Alternatives to Substack

Substack has become the go-to platform for anyone who wants to publish a newsletter or a blog with paid subscriptions. Simple to use, everything included. The problem is that your content, your newsletters, and your subscribers' data are all hosted in the United States — and Substack has consistently shown little appetite for cleaning up the content it hosts, including material from far-right and neo-Nazi movements, defended in the name of a freedom of expression that apparently applies to everyone except those being targeted.

On top of that, Substack takes a 10% cut of everything you earn from paid subscriptions. Not a small commission.

Alternatives exist. Some are European, some are open source and self-hostable, one is American but with a significantly more serious approach to privacy. In all cases, your subscribers remain yours and you can export them whenever you want.