Substack made paid newsletters normal. It also made a lot of writers realize, a few years in, that the platform they started on isn't necessarily the one they want to grow on.

This guide compares the Substack alternatives writers actually move to. We build one of them, Peakub, so read our section with that in mind. We've tried to be as specific about where Peakub is the wrong choice as about where it's the right one, because a switch you regret costs you more than a switch you never made.

What Substack does well

It's worth being clear about this before looking elsewhere, because you'll be giving some of it up.

Starting is free, and you only pay when you earn. The writing experience is simple enough that you never think about it. And Substack has something most newsletter tools don't: a network. Notes and cross-publication recommendations send new readers your way, and for many writers that's where a large share of new subscribers comes from.

If you're early, writing mostly for free, and growing through Substack's recommendations, staying put is a perfectly reasonable decision.

Why writers start looking

The reasons come up again and again in creator communities, and they're rarely all the same for one person.

The cut grows with you. Substack keeps 10% of paid subscription revenue, on top of payment processing. At a few hundred dollars a month that's easy to ignore. At a few thousand, it's a salary.

Paid subscriptions are the main business model. If you'd like readers to support you in other ways, with a one-off tip or a single paid item, your options are limited.

A newsletter is all you get. If your readers want to do more together than open an email, whether that's reading the same book or discussing it week by week, you'll need other tools and other logins.

Every publication looks like Substack. You can change colors and a logo, but readers still land on something that feels like the platform first and your publication second.

You depend on one company's decisions. Writers have reported accounts suspended with little explanation, and income cut off while they wait. Whatever the merits of any single case, it's a reminder that your audience lives on someone else's infrastructure.

Start with why you're leaving

The most useful way to choose isn't a ranking. It's matching the platform to the problem you actually have.

If fees are the main issue, you have two kinds of options. Peakub works like Substack, free until you earn, but takes 8% of what readers pay you instead of 10%, and 5% if you migrate an existing publication. beehiiv, Ghost, Kit and Buttondown take no percentage and charge a monthly price instead. Do the maths at your current revenue, not your hoped-for revenue.

If you want readers to pay you in more ways than a subscription, look for a platform where tips and one-off payments are built in rather than bolted on.

If your readers are a community rather than a mailing list, and you want book clubs, discussion and a social feed that brings people back to your publication, that's what we built Peakub for.

If you want to grow faster and earn from sponsors, beehiiv's ad network and growth tools are built for exactly that.

If you want to own and control every part of the stack, Ghost, and especially self-hosted Ghost, gives you the most independence, in exchange for more setup.

If you mostly sell products or courses alongside your newsletter, Kit's automation will serve you better than any newsletter-first platform.

Substack alternatives at a glance

Platform	Best for	What you pay	Ways readers can pay	Built-in reader discovery
Substack	Getting started, growing through recommendations	Free, then 10% of revenue + processing	Subscriptions	Yes (Notes, recommendations)
Peakub	Community-driven publications, book clubs	Free, then 8% of revenue + processing (5% if you migrate)	Subscriptions, tips, one-time payments	Yes (social feed, explore)
beehiiv	Growth and sponsorship revenue	Monthly plan, no cut of subscriptions	Subscriptions, ads	Yes (ad network, Boosts)
Ghost	Full ownership and control	Hosting, no cut of revenue	Subscriptions	No
Kit	Email automation and selling products	Monthly plan, no cut of revenue	Subscriptions, digital products	No
Buttondown	Minimal, privacy-minded newsletters	Monthly plan, no cut of revenue	Subscriptions	No
Steady	Memberships for independent media	10% of revenue + processing	Memberships	No
Patreon	Multi-format creators, memberships	10% of revenue + processing	Memberships, shop	No
Medium	Reaching readers without building a list	Free, paid from a shared membership pool	Member reads	Yes (algorithmic feed)

The alternatives, one by one

Peakub

Peakub is a publishing platform for writers whose readers want more than an email. Every publication is a newsletter and a website at once, living on your own domain if you like, with posts sent by email automatically through Peakub's own sending infrastructure. Three things set it apart from Substack.

Free to start, free to grow, and a smaller cut

Peakub is 100% free to start, and it stays free as your audience grows, however many subscribers you have. We only make money when you do: once readers start paying you, Peakub takes 8%, on top of payment processing, compared to Substack's 10%. If you migrate an existing publication, from Substack or elsewhere, it's 5%. Every payment in your wallet shows the gross amount, the processing fee and Peakub's fee line by line, so you always know how a payment became what you're paid.

A wallet built in, not just a paywall

Every publication comes with a wallet. Readers can support you with a paid subscription, a one-off tip for a piece they loved, or a one-time payment for a single item, and all of it lands in the same balance. You get paid out automatically on a schedule, or whenever you ask, to creators in the EU and EEA, the UK, Switzerland, the US and Canada. Because payments run through one wallet rather than a single subscription button, it's also where more ways to get paid will arrive over time.

Creator tools beyond the newsletter

A Peakub publication can also run book clubs: a group reads one book at a time, at a pace you set, and discussion happens in coverages you publish as the read progresses. Readers comment where the writing is, follow the publications and clubs they like, and find new ones through a shared feed. That feed is designed to send readers back to publications rather than keep them scrolling somewhere else, so it gives priority to creators' own content and to posts that link back to a publication. Alongside that, you get standalone pages, reusable blurbs, referral tracking and podcast episodes next to your writing.

Your audience stays yours: your subscriber list can be exported whenever you want it. We're also explicit about what we won't host: we welcome opinions from across the political spectrum, but not publications that promote supremacy, segregation, racism or antisemitism.

Good fit if your publication is really a community, if you run or want to run a book club, or if you want readers to support you in more ways than a subscription without paying anything until they do.

Think twice if sponsorships are your main revenue, or if you rely on automated email funnels. See "When Peakub isn't the right choice" below.

beehiiv

beehiiv is the closest thing to a direct Substack replacement built around growth. It doesn't take a cut of paid subscriptions; instead you pay a monthly plan, with a free tier for smaller lists. Its ad network and Boosts, where publications pay each other for subscriber recommendations, make it the strongest option if sponsorships are part of your plan.

Good fit if you think of your newsletter as a media business and want analytics, referrals and ad revenue in one place.

Think twice if you're earning little yet, because the monthly plan is due whether or not you make money.

Ghost

Ghost is open source and run by a non-profit foundation. It never takes a percentage of your revenue: you either pay for managed hosting or host it yourself. It's a full publishing system, with a proper website, memberships and newsletters, and strong SEO.

Good fit if owning your stack matters more to you than convenience, or if you have someone technical around.

Think twice if you rely on a platform to bring you readers. Ghost has no discovery network, so all growth is your own work.

Kit

Kit, formerly ConvertKit, is an email marketing platform built for creators. Its strength is automation: welcome sequences, launch funnels and selling digital products, with a large library of integrations. It's free up to a generous subscriber count.

Good fit if your newsletter supports a business that sells courses, templates or products.

Think twice if you mostly publish essays or journalism. Kit is shaped around marketing, and it has no reader community or discovery.

Buttondown

Buttondown is small, independent and deliberately minimal. You write in Markdown, it respects your readers' privacy, and it takes no cut of your revenue. It's free for very small lists, and features like paid subscriptions are paid add-ons.

Good fit if you want a quiet, reliable tool that does one thing and stays out of your way.

Think twice if you want growth tools or a website beyond a simple archive.

Steady

Steady was founded by journalists and has been running for about a decade. It focuses on memberships for independent media, handles VAT for you, and takes a flat 10% commission.

Good fit if you're a journalist or podcaster who mainly needs reliable membership and payment infrastructure.

Think twice if you want a writing platform with reader discovery or community features. Steady is payment infrastructure first.

Patreon

Patreon is the best-known membership platform, with a huge existing base of paying patrons. It suits creators who publish in several formats, like video, audio, art and writing, rather than newsletter writers specifically.

Good fit if your writing is one part of a broader creative output.

Think twice if email is your main channel. Patreon isn't built around the newsletter, and its fees stack up once processing and currency conversion are included.

Medium

Medium brings readers to you through its own feed, and pays writers from a shared membership pool based on how members engage with their stories.

Good fit if you want readers without building and maintaining a subscriber list.

Think twice if you want a direct relationship with your audience. You don't get a subscriber list you control, and earnings from the pool can change without much warning.

When Peakub isn't the right choice

We'd rather you pick the right platform than the wrong one with our name on it. Peakub is probably not for you, at least not yet, if:

you already earn a lot, since past a certain revenue a flat monthly plan costs less than any percentage, even a small one

you're counting on sponsorship revenue from an ad network, which we don't have

you need automated email sequences or funnels

you sell courses, or need a native mobile app for your readers

Moving from Substack to Peakub

Peakub has a free, built-in migration tool, and publications you migrate get a 5% rate instead of 8%. Paste your Substack URL when you create a publication, and your free public posts start coming across straight away, no export needed. To bring paywalled posts and your subscribers, download your export file from Substack (Settings, then Advanced) and upload it in Studio. It also confirms that you own the publication. You can follow the progress of every post and subscriber from your dashboard, and move your custom domain over once you're done.

Podcast episodes don't come across automatically yet, so plan to re-upload those. The full steps are in our Substack migration guide. If you're coming from beehiiv, Steady, WordPress, Blogger or Mailchimp instead, there's a guide for each.

Frequently asked questions

Is Peakub free?

Yes. Peakub is free to start and free to scale, with no plan to upgrade as your list grows. We only take a cut once readers start paying you: 8% plus payment processing, or 5% if you migrated your publication.

Which Substack alternative takes the smallest cut?

beehiiv, Ghost, Kit and Buttondown take no percentage and charge a monthly price or hosting fee instead. Among platforms that are free until you earn, Peakub takes 8%, or 5% if you migrate, against 10% for Substack, Steady and Patreon. Which is cheaper for you depends on how much you earn: below a certain revenue, a small percentage costs less than a fixed monthly bill, and nothing at all while you're not earning yet.

Can I take my subscribers with me when I leave Substack?

Yes. Substack lets you download an export of your subscriber list, and most platforms, Peakub included, can import it. Your paid subscribers' billing is a separate question, so check how your new platform handles moving existing payments before you switch. And if you ever leave Peakub, your list comes with you too.

Will my Substack Notes followers and recommendations come with me?

No. Followers and recommendations are part of Substack's network, not your subscriber list, so they stay on Substack. Your subscribers and your posts are what you can bring.

Can readers tip me instead of subscribing?

On Substack, not really. On Peakub, yes: tips, subscriptions and one-time payments all land in the same wallet. Patreon, Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee also support tipping, but they aren't built around a newsletter.

Ready to see if Peakub fits?

If your readers are more than a list, start a publication on Peakub for free, bring your Substack archive with you in a few minutes, and pay just 5% on what your readers pay you from then on.

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