Authors are escaping the Substack tax

Substack, a once popular platform, is losing new writers to platforms that many people have never heard of. last month, The Anklerone of Substack’s most popular publications, it was left on a platform that gives a lot of power to its site. Others have left Substack In the past year they have also announced similar complaints citing the platform’s impact on social media and pricing which is disrupting their business.

Substack met the talent in 2024 connected to his tower about Nazi storiesbut now it’s not just the platform’s stance on hate speech that’s driving creators away.

Sean Highkin, creator of a book focused on the NBA The Rose Garden Reporthe says The Verge that he earns “more money” after switching from Substack to Ghost last April. “When I first joined, (Substack) gave me a big push and showed me and sent me a lot of traffic, which led to my growth,” says Highkin. “But when I wasn’t one of the ‘new talent hires’ they were interested in, they stopped showing me and I saw my growth slow down.” Highkin now pays $2,052 a year for Ghost and an add-on called Outpost, compared to $4,968 a year for Substack. The Rose Garden ReportEnrollment has grown by 22 percent since the end of 2024, Highkin says.

It’s a similar story that developers have switched to other platforms like Beehiiv. Matt Brown, creator of Additional Informationwhich currently has 71,000 subscribers, left Substack in 2021 and eventually landed on Beehiiv, where they save thousands of dollars a year. “Given the size of my book right now, I have to pay Substack over $25,000 a year,” Brown says. “I pay Beehiiv about $3,000-ish in fees.”

The Ankler – a popular entertainment publication – announced plans leaving Substack for Passport, a platform developed through a partnership with WordPress.com owner Automattic and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson. “The change reflects the times that have been taking place: going beyond newsletters to integrated media companies, which are now integrated into one, easy-to-navigate building,” The AnklerJanice Min and Richard Rushfield write in a blog post to describe the change.

Min repeats this in voice to Oliver Darcy’s Condition letter, to say The Ankler “It required more flexibility and control in terms of resources, costs, and audience relationships than the platform (Substack) allowed.” But The Ankler is far from the only popular book that has switched to Substack in recent months. last october, Culture Studies the creator Anne Helen Petersen moved from Substack to Patreon, saying: “I didn’t want to be on a platform that was permanently – not subtly – sponsored.” Condition it also says that The BulwarkMehdi Hassan Of courseand Emily Sundberg Feed me “quietly investigated” moving to another platform.

Substack was founded in 2017 as a platform that allows authors to create their own newsletters and manage paying subscribers. Unlike some of its major competitors, Substack takes 10 percent of all subscription fees. Those fees may seem insignificant at first, but they add up quickly as developers get subscribers and start charging more for subscriptions. A calculator on your Substack website says that for a $10-a-month newsletter with 400 subscribers, the total monthly cost — including a 10 percent commission and credit card fees — would add up to $636. The price jumps to $15,900 per month with 10,000 subscribers and rises to $79,500 per month for 50,000 members – about $1 million per year.

Most Substack players pay a monthly fee, not a service. Ghost, an open source blog and newsletter platform, starts at $15 per month with 1,000 members for website design, email newsletter capabilities, and social media. Beehiiv, a creative platform that includes tools to start a newsletter, website, and podcast, is free for 2,500 subscribers who don’t have access to other features, such as ad networks, while its other plans vary in price depending on the subscriber. Someone with 10,000 subscribers, for example, pays $96 a month for Beehiiv’s “Scale” plan. There is also Kit, a newsletter platform that offers similar pricing to Beehiiv, costing $116 per month with 10,000 subscribers for its “Creator” plan.

Substack’s pricing isn’t the only point of pain for developers, as critics argue that it also locks authors and their subscribers out of the ecosystem. First, Substack has limited integration with third-party software, leaving authors with building blocks that may not have everything they need. It has added several new features over the years, including tools for podcasts, videos, and social networking features like DMs. But it caused controversy earlier this year and his new TV show and including and the Polymarket prediction market.

Developers also have to contend with limited platform options that can make it difficult to get popular on other platforms. Substack puts its own brand under the mail, too, where “.substack.com” also appears in the creator’s address if they don’t buy the domain.

Meanwhile, competing services like Beehiiv and Ghost offer deeper options. In an interview with SeasideBeehiiv founder Tyler Denk compares the platform to Shopify, not Amazon, because it gives developers the tools and infrastructure to build an audience without putting their brand on its members’ websites. “We don’t want to be praised for who we are,” Denk said Seaside. “Shopify is empowering and building millions of websites and businesses, and you’ll never know you’re on a Shopify site, which is so important.”

Substack also makes a lot of money by creating content and content, and while this may help some creators build an audience, it adds. too much pressure to participate tweet “Notes” to appear in algorithmic feeds. Users who “follow” an author through Notes are no longer subscribed to their newsletter, either. This may benefit Substack’s engagement, but it’s a plus for authors if they get a new subscriber.

That’s why Substack owners can send subscribers – not followers – when they leave the platform. Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie kicks back calling the platform a “walled garden,” saying “no walled garden will allow you to post your mailing list, content, and paid relationships at any time.” But he also admits the move isn’t limited to subscribers, saying Notes “is a growth engine that helps you get subscribers, who you can export.”

In addition, Substack started allowing developers to enable in-app payments on its iOS app, but Apple manages this – not publishing – and pays a 30 percent commission. Developers who leave Substack will not be able to retrieve their billing information from Apple.

“We’ve always believed that creators should have their own relationship with their audience, including the right to leave if they choose,” said Hanne Winarsky, chief executive of New Media, in an emailed statement. “At the same time, there are also many examples of publishers and authors who have returned to Substack after trying elsewhere, including SemiAnalysis, Glenn Greenwald, and Joe Posnanski, to name a few.” Substack is working to expand its platform into other markets as well, and paid subscriptions to UK statistics such as Charli XCX, Jamie Oliver, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over 500,000.

Platform developer Creator Casey Newton, who left Substack in 2024says that although the book saves money on Ghost, “the most important thing is that we have a house on the Internet that we control, and everything that the haters change, Substack is forced to make in the future to meet its price that we will not be affected by it.”

Another high-profile departure may not spell the end of Substack, but it could signal a change that positions the platform as a media outlet, rather than a permanent home. Even so, the rise of competing platforms can make it difficult to release new Substack releases that don’t want to be. reduced to the following: Substacks.