Substack

1. 1

   You create a publication, choose a theme, and start writing. There is no list to configure, no sending domain to authenticate, and no template to build. Substack handles the sending infrastructure entirely on shared reputation across the network, and a publisher has no control over IP warming, throttling, or bounce handling because there is nothing to control.

2. 2

   Every post publishes twice: as an email to subscribers and as an SEO-indexed page on the public web archive. You can gate a post to paid subscribers, make it email-only, or leave it fully public, and the paywall is enforced in both places. Podcasts get an RSS feed that syndicates to Apple and Spotify, and video can be posted natively and monetized.

3. 3

   Monetization runs through Stripe. You connect your own Stripe account, set monthly and annual prices, and can add a founding member tier, group subscriptions, gift subscriptions, free trials, and coupons. Substack applies its 10 percent as a platform application fee on subscriptions it created. Turning paid on is a switch, not a project, which is precisely the friction Substack was built to remove.

4. 4

   Growth happens inside the network as much as outside it. Notes surfaces your writing to people who do not subscribe to you, the recommendations system lets publications recommend each other at signup, category leaderboards and an Explore page provide discovery, and a subscriber referral program rewards readers for bringing others. The 2026 sponsorship program, open to publications with 100 or more paid subscribers, adds advertising revenue with Substack taking no cut during the beta.

No subscription fee and no sending charges. Substack takes 10 percent of gross paid subscription revenue, with Stripe processing fees on top, making the realistic all-in cost roughly 13.6 percent plus 30 cents per transaction. Free publishing is unlimited in both subscriber count and send volume.

Value assessment: Substack's pricing is brilliantly designed for the writer who has not yet made anything and terrible for the writer who has. At zero revenue it is free in a way nothing else is, with no subscriber cap, no send cap, and podcast and video hosting thrown in, so the downside of trying is genuinely nil. The crossover comes fast. A publication earning $50,000 a year pays Substack $5,000, which is several times what Ghost(Pro) or beehiiv would charge to host the same operation with more control. At $200,000 a year the gap is roughly $20,000 annually. What you are buying with that money is distribution: Substack says over 30 percent of paid subscriptions now originate inside its own network, and for many writers that is worth more than the fee. The honest framing is that Substack is a growth channel that bills like a sales commission, and the question is whether it is still originating enough of your subscribers to justify the rate.

Setup time

Under an hour, and it is the fastest setup in this entire category. Choose a name, pick a theme, write a post, publish. There is no list configuration, no sending domain to authenticate, no template to build, and no deliverability setup, because none of that is exposed to you.

Learning curve

Almost none for publishing. The genuine learning curve is in the network: understanding how Notes, restacks, recommendations, and the leaderboards drive growth is where writers who succeed differ from those who do not, and that is a social skill rather than a software one.

Onboarding

Fully self-serve with no sales contact at any stage. Support is by email and an in-app AI chatbot that escalates to a ticket, with no phone or live chat. The publisher-facing blog at on.substack.com functions as the real onboarding material.

Migration notes

Coming in is easy: importers exist for WordPress, Ghost, Medium, beehiiv, Mailchimp, Tumblr, Webflow, and Sanity, covering posts and subscribers. Going out is where the cost sits. You can export all subscriber emails including paid ones, but the billing relationships do not transfer because cards are held under Substack's Stripe platform connection, so every paying subscriber must re-subscribe on the new platform. Legacy subscriptions reportedly keep paying Substack's application fee on renewal until cancelled and recreated. Plan a migration as a re-conversion campaign, not a data transfer.

Platforms

Web applicationiOS and Android appsSubstack TV for Apple TV and Google TVRSS feeds for posts and podcasts

API

No public write API, no webhooks, and no official Zapier integration. A limited official API exists for public creator and publication data, with Developer API Terms published at substack.com/api-tos. Full RSS feeds are available per publication and for podcasts. Unofficial reverse-engineered endpoints exist and are unsupported.

Compliance

EU-US Data Privacy Framework certifiedUK Extension and Swiss-US DPF certifiedGDPR with Bird and Bird as EU and UK representativeCCPA policy published separately

Data residency

Data is stored and processed in the United States with international service providers. Substack acts as controller for its own processing and as processor for creator-side data, which leaves creators with their own separate privacy responsibilities toward their subscribers.

SSO

Not applicable; publications are individual accounts rather than team-managed workspaces.

Security notes

Rights requests are answered within one month. Two security incidents are on record: a July 2020 incident exposing email addresses, and a breach occurring in October 2025 and disclosed in February 2026 that exposed emails and phone numbers. Sending runs on shared network infrastructure with centrally managed suppression and complaint handling.

Channels

Email support at support@substack.comIn-app AI support chatbot that escalates to an email ticketNo phone support and no live chat

Documentation

Help center at support.substack.com plus a publisher-facing blog and documentation at on.substack.com.

Community

Very large informal community of writers on the platform itself, particularly through Notes, which functions as the de facto support and advice channel.

Founded

2017

Headquarters

San Francisco, California, United States

Ownership

Private, venture-backed, founder-led

Founders

Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, Jairaj Sethi

Employees

Roughly 94 as of mid-2022; current headcount not disclosed

Funding

Raised a $15.3M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz in 2019, a $65M Series B in March 2021 led by a16z at a $650M valuation, a Wefunder community round in March 2023 at a $585M pre-money valuation, and roughly $100M in July 2025 at a $1.1 billion valuation led by BOND and The Chernin Group with a16z, Rich Paul, and Jens Grede participating.

Substack is the best place in the world to start a paid newsletter and one of the more expensive places to run a successful one. The economics are genuinely aligned when you have nothing: free publishing at any list size, free podcast and video hosting, no charge for inactive subscribers, and a network that now originates a large share of new subscriptions through Notes, recommendations, and the apps. That alignment inverts as you grow, because 10 percent of gross revenue forever, with no volume discount, becomes tens of thousands of dollars a year while Ghost or beehiiv would charge a flat fee for more control. Add the near-total absence of segmentation and automation, no write API, no design control, and the fact that paid billing relationships cannot follow you out, and Substack starts to look like a growth channel that bills like a sales commission. Start here if you are building an audience from scratch and want distribution more than control. Plan your exit before the revenue makes leaving expensive, because the longer you wait, the more paying subscribers you stand to lose in the move.

Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.