8 Best Newsletter Platforms for Podcasters in 2026

Substack is the only tool here that hosts your podcast and your newsletter free at any list size. Podcast and video hosting are included, with no subscriber cap and no send limit, and each episode can go out as a newsletter to your list. Notes, recommendations and the app put your show in front of people who already listen on Substack, and paid subscriptions, trials and coupons are a switch away.

The catch is the 10% cut and the ownership trade. Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue forever, with no tier that lowers it and no flat-fee option, so a show earning $1,000 a month hands over $100. Your show also lives inside Substack's network, not on a site you fully control, and there is no website builder or advanced analytics beyond what Substack shows you.

beehiiv is the growth pick for podcasters. Its plans list podcast support, and Pro adds audio newsletters, so listeners can hear an issue instead of reading it. The free plan covers 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, a website and the recommendation network, which puts your show in front of other beehiiv readers. Paid plans add the ad network, paid subscriptions at 0% platform take, automations and digital products.

The catch is the price step. Lite now costs $59 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $49 billed yearly, after the October 2026 price rise, and audio newsletters need Pro at $109 a month, $95 billed yearly. The free plan also lost custom domains in the same change.

Ghost is the ownership pick for podcasters. Ghost(Pro) Starter costs $18 a month billed monthly, or $15 billed annually, for 1,000 members, and Ghost takes 0% of your subscription revenue on every plan. You can embed audio in posts, gate episodes for members and run paid memberships with tiers, all on your own domain with fast, SEO-friendly pages. The open-source software can be self-hosted free on your own server, typically a $5 to $6 a month VPS.

The catch is that Ghost has no built-in podcast feed. It handles audio embeds and member-only audio, but a podcaster still needs a podcast host for the RSS feed that Apple and Spotify read. There is also no free hosted plan, only a 14-day trial, and Starter covers only 1,000 members with one staff user and Ghost branding on emails.

Kit is the selling pick for podcasters. The free Newsletter plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, landing pages and forms, so you can build a listener list and test paid demand before spending anything. Paid plans add sequences, visual automations and paid recommendations, and built-in commerce lets you sell courses, premium episodes and digital products from the same account.

The catch is the price and the audio gap. Creator starts at $39 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, $33 billed yearly, which is the highest paid start in this list, and Kit has no podcast hosting or audio player of its own: episodes live on a host and Kit handles the listener emails. The free plan also limits automation to one basic automation, and commerce sales carry a 3.5% plus $0.30 fee per transaction.

MailerLite suits a podcaster who wants one account for show-note emails and a simple website. Comfort starts at $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers and adds a website builder, landing pages and digital product sales next to the email tools. The free plan covers 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month with three automations, which is the only free plan here that includes automation at this size. The editor is clean and a new account starts with a 14-day premium trial.

The catch is that MailerLite has no audio support at all. Episodes live on a podcast host, and MailerLite only sends the emails that point listeners to them. The free plan also shrank in June 2026, from 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails to 250 and 2,500, so a growing listener list hits the paid tier fast.

Buttondown is the simplest pick for a podcaster who mostly writes show notes. Basic costs $9 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, $90 a year, and includes RSS-to-email, so a new episode can trigger a newsletter automatically. The Markdown or rich-text editor keeps the focus on words, with sending from your own domain and a hosted archive, and paid subscriptions come with 0% platform take if the show ever charges listeners.

The catch is the size of the free tier and the audio gap. One hundred subscribers is the smallest free cap in this list, so a growing listener list pays sooner here than anywhere else. Buttondown has no podcast hosting and no audio player, and automations and custom-domain archives are paid add-ons.

Flodesk is the design pick for podcasters. The templates look good without much work, and every paid plan includes unlimited sends, so a show that mails often never watches a send counter. Lite starts at $25 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, $19 billed yearly, and adds one automation workflow, forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages. Pro at $28 a month adds unlimited workflows and branding removal.

The catch is the free tier and the audio gap. The free plan covers forms, landing pages and link-in-bio pages only and does not send email, so you cannot run a show-note newsletter free here at all. Flodesk has no podcast hosting and no audio player, and paid subscriptions need the Everything plan at $54 a month. Its flat-rate plan was retired in December 2025, so prices now scale with active subscribers.

EmailOctopus is the plain, honest pick for a podcaster who only needs show-note emails. The free plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month, which matches beehiiv's free contact cap and beats every other free plan here except Kit and Substack. Pro starts at $9 a month billed yearly, so the step from free to paid is the smallest in this list. The tool does one job, email, with campaigns, forms, landing pages and automation.

The catch is that the same focus that makes it simple also caps what it can grow into. There is no podcast hosting, no audio player, no paid subscription feature and no website builder, so a show that later wants to host audio or charge listeners will need a second tool.