Substack is a newsletter and subscription tool where a writer can publish for free or charge readers. In a launch, it is the quickest route to a newsletter with a built in discovery network.
How founders use it
A founder sets up a publication in minutes, writes posts that go to email and to the web, and can turn on paid subscriptions later. It usually takes ten percent of subscription payments, per Wikipedia, and does not earn from publishers’ advertising. Its Notes feed, launched in April 2023, and its recommendation features let one publication send readers to another, which is useful for build in public updates. See Build in public.
What to weigh
Readers often discover writers inside Substack itself, which helps a new author but ties the audience to a platform. Company history is in Substack.
Alternatives
Beehiiv for growth tools and ads, Kit for creators who sell products, and Ghost for a publication on the founder’s own domain.
Related entries
See Substack, Beehiiv, Kit and Ghost.
Substack is part of Communities and communication.
Sources
Wikipedia entry for Substack. Reviewed October 2026.
