Since Making The Decision To Keep My Newsletter FREE Going Forward, I'm Moving Back to Substack. Here's Why.

When Substack made its stance on hosting certain types of content, including hate speech, crystal clear, I had to rethink my relationship with the platform. At the time, I was trying to grow a paid newsletter, but I could not justify financially supporting them after that.

Exploring Alternatives: My Experience with Ghost

I gave Ghost a shot because it seemed like the most promising alternative. Spoiler: It wasn’t. My final straw was learning that exporting posts wasn’t included in their basic plan. Even when I upgraded, the export feature didn’t work as advertised. That is an absolute dealbreaker for me. Ghost provided a JSON file, but platforms like Beehiiv couldn’t use it without an API key—another feature locked behind a paywall. When I did manage to export posts, it only grabbed some, not all.

This left me rebuilding many posts manually on Beehiiv, which was a frustrating experience, and it took significant time and effort.

Also, many hyped the supposed wonderful support from Ghost, but in my experience, they only confirmed my frustrations, and did not provide empathy, solutions, or the desire to make changes.

Beehiiv: Not the Solution I Hoped For

Creating posts on Beehiiv felt clunky from the start. The free plan’s SEO is weak, and you don’t get support unless you’re willing to pay. If your newsletter grows to 2,500 subscribers or more, you’re looking at a $30/month fee, even for a free newsletter. That doesn’t sit well with me.

I eventually decided to make my newsletter free forever and move subscription-based content to my website. Given Beehiiv’s pricing structure, I wasn’t comfortable sticking with a platform that might force me to pay as my audience grows.

Back to Substack—With Conditions

Despite my earlier decision to leave Substack, I’m okay using it now as long as I don’t contribute financially. Substack’s 10% revenue-based commission makes sense for a paid newsletter, especially for smaller or growing audiences. I wish more platforms offered that option—it feels fair and low-risk when you’re just starting out.

If they suddenly announce intentions to get rid of the free plan, I can easily export and start over elwhere. That’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Substack also delivers on features I care about: great SEO, solid discoverability, easy export of posts and subscriber lists, and built-in push and email notifications. These are all reasons I’ve decided to return to Substack for now. It’s not a perfect solution, but it fits me best.

So, What Can You Expect Going Forward From Me?

I’m sticking with Substack for my newsletter—I’ve had enough of switching platforms, and the process has been exhausting. Thankfully, Substack doesn’t lock me in, giving me peace of mind.

The newsletter will continue as usual, featuring teasers of my FREE blog posts, Tech News You Might Have Missed, podcast episodes, and something fun. I might also experiment with individual teaser posts for free and subscriber blog posts to see how notifications and engagement play out.

I will stop using Patreon and shifting early access to videos and podcast episodes to my website. Subscribers will get unlisted YouTube videos embedded in subscriber-only blog posts and the exact text and images from my free blog posts. A few days later, those videos will go public. While unlisted videos on YouTube can be shared, I hope most people won’t, and I’m willing to take that risk.

That’s the plan moving forward. I hope this setup simplifies things and makes it easier for more people to support my home business.

So, that’s what I’m doing from now on. I hope that simplifies things and appeals to more people who will support my home business.

So, please find me on Substack. Again, it’s FREE.