A trustworthy shortlist needs real alternatives, not two affiliate links presented as the entire market. These services are included as neutral reference points; their official pages are the source of truth for current limits.
MailerLite: small-list email marketing
MailerLite’s current Free plan is documented at up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 monthly emails. That can be enough for early validation, but it is a small-list constraint for a creator planning toward 10,000 subscribers.
Substack: publishing and reader discovery
Substack is free to publish and offers free and paid subscription modes. Its official cost guidance says paid subscriptions carry a 10% platform fee plus payment fees. That is a different trade-off from a conventional email platform.
Buttondown: minimalist and independent
Buttondown lists the first 100 subscribers as free and assumes at most one full-list email per day in its pricing model. It also presents a privacy-first positioning and an add-on model for automations, so check the live calculator for your actual send pattern.