Substack Review: Features, Pricing, & Alternatives

Substack is ideal for writers seeking an easy-to-use platform for newsletters, with excellent monetization options. However, it lacks advanced customization features.

Dive into our detailed review to uncover this popular tool’s strengths and limitations.

SMB Guide’s Verdict for Substack

Substack received a rating of 5.6 out of 10 due to significant drawbacks, including the absence of marketing automation capabilities, frequent software errors, and limited personalization and customization options.

These issues hinder the user experience and functionality for creators, making it challenging to effectively manage and grow their newsletters.

Factor	Rating (out of 10)
Pricing & Plans	10
Marketing Automation Capabilities	1
Email Builder	5
Personalization and Customization	5
Campaign Performance Tracking	5
User Interface and User Experience	6
Integrations and Compatibility	5
Customer Support	8
SMB Guide Rating	5.6

In this review of Substack, I’ve followed SMB Guide’s detailed criteria for evaluating the newsletter platform.

Pricing & Plans

Substack’s pricing model is straightforward: it’s free to use for both writers and readers. However, if a writer decides to offer paid subscriptions, Substack takes a 10% fee from the subscription revenue.

This allows writers to monetize their content without any upfront costs, while Substack earns a share from the earnings generated through paid subscriptions.

Marketing Automation Capabilities

Substack does not offer advanced marketing automation capabilities like some other email marketing platforms. It focuses on simplicity and ease of use, providing basic tools for newsletter creation and distribution.

While you can schedule posts and manage subscriber lists, features like automated email sequences or complex workflows are not part of Substack’s offerings.

Email Builder

The email builder is very basic, which is great for people who want something simple. It looks like a basic WordPress blog post editor, which you use to publish content.

Then, when you publish the content, you can email your subscriber list.

While it doesn’t have advanced design features like drag-and-drop elements or extensive templates, it supports basic text formatting, image insertion, and hyperlinking, making it ideal for writers prioritizing content over design.

If you want more comprehensive options or automation capabilities with dynamic content insertion, you won’t be happy with Substack.

Personalization & Customization

Substack offers limited personalization and customization options, focusing on simplicity and ease of use. Writers can customize their newsletter’s appearance by selecting from a few themes and adjusting basic elements like the header and logo.

However, advanced customization features, such as custom HTML or CSS, are not available. Personalization is also minimal, with no options for dynamic content or personalized subscriber experiences.

Substack’s approach is to keep the platform straightforward, allowing writers to concentrate on content creation rather than design complexities.

Campaign Performance Tracking

Substack provides basic campaign performance tracking features to help writers understand how their newsletters are performing. Users can access metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber growth over time.

These analytics offer insights into reader engagement and can help writers make informed decisions about their content strategy.

However, Substack’s analytics are relatively simple compared to more advanced email marketing platforms, which may offer deeper insights and more detailed reporting capabilities.

User Interface and User Experience

I appreciated the simplicity of the platform, but was greatly disappointed with the user experience overall.

Every time I tried to do something to edit my newsletter or customize it, I got the dreaded “Page Unresponsive” message from Chrome.

It made for a miserable experience writing this review.

Integrations and Compatibility

Substack has limited integrations compared to some other platforms. It primarily focuses on providing a streamlined experience for writers and readers.

However, it does offer some basic integrations, such as:

• Social Media Sharing: You can easily share your Substack posts on platforms like Twitter and Facebook to reach a broader audience.
• Payment Processing: Substack integrates with Stripe to handle paid subscriptions, allowing writers to monetize their content seamlessly.
• Podcast Hosting: Substack supports podcasting, enabling writers to publish audio content alongside their newsletters.

While these integrations cover essential functions, Substack does not offer a wide range of third-party app integrations like some other email marketing services.

Customer Support

Substack’s customer support is primarily offered through online resources and email support. They provide a help center with articles and guides covering common questions and issues, which can be a useful first stop for troubleshooting.

For more specific inquiries, users can reach out to Substack’s support team via email. However, they do not offer live chat or phone support, which means response times might vary.

The focus is on providing self-service resources to help users resolve issues independently.

Substack — Unique Features

Substack offers several unique features that set it apart from other newsletter platforms:

• Integrated Publishing and Monetization: Substack combines content creation and monetization, allowing writers to publish newsletters and charge subscribers directly through the platform.
• Community Building: Writers can build a community around their content, engaging directly with subscribers through comments and discussions.
• Podcast Support: Substack supports audio content, enabling writers to publish podcasts alongside their written newsletters, all within the same platform.
• Simplicity and Focus: The platform is designed to be straightforward and easy to use, allowing writers to focus on content creation without getting bogged down by complex tools or features.
• Subscription Management: Substack handles all aspects of subscription management, including payment processing and subscriber communications, making it easier for writers to manage their audience.

These features make Substack an attractive option for writers looking to monetize their content while building a dedicated audience.

What the Experts Say About Substack

• Product Hunt rating: 4/5 (27 reviews)
• TrustRadius rating: 4.3/5 (8 reviews)
• Google Play rating:  4.8/5 (45.9K reviews)

“We use Substack for PreSeed Now. It’s a twice-weekly email newsletter which unearths and profiles early stage B2B and DeepTech startups who are actively raising investment. It has some really cool features, particularly around intelligently trying to grow your paid subscriber base within the software. Drawbacks are that it doesn’t play nice with other apps. It’s hard / impossible for me to integrate it into anything else we use such as Notion, Hubspot, etc. and the stats are limited, so it’s frustrating. I do get that this is partly due to them wanting to keep users focused on growing high quality newsletters, but it does leave little room to grow if you’re adding extra products to your suite.”

On Product Hunt, Samantha D. says:

“The world’s in dire need of independent, unbiased, dissemination of news. This app has the potential to be a game changer. However, they have a lot of work to do. Nothing is intuitive. it’s difficult to sort publications or save articles in lists. I’ve deleted it several times for the email/push notifications, alone. After learning a workaround, I’ve finally gotten that in check. Most importantly, there is a wealth of great content. Please make it easier to aggregate this wonderful content.”

Andrew G. says

Substack Alternatives

Not 100% sure Substack is the right answer for your business? Take a look at these other options:

Mailchimp

Mailchimp and Substack cater to different needs and audiences, each offering unique features. Mailchimp is a comprehensive email marketing platform with advanced tools like automation, segmentation, A/B testing, and detailed analytics, making it ideal for businesses and marketers managing large email campaigns.

Start your free trial of Mailchimp today

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a powerful email marketing platform tailored for e-commerce businesses, offering advanced features like segmentation, automation, and detailed analytics to optimize customer engagement and drive sales.

Get started with Klaviyo for free

Beehiiv

Substack and Beehiiv both cater to newsletter creators but offer different features and benefits. Substack focuses on simplicity and content monetization, allowing writers to publish newsletters and charge subscribers directly.

Start your free trial of Beehiiv today

Other options: Best Substack alternatives

Getting Started with Substack

Substack stands out for its simplicity and effective monetization capabilities. Substack offers a straightforward platform that eliminates the need for complex marketing tools.

Its cost-effective model, taking only a 10% cut of subscription revenue, further enhances its appeal to those starting with paid newsletters. Substack is best suited for writers and content creators seeking an easy-to-use solution to publish and monetize their newsletters while focusing on content and audience engagement.

FAQs

Related reading:

• Substack vs. Beehiiv
• Substack vs. Mailchimp