Substack is losing prominent newsletter creators to rival platforms, with writers citing the platform’s revenue-sharing model, limited customization, and growing social features as key reasons for departing.
The departures have accelerated into 2026. In May, The Ankler — a popular entertainment industry publication — announced it was leaving Substack for Passport, a platform built through a partnership between WordPress.com owner Automattic and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson. Culture Study creator Anne Helen Petersen moved to Patreon in October 2024, saying she “didn’t want to be on a platform that had been steadily — and not so stealthily — enshittified.” Platformer’s Casey Newton also left in 2024, and Status has reported that The Bulwark, Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, and Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me have “quietly explored” moving away.
The financial stakes are significant. Substack takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, which compounds quickly at scale. Using Substack’s own calculator, a newsletter with 10,000 subscribers paying $10 per month would cost roughly $15,900 in monthly fees. NBA newsletter creator Sean Highkin says he now pays $2,052 per year on Ghost compared to $4,968 on Substack, and his subscriber base has grown 22 percent since the end of 2024. Matt Brown, whose Extra Points newsletter has 71,000 subscribers, says he pays around $3,000 per year on Beehiiv — versus more than $25,000 annually on Substack.
Rival platforms like Ghost and Beehiiv charge flat monthly fees instead of commissions, and offer deeper customization options. Beehiiv founder Tyler Denk describes his platform’s approach as similar to Shopify — providing infrastructure without prominently branding creators’ publications.
Substack has also drawn criticism for locking creators into a closed ecosystem. While writers can export their subscriber mailing lists, they cannot export “followers” gained through Substack’s Notes social feature, nor can they take Apple in-app billing relationships with them if they leave.
Substack’s head of New Media, Hanne Winarsky, said the company believes “creators should own their relationship with their audience,” and noted that some writers — including Glenn Greenwald and Joe Posnanski — have returned to the platform after trying alternatives. Substack is also expanding internationally, with paid subscriptions to UK figures surpassing 500,000.
The wave of departures may suggest Substack is increasingly functioning as a launching pad for newsletters rather than a long-term home, which could make it harder for the platform to retain established publications going forward.
Source: The Verge