Why I Chose Ghost over Substack And What Creators Should Know Before Jumping Ship
In the past few years, especially this year, people have either been fleeing or reducing their time on platforms owned by X and Meta and I've seen tons of people run to Substack to open blogs, newsletters, podcasts, and etc and communicate with their followings there, monetized or not and I've seen a lot of these creators state how they prefer to be on an independent or open platform.
I was even there for a bit, but couldn't get much traction. Also the notes feed drove nuts as it felt like all anyone write about their was writing and selling newsletters on how to build a newsletter. I used to write fiction and do freelance writing many years ago. I'm a little rusty, but I think I'm still pretty good at saying what I need to say. And if I'm honest, I don't like most writer writers. That's another story for another time.
On the surface, Substack looks like the perfect platform. It has discoverability, video and writing tools and its an all around highly versatile platform. If you want to monetize all of that is all built right in seemlessly. Its not set up like Facebook or X and centers around writing and direct connection to readers. One could easily think they are fully independent once they have a following there. The question is, just how independent are you?
Why I Chose Ghost
True Ownership. With Ghost, I fully own all of my content and audience. I'm not tied to anyone's policies, moderation or algorithms. If I move to another site, which I have several times just because I'm indecisive and flaky, I can take all my content and maling list with me. I'm also not subject to the whims of a single CEO or billionaire who decides to make wild policies, delete accounts or content or bend the knee to a fascist regime in favor of some tax breaks.
Flexibility and Control. Ghost is open source, meaning I have a lot more freedom on customizing the look and feel of the site as well as shaping my integrations and business model. Plus there are no ads here. You won't see other blogs adverstised next to mine.
That has got to me the most irritating thing, is the promotion of other people's product right along side your own. Speaking of whims of CEOs, there was an incident there recently where a leftist blogger shared a new post and the recommended blogs/ads under her post were literal alt right white supremacist blogs. When they submitted a complaint, the admins came back and said its a fully free speech platform, so they weren't going to restrict who could advertise or what kind of content would be promoted alongside their own. Here I'll never have that problem.
Long-Term Sustainability. Ghost is run by a non-profit organization. In full disclosure I don't fully self host as that is much more costly and requires a lot of technical know how I lack. I'm pretty tech savvy for an old man, but I know my limits. So I host through Ghost Pro their managed hosting program.
The mission of the Ghost non profit is to support creators, not maximum profits. Because it doesn't have shareholders or a board, I'm not worried about it being bought out by an angry oligarch who will turn it into his personal sounding board. Not that that would work with Ghost anyway. It is also decentralized so it's just thousands of websites and blogs independent of each other.
My Concerns about Substack
Substack has done a great job of creating a self contained ecosystem. It has everything a blogger would need to get started and to build. But there are issues beneath the surface.
Platform Dependency. Everything you need is baked into their platform. But you don't own any of it. You are renting space from the company. If they change policies and say "No more radical left wing viewpoints or ideas." And they started shutting down accounts, I would be at their mercy.
I don't consider myself a radical leftist, but in this current environment that term has a rather loose meaning that could apply to anything. This goes back to being subject to corporate whims and policies. And if you want to move, its much harder because you don't own anything, including your followers.
Centralization disguised as Independence. Everyone rushing to Substack, including big name writers and journalists, makes it become a centralized hub of influence. That's not independence. Its just shifting from one mass platform to another. Also it is centralized because its a network of blogs and a news feed infrastructure that is all interconnected and managed by one company. Nothing about that is independent.
This past year, a lot of large news organizations have purged their journalists who don't fall in line with whatever their company line now happens to be. Substack has done great and luring those folks in and prioritizing their blogs and podcasts in their feeds. I can tell you Eric from Texas starting a blog or podcast there would not be given any such visibility or push. I would just flounder among the masses in their newsfeed.
Ethical and Moderation Concerns. I touched on this earliera bit, but Substack has gotten a lot of criticism for how it moderates harmful or dangerous content, including misinformation. I am a major supporter of free speech if you have read this blog for any length of time. But all of our rights have limits.
Especially on what is essentially a privately owned platform. Hate speech, harassment and other unsavory content and behavior has been left unchecked as the moderation team on Substack prefers to take a hands off approach and cite the First Amendment. By creator blindly signing up in large numbers it could appear that you align with other writers and viewpoints that don't reflect your values.
Your Datas is Locked In. Substack holds onto your mailing list. Yes, you can technically export it, but the default relationship is moderated through them. They consider them their readers, not yours.
The Illusion of Freedom
Many writers believe, including some pretty big names, that moving from Meta or X onto Substack is stepping into freedom while sticking it to the Man. But if your platform can change policies over night, remove discoverability, shadowban you or take a cut of your income (which Substack does do) then are you truely independent?
Ghost isn't perfect. They don't solve everything and like I said I'm using the managed hosting, so if I posted something extremely wild like violent threats, harassment, or hate speech they could delete my content if they wanted to. It also is harder to set up.
It required me to get my own domain through Godaddy and it took me awhile to figure out how to connect it to my Ghost site and then connect my email domain so subscribers would get emails from me. This all took me a few days to sort out. But was worth it in the end. Its like buying a house and maintaining your own home vs. renting an apartment.
I also don't have the easy discoverability here. I have to post on social media a lot and hustle and share the site and share the link so people can find me and create new content regularly to keep the site looking fluid and enriching. I enjoy it though, but its not like I can just shoot a blog off into space and then post the link on Facebook and be done with it.
I usually have to post on multiple platforms multiple times a day. I have thirteen subscribers right now, but that is thirteen more than I had a week ago. I have to look at is as a marathon and not a sprint. Slow and steady wins the race. I'd rather have 50 engaged readers than 1000 who never open the email or mark it as spam.
Closing Thoughts
True independence takes a lot of work, especially if you're not an established name. For me, the work is worth it because I can build something that lasts. I know that sounds funny coming from me as this year I've moved this blog around from domain to host and back again. And I do apologize for my flightiness. I'm not sure why I do that kind of thing. I start second guessing myself and don't want to miss out elsewhere, so I try it.
Well now I've tried them all and this is where it feels most secure and comfortable. My hope with this blog is that creators will ask more questions and analyze their goals and needs before jumping and building onto a new platform.
I subscribe to some writers on Substack because they have great content and that is where they happen to be at. They have much larger followings than I'll have any time soon, so I'm sure I won't sway them away. I feel a bit hypocritical paying for a substack blog while feeling the way I do, but its one of those things. I want to support good creators. As I discussed, Substack is very user friendly. I can see how a busy creator with a big following wouldn't want to mess with something like Ghost. But they also need to ask why they chose to follow in this latest mass migration and what does being "independent" truly mean?