Substack vs Blog: Which Makes More Sense For You?

Excited to flex your writing muscles? But can’t decide between starting a Substack or a blog? Your time is precious and you’ve only got so much of it, so it’s totally understandable you want to make the right decision of where to invest your writing/publishing time.

Whether you’re a content creator, infopreneur, or business owner, you’ll want to consider all of these elements in order to make the best decision for your work!

Now, right off the bat, Substack is more of a platform to publish newsletters and/or less structured essays whereas a blog is more of a platform to publish content that’s more structured and more informative (i.e. positions you as someone who knows what they’re talking about).

The main difference between Substack and a blog is that Substack publications are primarily used to deepen existing relationships with an audience, while a blog is primarily used to attract and welcome new dream clients and customers into your business’s ecosystem.

If you’re a coaching, digital product, and/or service-based business, I’d recommend having both a Substack (for your evergreen newsletters) and a blog (for search-friendly discoverable content). Since you make your revenue through these methods, having a Substack would help more with deepening relationships (and making sales) whereas a blog would help more with attracting new, targeted, and ideal-fit clients and/or customers (also making sales, but typically not as high of a conversion rate as email marketing).

If you’re a content creator or influencer, I’d recommend focusing more on a Substack because you probably already have a large audience and thus it’d be faster and easier for you to monetize your Substack rather than a blog. Unless, of course, you aim to become a blogger and make money that way. Then, starting a blog would of course make more sense.

Algorithms & Readership Growth Potential

Substack

Substack’s discovery algorithm is very much a black box – little has been shared about it by the company. Linda Lebrun, Head of Partnerships for Finance and Investing Content at Substack, has told us that if you follow people who write about a specific topic, you’ll see more of their posts. In other words, Substack’s machine learning takes note of the topics you engage with and will do its best to recommend similar or related content.

My own Substack newsletter, Solo Pursuits, has received 127 views directly from the Substack platform. While obviously that’s not a lot, it’s not 0. But keep in mind I’ve only published 37 newsletters there (I had taken a long break due to unforeseen circumstances).

I’ve also gotten views and subscribers from other newsletters that use Substack’s recommendation feature. When someone subscribes to their newsletter, they automatically see which newsletters that that writer recommends and the subscriber has the option to also subscribe to the recommended newsletters. This is an awesome way to get more visibility because there’s already trust there when someone subscribes to your friend’s newsletter!

And with the launch of Substack Notes in April 2023, writers can now post short-form content to engage with like-minded folks and get more subscribers. In Substack’s own words, ‘Notes helps writers’ and creators’ work travel through the Substack network for new readers to discover.”

Just like with any social media-like platform, there are tactics and strategies to make the most of Substack Notes, go viral, and gain a bunch of new subscribers.

Landon Poburon, author of Landon’s Letters, wrote hundreds of notes on Substack. Two of them went viral, earning him over 400 new subscribers.

Wes Pearce, author of Escape The Cubicle, consistently gained 10 to 20+ new subscribers daily through Substack Notes alone.

Keep in mind though that Substack isn’t well-known for its discovery features. The company itself has acknowledged that most writers already have built-up audiences elsewhere. A lot of writers also already have creator flywheels (a social media platform → newsletter) set up, which are most often more worthwhile to focus on in order to get subscribers versus focusing on Substack Notes.

Blog

With Google owning 89.62% search engine market share as of January 2025, most people who publish blog posts tend to focus on Google SEO (search engine optimization) and rightfully so.

The world wide web doesn’t automatically have any kind of discoverability features. About 96.55% of website content gets no traffic from Google, according to 2023 research. That means most people are publishing blog posts that’ll never get any visitors (or very little!).

That’s why blogging with an SEO-first approach is really the only way to get visitors and readers through Google. But Google’s search engine algorithms are only getting smarter each year that goes by. Long gone are the days when people could throw up a few keywords and rank #1 in a few days.

Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving as search behaviors, markets, technologies, and consumer preferences change. The fundamentals remain the same, however, starting an SEO-first blog would mean staying on top of search engine algorithm changes (not just Google, but also a little bit for Bing if you want to tap into that search engine too). I don’t focus on Bing, but still get pretty decent traffic to my blog posts from it so focusing on it isn’t super necessary.

There are more than 50 million active subscriptions on Substack, but there are about 8.5 billion searches PER DAY on Google. There’s honestly no comparison on the volume of activity each platform gets. Based on these numbers alone, there’s a much higher potential of faster readership growth on Google than there is on Substack, especially with an SEO-first approach.

Monetization Possibilities

Substack

Most paid Substack newsletters cost a subscriber between $5 and $15 per month. If you have 500 paying subscribers, that’s a gross $5,000 per month at a $10 per month subscription. After Substack and Stripe have taken all of their fees (Substack takes a 10% commission, plus a small fee for payment processing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)), you’d earn a net $4,205. Still a nice chunk of change! But there are platforms where you can create a paid newsletter that doesn’t take such a big cut of your gross earnings. Platforms like Beehiiv, MailerLite, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit).

Substack is 100% free to get started with though – keep that in mind! Other platforms require a monthly or annual subscription to even get started and even if you have 1 subscriber.

If you do choose Substack and want to minimize your costs, I recommend starting and building up your subscriber count to at least 500 subscribers and then moving everything over to one of the other paid newsletter platforms I mentioned above and starting to charge access to your newsletter. Moving to a new platform would be a bit of a challenge no doubt, but it’d ultimately minimize your costs a lot.

Other than a paid newsletter, there’s no other way to monetize on Substack. Of course, you can promote products and/or services, but this actually goes against Substack’s own guidelines: “We don’t permit publications whose primary purpose is to advertise external products or services, drive traffic to third party sites, distribute offers and promotions, enhance search engine optimization, or similar activities”.

The company doesn’t really enforce this but they’re within their rights to choose when and if they ever want to start enforcing it. Tons of online entrepreneurs promote their own products and/or services on Substack just fine and have for years with no issues (myself included!).

Blog

With a blog, monetization possibilities are endless. Because your blog is owned and controlled by you, you get to decide how you want to make money from it (i.e. provide value).

The many different ways are: display ads, affiliate marketing, services, digital products, physical products, sponsored posts, a membership, coaching, in-person events, a paid newsletter, etc.

You can create and organize any of your offers exactly how you want them! That’s the beauty of creating and building on top of your own digital property.

Because blogger millionaires have been around a lot longer than Substack millionaires (and there are a lot more of them!), there are tried and tested ways to blog that are proven to work and build a full-time income.

Costs

Substack

Substack is 100% free to use! If you wanted to, you’d never have to pay for it. Their revenue comes from a slice off the top of the income from paid newsletters, as mentioned above.

If you have ambitious goals for your newsletter (but aren’t sure about its future and/or want to send emails without a company’s branding without paying for it), I’d definitely recommend starting with Substack.

The two biggest elements of Substack that attracted me to it for my own newsletter (Solo Pursuits) was that it never forces you to pay for it and the fact that all previous newsletter editions get to live in a publicly-accessible archive. That way, people can always return to old content – it never permanently dies in people’s inboxes.

Blog

Different from Substack, a blog requires an upfront and continuous payment to keep the software running. If your business’s website uses Squarespace, WordPress, or WIX, you don’t have to pay extra for a blog. You can just start building your blog! If your business’s website uses Showit, you have to upgrade to the mid or high-tier subscription plan which costs an extra $60 per year (if paid annually).

If you don’t have a business and just want to publish content online, I’d recommend Substack because it’s free until if/when you decide to change it to a paid newsletter. For this route, I’d also recommend cross-posting on Medium (using the import feature!) to maximize visibility.

But if you do have a business and want to publish long-form content online to nurture, again Substack. To attract new folks? Then a blog.

Customization Possibilities

Substack

As an entrepreneur, you already know how important cohesive branding is! I know I don’t need to tell you again. Substack has a pretty standard editor, meaning you can’t customize fonts or any special and unique design elements. It’s a blocky editor – you can add images, links, embedded social media posts or YouTube videos, custom code, audio, buttons, and other minor elements.

The thing with Substack is everyone’s post has the exact same vibe. Because everyone starts with the exact same bones and is given the exact same pre-set options. In other words, there’s not a ton of customization possibilities.

Of course, you can try your best to get creative with it! You can insert soundbites or create custom graphics. There are definitely ways to give your publication its own edge and unique look versus all of the other publications out there.

Blog

Because a blog is 100% owned by you, you have full control over customization! Of course, there are industry standards you should stick to like having a legible title, author, headings, images, related posts, call-to-actions, etc. But every single design element is 100% customizable! That means your blog can look cohesive and totally a part of the rest of your business.

Check out this travel blog and this creative editorial blog for inspiration (just for inspiration!).

Even if your website is built on a website platform like Squarespace or WIX, there are still awesome ways to make your blog engaging and unique! If you’re not a web designer and are struggling for ideas, I’d recommend hiring a professional web designer to design and build your blog for you! When hiring, don’t forget to consider someone’s portfolio and experience with your website platform.

Ease of Use 

Substack

Substack is extremely easy to use! There’s not a large learning curve at all, even if you’re tech-ily challenged. And you can always get started publishing by using the most basic features to get the hang of things first. That makes it a lot easier to press publish at the beginning!

More specifically, the editor itself is very easy to use. It’s a blocky setup, so each element comes right after the other and it’s easy to delete or move elements around. The feel is very similar to Squarespace and WIX, so if you’re familiar with those then Substack would be a breeze for you.

Its analytics, dashboard, and even Notes feature are all also super easy to use. Substack knows that its users are writers (not coders or designers), so they’ve done a great job of keeping the usability simple and straightforward.

And even if you ever run into issues, there are a ton of helpful articles and videos available online to help and guide you through.

Blog

A blog’s ease of use is totally dependent on how it’s set up. If you go with a platform like Squarespace or WIX, it’s fairly straightforward because it’s blocky too. If you go with a platform like Showit or WordPress, then it can get more complex and you’ll probably need some more time than you initially thought to learn the fundamentals and get the hang of things.

If you go with a blog instead of Substack (and techy things feel overwhelming for you), I’d definitely recommend keeping things simple. A more complex blog won’t necessarily be more successful anyways. What matters the most is how consistently you publish blog posts – not how fancy your blog setup is.

Especially if you’re working with a web designer on your blog, you’ll want to make sure you understand exactly how to navigate what they’re setting up. Ask them to provide you with walk-through explainer videos showing you how to add a new blog post, set categories (not tags!), insert images, add spacing, customize fonts, etc. – basically, all the things you’d need to know when you go to publish a blog post.

Pros of Substack

• Free!
• Easy to get started with and use
• Easy to turn a free newsletter into a paid one
• Easy-to-understand analytics
• Name recognition (subscribers know exactly what they’re going to get)

Cons of Substack

• Limited monetization possibilities
• Substack takes a big cut off the top from paid newsletters
• Limited customization possibilities 
• Lacks a strong recommendation/referral system

Pros of Blogging

• Unlimited customization possibilities
• Unlimited monetization possibilities
• 100% in your control
• SEO compounds, continuously bringing in new (and more) readers
• Strengthen’s your business’s E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness)

Cons of Blogging

• Requires an upfront cost (if a blog isn’t already available on your current website)
• Can take more time to get the hang of things
• Need to set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console (both free!) to see analytics
• SEO takes some time to learn (if you DIY it)

Substack & Blog Cross-Posting Best Practices

In general, if you’re a diehard content repurposer (i.e. love maximizing the visibility of your content!), it’s relatively easy to cross-publish across platforms and reap the rewards.

But with Substack and your own blog, I definitely don’t recommend doing this. Why? Mainly because Google will be insanely confused about which of the two posts to rank higher. Google might even consider this duplicate content and not want to rank either post at all! So in the end it’ll most likely just work against you.

If you’re gung-ho on cross-posting across both platforms, then I’d recommend publishing the SEO-oriented piece of content on your own blog, altering key elements within the piece (like its title, headings, some body content, and link placements), and then publishing that altered content to your Substack. This way, key elements of the post aren’t identical and Google will be less likely to think its duplicate content.

Of course, this isn’t an exact science – please keep in mind that it’s still risky to publish similar content across different platforms without one pointing to the other with a canonical link (which you can’t do on Substack and which doesn’t make sense to do on your blog).

Alternatively, if you’re still really wanting to cross-publish to maximize visibility, I’d instead recommend a Medium and your blog combo versus a Substack and your blog combo. That’s because Medium has a canonical link feature, meaning you can publish the exact same piece of content on both Medium and your own blog without worrying at all about potential duplicate content issues. Just use Medium’s ‘import story’ feature and that canonical link will be automatically set up in the story’s settings. I’ve personally used this feature and had no issues!

A Note on Site Reputation Abuse

Now, you may have heard of a little thing in the SEO world called site reputation abuse (i.e. parasite SEO). This is when you publish long-form content on an authoritative website simply to take advantage of that specific website’s built-up authority. This tactic has been hacked and spammed to oblivion over the past couple of years because it worked so well on Google.

But towards the end of 2024, Google took more of a stand against publishers taking advantage of this. It’s still possible to use this tactic but it’s getting increasingly difficult.

I mention all of this because Substack has a domain authority of 92 (out of 100), which is extremely high and very difficult to attain. However, all publications on Substack live on a subdomain which is given less authority than the main domain (in Google’s eyes). You can potentially get a boost on Google because of Substack’s high authority, but it’s not guaranteed.

People have anecdotally reported this tactic working well on other platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Medium.

If this peaked your curiosity and you want to experiment, by all means feel free! Just keep in mind that you may get hit negatively by Google’s algorithms once they catch on.