Alternatives / Substack
Looking for an open source Substack alternative? We compared 8 open source publishing, newsletter, and blogging tools by license, self-hosting, memberships, email delivery, and pricing. They range from full publishing platforms to mailing list managers and personal blogs.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost | Closest Substack alternative with memberships | MIT |
| WordPress | Flexible websites and blogs | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Listmonk | Self-hosted newsletters at scale | AGPL-3.0 |
| Notifuse | Email platform with a visual editor | BSL-1.1 (v40+) / AGPL-3.0 (earlier) |
| Keila | Privacy-focused newsletters | AGPL-3.0 |
| Sigle | Decentralized Bitcoin-based writing | MIT |
| Pagecord | Simple personal blogging | Pagecord Licence (source available) |
| Comma | Personal site builder (archived) | AGPL-3.0 (archived) |
We looked for open-source tools that cover parts of Substack: writing and publishing posts, sending newsletters, and managing subscribers. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. Substack bundles a publishing platform, email delivery, and paid subscriptions, so we separate full publishing platforms from mailing list managers and personal blogs, and flag source-available licenses and archived projects. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Ghost is the only one that combines a website, newsletter delivery, and paid memberships in one product. WordPress is a general CMS that needs plugins for newsletters and subscriptions. Listmonk, Notifuse, and Keila are mailing list and email platforms without a publishing front end, and Pagecord, Comma, and Sigle are lighter blogging tools.
Ghost is the closest alternative: a rich editor, free and paid memberships through Stripe, newsletters, audience segmentation, analytics, and themes, with no platform fees on payments. You can self-host it or use its managed service.
Ghost and Sigle are MIT, WordPress is GPL-2.0-or-later, and Listmonk and Keila are AGPL-3.0. Notifuse moved to the Business Source License 1.1 from version 40, with earlier versions under AGPL-3.0, so recent releases are source available. Pagecord uses its own license, which allows self-hosting for your own blog but forbids offering it as a hosted service. Comma is AGPL-3.0 but its repository has been archived.
Listmonk, Notifuse, and Keila send email through an SMTP provider or API that you configure, such as Amazon SES, and Ghost sends newsletters through a bulk email service such as Mailgun. Deliverability, sender reputation, and costs depend on that provider.
Comma's repository was archived in May 2026 and is no longer maintained. Ghost, WordPress, Listmonk, Keila, Notifuse, Sigle, and Pagecord were updated within days of this update.
Substack is a proprietary hosted platform that takes a percentage of paid subscription revenue and keeps your audience and content on its servers. Open-source alternatives let you own your site and subscriber list, self-host email delivery, avoid revenue cuts, and choose your own design, at the cost of running infrastructure and handling email deliverability yourself.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost | Publishing platform | MIT | Yes | Creators and journalists |
| WordPress | CMS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes | Flexible sites |
| Listmonk | Newsletter manager | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Large mailing lists |
| Notifuse | Email platform | BSL-1.1 (v40+) | Yes | Developers and marketers |
| Keila | Email marketing | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Privacy and data control |
| Sigle | Web3 writing platform | MIT | Decentralized | Web3 writers |
| Pagecord | Personal blog | Pagecord Licence | Yes | Independent bloggers |
| Comma | Site builder | AGPL-3.0 (archived) | Hosted | Personal sites |
Want the closest all-in-one Substack replacement
Ghost combines a publishing site, newsletters, and free and paid memberships through Stripe, with no platform fees on payments.
Want a flexible website with thousands of themes and plugins
WordPress offers themes, plugins, and WooCommerce, but newsletters and memberships need extra plugins.
Want to send large newsletters yourself
Listmonk is a single-binary mailing list manager with multi-SMTP queues, segmentation, a transactional API, and analytics.
Want a visual email editor and automation
Notifuse offers a drag-and-drop MJML editor, A/B testing, segmentation, and multiple workspaces, but recent versions are source available.
Want privacy-focused email marketing
Keila offers segmentation, templates, automations, and analytics with full ownership of subscriber data under AGPL-3.0.
Want a simple personal blog
Pagecord publishes from the browser, email, Obsidian, or CLI with RSS and newsletters, under a source-available license.
Want decentralized, crypto-native publishing
Sigle is a Bitcoin-based writing platform with Ordinals support and NFT-gated subscriptions through Unlock Protocol.