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Are you evaluating Substack vs WordPress and questioning which one is higher?
Substack and WordPress are each publishing platforms that will let you simply publish content material on-line and promote membership subscriptions.
In this text, we’ll evaluate Substack vs WordPress to seek out out which one is the higher platform.
Editor’s Note: Looking for a extra inexpensive Substack various? We advocate ConvertKit. It has all of the highly effective options with out the predatory pricing of Substack which takes 10% of your publication income.
Since this is an in depth comparability of Substack vs WordPress, right here’s a fast desk of contents:
Overview: Substack vs WordPress
Table of Contents
Before we begin with our in-depth comparability of the 2 well-liked subscription platforms on the net, it’s vital that we cowl the fundamentals and spotlight what makes these platforms stand out.
What is Substack?
Substack is a web-based publication publishing platform. It means that you can simply ship publication emails to your subscribers.
You can have each paid and free subscriptions and Substack will get a share of all of your paid subscription charges. Apart from newsletters, you additionally get a primary web site and podcast internet hosting.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the world’s hottest web site builder. It means that you can simply make any sort of web site you need. It works seamlessly with nearly all well-liked e-mail publication companies to ship publication emails.
You can have each free and paid publication subscriptions. Plus you need to use it to make a podcasting web site, eCommerce retailer, membership web site, and extra.
Note: When we are saying WordPress, we’re speaking about self-hosted WordPress.org web site and not WordPress.com. For extra particulars, see our article on the distinction between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.
What to Look for in a Subscription Platform
Choosing the best platform on your subscription providing is a very powerful determination you’ll make. Once you begin rising it is going to be more durable to change platforms and chances are you’ll lose customers within the course of.
Here are a couple of primary pointers that you must consider when selecting your subscription platform.
- Ease of Use – How straightforward it is to get began by yourself
- Costs – How a lot wouldn’t it value
- Integrations – Can you join it to different apps to develop your subscriber base
- Data Portability – Can you progress your knowledge away
Keeping these parameters in thoughts, let’s check out Substack vs WordPress intimately.
Ease of Use
Most publishers will not be web site designers or entrepreneurs by career. Choosing an easy-to-use platform helps you concentrate on what you do greatest and go away the technical stuff apart.
Substack: Ease of Use
Substack is extremely straightforward to make use of even for absolute learners. All you must do is join and it is possible for you to to begin working in your content material straight away.
Substack is extremely targeted on writers and straightforward publishing. It comes with a minimalist editor the place you’ll be able to create your publication emails, articles, and add podcast episodes.
You can select whether or not you need an article to go to paid subscribers or everybody on a post-by-post foundation.
Even although writing a put up is extremely straightforward. There is not a lot room for any creativity within the default substack editor.
WordPress: Ease of Use
WordPress is open-source software program, which suggests you put in it your self and handle updates and backups. While this may occasionally sound a bit technical, WordPress is extremely straightforward to put in and use.
You’ll want a website title and a internet hosting account to put in WordPress.
We advocate utilizing Bluehost, which is one of many greatest internet hosting corporations on the planet and formally really useful WordPress internet hosting supplier.
They are providing a free area title + a beneficiant low cost on internet hosting to WPBeginner readers. Basically, you may get began for $2.75 per 30 days.
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Bluehost will routinely set up WordPress for you and you’ll be able to merely login to your WordPress dashboard underneath your account.
WordPress comes with an extremely easy-to-use and highly effective block editor. This means that you can create content material in your web site and design it any approach you want.
To lock your premium content material behind a paywall, you’ll want MemberPress. It is one of the best WordPress membership plugin and means that you can simply limit content material primarily based on a consumer’s subscription plan.
Unlike Substack the place you’ll be able to have just one subscription plan for all customers, you’ll be able to create a number of subscription ranges with completely different advantages.
To ship our newsletters, you’ll want to attach WordPress to an e-mail advertising service. We advocate utilizing Constant Contact which is one of the best e-mail platform for small companies.
However, with WordPress, you’ll be able to select any e-mail publication platform like Sendinblue, Drip, Convertkit, and extra.
For particulars, see our article on the best way to create a paid publication in WordPress which has step-by-step directions for learners.
Winner: Substack
Cost of Running a Paid Subscription Service
The subsequent vital issue to contemplate is that how a lot it might value to run a paid subscription service. Higher prices and low profitability might make it troublesome to scale your online business as you develop.
True Cost of Substack Paid Newsletter
You can ship the free publication to your free subscribers. This helps you develop your viewers and construct a subscriber base. However, having solely free subscribers is not very worthwhile in the long term.
You can treatment that by including paid subscription possibility on your publication. This means that you can ship unique content material to your paid subscribers.
Substack means that you can use Stripe to simply accept funds. Stripe is obtainable in choose nations if you’re not positioned in a kind of nations then you definately can not obtain funds.
Both Substack and Stripe take their reduce from every transaction. Substack fees 10% and Stripe fees 2.9% + 30 cents on every transaction.
This means in case you cost $10 per subscriber then the Substack + Stripe charge will likely be 1.59.
This might not sound rather a lot however let’s suppose you’ve got 100 paid subscribers every paying $10 per 30 days. You’ll be paying $159 every month and $1908 every year.
Cost of a Paid Newsletter utilizing WordPress
WordPress provides you the liberty to decide on your individual e-mail platform, web site internet hosting, plugins and instruments. This provides you management over the prices and you’ll be able to select how a lot you’re prepared to spend in your paid publication subscription.
You can get web site internet hosting with a free area title through Bluehost for simply $2.75 per 30 days.
Pricing for e-mail platforms varies. For occasion, Constant Contact plans begin from $20 per 30 days and the pricing varies primarily based on the variety of contacts.
Similarly, you can begin without spending a dime with Sendinblue which lets you ship as much as 300 emails per day. After that, you’ll be able to improve to their lite plan which lets you ship as much as 10,000 emails per day for $25.
Apart from e-mail advertising, you will want MemberPress to promote subscriptions which prices $179 for his or her primary plan.
You can use Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.web as your fee gateway. These fee gateways could have their very own charges.
In the long term, WordPress provides you extra freedom to chop down prices and enhance your income.
Winner: WordPress
Integrations Available to Grow Subscribers
In order to advertise your paid publication, you’ll need to use third-party instruments to develop your online business. Let’s see how Substack vs WordPress carry out on this class.
Substack Integrations
Substack is an all-inclusive platform with restricted to no integrations.
It comes with restricted web optimization options built-in the platform. You can join your individual customized area title, Google Analytics monitoring ID, and social media profiles from the settings web page.
To develop your subscribers, you will want to advertise your Substack on social media platforms. This makes it a bit difficult for brand spanking new writers to begin incomes straight away.
Limited integrations additionally restrict your potential to entry different instruments which will assist you convert extra guests into paying subscribers.
WordPress Integrations
WordPress is an open-source platform with 1000’s of third-party integrations obtainable. This means that you can simply get extra subscribers on your paid publication.
With greater than 59,000+ free plugins and 1000’s extra paid integrations, WordPress provides you the liberty to make use of any device you wish to develop your online business.
Following are a number of the well-liked integrations and add-ons that may assist you develop your paid publication.
- All in One SEO for WordPress – An entire web optimization resolution for WordPress web sites that helps you enhance your web site web optimization and get extra free site visitors to your web site from serps.
- OptinMonster – The greatest conversion optimization software program available on the market that helps you exchange web site guests into paying subscirbers
- WPForms – The greatest kind builder plugin to simply create publication signup types, contact types, with its personal fee and e-mail advertising integrations.
- MonsterInsights – An easy-to-use Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It exhibits the place your guests are coming from and observe how customers work together together with your web site.
- SeedProd – Need a fast touchdown web page for a brand new marketing campaign? SeedProd permits you to simply design touchdown pages on your web site.
Need much more extensions? Take a have a look at our choose of the important WordPress plugins for any new enterprise.
Winner: WordPress
Data Portability
Both WordPress and Substack will let you obtain your knowledge and use it elsewhere.
Substack Data Portability
Substack makes it tremendous straightforward to obtain all of your posts, pages, and e-mail record subscribers. You can merely go to the Settings web page and scroll all the way down to the ‘Export your data’ part.
From right here you’ll be able to obtain all of your Substack knowledge to your pc.
You publication e-mail subscribers record is in CSV format which lets you simply import subscribers into different e-mail companies. However, most e-mail companies would require customers to opt-in once more and many customers might not resubscribe.
For posts knowledge, you need to use the Substack importer for WordPress to import the info right into a WordPress web site.
WordPress Data Portability
WordPress means that you can export all of your knowledge utilizing the built-in export instruments. This consists of all of your posts, pages, feedback, customers, and many others. Simply go to Tools » Export web page to obtain your export file.
Your publication subscriber knowledge is safely saved together with your third-party e-mail service supplier. Almost all dependable e-mail corporations allow you to simply export your e-mail record which you’ll be able to then use elsewhere.
Once once more, in case you import your e-mail record into a brand new e-mail service, then they might require customers to opt-in once more.
Winner Tie
Conclusion: WordPress vs Substack which one is higher?
WordPress is higher than Substack when it comes to flexibility, scalability, and profitability. It provides you the liberty to develop your publication in numerous methods and unlocks entry to a lot better instruments and extensions to do exactly that.
On the opposite hand, Substack is higher in case you solely need to simply ship publication to non-paying subscribers.
You is not going to have the identical flexibility as WordPress and if you wish to change to paid publication, then you’ll pay a major quantity to Substack.
If you don’t need to use WordPress, however nonetheless desire a extra inexpensive Substack various? We advocate ConvertKit. It has all of the highly effective options with out the predatory pricing of Substack which takes 10% of your publication income.
We hope this text helped you evaluate Substack vs WordPress. You may need to see our information on the best way to get extra site visitors to your website or see the best way to create a web-based retailer to your present web site.
