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> Blogging, Newsletter & Co.: Well, as you can see, I’m writing on Substack. There are no alternatives except to host it entirely yourself, but that doesn’t mak

> Blogging, Newsletter & Co.: Well, as you can see, I’m writing on Substack. There are no alternatives except to host it entirely yourself, but that doesn’t make sense to me right now. This is wrong. There are loads of alternatives, which I can't remember at the moment. AlternativeTo.net lists Hyvor Blogs (https://blogs.hyvor.com/ https://blogs.hyvor.com/), which isn't one of the ones I was familiar with and cannot vouch for, but serves as an existence proof. Does anyone know any better ones?

davidw 10mo ago
https://www.beehiiv.com/ https://www.beehiiv.com/ is another one.
- wizzwizz4 10mo ago
  They appear to be based in New York, which is in the US. They're also not very privacy-friendly.
  - davidw 10mo ago
    Ah, yes. They're a step up from Substack in some ways though, from what people say, so it might be worth a switch compared to staying on Substack.
    - wizzwizz4 10mo ago
      If you're comfortable going with a US-based provider, https://www.scipress.io/ https://www.scipress.io/ seems a lot more honest. They've DIY'd their legal documents badly, but they prohibit AI-farms and don't appear to sell user data. If I had to pick based on first impressions, I'm far more inclined to trust Scipress.
tough 10mo ago
Substack is both a blogging platform and a micro-social network with a feed and a subscriptions SaaS so really depends on what parts you want from it the most
- wizzwizz4 10mo ago
  Yeah, I haven't found any dedicated subscription-blog providers outside the US – but I definitely remember seeing at least 2 in the past!
SanjayMehta 10mo ago
boosty.to is a Substack alternative, outside of both the US and the EU.
DHPersonal 10mo ago
https://ghost.org https://ghost.org — Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore.
alisonatwork 10mo ago
From what I've heard from people who insist on using Substack even though it's American, VC-funded and full of dark patterns, they are trying to make money from their writing and are actively hoping to capitalize on its social network features. Basically they want Instagram or YouTube for text, they want "the algorithm", they want the recommendations, they want the analytics, they want the money or the fame more than they want to uphold their indie values. There is no non-US alternative that provides an equal-sized network effect, but if there was it would anyway be problematic because that whole model of monetization where the platform refuses to take any editorial responsibility incentivizes the production of clickbait, ragebait, misinformation/disinformation, scams, slop etc. Of course for ordinary people there has always been an alternative to Substack, and it's the Bcc field in their email client. For folks looking to self-publish on the web, Wordpress has been around for decades now - there is no excuse for any serious writer or journalist not to know about it and the multitude of managed hosting options. Even for a newsletter-first option, there is Ghost. But if you discuss this with writers who move to Substack the answer is always the same - they want to try access the money or the fame that may come from being on the most popular social network for writing. I think the only fix for this broken ecosystem is for governments to dismantle these sorts of companies, but the US will never kill their golden geese - they are gladly taking a cut from every other country's content creators.
starkparker 10mo ago
Keila: https://www.keila.io/ https://www.keila.io/ Open-source, managed service, based in Germany, and integrates with Proton. Authoring in a block editor or Markdown. Optional built-in analytics with a focus on preserving privacy. Web-hosted posts added about two weeks ago.
lostlogin 10mo ago
You probably know but Substacks’ free speech thing is a huge turn off. That’s how you end up sending push notifications for your latest Nazi content. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/substacks-nazi-problem-wont-go-away-after-push-notification-apology/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/substacks-nazi-p... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-e...
- grenran 10mo ago
  unfortunately some occasional hate speech is the price we have to pay for free speech
  - lostlogin 10mo ago
    Some countries choose that path and they are where they are. We are where we are due to our choices too - New Zealand.
  - timeon 10mo ago
    There are countries with freedom of expression without this pseudo-'free speech' BS.
- LtdJorge 10mo ago
  Unfortunate as that notification error might be, you cannot call free speech free if you only allow if for some opinions.
  - cess11 10mo ago
    "Free speech" is a thing between persons and the state. It does not require persons to accommodate nazis. Some corporations claim otherwise because they think nazis are good for business.
    - lostlogin 10mo ago
      > Some corporations claim otherwise because they think nazis are good for business. And they are right at this time in various major tech hubs. We will see how that works out.
internet_points 10mo ago
while a blog is like the simplest thing you can self-host apart from static sites

davidw 10mo ago

https://www.beehiiv.com/ https://www.beehiiv.com/ is another one.

wizzwizz4 10mo ago
They appear to be based in New York, which is in the US. They're also not very privacy-friendly.
- davidw 10mo ago
  Ah, yes. They're a step up from Substack in some ways though, from what people say, so it might be worth a switch compared to staying on Substack.
  - wizzwizz4 10mo ago
    If you're comfortable going with a US-based provider, https://www.scipress.io/ https://www.scipress.io/ seems a lot more honest. They've DIY'd their legal documents badly, but they prohibit AI-farms and don't appear to sell user data. If I had to pick based on first impressions, I'm far more inclined to trust Scipress.

tough 10mo ago

Substack is both a blogging platform and a micro-social network with a feed and a subscriptions SaaS so really depends on what parts you want from it the most

wizzwizz4 10mo ago
Yeah, I haven't found any dedicated subscription-blog providers outside the US – but I definitely remember seeing at least 2 in the past!

SanjayMehta 10mo ago

boosty.to is a Substack alternative, outside of both the US and the EU.

DHPersonal 10mo ago

https://ghost.org https://ghost.org — Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore.

alisonatwork 10mo ago

From what I've heard from people who insist on using Substack even though it's American, VC-funded and full of dark patterns, they are trying to make money from their writing and are actively hoping to capitalize on its social network features. Basically they want Instagram or YouTube for text, they want "the algorithm", they want the recommendations, they want the analytics, they want the money or the fame more than they want to uphold their indie values. There is no non-US alternative that provides an equal-sized network effect, but if there was it would anyway be problematic because that whole model of monetization where the platform refuses to take any editorial responsibility incentivizes the production of clickbait, ragebait, misinformation/disinformation, scams, slop etc. Of course for ordinary people there has always been an alternative to Substack, and it's the Bcc field in their email client. For folks looking to self-publish on the web, Wordpress has been around for decades now - there is no excuse for any serious writer or journalist not to know about it and the multitude of managed hosting options. Even for a newsletter-first option, there is Ghost. But if you discuss this with writers who move to Substack the answer is always the same - they want to try access the money or the fame that may come from being on the most popular social network for writing. I think the only fix for this broken ecosystem is for governments to dismantle these sorts of companies, but the US will never kill their golden geese - they are gladly taking a cut from every other country's content creators.

starkparker 10mo ago

Keila: https://www.keila.io/ https://www.keila.io/ Open-source, managed service, based in Germany, and integrates with Proton. Authoring in a block editor or Markdown. Optional built-in analytics with a focus on preserving privacy. Web-hosted posts added about two weeks ago.

lostlogin 10mo ago

You probably know but Substacks’ free speech thing is a huge turn off. That’s how you end up sending push notifications for your latest Nazi content. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/substacks-nazi-problem-wont-go-away-after-push-notification-apology/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/substacks-nazi-p... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-e...

grenran 10mo ago
unfortunately some occasional hate speech is the price we have to pay for free speech
- lostlogin 10mo ago
  Some countries choose that path and they are where they are. We are where we are due to our choices too - New Zealand.
- timeon 10mo ago
  There are countries with freedom of expression without this pseudo-'free speech' BS.
LtdJorge 10mo ago
Unfortunate as that notification error might be, you cannot call free speech free if you only allow if for some opinions.
- cess11 10mo ago
  "Free speech" is a thing between persons and the state. It does not require persons to accommodate nazis. Some corporations claim otherwise because they think nazis are good for business.
  - lostlogin 10mo ago
    > Some corporations claim otherwise because they think nazis are good for business. And they are right at this time in various major tech hubs. We will see how that works out.

internet_points 10mo ago

while a blog is like the simplest thing you can self-host apart from static sites