Best newsletter tools for podcasters (2026): host your show and your list in one place
A podcast audience lives inside apps you don't control. An email list is the part you keep. Some newsletter platforms now host the podcast too, and others simply email each new episode from your existing feed. Below are our picks for each kind of podcaster, with free plans, prices, fees and feed options taken from each vendor's own pages.
By the Creator Mail Stack team · Updated October 7, 2026 (prices, podcast limits and fees re-checked)
Verdict and top picks
Our pick · Best for podcastersBest all-in-one for a podcast plus a paid newsletter: Beehiiv. Podcast hosting is included on every plan, alongside the newsletter and website. Paid plans add premium podcast feeds for paying subscribers, a 0% take rate on subscriptions and an ad network for the newsletter.
Best free start with built-in discovery: Substack. Hosting and distribution are free, paid subscribers get private feeds, and video episodes can publish to YouTube automatically. Substack takes 10% of paid revenue.
Best if you keep your current podcast host and sell products: Kit. There's no podcast hosting, but the free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. RSS campaigns (from Creator) can email new episodes, and Kit's podcaster page suggests building a free landing page for your show.
Best minimal "new episode" email: Buttondown. Free for your first 100 subscribers. Its RSS-to-email add-on is built for this job, and Buttondown's docs mention podcast episodes by name.
Our pick for an all-in-one creator toolkitOur pick for episode emails plus automations: MailerLite. RSS campaigns, which can email new items from your host’s feed, are on its Comfort plan: $12 a month at up to 500 subscribers or $19 at up to 1,000 (checked October 7, 2026). No podcast hosting.
Podcast features, free plans and fees compared
All figures come from each vendor's official pricing page, product page or help center, checked October 7, 2026, in USD. "Paid starts at" is the lowest published price for the smallest paid list-size tier, and every paid plan here costs more as your list grows.
Tool
Podcast hosting built in
Free plan
Paid starts at
Paid-subscription fees
RSS-to-email
Audio / private feeds
Beehiiv Our pick · Best for podcasters
Yes, every plan. Shows Free 1 / Lite 2 / Pro unlimited; monthly downloads Free 5,000 / Lite 15,000 / Pro 50,000 (Beehiiv help center)
Free: up to 2,500 subscribers
Lite $59/mo monthly, or $49/mo billed annually
0% on Lite and Pro; Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 applies
RSS to Send on Pro; new-episode emails through automations (podcast automations listed on every plan, email automations from Lite)
Premium podcasts with a private RSS feed per paying subscriber (paid plan plus a paid tier; pricing.md lists private subscription RSS feeds: Lite 1, Pro 2); audio newsletters on Pro
Substack
Yes, free
Free at any list size
No plan fee
10% of each paid transaction, plus Stripe fees
Not needed: episodes are posts, sent by email and to the app
Private RSS feed unique to each subscriber; paid episodes appear for paying subscribers
Kit
No
Up to 10,000 subscribers
Creator $33/mo billed yearly
3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card processing included, on all plans
RSS campaigns on Creator and Pro
Not listed
Buttondown
No
First 100 subscribers
Priced by list size on its slider; add-ons from +$9/mo
Paid subscriptions add-on +$9/mo; no cut beyond card fees
RSS-to-email add-on +$9/mo
Not listed
MailerLite
No
Up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails/month
Comfort "starting $12/month"
Through Stripe; we didn't find a MailerLite platform fee on its paid-newsletter page
RSS campaigns on Comfort and Power
Not listed
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
On Substack, Stripe's Billing fee for recurring payments appears as 0.5% in one Substack help article and 0.7% (as of July 2024) in another, on top of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Both articles were live on October 7, 2026, so we show both figures.
The picks at a glance
Our pick · Best for podcastersHost + newsletter
Beehiiv
Podcast hosting on every plan (Beehiiv help center, October 7, 2026: Free 1 show / 5,000 monthly downloads; Lite 2 shows / 15,000; Pro unlimited shows / 50,000). Premium feeds for paid tiers.
Strengths
Hosting, newsletter and website in one, free up to 2,500 subscribers
Private premium feeds for paying subscribers (paid plan)
0% take rate on subscriptions on Lite and Pro
Watch-outs
Show and download limits rise by plan
Audio feed only for now; its help center says native video distribution is still in the works
Our pick for an all-in-one creator toolkitEpisode emails + automations
MailerLite
Keep your podcast host and let MailerLite email new episodes from its RSS feed. Free covers up to 250 subscribers (no RSS campaigns); Comfort is $12/month at up to 500 subscribers and $19 at up to 1,000 (checked October 7, 2026).
Strengths
RSS campaigns on Comfort and Power
Visual automations on every plan (3 on Free, 50 on Comfort)
A website and landing page for your show, even on Free
Watch-outs
No podcast hosting
Free plan is small and has no RSS campaigns
Try MailerLite freeAffiliate link: we may earn a commission if you buy a paid plan, at no extra cost to you.
Hosting built in vs "email the feed". Beehiiv and Substack can replace your podcast host, since both publish an RSS feed you submit to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other apps. Kit, Buttondown and MailerLite don't host audio. Instead, they read the RSS feed from the host you already use and turn each new episode into an email. If you're happy with your host, that second route changes nothing about your show.
Just starting a podcast
Substack costs nothing to start, and its podcast page says hosting is free. Each episode goes to subscribers by email and RSS and appears in the Substack app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Substack's Recording Studio records in the browser, so you don't need editing software. Substack says more than half of its new subscribers come from inside the platform. That's a platform-wide figure it reports, not a promise for any one show.
Beehiiv Free is also free, up to 2,500 subscribers, and includes the newsletter, website and podcast together. Once your Beehiiv website is published, every episode gets its own page there, with a transcript where available. Beehiiv’s help center (updated October 7, 2026) lists Free at 1 show and 5,000 monthly downloads, Lite at 2 shows / 15,000, and Pro at unlimited shows / 50,000 (that’s the article’s plan-limits table; an FAQ further down the same article says up to 4 shows on Pro, so confirm in-account if you need more than 2).
Already hosted elsewhere? Start a free list on Kit (up to 10,000 subscribers). Kit's podcaster page suggests a free landing page that links to your show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Or use Buttondown (free for 100 subscribers) and add RSS-to-email once you want episode emails to send themselves.
Monetizing with paid subscribers or premium feeds
Both hosting platforms can gate episodes behind a paid subscription and deliver them through private feeds that work in regular podcast apps:
Substack gives each subscriber a private podcast RSS feed that's unique to them. Paying subscribers' feeds include paid episodes. You can upload a separate free preview for free listeners, or send an ad-free episode to paying subscribers and a sponsored version to everyone else. Paying subscribers can also link their accounts to hear paid episodes on Spotify.
Beehiiv premium podcasts need a paid plan and at least one paid subscription tier. You choose which tiers get access, and each qualifying subscriber gets a private RSS URL by email. Beehiiv is a Spotify Open Access partner, so premium episodes can also unlock in Spotify. You can bundle the show with your newsletter, community and digital products.
The difference is mostly the fee model. Substack takes 10% of paid revenue with no plan fee. Beehiiv takes 0% but needs Lite, which starts at $59 a month on monthly billing for up to 1,000 subscribers. Substack's cut matches Beehiiv's plan fee once your monthly paid revenue reaches about ten times that fee. Our Beehiiv vs Substack comparison has the full break-even table.
If you want to sell bonus episodes or products without switching hosts, Kit's podcaster page suggests selling memberships, bonus episodes and digital products through Kit Commerce. Kit charges 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction, card processing included, on every plan. Buttondown's paid subscriptions add-on (+$9/month) takes no cut beyond card fees.
Sponsor-driven podcasts
If sponsors pay the bills, the newsletter becomes a second ad slot you can sell:
Beehiiv has an Ad Network and programmatic ads for the newsletter on Lite and up (not in all regions), and a sponsorship storefront on Pro. For the audio itself, Beehiiv says you can bake ads into your episodes. Its podcasts page still calls dynamic ad insertion "coming soon," while the feature table in its pricing.md lists it on Lite and up, but not Free (both re-checked October 11, 2026), so check in your account before you plan around it.
Substack pitches paid subscriptions as a layer on top of ads and sponsorships, saying your existing monetization "still has a place." You can send a sponsored version of an episode to everyone and an ad-free version to paying subscribers, or gate bonus content and extended cuts.
Kit lists newsletter sponsorships (brand matching you approve) on its paid plans. Its podcaster page suggests putting your sponsorship rates on your landing page and selling ad slots through Kit Commerce.
Buttondown offers a Sponsorships add-on for +$29/month.
Video podcasters
Substack is the stronger fit for video today. Video posts can send their audio to your podcast RSS feed, get automatic transcripts, and offer paid exclusives with free previews. Substack's podcast page says video can publish to YouTube automatically and be added to Spotify for Creators. The same page says "Video for Apple is coming soon."
Beehiiv hosts the audio feed only. Its help center says Beehiiv is still working toward native video distribution. For now, you can upload video versions of episodes yourself in Spotify for Creators, and Beehiiv says video distribution to Apple Podcasts is on its roadmap. Its pricing.md feature table does list YouTube video publishing on every plan, so ask Beehiiv how that works for your show. If video is central to your show, check where each platform stands before you commit.
If you just want an email for every new episode
You don't need to move your show to get automatic episode emails. Buttondown's RSS-to-email checks your feed every thirty minutes. It can send immediately or create a draft for you to edit, or bundle new items weekly or monthly. Kit RSS campaigns (Creator and up) and MailerLite RSS campaigns (Comfort and Power) do the same from any RSS feed, including your podcast host's. On Beehiiv, RSS to Send is a Pro feature, but if Beehiiv hosts the show, its automations can email subscribers when a new episode drops (pricing.md lists podcast automations on every plan and email automations from Lite). See our MailerLite guide for its plans.
FAQ
Does Substack host podcasts?
Yes. Substack's podcast page says hosting is free, with no monthly hosting fees. Every episode gets an RSS feed you can submit to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other apps. If you charge, Substack takes 10% plus Stripe fees.
Is Beehiiv podcast hosting free?
Yes, on the Free plan (up to 2,500 subscribers), with podcast hosting included. Beehiiv’s help center (October 7, 2026) lists Free at 1 show / 5,000 monthly downloads, Lite at 2 / 15,000, and Pro at unlimited shows / 50,000. Premium, paid-only podcasts need a paid plan. Our Beehiiv guide covers every plan.
How do I create a private podcast feed for paying listeners?
Use a platform that issues private feeds per subscriber. Substack gives every subscriber a unique private RSS feed, and paid episodes appear in paying subscribers' feeds. On Beehiiv, you set up a premium podcast on a paid plan with at least one paid tier, and each qualifying subscriber gets a private RSS URL. Beehiiv's help center warns not to share private feed URLs publicly.
What's the best email marketing for podcasters?
If you'll host with it: Beehiiv or Substack. If you're keeping your host: Kit for the biggest free list and product sales, Buttondown for simple automatic episode emails, or MailerLite on a budget. The table above has the specifics.
Where can I start a podcast for free?
Substack hosts podcasts free at any list size. Beehiiv's Free plan also hosts a podcast (1 show and 5,000 monthly downloads, per Beehiiv's help center).
How do I monetize a video podcast?
Among the tools here, Substack supports paid video exclusives with free previews and auto-publishing to YouTube. Beehiiv monetizes the audio feed (premium feeds, newsletter ads), while video goes to Spotify through a manual upload.
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. We run Creator Mail Stack independently, and none of these vendors endorse it. Found something out of date? Tell us.
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