Substack is ideal for independent creators; businesses seeking advanced marketing should look at Mailchimp or Brevo.
About
In practice. What you can do with Substack.
Substack is newsletter and blog platform with built-in monetisation. Zero friction. Free to start, paid plans for more. Built for writers and newsletter creators and content creators.
Estimated time saving: 3h/month.
If budget allows, beehiiv goes further.
Practical uses
Publish an independent newsletter and monetize it.
Start a blogOptional paid premium content.
Build a subscriber base for your ideas or expertise.
Publish articles and grow a direct audience.
Features & use cases
Blog
Editeur email
Liste abonnes
Monetisation newsletter
Pros and cons. What Substack does well, and what to expect.
Pros
Completely free to start publishing.
Native monetization with subscriber paywalls.
No monthly fee or minimum spend.
Audience can grow without upfront cost.
Cons
Substack takes a cut of subscription revenue, on top of Stripe fees.
No advanced email automation or segmentation.
Basic analytics compared to marketing platforms.
Less control over pricing and billing.
When it makes sense. Keep Substack, or challenge it?
Keep if
You're a creator or journalist starting a newsletter.
You want free publishing with built-in paid subscriptions.
Challenge if
You need advanced email marketing and automation.
You're doing B2B marketing for a company.
Our verdict. What to know about Substack.
Why this verdict
Great
Substack is fairly easy to replace with an alternative, a free tier to test before paying, clearly documented use cases.