Your Own Subscription Platform for Publishing
Turn readers into paying subscribers from your publication's own website and apps - a real paywall, subscriber accounts and billing under your masthead, not inside someone else's network. Built and run for you.
Magazine, local news site, or trade title moving to reader revenue: you keep publishing, we build and run the subscription platform underneath it. LINK-V takes no cut of your subscription income, and the readers are yours.
Two Ways to Own It, With Real Prices
No "book a consultation" wall. There are two ways to get your publication its own subscription platform, and here is what each starts at. The starting price is real; the final number depends on scope, and you see it in full before you commit.
Timeless
For publications that want to start reader revenue without a big upfront cost.
- We design, build and launch your subscription website
- Hosting, security, updates and maintenance - all included
- Add mobile apps and digital editions as you grow
- Your brand, domain, content, payments and reader data stay yours
- One flat monthly fee, nothing technical for your team to manage
The lowest-risk way in. Your newsroom is never left alone with the tech.
See Timeless →Custom Build
For publishers who want a bespoke platform, built to their exact paywall and editorial needs and owned outright.
- A platform built to a scope we agree on together
- Your website and/or mobile app, your paywall model, your brand
- Yours to keep - the product is genuinely yours
- Subscriptions, metered paywall, digital editions, archive, team access
- Optional ongoing support and hosting whenever you want it
The traditional route: pay once for exactly what your publication needs.
See Custom Builds →Not sure which fits? Tell us about your publication and we will run your numbers and point you to the right one - honestly, even if that means telling you to wait. Prefer the individual-creator angle? See content creators. Building mainly around video? See video platforms.
The Whole Idea, in Plain Words
Newsletter and publishing tools are easy to start on, and that is why publications start there. But once subscription revenue matters, the trade-offs show: some take a cut of every subscription, some charge by audience size, some leave your team running the stack - and most quietly put your title inside their network and between you and your readers.
We build your publication its own website and apps - one place where readers subscribe, pay and read directly under your brand. A metered or hard paywall, subscriber accounts, digital editions, an archive worth paying for, an email list you own. No platform takes a share of the subscription, and you keep the direct line to your readers.
Your newsroom does not become an IT department. We build it, host it, keep it fast and secure, and handle support. You publish; readers subscribe. What changes is who owns the platform - and the reader relationship - underneath it.
Who This Is For
If readers pay - or could pay - for what you publish, a subscription platform can carry it. Here is what "your own platform" means for each kind of publication, and the sub-types we most often build for.
Magazines
Independent & niche magazines · Culture & lifestyle titles · Special-interest titles · Digital-first magazines · Print titles going digital
A magazine is a body of work with a voice, and readers pay for the title, not one article. On a newsletter tool your issues become an email list and your archive becomes a basement. Your own platform gives you a real magazine online: issues and volumes a reader can browse, a paywall placed where your best pieces hook, digital editions on any device, and an archive that keeps earning long after publication.
News sites
Local & regional news · Independent newsrooms · Investigative outlets · Community news · Political & policy coverage
News lives on cadence and trust, and reader revenue is replacing the ad income that no longer pays the newsroom. Your own platform gives you a metered or hard paywall you control, publishing at news speed, subscriber accounts and a newsletter you own, and the freedom to keep breaking coverage free while gating the depth. The reader - and the billing relationship - stays yours.
Trade & B2B publications
Industry newsletters · Professional & trade journals · Market intelligence · Research & analysis · Association publications
Professionals pay well for information they can act on, and trade titles have the strongest paywall economics in publishing - if the platform lets you build them. Your own platform supports premium tiers, gated research and reports, corporate and team subscriptions, and access rules that match how your industry actually buys. High-value, low-volume, entirely yours.
Paid newsletters going pro
Solo & small-team newsletters · Analysis & commentary · Curated briefings · Vertical newsletters
A newsletter that has outgrown a hobby is a publication, and the tool it started on takes a cut and owns the list it delivers to. Your own platform gives you the paid email your readers expect plus a real home for it - a searchable web archive, subscriber accounts, flexible pricing, and a list that is yours to export and reach any time.
Everyone else in publishing
Blog networks · Podcast & video publications · Academic & scientific · Cultural institutions · Membership organisations
Not every publisher fits a label, and the model does not care. If you produce editorial an audience will pay to read, watch, listen to, or belong to, whatever tool you are on is taking a cut and holding the relationship. Tell us what you publish and how readers pay, and we will show you the shape it takes as your own platform.
What the Platform Includes
One platform for the whole publication, in your brand, extendable whenever you need more. You do not launch with all of it - we start with what earns and grow from there.
The paywall, your way
Metered ("a few free, then subscribe"), hard, freemium, or a hybrid that gates depth while news stays open - enforced server-side, so gated content is genuinely protected, not just hidden in the browser.
Subscriptions and tiers
Monthly and annual plans, founding-reader tiers, student and group rates, gift subscriptions - priced how you choose. LINK-V takes no cut of renewals, and readers manage their own billing.
A browsable archive
Issues, volumes, sections and series organised the way readers think, searchable and partly gated, so years of work keep converting new subscribers and keep earning.
Digital editions and apps
A clean reading experience on web and in native iOS and Android apps, with issue downloads, offline reading and a members' feed - as easy as the tool your readers came from.
An email list you own
Newsletters and reader emails from your own list - new pieces delivered automatically, lapsed-reader win-backs, and no platform between you and your readers' inboxes.
Corporate & team access
Site licences, seat-based team subscriptions and gated research for trade and B2B titles - the higher-value access rules consumer tools were never built to handle.
Content Platforms We Have Actually Built
Three we can point to publicly, out of many. Not mock-ups: real content and subscription platforms, live right now, that you can open today. We have been building software for twenty years.
My Hair Cloud
My Hair Cloud is a subscription content platform with 16+ contributors, tiered membership, paywalled access, and an editorial model built around professional education.
Profi.Camp
Profi.Camp combines paid online content, community, membership tiers and offline activity into one platform - a content business, not a single feed.
Zuzana Klingrová
Zuzana Klingrová combines subscription content, podcasts, workshops, e-commerce and bookings inside one platform a single publisher runs.
Twenty years building software. A sixteen-year client relationship. Content platforms we have run and improved for over a decade. That is the track record behind your publication's platform - and you can click through and see it.
Migration and Running It
A calm, human process. You talk to the people who build it, you see the numbers first, and you never switch overnight.
1 - We talk
A short, direct call. You tell us where you publish today, roughly what you make from subscriptions or ads, and where you want to take reader revenue. We run your real numbers against the fees you pay now and tell you honestly whether this makes sense yet.
2 - We design and build
We shape the platform around how your publication earns - your paywall model, tiers, archive structure and masthead - then build the website and iOS and Android apps on fast, secure hosting that handles a traffic spike when a story breaks.
3 - We migrate
We bring your subscriber list, billing where possible, and your back-catalogue across, with clear reader messaging and a smooth sign-up rather than a risky overnight switch. You keep earning on your current tool while the new platform fills up.
4 - We keep it running
Hosting, security, updates and support for you and your subscribers - all handled, for a flat monthly fee. When you want a new feature, you ask us; your team never manages servers or chases bugs.
What Each Platform Costs You
Publishing tools charge in different ways: some take a percentage of every subscription, some charge by audience size, some leave you running the stack - and ad-funded models hand a large share to the ad-tech chain. On your own platform LINK-V takes no share of subscriptions - only the ordinary payment-processor fee everyone pays. Digital purchases made inside a native mobile app can still be subject to Apple or Google fees, depending on store, country and programme; a website checkout is not.
| Where you publish | How they charge | What that means for your publication |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | 10% + fees | 10% of every paid subscription plus Stripe fees, with readers nudged toward the wider Substack network. |
| Patreon | 10% + fees | Standard 10% for pages created after August 2025 (some legacy pages differ), plus payment fees, with your archive treated as posts inside tiers. |
| Medium (Partner Program) | Revenue-share pool | You are paid from a shared pool on Medium's terms; the reader relationship stays Medium's. |
| Ghost | Monthly, by list size | No cut of subscriptions; instead a monthly fee that scales with your audience, and you configure and run the stack (or self-host). |
| Ad networks / programmatic | Large share of ad spend | The ad-tech chain takes a significant share, and you depend on traffic you do not control. |
| App-store in-app purchases | 15-30% | Apple or Google may take a share of a subscription bought inside a mobile app, depending on store, country and programme. |
| Your own subscription platform | 0% to LINK-V | We never take a share of your subscription revenue. Only the usual processor fee - plus any app-store fee on in-app purchases. |
Same readers, same journalism, same work. The variable is how much of the subscription reaches you - and who owns the reader.
Fees checked July 2026 from each platform's public pricing; percentages and plans change, so confirm current terms with the platform before deciding.
On a Platform vs. On Your Own
The difference is not only the fee. It is who owns the readers, the subscription relationship, and the rules. The same publication, side by side.
| What matters | On a platform | On your own platform |
|---|---|---|
| Your share of a $10 subscription | A cut or a list-size fee before it reaches you | The full amount minus payment processing |
| The reader relationship | List often exportable, but billing and login stay theirs | Readers, billing and accounts in your own system |
| The paywall model | Whatever the tool supports | Metered, hard, freemium or hybrid - your rules |
| The archive | A reverse-chronological feed | Issues, sections and series readers navigate and pay for |
| Design and brand | Their template, their network nearby | Your masthead, entirely yours |
| Mobile app | Theirs, shared with everyone | Yours, iOS and Android |
| What is public and crawlable | Largely on their terms | You decide what is exposed to search and AI crawlers |
| If you want to leave | You start over somewhere new | You already own it |
Keep the tools that still bring you new readers. This gives your publication a home the readers move into - one you own.
Control What Is Public, Indexed and Accessible
For a publisher this is not abstract: your archive is your asset, and on the open web it is now training data. Your reporting helps train models, aggregators outrank you for your own work, and a feed decides who sees it.
On your own platform you set the rules. Paid content sits behind server-side authentication and can be kept out of normal public crawling; free previews are published on your terms and linked to your masthead, so search and answer engines can index and attribute them to your domain rather than to a platform. No technical system prevents every form of copying, but you decide what is publicly exposed, and under what conditions.
Keep Reading
Deeper guides on paywalls, moving a publication off the platforms, migrating your list, and what a subscription platform really costs.
Questions Publishers Ask
What is the best subscription platform for a publisher?
For a serious title, your own subscription website rather than a shared newsletter tool. Shared tools force your publication into a chronological feed, and most take a cut of every subscription or charge by list size while your archive stays hard to navigate. A custom platform lets you organise by issue and section, set your own paywall, run digital editions, and keep the subscription relationship and revenue under your masthead.
How do I add a paywall to my news or magazine website?
We build the paywall into your own platform, enforced server-side rather than hidden in the browser. You choose the model - metered ("a few free articles, then subscribe"), hard (subscribers only), or freemium (news free, depth gated) - and we wire it to subscriptions and payments so only paying readers reach protected content, on the web and in your apps.
Metered or hard paywall - which should a publisher choose?
It depends on your goal. A metered paywall keeps articles discoverable and lets casual readers convert over time, which suits broad news and magazines that still want reach. A hard paywall maximises revenue per subscriber and suits high-value trade and specialist titles. On your own platform you are not locked into one - you can run a hybrid and change it as you learn.
How much does a subscription platform for a publication cost?
A flat monthly fee that covers hosting, updates, security and support, starting around EUR 120 per month for the managed route, or from EUR 3,000 for a one-time build you own. For an established publication the difference against platform fees is often recovered within months. We run your exact numbers on the first call.
Can I move my existing subscribers and archive over?
Yes, carefully. We migrate your subscriber list, billing where possible, and your back-catalogue of articles or issues, with clear reader messaging and a smooth sign-up rather than a risky overnight switch. You keep earning on your current tool while the new platform fills up.