Drip #9 vs Substack #8 of 9 on /best/email-marketing
Drip vs Substack
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Drip and Substack, verified . Both are primarily email marketing tools.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Drip
- Standard
Most popular: $39/mo at 2.5k contacts
$39/mo
Substack
- Standard
Free to publish; 10% of paid subscription revenue
Free
When Drip wins
- E-commerce stores on Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce running flows on customer behavior
- Small to mid stores graduating from Mailchimp's e-commerce features
Where Drip is the wrong fit
- B2B marketers (use ActiveCampaign or Customer.io)
- Creators running newsletters (use Kit or beehiiv)
- Buyers who need to know full pricing before signup
When Substack wins
- New writers with no list yet who want platform-driven discovery
- Writers who would rather give 10% of revenue than pay a flat $20-100/month with no readers
Where Substack is the wrong fit
- Established creators with a paid list above ~5,000 subscribers; the 10% share exceeds what Kit, Ghost, or beehiiv would charge in flat fees at that scale
- Operators who want full control over deliverability, subscriber data, and migration optionality
- Brands needing automations, segmentation, or marketing tooling
Compare across the category
This page is Drip vs Substack. To put both side by side with every other email marketing tool we track on a single price-only table, see the email marketing pricing comparison . Free tiers, entry paid plans, and mid-tier plans for the full email marketing cohort.
Common questions
- Is Drip cheaper than Substack?
- At the entry tier, Substack starts at Free versus Drip at $39/mo. Substack is cheaper at the entry. Pricing scales differently above that, so check the full plan grid.
- Does Drip or Substack have a free plan?
- Only Substack has a permanent free plan. Drip only offers a free trial.
- Are Drip and Substack in the same category?
- Yes. Both are primarily email marketing tools, which is why this is a natural head-to-head comparison.
- Which has more plans, Drip or Substack?
- Both Drip and Substack ship 1 plan. Tier counts match; the differentiation is in features and pricing structure rather than tier ladder depth.
- Where can I see alternatives to Drip or Substack?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/drip for Drip and /alternatives/substack for Substack. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Drip: https://www.drip.com/pricing · Substack: https://substack.com/going-paid
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.