You Should Probably Leave Substack

Unfortunately, Substack willingly platforms, and allows bad actors to monetize, hate speech and misinformation.

Says Who?

Here are some well-reasoned pieces on the subject for you to educate yourself and decide.

• 2021-04: “I Am Leaving Substack” - Notes on the Crises describes additional issues around Substack users directly targeting and doxing people in marginalized groups.
• 2023-11: “Substack has a Nazi Problem” - The Atlantic
• 2023-12: “Substack says it Will Not Ban Nazis or Extremist Speech” - NYTimes (via archive.is)
• 2024-01:
  • “Why Platformer is leaving Substack”
  • “The ongoing content moderation issues behind Substack’s meltdown” - Mashable
• 2024-11: “Don’t call it a Substack” - Anil Dash
• 2024-12:
  • “Substack is at it again” - The Handbasket
  • “Substackers Against Nazis” - An Open Letter to Substack in 2021
  • “What Happens When You Leave Substack?”
• 2025-04:
  • “Former Substack creators say they’re earning more on new platforms that offer larger shares of subscription revenue” - Digiday
  • “Creators are ditching Substack over ideological shift in 2025” - Digiday
  • “How Substack steals your audience and your revenue” - Journalists Pay Themselves
  • “A Newsletter Writer Reflects on Leaving Substack” - Techdirt
• 2025-07:
  • “Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog” - Usermag
  • “How a Nazi-Obsessed Amateur Historian Went From Obscurity to the Top of Substack” - Mother Jones
• 2025-08:
  • “Substack’s Algorithm Accidentally Reveals What We Already Knew: It’s The Nazi Bar Now” - TechDirt
  • “Substack’s extremist ecosystem is flourishing” - The Handbasket
  • “Can my subscribers pay on the Substack iOS app?” - Substack – as helpfully explained by Anil Dash, users who subscribe through the Substack app on iOS are subscribed via a Substack subscription through Apple, and authors do not appear to be able to export these subscribers. This is in addition to Apple taking the customary 30% of those subscriptions.
• “Substack - Criticism” on Wikipedia

Where Can I Go, and How Can I Migrate?

Below, in alphabetical order, are some guides to moving to competition that are better-suited for those who don’t want to platform hate speech and misinformation.

Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a commercial alternative to Substack, with a free tier.

• “How to migrate from Substack to Beehiiv” - Beehiiv Knowledge Base

Buttondown

Buttondown is a commercial alternative to Substack that has a free pricing tier. Many leaving Substack have chosen to migrate there.

• “Buttondown vs. Substack” - Buttondown
• Documentation on Migrating from Substack
• “Why I Migrated My Newsletter From Substack to Eleventy and Buttondown” - Richard MacManus

Ghost

Ghost is a non-profit, self-hosted publishing platform. It also has hosted options available for those who don’t want to self-host. It also recently added Fediverse integration.

• “Official Guide: How to Migrate from Substack to Ghost” - Ghost Developer docs
• “Substack to Ghost migration guide: How I imported my newsletter and set up Mailgun and Cloudflare” -Read Only Memo
• “Migrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the details” - Citation Needed, a newsletter by Molly White
• A Bluesky thread from a user who moved from Substack to Ghost.

Memberful

Memberful wrote in to let us know they believe they’re a viable alternative to Substack as well. They have a migration guide and offer a white-glove migration service as well.

• “Migrate from Substack” - Memberful
• Make the move to Memberful with our free migration service

PencilBooth

PencilBooth is a lightweight newsletter platform built specifically for visual artists. It has no monthly fees and no cut of subscription revenue, with just a small markup on email delivery costs to cover overheads. It’s designed to be simple, image-first, and creator-friendly.

• One-click Substack Importer Documentation

Wordpress

A popular blogging and publishing platform for a long time, Wordpress offers a migration from Substack as well.

• “Ready for a Newsletter That’s Yours? Switch from Substack to WordPress.com”
• “Import from Substack - Wordpress”

Who Else Has Migrated Away?

Notable examples include:

• Citation Needed, a newsletter by Molly White
• Platformer
• Ty Burr
• Rands
• Garbage Day Newsletter
• Ana Marie Cox
• Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs)
• Craig Calcaterra (Cup of Coffee)

For Readers: Asking Authors To Move

Added by visitor request! There are a variety of ways to attempt to influence movement off of the platform. We attempt to provide some examples below for you to mix and match. Feel free to send your own example if it’s not well-represented here!

Keep in mind: the goal is to influence better outcomes. While your tone is yours to choose, and you can be as blunt as you need to be, we believe this outcome will best be achieved as more of a “call-in” than a “call-out”. We suggest being kind and keeping in mind that moving platforms for an author can be a daunting task. Empathy goes a long way.

On with the examples:

• “Not sure if you know this, but unfortunately Subtack willingly platforms, and allows bad actors to monetize, hate speech and misinformation. Would love to see you on a different platform! More information and alternatives are available at https://leavesubstack.com.”
• “Substack is bad for me and those I care about. I encourage you to check out https://leavesubstack.com for more information and information on alternatives.”
• “I’d love to subscribe to the newsletter, but I can’t give any money to Substack, which willingly platforms, and allows bad actors to monetize, hate speech and misinformation. Check out https://leavesubstack.com and let us know when you’re on a different platform so I can be sure to contribute!”
• “As a loyal reader it’s disappointing to me that you’re still hosted on Substack. I’d love for you to check out why, and some alternatives, on https://leavesubstack.com. Otherwise I may be forced to unsubscribe. Thanks for considering!”

Questions? Feedback?

E-mail sean@leavesubstack.com.

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