Which Service Should You Use?

There are an ever-increasing number of platforms dedicated to newsletter and podcast hosting, with new products focused on serving the creator economy regularly emerging to compete with established brands.

With so many different options, which hosting platform is right for you?

Luckily, almost every service provider has three things in common.

First, their core offerings generally have the same features. If you look at MailChimp, for example, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all of the additional features they offer, such as websites and automations. However, the amount and scope of these features disguise that their platform is very easy to use and beginner-friendly.

If you want to send a newsletter, all you really need is a service that allows you to write and send emails to people that have subscribed to you. As nice as something like A/B testing might be to have, you’re not likely to need it.

Second, they charge more based on how much you use them. Many email platforms do have free plans that allow for a certain number of subscribers or monthly sends, but after a certain threshold, you need to migrate to a paid plan. Kit, for example, offers a Newsletter tier that caps at 10,000 subscribers, and they subsequently charge $100 a month for their Creator tier; Beehiiv’s Launch tier is free for up to 2500 subscribers, after which they charge $52 a month for their Scale tier.

Third, they allow you to export your data, whether that’s an email list, individual newsletters or podcast episodes, metrics, or other relevant information. There may be restrictions when trying to export based on specific data points (such as subscribers who have opened a newsletter) but broadly, you can easily take the most important information with you. Hosting platforms understand that your needs will change over time, and locking you into using their services doesn’t benefit anyone.

These three commonalities mean that no matter which platform you choose, you’ll have access to the same necessary features, there will be a cost that increases based on the number of your subscribers, and you can export your important data for use on another platform.

If you’re having a difficult time deciding between platforms, sign up for and try out their free versions. There is no substitute for first-hand experience, and a platform you don’t enjoy using is not one that you’re going to use.

Experience their text editors, and ask yourself if there’s anything missing that you expected to be there, or otherwise would like.

Navigate their CRMs; are there any fields or filters that stand out as particularly useful?

Go through the workflow of publishing a newsletter or podcast episode; is it simple and straightforward, or does it not quite work how you’d like it to?

When presented with an abundance of options, we avoid making a decision because we’re afraid of making the wrong one.

But there’s no such thing as a perfect, one-size-fits-all platform.

In five years, a different platform with a more robust feature set or better pricing might be a better option.

That shouldn’t affect the choice you make today.