Substack is a newsletter and publishing platform founded in 2017 by Chris Best Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi, headquartered in San Francisco. The platform allows writers journalists podcasters and video creators to publish directly to a subscriber base and charge paid subscriptions managed by Substack. As of Q1 2026 Substack has crossed 8.4 million paid subscriptions — a 68% increase from 5 million in March 2025 — with total active subscriptions (free and paid) reaching 35 million. Over 17,000 writers earn subscription revenue on the platform.
Substack charges no monthly fee for creators. The platform operates on a revenue-share model: Substack takes 10% of all paid subscription revenue. Stripe processes payments and charges an additional 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction plus a 0.7% recurring billing fee (introduced July 2024). On a $10/month subscriber Substack keeps $1.00 Stripe takes approximately $0.59 and the creator receives $8.41. On a $100/year subscriber the creator receives approximately $85.90 after all fees. There are no subscriber limits no email sending limits and no feature tiers — all creators access the same full platform regardless of list size or revenue.
The revenue-share model’s economics become materially less attractive as revenue scales. At $1,000/month in subscription revenue the creator pays $100/month to Substack plus $30–$40 in Stripe fees — approximately $1,680/year in platform costs. At $10,000/month the Substack cut alone is $1,000/month ($12,000/year) — at this level flat-fee alternatives become competitive: Ghost charges $9–$199/month regardless of revenue (breakeven versus Substack is approximately $900/month in subscription revenue) and Beehiiv’s paid plans start at $39/month.
Substack has no affiliate program. The page serves an editorial and SEO purpose as a reference for writers and creators evaluating newsletter platforms — it will not earn directly. The platform does offer Substack Notes (Twitter-like short-form content) Substack Chat podcast hosting and video uploads on the same infrastructure as newsletters.