ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a small paid newsletter list where you want both email and SMS, I’d narrow it to Kit, MailerLite, and Brevo. The right choice depends heavily on whether “paid subscribers” means you charge for the newsletter itself or simply you have a small list of customers.

My practical recommendation: Kit

If you're a content creator selling subscriptions, Kit is probably the cleanest all-in-one fit. Its free tier supports up to 10,000 subscribers, and its paid Creator plan is $33/month when billed annually for 1,000 subscribers. Creator includes SMS marketing, automations, email sequences, and paid newsletters/subscriptions. Kit

Kit also explicitly supports recurring paid newsletters, digital products, and subscriptions. Its platform fee on paid subscriptions is currently 0.6%, in addition to payment processing. Kit

kit.com

When I'd choose MailerLite instead

If keeping monthly software costs extremely low is your priority, MailerLite is compelling. Its Comfort plan starts at $12/month for up to 500 subscribers, and it supports paid newsletter subscriptions through Stripe. MailerLite MailerLite

The catch is that its SMS capability is less central to the creator/newsletter experience, so I'd choose it primarily if email is your main channel.

mailerlite.com

When Brevo makes more sense

If SMS is nearly as important as email, I'd seriously consider Brevo. Its Starter plan begins at $9/month, supports email and SMS, and SMS credits are purchased separately. The free plan also includes email and SMS campaigns, although email is limited to 300 sends/day. Brevo Help Brevo

The tradeoff is that Brevo is more of a general marketing/CRM platform than a creator-native paid-newsletter platform.

brevo.com

One important exception: beehiiv

If your primary objective is growing and monetizing a publication, rather than SMS, I'd put beehiiv very high on the list. Its free Launch plan supports 2,500 subscribers, while Scale is $43/month when billed annually and includes paid subscriptions with 0% platform take. Beehiiv

So I'd think about it this way:

• Paid newsletter + creator business + SMS → Kit
• Cheapest/simple email + some SMS → MailerLite
• Email + SMS/marketing automation first → Brevo
• Newsletter growth, sponsorships, paid subscriptions → beehiiv

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 250, 1,000, 5,000) and how many SMS messages you'd send per month, I can calculate the approximate monthly cost of each and show which is cheapest for your particular list.

If you're a content creator selling subscriptions, Kit is probably the cleanest all-in-one fit. Its free tier supports up to 10,000 subscribers, and its paid Creator plan is $33/month when billed annually for 1,000 subscribers. Creator includes SMS marketing, automations, email sequences, and paid newsletters/subscriptions. Kit

Kit also explicitly supports recurring paid newsletters, digital products, and subscriptions. Its platform fee on paid subscriptions is currently 0.6%, in addition to payment processing. Kit

kit.com

When I'd choose MailerLite instead

If keeping monthly software costs extremely low is your priority, MailerLite is compelling. Its Comfort plan starts at $12/month for up to 500 subscribers, and it supports paid newsletter subscriptions through Stripe. MailerLite MailerLite

The catch is that its SMS capability is less central to the creator/newsletter experience, so I'd choose it primarily if email is your main channel.

mailerlite.com

When Brevo makes more sense

If SMS is nearly as important as email, I'd seriously consider Brevo. Its Starter plan begins at $9/month, supports email and SMS, and SMS credits are purchased separately. The free plan also includes email and SMS campaigns, although email is limited to 300 sends/day. help.brevo.com brevo.com

The tradeoff is that Brevo is more of a general marketing/CRM platform than a creator-native paid-newsletter platform.

brevo.com

One important exception: beehiiv

For a small paid newsletter, I’d separate the decision into two questions: who handles the newsletter/subscription business and who handles SMS. There isn’t one platform that is simultaneously the cheapest and strongest at both.

My shortlist

Current pricing supports the basic tradeoff: beehiiv's free Launch plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and its Scale plan includes paid subscriptions with a 0% platform take; Kit has a free tier up to 10,000 subscribers but its monetization/automation setup differs; MailerLite is generally cheaper for basic email marketing; and Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue. Beehiiv Newsletter Calc Beehiiv

What I'd choose

If your primary business is a paid newsletter: beehiiv.

It's particularly attractive once you're actually making meaningful subscription revenue because the platform doesn't take a percentage of your paid subscriptions. Its Scale plan also adds automations, digital products, recommendations and other newsletter-growth tools. Beehiiv

If you're very price-sensitive and have, say, 500–2,000 subscribers: MailerLite + a separate SMS provider can be considerably cheaper than paying for a newsletter-specific platform. MailerLite is designed around inexpensive email marketing and supports transactional messaging including SMS. Beehiiv

If SMS is central to the business: I'd look seriously at Brevo or MailerLite rather than trying to force beehiiv/Kit to be your SMS infrastructure.

One important wrinkle

If by "paid subscriber list" you mean something like 1,000 people paying $10/month, the economics change dramatically.

For example:

• Substack: roughly $1,000/month platform revenue share before payment processing.
• beehiiv Scale: roughly $43/month on annual billing at its lowest paid tier, with 0% platform take.
• Kit: roughly $39/month for Creator at 1,000 subscribers on the current monthly pricing cited by its pricing data.
• MailerLite: potentially substantially less for the email component, but it doesn't provide the same newsletter-native growth/monetization ecosystem. Newsletter Calc Beehiiv

So for a genuinely monetized newsletter, I'd be reluctant to choose Substack purely because its upfront price is $0—the 10% revenue share can quickly dwarf a fixed monthly ESP fee.

My practical architecture for a small creator would be:

beehiiv for newsletter + paid subscriptions → dedicated SMS provider only if SMS becomes important.

If you're under ~2,500 subscribers and still validating the business, you can even start on beehiiv's free tier and move to Scale when you need paid subscriptions/monetization features. Beehiiv

If you tell me your approximate subscriber count (e.g. 300 / 1,000 / 5,000), monthly paid revenue, and how many SMS messages you expect to send per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of beehiiv vs Kit vs MailerLite vs Brevo vs Substack for your situation.

If SMS is central to the business: I'd look seriously at Brevo or MailerLite rather than trying to force beehiiv/Kit to be your SMS infrastructure.

One important wrinkle

If by "paid subscriber list" you mean something like 1,000 people paying $10/month, the economics change dramatically.

For example:

• Substack: roughly $1,000/month platform revenue share before payment processing.
• beehiiv Scale: roughly $43/month on annual billing at its lowest paid tier, with 0% platform take.
• Kit: roughly $39/month for Creator at 1,000 subscribers on the current monthly pricing cited by its pricing data.
• MailerLite: potentially substantially less for the email component, but it doesn't provide the same newsletter-native growth/monetization ecosystem.

So for a genuinely monetized newsletter, I'd be reluctant to choose Substack purely because its upfront price is $0—the 10% revenue share can quickly dwarf a fixed monthly ESP fee.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter audience + keeping costs low + eventually adding SMS, I’d narrow it to MailerLite, Kit, and beehiiv.

My pick: MailerLite if SMS is genuinely important

mailerlite.com

MailerLite is probably the best value if you want email + SMS in one ecosystem. Its paid Comfort plan starts around $12/month, and the platform explicitly supports email and SMS functionality. MailerLite

The catch: it isn't designed around paid newsletters as deeply as beehiiv. If your business is primarily “I publish a newsletter and people pay me for it,” I'd lean toward beehiiv instead.

My pick: beehiiv if newsletter revenue is the main business

beehiiv.com

beehiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers, with paid subscriptions, referrals, advertising/Boosts and newsletter growth tools. It takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue beyond normal payment processing. Beehiiv Beehiiv

For a small list, though, there's an important wrinkle: the free Launch plan goes to 2,500 subscribers, but the monetization-focused paid tier starts around $43–$49/month depending on billing/pricing version. Field Tested Newsletter Cost Calculator

So if you're only making, say, $100–300/month from a small paid list, that monthly software bill can be significant.

Kit is the sleeper choice

kit.com

Kit is especially attractive if you're a creator who might eventually sell courses, digital products, coaching, or other creator products. Its free tier is unusually generous—up to 10,000 subscribers—although monetization and advanced features change the economics. Beehiiv StackDrawer

I'd choose it over beehiiv if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business, rather than the product itself.

What I'd do in your situation

• Under ~1,000 subscribers + SMS is important: MailerLite
• Under ~2,500 subscribers + newsletter is the product: beehiiv Launch, then reassess when you start charging
• Growing creator business + courses/products: Kit
• Already making meaningful recurring paid-subscription revenue: beehiiv, because the 0% platform fee becomes increasingly valuable
• You specifically need serious SMS marketing: MailerLite, or use a separate SMS provider alongside your newsletter platform

One important distinction: “email + SMS” and “paid newsletter monetization” aren't necessarily best handled by the same platform. If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, how many paid subscribers, your monthly newsletter revenue, and how many SMS messages/month you expect, I can calculate the cheapest setup and tell you exactly which platform I'd use.

mailerlite.com

MailerLite is probably the best value if you want email + SMS in one ecosystem. Its paid Comfort plan starts around $12/month, and the platform explicitly supports email and SMS functionality. MailerLite

The catch: it isn't designed around paid newsletters as deeply as beehiiv. If your business is primarily “I publish a newsletter and people pay me for it,” I'd lean toward beehiiv instead.

My pick: beehiiv if newsletter revenue is the main business

beehiiv.com

beehiiv is purpose-built for newsletter publishers, with paid subscriptions, referrals, advertising/Boosts and newsletter growth tools. It takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue beyond normal payment processing. beehiiv.com beehiiv.com

For a small list, though, there's an important wrinkle: the free Launch plan goes to 2,500 subscribers, but the monetization-focused paid tier starts around $43–$49/month depending on billing/pricing version. fieldtestedhq.com newslettercalc.com

So if you're only making, say, $100–300/month from a small paid list, that monthly software bill can be significant.

Kit is the sleeper choice

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + email + SMS without spending much, I’d pick Brevo overall—but beehiiv if the newsletter itself is the core product.

My shortlist

Why I’d choose Brevo for your specific question: its free plan includes email and SMS campaigns, and its Starter plan begins at $9/month; SMS credits are purchased separately. That makes it unusually attractive if SMS is genuinely part of your business. Brevo Help Brevo

Why beehiiv may actually be better for a paid newsletter: it's purpose-built for newsletter businesses. Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers, while its paid Scale plan includes paid subscriptions, automations, digital products, etc., with 0% beehiiv revenue share on paid subscriptions. Beehiiv

So my recommendation would be:

• Mostly paid newsletter, SMS occasional: beehiiv
• Email + SMS are equally important: Brevo
• Mostly email marketing/automations, not a publication: MailerLite
• Complex creator funnels and automations: Kit

One important caveat: if you have, say, 500–2,000 paid subscribers, I'd compare the total monthly cost at your actual list size rather than just advertised starting prices. The economics can change substantially as your list grows.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 2,000, 5,000) and how many SMS messages/month you expect, I can give you a concrete cheapest-to-most-expensive comparison.

If you're a content creator with a small paid newsletter list and want both email + SMS without overspending, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Brevo if SMS is genuinely important

brevo.com is probably the best budget all-in-one choice. Its pricing is primarily based on email volume rather than number of contacts, which can be advantageous for a small but active list. Its free tier also includes 300 emails/day, while paid plans add SMS capabilities. Sasanova Beehiiv

The tradeoff: Brevo isn't really built around paid newsletters. If your business is primarily "people pay me every month to receive my newsletter," I'd prioritize a creator/newsletter platform and handle SMS separately.

My pick for a paid newsletter: Kit

kit.com is much more creator-oriented. It supports paid subscriptions, digital products, automations, landing pages, and newsletters. Its free tier can accommodate a surprisingly large list, although monetization can involve transaction/commerce fees. Beehiiv StackDrawer

Best if: your newsletter itself is the product and you want funnels, paid subscribers, lead magnets, and creator-style automation.

Best newsletter business platform: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if you're building a media/newsletter business rather than simply sending marketing emails. Its free Launch tier supports up to 2,500 subscribers, and paid plans add paid subscriptions, automations, digital products, referrals, and its ad network. Importantly, beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (apart from Stripe processing). Beehiiv G2

The catch is that SMS isn't its strength.

What I'd actually do

For a creator with, say, 500–5,000 paid/free subscribers, I'd choose:

• Newsletter is the core business: beehiiv + a separate SMS provider
• Creator business with courses/products/funnels: Kit + separate SMS
• SMS is equally important to email: Brevo
• You just want inexpensive, uncomplicated email: MailerLite

I wouldn't choose Mailchimp for this particular use case unless you specifically need its broader marketing/e-commerce ecosystem. Its pricing becomes less attractive as the list grows, whereas beehiiv and Kit are much more creator-oriented. Beehiiv Sasanova

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 2,000, 5,000) and whether SMS is for marketing, paid content, or alerts, I can give you the cheapest setup and estimated monthly cost.

My pick for a paid newsletter: Kit

kit.com is much more creator-oriented. It supports paid subscriptions, digital products, automations, landing pages, and newsletters. Its free tier can accommodate a surprisingly large list, although monetization can involve transaction/commerce fees. Beehiiv stackdrawer.com

Best if: your newsletter itself is the product and you want funnels, paid subscribers, lead magnets, and creator-style automation.

Best newsletter business platform: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if you're building a media/newsletter business rather than simply sending marketing emails. Its free Launch tier supports up to 2,500 subscribers, and paid plans add paid subscriptions, automations, digital products, referrals, and its ad network. Importantly, beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (apart from Stripe processing).

The catch is that SMS isn't its strength.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid newsletter and you specifically want both email + SMS, I’d narrow it to MailerLite vs. Kit vs. beehiiv, with one important caveat: the best newsletter platforms don’t necessarily have the best SMS functionality.

My pick: MailerLite

For a small list, MailerLite is probably the best value if SMS is genuinely important.

• It combines email marketing, automations, landing pages, digital products, and SMS/inbound messaging in one platform. MailerLite
• Its paid-newsletter economics are attractive: MailerLite advertises 0% platform sales fee for paid newsletters, with Stripe processing fees still applying. MailerLite
• It is considerably more oriented toward affordable small-business/creator marketing than enterprise platforms.
• The downside: its newsletter-growth/discovery ecosystem isn't as strong as beehiiv's.

If newsletter monetization is your #1 priority: beehiiv

beehiiv is my choice if you're primarily building a paid media/newsletter business and SMS is secondary.

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends. Its Scale plan is currently $43/month when billed annually and includes paid subscriptions, automations, referrals/recommendations, digital products, and its ad network. Most importantly, beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription revenue. beehiiv

That's unusually compelling for a creator. For example, if you had 500 people paying $10/month, you'd generate $5,000/month; avoiding a 10% platform cut versus something like Substack saves roughly $500/month before payment processing.

The catch: beehiiv isn't the platform I'd choose primarily for SMS. I'd rather pair it with a dedicated SMS service if text messaging becomes an important revenue channel.

Kit: excellent creator platform, but not my SMS pick

Kit is particularly good if your business involves courses, digital products, lead magnets, sequences, and sophisticated creator automations.

Kit allows up to 10,000 subscribers on its free plan, while advanced features start at $39/month. Its paid newsletter transactions are 3.5% + $0.30. Kit Kit

But again, SMS isn't its strongest reason to choose it.

What I'd do at different list sizes

One particularly interesting option: start on beehiiv's free plan while you're small, then add a dedicated SMS provider only when SMS has enough revenue impact to justify it. That keeps your fixed costs near zero while retaining the strongest newsletter monetization infrastructure. beehiiv currently supports up to 2,500 subscribers for free with unlimited sends. beehiiv

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, how many paid subscribers, your monthly subscription price, and how often you want to text, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of MailerLite vs. beehiiv + SMS vs. Kit for your situation.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + both email and SMS + keeping costs low, I’d choose Brevo.

My ranking

Brevo's big advantage is that it prices primarily around messages sent rather than the number of contacts you store. Its free tier currently allows unlimited contacts with a daily sending limit, while paid plans start around $9/month. SMS campaigns are supported. Choose My Stack Field Tested

But there's an important distinction

If by "paid subscriber lists" you mean people who pay you monthly for access to your newsletter, rather than simply a list you market to, I'd lean toward Kit or beehiiv.

• Kit is particularly attractive for a creator: its free tier can accommodate a very large list, and it has built-in commerce/subscription functionality. Choose My Stack Saas CRM Review
• beehiiv is better if your newsletter itself is the business and you want sophisticated growth tools, referrals, recommendations, advertising, and paid subscriptions. Choose My Stack Saas CRM Review
• Brevo wins when SMS is a requirement and you don't want to pay for a separate SMS platform. It is more of a marketing/CRM platform than a purpose-built newsletter business platform. Mailercloud

My practical recommendation:
Brevo if SMS is genuinely important. Kit if email is the core product and SMS is merely nice-to-have. beehiiv if you're aggressively growing a paid publication.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 1,000, 5,000) and how often you send email/SMS, I can calculate which one is actually cheapest for your situation.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + occasional SMS, while keeping costs low, I’d pick brevo.com for the best email+SMS value.

My ranking

🥇 Best overall if you genuinely need SMS: Brevo

Brevo's free tier includes email and SMS campaigns, with 300 emails/day, and its Starter plan begins at $9/month. SMS is purchased separately as pay-as-you-go credits, so you aren't paying for a large SMS package when your list is small. Brevo Help Brevo

That's particularly attractive if your SMS use is something like:

• "New issue is out"
• Launch/reminder messages
• Event announcements
• Occasional offers to paid subscribers

The downside is that Brevo isn't really built around paid newsletter subscriptions. You'll likely want Stripe or another checkout/membership mechanism alongside it.

🥇 Best if the newsletter itself is the business: Kit

kit.com is my pick if you mean "I sell subscriptions/content as a creator and want the email platform to handle the creator business."

Kit is particularly good for paid content, digital products, automations, tagging and creator funnels. Its free tier is unusually generous, although its monetization model can introduce fees depending on how you're selling. Beehiiv The Data Duel

The catch: you'd need a separate SMS service if texting is important.

🥈 beehiiv if growth is the priority

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if your newsletter is primarily a media product and you're trying to grow paid subscribers, sponsorships and referrals. Its paid-subscription model has 0% platform commission, with Stripe processing fees remaining. Beehiiv Beehiiv

But if you're saying "email AND SMS in one affordable system," I'd take Brevo over beehiiv.

One important distinction

If you have, say, 500–2,000 subscribers, I'd approach it differently depending on your business:

• Paid newsletter + little/no SMS: Kit
• Paid newsletter + aggressive newsletter growth: beehiiv
• Email + SMS + low monthly overhead: Brevo
• Just cheap email and you're not really monetizing yet: MailerLite

For SMS in the U.S., remember that marketing texts have consent/compliance requirements; Brevo specifically notes CTIA/TCPA requirements and sending-hour restrictions. Brevo Help

My recommendation for your description: Brevo if SMS is essential; Kit if SMS is merely nice-to-have.

If you tell me roughly how many paid subscribers you have (e.g. 250, 1,000, 5,000) and what you charge per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost and break-even point for Brevo vs. Kit vs. beehiiv.

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if your newsletter is primarily a media product and you're trying to grow paid subscribers, sponsorships and referrals. Its paid-subscription model has 0% platform commission, with Stripe processing fees remaining.

But if you're saying "email AND SMS in one affordable system," I'd take Brevo over beehiiv.

One important distinction

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + keeping costs low + having both email and SMS, I’d separate the question into “best newsletter platform” and “best SMS layer.” Most creator-first newsletter platforms are excellent at email but aren’t really all-in-one SMS platforms.

My shortlist

What I'd choose

If paid subscriptions are the core business: beehiiv. Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, and its paid Scale plan includes paid subscriptions with 0% platform take. Beehiiv Beehiiv

That's particularly attractive when you're charging subscribers: beehiiv's economics don't get worse as your paid revenue grows. You'd primarily pay Stripe's transaction fee rather than surrendering a percentage of subscription revenue. Beehiiv

If you want a broader creator-business platform: Kit. Kit's free Newsletter tier is unusually generous, while the paid Creator tier adds unlimited automations and sequences. Current pricing starts around $33/month when billed annually for 1,000 subscribers. Kit Kit Help Center

If SMS is genuinely important, I'd look hardest at MailerLite or Brevo. MailerLite explicitly bundles its email/marketing product with an SMS offering, and its paid Comfort tier starts at $12/month. MailerLite

The key distinction

If by “SMS” you mean occasional alerts to paid subscribers—e.g. “new issue is out,” reminders, special announcements—I would not let SMS determine your newsletter platform.

I'd use:

beehiiv → newsletter + paid subscriptions
Brevo/MailerLite → SMS

That gives you the strongest newsletter monetization without forcing your newsletter platform to compromise around SMS.

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 recommend the cheapest setup.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + occasional SMS, while keeping costs low, I’d shortlist Kit, beehiiv, and MailerLite—but for slightly different reasons.

My pick: Kit

Kit is probably the best fit if you're a solo content creator rather than trying to build a full media publication.

• Free up to 10,000 email subscribers, with unlimited broadcasts. Kit Kit Help Center
• Its free plan supports paid subscriptions/digital products, so you can start monetizing without paying a monthly platform fee. Kit Help Center
• The Creator plan starts at $33/month when billed annually for 1,000 subscribers and adds visual automations and SMS marketing. Kit
• Kit's commerce fee is relatively low: 0.6%, on top of payment processing. Kit

The catch: Kit's SMS functionality is not the main reason I'd choose it. If SMS becomes a major part of your business, a dedicated SMS provider may make more sense.

When I'd choose beehiiv instead

beehiiv is stronger if your business is fundamentally "I am building a newsletter/media brand."

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends. The Scale plan is $43/month annually and includes paid subscriptions, automations, recommendations, and other growth/monetization tools. Most importantly for paid newsletters, beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue. Beehiiv

So I'd choose:

Kit → creator selling content/products/memberships

beehiiv → newsletter-first business trying to grow readership and revenue

MailerLite is the budget generalist

MailerLite is worth considering if email + SMS campaigns are more important than newsletter-specific monetization.

Its paid Comfort plan starts at $12/month, and it combines email marketing, automation, landing pages, digital products and SMS capabilities. MailerLite

The downside is that it doesn't feel as purpose-built for a paid newsletter business as Kit or beehiiv.

What I'd do with a small paid list

Bottom line: For a small creator with, say, 500–3,000 email subscribers and a relatively small SMS audience, I'd start with Kit. The free tier gives you enormous runway, and you can add SMS when the economics justify it. If your primary product is specifically a paid newsletter, I'd lean beehiiv because its monetization and newsletter-growth features are unusually well aligned with that business model. Beehiiv Kit

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, paid subscribers, and SMS contacts you have, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of Kit vs beehiiv vs MailerLite for your situation.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + SMS, I’d narrow it to MailerLite, Kit, and beehiiv—but they’re optimized for different things.

My pick: MailerLite if SMS really matters

For a small list where keeping costs low is the main objective, I would choose MailerLite. Its pricing is based on subscribers and sending volume, and it supports both email and SMS rather than forcing you to bolt on a separate SMS platform. MailerLite Beehiiv

That's particularly attractive if you're doing things like:

• Paid newsletter announcements
• New issue notifications
• Occasional promotional emails
• SMS alerts to highly engaged subscribers
• Simple welcome/onboarding sequences
• Landing pages and signup forms

But if newsletter revenue is the priority: beehiiv

If by "monetizing" you mean paid subscriptions, sponsorships, ads, referrals, or building a media business, I'd seriously consider beehiiv instead.

Its free Launch plan goes up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Its Scale plan adds paid subscriptions, automations, ad monetization, digital products and other growth tools; beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscription revenue (apart from Stripe processing). Beehiiv Beehiiv

The catch is SMS: beehiiv isn't really an SMS-first platform, so you'd likely pair it with a dedicated SMS service.

Kit is the interesting middle ground

Kit is compelling if you're primarily a creator selling content, courses, products, or memberships. Its free tier can accommodate up to 10,000 subscribers, although more sophisticated automation and creator features push you onto paid plans. Beehiiv Field Tested

What I'd choose

Under ~2,500 subscribers + SMS is important → MailerLite.

Under ~2,500 subscribers + you expect paid subscriptions/sponsorships to become significant → beehiiv.

Creator business with products/courses and sophisticated email funnels → Kit.

One important wrinkle: if you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 1,000, 2,500) and how many SMS messages/month you expect, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of MailerLite vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit + SMS and tell you which is cheapest at your scale.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + email + SMS without overspending, I’d narrow it to MailerLite, beehiiv, and Brevo—but there’s an important distinction: the best newsletter monetization platform isn’t necessarily the best SMS platform.

My ranking

🥇 If paid subscriptions are the core business: beehiiv

beehiiv.com

This would be my first choice for a content creator.

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Its Scale plan is currently $43/month when billed annually and adds paid subscriptions, automations, digital products, recommendations, and other growth tools. Most importantly, beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue; you pay Stripe's processing fees instead. Beehiiv Beehiiv

The catch: SMS isn't its strength. I'd pair beehiiv with a dedicated SMS provider if SMS is an important part of your business.

🥈 If you really want email + SMS together: MailerLite

mailerlite.com

MailerLite is probably the best budget all-in-one choice.

It specifically supports email + SMS, along with automations, landing pages, forms, etc. MailerLite

The downside for a newsletter creator is monetization: it's more of a conventional email-marketing platform than a purpose-built paid-publication platform. And its free tier became much less attractive in July 2026—250 subscribers/2,500 emails per month—although paid plans remain inexpensive. Worklever

🥉 If SMS is almost as important as email: Brevo

brevo.com

I'd consider Brevo when you're building something more like a membership/business communications system than a pure publication.

It's particularly attractive when your SMS volume varies, because its pricing model is oriented around messaging volume rather than simply charging you more for every additional contact.

What I would actually do

For a creator with, say, 500–5,000 subscribers, I'd choose:

beehiiv → newsletter + paid subscriptions + growth

Dedicated SMS provider → texts to your highest-value subscribers

That gives you a much better newsletter monetization stack than forcing everything into one platform.

The economics become especially compelling once you have meaningful paid revenue. For example, if you had 1,000 free subscribers + 100 people paying $10/month, that's $1,000/month in subscription revenue. A platform taking 10% would cost you $100/month; beehiiv's 0% platform take means you retain that revenue aside from payment processing. Beehiiv

One exception: if SMS is a central part of your product—e.g. daily alerts, exclusive texts, drops, or text-based community—I'd pick MailerLite/Brevo over beehiiv and sacrifice some newsletter-specific monetization features.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 2,000, 10,000), your monthly newsletter frequency, and how often you want to send SMS, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of beehiiv vs MailerLite vs Brevo vs Kit for your situation.

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

My pick: Kit

kit.com is probably the best overall fit if SMS is genuinely part of your strategy.

• Free: up to 10,000 email subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, segmentation, and the ability to sell subscriptions. Kit Kit Help Center
• Creator: $33/month for 1,000 subscribers, with SMS marketing, automations, sequences, and paid subscriptions. Kit
• Kit takes 0.6% on paid subscriptions on its current pricing structure. Kit
• It's particularly creator-oriented rather than being primarily a generic marketing/CRM platform.

Best if newsletter monetization is #1: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is my choice if paid newsletter revenue and audience growth matter more than SMS.

• Free Launch plan up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends. Beehiiv
• Paid subscriptions have 0% beehiiv platform fee; you pay Stripe's processing fee. Beehiiv Beehiiv
• Excellent native newsletter monetization, recommendations, advertising, referrals, etc.
• The downside for your use case: SMS isn't its strength, so you'd likely need a separate SMS provider.

Cheapest all-around marketing option: MailerLite

mailerlite.com is worth considering if you're running a small business/newsletter hybrid rather than a publication-first business.

• Free up to 250 subscribers.
• Paid Comfort starts at $12/month.
• It supports paid/recurring newsletter subscriptions and email automation. MailerLite MailerLite
• It's generally more economical than beehiiv once you're paying for a modest list.
• But I'd choose Kit over it if you're specifically building a creator business.

What I'd choose

One important caveat: SMS pricing can become quite different from email pricing because of message volume, carrier fees, registration/compliance, and country. So I wouldn't pick a platform based solely on its advertised monthly subscription price.

If you tell me roughly (1) how many free subscribers, (2) how many paid subscribers, (3) your monthly subscription price, and (4) how many SMS messages/month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost + percentage of revenue for Kit vs. beehiiv vs. MailerLite and tell you which is cheapest.

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

My pick: Brevo

brevo.com is probably the best value if SMS is genuinely important. It combines email, SMS, contacts, basic CRM and automation rather than forcing you to bolt an SMS provider onto a newsletter platform. Its pricing is primarily based on email volume rather than the number of contacts, which can be advantageous for a small but growing list. Sasanova Choose My Stack

The trade-off: it feels more like a marketing platform than a creator-first newsletter product.

If the newsletter itself is your business: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is the one I'd choose if your priority is growing and monetizing the newsletter, rather than SMS.

• Free up to 2,500 subscribers
• Unlimited email sends
• Paid subscriptions with 0% platform commission
• Built-in recommendations, referrals and ad monetization
• Strong newsletter publishing experience
• But no native SMS. Beehiiv Beehiiv

So you could use beehiiv + a separate SMS service if SMS is occasional.

If you're a creator selling other things: Kit

kit.com is another strong option. It's particularly good if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, memberships, etc. Current comparisons put its free tier at up to 10,000 subscribers, although some advanced automation/features require paid plans. Field Tested Sasanova

Again, though: SMS isn't its strength.

Quick decision

mailerlite.com is worth considering too: it has inexpensive entry-level plans and includes email automation, landing pages and digital-product functionality, although I'd still favour Brevo if SMS is a core requirement. MailerLite

For your particular use case, I'd probably do Brevo if you need SMS now; beehiiv if SMS is merely "nice to have." The latter can be considerably better economically once the newsletter starts generating meaningful subscription revenue because it doesn't take a percentage of paid subscriptions. Beehiiv

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, how many paid subscribers, emails/month, and SMS/month, I can work out the actual monthly cost of Brevo vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit and tell you which is cheapest.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid newsletter list and want both email + SMS without spending a lot, I’d narrow it to Kit vs. Mailchimp, with one important caveat: if your priority is paid newsletter monetization, Kit is the better fit.

My pick: kit.com

Why: Kit is purpose-built for creators rather than general-purpose businesses. Its free tier supports up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited email broadcasts, segmentation, and selling subscriptions. Its Creator plan adds SMS marketing and starts at $33/month when billed annually for 1,000 subscribers. Kit Kit Help Center

For a creator, that's a particularly attractive combination:

• Paid newsletters: built in
• Email: unlimited broadcasts
• SMS: included on the Creator plan
• Automations: included on Creator
• Audience tagging/segmentation: yes
• Digital products/subscriptions: yes
• Transaction fee: Kit says 0.6% for digital products/subscriptions, in addition to payment processing. Kit

Runner-up: mailchimp.com

Mailchimp is better if SMS marketing is a major part of your business and you want a mature all-in-one marketing platform.

It supports email + SMS in the same system, including SMS automations and consent management. Paid SMS can be added to its paid email plans. Mailchimp

The downside for a small newsletter creator is that Mailchimp is fundamentally designed around marketing campaigns and businesses, rather than paid publications. Its pricing can also become less attractive as your contact count grows. Mailchimp

What about beehiiv?

beehiiv.com is actually my #1 choice if SMS isn't essential.

Its free Launch plan supports 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends, while its paid Scale plan includes paid subscriptions and takes 0% of paid newsletter revenue. Beehiiv

That's excellent economics for a paid newsletter. But for your specific email + SMS requirement, I'd choose Kit.

Bottom line:
If you're starting with, say, 500–5,000 paid subscribers, I'd use Kit Creator. You get email, SMS, automations, segmentation, and paid subscriptions in one creator-oriented platform without paying for a bunch of enterprise marketing features you don't need.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500, 2,000, 5,000) and whether SMS is for marketing/free-list engagement or messages to paying subscribers, I can calculate the cheapest setup—including whether it's worth using a separate SMS provider.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + low cost + both email and SMS, I’d shortlist MailerLite, beehiiv, and Kit—but there’s an important catch: none of the creator-focused newsletter platforms is especially strong as an all-in-one email + SMS solution.

My pick: MailerLite

MailerLite is probably the best budget all-rounder if SMS is genuinely important.

• Email: Excellent for newsletters, automations, landing pages, segmentation, and basic digital-product sales.
• Cost: Free up to 250 subscribers; paid plans start around $12/month. MailerLite MailerLite
• SMS: SMS is part of MailerLite's broader platform, although SMS usage is an additional consideration rather than simply unlimited texting. MailerLite
• Best for: A creator who wants one relatively inexpensive marketing system rather than a newsletter-only platform.

mailerlite.com

If paid newsletters are the main business: beehiiv

beehiiv is my choice if paid subscriptions and newsletter monetization matter more than SMS.

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, and its paid Scale plan includes paid subscriptions with 0% beehiiv revenue share. Beehiiv

The downside is that beehiiv isn't really an SMS-first platform. I'd pair it with a dedicated SMS service if texting becomes an important revenue channel.

beehiiv.com

Kit: excellent creator platform, weaker SMS fit

Kit is particularly attractive for creators because its free Newsletter plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited broadcasts, forms, landing pages, tagging, and the ability to sell products/subscriptions. Kit Kit

But again, SMS isn't its strength. I'd choose Kit over MailerLite if your business is primarily an email-driven creator business and you don't need SMS tightly integrated.

kit.com

What I'd choose by situation

One important distinction: if by "SMS" you mean occasional texts to paying subscribers—new issue alerts, exclusive drops, renewal reminders, etc.—I'd actually recommend beehiiv + a lightweight SMS provider rather than choosing your newsletter platform around SMS. If you mean frequent two-way SMS marketing, I'd make the SMS platform a primary selection criterion.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000) and whether they're free vs. paid, I can calculate the cheapest setup and compare the actual monthly cost of 3–4 options.

For a content creator monetizing a small paid newsletter, the “best” platform depends mostly on whether you need SMS, paid subscriptions, or creator automation. For most small lists, I would avoid paying for a big all-in-one marketing suite until you have enough volume to justify it.

Here’s the practical shortlist:

Beehiiv Beehiiv## My recommendation by scenario

1. You have a paid newsletter (subscriptions are the product)

Pick beehiiv.

Why:

• Built specifically around newsletters.
• Strong growth tools (referrals, recommendations, ads, analytics).
• Designed for paid subscriptions and newsletter businesses.
• Better economics than platforms that take a percentage of subscription revenue. Beehiiv

Good fit:

• 500–20,000 subscribers
• Paid tiers ($5–$20/month)
• Sponsorships
• Newsletter-as-a-business model

Weakness:

• SMS is not its core strength.

2. You are a creator selling more than a newsletter

Pick Kit.

Good if your newsletter leads into:

• courses
• coaching
• ebooks
• communities
• digital products

Its automation tools are stronger for creator funnels than many newsletter-first platforms. LaunchAdvisor

3. You specifically need email + SMS cheaply

Pick Brevo.

Brevo is often a better fit than newsletter-first tools if your workflow is:

• email newsletters
• SMS announcements
• launches
• promotions
• reminders

The tradeoff: it feels more like a marketing platform than a creator publishing platform.

4. You are under ~5,000 subscribers and want the lowest cost

Consider MailerLite.

It is simple:

• clean editor
• landing pages
• basic automations
• inexpensive scaling

It is less optimized for paid newsletter businesses than beehiiv or Kit.

My ranking for a small paid newsletter creator

1. 🥇 beehiiv — best overall newsletter monetization platform
2. 🥈 Kit — best if your newsletter sells products/services
3. 🥉 Brevo — best affordable email + SMS combination
4. MailerLite — best simple low-cost email tool
5. Mailchimp — only if you need broader business marketing features

A common setup for creators is:

• beehiiv for the newsletter + paid subscribers
• Twilio or Brevo for SMS alerts (only for high-value messages, since SMS costs add up)

If you tell me your approximate list size (e.g., <1k, 1–10k, 10k+) and whether you charge monthly subscriptions vs sponsorships vs products, I can narrow it to one choice.

My ranking for a small paid newsletter creator

1. 🥇 beehiiv — best overall newsletter monetization platform
2. 🥈 Kit — best if your newsletter sells products/services
3. 🥉 Brevo — best affordable email + SMS combination
4. MailerLite — best simple low-cost email tool
5. Mailchimp — only if you need broader business marketing features

A common setup for creators is:

• beehiiv for the newsletter + paid subscribers
• Twilio or Brevo for SMS alerts (only for high-value messages, since SMS costs add up)

If you tell me your approximate list size (e.g., <1k, 1–10k, 10k+) and whether you charge monthly subscriptions vs sponsorships vs products, I can narrow it to one choice.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + low costs + both email and SMS, I’d shortlist Kit, MailerLite, and beehiiv—but they optimize for different things.

My pick: Kit

For an individual content creator, Kit is probably the best overall fit if SMS is genuinely important.

Its free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited broadcasts, segmentation, and selling subscriptions. The Creator plan adds SMS marketing, automations, and other creator-oriented features. Kit

The catch is transaction fees: Kit charges 3.5% + $0.30 on paid newsletter transactions. Kit

If keeping costs absolutely minimal: MailerLite

MailerLite is the value pick. Its paid plans start at $12/month, and it supports paid newsletters through Stripe, including recurring subscriptions. MailerLite MailerLite

I'd choose it if your newsletter is relatively simple and you want email + SMS + landing pages + automations without paying for a lot of newsletter-growth features you don't need.

If newsletter revenue is the main business: beehiiv

If you're primarily building a media/newsletter business, I'd lean toward beehiiv instead. Its paid subscription infrastructure is particularly strong, and its Scale plan has 0% platform take on paid subscriptions. It also includes newsletter-specific growth tools such as recommendations and an ad network. Beehiiv

The downside for your use case is that SMS isn't its strongest differentiator, so you may end up needing a separate SMS service.

What I'd do

For a creator with, say, 500–5,000 subscribers and a modest number of paying members:

1. Kit — best if SMS + creator monetization are equally important.
2. MailerLite — best if minimizing monthly software costs is the priority.
3. beehiiv — best if maximizing newsletter revenue/growth is the priority and SMS can be secondary.

One important distinction: don't choose based only on email-platform price. If you're charging, say, $10/month for a paid newsletter, transaction fees can become much more significant than the $10–$20 difference in monthly software costs.

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, paid subscribers, and your monthly subscription price you have, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of Kit vs MailerLite vs beehiiv and tell you which is cheapest at your scale.

The catch is transaction fees: Kit charges 3.5% + $0.30 on paid newsletter transactions. Kit

If keeping costs absolutely minimal: MailerLite

MailerLite is the value pick. Its paid plans start at $12/month, and it supports paid newsletters through Stripe, including recurring subscriptions. mailerlite.com mailerlite.com

I'd choose it if your newsletter is relatively simple and you want email + SMS + landing pages + automations without paying for a lot of newsletter-growth features you don't need.

If newsletter revenue is the main business: beehiiv

If you're primarily building a media/newsletter business, I'd lean toward beehiiv instead. Its paid subscription infrastructure is particularly strong, and its Scale plan has 0% platform take on paid subscriptions. It also includes newsletter-specific growth tools such as recommendations and an ad network.

The downside for your use case is that SMS isn't its strongest differentiator, so you may end up needing a separate SMS service.

What I'd do

For a creator with, say, 500–5,000 subscribers and a modest number of paying members:

If your priority is a small paid newsletter list + keeping costs low + having both email and SMS, I’d narrow it to Brevo, Kit, and beehiiv.

My pick: Brevo

For your specific use case, Brevo is probably the best budget all-in-one choice.

• Email + SMS are native, rather than requiring a separate SMS service.
• Good automation and segmentation for a small list.
• You can use SMS for launches, reminders, renewals, or high-value announcements.
• It makes more sense financially if SMS is genuinely part of your strategy.
• The tradeoff: it's more of a marketing/CRM platform than a beautiful creator-first newsletter publishing platform.

If the newsletter itself is the business: beehiiv

beehiiv is my choice if you're primarily selling paid subscriptions and growing a media/newsletter business.

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited email sends, while Scale adds paid subscriptions, automations, recommendations and other monetization features. beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue (Stripe fees still apply). Beehiiv Beehiiv

The catch is SMS isn't its strength, so I'd pair it with a dedicated SMS provider rather than choosing it specifically for SMS.

If you want maximum cheap email runway: Kit

Kit is also compelling. Its current free tier can accommodate a very large list, making it attractive if you're still growing. Its strength is creator-focused email, funnels, automations and selling products. Worklever

Again, though, SMS isn't its core advantage.

One important consideration: Substack's 10% cut of paid subscription revenue becomes expensive as revenue grows, whereas beehiiv currently advertises 0% platform take on paid subscriptions. Beehiiv Newsletter Calc

Bottom line:

• Need email + SMS in one inexpensive system → Brevo
• Paid newsletter is the core business → beehiiv
• Creator business with products/automations → Kit

If you tell me roughly how many paid subscribers you have (e.g. 100, 500, 1,000) and your monthly subscription revenue, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of Brevo vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit + SMS and tell you which is cheapest.

If you want maximum cheap email runway: Kit

Kit is also compelling. Its current free tier can accommodate a very large list, making it attractive if you're still growing. Its strength is creator-focused email, funnels, automations and selling products. worklever.co

Again, though, SMS isn't its core advantage.

If your priority is a small paid newsletter + occasional SMS, while keeping costs low, I’d choose Brevo overall.

My ranking

🥇 Best if you genuinely need both email + SMS: Brevo

Brevo is unusually inexpensive for a small list because it largely prices around email volume rather than simply charging more as your contact database grows. Its Starter plan begins at $9/month, while the free tier supports up to 100,000 contacts but only 300 emails/day. It also supports SMS campaigns natively, with SMS charged separately based on destination and volume. Brevo Help Brevo Help

For example, if you have 1,000–5,000 subscribers but only send a few newsletters per month, Brevo can be substantially cheaper than creator-focused platforms. Sasanova

The downside: Brevo feels like a marketing/CRM platform rather than a purpose-built newsletter business. You don't get the same native newsletter growth and paid-subscription ecosystem as beehiiv.

🥈 If the newsletter itself is the business: beehiiv

I'd pick beehiiv if you're making most of your money from paid subscriptions and can live without native SMS.

Its free Launch plan currently supports 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends. The Scale plan adds paid subscriptions, automations, recommendations, and other monetization/growth features, with 0% take rate on paid subscriptions. Beehiiv

That's a big distinction: if you charge, say, $10/month for your newsletter, beehiiv isn't taking a percentage of that subscription revenue on Scale.

So I'd think of it this way:

Brevo = cheapest communications stack.
beehiiv = better newsletter business.

🥉 Kit is excellent for creator businesses

Kit is attractive if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, sponsorships, memberships, etc. Its current creator plans include visual automations, landing pages, forms, broadcasts and sequences. Kit Help Center

Kit also announced SMS via SlickText in its 2026 product lineup, but that's an integration rather than the same straightforward native email+SMS setup you get with Brevo. Kit

What I'd do in your situation

If you told me:

"I have 500–5,000 paid/free subscribers, I publish a newsletter, and I occasionally want to text subscribers about new issues, offers, or launches."

I'd start with Brevo if minimizing monthly expenses is the #1 priority.

If you told me:

"The newsletter itself is my product and I want referrals, paid subscriptions, growth tools, and newsletter-specific monetization."

I'd choose beehiiv, and add a separate SMS service when SMS becomes important.

One important caveat: don't choose based solely on the cheapest monthly price. For a paid newsletter, the platform's transaction/revenue share can matter much more than $10–20/month of software cost. beehiiv's Scale plan, for example, advertises a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions. Beehiiv

If you give me your approximate subscriber count (e.g. 500, 1,000, 5,000), how often you email, and how many SMS messages/month, I can calculate the likely monthly cost of Brevo vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit and tell you which is cheapest.

If you're a content creator with a small paid newsletter list and want email + SMS without spending a lot, I’d narrow it to three options:

My pick: MailerLite if SMS is essential

MailerLite is probably the best budget choice if you genuinely want both email and SMS under one marketing platform. Its current plans start at $12/month for Comfort, while the free tier supports 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. Its platform explicitly includes SMS alongside email marketing. MailerLite MailerLite

The downside: it's more of a general email-marketing platform than a purpose-built paid-newsletter business. If your primary product is the newsletter itself, beehiiv is considerably more compelling.

My pick if paid subscriptions are the business: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is what I'd choose if newsletter revenue is your main business and SMS is secondary.

Its free Launch plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers. The current Scale plan starts at $43/month annually and includes paid subscriptions, automations, digital products, recommendations and the ad network. Most importantly, beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue; you just pay Stripe's processing fee. Beehiiv Beehiiv

That makes a big difference once you're charging subscribers. For example, on $5,000/month in subscription revenue:

• beehiiv: $0 platform revenue share
• Substack: roughly $500/month platform fee before payment processing
• MailerLite: low software cost, but you'd generally need to build more of the paid-subscription machinery yourself.

Kit is the dark horse

kit.com is particularly attractive if you're building a creator business around the newsletter, rather than simply publishing a newsletter.

Its free Newsletter tier can accommodate a surprisingly large list, while paid Creator plans start at $39/month at the lower subscriber tiers. MailCompared LetterDuck

I'd choose Kit over beehiiv if you care more about lead magnets, sequences, segmentation, creator funnels and selling multiple things than newsletter-native monetization.

What I'd do in your situation

Under ~1,000 subscribers:
Start with MailerLite if SMS is genuinely important. If SMS can wait, I'd actually start beehiiv/Kit and add SMS later.

1,000–2,500 subscribers:
I'd lean beehiiv if most revenue comes from paid newsletter subscriptions.

A few hundred paid subscribers + SMS as a retention channel:
I'd seriously consider beehiiv for email/paid subscriptions + a dedicated SMS provider, rather than forcing both functions into one platform. Your email platform is the core revenue system; SMS is a communication channel.

If keeping software costs absolutely minimal is the priority:
MailerLite wins.

If maximizing newsletter monetization is the priority:
beehiiv wins.

One important caveat: SMS pricing is usually usage-based, so the headline monthly software price isn't the whole cost. SMS carrier fees, message volume, country, and compliance requirements can make the "cheap" platform more expensive once you're texting frequently.

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers, how many paid subscribers, your monthly subscription price, and how many SMS messages you expect to send per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost and break-even point for MailerLite vs beehiiv + SMS vs Kit.

If you’re a content creator with a small paid subscriber list and you want both email + SMS, I’d lean MailerLite—but there’s an important distinction depending on what “paid subscribers” means.

My ranking

1. MailerLite — best if SMS is genuinely important

MailerLite is probably the best fit if you want one inexpensive platform for email campaigns, automations, forms, and SMS. Its positioning is more traditional email marketing than creator publishing, but that can actually be an advantage for a small paid list. beehiiv itself identifies MailerLite's transactional messaging as including email + SMS. Beehiiv

The downside is that MailerLite's free tier became much less attractive in July 2026: it now caps free accounts at 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. Paid plans are still relatively inexpensive for small lists. Worklever Stuff Report

2. Kit — best if you're primarily a creator

kit.com is the one I'd consider if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, sponsorships, funnels, etc.

Its big advantage right now is the unusually generous free tier: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, although the free plan has meaningful automation limitations. Worklever Field Tested

If SMS is a core requirement, though, I wouldn't choose Kit solely for that.

3. beehiiv — best if the newsletter itself is the product

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if you're building a paid newsletter/media business rather than simply using email to communicate with customers.

Its free Launch plan supports 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends, while paid plans add things like recommendations, monetization, and more sophisticated growth tools. Paid subscriptions have 0% platform fees on beehiiv's side. Beehiiv Field Tested

But I'd rule it out if you specifically need SMS as a first-class channel.

What I'd choose

• Under ~1,000 subscribers + email/SMS + minimize monthly cost: MailerLite
• Under 10,000 subscribers + creator funnels/products: Kit
• Building a serious paid newsletter/media brand: beehiiv
• Want the absolute simplest paid newsletter: Substack, accepting its revenue-share model

One caveat: if by “paid subscriber lists” you mean people who pay you a recurring subscription specifically for the newsletter, rather than simply a small email list for a paid business, beehiiv becomes much more compelling.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000) and whether SMS is essential or just nice to have, I can give you the cheapest setup and estimated monthly cost for each.

The downside is that MailerLite's free tier became much less attractive in July 2026: it now caps free accounts at 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails/month. Paid plans are still relatively inexpensive for small lists. Worklever Stuff Report

2. Kit — best if you're primarily a creator

kit.com is the one I'd consider if your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, sponsorships, funnels, etc.

Its big advantage right now is the unusually generous free tier: up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, although the free plan has meaningful automation limitations. Worklever fieldtestedhq.com

If SMS is a core requirement, though, I wouldn't choose Kit solely for that.

3. beehiiv — best if the newsletter itself is the product

beehiiv.com is arguably the strongest choice if you're building a paid newsletter/media business rather than simply using email to communicate with customers.

If your main business is a paid newsletter and your list is still relatively small, I’d pick Kit if SMS is genuinely important; otherwise beehiiv is the better newsletter-first platform.

My ranking

🥇 I'd choose Kit for your use case

kit.com is particularly attractive for a creator because its free Newsletter plan currently goes up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited email sends. More importantly, Kit now integrates SlickText, allowing SMS to be triggered from Kit automations and keeping email/SMS contacts synchronized. Kit Kit

That makes it a good fit if you're doing things like:

• Weekly paid newsletter
• Subscriber onboarding sequences
• Launches and promotions
• SMS alerts for premium content
• Course/product sales
• Creator sponsorships
• Automated upsells

The catch is that SMS isn't really native Kit infrastructure—you need a paid SlickText account in addition to your Kit plan. Kit

🥈 Choose beehiiv if the newsletter itself is the business

beehiiv.com is my pick if your priority is growing and monetizing a publication, rather than building a broader creator marketing machine.

Its free Launch plan currently supports 2,500 subscribers and unlimited email sends. The Scale plan is $43/month when billed annually and adds paid subscriptions, automations, recommendations, ads, digital products, etc. beehiiv takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue. Beehiiv Beehiiv

That's compelling for a paid newsletter because the economics get better as revenue grows.

The big problem for your question: beehiiv doesn't natively send SMS. You'd need to connect a third-party SMS provider through its API/webhooks. Beehiiv

So I'd use beehiiv + a separate SMS service only if SMS is occasional rather than a core channel.

🥉 MailerLite if keeping costs extremely low matters

mailerlite.com is very good value for a small list. Its current paid plans start around $12/month, with unlimited emails on the appropriate paid tier. It also supports recurring paid newsletter subscriptions. MailerLite MailerLite

But there's an important distinction: MailerLite's SMS offering is tied to its broader MailerSend/transactional SMS infrastructure, rather than being as creator-centric as Kit + SlickText. MailerLite

Also, its free tier changed substantially in 2026: it's now just 250 subscribers / 2,500 monthly emails, so I wouldn't choose it primarily for the free plan. MailerLite

What I'd actually do

If you have, say, 500–5,000 paid/free subscribers, I'd narrow it to:

Newsletter is the product → beehiiv

Creator business with newsletter + products + SMS → Kit

SMS is almost as important as email → Brevo

Absolute lowest-cost general-purpose email marketing → MailerLite

One other consideration: if your list is small but paid, don't optimize too aggressively for the cheapest monthly subscription. A platform that costs $20–40 more per month but increases conversion, retention, or upsells by even a couple of percentage points can easily pay for itself.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500 / 2,000 / 5,000), your monthly paid revenue, and how often you'd send SMS, I can give you a much more precise $/month comparison and recommend the cheapest setup that won't box you in later.

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

My pick: Brevo if SMS is genuinely important

Brevo is probably the best low-cost all-in-one option. Its free plan supports up to 100,000 stored contacts, 300 emails/day, and includes both email and SMS campaigns; paid plans start around $9/month. help.brevo.com

The catch: Brevo isn't really a paid-newsletter platform. You'd generally use Stripe/another checkout for subscriptions and connect it to Brevo rather than having the newsletter/paywall experience native to the platform.

If paid subscriptions are your core business: beehiiv

beehiiv is what I'd choose if you're primarily building a paid media/newsletter business and SMS is secondary.

• Free up to 2,500 subscribers
• Unlimited email sends
• Paid subscriptions built in
• 0% platform fee on paid subscription revenue
• Scale starts at $43/month billed annually
• Strong newsletter-specific growth tools, referrals, ads, analytics, etc. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

You'd add SMS separately, rather than forcing your entire operation into a generic email/SMS marketing platform.

One other serious contender: Kit

Kit has become unusually attractive in 2026. Its new Newsletter plan allows up to 10,000 subscribers free, unlimited sends, digital products/subscriptions, landing pages, and one basic automation. help.kit.com

For a creator starting small, that's arguably the best free email platform. But, like beehiiv, SMS isn't its strength.

For your particular description, I'd lean beehiiv + a separate SMS service if the paid newsletter is the primary revenue source. The reason is that SMS is usually an engagement channel, while your email platform is effectively the infrastructure for your paid publication. beehiiv's 0% subscription take becomes increasingly valuable as paid revenue grows. www.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 500 / 1,000 / 5,000), what you charge per month, and how many SMS messages you'd send per month, I can calculate the actual monthly cost of Brevo vs. beehiiv + SMS vs. Kit and tell you which is cheapest.

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.