Paid newsletters: how the paywall works, and what each platform keeps

Published prices, verified

Setting up a paid newsletter

1. Decide what the paid tier adds. The paid tier has to be visibly more than the free one every week. The shapes that hold subscribers are a second weekly issue, the full version of a piece whose first third is free, the archive, and a members' thread. A paid tier that is the free issue without ads churns.
2. Choose the platform model against your billing. A 10% cut on $2,000 a month of subscriptions is $200; a flat $49 plan with a 0% cut is $49. At $400 a month the same two are $40 and $49. Find the monthly billing where the cut equals the plan from the verified table, and pick the model for the side of that line you expect to be on within a year, because moving a paid list is the one migration subscribers notice.
3. Set the price and the annual option. Paid newsletters cluster between $5 and $15 a month with an annual plan at roughly ten months' price. A founding-member price that stays fixed rewards early subscribers and is the launch device that works most often. Do not discount below the platform's minimum, where one exists on the vendor's page.
4. Turn on the paywall for a defined launch. Announce the paid tier to the free list with a date, publish one paid issue that the free list can see in full as a sample, then close the founding price. Convert a small percentage of a large free list rather than trying to sell cold.

The two platform models, on their published figures

Percentage-cut platforms print no monthly price and take a share of every subscription; the share is on their pricing page and in the table. Flat-plan platforms print a monthly price and state that they take no share of subscriptions, which is also on their page and in the table. Card processing (about 3% plus a fixed fee) is charged on both, on top, by the processor.

The crossover is arithmetic, not opinion. Divide the flat plan by the percentage cut to get the monthly billing at which they cost the same; above it the flat plan is cheaper. Do the sum with the verified numbers and your own expected subscriber count and price.

What to check on the vendor's page before moving a paid list

Whether paid subscriptions are included on the entry plan or an add-on, whether the cut applies to subscriptions only or to one-off products as well, whether you can export subscribers and their payment relationships, and what the platform's own minimum subscription price is. Each of those is on the pricing page the table links to, and each changes the real cost more than the headline does.

This site quotes what vendors publish and nothing else: there are no revenue examples here, and no statement about what a newsletter will earn.

Common questions

How much do paid newsletters charge?

Most sit between $5 and $15 a month, with an annual plan at about ten months' price. The right figure depends on what the paid tier adds each week, not on the platform.

Is a platform that takes 10% cheaper than a flat plan?

Below a monthly billing level, yes; above it, no. Divide the flat plan by the cut to find the crossover, using the verified figures in the table and your own subscriber numbers.

Can I move a paid newsletter to another platform?

Usually the list moves easily and the payment relationships are the hard part. Check the vendor's own page for subscriber and Stripe export before you commit, because the paid list is the one asset a migration can damage.

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