Choosing Between Substack and WordPress for Publishing
Are you unsure about which platform to use for publishing your content online? Substack and WordPress both offer the option to publish and sell membership subscriptions, but which one is the best choice for you? In this article, we will compare Substack and WordPress to help you make an informed decision.
Understanding Substack
Substack is a popular online newsletter publishing platform that allows users to easily send newsletter emails to subscribers, both paid and free. In addition to newsletters, Substack also provides basic website and podcast hosting features. However, it lacks some advanced functionality compared to a comprehensive blogging platform or content management system.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the most widely used website builder in the world, offering users the ability to create any type of website, including blogs, eCommerce stores, membership sites, and more. WordPress seamlessly integrates with leading email newsletter services, making it easy to distribute newsletters to subscribers. Unlike Substack, WordPress offers a wide range of customization options and advanced features.
Convenience of Use
Substack:
Substack is extremely user-friendly, especially for novice bloggers. It provides a minimalist editor for creating newsletter emails, writing articles, and uploading podcast episodes. However, Substack’s default editor has fewer customization and formatting options compared to other platforms.
WordPress:
WordPress is an open-source software that requires users to install and manage updates and backups. Despite this, it is still considered user-friendly. With a domain name and a web hosting account, users can easily install WordPress. It comes with a powerful block editor for easy content creation and design customization. WordPress also offers plugins like MemberPress for creating a paywall to control access to premium content.
Winner: Substack
Substack wins in terms of convenience of use because of its simplicity and intuitive interface. However, for experienced users, WordPress provides more flexibility and access to advanced features.
Cost Comparison
Substack:
While Substack allows sending free newsletters to subscribers, paid newsletters can be more profitable in the long run. Substack uses Stripe as a payment gateway, but this option is available only in select countries. Substack charges a 10% fee, and Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction. For example, if you have 100 paid subscribers paying $10 per month, you would incur fees of $159 per month and $1,908 per year.
WordPress:
WordPress offers more control over costs as users can choose their own website hosting, email platform, and payment gateway. Bluehost provides hosting for as low as $2.75 per month and includes a free domain name. Email platform pricing varies, but Constant Contact starts at $20 per month. The MemberPress plugin, used for selling subscriptions, costs $179 for the basic plan. Payment gateway fees depend on the chosen provider.
Winner: WordPress
WordPress is the winner in terms of cost comparison due to its customization options and control over expenses associated with running a paid newsletter.
Integration Capabilities
Substack:
Substack offers limited integration options. Users can connect custom domain names, Google Analytics tracking IDs, and social media profiles from the settings page. However, there are minimal design customization options, making it difficult to engage users or access additional tools for expanding your subscriber base.
WordPress:
WordPress is well-known for its extensive selection of third-party integrations. With over 59,000 free plugins and countless paid options, WordPress provides a wide range of tools to help grow your paid newsletter. You can find popular integrations such as SEO plugins, analytics tools, social media plugins, and more.
Winner: WordPress
WordPress is the winner in the integration category because of its vast selection of plugins and integrations, allowing for more customization and growth opportunities.
Data Portability
Substack:
Substack allows easy downloading of posts, pages, and email list subscribers, which can be exported to a CSV file for importing into other email services. However, some users may need to opt-in again, potentially resulting in a loss of subscribers.
WordPress:
WordPress provides built-in export tools that enable users to export all their data, including posts, pages, comments, and more. Newsletter subscriber data can be exported from the selected email service. Similar to Substack, imported subscribers may need to opt-in again.
Winner: Tie
Both Substack and WordPress offer data portability solutions, allowing users to easily download their data and use it elsewhere with minimal hassle.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while Substack is a great choice for simple newsletter publishing, WordPress offers more flexibility, scalability, and profitability. With WordPress, users have greater control over customization, costs, and access to a wide range of integrations. Although Substack may be suitable for a free blog or non-paying newsletters, WordPress provides the ultimate platform for growth and monetization.
If you prefer an affordable Substack alternative that is not WordPress, we recommend ConvertKit. It offers powerful features without the high fees associated with Substack.
We hope this comparison between Substack and WordPress has helped you make a well-informed decision.
