Substack vs WordPress for Email Newsletters: A Detailed Comparison
Are you looking to start an email newsletter to engage your audience and maybe even earn some revenue? If so, you may be evaluating Substack vs WordPress as your newsletter platform.
While they can both be used to create and send newsletters, Substack and WordPress are quite different tools. Substack is a turnkey newsletter platform, whereas WordPress is a full website content management system that can be extended with newsletter capabilities.
In this post, we‘ll do an in-depth comparison of Substack and WordPress specifically for email newsletters. By the end, you‘ll have a clear sense of their similarities, differences, pros, and cons, so you can choose the best platform for your needs.
Let‘s dive in!
What is Substack?
Substack is a popular online platform that allows writers to easily create and send email newsletters to their subscribers. It has gained significant traction in recent years among journalists, bloggers, and thought leaders looking to build a loyal audience.
Some of the key features of Substack include:
- A simple, distraction-free writing interface for crafting newsletters
- Built-in tools for collecting email subscribers and managing your list
- The ability to offer both free and paid newsletter subscriptions
- A clean, focused newsletter reading experience for subscribers
- Automatic publishing of newsletter content to a web archive page
Substack makes money by taking a 10% cut of any subscription revenue generated through its platform. So if you charge subscribers, Substack will handle the payment processing and keep 10% of the revenue.
Substack has attracted a number of high-profile and up-and-coming writers across a range of topics like politics, technology, culture and more. It provides an easy way for subject matter experts to create a newsletter business with minimal technical overhead.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the world‘s most popular website platform, powering over 40% of all sites on the internet. It is a full content management system (CMS) that allows you to create any type of website.
Some of the key features of WordPress include:
- A highly customizable website builder with thousands of themes and plugins
- The ability to create any type of content – pages, posts, products, events, and more
- Built-in blogging functionality for publishing articles and updates
- Extensibility through plugins that can add features like forms, SEO, social media, e-commerce, and more
- Full control over your site‘s branding, domain, hosting, monetization and integrations
So how does WordPress handle newsletters? Through plugins! There are a number of WordPress plugins that can add newsletter capabilities to your website. Some of the most popular ones are:
- MailPoet: Provides a drag-and-drop email designer, subscriber management, automated sending, and subscription forms you can embed on your site.
- SendPress: Lets you write newsletters within WordPress, build your list, automate sending, view analytics, and integrate with other plugins.
- Newsletter: Another full-featured plugin for creating newsletters, managing subscribers, setting up automated sequences, and analyzing results.
In addition, you can use membership and paywall plugins for WordPress to restrict some or all of your content to paying subscribers. This allows you to create a fully integrated paid newsletter experience.
So in summary, WordPress itself provides the overall website infrastructure, then you can use plugins to layer on newsletter-specific functionality. Now let‘s compare this to Substack.
Substack vs WordPress: Key Similarities
When it comes to newsletters, Substack and WordPress share a few core similarities:
- Sending email newsletters – Both platforms provide the tools to write and send newsletters to an email subscriber list. You can decide on a publishing frequency and build your list over time.
- Displaying newsletter content on the web – In addition to sending an email, both Substack and WordPress publish your newsletters on a webpage that can be shared and discovered.
- Monetizing with subscriptions – Substack and WordPress (with plugins) both enable you to offer free and/or paid newsletter subscriptions to generate revenue from your content.
However, the way these capabilities are implemented are quite different between the two platforms.
Substack vs WordPress: Key Differences
While Substack and WordPress can both be used to create newsletters, they differ in a number of significant ways:
- Scop – Substack is exclusively focused on newsletters. WordPress is a general website platform that can be used to create newsletter functionality.
- Customization – WordPress is infinitely flexible. You can customize every aspect of your website‘s design and functionality. Substack is much more constrained and focused on simplicity.
- Monetization – Substack has built-in paid subscriptions and takes a 10% cut. With WordPress, you control your monetization and need to pay payment processing fees.
- Setup – You can get started on Substack in minutes with no technical skill required. WordPress involves choosing hosting and configuring your site, which can require more technical effort.
- Growth – With WordPress, you can use your website for SEO, social media, advertising, and more to grow your audience. Substack provides minimal discoverability and growth tools.
These differences mean that Substack and WordPress suit different use cases and types of newsletter creators.
When to Choose Substack for Your Newsletter
Substack is a great choice if:
- You want to start sending a newsletter as quickly and easily as possible
- You don‘t need or want your own full branded website
- You are comfortable with Substack‘s simple design options and constraints
- You like the idea of Substack handling subscriber payments and taking a cut
- You don‘t expect to need many integrations or much customization
Substack is ideal for individual writers and thought leaders who want to focus on their newsletter content without worrying about technical details. It provides guardrails and simplicity to get you up and running fast.
When to Choose WordPress for Your Newsletter
WordPress is the better option if:
- You want your newsletter to be part of a larger branded website
- You need design flexibility for your newsletter and site
- You want to choose from a variety of newsletter plugins with different features
- You prefer to fully own and control your tech stack and payments
- You plan to heavily use your website to grow your newsletter audience
WordPress is great for newsletter creators who want more options and control. With WordPress, your newsletter is part of a broader website that can become a robust hub for your brand and community.
Substack vs WordPress: The Bottom Line
Both Substack and WordPress are powerful platforms for creating email newsletters. Substack provides simplicity and built-in monetization, while WordPress offers flexibility and control.
Your choice ultimately depends on your goals, technical comfort level, and desire for customization. If you want to just focus on writing and sending newsletters, Substack is a great choice. If you want to build a full website and have more options, WordPress is the way to go.
Whichever you choose, the important thing is to get started with your newsletter! Begin sharing value with your audience and you can grow your subscriber base over time.
I hope this comparison of Substack vs WordPress has been helpful for you. You‘ve got this! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any other questions.
