6 of 15 services that find newsletter sponsors don't say what they take from a publisher
We read the pricing, fee and help pages of 15 services newsletter publishers use to find sponsors on 6 October 2026, re-checked them on 24 October 2026, and scored each on 8 published criteria. 9 state what they take, 5 charge a flat price or nothing, and 2 state a figure for money earned or outcomes.
Summary
Of 15 services newsletter publishers use to find sponsors, read on 6 October 2026 and re-checked on 24 October 2026, 9 state what they take from a publisher, 5 charge a flat price or nothing, and 4 take a percentage: Hecto 5%, SponsorCal 5%, Passionfroot 15% of deals it matches, and Kit 23.5% of ad revenue. 12 state no minimum audience, 13 are not tied to one email platform, and 9 offer a free way to start. Only 4 state how many sponsors or brands they hold, and 2 state a figure for money earned or outcomes. Scored on 8 criteria, Book a Sponsor and SponsorGap meet 7 each, SponsorLeads and Sponsy 6, and Hecto, Passionfroot and Sponsorships.ai 5.
Findings
- 9 of 15 services newsletter publishers use to find sponsors state what they take from a publisher. The 6 that don't are beehiiv's Ad Network, Paved, Wellput, BuySellAds, Who Sponsors Stuff (its Sales Pro price is on request) and Appeared.in (a demo).
- 4 of 15 take a percentage of what a publisher earns: Hecto 5%, SponsorCal 5%, Passionfroot 15% on deals it matches, and Kit 23.5% of ad revenue. 5 charge a flat price or nothing: SponsorGap's self-serve plans, Book a Sponsor, Sponsy, SponsorLeads and Sponsorships.ai.
- 12 of 15 state no minimum audience. Wellput takes US newsletters with 20,000 or more subscribers, Paved's bookings need 50,000 and its pay-per-click ads 1 million monthly impressions, and Appeared.in says it is designed for mid-to-large newsletters.
- 13 of 15 are not tied to one email platform. beehiiv's Ad Network needs a paid beehiiv plan and Kit's needs a paid Kit plan.
- Only 4 of 15 state how many sponsors, brands or companies they hold, and only 2 state a figure for money earned or outcomes: beehiiv ($37,872,727 earned by its creators so far, per its Ad Network page) and Sponsy ($2M+ revenue managed). None states how many pitches or listings turn into a booked sponsor. Book a Sponsor states how many of its pitches got a yes (155 of 42,142 in 30 days, read 24 October 2026), which does not meet the criterion because a yes is not a closed deal.
- Scored on the 8 criteria below, Book a Sponsor and SponsorGap meet 7 each. SponsorLeads and Sponsy meet 6. Hecto, Passionfroot and Sponsorships.ai meet 5.
Source: each service's own pricing, fee, FAQ and help pages, read on 6 October 2026 and re-checked on 24 October 2026. Criteria and scoring in services.csv.
The criteria
A publisher can check each of these on the service's own pages before paying. We chose the 8 before scoring. A criterion counts as met only when the service's own page says so. A criterion that a page does not mention counts as not met.
| Criterion | Met when the service's own pages |
|---|---|
| States what it takes | state a price, a fee percentage or an explicit none for every way it earns from the publisher |
| No minimum audience | state no minimum subscribers or impressions, and do not describe themselves as built for large lists |
| Free start | offer a free plan, a free listing, a free trial or a free sample of the sponsor data |
| Flat price or no fee | charge a flat price or nothing, and take no percentage of the publisher's deals |
| Any email platform | place no limit to newsletters sent on one platform |
| Brings or pitches sponsors | say brands book the publisher, ads are placed for the publisher, or the service pitches brands |
| States a sponsor count | give a number of sponsors, brands or companies in its database or network |
| States money or outcomes | give a number for money earned by publishers, deals closed or revenue managed |
Source: the same pages, read on 6 October 2026 and re-checked on 24 October 2026. Counts are in criteria-count.csv.
The services, ranked
| Rank | Service | Type | Criteria met | Price as published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Book a Sponsor | outreach service | 7 | $1 card check for 200 emails, then $19, $49 or $99/mo |
| 1 | SponsorGap | sponsor database with managed outreach | 7 | $39, $89 or $199/mo; managed $999/mo plus 10%, or $2,999/mo |
| 3 | SponsorLeads | sponsor database | 6 | $97/mo, $970/yr or $997 one time |
| 3 | Sponsy | sponsorship manager | 6 | $0/mo with 5 booked slots, then $5 a booked slot; Pro from $49/mo |
| 5 | Hecto | marketplace | 5 | 0 pounds/mo; 5% fee plus Stripe charges |
| 5 | Passionfroot | storefront and brand network | 5 | $0; 15% on deals it matches, a 2% fee the brand covers |
| 5 | Sponsorships.ai | marketplace | 5 | $15/mo or $90/yr; 0% commission |
| 8 | SponsorCal | booking page | 4 | no subscription; 5% of each booking |
| 8 | Who Sponsors Stuff | sponsor database | 4 | free plan; Sales Pro on request |
| 10 | BuySellAds | ad sales team | 3 | not published; apply |
| 10 | Kit | ad network | 3 | 23.5% of ad revenue; paid plan needed |
| 10 | Paved | marketplace and ad network | 3 | free account; its cut is not stated |
| 10 | beehiiv Ad Network | ad network | 3 | needs a paid plan; its cut is not stated |
| 14 | Wellput | pay-per-click network | 2 | no publisher fee stated |
| 15 | Appeared.in | sponsor database | 1 | not published; demo |
Ties share a rank and are listed alphabetically.
What each top service misses
- Book a Sponsor states no figure for sponsors booked. Its pricing page gives a reply figure instead: 155 brands said yes to 42,142 pitches in the last 30 days, 3.7 per 1,000, which is not the same as a booked deal. Its pitches are cold email, so most brands will not answer. The 200 starting emails need a card and a $1 card check, then plans run $19 a month for 600 emails to $99 for 3,000, and follow-ups count against those emails.
- SponsorGap states no outcome figure either. On its $39, $89 and $199 plans the publisher writes and sends every pitch, and its managed outreach starts at $999 a month plus a 10% success fee.
- SponsorLeads has no free plan, only a sample of last week's leads on its homepage, and it does not pitch or bring sponsors. Its terms give no refunds on monthly plans.
- Sponsy does not find sponsors. It runs the calendar, deals and reports for sponsors the publisher already has.
- Hecto takes 5% of each booking and states no count of the brands that buy through it.
- Passionfroot takes 15% of deals it matches, and its brands are B2B.
- Sponsorships.ai has no free plan and its FAQ says the rates a creator publishes are set by that creator, not promised by the service.
What a $1,000 deal leaves
Where a service states a percentage, the share of a $1,000 deal that stays with the publisher follows from it. The flat-price services take nothing from the deal, so their cost is the fee in the table above.
| Service | What it takes | Left of 1000 before flat fees | Basis | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hecto | 5% fee on a successful transaction, plus Stripe charges | 950 | $1,000 deal | https://www.hecto.io/pricing |
| SponsorCal | 5% of each booking; the page says the publisher keeps 95% | 950 | $1,000 booking | https://sponsorcal.com/ |
| Passionfroot | 15% on deals it matches you with (payment fees included); a 2% fee on every transaction that the brand covers | 850 | $1,000 matched deal | https://www.passionfroot.me/creator-pricing |
| Kit | 23.5% of total ad revenue | 765 | $1,000 of ad revenue | https://help.kit.com/en/articles/8532157-monetizing-your-emails-with-kit-newsletter-sponsorships |
| SponsorGap managed plan | 10% success fee on the $999 a month managed plan, plus the $999 | 900 | $1,000 deal won through the managed plan | https://sponsorgap.com/pricing |
| Sponsorships.ai | 0% commission; $15 a month membership | 1,000 | $1,000 deal | https://sponsorships.ai/ |
| Book a Sponsor | no commission or revenue share; flat monthly plan from $19 | 1,000 | $1,000 deal | https://bookasponsor.com/pricing |
| Sponsy | no commission stated; $5 per booked slot after the first 5 | 1,000 | $1,000 deal | https://getsponsy.com/pricing |
Kit's 23.5% applies to ad revenue it places, not to a sponsorship the publisher sells. SponsorGap's 10% applies only to its $999 a month managed plan. Stripe's payment charges are extra on Hecto.
Method
Checked 24 October 2026. Every source page in services.csv was read again on 24 October 2026. One price changed since 6 October: Book a Sponsor moved from a $20 credit and 10 cents per email to a $1 card check for 200 emails and plans from $19 a month. The other 14 pages state what they stated on 6 October. No service's criteria score changed. The next re-check is due 7 November 2026.
Sample. Services that AI assistants named when asked 30 buyer questions about finding newsletter sponsors, in a scan run on 6 October 2026 (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, 119 answers to the category prompts), plus Book a Sponsor. A service was included when at least 5 of the 119 answers named it. Left out: MediaPact, whose commission page did not load as text on 6 October 2026; Swapstack, which beehiiv bought in September 2023 (beehiiv's announcement); and LiveIntent, which sells programmatic email advertising after a demo.
Reading. Each service's home, pricing, fee, FAQ and help pages, read on 6 October 2026 with a browser user agent. Page text that loads only through scripts was not counted. A criterion counts only when the service's own page states it. The ai_answers_naming column in services.csv counts the answers that named each service; Book a Sponsor's count (16) also counts the name Sponsor Radar.
Book a Sponsor. Book a Sponsor was scored on the same 8 criteria from its own public pages, and its sponsor count comes from its own records.
Data
services.csv has one row per service with every criterion, the price as published and its source page. what-a-1000-dollar-deal-leaves.csv has the stated percentages and the arithmetic.
- Services and criteria One row per service: its type, each of the 8 criteria (1 met, 0 not met or not stated), the total, how many of 119 AI answers named it, the price as published and the source page.
- Criteria met by service Total criteria met out of 8 for each service.
- Services meeting each criterion For each criterion, how many of the 15 services meet it.
- What a $1,000 deal leaves For the services that state what they take, the share taken and what is left of a $1,000 deal before any flat fee, from the service's own stated percentage.
How to cite: Carroway Research. "6 of 15 services that find newsletter sponsors don't say what they take from a publisher." 6 October 2026, updated 24 October 2026. https://carrowayresearch.com/reports/newsletter-sponsor-finding-services