What system is better to use as an author, WordPress or Substack? Both are prime for creating content and both have some great benefits for engaging an audience. Today, we’ll look at these two platforms to determine which is best for your needs.
Keep in mind that I am approaching this from the perspective of an author. So, some of the points I’m bringing up may not necessarily fit your criteria for content.
It all comes down to why you want to create a website or an online presence in the first place.
Also, I am comparing self-hosted WordPress and Substack.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that prides itself on being user-friendly and extremely customizable. This means you can use WordPress to create virtually any kind of website for literally any need.
WordPress is so flexible and customizable that it runs more than 46% of the Internet. That means almost half of the websites you visit online run on the core of WordPress.
Visual themes, plugins, block editing, and the Site Editor function all play a role in producing unique and amazing sites. The best part is that you don’t need to be a code developer to make something elegant. It’s a great platform for both the novice and expert users.
What is Substack?
Substack is more of a newsletter system that has blogging features. It’s free and very easy to use but lacks a lot of customization options to produce something unique.
However, Substack has a built-in feature to monetize paid subscribers. If you’re offering some amazing content, you could generate quite a bit of money from the platform.
Substack is also capable of handling text, video, and audio posts without extra plugins or tools. This means you can immediately create several different types of content from the moment you sign up.
Comparing Substack and WordPress
Comparing Substack and WordPress isn’t exactly a one-to-one comparison for content management systems. Substack is mostly a newsletter tool focusing heavily on email marketing. WordPress is a website and blog builder.
With that being said, let’s take a look at what each offers the author or writer user. Remember, I am comparing self-hosted WordPress and Substack.
Which is Better? | WordPress | Substack | |
Cost to Start | $106 for 3 Years at GreenGeeks Web Hosting | Free | |
Customization Options | Virtually Endless | Limited | |
Domain Name | |||
Create and Post Content | Expansive | Basic | |
Video Posts | Need Plugin or Embed from YouTube | Upload or Record Directly | |
Audio Posts (podcasts) | Need Plugin or Embed from Podcast Hosts | Upload or Record Directly | |
Setting Up Monetization | WooCommerce and Other Plugin | Newsletter Subscriptions | |
Email Subscriptions | Need Plugin or Link to Email Systems | ||
Chat with Fans | Need Plugin | ||
Search Engine Friendly | |||
Integrations with Other Platforms | Limited | ||
Flexibility to Expand | |||
Best Overall For… | Blogging | Email Marketing |
Cost to Start
The cost to start a self-hosted WordPress site varies among hosting companies. But at GreenGeeks.com, you can set up a single site and domain name for the next three years for about $106. This also depends on what kind of top-level domain name you want and the hosting package.
On the other hand, Substack is completely free to set up.
The biggest difference is that you’ll have to use your Substack URL as opposed to a direct domain. For instance, the domain of this blog is writersanctuary.com. If I were to make it a Substack, it would be writersanctuary.substack.com. Yet, you don’t need to stick with the free domain name as you can add your own, which I’ll explain in a moment.
Customization Options
When it comes to customizing a website, nothing beats WordPress. This is one of the reasons why WordPress is so prevalent on the Internet. It can be modified and adjusted to fit any purpose, niche, content style, or idea. Plus, it’s very easy to make changes to fit your needs.
Substack is very limited when it comes to customizing your account. It’s extremely minimalist and has few options for changing colors and typography.
The bottom line is that you have far more power to customize WordPress in a plethora of ways than you do with Substack.
Domain Name
When creating your self-hosted WordPress account, you’re more than likely going to take advantage of GreenGeeks’s free domain name for a year. If not, you’ll get one from another registrar. In any case, your self-hosted website will not work without one.
The cost of domain names varies depending on type, but most can range between $10 and $20 per year.
With Substack, you’re issued the free domain name I mentioned above. However, you can connect a domain name you buy to your Substack account. The downside is that Substack charges a $50 fee to move your account to a domain of your choosing. Then, you’ll have to configure the registrar.
Creating and Posting Content
Substack and WordPress allow you to write and publish content. However, Substack only has the most basic text tools available. WordPress, on the other hand, has a slew of blocks you can use to accentuate the post.
For instance, I can easily add a block in the middle of this post to show the latest five articles from the “Blogging” category as a way to entice you to read similar content. Then, a lot of plugins in WordPress expand the list of blocks even further to let me add a variety of functions and features.
The only downside to creating content on Substack is that you can’t categorize the posts. You can use tags to connect similar articles, but there are no categories available like there are in WordPress.
The trade-off is setting up individual sections that people can subscribe to in Substack. This means if you provide articles for different niches, you can keep them separated and users can choose to subscribe to whatever they like.
Video Posts
Adding video to your content in WordPress is a bit more complicated than it is with Substack. For one thing, video content can take up a lot of drive space, which can incur further fees from your web host.
However, you can always embed YouTube videos directly into WordPress. But that will also impact website performance depending on how the page is set up.
Substack lets you upload or record video directly into a post and they don’t charge extra for the space. You can also connect your YouTube account and share videos directly from Substack to your YouTube channel.
Audio Posts
You can add audio content to posts, such as podcasts, to WordPress. Like video content, it’s a bit more convoluted than just hitting the record button. In some cases, you’ll need extra plugins and storage space.
Substack gives you the ability to record audio directly to the platform. You can then easily monetize it by creating a podcast specifically for paid subscribers to your account.
Both platforms handle audio and video quite well, but overall, it seems Substack is much easier to manage from a beginner’s perspective.
Setting Up Monetization
As an author, you want to sell your books. A lot of authors will set up WordPress with WooCommerce or another eCommerce plugin to do just that. And some online stores are quite attractive and fleshed out.
The only thing you can directly monetize in Substack is the paid newsletter subscriptions. There are plenty of ways you can use Substack to link back to affiliates or an Amazon book page. But as a platform, you’re somewhat limited in how you can monetize the content.
For instance, you can’t add AdSense to your Substack posts because Substack doesn’t support advertisements. This is a common thread among free content management systems.
Email Subscriptions
By default, the only “email subscription” element in WordPress is for those who follow you through the WordPress.com reader portal. That means they need to have their own WordPress.com account. Otherwise, you’ll need a plugin for email subscriptions or newsletters.
Substack is a newsletter platform that emails followers every time you publish a post. That’s because Substack is primarily a newsletter/email marketing system.
This is perhaps where the differences matter most between Substack and WordPress. One is a true blogging platform while the other is a true newsletter platform.
Chat with Fans
Substack lets you chat directly with fans by default whereas you’d need to add a plugin to WordPress. While there are far more customization options with WordPress chat plugins, Substack gives you everything you need to get started right away.
Now, not all authors are going to chat with newsletter subscribers. But it could be a great addition if you want to offer a paid subscription or to keep your followers interested.
In any case, chat is easier to set up in Substack overall, but WordPress has more options available.
Search Engine Friendly
There are a number of ways you can make WordPress search engine-friendly. Between SEO plugins and keyword tools, you can gain quite a bit of attention from Google.
Luckily, Substack also has the capacity to appear in search. Like WordPress, you submit your website to Google’s Search Console and give the engine time to index your pages.
Of course, this works best if you’re posting about topics for which people are actually looking.
Yet, it is ultimately easier to get a WordPress blog to appear in search than it is for Substack. You just have so many tools available to help you rank better. Nonetheless, you can do relatively well with Substack on Google.
Integrations with Other Platforms
Part of having a website as an author is to use it as a base of operations for your books and information. So, you’d want to connect to as many things as possible in that regard. Substack just doesn’t have a lot of integrations available.
WordPress, on the other hand, has integrations galore, especially if you use the right plugins. And you’re able to automate a lot of those connections, saving you time in the long run.
For instance, there are plugins that will publish your latest posts to a variety of social media channels on a specific schedule. That means you don’t have to log into all of those social accounts to post the link to your blog. It’s all done automatically.
Flexibility to Expand
Perhaps one of the most notable elements of WordPress is how you’re able to expand with ease. However, that really depends on your web hosting and how many resources you have available each month. Yet, an author blog isn’t going to take up a lot of these resources in general.
You can start off with a simple blog to grow followers and then grow it into an eCommerce, online bookstore, powerhouse! That’s because WordPress can become anything you need it to be through customization and functionality.
Substack can only go so far and is incapable of expanding as effectively as WordPress. But if you’re not concerned about selling books directly or attracting thousands of visitors per day through search, Substack may be a cost-effective and simple platform to use.
Why Not Use Substack & WordPress Simultaneously?
As I pointed out earlier, comparing Substack to WordPress isn’t exactly one-to-one. That’s because both systems were built for two completely different uses. One was primarily a blogging platform while the other was designed for email marketing and newsletters.
Perhaps the best method is to combine the platforms. Build a blog with WordPress but manage the newsletter through Substack. After all, email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment when it comes to engagement.
This is why a lot of bloggers and companies will provide a routine newsletter. About 59% of consumers state that email marketing influences their decisions to make a purchase.
Why use Substack instead of a WordPress plugin on your blog? First of all, Substack isn’t going to take up website resources. You don’t have to install anything extra and can simply create a button or link for people to click and follow.
Not to mention that you have several easy ways to add Substack to WordPress.
The fewer plugins you have in WordPress, the better it’ll perform. Not to mention taking up fewer inodes and server space of your web host.
Secondly, Substack provides a lot of functionality that can act as a standalone platform. Sure, you can use a link or an embed on your blog to get people to subscribe. But you can also connect Substack to Search Console to potentially gain subscribers from search.
Compared to other email marketing plugins, this alone has some incredible potential for reaching a much wider audience. Just make sure you’re not sharing the same content on the blog and in the email. You don’t want to compete with yourself or look as though you’re purposely duplicating content.
At the end of the day, I think WordPress and Substack make a powerful combination for audience engagement.
Why Compare Self-Hosted Instead of Free WordPress?
So, why didn’t I compare the free version of WordPress against the free platform of Substack? Sheer flexibility and power.
If you’re taking your writing career seriously, you’ll want to build an online presence that looks professional. Plus, you don’t have access to a lot of the customization and monetization options in the free version of WordPress.
In other words, free website hosts limit what you can do on their platform. In fact, most won’t let you add advertising systems like AdSense or Mediavine.
Don’t get me wrong, the free version of WordPress is good to get your feet wet and determine if blogging is something you can manage. But when it comes time to take your site further, it’s better if you use self-hosted web hosts.
You’ll have full and absolute control over your site and content. And if you need help, there are professionals and experts everywhere who won’t charge an arm and a leg to help you. In reality, you could join a WordPress Meetup group in your local city and get free assistance from others while joining an amazing community.
What Content System Do You Prefer?
I’ve been using WordPress for nearly two decades. It’s easily my favorite content platform as I can do anything I want to my websites regardless of their niche. And I don’t need to write a single line of code to make things work.
However, using Substack as the newsletter in addition to the WordPress blog has provided extra opportunities.
So, no, I wouldn’t choose one over the other in the grand scheme of things. They are two different management systems that work well in tandem.
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