Substack (Newsletter platform)
Created by: Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, Jairaj Sethi

Substack charges no upfront fee — writers join free. The 10% revenue-share on paid subscriptions captures value only when writers succeed.

TL;DR: Substack's pricing structure is the canonical revenue-share model: writers join the platform for free and Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue plus Stripe fees. The model removes adoption friction at the canonical decision point and aligns Substack's incentives with writer success. The lesson for indie founders: when your platform value scales with customer revenue, revenue-share pricing removes upfront friction AND ensures you only win when customers win.

What they sell: A publication platform for writers with paid subscriptions, Notes (Twitter-style microblogging), Recommendations (cross-publication discovery), and the unified Substack app.
Who it's for: Writers, journalists, essayists building publications with paid subscriptions and audience growth through Substack's discovery network.
Pricing model: Free platform with revenue-share on paid subscriptions
Payment frequency: Revenue share deducted per transaction; writers receive net revenue via Stripe payouts
Free trial behavior: Free platform IS the trial; writers can publish for years without paying anything if they do not enable paid subscriptions.
Number of tiers: 3

Anchor pattern: Free-platform anchor
Substack's pricing has no anchor in the traditional sense — there are no tiers to anchor between. The single anchor is the free-to-publish promise itself. Writers comparing Substack to subscription platforms (Beehiiv, Kit) see one number ($0 upfront) and recognize the no-friction adoption value. The 10% revenue share is positioned as the success-fee, not as a tier — it only fires when writers succeed.

Upgrade trigger: Paid subscription activation
The only trigger is when writers enable paid subscriptions and gain paying subscribers. Substack receives revenue only at that moment. Writers who publish for years without monetizing cost Substack nothing; writers who monetize pay 10% proportionally. The trigger is binary (paid subscriptions enabled or not) and aligns with the success moment.

What's working:
Free platform removes adoption friction at the canonical decision point.|Revenue share aligns Substack's incentives with writer success — Substack only wins when writers win.|10% take rate is positioned as the success fee, not as a platform fee — writers do not feel the cost until they have revenue to share.|Single-line pricing eliminates evaluation complexity at the platform-comparison stage.|Network effects (Recommendations, Notes, app) compound at no marginal cost to writers, making the platform feel more valuable over time.|Custom partnerships for large publishers preserves negotiation flexibility without exposing custom rates publicly.

What to adapt:
When your platform value scales with customer revenue, revenue-share pricing removes upfront friction AND ensures incentive alignment.|Free-platform-plus-success-fee converts buyers who would reject subscription pricing on principle.|Position the revenue share as a success fee, not as a platform fee — the framing matters for buyer perception.

What to avoid:
Do not adopt revenue-share pricing if your platform cost does not scale with customer revenue. The model only works when the economics align — fixed-cost platforms with variable-revenue customers go broke on revenue share.|Do not set the take rate too high if writer margins are thin. Substack's 10% works for paid newsletter subscriptions; for higher-margin businesses 30% (Apple) works, for lower-margin businesses 5% might be the ceiling.

Brunson lens:
Stack: Single-rung stack — free platform with success-fee monetization. No tier stack.
Value ladder: Single transactional rung (free + revenue share) with custom partnerships as off-ladder option.
Decoy/anchor: Free-platform anchor; the absence of upfront pricing IS the anchor mechanism.
Payment mechanics: Revenue share per paid subscription transaction; no monthly base, no per-subscriber metering for free subscribers.

Pricing last verified: 2026-05-18