One major downside of Substack, on top of the complete lack of moderation and the very questionable content you can find here, is that there is no API. Sure, you can export your email list. But what if you want to offer a Discord or a Discourse forum to your paid subscribers? You would need to manage that manually, which would take a lot of time. Ghost has an API, and it allows for a broader offering of perks and services. On Substack, too much stay withing the boundaries of Substack — Chat, and Notes, and their app. To me, it's an increasingly notable platform risk. And it's a "one size, fits all" scenario: it works great as long as your size fits.
I do think that Substack can be a great place to start though.
I use substack for one newsletter and ghost for another. You are right on the money about substack's benefits and downsides. The new. features have really boosted growth and engagement. But if you really succeed, do you want to be paying 10s of thousands in fees? OTH, Ghost is great and no fees (just hosting), but all integrations are manual. IE, you pay for a third party service (mailgun) to send the newsletter out. And configure Zapier plus a pop-up tool if you want a pop-up for sign ups. I'm looking for another tool just to send a welcome email. Just be prepared for a lot of work if you go w ghost.
You make a good point about Apple (perhaps unintentionally) giving more power to the platforms that can track people from end to end. Had to be one of the big reasons Substack launched their own app, no? But I think conflating "haven't heard people complain about it" with "it's not a privacy concern" is a mistake -- I would hazard a guess that awareness around email tracking is low compared to what people know about platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
If affiliate links fall under the “tracking” umbrella expect many more to move to server side redirects to get around this--unless they’re going to chase that down too. Interesting times.
One major downside of Substack, on top of the complete lack of moderation and the very questionable content you can find here, is that there is no API. Sure, you can export your email list. But what if you want to offer a Discord or a Discourse forum to your paid subscribers? You would need to manage that manually, which would take a lot of time. Ghost has an API, and it allows for a broader offering of perks and services. On Substack, too much stay withing the boundaries of Substack — Chat, and Notes, and their app. To me, it's an increasingly notable platform risk. And it's a "one size, fits all" scenario: it works great as long as your size fits.
I do think that Substack can be a great place to start though.
I use substack for one newsletter and ghost for another. You are right on the money about substack's benefits and downsides. The new. features have really boosted growth and engagement. But if you really succeed, do you want to be paying 10s of thousands in fees? OTH, Ghost is great and no fees (just hosting), but all integrations are manual. IE, you pay for a third party service (mailgun) to send the newsletter out. And configure Zapier plus a pop-up tool if you want a pop-up for sign ups. I'm looking for another tool just to send a welcome email. Just be prepared for a lot of work if you go w ghost.
You make a good point about Apple (perhaps unintentionally) giving more power to the platforms that can track people from end to end. Had to be one of the big reasons Substack launched their own app, no? But I think conflating "haven't heard people complain about it" with "it's not a privacy concern" is a mistake -- I would hazard a guess that awareness around email tracking is low compared to what people know about platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Glad to see that Vanity Fair writers read Simon Owens!
If affiliate links fall under the “tracking” umbrella expect many more to move to server side redirects to get around this--unless they’re going to chase that down too. Interesting times.
Nothing's stopping them from blocking access to third-party tracking servers doing redirects. Weird times...