ChatGPT answers, unedited

For your exact requirements:

• Paid subscriptions
• Paywall gating
• Simple RSS-to-email automation

I’d narrow it to Ghost, beehiiv, and Substack. gatilab.compublishinghouse.org

My recommendation: Ghost (best long-term choice)

Ghost

Choose Ghost if this newsletter is a business/brand you want to own.

Why it fits:

• Native paid memberships/subscriptions
• Built-in content gating (free vs members-only posts)
• Website + newsletter + archive in one system
• RSS publishing workflows are natural because Ghost is a CMS
• You own the audience and branding more than on marketplace-style platforms gatilab.com

Downsides:

• Less built-in audience discovery than Substack
• Growth tools are not as aggressive as beehiiv
• RSS-to-email is more “publishing workflow” than a dedicated automation engine

Pick Ghost if: you’re building a publication, membership site, niche media brand, or paid knowledge product.

Best if growth is the priority: beehiiv

beehiiv

Choose beehiiv if you care most about growing subscribers quickly.

Strengths:

• Paid subscriptions
• Newsletter-focused analytics
• Referral/growth tools
• Built-in monetization options
• Stronger “newsletter business” orientation than traditional email tools gatilab.com

Downsides:

• Less like a full publishing website
• Paywall/content membership workflows are not as central as Ghost’s

Pick beehiiv if: your goal is “grow a large newsletter audience” rather than “build a publication website.”

Easiest start: Substack

Substack

Choose Substack if you want to launch in an afternoon.

Strengths:

• Very simple paid subscriptions
• Built-in reader network/discovery
• Minimal setup gatilab.compublishinghouse.org

Downsides:

• Takes a percentage of paid subscription revenue (commonly cited as 10%)
• Less control over branding, website, and product experience gatilab.comtiergauge.com

Pick Substack if: you are primarily a writer and want the fastest path to paid readers.

What I would not choose for your needs

• Mailchimp / MailerLite: great email marketing tools, but paid newsletter + paywall is not their core strength. www.mailerlite.com
• Kit (ConvertKit): excellent for creators selling products/courses, but less ideal if the newsletter itself is the paid product. gatilab.com

Quick decision table

Given your three requirements together, I’d choose Ghost unless you specifically want Substack’s discovery network or beehiiv’s growth machinery. gatilab.compublishinghouse.org

Given those three requirements, I’d choose beehiiv—unless your priority is having a full publication website with maximum ownership/customization, in which case I’d choose Ghost.

🥇 beehiiv

beehiiv is the closest match to your exact requirements.

• Paid subscriptions: multiple tiers, monthly/annual pricing, trials, discounts, etc. Beehiiv
• Paywalls: supports both whole-post paywalls and paywall breaks after a free preview. Beehiiv
• RSS → email: explicitly supported through its RSS to Send feature, although notably this is currently on the Max plan. Beehiiv
• Economics: its Scale plan currently advertises a 0% platform take on paid subscriptions. Beehiiv
• It also gives you growth tools—recommendations, ads, analytics, automations—that are useful if you're trying to build a substantial newsletter business.

The catch: RSS-to-email being a Max-tier feature is significant. If RSS automation is central to your workflow, check the current plan carefully before committing.

🥈 Ghost

Ghost is what I'd pick if you want your newsletter to feel more like a real publication/site than an email-marketing operation.

Ghost has built-in memberships, paid subscriptions, protected content, RSS, and email newsletters. Ghost Ghost It also takes no platform fee on paid subscriptions on its hosted plans. Ghost

Its biggest advantage is ownership and flexibility: Ghost is open source and can be self-hosted, so you're not as tightly tied to a proprietary newsletter ecosystem.

But for your particular requirement—simple RSS → email—I'd put beehiiv ahead of it.

🥉 Substack

Substack wins on simplicity. Paid subscriptions and paywalled posts are core to the product, and there's basically no technical setup.

The downside is economics: Substack takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue, indefinitely, whereas beehiiv and Ghost advertise 0% platform fees. TierGauge Beehiiv

So if you're expecting meaningful paid revenue, I'd rather build on beehiiv from the beginning.

My recommendation

Choose beehiiv if:

• RSS → email is important
• You're building a newsletter business rather than just a personal blog
• You want paid subscriptions + paywalls
• You expect the audience/revenue to grow
• You want growth and analytics tools

Choose Ghost instead if:

• Your website/publication is as important as the email
• You care strongly about ownership and portability
• You want sophisticated membership/content architecture
• You don't mind a little more setup

Choose Substack if:

• You want the absolute simplest launch
• You value Substack's built-in discovery/network
• You're willing to sacrifice 10% of paid revenue for that simplicity

For the exact combination you gave me: → beehiiv.

One important caveat: if by “RSS-to-email” you mean “I have an external RSS feed and want every new item automatically turned into an email”, tell me that—that changes the comparison considerably, because beehiiv's RSS-to-Send availability is plan-dependent. Beehiiv

So if you're expecting meaningful paid revenue, I'd rather build on beehiiv from the beginning.

My recommendation

Choose beehiiv if:

• RSS → email is important
• You're building a newsletter business rather than just a personal blog
• You want paid subscriptions + paywalls
• You expect the audience/revenue to grow
• You want growth and analytics tools

Choose Ghost instead if:

• Your website/publication is as important as the email
• You care strongly about ownership and portability
• You want sophisticated membership/content architecture
• You don't mind a little more setup

For your exact requirements — paid subscriptions + paywall gating + simple RSS-to-email — I would narrow it to three choices:

Publishing House Beehiiv## My recommendation

Pick beehiiv if you want a newsletter-first business

This is probably the closest match to your checklist.

Why:

• Paid subscriptions are built in.
• It supports gated/premium content workflows.
• It has strong newsletter growth features (referrals, recommendations, analytics).
• It supports RSS workflows, including RSS-to-send functionality on higher plans. Beehiiv Beehiiv

Best for:

• Daily/weekly newsletters
• Curated feeds
• Paid memberships
• Growing from hundreds → tens of thousands of subscribers

Tradeoff:

• Your “website” experience is less publication-focused than Ghost.

Pick Ghost if the website is the product

Ghost is better if you think of yourself as running a magazine, blog, or membership site.

Strengths:

• Excellent member tiers.
• Very clean paywall experience.
• You own the publication and branding.
• No platform revenue cut on paid subscriptions (payment processing still applies). Fieldwork

Tradeoff:

• RSS automation may require more configuration.
• Less built-in audience growth/discovery.

Pick Substack if you want to start tomorrow

Substack wins on simplicity:

• Create publication.
• Turn on paid subscriptions.
• Publish.

Tradeoff:

• The 10% revenue share becomes expensive as you grow. TierGauge

What I would choose by scenario

• RSS feed → automated newsletter → paid tier: beehiiv
• Premium blog + newsletter + memberships: Ghost
• Solo writer testing an idea: Substack
• Media company trying to scale: beehiiv
• Maximum ownership/control: Ghost

One thing I’d clarify before choosing: when you say RSS-to-email, do you mean:

1. “Take an existing RSS feed and automatically email subscribers when new items appear,” or
2. “Publish newsletter posts that also generate an RSS feed”?

Those lead to slightly different best choices.

Given those three requirements together—paid subscriptions, paywall gating, and simple RSS-to-email—I’d choose beehiiv, with one important caveat: RSS-to-Send is currently on the Max plan, not the cheaper Scale plan. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

My ranking

Why beehiiv: its paid subscriptions support multiple tiers, and its paywalls can either lock an entire post or appear partway through content. www.beehiiv.com Its RSS-to-Send feature can automatically turn an external RSS feed into emails, including scheduling and formatting. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

The catch is pricing: beehiiv's current Scale plan starts at $43/month and includes paid subscriptions with a 0% platform take, while RSS-to-Send is listed on Max, starting at $96/month. www.beehiiv.com

When I'd pick Ghost instead

If your RSS requirement is basically "I have a website/blog and want its posts emailed automatically", I'd seriously consider Ghost. It has excellent native memberships, paid subscriptions, paywalled content, and newsletters. ghost.org

But Ghost's native newsletter system isn't really a one-click external RSS → email service. Ghost itself recommends using services such as Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Drip for RSS-triggered campaigns. ghost.org

The sleeper choice: Kit

Kit is worth considering if the newsletter is primarily a creator business rather than a publication. It now has a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers, paid subscriptions, and paid posts/paywalls. help.kit.com

It also supports RSS campaigns on paid plans, but the workflow is more email-marketing-oriented than beehiiv's dedicated RSS-to-Send feature. help.kit.com

Bottom line

I'd choose beehiiv if RSS-to-email is genuinely important.
I'd choose Ghost if owning the publication/site and having a strong native paywall matters more.
I'd choose Kit if you're building a creator business with lots of automation and products.

If you tell me (1) your approximate subscriber count, (2) whether the RSS feed is from your own website or someone else's, and (3) whether you need the RSS emails to be paid-only, I can narrow it down to one platform and the cheapest plan that actually supports your workflow.

For your exact requirements:

• ✅ paid subscriptions
• ✅ paywall / gated content
• ✅ simple RSS-to-email automation

I’d shortlist Ghost, beehiiv, and Substack. The best choice depends on whether you’re building a publication, a newsletter business, or a personal paid newsletter. publishinghouse.orgkolonell.comwww.beehiiv.com

publishinghouse.orgkolonell.comwww.beehiiv.com

My recommendation

Choose Ghost if this is a publication you want to own long-term.

Why:

• Your website and newsletter are the same system.
• Paid members, free members, and gated posts are first-class features.
• You keep control of branding, SEO, and subscriber data.
• It avoids a percentage cut of subscription revenue (you still pay Stripe fees). fieldwork.news

A typical setup:

1. Import RSS feed → create posts automatically (via Zapier/Make/custom integration)
2. Publish some posts free
3. Gate premium posts for paying members
4. Send newsletters automatically to members

Pick beehiiv instead if:

You’re treating the newsletter like a growth business:

• sponsorships
• referral programs
• analytics
• audience acquisition
• multiple monetization streams

beehiiv is more email-marketing oriented than Ghost and has stronger newsletter growth tooling. www.beehiiv.com

Pick Substack instead if:

You are primarily a writer and want:

• the fastest setup
• built-in discovery/community
• minimal technical work

The tradeoff is less control and a 10% platform fee on paid subscriptions. substack.com

One caveat: RSS-to-email

If “RSS-to-email” is your core requirement (for example, “every time my blog/feed updates, automatically email subscribers”), I would not choose based only on newsletter platforms. You may want:

• Ghost + an RSS automation tool
• beehiiv + RSS workflow
• a dedicated RSS email service feeding your newsletter platform

My ranking for your feature list:

1. 🥇 Ghost — best overall fit (paid + paywall + ownership)
2. 🥈 beehiiv — best if growth/marketing matters more than publishing control
3. 🥉 Substack — best if you want zero setup and don’t mind platform dependence

If you tell me whether your RSS feed is a blog you already run, a podcast/feed, or a collection of external feeds, I can narrow this down further.

Given those three requirements together—paid subscriptions, paywall gating, and RSS-to-email—I’d choose beehiiv.

My ranking

Why beehiiv wins for your use case: it supports paid subscription tiers and both full-post and in-content paywalls, including metered paywalls. More importantly, its RSS Ingestion / RSS to Send feature is specifically designed to pull content from an external RSS feed into newsletters. www.beehiiv.com

beehiiv

When I'd pick the others

Ghost — Pick this if you want a real publication website/CMS first and newsletter second. Its membership system is excellent: free members, paid members, tiers, and server-level content gating are all native. docs.ghost.org The downside for your particular workflow is that RSS-to-email isn't as straightforwardly native as beehiiv.

Ghost

Kit — Good if you're primarily a creator who wants sophisticated email marketing and automations. It supports paid newsletter subscriptions and paid posts, and its newsletter site can expose posts publicly or restrict them to paid subscribers. kit.com But RSS ingestion isn't its standout feature.

Kit

Substack — Probably the easiest if you simply want "publish → email → paid subscription" with minimal setup. It has paid/free posts, paywall breaks, monthly/annual subscriptions, trials, gifting, etc. support.substack.com But if your core workflow starts with someone else's RSS feed and automatically turns new items into emails, I'd take beehiiv instead.

Substack

Bottom line

If your workflow is roughly:

RSS feed → automatically create/send newsletter → some content free → rest paid → collect recurring subscriptions

👉 Choose beehiiv.

If you tell me where the RSS feed is coming from (your own blog, multiple websites, WordPress, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you expect, I can narrow it down further—including which plan makes the most sense.

Given your requirements:

• ✅ paid subscriptions
• ✅ paywall gating
• ✅ simple RSS-to-email
• (I’m assuming you want a real publishing/newsletter workflow, not just marketing automation)

I’d narrow it to three platforms:

publishinghouse.orgwww.beehiiv.com

My recommendation: choose Ghost if this is a publication you want to own long-term

Ghost is the closest match if you think of this as a paid publication rather than just an email list.

Why:

• Built-in memberships and paid tiers
• Content can be restricted by member status
• You own the website, branding, and subscriber relationship
• No platform revenue share on subscriptions (you still pay payment processor fees)
• Excellent for SEO and archives

Downside: RSS-to-email is not as “one-click” as some newsletter-first tools, so you may need an integration or a custom workflow. www.sasanova.com

Choose beehiiv if growth and monetization matter more than owning a publication site

beehiiv is probably the strongest fit if your newsletter is the product.

Strengths:

• Paid subscriptions
• Metered paywalls / paid-only posts
• Strong newsletter analytics
• Referral and growth tools
• RSS-to-email support on higher plans
• No platform cut of paid subscription revenue (Stripe fees still apply) www.beehiiv.com

I’d pick beehiiv for:

• daily/weekly newsletters
• media businesses
• newsletters that may add sponsorships, ads, referrals, or multiple revenue streams

Choose Substack if you want the easiest possible start

Substack wins on simplicity:

• Create account
• Publish
• Turn on paid subscriptions
• Start collecting money

The downside is economics and ownership. Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, which becomes meaningful once you have traction. publishinghouse.org

My ranking for your exact feature list

1. Ghost — best overall if you want a durable paid publication
2. beehiiv — best if you want a newsletter business optimized for growth
3. Substack — best if you want zero setup and don’t mind platform dependency

One question would change my recommendation: is your RSS-to-email requirement because you already have an RSS feed (blog/podcast/site) and want automatic digests, or are you starting a new newsletter from scratch?

For your exact requirements:

• ✅ paid subscriptions
• ✅ paywall gating
• ✅ simple RSS-to-email automation

I’d narrow it to beehiiv vs Ghost vs Substack. publishinghouse.org

My recommendation: choose beehiiv for most cases

beehiiv

It hits all three requirements with the least friction:

www.beehiiv.com

Pick beehiiv if:

• Your newsletter is a business, not just a writing hobby
• You expect to grow beyond a few thousand subscribers
• You want RSS automation (blog posts → emails) with minimal setup
• You may later add sponsorships, referrals, analytics, or growth campaigns

Its RSS-to-Send feature is specifically designed for turning an RSS feed into automated newsletters. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

Pick Ghost instead if:

Ghost

You want a publication website first and newsletter second.

Great for:

• magazines
• blogs
• membership sites
• SEO-focused publications
• owning the full experience

Ghost has strong membership/paywall features and avoids a revenue share, but it feels more like running a publication than running a newsletter machine. publishinghouse.org

Pick Substack instead if:

Substack

You are:

• a solo writer
• starting from zero audience
• prioritizing simplicity and built-in discovery

The downside is the 10% cut of paid subscription revenue, which becomes expensive as revenue grows. tiergauge.com

My ranking for your feature list

1. beehiiv — best overall fit
2. Ghost — best if you want a serious owned publication/site
3. Substack — best if you want the easiest “start writing today” option

One caveat: if by “RSS-to-email” you mean automatically importing other people’s RSS feeds and resending them as a curated newsletter, rather than sending your own blog RSS to subscribers, the recommendation changes slightly. In that case I’d also look at RSS-focused tools paired with a newsletter platform.

Given those three requirements, I’d choose Kit if RSS-to-email simplicity is the priority, and beehiiv if paid subscriptions + paywall optimization are the priority.

My recommendation: beehiiv

For your exact combination, I'd lean beehiiv. Its current paywall system supports both entire paid posts and paywall breaks inside posts, plus metered access—useful if you're trying to convert free readers into paid subscribers. www.beehiiv.com

The caveat is your RSS-to-email requirement. beehiiv's current RSS tooling is more oriented toward putting RSS content into newsletter posts; its external RSS ingestion is available on higher-tier plans. www.beehiiv.com

When I'd pick Kit instead

If by "simple RSS-to-email" you mean:

"I have an existing RSS feed, and whenever something new appears, automatically email my subscribers."

Then Kit is probably the better fit. It has a dedicated RSS automation: you connect the feed, choose individual emails or digests, customize the template, and optionally have them sent automatically. help.kit.com

Kit also supports recurring paid newsletter subscriptions and paid posts that are restricted to paying subscribers. help.kit.com

What about Substack?

I'd choose Substack if you care more about getting started quickly and leveraging its built-in discovery/network than about sophisticated RSS workflows. It has paid subscriptions and flexible paywalls, including placing a paywall anywhere in a post. substack.com

Bottom line:

• Paid publication/business → beehiiv
• Existing RSS feed + effortless automated emails → Kit
• Simplest creator publication + built-in audience network → Substack

If you tell me what your RSS feed is coming from (WordPress, Ghost, another newsletter, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you have, I can narrow this down to one.

Given your exact requirements, I’d choose Kit.

Why Kit

1. Paid subscriptions are native.
Kit supports recurring paid newsletters with monthly, quarterly, and annual billing. It can also publish posts specifically for paying subscribers. help.kit.comhelp.kit.com

2. The paywall is straightforward.
You can have a public newsletter feed while marking individual posts as available only to paying subscribers—useful if you want free previews that convert readers to paid. help.kit.comhelp.kit.com

3. RSS → email is unusually well suited to your use case.
Kit can connect directly to an RSS feed and automatically create/send a broadcast when a new item appears. It can also send a periodic digest instead of an email for every post. help.kit.com

4. It's relatively inexpensive to start.
Kit currently offers a free Newsletter plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, including subscriptions and unlimited email sends; more advanced RSS/automation functionality is available on paid plans. help.kit.com

When I'd choose something else

Choose beehiiv if your priority is growing a large newsletter business. Its paid plans include paid subscriptions with 0% platform take, plus advertising, referral/Boosts, analytics, and other growth tools. www.beehiiv.com

Choose Ghost if the newsletter is really a membership website/publication first. Ghost has excellent built-in memberships, paid subscriptions, content access levels, and email newsletters. docs.ghost.org

Choose Substack if you want the absolute minimum setup and don't mind its 10% cut of paid-subscription revenue. It also has a built-in discovery network that the others don't replicate in quite the same way. publishinghouse.org

My ranking for your requirements:

1. 🥇 Kit — best combination of paid + paywall + RSS automation
2. 🥈 beehiiv — better if growth/monetization becomes the main priority
3. 🥉 Ghost — best if you want a full publication/membership site
4. Substack — simplest, but less flexible for RSS-driven workflows

If you tell me what the RSS feed is for (your own blog, multiple websites, news feeds, podcast, etc.) and roughly how many paid subscribers you expect, I can narrow this down to the cheapest/best setup for you.

Given those three requirements, I’d choose beehiiv — with one important caveat about the RSS workflow.

My pick: beehiiv

beehiiv

Why: it hits all three requirements unusually well. beehiiv supports paid subscription tiers and content paywalls, including putting a paywall break inside an article. www.beehiiv.com

More importantly for you, it has RSS-to-Send, which can turn new items from an RSS feed into formatted email newsletters automatically. www.beehiiv.com

The catch: beehiiv's current documentation says external RSS ingestion/RSS-to-Send is available on Max and Enterprise plans. www.beehiiv.com So if "RSS comes in → email automatically goes out" is a core requirement rather than an occasional feature, check the exact plan cost before committing.

When I'd choose something else

Choose Ghost if you care more about owning a polished publication/site than about automated RSS ingestion. Ghost has excellent memberships, paid subscriptions, content access controls, and built-in newsletters. Its current managed hosting starts at $18/month, while paid subscriptions are included on the Publisher tier. ghost.org

Ghost

Choose Kit if the newsletter is part of a larger creator business — e.g. newsletter → email sequence → course/product sale. It supports recurring paid newsletter subscriptions and paid-only posts, with fairly powerful automations. help.kit.com

Kit

I wouldn't pick Substack for your particular requirements. It's fantastic if your priority is "start a paid newsletter with almost no setup," but RSS automation isn't its strong suit, and you give up 10% of paid subscription revenue. tiergauge.com

Bottom line

If your workflow is essentially:

RSS feed → automatically email subscribers → free/paid audience → paywalled web content → paid subscriptions

I'd go beehiiv.

If it's:

Website/publication → memberships → paywalled articles → newsletter

I'd go Ghost.

If you tell me what is producing the RSS feed (WordPress, blog, podcast, another newsletter, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you expect, I can narrow this down to the cheapest/best setup for your exact workflow.

Given those three requirements, I’d choose beehiiv—with one important caveat about where your RSS content lives.

🥇 My pick: beehiiv

beehiiv is the closest match to your exact requirements. It supports paid subscription tiers and lets you show different content to free vs. paid subscribers. product.beehiiv.com

More importantly, it has RSS-to-Send, which can automatically turn an external RSS feed into newsletter emails, with control over formatting, scheduling, and which content gets included. www.beehiiv.com

There is a wrinkle: external RSS ingestion is currently limited to beehiiv's Max and Enterprise plans, according to its current documentation. www.beehiiv.com So if by "RSS-to-email" you mean "take my existing WordPress/blog RSS feed and automatically email it to subscribers," check the plan carefully before committing.

beehiiv official site

🥈 Ghost if the paywall/website is the core product

If you want something more like "my own publication website with a membership paywall, and email is one part of it," I'd pick Ghost instead.

Ghost has built-in memberships, paid subscriptions, tiered access, and newsletters. You can specifically send posts to free members, paid members, or particular paid tiers. ghost.org

The downside for your use case is RSS-to-email. Ghost itself generates RSS feeds, but using an external RSS feed to automatically generate emails generally involves a service such as Mailchimp/ActiveCampaign rather than being as turnkey as beehiiv's RSS-to-Send. ghost.org

Ghost(Pro)'s current pricing starts at $18/month billed yearly; the $29/month Publisher plan includes paid subscriptions. ghost.org

Ghost official site

What I would actually do

If your workflow is:

Blog/CMS → RSS feed → automatically email subscribers → some posts/content are paid

→ beehiiv, assuming you're comfortable with the plan that includes external RSS ingestion.

If your workflow is:

Website → publish articles → visitors hit a paywall → members get newsletters → build a proper publication/membership business

→ Ghost.

If you mainly want to write newsletters and don't care much about RSS automation → Substack is the easiest starting point, but its 10% cut of paid subscription revenue becomes increasingly expensive as you grow. tiergauge.com

If you tell me where the RSS feed currently comes from (WordPress, Webflow, another newsletter, podcast, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you have, I can narrow it down to the cheapest/best setup for your exact workflow.

Given those three requirements, I’d choose Ghost if the RSS-to-email workflow is important; beehiiv if growth/monetization is the bigger priority.

My pick: Ghost

Ghost is particularly strong if your model is “website content + paid membership + newsletter.” You can publish a post, restrict it to free/paid members, and send it to specific member segments by email. Ghost also gives you automatically generated RSS feeds. ghost.org

The big caveat: if by “RSS-to-email” you mean “take an arbitrary external RSS feed and automatically turn every new item into an email without me touching anything,” beehiiv is the better fit. Its RSS-to-Send functionality is explicitly designed for that workflow. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

When I'd pick beehiiv instead

Choose beehiiv if your setup looks like:

External blog/RSS → automatically generate newsletter → free/paid subscribers → paywall → grow audience → eventually add ads/sponsorships.

It has native paid subscriptions and paywall breaks, plus RSS ingestion. The catch is that beehiiv's current documentation says external RSS ingestion is on Max and Enterprise, so check the plan requirement carefully before committing. www.beehiiv.com

When I'd pick Substack

I'd only pick Substack if your priority is the easiest possible launch and built-in reader discovery. It handles paid subscriptions and paywalled posts very simply, but its 10% cut of paid subscription revenue becomes increasingly unattractive as you grow. tiergauge.com

Bottom line:

• Ghost → best overall for paid publication + paywall + ownership
• beehiiv → best for RSS automation + newsletter growth + monetization
• Substack → best for dead-simple publishing + built-in discovery

If you tell me where the RSS feed is coming from (your own WordPress/site, another publication, podcast, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you expect, I can narrow this to one choice and tell you exactly which plan you'd need.

Given those three requirements, I’d choose beehiiv.

Why beehiiv

1. It checks all three boxes natively.
beehiiv supports paid tiers, recurring subscriptions, and paywalls—including entire paid-only posts, paywall breaks within posts, and metered access. www.beehiiv.com

2. RSS-to-email is unusually straightforward.
Its RSS-to-Send feature can automatically turn new RSS items into email newsletters, with control over templates, scheduling, and which content gets sent. www.beehiiv.com

3. It's built around newsletters rather than bolting newsletters onto a website.
That's particularly useful if your workflow is essentially:

RSS feed → email newsletter → free/paid audience → paywall → subscription revenue

4. The monetization economics are attractive.
beehiiv says it takes 0% platform revenue share on paid subscriptions, with Stripe processing fees still applying. www.beehiiv.com

When I'd pick something else

• Ghost — choose this if you want a proper publication website/CMS first, with the newsletter and memberships integrated into it. Ghost has built-in newsletters and paid subscriptions, but I'd favor beehiiv for your specific RSS-heavy workflow. ghost.org
• Kit — choose this if your newsletter is really part of a creator business with sophisticated automations, products, and funnels. It supports recurring paid newsletters and paid posts. help.kit.com
• Substack — choose this if your priority is getting started with the least friction and tapping into Substack's ecosystem/discovery. Paid subscriptions are very easy to set up, but it wouldn't be my first choice when RSS-to-email automation is a core requirement. support.substack.com

Bottom line: → beehiiv. If you tell me what the RSS feed is (your own site, multiple sites, podcast, news feeds, etc.) and roughly how many subscribers you expect, I can also tell you which beehiiv plan makes the most sense and whether there’s a cheaper platform that does the same thing.