Pricing
One price, per year, per site.
No per-subscriber tier, no cut of your revenue, and no upgrade you hit at a thousand readers.
Recommended
One site
$99 per year
- Paid memberships through your own Stripe
- Newsletter through your own Resend
- One member list for both
- Updates and support for the year
- Staging and local copies don't count
Ten sites
$499 per year
- Everything in the single licence
- Ten production sites
- For anyone running more than one publication
Themes
$0 free, forever
- Stoat, on WordPress.org
- Rural Blog, on WordPress.org
- Both work with Publisher
- Priority replies
Prices in USD, per year. The plugin keeps working and keeps your data after a licence lapses — what stops is updates and our time. Thirty-day refund, by email, no form.
What a paid newsletter costs in year one
| Year one | Takes a cut? | One list? | Theme fits? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | 10% of revenue | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ghost Pro | ~$300 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Newspack | $12,000+ | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| MemberPress + an ESP | ~$540 | No | No | No |
| Paid Memberships Pro + add-ons | ~$300 | No | No | No |
| Six free plugins and a Zapier | $0 + weekends | No | No | No |
| Owldraft Publisher | $99 | No | Yes | Yes |
Rival prices checked September 2026 and worth re-checking — they move. Substack is genuinely good at getting you your first thousand readers; this table is about what happens after that.
About the money
What counts as a site?
One live WordPress installation. Staging and local copies of a site you have already licensed do not count.
What happens when the year is up?
The plugin keeps working and keeps its data. Updates and support stop until you renew. There is no kill switch and there never will be.
Do you take a cut of subscription revenue?
No. Your readers pay your Stripe account. We never touch it and we cannot see it.
What about Stripe's own fees?
Those are Stripe's, they are between you and Stripe, and they would be there whatever software you used. We add nothing on top.
Refunds?
Thirty days, no argument and no form. Email us and say so. See the <a href="/refund/">refund policy</a>.
Can I upgrade from one site to ten?
Yes — write to us and we will bill the difference rather than make you buy twice.
Still deciding?
Ask. A straight answer about whether this fits what you are doing is worth more to us than a sale that gets refunded.