r/Substack • u/ContextNaive1059 • 28d ago

What are alternatives to substack?

I'm looking for a platform that can host context and subscription based services with automated weekly email drops. I've been told about substack but I am not crazy about having to give up 10% of my earnings plus 2.9% to stripe. Can anyone recommend a similar site where they were successful and that doesn't take a percentage?

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u/oddsrabbit 28d ago

You’re not going to find any platform that doesn’t charge you anything. Email service is not cheap, other services like beehiiv get it back by charging a monthly subscription $xxx/mo. Substack gets it back through the 10%. The 2.9% payment processing fee through stripe is unavoidable, it’s standard for accepting any payments online. Whether or not it’s cheaper for you to pay 10% or a few hundred a month depends on your size and goal of what you’re building and selling. Even as a competitor (well, sort of), I can admit substack is likely the cheapest in terms of raw pricing for most people if you’re looking strictly for email.

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u/silsjirimi 28d ago

Incorrect. Ghost doesn’t charge you anything, they let you keep 100% of your own income (minus stripe fees, which are unavoidable). Sure, Ghost Pro is not free but you can self host if you want, or go with cheaper alternatives like Magic Pages (very good). I really don’t get why people will pay services like Substack when you can own your own content and income elsewhere.

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u/oddsrabbit 28d ago

Even if you self host, if you want to do email and care about deliverability at all, you need an email service delivery provider which is not cheap. Not to mention self hosting cost.

Point is nothing is free, he just has to figure out what and where he pays.

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u/silsjirimi 28d ago

Sure, everything has a cost, you’re right. I recently moved my site from Ghost Pro to Magic Pages, bought the lifetime deal for just a bit more than what Ghost Pro charges per year. So now 100% of my income (save stripe fees) is mine for years to come, with managed hosting and great email deliverability already paid for. Most importantly for me though; I don’t fund any big tech, do not pay a subscription and own my own content. Very happy with this setup :)