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Publishing Map

Author website · Email list

How do you set up an author website and email list?

Use each provider's own free-tier limit and price. These pages do not share one cap. Checked 17 October 2026, MailerLite's free plan stops at 250 subscribers, Kit's free plan is listed up to 10,000, and Buttondown's visible line is nothing for the first 100. For commercial email, the FTC guide requires an accurate header, a clear advertisement disclosure, a postal address, and an opt-out honored within 10 business days. The ICO says marketing email to individuals in the UK needs specific consent or the soft opt-in it defines.

Publishing Map's take

Use each provider's own free-tier limit and price, because these pages do not share one cap. For commercial email, the FTC guide requires an accurate header, a postal address, and an opt-out honored within 10 business days, and the ICO says marketing email to individuals in the UK needs specific consent or the soft opt-in it defines.

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The short answer

  1. MailerLite's free plan is up to 250 subscribers, 2 user seats, and 2,500 monthly emails. Comfort starts at $12 a month. Power starts at $25 a month. Crossing 250 active subscribers on the free plan locks campaigns and automation.[451][452][453]
  2. Kit lists Free at $0 a month up to 10,000 subscribers. Creator is $33 a month or $390 a year for 1,000 subscribers. The Pro card showed $50 a month and $593 for the first year.[451]
  3. Buttondown's heading is nothing for the first 100 subscribers. Offers on the page list 0, 9, 29, 79, and 139 USD, and they do not label monthly versus yearly.[452]
  4. WordPress.com's free plan is a subdomain, 1 GB, and no plugins. Paid plans start at $2.75 a month billed every 3 years, or $4 a month billed annually. Ghost(Pro) yearly prices at the 1,000-member display were $18, $29, and $199 USD a month.[453][454][455]
  5. The FTC guide, edited January 2024, states penalties of up to $53,088 per violating email. UK PECR is a separate law. EU GDPR article text is not stated here.[456][457]

01

What do MailerLite, Kit, and Buttondown state about price and the free tier?

Checked 17 October 2026. This answer does not rank these services. MailerLite's free plan is up to 250 subscribers, 2 user seats, and 2,500 monthly emails. Comfort starts at $12 a month. Power starts at $25 a month. Enterprise, for over 200,000 subscribers, has no fixed price on the FAQ. You pay for active subscribers. Unsubscribed and bounced addresses do not count. Above 250 active subscribers, a free account locks campaigns and automation. Comfort email allowance is 10 times the top of the subscriber tier. The up-to-1,000 tier gets 10,000 emails a month. One send is one email to one subscriber. Kit lists Free at $0 a month, up to 10,000 subscribers, with a 14-day trial and no credit card required. Creator, for 1,000 subscribers, is $33 a month or $390 billed yearly, a stated saving of $78 a year. The page also says pay yearly and save 17 percent. This answer does not reconcile those two savings lines. Pro, also for 1,000 subscribers, showed $66 struck through, $50 a month, and $593 billed the first year, a stated saving of $355. The discount is the first year only, then the standard rate. Users are listed as 1, 2, and Unlimited in Free, Creator, Pro order. For digital products or subscriptions the page says Kit takes 0.6 percent of the total fees, and the same table prints 3.5 percent plus 30c. Both stay as printed. Paid Recommendations is 23.5 percent. Buttondown's heading says you pay nothing for the first 100 subscribers. Schema.org offers on the page list Free 0 USD up to 100, Basic 9 USD up to 1,000, Standard 29 USD up to 5,000, Professional 79 USD up to 10,000, and Advanced 139 USD up to 20,000. They do not label monthly or yearly. The FAQ charges for active subscribers and assumes at most one email a day to the whole list. A 501(c)(3), or a country's equivalent, can get 50 percent off. Add-on dollar amounts are not restated here.[451][452][453]

  • 250, 10,000, and 100 are three different free-tier ceilings.

02

What do WordPress.com and Ghost(Pro) state about a site?

WordPress.com's FAQ, checked 17 October 2026, says the free plan is a WordPress.com subdomain, 1 GB of storage, unlimited pages and posts, and basic stats for the last 7 days. It does not include a custom domain, plugins, or ad-free browsing. Free sites display WordPress.com ads. Paid plans start at $2.75 a month billed every 3 years, or $4 a month billed annually. Over 60,000 plugins start with the Personal plan at that $2.75 price. Annual and multi-year plans include a free custom domain for the first year. Monthly plans do not. The FAQ calls WordPress.com a fully hosted platform. Ghost(Pro), with yearly billing and the audience selector at 1,000 members, displayed Starter at $18 USD a month, Publisher at $29, Business at $199, and Custom as Custom. Registered-member allowances are 1,000, 1,000, 10,000, and Unlimited. Staff users are 1, 3, 15, and Unlimited. Paid subscriptions are No on Starter and Yes on the higher plans. All plans include unlimited email sends. Each site includes a free ghost.io subdomain and a one-year free .link domain that renews at standard rates. Try for free is a button. A trial length, and a $0 plan that continues, are not stated. The page says there are no payment fees, and that you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel. Prices at other audience sizes are not copied here.[454][455]

  • Ghost's 1,000 beside the price is the audience selector. Business's member allowance in the table is 10,000.

03

What does the FTC require in a commercial email?

The FTC guide, checked 17 October 2026, was edited January 2024 and also shows August 2023. It covers email whose primary purpose is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a product or service, including a commercial website. There is no business-to-business exception. Each violating email is subject to penalties of up to $53,088. From, To, Reply-To, and routing information must be accurate and identify who started the message. The subject must match the content. You must disclose clearly that the message is an advertisement. Include a street address, a U.S. Postal Service post office box, or a registered commercial mail receiving agency. The opt-out must work for at least 30 days. Honor it within 10 business days, with no fee, no information beyond an email address, and no step other than a reply or one web page. Do not sell or transfer an opted-out address except to a company hired to help you comply. That hire does not remove your duty. Both the company promoted and the company that sends may be responsible. Outside the Act's five transactional or relationship categories, the message needs an opt-out.[456]

  • The $53,088 figure is the guide's per-email maximum. It is not a predicted fine.

04

What do UK PECR and UK GDPR consent require before you email people?

The ICO overview, updated 20 August 2025, says PECR restrict unsolicited marketing by phone, fax, email, text, or other electronic message, and that the Data Use and Access Act added the direct-marketing definition. Rules are generally stricter for individuals than for companies. Consent is a clear positive action. A buried privacy policy is not consent. Under regulation 22 you must not email or text an individual without specific consent, unless they bought or negotiated to buy a similar product and you gave an opt-out when you collected the details and in every message. That exception is the soft opt-in. It does not cover bought-in lists, prospective customers, or charity and political promotions. Do not hide your identity, and give a valid contact address. There is no email version of the Telephone Preference Service. Sole traders and some partnerships are individuals. You may email a company, Scottish partnership, limited liability partnership, or government body, and keep a do-not-email list. If you ask someone to forward a marketing message, you instigated it. UK GDPR consent must be a positive opt-in, not a pre-ticked box, separate from other terms, specific, withdrawable, and recorded. Both pages are under review because of the Data (Use and Access) Act. EDPB guidelines are not binding in the UK. An EU Commission consent page returned 404, so EU articles are not quoted. Mail to another country must follow that country's law. The ICO cannot advise on it.[457][458][459]

  • The soft opt-in is not permission to email a purchased list.

05

What do these pages leave unknown?

They do not rank providers or state one correct list size. Buttondown's offers do not label monthly or yearly. Kit prints both a 17 percent yearly line and a $78 saving, and this page does not merge them. Ghost's dollars are the yearly prices at the audience checked here. A continuing $0 Ghost plan is not stated. EU GDPR articles are not quoted. Whether one author's email is commercial is not decided here. Other directory tools are not priced on this page.[451][452][453][454][455][456][458][459]

  • Read the live pricing card and the law that applies where you send. These quotations are from the public pages.

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