Substack: Complete Platform Features and Capabilities

Substack is a publishing platform for writers, podcasters, and video creators. It combines newsletter publishing, podcast hosting, native video, community tools, paid subscriptions, and a built-in discovery network with millions of active readers. Unlike standalone email tools, Substack gives creators an audience from day one through its recommendation engine, social layer (Notes), and category leaderboards. Creators own their subscriber list, can export their data anytime, and pay nothing until they start earning revenue.

What Makes Substack Different from Other Newsletter Platforms

Substack is the only newsletter platform with a built-in social and discovery network. Features like cross-publication recommendations, category leaderboards, Notes (a short-form social feed), and restacks help creators grow organically without relying on external social media. Other differentiators include native live video streaming with chat and AI clip generation, built-in podcast hosting with private RSS feeds for paid subscribers, automated email sequences to increase conversion and reduce churn, headline A/B testing, Bitcoin payments, and full data portability with import support from more than 12 platforms.

Writing & Publishing

Substack's editor supports long-form articles, threads, podcasts, video posts, and static pages. It includes a rich text editor, post scheduling, drafts with autosave, version history, post templates, and SEO metadata controls. Creators can gate content behind a paywall at any point in a post, A/B test headlines, and cross-post between web and email.

Rich text editor (TipTap/ProseMirror-based) with headings, bold/italic/strikethrough, subscript/superscript, text alignment, horizontal rules, bulleted and numbered lists
Code blocks with syntax highlighting
LaTeX support (both inline and block math)
Footnotes
Pull quotes
Callout blocks
Button / CTA blocks (clickable call-to-action buttons in posts)
Image embeds with captions and alt text
Image galleries
Unsplash integration (search and insert free stock photos directly in the editor)
Audio embeds (inline audio player in posts)
Video embeds (native video player in posts)
oEmbed support for: YouTube, Spotify, Twitter/X, Bluesky, Datawrapper, Polymarket, and more
Embed other Substack posts inline
Embed other Substack publications inline
Digest embeds (curated collections of posts)
Recipe blocks with structured data (ingredients, steps, prep/cook time, cuisine, diet) and automatic schema.org SEO markup
Poll embeds in posts and notes (with optional descriptions)
Survey buttons insertable in posts
Meeting booking blocks embeddable in posts
Paywall insertion (place a paywall break anywhere in a post to gate content)
Free preview for paid posts (control how much non-subscribers see)
Post scheduling (schedule posts for future publication with date/time picker)
Drafts with autosave
Version history with restore (track and revert to previous versions of a post)
Post templates (create and reuse templates for recurring post formats)
SEO / social metadata (customize title, description, and image for social sharing)
Multiple post types: Article (newsletter), Podcast, Video, Static Page, Ad-hoc Email
Custom/static pages (create About, FAQ, or any custom page on your publication)
Content access levels: Free (everyone), Free subscribers only, Paid subscribers only, Founding members only
Headline A/B testing (test different headlines to optimize engagement)
Cross-posting (others can share your work, enabling you to reach wider audiences)
Republishing (schedule republishes of existing content)

Newsletter & Email

Every Substack post can be sent as an email newsletter. Creators can send targeted ad-hoc emails, set up automated drip campaigns triggered by subscriber lifecycle events, customize email CSS, and track open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe reasons.

Every post can be sent as an email newsletter (toggle email send on/off per post)
Push notifications (newsletter delivery, engagement, messaging, connections, livestreams, creator analytics)
Targeted ad-hoc emails (send one-off emails to selected subscriber segments)
Email customization: custom CSS for emails, custom headers and footers
Welcome/onboarding emails (automatic email for new subscribers)
Drip campaigns: automated email sequences triggered by subscriber lifecycle events (new free sub, new paid sub, founding member upgrade, churn). Set delays in hours between emails, with rich body content
Section-level email settings (subscribers can opt into email by section)
Email analytics (open rates, click rates, detailed stats in publisher dashboard)
Unsubscribe analytics (understand why people unsubscribe)
One-click unsubscribe compliance

Podcasting

Substack includes full podcast hosting with automatic RSS distribution to Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Creators can offer private podcast feeds to paid subscribers, import episodes from other hosts, download analytics, and generate automatic audio narration of written posts using built-in AI text-to-speech with six voice options.

Native podcast hosting (upload audio files directly)
Podcast episode management (create, edit, schedule podcast episodes)
Podcast RSS feed (auto-generated, compatible with all podcast players)
Private/subscriber-only podcast feeds (paid subscribers get a unique private RSS URL)
Per-section podcast feeds (separate RSS feeds for different podcast series)
Apple Podcasts distribution (direct integration, auto-publish)
Spotify distribution (Spotify Open Access integration, sync UI)
Podcast import (import episodes from another host via RSS, Apple, or Spotify link)
Podcast analytics (downloads by episode, by player app, by country)
Transcript upload (support for .txt, .srt, .vtt transcript files)
Transcript editor (view and manage captions/transcripts inline)
AI voiceover / text-to-speech: Automatically generate audio narration of written posts with 6 built-in voices
Human voiceover upload (upload your own audio narration)
Syndicate voiceover to RSS (include auto-generated audio in podcast feed)

Video

Substack supports native video hosting, live streaming, and automatic distribution to YouTube and LinkedIn. Creators can clip highlights from longer videos, add captions, schedule live events with real-time chat, and use AI-assisted clip selection from recorded streams.

Native video hosting (upload and publish video posts)
Video post type (dedicated video content format)
Video player with custom controls
Custom video thumbnails (upload or select from video)
Video preview clips (set a preview clip for video posts)
Video clipping tool (create shareable clips from longer videos with captions)
Subtitles/captions (WebVTT-based, word-level highlighting support)
Auto-upload to YouTube (connected account integration)
Auto-upload to LinkedIn (connected account integration)
Live video streaming (go live with built-in streaming tools)
Live stream scheduling (schedule upcoming live events)
Live stream chat (real-time chat alongside live video)
Live stream recording (automatically create a post draft from a live stream)
Private recording/practice rooms (test your setup before going live)
RTMP support (connect external streaming software)
AI-assisted clip generation (automated highlight clip extraction from recorded streams)
Automated thumbnail generation (LLM-guided caption generation for thumbnails)

Notes (Social Layer)

Notes is Substack's built-in short-form social feed, similar to Twitter/X but integrated directly with the publishing platform. Creators can post updates, share rich media, restack others' content, and engage with readers in a feed that drives discovery across the Substack network.

Short-form posts (Twitter/X-like notes visible in the Substack network)
Rich text in Notes (formatting, links, media)
Image/video attachments in Notes
Restacks (share/repost others' posts and notes to your followers)
Likes on Notes
Threaded replies on Notes
Notes feed (personalized feed of notes from people you follow)
Notes analytics (publisher stats for subscriber engagement with notes)

Community & Chat

Substack includes built-in community features: threaded comments on posts, publication-level chat threads, direct messaging, and configurable moderation tools. Creators can restrict chat and comment access by subscription tier and use automated content moderation.

Publication chat/threads (community discussion threads for subscribers)
Chat access controls (free, paid-only, or founding-only chat access)
Direct messages (1:1 messaging between users)
Real-time messaging
Comments on posts with threading
Comment access levels: Everyone, paid subscribers only, or disabled
Comment reactions
Comment mentions (@-mentions in comments)
Comment moderation tools (approve, remove, report, spam filtering)
New commenter review queue

Monetization & Payments

Substack handles payments through Stripe with support for monthly and annual subscriptions, founding member tiers, free trials, coupons, gift subscriptions, group billing, and Bitcoin payments. Creators set their own prices and keep the majority of revenue. Substack charges nothing until creators start earning.

Paid subscriptions (monthly and annual billing via Stripe or IAP)
Founding member tier (premium support tier with custom pricing and benefits)
Flexible pricing (set your own subscription price)
Free trials (plan-level trial periods synced with Stripe)
Coupons and discounts (percentage off, free trial coupons)
Gift subscriptions (readers can gift subscriptions to others)
Viral/campaign gift flows
Group subscriptions (organizational/team billing with per-seat or unlimited pricing)
Group offers (custom pricing for specific organizations with minimum seat requirements)
Multi-currency (localized pricing per currency via Stripe)
Apple In-App Purchase support (iOS subscriptions with Advanced Commerce API)
Payment pledges (supporters can pledge before a creator enables paid subscriptions)
Paywall unlock tokens (grant access to specific paid posts without requiring a full subscription)
Cancellation offers (offer discounts to churning subscribers)
Sponsorship perks (offer universal links, codes, or one-time codes to subscribers at different tiers)
Stripe Connect onboarding (streamlined payment setup)
Tax reporting (CSV and PDF tax reports via Snowflake)
Payout management (Stripe transfers to connected accounts)
Import paid subscribers from Stripe (migrate existing paying customers)
Import paid subscribers from CSV
Manual invoicing (send invoices with custom due dates)

Audience Growth & Discovery

Substack's built-in discovery network helps creators find readers without relying on external platforms. The network includes cross-publication recommendations, category leaderboards, an explore page, personalized search with semantic matching, and personalized trending searches. Creators can track exactly where their subscribers come from and run reader referral programs with milestone rewards.

Substack Network (built-in discovery network across all Substack publications)
Personalized recommendations (Retrieval and ranking for personalized publication suggestions)
Recommendation stats (track how many subscribers you gain/give through recommendations)
Explore/discover page (readers discover publications by topic and category)
Leaderboards (trending and bestseller rankings by category)
Bestseller badges (milestone recognition with email notifications)
Reader referral program (subscribers earn rewards for referring new subscribers, with milestone tiers)
Referral stats in publisher dashboard
Growth/acquisition source tracking (see where your subscribers come from)
Network attribution stats (understand how the Substack network drives your growth)
Search (Elasticsearch + semantic/embedding search across publications, posts, and profiles)
Personalized trending searches (smart suggested search topics using relevance filtering)
Geographic discovery (country-based leaderboard cache for international onboarding)
Subscriber import (CSV upload with list cleaning and validation)
Embeddable subscribe widget (embed a signup form on external websites)

Analytics & Insights

Substack provides detailed analytics covering subscriber growth, retention cohorts, email performance, post-level engagement, podcast downloads, traffic sources, revenue, and more. All stats are accessible from the publisher dashboard and are exportable as CSVs.

Publisher dashboard overview (subscriber charts, traffic timeseries, ARR)
Network stats (attribution from the Substack network)
Audience stats (follower growth, geographic distribution, audience overlap)
Retention stats (net growth, cohorts, churn analysis)
Email stats (open rates, click rates, delivery metrics)
Post-level stats (views, reads, subscriber conversions, sources per post)
Podcast download stats (by episode/player/country)
Notes stats (engagement metrics for short-form content)
Sharing stats (track how readers share your content)
Unsubscribe stats (understand why readers leave)
Referral stats (reader referral program performance)
Earnings/revenue stats (estimated revenue, ARR, pledge stats)
Traffic stats (where readers come from)
Pledge stats (pledged ARR, pledge list)
Survey results (reader survey response data)
Subscriber table with total revenue generated per subscriber
Growth metrics page (acquisition sources dashboard)
Live stream stats (viewership for live events)

Design & Customization

Substack offers a visual website editor with multiple homepage layouts (profile, newspaper, magazine, custom), full color and font customization, custom CSS for email, navigation editing, and modular content blocks. Creators can build a fully branded publication without touching code.

Website editor (visual WYSIWYG theme editor with live preview)
Homepage layout options (multiple layout modes: profile, newspaper, magazine, custom)
Color customization (background, accent, cover, link colors)
Font customization (font families, sizes, presets)
Custom header and footer (on website)
Custom subscribe page
Hero/banner customization (alignment, style, podcast links on hero)
Content blocks on homepage (modular homepage sections)
Custom CSS for email (style email newsletters with custom CSS and documented classnames)
Logo and wordmark upload (including wide logo variant)
Favicon customization
Cover photo / hero image
Social media links (displayed on your publication)
Navigation bar editor (add, remove, reorder navigation items and groups)
Homepage links / sidebar links (for newspaper/magazine layouts)
Section-based content organization (organize posts into sections, with archived sections)
Drop caps toggle
Previous/next post navigation toggle
Post preview image crop gravity and border radius controls
Welcome page customization (customize what new visitors see)
Theme templates per section (different layouts for different sections)

Custom Domain & Branding

Substack supports custom domains, including purchasing a domain directly through the platform. Creators can configure apex domain redirects, set custom Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and manage cookie settings.

Custom domain support (use your own domain name)
Custom domain purchase via Stripe (buy a domain through Substack)
Apex domain redirects configuration
DNS configuration flow with status checking
Custom Terms of Service (write your own ToS)
Custom Privacy Policy (write your own privacy policy)
Cookie settings management

Distribution & Integrations

Substack generates RSS feeds and sitemaps automatically, integrates with Google Analytics 4, and connects to YouTube and LinkedIn for cross-platform distribution. Creators can verify their site with Google and use the Share Center to distribute content across social media after publishing.

RSS feed for posts
Podcast RSS with Apple and Spotify distribution
Sitemap generation (tiered, with spam handling and optional AI crawler blocking)
Google Analytics 4 integration (measurement ID)
Google Tag Manager integration (for advanced script injection and tracking)
Twitter/X pixel tracking
Parse.ly RSS
Facebook pixel tracking
Google site verification
YouTube connected account (auto-upload videos)
LinkedIn connected account (auto-upload videos)
Share Center (post-publish hub with tools to share on social media, create shareable images, Instagram-optimized sharing, video clips, and Notes composer)

Import & Export (Data Portability)

Substack supports importing posts and subscribers from more than 12 platforms including WordPress, Ghost, Medium, Beehiiv, Mailchimp, and Tumblr. Creators can export their full publication data (posts, subscriber lists, stats) at any time. You always own your content and your audience.

Post import from: WordPress, Ghost, Medium, Beehiiv, Mailchimp, Tumblr, Webflow, Sanity, Seeking Alpha, Bulletin, TinyLetter, Blogspot, and any RSS feed
File-based post import (upload content files directly)
Podcast episode import (from RSS, Apple, Spotify)
Subscriber CSV import with list cleaning and validation
Paid subscriber import from Stripe (migrate existing Stripe customers)
Paid subscriber import from CSV
Full publication data export (posts as CSV + HTML, subscriber list, optional stats)
Publication analytics CSV export
Subscriber CSV export
Document export

Team & Collaboration

Substack supports multiple team roles (admin, editor, contributor), co-authored posts with bylines, guest writer invitations, and granular contributor permissions.

Multiple team roles (admin, contributor, byline with different permission levels)
Bylines and co-authors (add multiple authors to a post)
Guest writer invitations (invite external writers with email invites)
Guest bios (toggle display of guest author bios)
Contributor access controls (granular permissions for templates, live streams, etc.)
Team management settings page

Mobile Apps

Substack has native iOS and Android apps for reading, subscribing, and managing publications. Creators can view earnings and stats on mobile. Readers get push notifications, in-app subscriptions, and a reading queue.

iOS reader app (native iPhone/iPad app on the App Store)
Android reader app (native app on Google Play)
Mobile creator tools (earnings view, stats on mobile)
In-app subscriptions (iOS IAP, Android)
Push notifications (for new posts, comments, gifts, activity)
Reading queue / saved posts (bookmark posts for later)

Reader Experience

Substack's reader experience includes a personalized algorithmic home feed, an explore page for discovering new publications, full-text search, saved posts, activity feeds, subscription management, live stream viewing, dark mode, and granular notification controls.

Personalized home feed (algorithmic feed of subscriptions and recommendations)
Explore/browse page (discover new publications by topic)
Search across all of Substack (publications, posts, people)
Saved posts / reading queue / previously read (bookmark for later)
Activity feed (see likes, restacks, replies on your content)
Subscription management (manage all subscriptions in one place)
Inbox/subscriptions view (chronological feed of subscribed publications)
Live stream viewing (watch live video in-app)
Collections/lists (curate lists of publications)
Profile pages (public profile with posts, notes, bio)
Dark mode and theme support
Notification preferences (granular control over notifications)

Infrastructure & Platform

Substack is free to start with no upfront costs and unlimited subscribers. The platform handles email delivery, CDN-hosted media, real-time messaging infrastructure, multi-language support, account security with MFA, and data privacy controls.

Free to start (no upfront costs; revenue share only when you earn)
Unlimited subscribers
Reliable email delivery (managed email infrastructure)
CDN-hosted media (images, audio, video served via CDN)
Real-time WebSocket infrastructure
International/multi-language support (publication language setting, i18n across the platform)
Account security (MFA / two-factor authentication)
Block AI crawlers setting (opt out of AI training data collection)
Cookie consent management

Programs & Creator Support

Recognition programs and in-app support for creators.

Substack Bestseller recognition (badges and milestones)
In-app support bot (help and resources)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Substack?

Substack is a publishing platform where writers, podcasters, and video creators build subscription-based publications. It combines newsletter email delivery, podcast hosting, native video, community features, and a built-in discovery network. Creators own their content and subscriber list.

How much does Substack cost?

Substack is free to use. There are no upfront costs, no monthly fees, and no subscriber limits on the free tier. Substack takes a 10% revenue share only when a creator earns money through paid subscriptions.

Can I use my own domain on Substack?

Yes. Substack supports custom domains. You can connect a domain you already own or purchase one directly through the platform. Substack handles DNS configuration and apex domain redirects.

Can I import my subscribers from another platform?

Yes. Substack supports subscriber import via CSV upload with list cleaning and validation. You can also import paid subscribers directly from Stripe. For content, Substack supports post import from WordPress, Ghost, Medium, Beehiiv, Mailchimp, Tumblr, Webflow, and more.

Can I export my data from Substack?

Yes. You can export your full publication data at any time, including posts (as CSV and HTML), your complete subscriber list, and optional stats. You always own your content and audience.

Does Substack support podcasting?

Yes. Substack includes full podcast hosting with automatic RSS feed generation, distribution to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, download analytics, transcript support, and private podcast feeds for paid subscribers. Substack also offers text-to-speech to some creators to automatically generate audio versions of written posts.

Does Substack support video?

Yes. Substack supports native video hosting, live video streaming with real-time chat, automatic distribution to YouTube and LinkedIn, video clipping tools, captions, and RTMP support for external streaming software.

How does Substack help me grow my audience?

Substack has a built-in discovery network that no other newsletter platform offers. This includes cross-publication recommendations, category leaderboards, an explore page, Notes (a short-form social feed), restacks, reader referral programs, and semantic search across the platform.

What makes Substack different from Mailchimp, Beehiiv, or Ghost?

Substack is the only newsletter platform with a built-in social and discovery network. While other platforms focus on email delivery and marketing automation, Substack combines publishing with audience discovery through recommendations, Notes, leaderboards, and an explore page. Substack also includes native podcast hosting and live video streaming, which most competitors do not offer.

Does Substack have an app?

Yes. Substack has native apps for both iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android. Readers can subscribe, read, listen to podcasts, watch video, chat, and manage all their subscriptions in the app. Creators can view earnings and stats on mobile.

Can I accept payments through Substack?

Yes. Substack uses Stripe for payment processing and supports monthly and annual subscriptions, founding member tiers, free trials, coupons, gift subscriptions, group billing, multi-currency support, and Bitcoin payments via OpenNode.

Can I customize the design of my Substack?

Yes. Substack offers a visual website editor with multiple homepage layouts, full color and font customization, custom CSS for email, navigation editing, logo and favicon upload, and modular content blocks. You can build a fully branded publication without writing code.

Does Substack provide legal support for writers and creators?

Yes. The Substack Defender program offers access to legal support as part of Substack’s efforts to uphold a free press and free speech. The program provides legal protection for Substack publishers against certain types of claims, including access to advice and support for publishers who face legal uncertainty or pressure because of their work.