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The 10 Best Substack Alternatives of 2023
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This article will cover the best Substack alternatives for creating beautiful newsletters. The platform enables comic creators, writers, podcasters, and bloggers to send digital newsletters to their subscribers and earn through monthly subscription newsletters. Substack has many unique features but needs more SEO and blogging capabilities.
This may cause many creators to consider switching platforms and look for one that offers better builder tools, more comprehensive, and versatile tools. In this sense, this article will show you, in detail, other Substack alternatives.
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Substack Alternative
1. Patreon
The Patreon platform is the first alternative on our list. Patreon is a membership platform. It provides business tools for various content creators to perform subscription services. So the platform enables its creators to offer their fans exclusive content and information about their creative process and community.
Patreon can be your great ally to earn your monthly income through your members’ monthly subscription. So you don’t have to depend on ad revenue. You can enjoy features like direct conversations with your subscribers without ads, algorithms, or trolls.
The platform gives you creative control, so you can create what you like and what your audience will love. If you compare Patreon and Substack, it is much more versatile. It welcomes all kinds of online creators like musicians, journalists, writers, podcasters, visual artists, and many others
Getting started on the platform is free. Patreon charges a 5% to 12% subscription fee when you start earning on the forum and another price for processing subscription payments.
2. Write.as
Write.as is a online publishing platform that helps, and makes it easy to publish content on the internet. So you can write and publish a weekly newsletter, journal, blog, or subscription and share all your ideas with the world.
Write. As designed for writing, with its clean editor and a minimalist interface, it gives you more attention so that you can concentrate on your work. And so it enables readers’ experiences to be better and without distractions.
It is straightforward to publish on the platform. Once you have finished writing, you must click the post, which will be sent to your subscriber list, social media accounts, or the web.
This online publishing platform gives you complete control over your web presence as you can add a custom domain name. What is more, you can add a custom theme to be your own. Also, self-host your site or export your work with WriteFreely, an open-source application behind Write.as.
Your audience can choose where to access your work, whether on the social media platform, web, email, or RSS.
An awe-inspiring fact about Writer.as is that they really value your privacy. In that respect, you can write whatever you want, which will not be tracked.
And Write, unlike Substack, which has a suite of products to help you enrich your publishing experience.
For example, Submit.as allows you to accept submissions in written form, review each one, and publish them directly to a publication. This submission process is easy and only requires some writers to sign up.
Another helpful tools is Snap.as it allows you to publish and share photos on the web. And then there is Remark. Where you can start conversations about a blog.
Write.as offers option for subscribers a 14-day free trial , after which you can upgrade to a Team or Pro plan, and prices range from $6 to $25 per month.
3. Ghost
Ghost is an online publishing platform for online creators to publish, develop and share a brand around their content.
The platform allows you to grow your audience by instinctively turning your clicks into contacts with other signup forms. Substack, for example, does not have this feature.
With Ghost, you can get your audience a more detailed engagement analysis. And this will help you to notice what kind of content your audience prefers and identify your subscriber base.
When you connect your account to Stripe, you can offer your audience a premium and earn money from subscriptions. Best of all, Ghost will not charge you any fees or transaction fees to pay.
Ghost is linked to all your favorite tools to improve your workflow. So you can automate many daily tasks, collect analytics, harmonize data, and much more. And you have access to professionally custom theme that you can choose from.
There is also an extensive library of resources to help you share your content and expand your business. The platform offers a 14-day trial and other plans to choose from in the future.
4. Letterdrop
The platform helps you increase traffic efficiently with a legitimate content workflow for high-growth businesses.
At first, it is essential to rank content ideas with your entire team based on SEO potential and your goals. Then you will quickly determine what you should write about and rank on Google and in email. This is a feature that sets it apart from Substack.
Letterdrop allows you to publish content in a newsletter or an SEO-optimized blog, share it on social media, or share it with your new email subscribers.
And in this sense, you can analyze whether your readers are converting into customers through observation.
What if support and sales help you with content ideas? Contribute to these teams by sharing some ideas for marketing via Slack or email, and evaluate and choose what to write about.
You’ll be able to keep up with the workflow, content calendar, and Letterdrop approval. You will be able to stay more consistent with your newsletters and publications.
The platform is constantly updated with Google practices, so publishing newsletters, blogs, and social media become easy.
Letterdrop lets you synchronize your email with your CRM to market your workflows. Letter drop is also compatible with Zapier, connecting your data with over 2,000 applications.
And join the platform’s partner program. You will get many benefits, including free marketing, affiliate revenue, training, new customers, and priority support.
5. Medium
It is a newsletter platforms where you can write, read and connect with millions of readers. Medium allows you to publish stories on any subject for free.
Medium is not limited to a specific writer. You can write here if you are a thought leader, an expert, or a person with a good perspective. It creates a vast space for your thoughts.
You can share your diverse thoughts with the help of a wide suite of tools and earn extra money from your publications on the platform. And you can choose whether you want to write once a week or once a month.
The platform allows you to collaborate with other individuals or create your own brand, then add a name so your readers can identify your space.
With the built-in analytics feature, you can evaluate what is working based on your posts and then decide which content model you should focus more on.
On Medium, the monetization model is different from Substack. For Medium, your payment is based on the time members spend reading your posts. To qualify, you must publish a story, have more than 100 followers, and continue to publish actively on the platform.
It is possible to earn money by referring readers and making 50% of your membership fee. And members can enjoy unlimited access to many stories for only $5 per month.
6. MailerLite
This platform allows email marketing and also helps to create websites for businesses. MailerLite will enable you to create a newsletter with the editor you like best, custom HTML, rich text, or drag-and-drop. With it, you can start with the templates and create a campaign to meet your goals.
You can grow your audience and make them subscribers by using MailerLite’s built-in sites, pop-ups, landing pages, and forms.
With available features such as A/B testing, segmentation, and surveys, you can test campaigns, analyze your audience’s preferences, and work to make your content more enjoyable.
You can make more money on the platform by monetizing your newsletters with subscriptions or selling digital products in your email and landing pages.
The advanced email automation feature allows you to establish greater trust with your subscribers, and you will be able to increase your engagement. In Substack, you won’t find this feature.
MailerLite allows you to start with a free plan and upgrade as your subscriptions grow. The paid model is based on the number of subscribers and starts at $10 per month for 1,000 subscribers.
7. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a full-featured marketing platform, a digital publishing platform that allows you to manage and communicate with your subscribers or customers. Within the forum are tutorials and videos to help you on your new business journey, seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day.
The software links to Chargebee to collect recurring payments of newsletter subscriptions, SaaS, and other subscription-based services for certain e-commerce businesses.
Mailchimp merge fields help you track your membership plans. Groups and segments allow you easily send personalized content to your target audience.
Mailchimp has a flexible value plan for a beginner or those with many contacts.
8. Wattpad
A platform for online social reading, it allows its users to write and read unique stories. The app can be used on iOS and Android.
So Wattpad helps you create a community without borders between writers and readers. One story can connect a community of over 90 million writers and readers.
The platform collaborates with entertainment industries, so your story can become a big hit. If your account is original and succeeds in captivating many readers, it could be an upcoming movie on television.
Wattpad books help you realize your dreams by publishing your stories and selling them worldwide. This can motivate you to write more, increase your audience and show the world your potential. Substack does not have this capability.
9. Beehive
This platform has many built-In feature that Substack has, like paid subscriptions, hosting on your site and on the web, and an excellent interface for writing.
Beehive allows you to use a Beehiiv-style website, similar to Substack, or integrate it into your website. And it offers a variety suite of tools for capturing email subscribers.
The platform has a referral program feature, which allows you to encourage your newsletter subscribers to share your work with their friends, something we need to see on many platforms.
Beehiiv has excellent email customization options, so you can customize the formatting and design of newsletters. They also allow linking with other applications and site creators. For example, you can integrate with Revue and enable individuals to subscribe to your Twitter newsletter.
The Launch subscription is free, Grow costs $42 per month, and Scale $84 per month. Each subscription pricing tier has more builder tools. As such, you can start using the platform for free with up to 2,500 subscribers. You only need to pay for another plan when that number increases or if you prefer access to more features and editorial tools.
10. Revue
The platform is a newsletter tool and is a solid alternative to Substack. Revue, purchased by Twitter, allows individuals to subscribe to its paid newsletter through their tweets and Twitter profiles.
Then you will have a Revue profile page to promote your newsletters and display your back issues.
Revue provides a primary interface to customize and create your content. It has a built-in subscriber management system, and you can update, import, add, or even delete subscribers. And to receive your recurring subscription payments, you must log in to your Stripe account.
These are some key features of Revue: embeddable subscription forms, sending emails immediately or on schedule, detailed engagement insights, and integration with Facebook, Pocket, Instagram, and others. The platform is free, but the downside is that Revue collects 5% of your paid newsletter revenue and more processing fees.
Final Thoughts
So, there are many good options for indie creators, newsletter writer and independent writer. This whole list of ours Substack alternatives, and many other tools we haven’t mentioned, can be an option to start your journey as a writer or content creator, newsletter creators.
And we have come to the end of the list with the best and advanced feature alternatives for you. This article helped you find a viable option to start your work and generate an extra money income.
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Paul Martinez is the founder of EcomSidekick.com. He is an expert in the areas of finance, real estate, eCommerce, traffic and conversion.
Join him on EcomSidekick.com to learn how to improve your financial life and excel in these areas. Before starting this media site, Paul built from scratch and managed two multi-million dollar companies. One in the real estate sector and one in the eCommerce sector.