Substack Alternatives With a Custom Domain and an API

If you’re leaving Substack for your own domain and a real API, beehiiv is the closest drop-in replacement: it imports your Substack archive (paywalled posts included) and has a documented path for moving paid subscribers’ Stripe subscriptions. Kit is the better choice if you want to drive the newsletter from your own code on a budget, MailerLite is the cheapest of the four at 10,000 subscribers, and GetResponse makes sense only if you also want webinars and courses in the same tool.

Why developers leave Substack

Two things push developers off Substack, and both come straight from Substack’s own pages.

• There’s no publishing or subscriber API. Substack’s API terms (updated January 8, 2026) describe an API that returns only information “creators have chosen to make publicly visible”: names, subscriber counts, bestseller status, profile URLs. It explicitly can’t be used to “replicate, substitute for, or materially compete with core features of the Substack platform.” You can’t create posts, add subscribers or receive webhooks with it.
• The 10% cut grows with you. Substack’s going-paid page says writers “keep 90% of their revenue minus credit card fees.” Custom domains are cheap by comparison: Substack’s 2020 announcement put them at a one-time $50 per publication. Check your settings for the current fee.

So the domain itself isn’t the problem. The problem is the missing API and a cost that scales with revenue rather than list size.

How we chose

We haven’t run a newsletter on these tools. This list is built from each vendor’s pricing page, developer docs and migration guides, read on 2026-10-12 (all linked in the sources). To qualify, a tool needed a custom domain, a documented API, and support for paid newsletters. We ranked them on how much of a Substack publication survives the move, what the API lets you do, and cost at 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers.

The break-even math against Substack’s 10%

Platform fees on these tools are flat monthly prices. Substack’s is a percentage. Card processing fees apply either way, so leave them out and compare Substack’s 10% with each plan’s monthly price:

At 1,000 subscribers the break-even point is lower still: beehiiv Lite costs $59/mo, so Substack’s cut overtakes it at $590/mo in paid revenue. If you earn less than that, Substack is cheaper and the move is about control, not money. Kit isn’t in the table because its pricing page only publishes paid prices for the 1,000-subscriber tier.

1. Our pick

beehiiv

Best for growing a paid or ad-supported newsletter

Pricing: Free up to 2,500 subs; paid from $59/mo (Lite)

What we like

• Free plan up to 2,500 subscribers
• Paid subscriptions on Lite and up, with 0% cut of subscription revenue
• API on every plan, Send API on Pro

Watch out for

• No live custom automations on Free; Lite caps at 10
• $139/mo at 10,000 subscribers on Lite (monthly billing)

Best for a full Substack replacement. beehiiv’s importer pulls in free posts from your Substack URL and paywalled posts from your Substack export zip. You need to connect Stripe and create a paid tier before importing paid posts. For paid subscribers, beehiiv’s guide describes copying customers and payment methods from your old Stripe account into the Stripe account connected to beehiiv, then mapping products to beehiiv tiers. That requires a paid beehiiv plan and a restricted read key on the source account. Migrated subscribers keep their legacy prices, and you have to cancel billing on the old platform yourself or they may be charged twice. The guide doesn’t mention Substack by name, so confirm how your Substack Stripe account is set up first.

On the developer side, every plan has API access (30 requests/minute on Free, 180 on Lite, 500 on Pro), webhooks start on Lite (3 endpoints, unlimited on Pro), and creating posts by API needs Pro. beehiiv takes 0% of subscription revenue.

2. Runner-up

Kit

Best for creators selling digital products and paid newsletters

Pricing: Free up to 10,000 subs; paid from $33/mo (Creator)

What we like

• Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers
• Unlimited visual automations on Creator and Pro
• Paid newsletters and recurring subscriptions built in
• API and webhooks on paid plans

Watch out for

• No visual automations on Free
• Jumps from $0 to $169/mo (Creator) at 10,001 subscribers

Best if your code writes the newsletter. Kit’s V4 API can draft, web-publish or schedule broadcasts, and its webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256 and retried for about 41 hours. API-key rate limits are 120 requests/minute regardless of plan. The Free plan goes up to 10,000 subscribers, but Kit’s developer docs list “being on a free account” as a reason for a 401, so plan on Creator if you need the API.

The migration gotcha: Kit’s Substack guide says Kit doesn’t import your archive. You recreate each issue as a broadcast and backdate it. It also says “there is no convenient method of migrating your paid subscribers’ subscriptions.” The suggested route is to cancel them on Substack and ask readers to re-subscribe, which means some churn. If you have a meaningful paid list, that’s a reason to pick beehiiv instead.

3. Also great

MailerLite

Best for budget email marketing with automations

Pricing: Free up to 250 subs; paid from $12/mo (Comfort)

What we like

• Cheap entry tier from $12/mo
• Automations on every plan (3 on Free, 50 on Comfort, unlimited on Power)
• Paid newsletter subscriptions supported

Watch out for

• Free plan capped at 250 subscribers
• API email sending only on paid plans

Best on price at 10k. From MailerLite’s pricing page, Comfort costs $19/mo at 1,000 subscribers, $89 at 10,000 and $319 at 50,000 on monthly billing. Power costs $39, $129 and $389. Both are about 10% less billed annually. The API uses bearer API keys with a global limit of 120 requests/minute. The Free plan has “limited” API and webhooks with no API sending, and it doesn’t include custom domains or paid newsletters, so you’ll be on a paid plan for this use case anyway.

It’s an email marketing tool first. The pricing page doesn’t state a fee on paid newsletter subscriptions, and we found no Substack importer like beehiiv’s. Expect to move subscribers by CSV and handle the archive yourself.

4. Also great

GetResponse

Best for all-in-one email, webinars and courses

Pricing: 14-day free trial; paid from EUR 16/mo (Starter)

What we like

• Premium (paid) newsletters on the Creator plan
• API on every plan
• Custom domain free on yearly billing

Watch out for

• Starter limited to 1 custom automation workflow
• Paid newsletters require the Creator plan (EUR 114/mo at 10k contacts)

Only if you want the all-in-one. GetResponse’s API is on every paid plan, and the pricing page says paid plans get a free custom domain on yearly billing. Paid (premium) newsletters, though, are only on the Creator plan: EUR 62/mo at 1,000 contacts and EUR 114 at 10,000 on monthly billing, with 0% transaction fees. Starter, the cheaper plan, allows just one custom automation workflow and no paid newsletters. The pricing page doesn’t mention webhooks. Choose it if webinars and courses in the same account are worth the premium. Otherwise the three above are a better fit for a newsletter.

Worth knowing: Ghost (not an affiliate)

We don’t earn anything from Ghost, but it belongs on any developer’s shortlist. Ghost(Pro) Publisher is $29/mo billed yearly for 1,000 members and includes a custom domain, the Admin API, custom integrations, webhooks and paid subscriptions with a 0% Ghost fee. The cheaper Starter plan has no Admin API, webhooks or paid subscriptions. Ghost’s pricing page links to its source code on GitHub. If you want a publication you can fully script and don’t need beehiiv’s growth tools, Ghost may suit you better than anything on this list.

Which one should you pick?

• You have paid subscribers on Substack and don’t want to lose them: beehiiv. It’s the only one here with a documented way to move live Stripe subscriptions.
• You want your archive to come with you without copy-pasting: beehiiv, which has a Substack content importer. Kit’s guide has you recreate issues by hand.
• You publish from a repo or CMS and want an API that can schedule sends: Kit Creator, or Ghost Publisher if you’re open to non-affiliate options. beehiiv needs Pro for post creation by API.
• You mainly want the lowest bill at 10,000 subscribers: MailerLite Comfort at $89/mo.
• You earn under roughly $590/mo in paid subscriptions: staying on Substack may be cheaper. Move for the API and control, not the fees.

FAQ

Does Substack have an API? Only a limited one. Substack’s API terms describe access to publicly visible creator and publication data, such as names, subscriber counts and profile URLs. They don’t cover publishing posts or managing subscribers, and they forbid using the API to replicate Substack’s core features.

Can I use a custom domain on Substack? Yes. Substack’s 2020 announcement set a one-time $50 fee per publication, after which you can add and remove domains at no extra cost. Check your publication settings for the current price.

Can I move paid Substack subscribers without them re-subscribing? beehiiv documents a Stripe-to-Stripe migration that keeps subscriptions and legacy prices, as long as you cancel billing on the old platform. Kit’s Substack guide says paid subscriptions can’t be migrated conveniently and suggests having readers re-subscribe.

What’s the cheapest Substack alternative with a custom domain? Of the tools here with published prices at 10,000 subscribers, MailerLite Comfort is the cheapest ($89/mo on monthly billing). At 1,000 subscribers it’s also the lowest at $19/mo, followed by Ghost Publisher ($29/mo billed yearly, not an affiliate) and Kit Creator ($33/mo as shown on Kit’s pricing page).