. With flat pricing and no per-subscriber fee taken, it’s very cost-effective as you grow. And because it’s simple, it can likely handle large lists in terms of sending (the founder has mentioned some big publications on it). If you got really huge, maybe you’d talk to them about a custom plan, but for most career newsletters, Buttondown can scale fine.
Best For: Buttondown is best for individuals who value a lean, writing-focused platform and keeping full ownership (and revenue) of their newsletter. If you are a technical recruiter or career advisor who maybe already writes blogs in Markdown or prefers a clean email layout (perhaps just text with the occasional bold or bullet list), Buttondown will fit your workflow like a glove. It’s also great if you’re budget-conscious – perhaps you don’t expect to monetize immediately and don’t want upfront costs, or you have a tight budget. The first 100 subs free is inviting to test waters, and even beyond that, it’s cheaper than many competitors at equivalent list sizes. For a career newsletter, you might not need fancy designs – maybe you send weekly job leads with a short intro message. Buttondown would handle that perfectly and deliver a very email-native experience to your subscribers (it feels like getting a personal email). It also appeals if you are a bit of a nerd about tools and prefer ones that are open about features and limitations. Buttondown’s website literally lists its features and even shortcomings in a very transparent way, which many appreciate. On the downside, if you wanted something more elaborate visually or community features, Buttondown is not trying to do that. It won’t magically grow your audience (no network effects), it just reliably serves the audience you bring. But for many newsletters, that’s all that’s needed. In summary, choose Buttondown if you want simplicity, generous terms (no revenue cut), and a focus on content. It’s like the artisan tool in a world of big SaaS platforms – small, refined, and effective for those who know what they want.
10. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the oldest and best-known email marketing platforms. It’s practically synonymous with email newsletters, and many people have at least heard of it. While Mailchimp has evolved to include a broad marketing toolkit (and was acquired by Intuit, expanding its business focus), it’s still widely used for newsletters. We include it here not because it’s “modern” or specialized for content creators (it’s not, really), but because it’s a stable, widely-supported choice that some career content creators might consider or already be familiar with. It can serve as a baseline for comparison with newer tools.
Monetization: Mailchimp is primarily an email sending service and CRM, so it doesn’t natively support paid newsletter subscriptions. However, it recently added a feature called “Mailchimp Paywall” via an integration (Campaignzee) that lets you charge for newsletter content. Essentially, you need a third-party plugin to manage payments, and Mailchimp will then send emails only to paying subscribers behind that paywall. This is a bit clunky compared to platforms that have it built-in, but it’s possible. Many Mailchimp users who monetize do so indirectly: they might use Mailchimp to send sponsored newsletters (selling ad slots themselves) or use it to communicate with paying members who bought access elsewhere (like Patreon or a membership site). Mailchimp also has e-commerce integrations; if you have products or services (e.g., you sell career coaching sessions or an ebook on your website), Mailchimp can integrate with your store and you can leverage those contacts for newsletters. But in terms of straightforward newsletter monetization, Mailchimp isn’t the leader. They don’t have an ad network, and any affiliate or sponsor monetization is up to you to include in the content. One advantage is that Mailchimp is very flexible: you can design any kind of email, include any content or promotion, and segment your audience for upsells or offers (e.g., identify engaged readers and send them a pitch for your paid course). Mailchimp itself offers an affiliate program for its users to refer others to Mailchimp, but that’s tangential (though if you write about email marketing or tools in your career newsletter, you might mention it for a commission).
Features & Audience Management: Mailchimp is feature-rich. It has a drag-and-drop email designer, tons of templates, and an extensive automation builder. You can set up multi-step customer journeys, tagging, scoring, etc. – but note, some of these advanced features are only on higher-paid tiers. For a basic newsletter, Mailchimp provides everything needed: list management, scheduling, A/B testing, basic welcome automations, and detailed analytics. It also has extras like surveys, polls, and an array of integrations (there’s likely an integration or Zapier connection for any app you use). One notable thing: Mailchimp can host a simple landing page or signup form, but it doesn’t really host a content archive for you. They did add a “Feed” view for your campaigns that you can share as an archive link, but it’s not as nice as Substack’s or Ghost’s web pages. However, Mailchimp offers something of a mini website via “Mailchimp Sites” if needed, and you can have a subscribe form there. For growth, Mailchimp doesn’t actively promote your newsletter to new readers (no network effect), but it does provide tools like a referral program add-on (they have a beta feature where you can include a referral incentive in your email – though it’s not as prominent as Beehiiv’s system). Audience segmentation is a strong suit: if you want to slice your list by those who clicked on “Tech jobs” links vs “Marketing jobs” links, Mailchimp can do that and let you target follow-ups accordingly. This could be useful for a recruiter managing different talent pools.
Deliverability & Reliability: Mailchimp has been in the game a long time and generally is considered reliable in getting emails delivered. They handle all the backend and have relationships with inbox providers. That said, as a mass marketing platform, sometimes Mailchimp emails (especially heavy template ones) might get sorted to Promotions. But overall, if your content is sought-after and you maintain list health, Mailchimp will deliver well. They also have helpful features like a compliance check if a send might be problematic (to avoid spam issues). One thing to watch is that Mailchimp strictly forbids certain content categories (not a concern for career content, but things like affiliate-heavy emails or work-from-home schemes can trigger account warnings). For a normal newsletter, you likely won’t have any trouble. Mailchimp also supports using your own sending domain to help with branding and deliverability. The analytics Mailchimp provides are quite granular, including opens, clicks, geographic data, and even predictive demographics if you use their bigger CRM functions. You can gauge a lot about how your newsletter performs over time.
Ease of Use: This is where opinions vary. Mailchimp has added so many features over the years that some find it a bit complicated or cumbersome for just sending a simple newsletter. The interface was redesigned recently to be more guided, but new users might still find terms and menus that are overkill for their needs. For example, you’ll see options for building customer journeys, connecting online stores, doing social posts, etc. – things a pure newsletter author might ignore. However, Mailchimp’s core campaign builder is fairly straightforward: pick audience, pick template, write content, send. If you choose a simple layout and focus on writing, it’s not too bad. The issue is more the surrounding stuff. Mailchimp does provide a lot of help articles and even in-app hints. Many people started their first newsletter on Mailchimp because it was the go-to, so it’s certainly doable for beginners. But in 2025, beginners have other simpler options (like Substack or MailerLite) if they don’t need all the bells and whistles. The good part: if you need help or have a problem, Mailchimp’s support is established (though direct live support might only be for paid tiers). And because so many use Mailchimp, you can find tutorials for almost any question via a quick search.
Free vs Paid Plans: Mailchimp used to have a very generous free plan (up to 2,000 subs), but it has limited it now. The current Free plan allows up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month. It includes basic email templates and single-step automations. Once you go beyond 500 subscribers, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. The first paid tier is Essentials, starting around $13–$20/month for up to 1,500 contacts or so (prices vary with list size). The Standard plan (with advanced automations and better segmentation) is more like $17–$20 for 500 contacts, scaling upward. So, Mailchimp can actually get pricier than some newer competitors as your list grows. For example, at 5,000 contacts, Mailchimp Standard might cost around $60/mo, whereas MailerLite might be $30. That said, Mailchimp has a lot included (like those templates, a pretty robust platform). When to upgrade: beyond the contact count forcing upgrade, you might upgrade if you need features like multi-step automations or send-time optimization, which are not on the free or lowest tier. But most likely, it’s the subscriber count that will push you from free to paid quickly, given the low 500 limit.
Best For: Mailchimp remains a good option for those who want a proven, all-in-one marketing tool that can handle newsletters plus potentially other marketing tasks. If you not only send a career newsletter but also perhaps run a recruiting agency’s email list for clients, or you want to manage separate segments (like job seeker tips vs. employer newsletter) in one account, Mailchimp’s organizational structure (with multiple audiences and segments) can handle that. It’s also useful if you plan to eventually integrate email with other channels: e.g., you want to retarget your email subscribers with ads or send postcards – Mailchimp has add-ons for those multi-channel touches. For a pure individual newsletter creator, Mailchimp might be more power (and cost) than needed. However, some people stick with it because they trust it and it’s what they started with. If you’ve already built a list on Mailchimp, there may be no strong reason to leave unless cost or specific missing features (like easy paid subscriptions) are an issue. Mailchimp is certainly scalable and widely supported: many third-party tools (WP plugins, etc.) have direct integrations to collect emails into Mailchimp, which can be convenient. For recruiter publishers, one advantage is if you already use other Intuit products or plan to use their CRM integrations (since Intuit owns it, who knows, maybe tie-ins with QuickBooks for business stuff? Not sure if relevant, but ecosystem could matter for a business use). In summary, Mailchimp is a jack-of-all-trades – not specialized for content monetization or community, but a solid foundation for sending emails and managing contacts. If you foresee needing a robust, company-oriented email system and don’t mind the learning curve, Mailchimp is still a contender. Otherwise, many individual creators now opt for leaner platforms tailored to newsletters.
After exploring these 10 platforms – Beehiiv, ConvertKit (Kit), Substack, Ghost, Medium, Brevo, MailerLite, Flodesk, Buttondown, and Mailchimp – you can see each has its strengths. The “best” choice depends on your priorities: monetization model, ease of use, budget, and the type of experience you want to create for you and your readers.
Below is a comparison chart summarizing key points for a quick side-by-side glance:
| Platform | Free Plan / Trial | Monetization Options | Notable Features | Pricing (Paid Plans) | Ideal For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beehiiv | Free up to 2,500 subs (limited features) | Paid newsletters (0% fee), Ad network, referrals | Built-in website, referral program, cross-promo “Boosts” | Scale plan from ~$39/mo (price grows with list) | |
| ConvertKit (Kit) | Free up to 10,000 subs (basic features) | Paid subscriptions & products (0% fee), affiliate-friendly | Advanced automations, landing pages, Creator Network | Creator plan $25/mo (1k subs), scales by subscribers | |
| Substack | Free to use (unlimited subs) | Paid subscriptions (10% fee cut), tips/donations | Built-in reader community (comments, app), recommendations | No platform fees (only revenue share if paid) | Writers seeking simplicity & built-in audience |
| Ghost | No free tier (open-source self-host option) | Paid memberships (0% fee) | Full website + newsletter, theme customization, no transaction fees | ||
| Medium | Free to publish (Medium handles emails) | Partner Program pays based on reads | Huge built-in audience, easy publishing, Medium community | ||
| Brevo (Sendinblue) | Free up to 300 emails/day (unlimited contacts) | No built-in paid subs (use external), supports affiliate/sponsor content | Strong automation workflows, SMS & chat, CRM features | Volume-based, e.g. ~$9/mo for 5k emails | Businesses & newsletters needing cheap scalability |
| MailerLite | Free up to 1,000 subs (12k emails/mo) | Paid newsletters (0% fee); product sales pages | Drag-and-drop editor, landing pages, decent automation ([The 13 Best Substack Alternatives (UPDATED 2025 Ranking) | ||
| Flodesk | Free 30-day trial (no free plan after) | Checkout feature to sell products/services (flat fee, no extra cut) | Gorgeous email templates, unlimited subscribers, very simple UX | $38/mo flat (Email only); $64/mo (Email+Checkout) | Small businesses & creators valuing design and flat cost |
| Buttondown | Free for first 100 subscribers | Paid newsletters via Stripe (0% platform fee) | Markdown-based writing, auto link checks, public archive site | ||
| Mailchimp | Free for 500 contacts (1,000 emails/mo) | No native paid sub (requires integration) ([The 13 Best Substack Alternatives (UPDATED 2025 Ranking) | great for sponsorships/marketing | Extensive templates, e-commerce & CRM integrations, analytics |
Looking at the chart, consider your priorities:
- If monetization via paid subscriptions is your main goal: Platforms like Beehiiv, ConvertKit, Ghost, Buttondown, or even Substack are aligned with that (each with different fee structures). Beehiiv and Ghost won’t take a cut, ConvertKit and Buttondown also let you keep all your revenue, whereas Substack’s ease comes with a 10% toll.
- If you want to monetize through sponsorships/ads: You can technically do that on any platform, but Beehiiv offers an ad network to make it easier to fill slots. Others like Mailchimp or Brevo give you flexibility to design sponsored content emails but no built-in marketplace. Medium isn’t suited for your own sponsors, as it focuses on its member program.
- Audience growth & community: If you value platform network effects, Substack and Medium are attractive – they might help bring readers to you via recommendations or discovery. Beehiiv and ConvertKit have some cross-promo features but not as organically free. For building a community around content (comments, etc.), Substack and Ghost facilitate that (Ghost requires adding a comment tool, though). If you prefer a standalone community, you could pair any email platform with a Discord/Slack or a Mighty Networks, but that’s external.
- Ease of use vs. complexity: For pure ease, Substack and Medium are top – anyone can start writing with zero technical overhead. Flodesk is also very easy when it comes to design (everything is pre-formatted nicely). MailerLite and Buttondown are simple in their own ways (MailerLite via a friendly UI, Buttondown via minimalism). ConvertKit and Brevo are a bit more involved but manageable. Ghost and Mailchimp might be the most complex for a non-technical user (Ghost due to the website aspect, Mailchimp due to myriad features). Beehiiv sits somewhere in the middle – designed for ease, but more features than Substack so slightly more to learn.
- Budget considerations: If you want to start free and see how it goes, Substack, Medium, Buttondown (to 100 subs), MailerLite (to 1k), ConvertKit (to 10k) are all great since you won’t pay anything initially. If you’re pretty sure you’ll build a large list, Flodesk’s flat fee could save money long-term (and they often have 50% off promos). Brevo can be extremely cost-efficient if you have a large list but only mail occasionally, due to the volume-based pricing. Conversely, if you plan to email very frequently to a huge list, a platform with unlimited sends (like Flodesk or a high-tier ConvertKit) might be better.
- Affiliate opportunities: If you might promote the platform you use as part of “here’s how I run my newsletter” content, note that Beehiiv, ConvertKit, MailerLite, Flodesk, and Mailchimp all have affiliate/referral programs (some giving you commission, others discounts to those you refer). For instance, Beehiiv’s 20% off offer via referral and ConvertKit’s 30% recurring commission are worth noting if you think you’ll spread the word. While this shouldn’t decide your platform, it’s a nice bonus if the opportunity arises to share your experience.
Strategies for Scaling Your Newsletter Business: No matter which ESP you choose, there are some proven tactics for growth and monetization that recruiter publishers and career creators can leverage:
- Leverage Referrals: Encourage your readers to refer colleagues and friends. If you use Beehiiv, take advantage of its built-in referral program to reward referrals with exclusive content or perks. On other platforms, you can DIY a referral program (offer a free coaching call or resume template for X referrals, tracking via Google Forms or unique links). Many great newsletters (Morning Brew, etc.) grew through referral incentives – as a career newsletter, you could offer something highly relevant (like a list of “hidden job openings” or a free CV review) to subscribers who bring in new readers.
- Engage Your Community: Even if your platform doesn’t have native comments, find ways to involve readers. For example, you can include a section asking a question and then share selected reader replies in the next issue (drives engagement and makes readers feel heard). If on Substack or Ghost, use those commenting features to spark discussion – perhaps prompt your community with a career question of the week (e.g. “What’s your biggest interview challenge?”). Engaged readers are more likely to stick around and become customers or referrers.
- A/B Test and Optimize: Subject lines heavily influence open rates. Platforms like Mailchimp, Beehiiv (on paid plan), and MailerLite (paid) allow A/B testing subject lines or send times. Use that to learn what your audience responds to – maybe they prefer a subject like “🔥 Top 5 Tech Jobs – Sept Edition” vs. “September 2024 Newsletter. Better opens = faster growth and happier sponsors. Also, experiment with content placement: if click-through on job links is key, try different formats (list vs. narrative around the job).
- Segment Your Audience: As your list grows, your readers might have varying interests (e.g., some are job seekers, others are HR professionals; or different industries). Using a platform with segmentation (ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Brevo, MailerLite, etc.), you can send more targeted content – which can boost engagement. For instance, send specialized job openings only to the segment who clicked “open to new opportunities” in a poll. Higher relevancy often leads to better retention and conversion (like if you later launch a paid coaching newsletter, you’d target it to the job seekers segment).
- Consistent Schedule & Quality: Regardless of platform, commit to a consistent cadence (e.g., every Tuesday morning). Consistency builds trust. Over time, that reliability can be a selling point for sponsors and for paid subscriptions (“this newsletter shows up every week like clockwork with valuable insights”). All platforms support scheduling, so plan ahead and stick to it. And always prioritize quality content – an ESP can’t make your content great; that’s on you. But with great content, even a basic tool can take you far.
- Cross-Promote and Network: Collaborate with other newsletter creators or communities. Many platforms encourage cross-promotion (Substack’s recommendations, ConvertKit’s Creator Network, Beehiiv’s Boost). You can also do it manually: partner with a complementary newsletter (e.g., a tech news newsletter might feature your tech jobs digest and vice versa). This is a quick way to tap into new relevant audiences. SparkLoop (an external referral tool) can facilitate cross-promos regardless of platform if you ever want to invest in that strategy.
- Utilize Affiliate and Upsell Opportunities: If you mention products or services in your content (like a book, an online course, or software for job hunters), see if they have affiliate programs. A career newsletter might, for example, review a resume-building tool or an interview prep course – using an affiliate link could earn you extra income on any sign-ups without costing readers more. Just be transparent and only recommend things of genuine value. Over time, these affiliate earnings can become a meaningful revenue stream alongside sponsorships or subscriptions. ConvertKit, for instance, easily lets you tag who clicked what, so you can follow up or gauge interest in offerings.
In choosing your platform, think not just about where you are now, but where you want to be in a year. Is your primary goal to monetize quickly via subscriptions? Substack or Beehiiv might get you there fastest. Are you building a whole brand and possibly a website around your content? Ghost or ConvertKit might suit better. Running on a lean budget as you experiment? MailerLite or Buttondown would be safe bets to start with minimal cost.
Finally, remember that you’re not absolutely locked in forever – many creators switch platforms as they grow. It’s possible to migrate subscribers from one to another (all the above platforms allow exporting your email list). Of course, moving is a hassle and you may lose some subscribers in transition, so it’s best to pick one you can imagine sticking with long-term. But don’t let the fear of choosing “wrong” paralyze you. All of these ESPs can enable a successful newsletter if used well.
Conclusion & Getting Started (Plus Special Offers)
Choosing the right newsletter platform comes down to matching its features and vibe with your needs as a recruiter publisher or career content creator. If you’re aiming to build a paid community around exclusive career insights, a platform like Beehiiv or Ghost – which let you monetize without taking a cut – could be ideal. If you want maximum reach with minimum fuss, Substack or Medium can plug you into a huge audience quickly. For those who need a robust marketing engine to nurture leads or clients, ConvertKit or Brevo offer sophisticated tools beyond just newsletters. And if you’re about keeping it simple and stylish, MailerLite or Flodesk prove you don’t need to sacrifice looks or ease of use.
Think about what will matter most for your workflow and growth: Do you need automation to save time? Are you comfortable being hands-on with design, or do you prefer it done for you? Is cost a deciding factor at your current stage? Revisit the comparison chart and imagine running your newsletter on each for a moment.
The good news is that all these platforms are mature enough to run a professional newsletter – there’s no truly “bad” choice in the list, just different strengths. Many successful career newsletters exist on each of them. It really boils down to which one aligns with your strategy and comfort level.
If you’re still on the fence, consider this approach: start with a low-commitment option and validate your concept. For example, you might start on Substack or MailerLite’s free plan to get your first few hundred subscribers while you refine your content. As you get feedback and clarity on how you want to monetize (and what features you truly need), you can either stick with it or migrate to a platform that better serves your evolved plan. The key is to start – don’t let the platform decision delay you from creating.
Ultimately, the platform is a means to an end. Your valuable content and authentic connection with your audience are what will drive your newsletter’s success. The fact that you’re thoughtful enough to research ESPs means you’re serious about doing this right – and that’s already a big advantage.
Now that you have the lay of the land, take the next step: pick one and set up your newsletter. In a year, you’ll be glad you started today. Whether you’re helping people land their dream jobs via email or building a community of like-minded professionals, the right ESP will be your partner in growth.
Here’s to launching and scaling your newsletter business – happy sending, and may your open rates be ever in your favor!
P.S. Don’t forget: consistency is key. Whichever platform you choose, commit to delivering value regularly. The tools we covered will support you, but your consistency will set you apart. Good luck!
