Publify vs Substack
Thinking of swapping Substack for the open-source Publify? Here’s the honest trade-off.
1.9k Ruby MIT 4 days ago
What you give up vs Substack
- Development activity is slow; fewer updates compared to actively maintained blogging platforms
- No built-in newsletter or email subscriber functionality
- Themes and plugin ecosystem are very limited compared to WordPress
- Ruby on Rails stack is less common for hosting, increasing deployment friction
What you gain
- • Full data ownership — self-host Publify on your own infrastructure.
- • No per-seat SaaS bill (Substack: a 10% cut of your subscription revenue).
- • Open-source code you can audit and extend (MIT).