Substack vs Blogging: Which is Better for You?
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I hang out on Threads quite a bit, and one of the things that I’m always seeing people chit-chat about (which means my algorithm is probably pushing more content like this to my feed ha) is the whole Substack vs blogging debate.
And there’s a bit of confusion about it, too.
And a lot of opinions, too. Of course.
Substack is everywhere at the moment; everyone seems to have one. Some people are talking about it like it’s going to replace blogging entirely. Others are treating it like a newsletter platform only. Some are doing both, somehow.
But what really is the difference between Substack and a blog like what you’re reading now? And how do you choose which one, if either (or both!), is going to work for you?
Short answer: You’re going to have to figure it out yourself. π Buuuut in this blog post, I’m going to try and outline some of the differences between the two, and some things you want to be thinking about before you launch in either way.
Disclaimer: Also, just to say, that I currently, as of writing this blog post in April 2026, do not have a Substack. But I am subscribed to a bunch. Just keep that in mind.
What is Substack, actually?
Substack actually is, all around. IYKYK.
Substack is a platform where writers, people, and your grandma can publish content that goes directly into subscribers’ email inboxes. It lives on the Substack platform, but people can also read the full post in their inboxes.
It actually launched back in 2017 and has grown enormously since, and even more so in recent years. I’ve been blogging since 2009, and while I’ve known about Substack since its inception in 2017, it really has been in the last 5 or so years that it’s taken off more so than it had in the past. My theory is because long form content is making a bit of a comeback, and people are sick and tired of social media. Fair.
Because a Substack entry/post does two things – both lands in your subscribers’ inboxes and also lives on the Substack platform like a blog post – it’s sort of part newsletter, part blog post. Which I think is where people get a little tripped up.
So how is it different from a blog?
While they may look really similar, there are some key differences between a Substack and a blog. Let’s run through some of them now.
Where your content lives online
So this is a biggy. A blog lives on your website – your domain, your hosting, your design. You own it entirely, and you can make all the decisions when it comes to things like what it looks like, who it’s hosted with (check out my favourite hosting company here) and what you do with it.
Substack lives on Substack’s platform. It’s theirs, not yours. You can export your subscriber list if you ever want to leave, but you can’t take the platform itself with you. I believe you can download your content, too, and take that with you, but at the heart of it … you can’t just move that layout, that platform, somewhere else, like you can with a blog. Bit different there.
How people find your content
Blog content can be found via Google search – it’s indexed, it shows up in search results, and a well-written evergreen post can bring in readers for years without you doing anything.
Substack content, as far as I’m aware, is much harder to find through Google. Growth on Substack tends to come from within the platform itself (recommendations, Notes, people sharing with other Substack readers) or from an audience you already have somewhere else.
The format and feel are a bit different
Blogs tend to be a bit more structured, searchable, and evergreen (unless you’re writing seasonal content, which you can totally do). You have the opportunity to play around with a lot more things, like formatting and what your blog posts and blog as a whole look like.
Substack tends to be more personal, more essay-like, more conversational – like getting a letter from someone you find interesting. Neither is better; they just serve different purposes and attract readers in different ways. And you’re more restricted in how your content is displayed.
You might find that your blog readers and your Substack readers, if you had both platforms, are quite different.
The relationship with the reader
Blog readers find you, read a post, and may or may not come back. Hopefully, you’ve created lots of great content, which means they just have to stick around. Perhaps they find you on socials and follow you there, too. But a lot of the time, you’ll have people discover you through a Google search or on Pinterest, and they’re there for the content … and they may read a few more blog posts, but on the whole, they’ll probably skedaddle.
Substack subscribers have actively opted in to receive your writing – it lands in their inbox, which is a much more direct relationship. They’ve literally given you their email to send them content. They’re not just finding a one-off blog post and calling it a day. They want whatever it is you’re sending them.
The tradeoff is that you have to earn that inbox position every time you send something.
The technical side (a biggy!)
Setting up a blog – especially a self-hosted one – takes a bit of effort and has some ongoing costs (hosting, domain, potentially a theme or plugins if you’re going down that route). It can be a huge learning curve for a lot of people, and unfortunately, a lot of the time, people start, decide it’s too hard, and they give up.
Substack is free to start and genuinely takes about ten minutes to set up. There’s almost no technical barrier at all. Of course, there are learning curves and quirks to every platform that you’ll need to figure out, but on the whole, it’s much easier to set up a Substack than it is a full-on blog.
What Substack is good at
From what I can see, and what I experience as a receiver of Substack posts straight to my inbox, is that there are lots of things Substack does really well. And while I don’t currently have a Substack, it is something I’d be interested in setting up in the future, if I can find the right topic to yap about.
Here are some of the strengths I see Substack having:Β
- Super quick set up, which I just mentioned
- You have direct access to your readers through their email – with blogging, you need to have the blog and an email list. Substack merges this together
- A community of Substackers (is that a term … ?) at the ready – there are already people on the platform
- The Notes feature seems really neat – it’s sort of like a social media side of things. You can share Notes with yourself, your subscribers, or the public
- You can pop your content behind a paywall easily – while Substack takes 10% of any paid sub, it’s still a really easy way to monetise, if you can get paid subscribers
- If SEO drives you insane, then it’s something you don’t have to think about as much with Substack.
What a blog does that Substack can’t
All of the above sounds great, but there are also things that a blog can do that a Substack just can’t. And it’s here where you really wanna be thinking about which way you should go for what your goals might be with content creation.
SEO
I mentioned this just before, and if SEO really grinds your gears, then maybe Substack is for you. But if you want to grow your traffic, bringing in new readers and do things like run ads, sell products or courses, then you’re going to need SEO, and you want your content (or blog in this case) to be ranking on Google and other search engines. Substack can be found, but you’re going to have a lot more control over that with your own blog.
Full ownership
Your blog is yours. The domain, the design, the content, the data. Nobody can shut it down, change the rules on you, or take a cut of your income. Yes, you can export your email subscribers and your content from Substack, but you could open it one day and discover that your whole site has been taken away. With a blog and a good hosting company, you have back-ups of everything, and you can take that and pop it on another site very easily.
Flexibility
On your blog, you can add pages, products, a shop, a portfolio, forms, pop-ups, affiliate links – whatever you need. Substack is quite limited in terms of what you can do with it beyond publishing text and images.
Long-term traffic
A well-written blog post can keep bringing in readers for years. Some of my best-performing blog posts were literally written in 2018. Substack content tends to have a much shorter lifespan – it goes out, people read it, and then it’s largely done. Of course, there are exceptions, but broadly speaking, a blog is going to bring in more traffic in the long run.
Monetisation variety
A blog can earn through ads, affiliates, digital products, sponsored posts, coaching – lots of avenues for monetisation. Substack’s primary monetisation model is paid subscriptions, which can work brilliantly but isn’t the right fit for everyone. Just something to think about!
Should you have both?
Some people have been asking if they should start a blog or if they should start a Substack … and some have even been asking if they should have bnoth. And an honest answer in my opinion: maybe, but only if it makes sense for you. π€£π Terrible answer, I realise.
Some bloggers use Substack as their email newsletter platform instead of something like Mailerlite or Kit – they write something personal and conversational for Substack, separate from their blog content. That can work really well.
Others try to run both a blog and a Substack with completely separate content strategies and find it exhausting. Which, I mean, fair enough.
Here are some questions to ask yourself before you decide to start a Substack alongside your blog:Β
- How would this differ from your blog content?
- Why do you want to start it? Is it to make some money? Or write differently?
- Is your primary goal to grow through search traffic?
- Do you want to write in a more personal, essay-like, letter-to-a-friend way?
- Are you already stretched thin with content? What’s your capacity like?
- Do you already have an audience somewhere who would follow you to Substack?
| Content & Discoverability | Blog | Substack | Both/Either |
| I want people to find me through Google search | β | ||
| I want to write structured, how-to, or educational content | β | ||
| I want my content to keep getting traffic long after I publish it | β | ||
| I want my content to be easily searchable and organised by topic | β | ||
| I want to write in a personal, conversational, letter-style format | β | ||
| AudienceΒ | Blog | Substack | Both/Either |
| I want to build a direct relationship with my readers | β | ||
| I want to build a community around my writing | β | ||
| I want to grow an audience from scratch with no existing following | β | ||
| I already have an audience on social media I can bring with me | β | ||
| I want to write one thing that works as both a post and a newsletter | β | ||
| Ownership & Flexibility | Blog | Substack | Both/Either |
| I want full ownership and control over my content | β | ||
| I’m worried about platforms changing the rules or shutting down | β | ||
| I want flexibility to add pages, a shop, or other features | β | ||
| I care a lot about design and how my site looks | β | ||
| I have offers and/or services | β | ||
| Monetisation | Blog | Substack | Both/Either |
| I want to monetise through paid subscriptions | β | ||
| I want to monetise through affiliate links, ads, or digital products | β | ||
| I just want one monetisation stream | β | ||
| Practical things | Blog | Substack | Both/Either |
| I’m a complete beginner with no tech confidence | β | ||
| I want to get started quickly with no technical setup | β | ||
| I have very limited time and can only manage one platform but want long-term benefits | β | ||
| I want to write occasionally without a solid publishing schedule | β | ||
| I’m already a blogger looking to add another easy platform that’s different | β | ||
| I just wanna write long-form content; not bothered who reads it | β | ||
| I want my content to feel evergreen and build up over time | β |
The one thing worth saying: using Substack as a replacement for a blog is a risky move if long-term traffic and content ownership matter to you. It’s better thought of as a complement – a different tool for a different job, as it were.
For example, if I were going to start a Substack, it would be different to The Blogger’s Dispatch, for example, which I already send to hundreds of people every fortnight. I think I would do something to do with either content creation or perhaps lean away from the blogging side of things and do something around books, for example.
Is Substack killing blogging?
Alas, I’ve also seen this question around the place, or sentiments that hint at this.
And is Substack killing blogging? No. They’re different, they remain different, no matter how many similarities we draw out.
Substack is popular, and it’s still growing in popularity still. And it has some brilliant writers and minds on the platform. But it hasn’t replaced blogging, and it’s unlikely to.
And you’ll find that comment a lot on Threads (or other platforms) where this has come up – blog coaches like myself or long-time bloggers jump in and say what I’ve basically said: You can have both or either or neither, depending on your goals and what you want it to be.
Blogging – SEO-friendly, you-own-the-whole-thing blogging – is still one of the best long-term tools a writer or content creator can have. Substack is a lovely addition to that for some people. It’s not a replacement.
Hopefully by now it’s a lot clearer (clear as mud? ππ€£) – Substack and blogs aren’t the same thing, they’re not really in competition, and knowing what each one does well makes it much easier to decide which (or both) belongs in your world.
If you’re happy with your blog and not sure Substack adds anything right now, that’s a completely valid place to be. If you’re curious and want to play around with it, there’s no harm in trying – it takes like ten minutes to set up and costs nothing.
I’d love to hear from you, though! If you were setting up a Substack to sit alongside your blog, what would you write about?Β
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