Substack is Bad for Your Business
The hype around Substack has been deafening. It’s marketed as the ultimate "escape" from social media algorithms—a place where writers and business owners can finally own their audiences.
But if you look under the hood, the reality is starting to look a lot different. In fact, for businesses that rely on data integrity, lead generation, and true audience ownership, Substack is becoming the proverbial "gilded cage." It looks great, until it’s not.
Should you use Substack for business?
I think it’s a big risk—maybe not today, but it will be quickly.
If you’re thinking about moving your business to Substack—or if you’re already there—here are three reasons why it might be time to look at alternatives like Ghost or Buttondown.
Substack Problem #1. The "Hotel California*" Problem: Your Paid Subscriptions are Locked In On Substack
Ownership is a word we throw around a lot in marketing, but it has a very specific meaning in this case: portability. If you decide to leave a platform, can you take your business with you?
One of the reasons so many people are frustrated by social media is that you have to perpetually feed the machine—and there’s no way to move your followers elsewhere if it no longer serves you. In this sense, Substack is no different from social media.
Recently, Substack has made it increasingly difficult to migrate paid subscribers outside of their ecosystem. While you might be able to export an email list of free subscribers, the actual payment processing and "paid" status of your members are being locked down. If you want to move to a platform like Ghost or Patreon, you face the terrifying prospect of asking every single paying member to re-enter their credit card info. Spoiler alert: Many simply won’t follow you.
For a business, that’s not a platform, that’s a problem.
*For the record, I hate that song.
Substack Problem #2. "Scammy" Attribution: Who is Actually Sending You Traffic?
Data integrity is the heartbeat of a growing business. You need to know exactly where your leads are coming from so you can double down on what works, and do less of what doesn’t.
Substack’s attribution metrics are, to put it bluntly, a mess. Here’s why:
The "Substack Sent You" Myth: If Creator A links to Creator B, Substack often masks that data inside their app (they’re pushing users to the app as a business strategy). Instead of showing that Creator A sent the traffic, the analytics claim "Substack" sent it.
The Consequences: This massages the data to make it look like the platform is the primary driver of your growth. In reality, it was an individual peer or your own marketing efforts.
When a platform "pollutes" your analytics this way, you lose the ability to see which collaborations are actually moving the needle. You’re flying blind while the platform takes the credit. You get the false sense that all your hard work is just a small piece of the puzzle while Substack sits back and takes all the credit.
Substack Problem #3. "Followers" vs. "Subscribers"
Substack is rapidly morphing into a social media app. This is most evident in their push for users to "Follow" accounts within the app rather than "Subscribe" via email.
There is a massive distinction here:
Subscribers give you their email address. You can reach them anywhere.
Followers live inside the Substack app.
If you decide to leave Substack, those "followers" are not portable. You don’t have their contact info; you only have their attention as long as they are logged into Substack’s ecosystem. By encouraging "following," Substack is ensuring that they own the relationship with the reader, not you.
Substack is essentially morphing into a social media app, but actually worse because the analytics are even more polluted. It’s a cage that has the potential to be literally worse than Meta.
The Real Substack Problem: Brand Integrity
As a business, I am very cautious about how I entangle myself with tech companies. While some feel like a necessary evil, such as Instagram, Substack is still a relatively small company that has chosen to platform the worst of the worst “content creators.” For every five dollar subscription your subscribers pay you, a good portion of that (over 10 percent) is funneled to Substack, which, as a company, has said they are fine with actual Nazis on their platform. Even worse, a few months ago, they even sent a subscribe nudge to a Substack with a Nazi insignia in the iconography.
Do you really want to be associated with a company like this and take the risk of Substack choosing to promote hate speech to your subscribers? I know I don’t.
A Better Way Forward: Ghost, Buttondown, and Old-Fasioned Blogs
I love newsletters. I love monetized blogs. They are incredible tools for building community and bringing in recurring revenue. But you shouldn't have to sacrifice your data and your freedom to use them.
If you have a solid audience and want a professional setup that you actually control, I recommend Ghost. It offers the same sleek newsletter-meets-blog functionality but gives you:
Total Data Integrity: You see exactly where your traffic comes from.
Full Portability: You own your subscriber list and your payment integrations.
Professional Branding: Your business lives on your domain, not a "walled garden."
If you want something more newsletter-y, Buttondown could also be a great alternative to Substack. Or, you could utilize Kit (formerly ConvertKit) and have paid subscriptions akin to Substack.
Finally, many modern website tools, such as what I use, Squarespace, allow for member areas and other gated content. So, you may find that works well for you also.
Ultimately, what Substack allows you to do is easily write and publish and potentially monetize that writing. There are many ways to make that happen—talk to a marketing consultant like me if you’re wrestling with this!
The Bottom Line: You’re Better Than Substack
If you are currently thriving on Substack, that’s great—keep that momentum going. But start taking steps today to protect yourself. Encourage your "followers" to become true email subscribers. Drive traffic back to your primary website.
If you avoided taking that leap but feel tempted? Don't let your business become a permanent resident of someone else's platform.
