Yep. I saved hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month just from switching from Substack to self-hosted Ghost.

digiday.com/media/former-subst

I pay a roughly flat $85/month now (~$75 for mailsending, $10 for hosting), vs. 10% of all my subscription income.

Here’s some napkin math for how expensive Substack is compared to its competitors, assuming that roughly 7% of all subscribers will pay for their subscriptions, and that subscriptions cost $5/month.

Spreadsheet comparing pricing of newsletter platforms: 7% paid @ $5/mo							
	Substack	Ghost Pro	Self-hosted Ghost*	Beehiiv	Buttondown	Mailchimp**	
10 subscribers (1 paid)	$0.50	$9	$12	$43	$9	$20	
50 subscribers (4 paid)	$2	$9	$12	$43	$9	$20	
100 subscribers (7 paid)	$3.50	$9	$12	$43	$9	$20	
250 subscribers (18 paid)	$9	$9	$12	$43	$9	$20	
500 subscribers (35 paid)	$17.50	$9	$27	$43	$9	$20	
1,000 subscribers (70 paid)	$35	$15	$27	$43	$29	$45	
5,000 subscribers (350 paid)	$175	$65	$27	$78	$79	$100	
10,000 subscribers (700 paid)	$350	$99	$27	$96	$139	$135	
25,000 subscribers (1,750 paid)	$875	$165	$87	$149	$239	$310	
50,000 subscribers (3,500 paid)	$1,750	$315	$217	$219	$319	$450	
100,000 subscribers (7,000 paid)	$3,500	$565	$412	$290	-	$800	
							
							
* Assuming $12 hosting fees, but you can get this number down lower. Assumes ~weekly email sending.							
** There may be additional fees to monetize MailChimp newsletters since it’s not built-in. This also assumes ~weekly email sending.							
Flat fees calculated based on cheapest plans. Also calculated based on annual billing, if month-to-month amounts differ.
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