The Newsletter Stack for a One-Person Creator Under $150/Month

The $0/Month Starter Stack

This is what you launch with. No credit card required for any of it.

beehiiv Launchis the foundation. It gives you a hosted newsletter website, custom domain support, and a subscribe form — all free up to 2,500 subscribers. That's not a trial. It's their actual free tier with no expiration.

Zapier Freehandles light automation: new subscriber notifications to Slack, forwarding signups to a Google Sheet for backup, or triggering a welcome DM. The free plan caps at 100 tasks/month and single-step zaps only. That's enough when you're below 500 subscribers.

Notion Freeis your editorial calendar, content database, and swipe file. I track every newsletter issue, topic ideas, and performance notes in a single Notion database. Free tier is plenty — the paid plans ($10/month for Plus) only matter if you need team collaboration or larger file uploads.

The $80/Month Growth Stack

Upgrade when you hit 2,500 subscribers or when you need automation sequences, referral programs, or paid subscriptions. Not before.

Why two email tools?This is the part that confuses people. beehiiv is your newsletter platform — it handles sending, subscriber management, and your public archive. ConvertKit is your automation backend — it handles drip sequences, tagging, and segmented campaigns triggered by subscriber behavior. You connect them via Zapier or beehiiv's native webhooks.

You can skip ConvertKit entirely if beehiiv's built-in automations cover your needs. Many creators do. But if you sell courses, have multiple products, or need complex conditional sequences, ConvertKit's visual automation builder is meaningfully better.

Calendly Standard at $12/month enters the stack when you start doing sponsored content, guest interviews, or consulting calls. The free plan only allows one event type. Standard gives you unlimited types, automated reminders, and Stripe payment collection for paid calls.

The $150/Month Scale Stack

For creators between 10,000 and 50,000 subscribers who are generating revenue.

Total: ~$190/month. ConvertKit pricing scales with subscriber count — Creator plan jumps from $39 at 1K subs to $79 at 5K subs to $100 at 10K.

Why Not Substack

Substack is free to use, and that's genuinely appealing. But Substack takes 10% of your paid subscription revenue. At small scale, that's fine. At larger scale, the math gets brutal.

Substack also gives you limited design control, no automation capabilities, and no referral program. You can't A/B test subject lines. You can't build conditional email sequences. You can't tag subscribers by behavior.

The one thing Substack does well: built-in network discovery. If you have zero audience and want to be found through Substack's recommendation engine, it's a reasonable starting point. But plan your exit from day one. Substack makes exporting your subscriber list easy (it's a CSV download), but you'll lose your publication URL and any SEO equity you've built.

Why Not Mailchimp

Mailchimp's pricing has a cliff. The free plan covers 500 contacts with 1,000 sends/month. That sounds fine until you realize: 500 contacts sending a weekly newsletter = 2,000 sends/month. You'll hit the limit in two weeks.

The jump to Mailchimp Standard is $13.99/month for 500 contacts. But it climbs fast: $27.99 at 1,500 contacts, $45.99 at 2,500, $78.99 at 5,000. By the time you have 10,000 contacts, you're paying $110/month — and you still don't get a hosted newsletter page, referral program, or native paid subscriptions.

Mailchimp made sense in 2018. Today, beehiiv and ConvertKit are purpose-built for newsletters. Mailchimp is purpose-built for e-commerce email marketing. Different tool for a different job.

Migration Guide: Moving Off Substack or Mailchimp

From Substack:

1. Export your subscriber list from Substack Settings > Exports. You get a CSV with email, subscription date, and paid status.
2. Import into beehiiv via their CSV import tool. beehiiv maps the fields automatically.
3. Set up a redirect from your Substack URL to your new beehiiv publication (Substack doesn't support 301 redirects, so you'll need to publish a final post with your new link).
4. If you had paid subscribers, use Stripe to transfer them. beehiiv has a Stripe integration that connects to your existing Stripe account.

From Mailchimp:

1. Export your audience from Mailchimp's Audience > All Contacts > Export. This gives you a CSV with tags and engagement data.
2. Clean the list first. Remove contacts who haven't opened an email in 6+ months. Mailchimp charges you for dead weight; beehiiv doesn't, but importing unengaged contacts tanks your deliverability.
3. Import into beehiiv. Recreate any tags you care about. Most Mailchimp tags are bloated anyway — migrate only the ones that drive actual segmentation decisions.

Who Should NOT Follow This Guide

• E-commerce businesses — you need Klaviyo or Mailchimp with product catalog integrations. Newsletter tools don't have purchase event triggers.
• Enterprise marketing teams — you need HubSpot or Marketo for lead scoring, attribution, and CRM integration. This stack is for solo operators.
• People who already have 50,000+ subscribers — at that scale, you should be evaluating custom infrastructure or enterprise newsletter plans. The economics change.

Common Mistakes

• Buying paid plans before you have 1,000 subscribers. You don't need automation sequences when you have 200 readers. Write good content first.
• Using Zapier for everything. Before connecting a zap, check if the two tools have a native integration. beehiiv integrates directly with Notion, ConvertKit, and most analytics tools. Native integrations are faster and don't count against your Zapier task limit.
• Overthinking your landing page. beehiiv's built-in subscribe page converts fine. You don't need Carrd, Webflow, or a custom site until you're doing 10,000+ visits/month.
• Ignoring deliverability from day one. Set up your custom domain, authenticate SPF/DKIM records, and send a welcome email. These three things matter more than any tool choice.
• Paying for ConvertKit before using beehiiv's automations. beehiiv Scale ($39/mo) includes automation workflows. Try them first. Many creators never need ConvertKit at all.

The Bottom Line

Start at $0. Upgrade only when you hit a specific limit — not when a tool feels inadequate. The jump from free to $80/month should happen around 2,500 subscribers. The jump to $150/month should happen when newsletter revenue consistently exceeds $1,000/month. Every dollar you don't spend on tools is a dollar you can spend on content, promotion, or just keeping the lights on while you build.