Newsletter platforms · 2026
Best newsletter platforms for creators 7 tools ranked by verified data
Data checked Oct 14, 2026 against the vendors' own pages. How we verify
We scored 11 newsletter platforms for creators with the same 8-criterion scorecard; 7 have enough verified data to be ranked.
Only tools listed for creators are included.
AWeber ranks first with 85/100, followed by MailerLite (85) and ActiveCampaign (82).
The lowest starting price among ranked tools (the least you can pay for a paid plan, for one user or account) is NotesIQ's: $9 per month billed monthly on the AI Pro plan.
The ranking
| # | Tool | Score | Coverage | From, billed monthly | From, billed yearly | Free plan | Integrations | Public API | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  AWeber | 85/100 | 85%6 of 8 criteria | $15/mo | $12.49/mo | Yes, 500 subscribers | 750 | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 2 |  MailerLite | 85/100 | 85%6 of 8 criteria | $12/mo | $10.80/mo | Yes, 250 subscribers | 100 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 3 |  ActiveCampaign | 82/100 | 75%5 of 8 criteria | Not offered | $15/mo | No | 1,000 | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 4 |  Ghost | 71/100 | 80%6 of 8 criteria | Not offered | $18/mo | No | 8,000 | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 5 |  NotesIQ | 63/100 | 75%5 of 8 criteria | $9/mo | Not offered | No | – | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 6 |  Astro Send | 58/100 | 80%6 of 8 criteria | $20/mo | Not offered | No | – | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| 7 |  Memberful | 51/100 | 80%6 of 8 criteria | $49/mo | Not offered | No | – | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| – |  HeyNews | Not ranked | 50%3 of 8 criteria | $39/mo | Not offered | No | – | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
| – |  Buttondown | Not ranked | 25%2 of 8 criteria | – | – | – | – | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| – |  Mailcoach | Not ranked | 25%2 of 8 criteria | – | – | – | – | Yes | Oct 14, 2026 |
| – |  NoteStack | Not ranked | 25%2 of 8 criteria | – | – | – | – | – | Oct 14, 2026 |
Each value links the vendor page it was read from (hover for the check date). Coverage is the share of the scorecard's weight with verified data, and "N of M criteria" how many criteria the score is based on; a tool is ranked at 60% or more.
– = not published by the vendor, or not verified yet.
Why each one ranks where it does
- 1. AWeber 85/100
Email marketing platform for small businesses with automations, landing pages, signup forms, ecommerce pages and web push notifications.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- Verified features (100/100): 5 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, open and click analytics
From $15 per month billed monthly ($12.49 billed yearly) on the Lite plan.
Homepage captured Oct 14, 2026 - 2. MailerLite 85/100
Email marketing platform with a drag-and-drop editor, automations, landing pages, signup forms, websites and digital product sales.
- Free plan or trial (100/100): Free plan (Free)
- Verified features (100/100): 7 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, a/b testing, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics
From $12 per month billed monthly ($10.80 billed yearly) on the Comfort plan.
- 3. ActiveCampaign 82/100
Marketing automation platform with email, WhatsApp and SMS messaging, segmentation, landing pages, CRM add-ons and AI features.
- Pricing transparency (100/100): 4 of 4 plans have a public price
- API, integrations and export (100/100): 1,000 integrations
From $15 per month billed yearly on the Starter plan.
- 4. Ghost 71/100
Open-source publishing platform for building a website, sending email newsletters and selling paid memberships, offered as hosted plans.
- Verified features (100/100): 6 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, custom domain, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics
- API, integrations and export (100/100): public API, 8,000 integrations, documented data export
From $18 per month billed yearly on the Starter plan.
- 5. NotesIQ 63/100
Chrome extension that shows analytics for a creator's Substack Notes, schedules Notes and offers an AI add-on for drafting in the user's own voice.
- Entry price (100/100): $9/month billed monthly on AI Pro (scored on the monthly price)
- API, integrations and export (100/100): documented data export
From $9 per month billed monthly on the AI Pro plan.
- 6. Astro Send 58/100
AI-driven newsletter platform that researches content, drafts weekly issues and sends them, with sponsorship and product sales tools.
- Pricing transparency (100/100): 8 of 8 plans have a public price
- Paid subscriptions (100/100): Paid subscriptions with a 0% platform fee
From $20 per month billed monthly on the Starter plan.
- 7. Memberful 51/100
Membership platform for creators, publishers and communities to sell paid subscriptions and gated content on their own site through their own Stripe account.
- Verified features (100/100): 6 of 9 tracked features verified: paid subscriptions, custom domain, referral programme, landing pages and forms, newsletter website, open and click analytics
- API, integrations and export (100/100): public API
From $49 per month billed monthly on the Standard plan.
How we picked
Every one of these newsletter platforms is scored by the same 8 criteria (scorecard v2). Each criterion gives 0 to 100 from the vendor's published data; the total is the weighted average. A criterion without verified data is left out and the other weights are re-normalised. A tool with under 60% of the weight covered is listed as not ranked, and so is a tool with no verified price and fewer than 2 verified features (“needs a verified price”); each score shows how many criteria it is based on. The core criteria are the same in every category; the category criteria are specific to newsletter platforms. Nobody gets custom weights, including our own products.
| Criterion | Weight | Type | What we measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | 25% | Core | Price per month of the cheapest paid plan, against the prices of other newsletter platforms on the same billing basis (monthly-billed prices against monthly, annual-billed against annual).Log scale. Billed monthly: $9/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Only billed annually: $9/month or less = 100, $159 or more = 0. Only free plans = 100. Usage-priced and one-time plans are not scored. |
| Free plan or trial | 15% | Core | Whether you can use the tool before paying: a free plan, or failing that a free trial, as shown on the vendor's pricing page.Free plan = 100. No free plan but a free trial = 60. The pricing page lists plans but shows neither = 0. No plans read = not scored. |
| Pricing transparency | 10% | Core | How much of the pricing is public: the share of plans with a published price ("contact sales" counts against), and whether there are at least 3 published tiers.80 x (plans with a public price / plans listed) + 20 x (public plans, up to 3) / 3. No plans read = not scored. |
| Verified features | 15% | Core | How many of the 9 features we track for this category the vendor's own pages verifiably show (paid subscriptions, automations / sequences, custom domain, referral programme, a/b testing, landing pages and forms, segmentation and tags, newsletter website, open and click analytics). This counts verified features only: a tool that documents less scores lower here, and only here.Linear: verified features / 5 (half the tracked list) x 100, capped at 100. No tracked feature verified = not scored. |
| API, integrations and export | 10% | Core | Whether a public API exists, how many integrations the vendor states, and whether the vendor documents a way to export your data.Average of the parts with data: public API yes = 100, no = 0; integrations on a log scale (100 or more = 100); a documented data export = 100. None verified = not scored. |
| Cost at 1,000 subscribers | 10% | Category | Monthly price of the cheapest paid plan that allows at least 1,000 subscribers.Log scale: $5/month or less = 100, $100 or more = 0. Plans that do not state a subscriber limit are not used. |
| Free plan limits | 10% | Category | What the free plan allows: subscribers (full marks at 2,500), emails per month (full marks at 10,000).Each stated limit linear up to its full mark (unlimited = 100), averaged. Tools without a free plan, or whose free plan states none of these limits, are not scored here. |
| Paid subscriptions | 5% | Category | Whether writers can charge for subscriptions, and the platform's fee on that revenue.No paid subscriptions (verified) = 0; paid subscriptions: linear, 0% fee = 100, 15% or more = 0. Fee not stated = not scored. |
Sources are vendor pricing pages, docs and changelogs, each with the date we checked it. We did not test these tools hands-on unless a listing says so. Full formulas: methodology.
Questions, answered from the data
What is the best newsletter platform for creators?
AWeber, with 85/100 on our scorecard; MailerLite is second with 85/100.
What is the cheapest newsletter platform for creators?
By entry price among ranked tools, NotesIQ: $9 per month billed monthly on the AI Pro plan.
Which of these have a free plan?
2 of the 11 tools have a free plan; the highest-ranked is AWeber.
How did you rank these newsletter platforms?
Each tool gets 0 to 100 per criterion from its published pricing, limits and features; the total is the weighted average over the criteria with verified data. Tools with under 60% of the weight covered are not ranked.