Well, I did it. You're now receiving or reading this newsletter powered by Ghost instead of Substack.
You might ask, why? (Or, why?!?!?)
Ghost is not as well known as Substack, it's not free to host a site or send out emails through, and it doesn't have built in social media or recommendations.
But I'm not sure if you're aware, but Substack has some issues. Some reasons why I no longer want to post my content primarily on their site.
Substack is a for-profit company, probably looking to go public or get bought out by someone. (Who? Well, probably some rich organization looking to control the published viewpoints in the US. Just look at what happened to Twitter.)
Substack has a history of not just allowing, but funding hate speech, of the transphobic and (neo)Nazi varieties.
When people sign up for my Substack, they're not exactly signing up for my email list: they're signing up as Substack users. Substack, the for-profit company, needs these users. The users are its product.
I also was alarmed by Substack accidentally and completely deleting Lucy Werner's publication Hype Yourself, with no easy backup and restore options. This included Lucy's paid subscriptions! What a nightmare.
For this and other reasons, I don't believe Substack is running on robust software.
I've also seen other journalists and creators switching from Substack to other platforms. Here's a great example written by Lex Roman:
https://journalistspaythemselves.com/p/what-happens-when-you-leave-substack
I initially found Substack appealing because they don't charge me anything to host a free newsletter. But as I started growing my paid subscriptions, the 10% cut that I was paying to Substack started to grate on me. I was literally taking money from people I care about and sending it to Substack. Yuck.
Ghost, on the other hand, is open-source software. The team behind the product is not politically and financially motivated in ways that offend me, as far as I can tell.
It's worth noting that Ghost is free as in speech, not free as in beer. Whether you pay for Ghost Pro, the hosting platform, or self-host the software and pay a server and for Mailgun to send emails, it's likely going to cost you something.
I ended up paying more than I expected to switch to Ghost, but overall feel better about being on this platform, and feel much better about where my money is going.
The biggest change is that I feel like I have my own website again. I'm no longer writing "a Substack," I'm growing my own email list and reaching out personally to the people who want to hear from me. It's a subtle change, perhaps, but important for the independent publishing I'm excited about.
And now, how exactly I switched from Substack to Ghost: all the gritty tech details, from DNS to graphic design to email deliverability... and why Ghost Pro won out over self-hosted, less expensive solutions...
The Extensive Tech Details of How I Migrated from Substack to Ghost
I started with Ghost Pro's free 14-day trial. (I took a detour into self-hosted Ghost afterwards, but ended up on Ghost Pro's Creator plan, which I'll explain later.)