Substack pricing · stacked fees, Apple IAP, and the Beehiiv break-even

Publishing on Substack is free. Paid subscriptions are not.

Writers hear “keep 90%.” The help table lists more than a 10% platform cut. Card processing, recurring billing fees, and sometimes Apple in-app pricing sit on top. That stack is the real Substack price once you flip paid on.

Publishing is free · paid subs trigger the cut

Substack’s help article (updated September 29, 2026) is clear. Publishing stays free at any list size. When you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue. Stripe charges its own payment processing fees.

Free posts stay at $0 platform cost. The switch to paid flips the model to rent on your audience. Model before you flip.

Stacked fees · 10% is not the whole bite

The same help table lists the layers. Substack 10%. Stripe card 2.9% + $0.30. Stripe Billing for recurring charges 0.7% (help notes that schedule as of July 2024). Optional custom domain $50 one-time.

Going-paid marketing says keep 90%. That headline ignores processor and billing layers. Rates can change. Label these as help-listed floors.

On a $5 per month sub, Substack takes $0.50, Stripe card is about $0.15 plus $0.30, and billing is about $0.04. The creator keeps about $4.01. That is roughly a 20% effective fee on a cheap sub, not 10%.

Apple in-app can raise what readers pay

Substack help notes that in-app purchases on iOS may cost readers more to cover Apple fees. Substack’s 10% is still based on the web price. Writers choose whether to raise app prices or keep them flat.

Web 10% math understates app-channel pain for mobile-heavy audiences. Many B2B GTM newsletters stay web-heavy. Still read the in-app section before you assume web math is the whole story.

Break-even sketch · about $490 paid-sub MRR

Beehiiv Lite lists at $49 per month. Pure 10% of paid-sub revenue equals $49 when that revenue is about $490 per month, before card fees.

Below that path, a take-rate can stay cheaper on pure fee math. Above it, flat SaaS plus a 0% platform cut often wins. Run the same sketch on your monthly paid revenue. The $490 figure is $49 ÷ 0.10, not a law.

Beehiiv Free still caps near 2,500 active subscribers. Paid-sub tools sit on Lite and above. Stripe still applies on Beehiiv. The platform-cut difference is Beehiiv 0% versus Substack 10%.

Open Beehiiv when you want 0% of paid-sub revenue on the platform side.

Worked net examples · attribute carefully

One operator writeup on DevOpsCube walks a $1,000 per month Substack paid book. About $100 platform plus about $60–80 processing leaves roughly $820–840 kept. That is an author sketch, not an audit.

Beehiiv’s own fee post walks a client at 650 paid × $5 = $3,250 gross with $2,613 on the dashboard. About $637 gone. Label that competitor content. Use it as color, not as your ledger.

At 1,000 paid × $10, Substack’s platform cut alone is $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year. There is no loyalty discount. Fees scale with revenue forever.

Network vs owned growth is the non-fee fork

Fee math can favor Beehiiv above break-even. Writers who need Substack Notes and network discovery may still pay the tax on purpose. Say the fork out loud.

If discovery on Substack is the growth engine, price the success tax as a marketing cost. If you already own the list and the growth loop, flat SaaS plus 0% platform cut is the cleaner bill.

Ghost, Kit, and Mailchimp stay peer fee notes. This is not a cold-email page. Keep outbound sequencers out of the hero.

What to change this week

Pull your paid-sub MRR. Compare 10% of that number to Beehiiv Lite at $49 (or Pro at $95 if you need the higher list ceiling). Add Stripe on both sides. Decide whether network discovery is worth the forever cut.

If you only send free posts, Substack’s publishing fee stays $0. If you plan to grow paid, model the stacked cut before the flip.

Next · Beehiiv pricing shows what Free, Lite and Pro cost · Try Beehiiv when you want to keep 100% of paid subscriptions, minus Stripe fees.