Substack's help centre states its cost model plainly: publishing is free no matter how many subscribers you have, and turning on paid subscriptions costs 10% of each subscription payment. On top of that sits Stripe - 2.9% + $0.30 per payment on US cards, 0.7% through Stripe Billing for recurring charges, and local payment methods priced by Stripe and by country. Readers pay the price the writer sets, Substack adds nothing to web payments, a custom domain is a one-time $50, and in-app purchases through the iOS app can cost more because Apple's fees are passed on. Writers can choose whether in-app prices go up to cover those fees or stay the same as the web price.
TL;DR
Substack does not charge you a subscription: publishing is free at any subscriber count, and when you turn on paid subscriptions it keeps 10% of each payment while Stripe takes 2.9% + $0.30 on US cards and 0.7% on recurring billing, with a $50 one-time fee if you want your own domain. Mailchimp charges you monthly and prices by list size: Free at $0 up to 250 contacts with sending paused if you exceed it, Essentials at $13 a month for the first 12 months, Standard at $20 and Premium at $350 at the 0-500 contact tier, with Standard sending up to 6,000 emails a month and Premium up to 150,000. Use Substack when readers pay you; use Mailchimp when you run a list, automations and campaigns and would rather pay a fixed fee than a revenue share.
Mailchimp is a list-driven email platform with a published ladder. The free plan is $0 and caps you at 250 contacts, with sending paused if you exceed the limit. At the 0-500 contact tier, us.mailchimp.com/pricing shows Essentials at $13 a month for the first 12 months, Standard at $20 for the first 12 months - which sends up to 6,000 emails a month at that tier - and Premium at $350 for the first 12 months, which sends up to 150,000. Nonprofits and charities get a 15% discount, and larger lists move up the same ladder as the contact count rises.
The comparison only makes sense once you name the question. If it is 'how do I start a newsletter and charge for it', Substack answers it and Mailchimp does not sell that product. If it is 'how do I run campaigns, segments and automations against a database of contacts', Mailchimp answers it and Substack's 10% is irrelevant because there is no revenue to share. Buyers who conflate the two end up surprised: one takes a cut of money you have already made, the other bills you before you have made any.
| Feature | Mailchimp | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | Free at $0 for up to 250 contacts; sending pauses above the limit | Free to publish for any number of subscribers |
| Entry paid option | Essentials $13/month for the first 12 months, 0-500 contacts | No subscription fee; 10% of each paid subscription payment |
| Mid tier | Standard $20/month for the first 12 months; sends up to 6,000 emails a month | Stripe on top of the 10%: 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment and 0.7% on recurring billing |
| Top published tier | Premium $350/month for the first 12 months; sends up to 150,000 emails a month | Custom domain $50 one-time; local payment methods priced by Stripe and country |
| Who pays and when | You, monthly in advance, whether or not the list earns | Your readers, out of the price they set; nothing is charged on free subscriptions |
| Price driver | Contact count, with the ladder re-priced at each band | Revenue share - costs scale with what you earn, not with list size |
| Commerce | Transactional email, storefront integrations and invoicing sold as separate products | Paid subscriptions handled end to end, including Apple in-app fees if you pass them on |
| Discounts | 15% for nonprofits and charities | None published |
Pick Mailchimp if
Mailchimp is the right answer when the job is segmentation, automation, scheduled campaigns and transactional email against a database you own, and when a fixed monthly line item is preferable to a percentage of revenue. At $13 a month for the first 12 months it is cheap to start, but the free tier is only 250 contacts and the price follows your list upward. Budget for the renewal rate rather than the promotional one before you commit a growing audience to it.
Pick Substack if
Substack removes every reason to postpone: publishing costs nothing, there is no contact tier to graduate out of, and the only fee arrives when a reader pays you. The 10% is real money at scale - on a $1,000-a-month publication it is $100 every month, before Stripe's own processing - and you are building on a platform whose design decisions you do not control. For a writer who wants to start charging this month, it is still the shortest path.
No independent ratings, review scores or user quotes were collected for this pair; nothing here comes from reviews. Fees were read on 2026-10-15: Substack's from its own help-centre article 'How much does Substack cost?' (updated 2026-09-29) and Mailchimp's from us.mailchimp.com/pricing at the 0-500 contact band.
Not in the same sense. Mailchimp sends the email and handles lists, segments and automations; subscriptions, payments and access control are separate products you would have to assemble, and Stripe's fees apply to you directly. Substack bundles publishing and payments, taking 10% of each subscription payment plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 and 0.7% recurring fee.
If none of them pay, Mailchimp's free plan covers 250 contacts and Essentials costs $13 a month for the first 12 months for the 0-500 band, while Substack costs nothing. If they all pay $10 a month, Substack takes 10% - about $500 a month at 500 paying readers - plus Stripe's processing, so Mailchimp plus a payment tool becomes the cheaper arrangement.
No. Substack's help centre states that publishing is free regardless of subscriber count and that its 10% applies only when paid subscriptions are turned on. The only other published charge is a one-time $50 for a custom domain; Stripe's processing fees exist only when money changes hands.
Because the figures on us.mailchimp.com/pricing at the 0-500 contact band are promotional: $13 for Essentials, $20 for Standard and $350 for Premium are quoted as monthly rates for 12 months, and the rate that follows is computed in the plan selector rather than printed in the page text we captured. Budget on the post-promotion figure your selector shows, not on the headline.
Mailchimp. Automations, testing and scheduling, predictive features and segmentation start at Standard ($20 a month for the first 12 months at the 0-500 band). Substack's publishing tools are built around a single publication with posts, notes and comments; its growth machinery is recommendations and referrals rather than drip campaigns.
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