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
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.
Drip: https://www.drip.com/pricing · Substack: https://substack.com/going-paid
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.