Leaving the Substack tax behind for Ghost monetization

Substack’s rising revenue cut

Substack takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, which forces growing creators to pay more as they succeed. If a creator earns $10,000 per month, they hand $1,000 to the platform. This fee structure creates a massive gap for established publishers. Sean Highkin, who runs The Rose Garden Report, moved to Ghost and pays $2,052 per year compared to the $4,968 he paid on Substack. He reported that his subscriber base grew 22 percent since he made the switch. While Substack provides a low-friction entry point for new writers through its recommendation engine, the 10 percent fee becomes a massive financial burden for any creator who manages a very large and highly profitable subscriber base. For a newsletter with 400 subscribers paying $10 a month, Substack’s total monthly cost reaches $636 when including credit card processing. This cost jumps to $79,500 per month for 50,000 members. I find that the 10 percent tax creates a regressive penalty on success. You probably already know that Substack handles deliverability and billing, but that convenience costs dearly once you hit scale. Writers often face a choice between the ease of a zero-cost entry point and the efficiency of a flat-fee model.

Ghost Pro capabilities

Ghost maintains a 0 percent platform fee, meaning you keep every cent after Stripe processes the transaction. The platform delivers superior SEO tools like custom meta titles, canonical URL control, XML sitemaps, and structured data. Most publications prefer Ghost because it allows them to build a brand on their own domain. You can test the full Ghost Pro platform with a 14-day free trial that includes access to the full dashboard and membership tiers.

The Starter plan includes a custom domain and basic design tools but lacks paid subscriptions and multi-user support. It also limits users to a single theme and a 5MB upload limit. I would skip the Starter tier if you want to monetize because recent updates stripped out paid subscriptions. The Publisher plan costs $29 per month and enables membership tiers, custom themes, and advanced analytics. The Business plan costs $199 per month, including 15 staff accounts and priority support for established media operations that require higher limits. This tier also handles subdirectory hosting for those scaling into a media company. A newsletter earning $3,000 per month from members saves $360 per month by choosing the Publisher plan over Substack.

Choosing between growth and control

The decision to migrate depends on whether you need a built-in discovery engine. Substack uses its recommendation network and Notes to drive subscriptions, while Ghost requires you to build your own funnel through search or social media. Matt Brown, the creator of Extra Points, moved to Beehiiv to find better growth tools. Anne Helen Petersen moved from Substack to Patreon to avoid a platform she described as enshittified, while Casey Newton moved Platformer to Ghost to gain more control over his home on the open web.

Medium stays relevant as a portfolio, but its Partner Program pays most writers almost nothing, with an estimated 94 percent of writers earning under $100 a month. Successful creators also navigate Apple’s 30 percent commission on in-app payments for iOS users. Substack owners can export subscribers but they cannot export followers from the Notes feed. Most creators use Substack to build an audience and then consider migration once the 10 percent fee becomes painful. A creator earning $1,000 per month from paid members hands $100 to Substack, but the Ghost Publisher plan keeps that money in their pocket. Successful creators often realize that managing their own data is a better long-term investment than paying platform taxes. Why do so many successful writers continue to pay a premium for a platform that limits their control?