Letterhead vs Substack (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Letterhead if

• Fits if a team runs several newsletters and wants one view of them
• Makes sense if you want shared editing and goals across publications

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price, as pricing comes after a demo
• Skip it if you want to try it free, since no plan or trial is stated
• Too light, or too heavy, for one-person lists, as it's built for teams
• Watch out: with more than 10 publications and a million subscribers you're pointed to Enterprise, and Braze is Enterprise only

Pick Substack if

• Fits if you want to start writing for free and let readers find you in the network
• Works for writers who plan to charge, as no monthly fee applies

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: Substack keeps 10% of paid-subscription revenue, on top of card fees
• Skip it if you want drip sequences or segmentation, which the pages read do not describe
• Not for you if you want a custom site or heavy design control
• Watch out: there are no paid plans, so features and limits are the same for every publication
• Skip it if you want a desktop app, as only web and phone apps are listed

Letterhead

• No prices are published; the vendor says pricing depends on your current list and newsletters and is given after a demo.
• No free plan or trial is stated on the pages read.
• Teams with more than 10 publications and one million subscribers are pointed to an Enterprise platform.
• Some integrations, such as Braze, are listed as Enterprise plan only; others run through Zapier.

Substack

• Substack keeps 10% of paid-subscription revenue, and credit card processing fees come out of the writer's share as well.
• There are no paid plans or add-on tiers listed, so features and limits are the same for every publication.
• It is a publishing platform rather than a marketing-automation tool; the pages read do not describe drip sequences or list segmentation workflows.

Letterhead

Content curation

Pulls content from RSS feeds, APIs, a browser, a CMS such as WordPress, and Google Docs, and organizes it with tags and custom fields.

Team editing

Real-time collaborative editing, lockable sections and templates, review workflows and approvals, roles and permissions.

Automation

Workflows with triggers, delays and conditional branches, such as emailing readers who have not opened recent issues; the vendor places this on the Team plan.

Audience health

Groups readers by engagement (loyalists, casual, fading, ghosts) and rates each newsletter's health.

Goals and portfolio view

Set goals per newsletter, such as monthly net growth, and track all newsletters together.

Promotions and testing

Promotion and sponsor support, A/B testing and a read/write MCP server for connecting AI tools.

Substack

Paid subscriptions

Writers choose which posts are free and which are for paid subscribers only, and Substack handles the sign-up and payment side.

Newsletter, podcast and video

A publication can carry written posts, podcasts and video shows, with live video available for creators who want it.

Built-in reader network

Substack publishes a reader app and a discovery network, and says more than half of new subscribers arrive through that network.

Subscriber chats and community

The app includes discussions and chats hosted by writers, so subscribers can talk with the writer and each other.

Own your list

Substack states that writers own their content and their subscriber list, and that the platform is free to leave.

Letterhead

Pricing could not be confirmed. See tryletterhead.com.

Substack

• Substack$0

  Free to start with no tiers or contracts. Writers keep 90% of paid-subscription revenue, minus credit card fees.