Platform versus toolkit
Substack is a platform you publish on. Kit is a toolkit you run a creator business with. That distinction explains nearly every difference between them.
On Substack, you write posts, readers subscribe, and Substack handles the website, the app, comments and paid subscriptions. It asks for no money up front and takes a share of what you earn. On Kit, you build forms and landing pages, tag subscribers, write sequences and sell products. It charges a monthly subscription based on list size and leaves the publishing website to you.
Who each one suits
Substack suits writers whose product is the writing. Journalists, essayists, analysts and commentators who publish on a schedule and want readers to pay for access. Substack's recommendations and Notes can bring in subscribers who would never find a standalone newsletter, which is the main reason many writers accept the 10% fee.
Kit suits creators whose newsletter feeds a business. Course creators, coaches, designers selling templates and authors with several products. They need to know who downloaded which lead magnet, send a five-email sequence to new buyers, and pitch the right product to the right segment. Substack cannot do that; Kit is built for it.
Creator scenarios
| Situation | Better first look | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| A journalist launching an independent paid newsletter | Substack | Paywall, app and recommendations with no monthly bill |
| A designer selling templates to a list of 8,000 | Kit | Tags, sequences and product checkout |
| A podcaster with an existing audience moving listeners to email | Kit | Landing pages and forms convert existing traffic |
| A writer who wants readers to comment and discuss | Substack | Comments, chat and Notes |
| A course creator with separate lists per topic | Kit | Tag-based segments and automations per course |
| A SaaS founder writing about their market | Sequenzy | Newsletter alongside product and billing email |
The money, worked through
Take a newsletter with 10,000 subscribers, of whom 400 pay $8 a month, which is $3,200 a month in paid revenue.
| Cost line | Substack | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Platform or software fee | 10% of revenue, $320 | Creator plan at 10,000 subscribers, about $119 |
| Payment processing | Stripe fees, roughly 3.6% plus $0.30 per charge | Kit transaction fee per sale |
| Custom domain | One-time $50 | Use your own domain |
| Automations | Not available | Included on Creator |
At this size the monthly software fee on Kit is lower than Substack's cut, and it stays flat as paid revenue grows, while Substack's grows with every paid reader. The opposite is true early on: with 40 paid readers, Substack's 10% is $32 and Kit Creator is still billed by list size. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, but it does not include the automations that make Kit worth switching for.
Who owns the payment relationship
On Substack, paid subscriptions run through a Stripe account connected to your publication. The money lands in your Stripe account, and the customer records are yours. That matters when you leave: platforms such as Ghost can reconnect the same Stripe account and keep subscriptions billing.
One exception has grown in importance. Since August 2025, Substack offers Apple in-app purchase in its iOS app, and Apple keeps 15 to 30% of those payments. Substack lets you set higher in-app prices to compensate. Subscriptions bought this way are billed by Apple rather than your Stripe account, so check how they are handled before planning a migration.
Kit processes paid newsletters and digital products itself and charges 3.5% plus $0.30 per transaction. There is no reader app and no app store cut. For a creator selling several products, having all revenue flow through one checkout with a flat fee is simpler to reason about than Substack's percentage.
When Kit Pro is worth it
Most creators comparing against Substack only need Kit's Creator plan. Pro makes sense in three cases. If you want a referral program that rewards readers for sharing, Pro includes one. If you want to prune inactive readers or target your most engaged fans, Pro adds subscriber engagement scoring. And if a team works on the newsletter, Pro includes unlimited users. Pro starts at $79 a month for 1,000 subscribers billed monthly, about $66 billed annually, and scales with your list.
A week in each tool
On Substack, you draft a post in the editor, choose whether it is free or paid, publish, and it goes to email, the web and the app at once. You reply to comments, share a Note, and check which recommendations brought new subscribers. There is little to configure, which is the point.
On Kit, you might publish a broadcast, then check the automation that tags readers who clicked a link about your course, then adjust the landing page for a new lead magnet. You spend more time on setup, and in return each subscriber can get a different path.
Moving from Substack to Kit
- Export subscribers. In Substack settings, export your list as a CSV. Keep the free and paid columns.
- Import and tag. Import into Kit and add tags such as
substack-freeandsubstack-paidso you can target each group. - Paid subscriptions. Recreate paid tiers in Kit. Substack paid subscriptions bill through your connected Stripe account, so ask Kit's migration team whether they can be carried over; otherwise readers resubscribe. Tell paid readers before anything changes.
- Archive. Substack posts do not move into Kit as a website. Keep them on Substack, move them to your own site, or publish them through a CMS.
- Domain and sender. Authenticate your sending domain in Kit and warm up with your most engaged readers first.
- Build the first automation. A welcome sequence is the quickest win, since it is something Substack could not do.
Going the other way, from Kit to Substack, you import your list as a CSV, lose tags and sequences, and gain the Substack network.
Moving from Kit to Substack
Some creators go the other way, usually when a newsletter has become the main product and discovery matters more than funnels.
- Export subscribers from Kit as a CSV, filtering out unsubscribed and bounced contacts first.
- Import into Substack as free subscribers. Substack's importer also brings in posts from several platforms if you have a web archive.
- Paid readers. If you charged through Kit, decide whether to recreate those subscriptions on Substack with a connected Stripe account or offer a transition period.
- What does not move. Tags, sequences, automations, landing pages and product checkouts have no Substack equivalent. Keep Kit running for product sales if they matter, or move them to another store.
Growth tools beyond the first thousand readers
On Substack, growth comes mostly from the platform. Other writers can recommend your publication, Notes puts your posts in front of readers who do not subscribe yet, and readers can refer friends. Your subscriber dashboard shows which of these sources brought people in.
On Kit, growth comes mostly from you. Unlimited landing pages and forms, even on the free plan, let you run lead magnets for every topic you write about. The Creator Network lets you recommend other Kit creators and be recommended back, and paid recommendations let you earn from recommending others or pay to be recommended. Kit also runs a sponsorship program that matches newsletters with advertisers.
If you already have traffic from a podcast, YouTube channel or website, Kit's tools turn that traffic into subscribers more effectively. If you are starting with no audience, Substack's network does more of the work.
Where Sequenzy fits
Sequenzy is not a creator platform. It has no reader app, no discovery network and no digital product checkout, so for most independent writers Substack or Kit is the better choice.
It fits when the newsletter is part of a software business: a founder writing about their market while also sending onboarding, trial and billing email to product users. Sequenzy runs campaigns and automations next to transactional email, triggers sequences from Stripe, Paddle and Polar events, and prices by emails sent with unlimited contacts, starting free up to 2,500 emails/mo, then $19/mo for 15k emails. If you are leaving Kit, the migration tool imports subscribers, tags, custom fields, broadcasts and sequences.
Questions for your newsletter
Do you have an audience already, from a podcast, video or website? Kit converts it better.
Are you starting from zero? Substack's network does more of the work.
Will you sell anything besides subscriptions? Kit.
Is paid revenue above roughly $1,200 a month? Kit's flat plan likely costs less than Substack's 10%.
Substack if you are starting out, want readers to find you, and prefer to pay only when you earn.
Kit if your newsletter sells products, needs targeting by interest, or earns enough that a 10% cut stings.
Sequenzy if the newsletter promotes a SaaS product and needs to work with product and billing email.
