Newsletter platforms, October 2026: 1 open gap — 0 closed, 1 opened.

What was read

7 companies placed; 0 read during October 2026.

• BeehiivSep 30, 2026
• KitSep 30, 2026
• ButtondownSep 30, 2026
• GhostSep 30, 2026
• Platform fees on paid newslettersSep 30, 2026
• Writers starting a paid newsletterSep 30, 2026
• SubstackSep 30, 2026

Gaps closed and opened

4 themes were raised about two or more of 5 read companies; 1 shares no word with anything a company declares. Against the previous month: 1 gap opened and 0 closed (0 now share a word with a declared capability, 0 no longer raised about two companies). Themes are compared by their words, so a theme the reading reworded counts as one closed and one opened.

Opened · 1

Customization and branding

Now answered in the declared names · 0

—

No longer raised about two companies · 0

—

• ◌ Customization and brandingraised about 2 of 5 · no declared match
• ● Free tier, trial and paywalled featuresraised about 2 of 5
• ● Billing, fees and cancellationraised about 2 of 5
• ● Manual work and automationraised about 2 of 5

Who entered

0 companies placed; 5 products sighted by a search and not yet read (HeyNews, Nashra, Sequenzy, Eventually, Riverside).

• HeyNews — sighted Oct 5, 2026 · source
• Nashra — sighted Oct 5, 2026 · source
• Sequenzy — sighted Oct 5, 2026 · source
• Eventually — sighted Oct 5, 2026 · source
• Riverside — sighted Oct 5, 2026 · source

Pricing moves

7 of 7 read companies have a pricing entry on record; none recorded a pricing change this month.

• Ghost [COMPANY CLAIM] Sep 30, 2026Ghost(Pro) offers four tiers — Starter, Publisher, Business, and Custom — with no free tier. Starter starts around $15-18/month (annual billing) and caps at 1,000 members without paid-subscription support; Publisher starts around $29/month and scales with audience size; Business starts around $199/month with a 10,000-member ceiling, more staff seats, and advanced analytics; Custom/Enterprise pricing is available on request. source
• Beehiiv [COMPANY CLAIM] Sep 30, 2026Beehiiv's current pricing tiers are Launch (free, up to 2,500 subscribers), Scale (billed at roughly $49/month monthly or $43/month annual), Max (roughly $109/month monthly or $96/month annual), and custom Enterprise for 100,000+ subscribers. source
• Kit [FACT] Sep 30, 2026Kit's Creator plan starts at $39/month (or $33/month billed annually) for up to 1,000 subscribers, and Creator Pro starts at $79/month (or $66/month annually) for up to 1,000 subscribers; the free Newsletter plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers. source
• Buttondown [COMPANY CLAIM] Sep 30, 2026Buttondown's pricing page reportedly offers a free plan for the first 100 subscribers, with paid plans starting at $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers, scaling by active subscriber count. source
• Platform fees on paid newsletters [FACT] Sep 30, 2026Substack takes a flat 10% platform fee on gross paid-subscription revenue with no monthly platform fee, on top of Stripe processing of roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction; this fee structure has reportedly been unchanged since Substack's 2017 launch. source
• Writers starting a paid newsletter [FACT] Sep 30, 2026Substack charges no monthly platform fee but takes 10% of paid subscription revenue plus ~3-6% Stripe processing, while beehiiv and Ghost charge 0% on paid subscriptions (beehiiv plans from $49/mo at 1,000 subs; Ghost Publisher plans around $29/mo). source
• Substack [COMPANY CLAIM] Sep 30, 2026Substack charges writers no monthly platform fee for publishing, whether free or paid, and instead takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue plus Stripe's processing fees (~2.9% + $0.30 per transaction); this fee structure has reportedly been unchanged since the company's 2017 launch. source

What users raised

13 themes raised by users; the most raised: Billing, fees and cancellation (2 of 5), Customization and branding (2 of 5), Free tier, trial and paywalled features (2 of 5).

• Billing, fees and cancellation 2/5
• Customization and branding 2/5
• Free tier, trial and paywalled features 2/5
• Manual work and automation 2/5
• 10% revenue cut on Substack at scale 1/5
• Complexity, setup and learning curve 1/5
• Customer support 1/5
• Data export and lock-in 1/5
• lack of growth tools on Ghost 1/5
• Notes algorithm reach reduction 1/5
• percentage model becomes costliest line item at scale 1/5
• Price increases 1/5
• tracked links still use Kit's default tracking domain 1/5

Funding by quarter

Withheld: something was read in 1 of the last 8 quarters. A series needs at least 2 to say anything a single reading does not.

The ledger this month

0 observed claims recorded this month.