Ghost.org Vs Substack: Which Platform Is Best For Getting Paid Subscribers?
Ghost gives you the opportunity to get a custom domain and monetize your work by getting paid readers, while Substack gives you this opportunity for free but taking 10% commission. Find more differences between these two platforms.
I was searching to find a platform that could give me the solution of email marketing and I found Substack. Somehow I was scrolling on the Internet and found out another Substack alternative; Ghost.org. Both platforms give you the opportunity to make money writing by getting your loyal fans to support you by buying one of your subscriptions. These two platforms are like Patrons for content writers but more focused on search engine optimization, branding, and growing your list of loyal fans.
Loyal fans are the ones who supported you and really interested to know about the topic of your Interest.
According to a theory of finding your 1,000 fans;
“Any creator who acquires 1,000 real fans, can make a living doing that thing”
All you have to do on any of these two platforms is to find those 1,000 real fans. Substack minimum joining the paid subscription is “$3/month” which means that you could make $3,000/month minutes 10% of the Substack services charges, every month from Substack.
Before we start comparing these two platforms, I want to add that I have spent over two months writing and promoting my Substack blog and have over 2 months writing on Ghost. I think I am eligible to compare these two platforms.
Everything you needed to know about Substack:
- Substack is an email marketing platform combined with an editor.
- You can create a free publication as well as a Paid publication on Substack.
- Free Publication on subtask means, your content could be read by anyone, while Paid publication means only those who pay you on a monthly or yearly basis can access your content.
- Substack takes 10% services charges on a monthly or yearly basis when you get a paid subscriber.
- Substack give you a sub-domain like; “yourname.substack.com” There is a big disadvantage in this which we will discuss in the later stage.
- For those who want to use it as an email marketing platform and don’t want to pay to big email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, you can do it with zero cost.
- Substack now offers you to add a custom domain to your publication. You need to have a domain owner and pay a one-time $50 fee to Substack to host your domain.
You can know more about Substack and its comparison with other platforms here;
- How to make money writing on Substack?
- Substack Newsletter: How to create a Substack newsletter?
Everything you need to know about Ghost.org:
- Ghost.org is an open-source platform where you could create a site like Medium.
- Ghost.org is a paid website where you have to pay to create a publication.
- You can turn on Member-only content just by a single click and you are ready to go.
- While publishing a story onto your blog, you have the access to make the story only for your Members or for the general public.
- You can start free email marketing, much like Substack, on your Ghost blog.
- Ghost.org is a powerful WordPress alternative as well as a Not-for-profit company. The company owner John O, Nolan once stated “What if a company invests all the profit into building a world-class product?” Ghost just do that.
You can learn more about Ghost.org as a platform comparison with Medium and WordPress in the link.
The Difference between Ghost Vs Substack:
- Building your Own Site like Medium: Ghost and Substack both gives you the opportunity to get paid readers. But, Substack costs you 10% of that as a service charge while Ghost takes 0%.
- Writing Cost: To start writing on Substack, you have the opportunity to write for free while Ghost gives you a 14-days free trial after which costs $29/month.
- Making your brand: Ghost takes the lead this. Having a blog on Ghost.org gives you the opportunity to set up your own custom domain.
- Custom domain: In Ghost, you can make your own custom domain, custom design, and everything you want. You can monetize your blog with affiliate links or any way you want. You own your content and there is no third party between “You” and your “reader” While Substack is probably a third-party platform where you have to work under certain rules and regulations.
- The hidden thing: Ghost charges you $348/year, Substack doesn’t charge you but takes 10% service charges for every paid subscriber you get. Let say, you have a Substack publication that charges $3/month and has 100 paid subscribers, which means you are making $300–10% Substack commission, on the net, you are making $270 a month and $3.24K a year. But, your friend has a Ghost publication and has the same subscription charges and the number of paid subscribers, which means he will make $300 a month and $3.6K a year minus the cost of $348. Your friend is making a net of $3.25 a year but you are paying aren’t looking for the big picture which is the opportunity to brand yourself.
- Search engine optimization: Ghost.org has an upper hand in this too. On Ghost, you can get your custom domain, can optimize your blog for the search engine, and getting ranked for the keywords you’re target audience is searching for on the Internet. While in the case of Substack, it is not that good for ranking on competitive keywords.
- Open-source and profit are invested in the product: Substack is a website funded by investors. Investors invest money into a startup to make 1,000 times more money and that’s why venture capitalists when investing money into startups they already know that it is either a hit or miss thing. While Ghost doesn’t raise a single cent from venture capitalists. They are not accountable for showing the profit or anyone asking its founder, “Why they have invested all the profit into the company?” Ghost CEO already stated that the platform is a not-for-profit company and they invest every cent of profit into the product development. Substack clearly lags in this issue.
I hope this comparison helps you understand the difference between Substack and Ghost.org as a platform.
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