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Podia vs. Substack

Beautiful newsletters in the same place as your blog, website, courses, and customers

You can start a blog and email newsletter with both Podia and Substack, but Podia gives you more customizations and features to grow your business – like lead magnets, landing pages, automations, and products – all in one place.

Podia vs. Substack

Substack works well for newsletters, but you’ll need other tools to sell digital products and there’s always a 10% transaction fee. With Podia, your products, blog, email, and fans are connected, and you can remove fees as you grow.

    • Blogging
    • Email newsletters
    • Custom website
    • Sell products & courses
    • Campaigns & automations
    • Remove transaction fees
    • Blogging
    • Email newsletters
    • No custom website
    • No products & courses
    • No campaigns & automations
    • Always pay transaction fees
Comparing Podia vs. Substack
PodiaSubstack
Price$33/mo – $89/mo10% of earnings
Free migrations Included Not included
Website Included Not included
Email marketing Included Included
Online courses Included Not included
Digital products Included Not included
Webinars Included Not included
Coaching Included Not included
Landing pages Included Not included
Blogging Included Included
Affiliate marketing Included Not included

Video Demo

Podia in action

Wondering if Podia is a better platform for you? Go behind the scenes in this video walkthrough to learn the ins and outs of Podia’s software and how it can help your business.

What makes Podia different from Substack?

It comes down to what the two platforms let you, the entrepreneur, do.

The Podia blogging tool is super simple, yet you can create a really great looking and personalized design that fits your brand. And cherry on the cake, you have everything in one place, your store, your blog, your website, and even your CRM.

Daniele Catalanotto
Swiss Innovation Academy

Podia vs. Substack: Which one is right for me?

Podia and Substack are both platforms where you can make a living off your writing and creative work. Both offer newsletters and blogging, and both make it easy to grow an email list without needing a ton of techie know-how.

But while Substack focuses on paid newsletters and members-only content, Podia is an all-in-one platform where you can blog, sell digital products, build online courses, set up a full website, and grow your email list.

Let’s take a look at the details of each platform to help you decide which is right for you.

Podia vs. Substack plans and pricing

Substack is a newsletter platform where you can subscribe to publications and start writing content yourself. It’s free to create a newsletter and share your writing on your Substack blog. You can choose to make your writing available to the public or exclusive to subscribers, and you can choose how much you want to charge for monthly or annual subscriptions. You’ll pay Substack a flat 10% of your earnings.

With Podia, you can choose between two plans that both include your website, blog, checkout cart, and email. As your business grows, Podia gives you options to remove transaction fees, which could save you lots of money in the long run.

Here’s a look at all of Podia’s plans and features:

Podia Pricing:

  • Mover: $39/month and 5% transaction fee ($33/month when paid annually): Mover includes your website, blog, and landing pages, plus unlimited digital products, courses, and third-party code.

  • Shaker: $89/month and 0% transaction fee ($75/month when paid annually): Shaker includes all the Mover features plus affiliates.

You can also add Podia Email to any Podia base plan. Podia Email is free for your first 100 subscribers, and after that, the price goes up as your list grows.

All plans come with Podia’s full suite of advanced email marketing features, so you can send beautiful newsletters, run automations, build campaigns, and segment/filter your audience no matter your list size.

Podia lets you sell digital products in addition to blogging and newsletters

One of the biggest differences between Podia and Substack is the ability to sell digital products. Substack lets you make money one way — selling paid newsletter subscriptions or memberships.

With Podia, you have more monetization options with digital downloads, webinars, online courses, and coaching sessions — basically, you can sell any type of file or program you like. You can make product bundles, add upsells, create coupons, and integrate your products with your Discord community.

Plus, Podia has a full online course platform that you can use to make unlimited self-paced, cohort, drip, access limited, and live courses. Courses and products can be free or paid, and there are integrations with Stripe and PayPal for payment processing.

Blogging and website features on Podia and Substack

While Substack lets you share newsletters and blog posts, Podia has a full website builder with unlimited landing pages, your link in bio, and dedicated blogging functionality.

With Substack, you can set up a blog and basic home page. Your home page lets you show featured blog articles and recent posts, but the personalization options are limited. You get some basic customizations like font and accent colors, but otherwise, your layouts are pretty much set. Plus, Substack shows related newsletters on your homepage, which could distract people from your work.

With Podia, you have full control over the look of your website and blog. You can choose from dozens of professionally designed layouts that can be customized however you like, and you can

  • Change details like fonts and colors

  • Adjust the margins and spacing of your whole site or just specific sections

  • Embed videos, podcasts, audio clips, embeds, quizzes, and other interactive features

  • Update your SEO settings, like your SEO title, description, and URL

  • Share links to your social media channels and email list in your footer in just a few clicks

You can also add unlimited landing pages with Podia, including email opt-in landers, product sales pages, about pages, and any other pages that you need.

Email marketing features of Podia and Substack

Substack is pretty basic when it comes to email marketing. You can send a message to all your subscribers or just paying members, and you can schedule emails to go out at a later time. You can also see stats about your messages like open rate and click rate.

To get new subscribers on your list, Substack frequently shows an opt-in form to your audience as a pop-up and within your content. This can be a downside if you prefer a more subtle approach since visitors will have to actively click away from your newsletter CTA to continue reading your articles.

With Podia, you decide when and where you promote your newsletter. You can use a lead magnet, free product, opt-in form, full email landing page, or add CTA banners throughout your website.

Podia also has advanced email marketing features that allow you to get more nuanced in your email sending. You can

  • Add tags and segment your audience members based on the products they buy, the forms they subscribe to, and the actions they take with your business

  • Build campaigns with unique entrance and exit conditions

  • Send sequences and automations like welcome emails, sales promos, and drip courses

  • Create custom audience segments so you make sure your message always goes to the right people

  • Automatically send someone an email when they join your affiliate program, sign up for your community, or interact with your business in some way

  • Trigger campaigns when someone clicks a link in a previous email

  • Choose from a library of beautiful email templates, or use your past emails as a starting point

Best of all, Podia handles a lot of this behind the scenes, so you don’t have to build it yourself. When someone buys a product, that information is automatically saved so you don’t have to create complicated webs of tags.

Podia also gives you several ways to communicate with your followers. You can enable comments on your blog posts, add live chat messaging to your website to provide customer support, make lead magnets and email opt-in forms, or send 1:1 messages via email.

Simply put, Substack is a good choice if you only need a basic email and blogging platform, and don’t mind paying 10% in transaction fees forever.

Podia is a better fit for content creators, bloggers, and small business owners who want advanced email and blogging in the same place as everything else, with the ability to upgrade and add even more features as your business grows.

The best way to know for sure is to try Podia for yourself! You can start blogging and sending email newsletters right now with a 30-day free trial. We can’t wait so see what you make.

Try Podia free for 30 days

Join the 150,000+ creators who use Podia to create websites, sell digital products, send great emails, and build online businesses.

Frequently asked questions

What features are included with Podia?

Podia is an all-in-one platform where you can run your website, online store, and email marketing, as well as your blog, landing pages, affiliates, and everything else. You can sell online courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, or any other kind of digital product you want, and you can see all your customer and sales information under one roof. 

Can I try Podia for free?

You sure can! Podia has a 30-day free trial so you can make sure Podia is the right fit for you. You can test all the features, so you're free to set up your website, blog, email list, and products without spending a dime. Start your free trial today to see for yourself!

How does Podia Email work?

Podia Email is an optional add-on that you can use with any Podia plan. Your first 100 subscribers are free, and all Podia Email users get unlimited email sends, automations, campaigns, newsletters, email templates, segmentation, and audience tagging.

Podia Email is automatically connected to your website, landing pages, and products, and you don’t need to manage any integrations. Plus, you can see your customer data – like products purchased, lead magnet opt-ins, and email engagement – all in one place. Learn more about Podia Email here.

Can I bring my existing products and subscribers over to Podia?

Yes! We offer free product migrations on all Mover and Shaker plans. We also offer free email migrations on all paid Podia Email plans. Learn more about Podia’s free migrations here.