ChatGPT answers, unedited

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber list and want both email + SMS without spending much, I’d narrow it to MailerLite, Kit, and Brevo—with one important caveat: the best newsletter platform and the best SMS platform aren’t necessarily the same.

My pick: MailerLite

For your use case, MailerLite is probably the best value if SMS is genuinely important.

Why MailerLite: it explicitly bundles marketing email with SMS capabilities, while keeping its positioning around affordability and small businesses. www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.com

However, if by "paid subscribers" you mean people paying you monthly for access to the newsletter, I'd actually lean toward Kit or beehiiv instead.

If paid subscriptions are your main revenue

1. beehiiv — best newsletter business

I'd choose beehiiv if your goal is to build a publication rather than simply send emails.

It has newsletter-native growth and monetization features, and its paid plans don't take a percentage of your subscription revenue. Its free Launch tier currently goes up to 2,500 subscribers. www.beehiiv.com

2. Kit — best for an individual creator

I'd choose Kit if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, sponsorships, funnels, etc.

Kit's free tier is unusually generous in 2026, reportedly allowing up to 10,000 subscribers, although you'll need a paid tier for more sophisticated functionality. worklever.co

3. Brevo — best if SMS is non-negotiable

If you specifically want one inexpensive system that handles both email and SMS, I'd investigate Brevo before committing to beehiiv or Kit. Its strength is the multichannel side rather than being a purpose-built paid-newsletter platform.

One platform I'd avoid for a growing paid list

Substack is wonderfully cheap to start, but it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue (before payment processing). That becomes expensive surprisingly quickly. newslettercalc.com

For example, if you're making $2,000/month from paid subscribers, a 10% platform cut is roughly $200/month. A flat-fee platform can become much cheaper once you're generating meaningful revenue.

What I'd do in your shoes

• <1,000 subscribers + mostly email: Kit
• 1,000–5,000 + serious paid newsletter: beehiiv
• Email + SMS are equally important: MailerLite or Brevo
• You want the absolute simplest paid newsletter: Substack
• You sell products/courses in addition to the newsletter: Kit

If you tell me (1) your current subscriber count, (2) monthly paid revenue, (3) what you charge per subscriber, and (4) roughly how many SMS messages you expect to send per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of MailerLite vs Brevo vs Kit vs beehiiv for your specific situation and tell you which is cheapest.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber base, I’d separate the question into two parts: email/newsletter economics and SMS. There isn’t one platform that is clearly best at both.

My pick: MailerLite + a dedicated SMS tool

MailerLite is probably the best value-for-money core platform if your list is small and you want paid subscriptions, automations, landing pages, and newsletters without paying a big fixed monthly fee.

Its current Comfort plan starts around $12/month, and it supports paid newsletters, automations, landing pages and digital products. www.mailerlite.com

If SMS is essential: Brevo

Brevo is the one I'd investigate first if you really want email + SMS under one roof. The tradeoff is that its creator/newsletter experience isn't as purpose-built as Kit or beehiiv.

For a small list, SMS can also become disproportionately expensive relative to email because you're paying for message volume rather than simply adding another subscriber.

If your priority is paid subscriptions: Kit

Kit is especially compelling for creators. Its free Newsletter tier currently supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms/landing pages and the ability to sell subscriptions/digital products. kit.com

The catch is that once you need advanced automation, the paid Creator plan starts around $33/month annually ($39 monthly) at 1,000 subscribers. kit.com

So I'd choose:

Under ~1,000 subscribers + cost-sensitive → MailerLite

Creator business + paid newsletter is the central product → Kit

Newsletter growth/advertising/referrals are the central business → beehiiv

You absolutely need email + SMS in one system → Brevo

One important caveat: if by "paid subscriber lists" you mean people who pay you a recurring subscription, rather than simply a list of customers, I'd weight payment processing, subscription management, churn, and transaction fees much more heavily than ordinary email pricing.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000), monthly newsletter volume, and how many SMS messages you expect to send, I can calculate the approximate monthly cost for MailerLite vs Kit vs Brevo vs beehiiv and tell you which is cheapest.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber list, I’d optimize for low fixed cost + no/low platform cut on paid subscriptions + email + SMS, rather than choosing a generic enterprise email tool.

My pick: Brevo

For your specific use case, Brevo is probably the best value if SMS is genuinely important.

• Email + SMS in one platform — unlike newsletter-first platforms such as Beehiiv and Kit, which are much more email/newsletter-centric.
• Relatively inexpensive entry point; current comparisons put Brevo among the budget-oriented options. www.beehiiv.com
• Good if you want SMS for things like new issue alerts, subscriber reminders, launches, or occasional paid-content notifications rather than building an elaborate SMS marketing operation.
• You don't need to pay $40–$100+/month just because you have a newsletter.

But there's an important alternative: Kit

If by "paid subscriber list" you mean people paying you for the newsletter/content itself, I'd seriously consider Kit instead.

Kit currently offers an unusually generous free tier—up to 10,000 subscribers—although the free plan has limitations around automation and Kit branding. worklever.co

The catch: Kit isn't really the SMS-first choice. I'd use it if email/newsletter monetization is the core business and handle SMS separately.

What I'd choose

Beehiiv is particularly compelling once newsletter monetization/growth becomes the business: its paid plans have 0% platform fees on paid subscriptions, plus referral and advertising tools. But for a small list where SMS matters, you're potentially paying for capabilities you don't need. www.beehiiv.com

And Substack looks inexpensive upfront but takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, so it becomes expensive surprisingly quickly as revenue grows. newslettercalc.com

My practical recommendation

If you have, say, 100–2,000 paying subscribers, I'd do:

Brevo → if email + SMS need to live together.
Kit → if email/newsletter monetization is the priority and SMS is secondary.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 200, 1,000, 5,000), your monthly newsletter revenue, and how often you want to send SMS, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of Brevo vs Kit vs Beehiiv vs MailerLite vs Substack and tell you which is cheapest at your size.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber list and want both email + SMS without spending much, I’d narrow it to MailerLite, Brevo, and Kit—with one important caveat: SMS is often billed separately from the email platform.

My pick: MailerLite

For a small creator, MailerLite is probably the best value if affordability is the priority. It has inexpensive paid tiers, solid email automation, landing pages, and it supports transactional email + SMS. Current comparisons put it around $12–$20/month at roughly 500–1,000 subscribers, depending on plan/billing. comparetiers.comwww.emailtooltester.com

Why I'd choose it:

• 💰 Low cost at small list sizes
• 📧 Good newsletter/editor experience
• 🔄 Automations and segmentation
• 📱 Email + SMS capabilities
• 💳 Supports selling paid products/subscriptions without taking a percentage of your revenue
• 🧑‍💻 Better suited to a small creator than an enterprise marketing platform

When I'd choose something else

Kit is particularly interesting if your newsletter is going to become a broader creator business—courses, digital products, lead magnets, sophisticated sequences, etc. Its free tier can be unusually generous, although advanced automation requires a paid plan. newslettercalc.com

Brevo is the one I'd investigate if SMS is genuinely central, rather than just an occasional add-on. Its positioning is much more explicitly multichannel, whereas beehiiv and Kit are primarily newsletter/creator platforms. www.beehiiv.com

beehiiv is my choice if the newsletter itself is the business and you expect substantial growth. Its paid-subscription model takes 0% platform revenue share, and it has newsletter-specific growth/monetization tools. But for a small list, its paid plans can be considerably more expensive than MailerLite. comparetiers.comwww.emailtooltester.com

One thing I'd avoid

I wouldn't pick Substack solely because it's free. For paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue plus payment processing, so a flat-fee platform can become much cheaper surprisingly quickly. newslettercalc.com

Bottom line:
If you told me “I have 500–3,000 paying/free subscribers, I'm a solo creator, I want email newsletters plus occasional SMS, and I care about keeping costs down”, I'd start with MailerLite. If SMS becomes a major part of your business, I'd look harder at Brevo; if newsletter growth/monetization is the priority, beehiiv.

If you tell me roughly how many total subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 1,000, 2,500) and how many are paying, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of MailerLite vs Brevo vs Kit vs beehiiv, including the likely SMS cost.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber list, I’d separate the decision into newsletter monetization vs. SMS—because the platform that’s best at one isn’t necessarily best at both.

My pick: MailerLite if you truly need email + SMS

MailerLite is probably the best budget all-rounder for a small list. Its paid plan starts around $12/month, and it supports email plus transactional/multichannel messaging, including SMS. www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.comfieldtestedhq.com

The catch: it isn't as creator/newsletter-centric as beehiiv or Kit, so you give up some of the built-in growth and monetization machinery.

If paid subscriptions are the core business: beehiiv

beehiiv would be my email-first choice for a creator whose primary revenue comes from paid newsletters.

Why:

• Built specifically around publishing/newsletters.
• Paid subscriptions have 0% platform fee (payment processing still applies). www.beehiiv.comletterbench.com
• Built-in growth/monetization features such as recommendations and an ad network.
• Free up to 2,500 subscribers, although the useful monetization features require a paid plan. www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.comfieldtestedhq.com

But: SMS isn't its strength. I'd pair beehiiv with a dedicated SMS provider rather than choose it as your all-in-one SMS solution.

Kit is worth considering if you're a creator selling more than subscriptions

Kit is particularly attractive if you eventually want to sell courses, digital products, sponsorships, or other creator products alongside your newsletter. Its free tier is unusually generous, though paid tiers become more expensive as the list grows. fieldtestedhq.com

What I'd choose by list size

Substack is deceptively cheap: there's no monthly platform fee, but it takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue. www.beehiiv.comletterbench.com

One important wrinkle: if by "small paid subscriber list" you mean something like 100–1,000 paying subscribers, rather than 100–1,000 total subscribers, your economics change dramatically. At that point I'd optimize for payment processing + platform revenue share + SMS cost, not just the monthly software price.

If you tell me roughly (1) total email subscribers, (2) paying subscribers, (3) monthly subscription price, and (4) how many SMS messages you expect to send per month, I can calculate the cheapest option and show you the actual monthly cost + percentage of revenue for MailerLite vs. beehiiv vs. Kit vs. Substack.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + SMS, while keeping costs low, I’d pick Brevo overall—but there’s an important tradeoff.

My ranking

Why Brevo: its Starter plan starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails, with SMS available as a separate usage-based credit. Its pricing is based primarily on email volume rather than subscriber count, which is particularly attractive when you have a relatively small list but don't want to be punished as it grows. www.brevo.com

Brevo pricing

But if the newsletter itself is the business...

I'd seriously consider beehiiv.

beehiiv is much more purpose-built for paid newsletters: subscriptions, newsletter publishing, referral/growth tools, analytics, and monetization are central to the product. Its paid subscriptions have 0% platform fees, which becomes valuable once you're making meaningful subscription revenue. www.beehiiv.com

The downside is that SMS isn't really the reason to choose beehiiv, so you'd likely pair it with an SMS provider.

beehiiv

What I'd do in your situation

If you have, say, 500–5,000 subscribers:

Brevo + Stripe/payment processor → best low-cost all-in-one communication stack.

If you expect the newsletter to become a significant paid-media business:

beehiiv + separate SMS service → better long-term newsletter monetization stack.

If you want the absolute simplest paid newsletter and don't care much about owning the infrastructure:

Substack → very easy, but its 10% cut of paid subscription revenue can become expensive as revenue grows. www.sasanova.com

One particularly interesting alternative is MailerLite: its paid plans start around $12/month and it has excellent basic newsletter/automation functionality, but I'd choose it for email marketing, not because you're building a paid newsletter business. www.mailerlite.com

My pick: Brevo if SMS is genuinely important; beehiiv if paid subscriptions are the core business.

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, how many paid subscribers, monthly subscription revenue, and how many SMS messages you expect to send, I can calculate the likely monthly cost of Brevo vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit vs Substack and tell you which is cheapest.

For a small paid newsletter list where you want both email and SMS, I’d narrow it to MailerLite vs. Omnisend, with a third option—beehiiv + a separate SMS provider—if newsletter monetization is the priority.

My pick: MailerLite

MailerLite is probably the best overall fit if “affordable + paid subscriptions + email” matters more than sophisticated SMS automation.

• Paid newsletters: native subscriptions through Stripe, including recurring subscriptions, with 0% platform sales fee. www.mailerlite.comwww.mailerlite.com
• Email: strong newsletters, automations, landing pages and segmentation.
• Cost: relatively inexpensive at small list sizes; its paid plans start around $12/month depending on plan/list size. www.mailerlite.com
• Downside: SMS isn't the reason I'd choose MailerLite. Its SMS capabilities aren't as compelling as dedicated email+SMS platforms.

If SMS is genuinely important: Omnisend

Omnisend is the better single-platform email + SMS choice.

As of 2026, new customers need the Pro plan for SMS; Pro starts at $59/month, with SMS added separately. U.S./Canada SMS starts around $0.007/message, with volume discounts. support.omnisend.com

That's excellent if you're going to use SMS frequently, but $59/month is a lot for a small newsletter. Omnisend is also designed heavily around ecommerce, so you'll be paying for capabilities you may not need.

If paid newsletter monetization is the #1 priority: beehiiv

beehiiv is what I'd choose if you're primarily a newsletter/media business rather than a business that happens to send newsletters.

Its big advantages are:

• Built specifically for newsletters.
• Native paid subscriptions.
• 0% platform fee on paid subscriptions.
• Referral/growth tools and advertising/monetization infrastructure.
• Free up to 2,500 subscribers, although monetization features require a paid plan. www.beehiiv.comnewslettercalc.com

The catch is price: the paid tier starts around $43–$49/month depending on billing/pricing version, so it's not the cheapest for a tiny list. www.beehiiv.comnewslettercalc.com And SMS isn't its strength, so you'd pair it with something like a dedicated SMS service.

What I'd do at different sizes

One interesting alternative is Kit: it currently has a free tier up to 10,000 subscribers and supports selling subscriptions, but its SMS functionality is through a SlickText integration rather than being as natively integrated as Omnisend. kit.com

Bottom line: For your exact description—content creator + newsletter monetization + small paid subscriber list + affordability—I'd start with MailerLite. If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 250, 1,000, 5,000), what you charge per month, and how many SMS messages you expect to send, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of MailerLite vs. beehiiv vs. Kit vs. Omnisend and tell you which is cheapest.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + email + SMS without spending much, I’d pick Brevo overall. If the newsletter itself is the core product and you want the strongest paid-subscription/growth tooling, I’d pick beehiiv and add SMS separately.

My ranking

Why I'd choose Brevo for email + SMS

Brevo is unusual because it treats SMS as a native part of the platform, rather than forcing you to bolt on a separate texting service. Its free tier includes email and SMS campaigns, while the Starter plan starts at $9/month and includes 5,000 emails/month; SMS credits are purchased separately and don't expire. help.brevo.com

That makes it particularly attractive if your list is something like 300–3,000 people and you're sending:

• 1–4 newsletters/month
• occasional paid-member emails
• launch/promotional sequences
• occasional SMS alerts or offers

The important caveat: Brevo isn't really a newsletter publishing platform in the beehiiv/Substack sense. Its strength is multichannel marketing rather than making your publication itself the product.

When beehiiv is the better choice

If you're making money primarily from paid newsletter subscriptions, I'd seriously consider beehiiv instead. It has native paid subscriptions, newsletter-focused analytics, referrals/Boosts, and monetization features. Its Launch tier is free up to 2,500 subscribers, while the paid Scale tier is where the serious monetization functionality begins. mailcompared.com

The tradeoff is that SMS isn't its strength, so you'd probably use beehiiv for email/newsletter + a separate SMS provider.

For a creator making, say, $1,000–$10,000/month from subscriptions, the extra platform cost can be worthwhile because you're getting tools specifically designed to increase subscriber conversion and retention.

The sleeper option: MailerLite

If you're very price-sensitive and don't need sophisticated newsletter monetization, MailerLite deserves a look. It supports paid newsletters/subscriptions and has a strong visual automation system, while generally costing substantially less than beehiiv at small list sizes. www.mailerlite.com

But again, SMS is the weakness compared with Brevo.

My recommendation by scenario

Under ~1,000 subscribers, modest revenue:
→ Brevo. Don't overpay for newsletter-specific features yet.

1,000–5,000 subscribers and paid subscriptions are becoming serious revenue:
→ beehiiv + separate SMS.

You mainly need inexpensive email + occasional SMS:
→ Brevo.

You sell courses, products, memberships and need complex funnels:
→ Kit.

You want the absolute simplest paid newsletter and don't care about giving up 10% of subscription revenue:
→ Substack. Its zero upfront platform fee is attractive at very low revenue, but the 10% revenue share becomes expensive as paid revenue grows. letterbench.com

Bottom line: For the specific combination you gave—content creator + small paid list + affordable + email AND SMS—I'd start with Brevo. If your newsletter subscription revenue becomes the main business, I'd migrate the newsletter side to beehiiv rather than letting the SMS requirement dictate your entire publishing platform.

If you tell me your approximate subscriber count (e.g. 300 / 1,000 / 5,000), paid subscribers, monthly newsletter sends, and how many SMS messages you expect to send, I can calculate the likely monthly cost of Brevo vs. beehiiv + SMS vs. MailerLite.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter audience + low cost + both email and SMS, I’d narrow it to three choices, depending on what “monetizing” means for you.

My pick: beehiiv + a lightweight SMS service

For a content creator whose primary product is the newsletter, I'd choose beehiiv rather than sacrificing newsletter monetization features to get SMS under the same roof.

beehiiv's free Launch plan currently supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Its Scale plan adds paid subscriptions, digital products, automations, ads/Boosts, and takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue (you still pay Stripe's processing fee). www.beehiiv.com

That's particularly attractive if, say, you have 300–2,000 paying/free subscribers. You don't want your platform taking 5–10% of revenue just because your list is small.

The downside is that beehiiv isn't an SMS platform. I'd keep SMS separate and connect it through an integration/API rather than moving your entire newsletter operation to a general-purpose marketing platform.

If SMS is genuinely central: Brevo

I'd pick Brevo if you mean:

“I want one inexpensive dashboard where I can email my subscribers and text them.”

Brevo currently offers email and SMS campaigns on its free plan, with Starter beginning at $9/month; SMS credits are purchased separately. help.brevo.comwww.mailerlite.com

It's considerably better suited to multi-channel messaging than beehiiv. The tradeoff is that it isn't nearly as purpose-built for paid newsletter publishing and creator monetization.

I wouldn't choose Substack if you're optimizing for revenue

Substack is wonderfully simple, but its economics become less attractive as paid revenue grows: it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, in addition to payment-processing costs. www.beehiiv.com

For a creator making $1,000/month in subscriptions, that's roughly $100/month going to Substack before payment processing. A flat-fee platform can become much cheaper surprisingly quickly.

Bottom line

I'd rank them:

1. 🥇 beehiiv + separate SMS — best if the newsletter itself is the business.
2. 🥈 Brevo — best if having email + SMS in one inexpensive platform is the priority.
3. 🥉 MailerLite — good budget option, particularly if you're doing broader email marketing rather than building a publication. Its current Comfort plan starts at $12/month, while its free tier was reduced to 250 active subscribers in June 2026. www.mailerlite.com

One important distinction: if by “paid subscriber list” you mean you charge subscribers for access to your newsletter, I'd strongly favor beehiiv. If you mean you have a small list of customers and want to send them marketing email + SMS, I'd favor Brevo.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 250, 1,000, 5,000) and what you charge per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost and revenue cut for beehiiv vs Brevo vs MailerLite vs Substack.

For a content creator monetizing through newsletters with a small paid subscriber list, I’d usually narrow it to three choices:

www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.com

My ranking for your use case

1. Best overall: beehiiv

Choose this if your newsletter itself is the business.

Good fit if you:

• charge monthly/yearly subscriptions
• want sponsorships later
• want referral growth loops
• want a publication-style website + newsletter in one place

beehiiv’s free tier supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, and paid plans add monetization features such as paid subscriptions and growth tools. www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.com

Downside: If SMS is a core channel, you’ll likely need a separate SMS provider.

2. Best if you sell more than the newsletter: Kit

Choose this if your newsletter is a funnel into:

• courses
• memberships
• coaching
• digital products
• affiliate offers

Kit is strong for creator automation: tagging readers, sending sequences, and moving subscribers through sales journeys. www.beehiiv.com

Downside: For a small paid newsletter only, you may be paying for capabilities you don’t need.

3. Best low-cost option: MailerLite

Choose this if you have:

• under ~10,000 subscribers
• a simple newsletter
• occasional promotions
• a tight budget

MailerLite offers a free tier for small lists and affordable paid plans with newsletters, automations, landing pages, and digital product features. www.mailerlite.com

Downside: It feels more like an email marketing tool than a media/publishing platform.

For SMS specifically

I would generally not choose your newsletter platform based on SMS unless SMS is central to your business. A common creator stack is:

• Newsletter: beehiiv / Kit / MailerLite
• SMS: a dedicated SMS platform such as Twilio or Attentive (more enterprise-oriented)

SMS is usually most valuable for:

• launches
• limited-time offers
• events
• paid community reminders

It is usually not the best primary channel for weekly editorial content.

My practical recommendation by subscriber size

• 0–2,500 subscribers: beehiiv (especially if paid newsletter is the goal) www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.com
• 2,500–10,000 subscribers: beehiiv or MailerLite depending on whether you prioritize publishing vs. marketing www.mailerlite.comwww.beehiiv.com
• Selling courses/products: Kit www.beehiiv.com
• Mostly free newsletter + occasional monetization: MailerLite

If your paid list is, for example, under 1,000 paying subscribers, I’d lean beehiiv for a newsletter business or Kit if the newsletter feeds a broader creator business.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid newsletter list and you want both email + SMS without spending much, I’d narrow it to MailerLite vs. Kit.

My pick: MailerLite

For your specific use case, MailerLite is probably the best value.

Why MailerLite wins: its current Comfort plan starts at $12/month, and it supports paid recurring newsletter subscriptions through Stripe. Its Power plan starts at $25/month and gives you unlimited email sending. www.mailerlite.com

That's particularly attractive for a small paid list because you're not paying a large platform fee just because you're monetizing. MailerLite explicitly supports paid newsletters and says its paid-newsletter transaction/service fee is 0% beyond the payment processor in its comparison material. www.mailerlite.com

When I'd choose Kit instead

Kit is arguably the better creator platform, particularly if your business is going to expand beyond a newsletter into digital products, sponsorships, funnels, memberships, etc.

Kit currently has a free Newsletter plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, including unlimited broadcasts, forms/landing pages, tagging, and selling subscriptions. help.kit.com

The catch is SMS: Kit's SMS capability is currently provided through SlickText, rather than being a fully native SMS system. Kit says you can send SMS through Kit automations using SlickText. kit.com

So I'd choose Kit if creator monetization and automation are more important than having email + SMS under one inexpensive roof.

And beehiiv?

beehiiv is fantastic if you're building a media publication and want sophisticated newsletter growth tools, recommendations, sponsorships, analytics, etc.

But for a small paid list, it's harder to justify on cost alone. Its free Launch plan goes to 2,500 subscribers, but the paid Scale plan is currently $43/month and is where many of the monetization/growth features become available. www.beehiiv.com

My ranking for you

If your priority is minimizing monthly cost:

1. 🥇 MailerLite — best overall value for email + paid subscriptions + SMS
2. 🥈 Kit — best creator ecosystem, especially if you're building a larger business around your audience
3. 🥉 beehiiv — best if you think of yourself as building a media publication rather than simply selling a newsletter

One important caveat: if SMS is a major part of your business—e.g., weekly paid content delivered by text, launches, alerts, or high-frequency promotional messaging—I would evaluate the actual SMS per-message cost separately. The cheapest email platform isn't necessarily the cheapest email + SMS platform once you're sending substantial text volume.

If you tell me roughly (1) how many paid subscribers you have, (2) your monthly subscription price, and (3) how many emails/SMS messages you expect to send per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost and take-rate for MailerLite vs Kit vs beehiiv vs Substack.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid newsletter list and you want both email + SMS, I’d narrow it to Brevo, MailerLite, and beehiiv/Kit + a separate SMS tool.

My pick: Brevo if email + SMS must be in one platform

Brevo is probably the best budget all-in-one choice. Its free tier includes email and SMS campaigns, with up to 100,000 contacts, although email sending is capped at 300/day. Paid plans start at $9/month. help.brevo.com

Why I'd choose it:

• Email + SMS in one dashboard
• Very inexpensive when your list is small
• Doesn't charge you based purely on subscriber count in the same way many newsletter platforms do
• Good automations and segmentation
• You can keep your paid subscribers in the same system
• Particularly attractive if SMS is an important part of your strategy

Downside: It feels more like a marketing platform than a beautiful, creator-first publishing platform. Its paid-newsletter/content monetization experience isn't as strong as beehiiv or Kit.

If the newsletter itself is your business: beehiiv

beehiiv is my favorite newsletter-first option. It has a free tier up to 2,500 subscribers and is specifically designed around newsletter growth and monetization. Paid subscriptions have 0% platform fees, and it has advertising, referral, and sponsorship tools. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

The catch is important for your question: beehiiv does not natively send SMS. You'd need to connect an SMS provider through its API/webhooks. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

So I'd use beehiiv if:

Email/newsletter revenue is the primary business and SMS is occasional.

MailerLite: probably the best cheap compromise

MailerLite is worth serious consideration. It's inexpensive, has strong email/automation/landing-page functionality, and supports SMS through its broader messaging offering. Its current paid plans start at $12/month, while the free plan was reduced to 250 active subscribers in June 2026. www.mailerlite.com

It also supports paid newsletters with 0% platform sales fees, which makes it unusually compelling for a small paid list. www.mailerlite.com

I'd rank it:

MailerLite > Brevo if your priority is creator newsletter + paid subscriptions.

Brevo > MailerLite if your priority is email + SMS marketing in one place.

What about Kit?

Kit is excellent for creators. It supports paid newsletters, recurring subscriptions, digital products, and sponsorships. Its paid-subscription transaction fee is currently 0.6% plus the underlying payment processing costs. kit.com

But again, SMS isn't its core strength, so I'd only pick it over MailerLite/Brevo if you expect to build a sophisticated creator business around automations, products, sponsorships, etc.

My ranking for your situation

\*Substack looks free, but takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, so it can become surprisingly expensive once you're making meaningful money. newslettercalc.com

Bottom line

If you told me "I have 500–3,000 paying subscribers, I'm cost-conscious, and I genuinely want email + SMS", I'd start with MailerLite.

If you told me "The newsletter is my actual media business and SMS is secondary", I'd choose beehiiv.

If you told me "I want the cheapest possible all-in-one email/SMS marketing stack", I'd choose Brevo.

If you give me your approximate number of free subscribers, paid subscribers, monthly newsletter sends, and how many SMS messages you expect to send, I can calculate the likely monthly cost of Brevo vs MailerLite vs beehiiv + SMS and tell you which one is cheapest for your exact business.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + both email and SMS, I’d pick MailerLite for affordability and simplicity.

My shortlist

Why MailerLite: its paid-newsletter functionality lets you collect payments through Stripe and automatically deliver subscription emails, while its broader platform includes SMS capabilities. Its current Comfort plan starts at $12/month, with the free plan capped at 250 active subscribers. www.mailerlite.comhelp.kit.com

Kit is arguably the better creator platform. Its free Newsletter plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, and it supports paid subscriptions; however, paid transactions on the free plan carry a 3.5% + $0.30 fee. Kit has also added SMS through SlickText, so it's worth considering if creator-oriented automation and segmentation matter more than having SMS natively integrated. help.kit.com

beehiiv is my choice if you're primarily building a publication rather than a general creator business. Its free Launch plan supports 2,500 subscribers, while Scale is currently $43/month on annual billing and includes paid subscriptions with 0% beehiiv revenue share. That's particularly attractive once paid revenue becomes meaningful. www.beehiiv.com

Substack wins on simplicity but loses economically as your paid audience grows: there's no monthly platform charge, but Substack takes 10% of paid subscription transactions, on top of Stripe fees. support.substack.com

What I'd choose

• Under ~1,000 subscribers and SMS is important: MailerLite
• Creator business with courses/products/automations: Kit
• Newsletter is the core business and you expect rapid growth: beehiiv
• You want the absolute easiest way to start charging readers: Substack

One important distinction: SMS can mean either marketing texts or transactional texts, and the economics differ substantially. If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, paid subscribers, and SMS messages/month you expect (e.g. 500 free + 100 paid + 4 texts/month), I can calculate the actual monthly cost and fees for MailerLite vs Kit vs beehiiv and tell you which is cheapest.

For a content creator with a small paid newsletter audience, the “best” platform depends on whether your priority is keeping costs low, maximizing paid subscription revenue, or adding SMS/community channels. The biggest mistake is choosing a general email/SMS tool (like a traditional ecommerce platform) when your main business is a newsletter. pkpops.com

Here are the strongest affordable options:

tiergauge.com

My recommendations by scenario

1. You have 100–5,000 paid subscribers and want the simplest profitable setup
→ beehiiv

Why:

• Built specifically around newsletters
• Paid subscriptions, referral tools, analytics, and sponsorship/growth features
• Avoids Substack’s ongoing 10% revenue cut once you have meaningful income www.sasanova.com

2. Your newsletter sells something else
(example: coaching, courses, consulting, digital products)
→ Kit

Why:

• Better automation sequences
• Better tagging/segmentation
• Stronger customer journeys than newsletter-first platforms clientstacklab.com

3. You are just validating the idea
→ Substack

Why:

• Almost no upfront cost
• Easy paid subscription setup
• Built-in network effects

The downside: the 10% revenue share becomes expensive as revenue grows. newsletrix.com

What about SMS?

For a small paid subscriber list, I would usually avoid paying for SMS at the beginning unless you have a clear use case:

• paid member alerts
• premium content drops
• event reminders
• high-value community access

A common stack is:

• Newsletter: beehiiv or Kit
• SMS: Twilio, SimpleTexting, or TextMagic
• Payments: Stripe

For most creators under a few thousand paying members, email will generate far more ROI than SMS.

My short ranking for a small paid newsletter creator:

1. beehiiv — best overall newsletter business platform
2. Kit — best if you monetize beyond the newsletter
3. Substack — best for simplicity and audience discovery
4. Ghost — best if you want maximum ownership
5. Buttondown — best ultra-low-cost minimalist choice

If you tell me your approximate size (e.g., 200 paid subscribers vs 5,000, monthly price, and whether you need two-way SMS/community chat), I can narrow this to the cheapest setup that will still scale.