Substack, the as soon as buzzy e-newsletter platform, is shedding a brand new swath of writers to rival platforms most individuals haven’t heard of. Simply final month, The Ankler, considered one of Substack’s hottest publications, left for a platform that offers it extra management over its web site. Others who’ve departed Substack throughout the previous yr voiced comparable complaints and cite the platform’s elevated deal with social options in addition to a pricing mannequin that places a chokehold on their enterprise.
Substack confronted expertise drain in 2024 linked to its platforming of Nazi newsletters, however now it’s not simply the platform’s stance on hate speech that’s driving away creators.
Sean Highkin, the creator of the NBA-focused publication The Rose Backyard Report, tells The Verge that he makes “considerably extra money” after switching from Substack to Ghost final April. “Once I first joined up, [Substack] gave me an enormous push and featured me and funneled plenty of site visitors to me, which led to quantity of progress,” Highkin says. “However as soon as I wasn’t one of many ‘new recruited expertise’ they might tout, they stopped that includes me and I noticed my progress stagnate.” Highkin now pays $2,052 per yr utilizing Ghost and an add-on known as Outpost, in comparison with $4,968 per yr on Substack. The Rose Backyard Report’s subscriber base has grown 22 p.c for the reason that finish of 2024, Highkin says.
It’s the same story for creators switching to different platforms like Beehiiv. Matt Brown, the creator of Additional Factors, which presently has 71,000 subscribers, moved away from Substack in 2021 and finally landed on Beehiiv, the place he saves 1000’s of {dollars} per yr. “Given the dimensions of my publication proper now, I would wish to pay Substack over $25,000 a yr in charges,” Brown says. “I pay Beehiiv round $3,000-ish in charges.”
The Ankler — a preferred publication concerning the leisure business — introduced plans to depart Substack for Passport, a platform created by a partnership with WordPress.com proprietor Automattic and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson. “This transition marks a defining second in what has been underway: a transfer past newsletters into a totally built-in media firm, now all introduced collectively in a single, easy-to-navigate house,” The Ankler’s Janice Min and Richard Rushfield write in a weblog put up explaining the change.
“I didn’t wish to be on a platform that had been steadily — and never so stealthily — enshittified.”
Min echoes this in a press release to Oliver Darcy’s Standing e-newsletter, saying The Ankler “wanted extra flexibility and management throughout merchandise, income, and viewers relationships than the platform [Substack] permits.” However The Ankler is much from the one distinguished publication or e-newsletter that has switched to a Substack different in current months. Final October, Tradition Research creator Anne Helen Petersen moved from Substack to Patreon, saying: “I didn’t wish to be on a platform that had been steadily — and never so stealthily — enshittified.” Standing additionally stories that The Bulwark, Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, and Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me have “quietly explored” shifting to a different platform.
Substack launched in 2017 as a platform that enables writers to create their very own newsletters and handle paying subscribers. Not like a few of its largest rivals, Substack takes a ten p.c minimize of complete subscription income. That tax might not appear substantial at first, however it rapidly provides up as creators achieve subscribers and start charging extra for his or her subscriptions. A calculator on Substack’s personal web site estimates that for a e-newsletter charging $10 per 30 days with 400 subscribers, the overall month-to-month price — together with the platform’s 10 p.c minimize and bank card processing charges — would add as much as $636. That price jumps to $15,900 per 30 days with 10,000 subscribers and skyrockets to $79,500 per 30 days for 50,000 members — practically $1 million per yr.
Many Substack rivals cost a flat month-to-month payment, slightly than a fee. Ghost, an open-source platform for blogs and newsletters, begins at $15 per 30 days with 1,000 members for web site creation, e mail e-newsletter capabilities, and a customized area. Beehiiv, a creator platform with instruments for launching a e-newsletter, web site, and podcast, is free for as much as 2,500 subscribers with restricted entry to sure options, like a built-in advert community, whereas its different plans fluctuate in worth primarily based on subscriber depend. An individual with 10,000 subscribers, for instance, can pay $96 per 30 days for Beehiiv’s “Scale” plan. There’s additionally Equipment, a e-newsletter platform that gives a tiered pricing mannequin just like Beehiiv, costing $116 per 30 days with 10,000 subscribers on its “Creator” plan.
The pricing on Substack isn’t the one ache level for creators, as critics argue that it additionally locks writers and their subscribers right into a closed ecosystem. For one, Substack has restricted integrations with third-party apps, leaving writers with the platform’s set of built-in instruments which may not have every part they want. It has added a number of new options over time, together with instruments for podcasts, movies, and social networking-style options like DMs. But it surely generated controversy earlier this yr with its new TV app and an integration with the prediction market Polymarket.
Creators should additionally cope with the platform’s restricted customization choices that may make it troublesome to face out in a sea of different newsletters. Substack sticks its branding on the backside of newsletters, too, whereas “.substack.com” even seems in a creator’s web site tackle in the event that they don’t buy a customized area.
In the meantime, rival providers like Beehiiv and Ghost supply deeper customization choices. In an interview with The Verge, Beehiiv founder Tyler Denk likens the platform to Shopify, slightly than Amazon, because it provides creators the instruments and infrastructure to construct an viewers with out plastering their model on its members’ web sites. “We don’t wish to take credit score for the work of our content material creators,” Denk tells The Verge. “Shopify is empowering and constructing hundreds of thousands of those retailers’ personal web sites and companies, and also you really would do not know that you just’re on a Shopify web site, which is form of the purpose.”
Substack additionally invests closely in constructing out its personal discovery and advice options, and whereas that will assist some creators construct an viewers, it provides extra stress to take part in writing tweet-style “Notes” to point out up in a person’s algorithmic feed. Customers who “comply with” a author by the Notes function aren’t really subscribing to their e-newsletter, both. This may profit Substack’s engagement, however it’s solely a plus for writers in the event that they get a brand new subscriber out of it.
That’s as a result of Substack homeowners can solely export subscribers — not followers — once they go away the platform. Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie pushes again on claims that the platform is a “walled backyard,” saying “no walled backyard would allow you to export your mailing checklist, content material, and even fee relationships at any second.” However he additionally admits that this portability doesn’t lengthen to followers, saying Notes “is a progress engine that helps you get subscribers, which you’ll be able to then export.”
Moreover, Substack began permitting creators to allow in-app funds on its iOS app, however Apple handles these transactions — not the publication — and expenses a 30 p.c fee. Creators who go away Substack can’t take their Apple-based billing data with them.
“We’ve at all times believed that creators ought to personal their relationship with their viewers, together with the liberty to depart in the event that they select,” Hanne Winarsky, Substack’s head of New Media, says in an emailed assertion. “On the identical time, there are additionally many examples of publishers and writers who’ve returned to Substack after experimenting elsewhere, together with SemiAnalysis, Glenn Greenwald, and Joe Posnanski, to call a number of.” Substack is working to broaden its platform in different markets, too, with paid subscriptions to UK figures like Charli XCX, Jamie Oliver, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer surpassing 500,000.
Platformer creator Casey Newton, who left Substack in 2024, says that whereas the publication is saving cash on Ghost, “the extra essential factor is that we’ve got a house on the open net that we management, and no matter anti-creator modifications Substack is pressured to make sooner or later to dwell as much as its valuation we received’t be affected by.”
Some high-profile departures might not spell the tip of Substack, however it might sign a shift that positions the platform as a jumping-off level for publications, slightly than a everlasting house. Even nonetheless, the rise of rival platforms might make it tougher to land new Substack publications that don’t wish to be decreased to simply that: Substacks.
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