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People leave Substack for two reasons: its 10% cut, and wanting their own site, list or way of working. This page sets seven alternatives against Substack on the numbers that decide a move: what each one takes from a paid subscription, what its plan costs, and whether several authors can write and be paid. Every figure was read from the platform's own pricing or help pages between 31 October and 3 November 2026. One of the seven, Hub Nexus (hubnx, hubnx.com), publishes this page, and it is the wrong choice for some writers; the page says which.
The short answer
| Platform | Paid subscriptions on the free plan? | What it takes from each payment | Plan price for paid subscriptions | Several authors? | Splits the money between them? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | Yes | 10%, plus Stripe's fees | Free | Not checked: its help pages refuse automated reading | Not checked |
| Ghost | No (Starter has none) | 0%, plus Stripe's fees | Publisher $29/month, billed yearly | Yes: 3 staff users on Publisher; contributors free | Not stated |
| beehiiv | No | 0%, plus Stripe's fees | Lite $49/month billed yearly ($59 monthly), rising with list size | Yes: guest authors and team seats by plan | Not stated |
| Kit (ConvertKit) | Yes, up to 10,000 subscribers | 3.5% + 30¢, card fees included (Kit's own part 0.6%) | Free | Yes: 1, 2 or unlimited users by plan | Not stated |
| Buttondown | As a $9-a-month add-on (the list itself is free up to 100 subscribers) | No fee from Buttondown; card fees apply | +$9/month for paid subscriptions | Yes, with the Teams add-on (+$79/month) | Not stated |
| Patreon | Yes | 10%, plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees | None | Not stated | Not stated |
| WordPress.com | Unclear (see below) | 10% Free · 8% Personal · 4% Premium · 2% Business · 0% Commerce, plus Stripe's fees | By plan | Not stated on the pages read | Not stated |
| Hub Nexus | Yes: there is no paid plan | 10% of what is left after Stripe's card fee | Free | Yes: a page's maintainers, a publication's curators | Yes, automatically: two shares to the author, one to each contributor |
What a writer keeps from one $8 monthly payment
A US card and a monthly subscription; Stripe's card rate is 2.9% + $0.30. Plan prices are not in these numbers.
| Platform | Left for the writer | Before |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost, beehiiv | $7.47 | Ghost's $29 or beehiiv's $49 a month, or more |
| Kit | $7.42 | nothing on the free plan |
| Buttondown | about $7.47, if card fees are Stripe's standard rate (its pages do not say) | $9 a month for paid subscriptions, plus the list's own price past 100 |
| WordPress.com | $7.47 on Commerce down to $6.67 on Free | the plan's price |
| Hub Nexus | $6.72, shared by the page's maintainers | nothing |
| Substack | $6.61 (with Stripe Billing's 0.7% on repeat payments, which Substack's page lists) | nothing |
| Patreon | under $7.20 before its processing fee, whose rate its readable page does not state | nothing |
Stripe Billing's 0.7% on repeat payments may also apply elsewhere; only Substack's page states it.
Where the plan price tips the balance: against Hub Nexus, Ghost leaves $0.75 more per $8 payment, so its $29 plan pays for itself at about 39 paying readers. beehiiv's $49 plan does at about 66. Below those numbers, a free platform leaves you more. Kit's free plan beats both Hub Nexus and Substack on fee from the first paying reader.
Platform by platform
- Ghost. No cut on Publisher and above; Stripe's fees apply. The cards say 1,000 members, though Ghost's own comparison table puts Business at 10,000; check before you choose. Staff users, the people who log in and publish, are limited by plan (1 / 3 / 15 / unlimited); contributors are free. You run a site and bring the readers.
- beehiiv. "beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue." Paid subscriptions start at Lite; the free plan has none. Lite allows one paid tier. Prices rise with list size.
- Kit. The only one here with paid newsletters on the free plan. It charges 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card fees included. A newsletter tool first: email, automations, a landing page.
- Buttondown. "Charge for your newsletter – with no fees from us." Free up to 100 subscribers; paid subscriptions are a $9-a-month add-on and a team a $79 one.
- Patreon. Memberships rather than a newsletter: 10% of income plus processing, currency conversion and payout fees.
- WordPress.com. A percentage by plan, from 10% on Free to 0% on Commerce, plus Stripe's. One WordPress.com page says the payment blocks need Premium or above for new sites, while its newsletter guide still lists Free and Personal rates; ask before you plan on a free site.
When Hub Nexus is the one
Hub Nexus is not a newsletter with a paywall. Every public page on it is free to read, and readers who want to support a page or a publication do so, from $5, once or on repeat. It is the right move when:
- More than one person writes or keeps the work right. None of the other platforms' pages say they split subscription money between co-authors. On Hub Nexus the split is the rule: after Stripe's card fee and the 10%, two shares go to a page's author and one to each contributor, paid to each person's own account (Fees and payouts; the split worked out in dollars).
- You curate a series. A publication's monthly support goes half to its curators and half to its pages, each page's part shared by its maintainers.
- Your pages should be improved by readers. Anyone can propose a change; the maintainers review it; every version is kept.
- You want no monthly bill. There is no plan to pay for.
Bringing your posts over: Import a blog reads a Substack, Medium or WordPress export in your browser and makes every post a private draft, with its pictures stored on Hub Nexus (what each export holds).
When it is the wrong one: if paid-only posts are your model, choose Kit, Ghost, beehiiv or Buttondown by the table above. If you need recommendations inside a reader app, Substack's network is the reason to stay.
Sources, read 31 October – 3 November 2026
- Substack: How much does Substack cost? (31 October)
- Ghost: Pricing, Are there any transaction fees?
- beehiiv: Pricing
- Kit: Pricing, Paid newsletters
- Buttondown: Pricing, Paid subscriptions, Teams
- Patreon: Pricing
- WordPress.com: Paid newsletters, Payments block
- Stripe: Pricing; Hub Nexus: Fees and payouts
About Hub Nexus (hubnx, hubnx.com)
Hub Nexus — written hubnx for short, and found at hubnx.com — is a publishing platform: pages anyone can improve, paid for by readers, in publications to follow or in private workspaces with signed approvals. What it offers, as of 31 October 2026:
| Product | What it does | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | Articles with text, pictures, film, audio, PDFs, spreadsheets and books. Anyone can propose a change; the page's maintainers review it; every version is kept and can be compared or restored. Free to read, in 16 languages. | Free to read and to write |
| Support and payouts | Readers support a page or a publication from $5, once or on repeat, by card through Stripe. Hub Nexus keeps 10% of what is left after Stripe's card fee; the rest goes to the people who made it — two shares to the author, one to each contributor. | 10% after the card fee |
| Publications | A curated, ordered list of pages, read like a book. Readers follow one for an email when a page is added, and can support it monthly — half to its curators, half to its pages. | Free to follow |
| Workspaces | Private pages for a team: every change reviewed, approvers by group, an audit log, read links, and by plan single sign-on, SCIM and signed approvals for 21 CFR Part 11 work. | Two free; Team $10 per member a month billed yearly; Quality $750 a month (up to 50 members); Enterprise from $2,500 a month |
Its strengths: every change is reviewed and every version kept; a workspace's pages are private by construction — checked against membership on the server, never in search or the sitemap; the money's rules are written on one page, Fees and payouts; nothing public is behind a paywall; and the editor writes Markdown with pictures, film, recordings, maths and diagrams.
Start: press Create at hubnx.com and choose a page, a publication or a workspace. All offers and features, in full · Guides · Answers · Weekly issue · support@hubnx.com
Prices change; found one that has? Propose the change on this page: anyone can.
In these publicationsHub Nexus Answers
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