Newsletter & Substack Discovery
Substack, Beehiiv, Stoop, Ghost — find, read, and aggregate newsletters.
The newsletter renaissance of 2020-26 is a real reading category now. Substack dominates discovery; Beehiiv is the modern competitor; Ghost is the FOSS alternative. For RSS aggregation see Self-Host Bookmarks & RSS; for read-later see Read-It-Later.
Newsletter platforms (publish + read)
- ★ Substack — free + paid; the dominant publishing platform; built-in discovery feed + Notes (X-shape) since 2023; recommendations from other writers; strong reader-side app.
- Beehiiv — paid + free tier; the SaaS-flavoured Substack competitor; better analytics, growing creator base 2024-26.
- Buttondown — paid + free; indie-developer-flavoured; Markdown + RSS-first.
- ConvertKit / Kit — paid + free; creator-flavoured.
- Ghost — free OSS self-host; full publishing platform with paid memberships; Substack alternative for technical users. Hosted Ghost(Pro) too.
- Mailbrew / Revue (sunset) — older curated-newsletter tools.
Newsletter readers / aggregators
- ★ Stoop — free; iOS; Substack-flavoured curated newsletter reader; one inbox, no email.
- Substack app — free; the Substack reader; pulls subscriptions you've made via email.
- ★ Readwise Reader — paid; all newsletters in one place + highlight + search. See Read-It-Later.
- Reeder — paid; iOS / Mac; can subscribe to newsletter-as-RSS feeds.
- Slick Inbox / Meco — free + paid; "newsletter inbox" — separate from email.
Newsletter → RSS
- ★ Kill-the-Newsletter — free OSS; turn any email newsletter into an RSS feed. See Self-Host Bookmarks & RSS.
- FeedRabbit — paid + free; same.
- Feedbin's newsletter inbox — paid; assigns you a newsletters@ address.
- Feedly / Inoreader newsletter inbox — paid; same idea.
Discovery
- Substack Reads / Recommendations — free; the discovery feed inside Substack.
- Beehiiv recommendations — free; the cross-promotion network.
- The Sample — free; one random newsletter a day, like Tinder for newsletters.
- Letterlist — free; curated directory.
- ProductHunt / Hacker News — free; tech newsletters.
Curated / "best of" newsletters
- ★ Stratechery (paid; tech strategy), Money Stuff / Matt Levine (free; finance), Astral Codex Ten (free + paid; rationalist), Garbage Day (free; internet culture), Lenny's Newsletter (paid; product), Platformer / Casey Newton (paid; tech) — examples of the genre.
- Lit Hub Daily — free; literary.
- The Browser — paid; long-form curation.
Patterns
- ★ Don't subscribe in your email inbox. Use Stoop / Substack app / Readwise Reader / RSS so newsletters don't compete with work mail.
- Convert to RSS if you're a power user — Kill-the-Newsletter handles every newsletter.
- Give every newsletter a 4-week trial — unsubscribe ruthlessly.
- Pay a few you read every issue. $5-10/mo for great writing > nothing.
Pick this if…
- Default newsletter reader, free: Stoop or the Substack app.
- Newsletter + RSS + read-later, paid: Readwise Reader.
- FOSS / self-host newsletter publisher: Ghost.
- Indie publish, no subscription: Buttondown.
- Newsletter → RSS feed: Kill-the-Newsletter.