ChatGPT answers, unedited

If subscriber churn and revenue analytics are important—not just email opens—I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top recommendation

This is probably the closest match to what you're asking for. Its paid-subscription analytics explicitly cover growth, churn, LTV, and revenue, and its premium subscription dashboard was built specifically to track growth and churn. product.beehiiv.com

It also supports multiple subscription tiers, trials, promotions, gifts, and flexible payment options. Most importantly, beehiiv says it takes 0% of subscription revenue. product.beehiiv.com

Choose it if: your newsletter itself is the business and you want a dashboard that helps answer "How much am I making, how fast am I growing, and where am I losing subscribers?"

2. Ghost — best if you want more ownership

Ghost is particularly strong if you want the newsletter plus a proper publication website. Its analytics connect content to memberships and revenue: you can see paid conversions and the MRR impact attributable to individual posts and sources. ghost.org

Its paid-member analytics also break subscriptions down by cadence and tier and show changes in paid subscriptions over time. product.beehiiv.comghost.orgghost.org

Choose it if: you care about owning your site/content and want sophisticated publishing capabilities alongside paid subscriptions.

3. Kit — best if newsletter → products is your funnel

Kit is attractive if your paid newsletter is only one component of a broader creator business—e.g., newsletter → course → coaching → digital products. Its strength is automation and segmentation rather than being a pure paid-newsletter analytics product.

Choose it if: your key question is "Which subscribers can I turn into customers?" rather than purely "What's my subscription churn?"

4. Substack — easiest, but less analytics-oriented

Substack remains the simplest option for getting a paid publication running, particularly if you value its built-in discovery/network effects. The tradeoff is economics: it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, in addition to payment-processing costs. tiergauge.com

Choose it if: simplicity and Substack's built-in audience/discovery ecosystem matter more than having the deepest business analytics.

My ranking for your specific requirements

🥇 beehiiv — best combination of paid subscriptions + churn + revenue/LTV analytics
🥈 Ghost — best analytics/ownership combination
🥉 Kit — best if subscriptions feed a larger creator business
4. Substack — best for simplicity and built-in discovery

One important distinction: "subscriber analytics" isn't the same as churn analytics. I'd specifically look for the ability to measure monthly churn, annual churn, MRR/ARR, LTV, cancellations, failed payments, upgrades/downgrades, and cohort retention. For your stated requirements, beehiiv is the strongest fit of these options. product.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly subscription price, and whether you already use Stripe, I can also compare the actual monthly cost and revenue you would keep on beehiiv vs. Ghost vs. Substack.

If paid subscriptions + churn + revenue analytics are the priority, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my first choice

beehiiv is particularly strong if you're treating the newsletter as a subscription business, rather than simply an email list.

Its paid-newsletter analytics include data around subscriptions, cancellations, pricing, conversion, and subscriber value, and beehiiv has published analysis of thousands of paid publications using those metrics. www.beehiiv.com

It also has growth tools such as referrals, Boosts, and an ad network, so you can analyze subscription revenue alongside other monetization channels.

Choose it if: you want a serious dashboard for understanding MRR, subscriber growth, cancellations, LTV, and monetization.

2. Ghost — excellent if you want a publication you own

Ghost has unusually good first-party membership analytics. Its Growth dashboard breaks paid subscriptions down by monthly vs. annual plans and tiers, and its post analytics can attribute paid conversions and MRR impact to individual posts and acquisition sources. ghost.org

Ghost also gives you a proper publication website rather than just a newsletter landing page, and the software is open source.

Choose it if: you care about owning the website, content, and audience infrastructure long-term.

3. Kit — best if paid newsletters are part of a larger creator business

Kit is worth considering if you'll also sell courses, digital products, sponsorships, or other offerings. Its strength is subscriber segmentation and automation rather than being solely a paid-publication analytics product.

Choose it if: the newsletter is one component of a broader creator business.

4. Substack — easiest, but analytics aren't my reason to choose it

Substack is extremely easy to launch and has a built-in discovery network. The tradeoff is economics: it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, whereas beehiiv and Ghost generally use a flat platform fee rather than taking a percentage of subscription revenue. tiergauge.com

Choose it if: minimizing setup and leveraging Substack's existing reader network matter more than sophisticated business analytics.

My ranking for your specific requirement

1. beehiiv — best combination of paid subscriptions + churn/retention + revenue analytics
2. Ghost — best analytics plus ownership/control
3. Kit — best if you're building a broader creator commerce business
4. Substack — easiest, but less compelling once revenue gets substantial

One important distinction: if by "churn analytics" you mean a proper cohort analysis showing monthly churn, annual churn, retention curves, LTV, and revenue lost to cancellations, I'd narrow the recommendation further to beehiiv vs. Ghost and compare their current analytics dashboards feature-by-feature.

If paid subscriptions + subscriber churn + revenue analytics are the core requirements, I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My pick: beehiiv

beehiiv.com is probably the closest match to what you're asking for. Its paid plans include a detailed subscriber report covering acquisition, engagement, and subscriber behavior. Beehiiv

More importantly, beehiiv publishes first-party paid-newsletter data covering conversion, cancellations, subscriber lifetime, churn, and subscriber value, so the platform is built around thinking about the economics of a paid publication rather than just email opens. Beehiiv

It also takes 0% of subscription revenue on its paid subscription plans, so once you're making meaningful revenue, that can be considerably more attractive than a revenue-share platform. Sasanova Newsletter Cost Calculator

🥈 Ghost — best if you want maximum ownership

ghost.org is my second choice. It combines a proper publishing website with newsletters and paid memberships, and doesn't take a percentage of subscription revenue. Sasanova Fieldwork

I'd choose Ghost if your newsletter is really becoming a media site/business, rather than simply an email publication.

🥉 Substack — easiest, but worse economics at scale

substack.com is the easiest way to get a paid newsletter running, and its discovery/recommendation ecosystem is a significant advantage. The tradeoff is that Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, on top of payment processing. Lori Ballen Digital Marketing Newsletter Cost Calculator

For example, at $10,000/month in subscription revenue, a 10% platform cut is roughly $1,000/month before payment processing. That's why I'd lean toward beehiiv or Ghost if you're expecting the newsletter to become a substantial business.

What I'd choose

• Want the best analytics + growth tools: beehiiv
• Want a newsletter + full publishing website you control: Ghost
• Want the fastest possible launch and built-in audience discovery: Substack
• Want newsletter + courses/products/automations: Kit

If churn analytics is the deciding factor, I'd pick beehiiv. Its current paid-newsletter reporting is unusually focused on the metrics that actually matter—cancellations, retention, subscriber lifetime, conversion, and revenue—rather than just vanity metrics like open rate. Beehiiv

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect) and your planned monthly/annual price, I can also compare the actual monthly cost and revenue you would keep on beehiiv vs. Ghost vs. Substack.

It also takes 0% of subscription revenue on its paid subscription plans, so once you're making meaningful revenue, that can be considerably more attractive than a revenue-share platform.

🥈 Ghost — best if you want maximum ownership

If paid subscriptions + subscriber churn + revenue analytics are the core requirements, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top recommendation

This is probably the best fit for your exact requirements. Its paid-subscription analytics explicitly cover revenue, subscriber growth, churn, retention and engagement, while its broader analytics track signups, unsubscribes, active subscribers, and revenue. www.beehiiv.com

It also supports monthly/annual subscriptions, multiple tiers, trials, discounts and paywalls, and currently takes 0% platform revenue share on paid subscriptions (Stripe processing fees still apply). www.beehiiv.com

Choose it if: you're treating the newsletter as a growing media business and want acquisition, conversion, retention, and revenue in one dashboard.

2. Ghost — best for sophisticated publishing

Ghost is particularly strong if you want your newsletter to be a real publication/site, rather than just an email list.

Its analytics include paid-member growth, cancellations, MRR, paid conversions, revenue impact by content/source, and newsletter engagement. Importantly, Ghost records a cancellation when the subscriber actually cancels, which is useful for analyzing churn behavior. ghost.org

Ghost also lets you export member and analytics data, and you can integrate something like ChartMogul if you eventually want deeper subscription analytics. ghost.org

Choose it if: you care about ownership, SEO, a publication website, and having a sophisticated subscription business rather than simply sending emails.

3. Kit — best if the newsletter is part of a creator business

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) makes more sense if you're going to combine the paid newsletter with courses, digital products, memberships, or automated funnels. Current comparisons put its strength in creator-oriented commerce and automation rather than pure newsletter analytics. tiergauge.com

Choose it if: your newsletter is one component of a broader creator business.

4. Substack — best for simplicity and built-in discovery

Substack remains the easiest way to launch a paid publication and benefits from its reader/discovery ecosystem. The tradeoff is economics: it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, indefinitely, whereas beehiiv and Ghost don't take a platform cut. tiergauge.com

Choose it if: you prioritize getting started quickly and tapping into Substack's network over having the most sophisticated business analytics.

My ranking for your use case

1. beehiiv — best overall
2. Ghost — best if you want maximum ownership/control
3. Kit — best for newsletter + products/courses
4. Substack — best for simplicity/discovery

One particularly important metric to look for is cohort retention, not just a headline "churn rate." beehiiv's 2026 paid-newsletter data shows why: median subscriber lifetime varies dramatically by category, and the difference between ~5% and ~17% monthly churn compounds into radically different LTV. www.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers you have, expected paid subscribers, and your planned monthly price, I can also compare the actual monthly cost and revenue economics of beehiiv vs. Ghost vs. Substack at your scale.

If subscriber churn + revenue analytics are core requirements, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top recommendation

For your specific requirements, beehiiv is the strongest fit. It has native paid subscriptions, paywalls, monthly/annual plans, and integrated analytics covering revenue, subscriber retention, and engagement. www.beehiiv.com

Its analytics are particularly useful if you want to treat the newsletter like a subscription business rather than simply an email list. beehiiv's 2026 paid-newsletter benchmark report also analyzes cancellations, subscriber value, billing intervals, and retention by industry. www.beehiiv.com

The other big advantage is economics: beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid-subscription revenue; you're generally paying payment-processing fees instead. www.beehiiv.com

I'd choose it if: you're building a serious paid publication and want acquisition → conversion → retention → revenue metrics in one system.

2. Ghost — best if you care about ownership

Ghost combines publishing, email newsletters, memberships, and paid subscriptions. It takes no platform revenue share, and self-hosting gives you considerably more control over your data and infrastructure. www.beehiiv.comfieldwork.newstiergauge.com

It's a particularly attractive choice if you want the newsletter to eventually become a full publication/site, rather than just an email product.

Downside: analytics and growth tooling aren't as deep as beehiiv's.

3. Kit — best for a creator business

Kit makes more sense if the newsletter is one component of a broader business involving courses, digital products, funnels, or automated email sequences. Its commerce system supports paid subscriptions alongside those other products. www.beehiiv.comfieldwork.newstiergauge.com

I'd pick Kit over beehiiv if your primary goal is selling multiple things to an audience, rather than operating a publication.

4. Substack — best for simplicity and discovery

Substack remains the easiest way to launch a paid newsletter and has a significant built-in discovery/recommendation ecosystem. The tradeoff is that it takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue, whereas beehiiv and Ghost don't. www.beehiiv.comfieldwork.newstiergauge.com

So if you're expecting meaningful subscription revenue, the economics increasingly favor a flat-fee platform.

My ranking for your use case

1. beehiiv — best combination of paid subscriptions + churn/retention + revenue analytics
2. Ghost — best for ownership/control
3. Kit — best if you're also selling products/courses
4. Substack — best for easiest launch and built-in discovery

One important distinction: "revenue analytics" and "churn analytics" aren't necessarily the same as having a sophisticated retention system. For example, you may want to know monthly churn, annual vs. monthly retention, cohort LTV, MRR/ARR, cancellations, failed payments, and why people cancel. beehiiv is the closest of these to an all-in-one answer, but if you eventually need sophisticated churn prediction or win-back workflows, you may want to pair your newsletter platform with a dedicated analytics/CRM layer.

If you tell me roughly how many free subscribers and paid subscribers you expect (e.g. 5k free / 500 paid) and your planned price, I can compare the actual monthly cost and revenue economics of beehiiv vs. Ghost vs. Substack for you.

If paid subscriptions + churn + revenue analytics are core requirements, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my recommendation

beehiiv is the strongest fit for exactly what you're describing. Its paid-subscription system includes revenue, subscriber growth, and churn tracking, and its newer subscription dashboards break down revenue, subscriptions, trials, downgrades, billing cadence, and tiers. www.beehiiv.com

It also has retention tooling: when someone cancels, you can offer a pause, discount, or cancellation survey—useful if you actually want to act on churn rather than merely measure it. www.beehiiv.com

The economics are attractive too: its Scale plan currently lists at $43/month when billed annually, with 0% platform take on paid subscriptions (Stripe processing still applies). www.beehiiv.com

Choose beehiiv if: the newsletter itself is the business and you want a dashboard that lets you answer “How many people are paying, how much are they worth, and why are they leaving?”

2. Kit — best if the newsletter is part of a broader creator business

Kit is particularly strong if you'll combine the newsletter with courses, digital products, memberships, or sophisticated email automation.

Its subscriber analytics include unsubscribes, average subscriber lifetime, engagement retention, and cohort-style retention analysis. kit.com It also has a revenue dashboard and paid-newsletter functionality. kit.com

The tradeoff is that its analytics are more oriented toward email/customer relationships than running a publication as a standalone media business.

3. Ghost — best if you want a real publication you own

Ghost is compelling if you want the newsletter plus a full website/publication under your own brand. It supports free and paid memberships and doesn't take a percentage of subscription revenue.

I'd choose Ghost over beehiiv if website ownership, publishing, SEO, and control of your infrastructure matter more than sophisticated newsletter-growth tooling.

4. Substack — best for getting started with minimal friction

Substack is still probably the easiest way to launch a paid newsletter. The downside for your particular requirement is that it gives you less sophisticated business/analytics control than beehiiv, and it takes a 10% cut of paid subscription revenue. publishinghouse.org

My ranking for your specific requirements

1. beehiiv — 9.5/10
2. Kit — 8.5/10
3. Ghost — 8/10
4. Substack — 7/10

One particularly useful reason to favor beehiiv: its 2026 first-party paid-newsletter data explicitly analyzes cancellations, subscriber lifetime, pricing, conversion, and subscriber value across thousands of publications. www.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly subscription price, and whether you're starting from scratch, I can narrow this down to the cheapest/best option and estimate the platform fees at your expected revenue.

If your priority is paid newsletter subscriptions + useful churn and revenue analytics, I’d shortlist these:

My top pick: beehiiv

For a newsletter whose primary business model is paid subscriptions, I'd start with beehiiv. Its analytics are specifically built around newsletter growth and monetization, and it has a dedicated premium-subscription dashboard for tracking growth and churn. product.beehiiv.com

beehiiv also reports that paid-subscription revenue generated on its platform reached $19 million in 2025, suggesting a substantial ecosystem around paid newsletters. www.beehiiv.com

Best for serious churn/revenue analysis: Memberful

If by "analytics" you specifically mean MRR, revenue churn, cancellations, failed payments, and paying-member churn, Memberful is particularly strong. Its metrics distinguish MRR churn from paying-member churn and separate voluntary cancellations from failed payments. memberful.com

The tradeoff is that Memberful is more of a membership/payments platform than an all-in-one newsletter publishing platform.

Best all-in-one publisher: Ghost

Ghost is compelling if you want your newsletter to live alongside a content website/membership publication. Its analytics connect posts to paid conversions and even show MRR impact attributed to individual posts. ghost.org

Its 2026 analytics improvements also added breakdowns of paid subscriptions by monthly vs. annual cadence and subscription tier. ghost.org

Best for creator businesses: Kit

Kit is particularly good if the newsletter is one component of a larger creator business. It supports paid newsletters, subscriber analytics, revenue tracking, and commerce integrations. Its analytics include subscriber retention, average subscriber lifetime, unsubscribe rates, and revenue per subscriber. kit.com

One caveat: some of Kit's more advanced subscriber analytics are still labeled beta, and its strongest analytics features can depend on the plan. kit.comhelp.kit.com

Bottom line

• Choose beehiiv → if you're building a newsletter business and want the best overall combination.
• Choose Memberful → if churn/MRR/revenue analytics are the most important requirement.
• Choose Ghost → if you want a publication + website + newsletter + paid membership.
• Choose Kit → if you're a creator selling newsletters plus courses, products, or other offerings.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly newsletter price, and whether you need a website, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare their current pricing/transaction fees.

If your priority is paid newsletters + analytics on subscriber churn and revenue, I’d focus on platforms that treat the newsletter as a subscription business rather than just an email sender. The strongest options are:

tiergauge.comtiergauge.com

My top picks

1. beehiiv — best overall for a paid newsletter business

Choose this if you want to track:

• paid subscriber growth
• free → paid conversion
• cancellations/churn
• revenue trends
• subscriber cohorts
• referral and acquisition performance

It is designed around newsletter operators rather than traditional email marketing. It also supports additional monetization paths such as ads, referrals, and sponsorship tools. tiergauge.com

Best for: newsletters you expect to grow into a real business.

2. Ghost — best for ownership and long-term control

Ghost is a strong choice if you want:

• your own publication website
• paid memberships
• email newsletters
• control over branding and audience data

It avoids a revenue share model on memberships, though you may need external analytics or Stripe reporting for deeper subscription analysis. tiergauge.com

Best for: professional publications, niche media, companies building owned audiences.

3. Substack — best for launching quickly

Substack is attractive because:

• setup is extremely simple
• payments are built in
• readers already understand the model
• it has a discovery network

The tradeoff is that Substack takes a percentage of paid subscription revenue, which can become significant at scale. tiergauge.com

Best for: solo writers testing whether people will pay.

4. Kit — best if newsletters are part of a funnel

Kit works well if your paid newsletter is connected to:

• courses
• digital products
• communities
• consulting
• automated email sequences

Its strength is customer segmentation and automation rather than being purely a publication platform. tiergauge.comtiergauge.com

Metrics I would make sure the platform supports

For a paid newsletter, I’d prioritize:

1. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
2. Annual recurring revenue (ARR)
3. Subscriber churn rate
   • monthly churn %
   • cancellation reasons
   • win-back campaigns
4. Customer lifetime value (LTV)
5. Free-to-paid conversion rate
6. Cohort retention
   • “Subscribers who joined in January are still paying 6 months later”
7. Revenue by acquisition source
   • organic
   • referrals
   • ads
   • partnerships

Simple recommendation by scenario

• Starting from zero: Substack or beehiiv
• Building a serious newsletter company: beehiiv
• Want maximum ownership: Ghost
• Selling courses/products too: Kit

If you expect to reach hundreds or thousands of paying subscribers, I would lean toward beehiiv or Ghost because churn and revenue analytics become much more important than just sending emails.

If subscriber churn + revenue analytics are core requirements, I’d narrow the field to beehiiv, Ghost, and Substack, with beehiiv as my default recommendation.

1. 🥇 beehiiv — best overall

This is the one I'd pick if your newsletter is intended to be a real subscription business.

beehiiv's paid-subscription analytics explicitly include revenue, subscriber growth, churn, retention, and engagement, and it supports monthly/yearly pricing, multiple tiers, trials, gifts, and renewal workflows. www.beehiiv.com

It also has unusually strong tools for figuring out where your paying subscribers come from and how to grow them, plus advertising/sponsorship and recommendation monetization. Its paid-subscription revenue reportedly reached $19M in 2025. www.beehiiv.com

beehiiv

Choose it if: you care about MRR, churn, LTV/retention, acquisition channels, and eventually adding sponsorships.

2. Ghost — best for ownership

Ghost is particularly attractive if you want a website + newsletter + membership system rather than just a newsletter platform. It takes 0% of membership revenue on its hosted product, with Stripe/payment processing still applying. www.sasanova.comwww.beehiiv.com

The big advantage is control: Ghost is open source and can be self-hosted, giving you considerably more ownership and portability.

Ghost

Choose it if: building a durable publication you own matters more than having the best audience-growth machinery.

3. Substack — best for simplicity and discovery

Substack is extremely easy to launch and has a substantial built-in discovery/recommendation ecosystem. The catch is that it takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, indefinitely, in addition to payment processing. www.sasanova.com

Substack

Choose it if: you want to start quickly and believe Substack's network/discovery can materially help you acquire readers.

4. Kit — best if the newsletter sells other things

Kit is stronger when your newsletter is part of a broader creator business—courses, digital products, memberships, automated email funnels, etc. Its strength is subscriber segmentation and automation rather than being a pure publication platform. publishinghouse.org

Kit

Choose it if: the newsletter is primarily a funnel into products/services rather than the product itself.

My ranking for your specific requirements

1. beehiiv — best combination of paid subscriptions + churn/revenue analytics + growth
2. Ghost — best if ownership/control is important
3. Substack — best if simplicity and built-in discovery trump economics
4. Kit — best if you're selling products alongside the newsletter

One important distinction: if by "analytics on churn and revenue" you mean you want to see things like MRR, monthly/annual churn, cancellations, retention cohorts, revenue by acquisition source, and subscriber LTV, I'd specifically start with beehiiv and Ghost rather than choosing a generic email marketing platform. www.sasanova.comwww.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly subscription price, and whether you'll offer monthly + annual plans, I can also compare the actual monthly cost and break-even point for beehiiv vs Ghost vs Substack.

If subscriber churn + revenue analytics are core requirements, I’d narrow the field to beehiiv, Ghost, and Kit, with beehiiv as my first choice.

1. beehiiv — best overall

This is the one I'd pick if the newsletter itself is the business.

beehiiv explicitly provides analytics for revenue, subscriber growth, churn, retention, and engagement, alongside paid subscription management. It supports monthly/yearly tiers, trials, gifts, and multiple subscription tiers. www.beehiiv.com

Its bigger advantage is that you can analyze where subscribers came from and how those cohorts perform, which is extremely useful for figuring out whether a particular acquisition channel produces subscribers who actually stick around. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

Why I'd choose it: You get publishing + payments + growth analytics + monetization in one system, rather than stitching Stripe and an email platform together.

2. Ghost — best for ownership

Ghost is particularly attractive if you want the newsletter to feel like your own publication rather than a newsletter hosted inside someone else's ecosystem.

It supports paid memberships with 0% platform revenue share, and you can use Stripe for payments. It's also open source/self-hostable, giving you considerably more control over your data and infrastructure. tiergauge.com

I'd choose Ghost over beehiiv if your priorities are brand ownership, a sophisticated publication website, and long-term independence.

3. Kit — best for a newsletter + business

Kit is stronger when the newsletter is part of a larger creator business—for example, newsletter → course → membership → digital product.

Its current analytics include subscriber retention and engagement, while its dashboard can track revenue from products, sponsorships, and connected external sources. help.kit.com

The tradeoff is that Kit feels more like a creator CRM/email automation platform than a dedicated publication platform.

4. Substack — easiest, but weaker analytics

Substack is compelling if you want to get started with almost no infrastructure and take advantage of its built-in reader/discovery network.

The downside for your particular requirement is analytics depth. It generally isn't as strong as beehiiv for cohort retention, acquisition-source analysis, and detailed business analytics. It also takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, whereas beehiiv and Ghost don't charge a platform revenue share. tiergauge.com

My recommendation

Pick beehiiv if your question is essentially:

"I want to know how much recurring revenue I'm generating, how many subscribers I'm losing, where my best subscribers come from, and how those numbers change over time."

Pick Ghost if ownership and having a standalone publication are more important.

Pick Kit if the newsletter is one component of a broader creator/product business.

One important distinction: don't just look for a dashboard that reports "churn." For a paid newsletter, I'd specifically want MRR/ARR, new paid subscribers, cancellations, involuntary churn, renewal rate, revenue by cohort, LTV, and acquisition source → retention. That's where beehiiv's analytics make it particularly attractive. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you expect (e.g. 1k, 10k, 50k) and your expected monthly subscription price, I can compare the actual economics of beehiiv vs Ghost vs Substack for your situation.

If paid subscriptions + subscriber churn + revenue analytics are the core requirements, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top pick

For your specific requirements, beehiiv is probably the strongest choice. Its paid plans include a detailed Subscribers Report covering acquisition, opens, clicks and subscriber growth, while its paid-newsletter ecosystem is built around subscription revenue. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

The big advantage is that you're treating the newsletter like a subscription business, rather than simply an email list with a payment button. beehiiv's 2026 paid-newsletter report specifically emphasizes retention and the economics of monthly vs. annual subscribers. www.beehiiv.comwww.beehiiv.com

Choose it if: you expect the newsletter itself to become a meaningful recurring-revenue business.

2. Ghost — best if you care about ownership

Ghost is particularly attractive if you want a publication website + newsletter + paid membership system in one package. Its analytics connect individual posts to free/paid conversions and show the MRR impact of those conversions. ghost.org

Ghost also records where members came from, including the source of paid conversions. ghost.org

Choose it if: you want a more traditional publication that you control, rather than a creator platform.

3. Kit — best for newsletter + creator business

Kit is compelling if your newsletter is one component of a larger business—courses, digital products, memberships, etc. Its paid-newsletter feature handles subscriptions, payments and billing, and its dashboard tracks revenue. kit.com

Its newer Subscriber Analytics dashboard also includes unsubscribes, subscriber lifetime, active-subscriber trends and cohort-style retention analysis. help.kit.com

Choose it if: you want sophisticated email automation and expect to sell things beyond the newsletter.

4. Substack — easiest, but weaker analytics

Substack remains attractive if you primarily want to write and charge subscribers without much technical setup. The tradeoff is that you give up more control and analytics sophistication compared with beehiiv/Ghost.

For a serious paid newsletter where you're going to watch metrics such as monthly churn, lifetime value, MRR, conversion rate and cohort retention, I'd choose beehiiv or Ghost instead.

My recommendation

I'd rank them for your use case:

🥇 beehiiv — best overall for paid-newsletter analytics
🥈 Ghost — best for ownership and publication-style businesses
🥉 Kit — best if you're also selling products/courses
4. Substack — best for simplicity and built-in writer ecosystem

One important distinction: "subscriber analytics" isn't necessarily the same thing as true paid-subscriber churn analytics. Before choosing, I'd specifically verify that the platform can give you paid subscriber cohorts, cancellations, renewal/churn rates, MRR/ARR, and ideally LTV—not just email unsubscribes.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly price, and whether you're starting from scratch, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 options and compare their actual costs.

If your priority is paid newsletter subscriptions + clear churn and revenue analytics, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top pick

For what you specifically asked for, beehiiv is probably the strongest fit. Its paid-subscription dashboard tracks revenue, subscriber growth, churn, and customer feedback, and it supports multiple subscription tiers, monthly/yearly pricing, trials, gifts, and paywalled content. www.beehiiv.com

Its 2026 platform also emphasizes acquisition and retention analytics, making it particularly useful if you want to answer questions like:

• What's my monthly churn?
• Which acquisition channels produce subscribers who actually stay?
• How much recurring revenue am I adding each month?
• What's my paid conversion rate?
• Which subscriber cohorts retain best?

beehiiv also takes 0% platform revenue share on paid subscriptions on its paid plans, although Stripe processing still applies. Current third-party pricing checks put Scale around $49/month. tiergauge.comwww.sasanova.com

Best choice if: the newsletter itself is becoming a business and you care about growth, MRR, retention, and eventually sponsorships/ads.

2. Substack — best for simplicity

Substack has substantially improved its paid-subscription analytics. Its current Retention dashboard includes paid cohort analysis, paid net growth rate, and paid churn. Cohorts can show what percentage of paid subscribers remain after 30 days, 6 months, and 12 months. support.substack.com

The big advantage is simplicity and Substack's built-in reader/discovery ecosystem.

The downside is economics: Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, so the cost becomes significant once you're generating meaningful recurring revenue. tiergauge.com

Best choice if: you want the fastest possible launch and value Substack's built-in audience/discovery network more than maximizing margins.

3. Ghost — best for ownership

Ghost is particularly attractive if you're building a publication you want to own long-term. It supports free and paid memberships, and Ghost's hosted plans don't take a percentage of your subscription revenue. tiergauge.comwww.sasanova.com

Its analytics are solid, but I'd choose beehiiv over Ghost if subscriber churn analytics and revenue optimization are central to your operation.

Best choice if: you want a newsletter + website that feels like your own media property rather than a newsletter account on a platform.

4. Kit — best if the newsletter is part of a creator business

Kit is more of a creator CRM/email-marketing system than a pure newsletter publisher. Its strengths are segmentation, automation, subscriber tagging, and selling products alongside the newsletter. publishinghouse.org

I'd choose it if you're thinking:

"My paid newsletter is one component of a business that also sells courses, consulting, ebooks, or memberships."

rather than:

"My newsletter is the product."

My recommendation

If I were choosing specifically based on your requirements:

🥇 beehiiv — best combination of paid subscriptions + churn/retention + revenue analytics + growth tools
🥈 Substack — easiest, with surprisingly good current retention analytics, but the 10% revenue cut hurts at scale
🥉 Ghost — excellent ownership and economics, but less specialized around newsletter growth analytics
4. Kit — excellent if you need sophisticated automation/products in addition to the paid newsletter

One particularly useful distinction: beehiiv and Substack now both have meaningful churn/retention analytics, so I wouldn't choose Substack solely because you assume beehiiv is the only one that measures churn. Substack's current retention dashboard explicitly includes paid churn and cohort retention. support.substack.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have now (or expect), your monthly newsletter price, and whether you'll also have free subscribers, I can calculate the actual monthly/annual cost and revenue break-even point for beehiiv vs. Substack vs. Ghost.

If your priorities are paid subscriptions + subscriber churn/retention + revenue analytics, I’d shortlist these:

1. beehiiv — my top pick

beehiiv is probably the closest match to exactly what you're asking for. Its paid-subscription analytics explicitly cover revenue, subscriber growth, churn, retention, and engagement, and its subscriber reporting includes acquisition sources and engagement metrics. www.beehiiv.com

It also supports multiple subscription tiers, monthly/yearly pricing, trials, gifts, and paywalls. Importantly, beehiiv currently says it takes 0% platform fees on paid subscriptions, so you're not giving up a percentage of recurring revenue as you grow. www.beehiiv.com

Choose it if: the newsletter itself is the business and you want to understand MRR, churn, retention, acquisition, and growth in one place.

2. Kit — best if the newsletter is part of a larger creator business

Kit has unusually good subscriber analytics. Its current analytics include subscriber retention, engagement over time, subscriber lifetime, unsubscribe reasons, and acquisition sources. kit.com

It also handles paid newsletters, payments, refunds, and billing history, with revenue reporting built into the dashboard. kit.com

The advantage over beehiiv is its broader creator-commerce/automation ecosystem—you can use the same audience to sell courses, products, memberships, etc.

Choose it if: paid newsletter subscriptions are one revenue stream among several.

3. Ghost — best for an owned publication

Ghost combines a publishing website, newsletter, memberships, and paid subscriptions. Its native analytics include member sources and publication/post analytics. www.beehiiv.comkit.comghost.org

I'd favor Ghost if owning the website and publication experience matters as much as newsletter analytics. Its analytics aren't quite as specifically geared toward subscription-business optimization as beehiiv's.

Choose it if: you want something closer to "my own media company website" rather than primarily an email-marketing platform.

4. Substack — easiest, but weakest analytics choice

Substack is still attractive if you want the least setup and access to its publishing/discovery ecosystem. But if churn analysis and revenue analytics are core requirements, I'd put it behind beehiiv and Kit.

My recommendation

If I were choosing specifically for your requirements:

🥇 beehiiv — best overall for a paid newsletter business
🥈 Kit — best if you're also selling products/courses/services
🥉 Ghost — best if owning the publication/site is important
Substack — best if simplicity and built-in network effects matter more than sophisticated analytics

One important distinction: "subscriber churn" can mean different things. I'd specifically look for a platform that gives you paid subscriber churn/retention cohorts, not merely email unsubscribes. beehiiv is the strongest fit of these for that particular use case. www.beehiiv.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly subscription price, and whether you need a website too, I can narrow this down to the cheapest/best option and compare the actual costs at your scale.

If paid subscriptions + churn + revenue analytics are your priorities, I’d shortlist these three:

1. beehiiv — my top pick for a serious newsletter business

beehiiv is probably the best match for what you're asking for. Its paid-subscription analytics explicitly cover revenue, subscriber growth, churn, retention and engagement, and it supports monthly/annual tiers, trials, discounts and paywalls. www.beehiiv.com

A major advantage is economics: beehiiv says it takes 0% platform fees from paid subscriptions, with Stripe processing fees still applying. www.beehiiv.comsupport.substack.comghost.orgghost.org

Choose it if: you expect the newsletter to become a meaningful business and want detailed growth/revenue reporting alongside the publishing tools.

2. Substack — best for simplicity and built-in churn reporting

Substack has particularly good retention reporting now. Its Retention dashboard includes paid churn, paid net growth and paid cohort analysis, including the percentage of subscribers still paying after 30 days, 6 months and 12 months. support.substack.com

It also reports gross annualized revenue, paid subscribers and total subscribers, plus reasons former paid subscribers gave for unsubscribing. support.substack.com

The tradeoff is the 10% platform cut on paid subscription revenue.

Choose it if: you want the least operational complexity and don't mind giving up a percentage of revenue.

3. Ghost — best if you want your own publishing business

Ghost gives you paid memberships, newsletters and analytics while giving you considerably more control over your site and audience. Its analytics can show paid-member growth by tier and billing cadence, and post analytics can attribute paid conversions and MRR to individual posts/sources. ghost.org

For sophisticated subscription analytics, Ghost can also integrate with ChartMogul. ghost.org

Choose it if: owning the website, brand and customer relationship matters more than having the most turnkey newsletter experience.

My ranking for your specific requirement

1. beehiiv → best combination of paid newsletter + churn + revenue + growth analytics
2. Substack → best out-of-the-box retention/churn reporting and simplest setup
3. Ghost → best ownership/control, especially if you're comfortable with a more configurable stack

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (or expect), your monthly price, and whether you want free + paid tiers, I can also compare the actual costs and tell you which one is likely to be cheapest at your scale.