Best forWriters who want discovery from Substack's own reader network and free sending.
Trade-offTakes a share of paid subscription revenue, and your publication lives inside Substack's brand.
Used by 14 makers' products for this
Kit alternatives
Not a ranking: each option is described by the situation it fits, with its trade-off, whether it's open source or free to start, whether AI coding agents can work with it, and how many makers' products use it for this job.
1 open source or self-hostable1 with a free tier0 ready for AI agents
For newsletter
The whole decision →Growth platform or writer's tool. beehiiv and Kit bring growth and monetization features — referrals, ads, automations. Buttondown and Substack keep things simple for writing and sending; Substack adds a built-in reader network but takes a cut of paid subscriptions.
Kit (Growth platform): Creators who need automations and tagged sequences, like a course launch funnel. Trade-off: Priced by subscriber count; automations add setup work.
Best forA newsletter you want to grow and monetize, with referrals, a recommendation network and ads.
Trade-offPricing climbs with subscriber count once you pass the free plan.
Used by 13 makers' products for this
Best forDevelopers who write in Markdown and want a small, privacy-friendly tool with an API.
Trade-offFree tier is small; fewer growth features than the bigger platforms.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Open source
Best forA publication with its own site, memberships and paid subscriptions, open source or hosted.
Trade-offHosted plans are priced by member count from the start; self-hosting means running and updating the server yourself.
Used by 30 makers' products for this
MailerLite
Growth platformFree tierFrom $12/mo
Best forNewsletters with signup forms, automations and landing pages, on a free plan that grows by subscriber count.
Trade-offBuilt for marketing email rather than writers, so there's no reader network or paid-subscription publishing.
Used by 8 makers' products for this