SubstackMailCheap vs Substack
Substack is free and keeps 10% of paid subscriptions. MailCheap is a flat monthly price, on your own domain, and your AI agent runs it.
Monthly billing. Substack's price from its pricing page, October 13, 2026.
01 · Features
Side by side
From Substack's pricing page and MailCheap's, on October 13, 2026. Where Substack does more, the table says so.
| Feature | MailCheapMailCheap | SubstackSubstack |
|---|---|---|
| Run by your AI agent (MCP) | Every plan, every action, sending included | No |
| REST API | Every action | No public API |
| Open source | AGPL-3.0, free to self-host | No |
| Free plan | No, free when you self-host | Free, 10% of paid subscriptions |
| Paid subscriptions | No | 10% of revenue, plus card fees |
| Podcasts and video | No | Yes |
| Reader app and discovery | No | The Substack app |
02 · Price
What it costs a month
The cheapest plan with room for your list, sending one issue a week: about 4.3 emails per subscriber a month. Monthly billing, in US dollars.
Every MailCheap plan has every feature. Paying yearly costs 10 months: 2 months free.
| Subscribers | MailCheap | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $19Starter | Free Free on Substack. |
| 10,000 | $39Growth | Free Free on Substack. |
| 50,000 | $149Scale | Free Free on Substack. |
| 100,000 | $149Scale | Free Free on Substack. |
- Publishing on Substack is free. Writers keep 90% of paid subscriptions, minus card fees: Substack keeps 10%.
- MailCheap has no paid subscriptions. You pay for sending, and nothing on what readers pay you elsewhere.
Source: substack.com/going-paid, checked October 13, 2026. MailCheap: pricing, from $19 a month.
03 · AI agents
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Cursor
- Codex
- Grok Bot
Your AI agent writes, schedules and sends each issue, reads the stats and imports your list
Substack has no public API, so an AI agent can't run it for you.
04 · Open source
Self-host it free, or let us run it
MailCheap is open source under the AGPL-3.0: the code that runs mailcheap.ai is the code you can run. Substack isn't open source: you can't run it on your own server.
Self-host
FreeRun MailCheap on your own server, at no cost. No support: you keep it up to date yourself.
MailCheap Cloud
From $19 a monthWe run it: sending, your archive, your domain setup and updates, with support by email.
Moving from Substack?
Export your subscribers, import the file as it is, and send. People who unsubscribed or bounced stay out.
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Substack is a trademark of its owner, shown here to name the product compared. MailCheap isn't affiliated with Substack. Prices and features come from substack.com on October 13, 2026 and may have changed since.