Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax

Prominent writers and newsletters are leaving or testing alternatives to Substack, including Ghost, Beehiiv, Patreon, and Passport.

The main pull is lower fees, more flexibility, and greater control over audience, products, and publishing.

Substack’s 10% revenue share is increasingly viewed as too expensive for large, fast-growing subscriber bases.

The shift signals creator businesses are pushing back on percentage-based platform fees as newsletter operations scale.