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Email newsletters have become an increasingly popular way to publish content and build an audience. One of the main advantages of email is that you aren’t beholden to an external platform. Creators gain, in theory at least, a degree of control that they don’t have with content platforms like YouTube or Instagram.
Once you’ve decided a newsletter is the way to go, you’re left with the question of which service to use. Email is a universal technology that everyone has access to. But you will need other features: membership management, subscriptions, payment processing, web publishing, and content entry.
Eventually, you may decide to move beyond publishing written articles and emails, so it’s worth considering solutions that also support podcasting, online courses, and other types of digital content. Beyond features, you may also want to consider whether a solution gives you the freedom you need to grow and adapt as your business evolves.
Several solutions offer some or all of these features, including WordPress and Substack. Both fulfill the basics, but they operate with radically different business models, and those differences impact the experience you will have as a creator and business owner.
In this article, we’re going to compare WordPress vs. Substack as frameworks for building a monetized email newsletter.
WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS). It is the world’s most popular CMS, hosting over 40% of all websites. It boasts a huge ecosystem of themes and plugins that provide features that go well beyond basic content management.
WordPress is used for projects as varied as ecommerce stores with WooCommerce, membership sites, and learning management systems for publishing educational resources.
Before we dig into our WordPress and Substack comparison, it’s important to distinguish WordPress.com from WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a software-as-a-service publishing platform built on WordPress software and managed infrastructure (the same managed infrastructure Pressable runs on).
In contrast, WordPress.org is the website of the open source WordPress project. It represents the self-hosted WordPress model that this article focuses on. Self-hosting WordPress lets you take the CMS and components from its ecosystem to build a bespoke solution that meets your specific needs.
Self-hosting gives you independence at the cost of increased technical complexity, which a managed WordPress hosting provider like Pressable can help you with.
Substack is an online platform with integrated publishing, payment, analytics, and design features. It was built to streamline publishing subscription-based content, particularly email newsletters.
The Substack platform is a hosted, all-in-one service with a minimalist content editor, a simple website, and a built-in email delivery system. Its primary focus is the elimination of the setup and maintenance work associated with launching and monetizing a newsletter.
A self-hosted WordPress site requires a domain name, web hosting, a theme, and various plugins. Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar like Namecheap.com, Name.com, and Gandi.net.
Web hosting provides the server and network infrastructure that stores your site and makes it accessible on the internet. There are many WordPress hosting providers to choose from with varying degrees of support, reliability, and functionality.
If you prefer hosting where most of the technical details are taken care of for you, then managed WordPress hosting is your best option. The hosting provider will ensure that the underlying infrastructure is secure and fast. Your hosting plan will include services that make it easier to manage your site, like automatic updates, automatic backups, and malware scanning.
A premium WordPress hosting provider like Pressable also provides round-the-clock support from a team of experienced WordPress experts.
Finally, the subscription and email functionality is provided by plugins that add new features to WordPress. There are free plugins for this purpose, but as we will discuss later, it may be worth investing in premium plugins if you intend to build a sustainable, long-term publishing business.
Substack’s primary advantage is that it has almost no technical overhead. It was designed to be easy to use and beginner-friendly. You aren’t required to do any technical maintenance because Substack manages server operations, security, and software updates. You can sign up and start publishing in minutes.
The underlying model for monetizing email newsletters is the same on both Substack and WordPress. The creator publishes content to build an audience. A proportion of that audience becomes a paid subscriber, in return for which they gain access to premium content.
WordPress and Substack differ in how you implement this model and how you pay for the associated services.
Self-hosting with WordPress has fixed costs. You have a variety of upfront fees, including web hosting, a domain name, and any premium plugins and themes you purchase. None of the service providers takes a cut of your revenue except for the standard payment transaction fees. Once you’ve paid, all additional revenue flows to you, not to the third-party service provider.
Substack is initially free to use. You can publish and grow a free subscriber list without paying a cent. However, if you want to make money, you will need to activate paid subscriptions. At this point, Substack charges a 10% platform fee on every transaction.
The platform fee is in addition to payment processing fees from Substack’s payment partner, Stripe. In contrast to WordPress’s fixed-price model, Substack uses a revenue-sharing model. You get 90% minus transaction fees, and Substack gets 10%. As your audience grows, the amount you pay to Substack grows too.
Perhaps the most consequential distinction between WordPress and Substack is the level of control and independence each gives to creators.
A self-hosted WordPress site gives you complete control. You can host your site on any WordPress hosting provider or cloud platform, and moving between platforms is straightforward. Your site can have any design that suits your brand and audience. You own the software, the domain name, the content files, the database, and your subscriber list. If you want to move your entire digital operation, you can with no loss of data or brand equity.
As an all-in-one publishing platform, Substack gives you little control over its appearance, features, and policies. You can export your subscriber list and content. However, your business exists on Substack’s servers. It is subject to Substack’s terms of use, content moderation policies, and future business decisions.
Substack can change its fee structure, alter its algorithm, or be acquired and change its business model at any time. While migrating a WordPress site to a new hosting provider is easy, moving away from Substack requires rebuilding your operation from scratch elsewhere.
Because doing so is disruptive and technically difficult, creators are de facto locked in to the platform. They could, in theory, move to a different provider, but in practice, it would hurt their business. Consequently, many creators avoid migrating to a more suitable solution.
Substack has proven itself to be a valuable platform for established writers and thought leaders who already have a significant audience. It gives them an easy way to reach and monetize their followers. But if you are an entrepreneurial creator or independent publisher who wants to build a sustainable business, WordPress gives you independence, ownership, and long-term scalability.
We’ve already discussed the basics of what you need to self-host a WordPress site: managed WordPress hosting and a domain name. You will also need to install plugins that allow you to send emails and manage your membership.
You have a lot of options here, and it’s worth exploring the solutions that are available to you. But let’s look at two of the most popular premium plugins for building newsletter and membership sites on WordPress.
Beyond these plugins, WordPress is a complete content publishing and marketing solution. You can easily add features for hosting online courses, publishing podcasts, marketing ebooks and other content formats, and of course, blog post and landing page publishing is built in.
When you choose self-hosted WordPress, you have control over all of this. You can take your content business in the direction that works for you and for your audience. You are not limited by the business model and feature decisions of a proprietary platform.
Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting provides a secure, reliable, high-performance foundation for your content business. We take care of the technical side so you can focus on writing, publishing, and growing your audience. Every hosting plan includes automatic scaling, a global content delivery network, and our easy-to-use control panel.
Discover our full range of WordPress hosting features or schedule a demo to learn more.
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