Self-hosted alternatives to Substack

Publish your newsletter with no per-subscriber fee. Below are 12 open source options you host on your own server — with no monthly per-user fee and full control of your data.

Ghost

★ 54,361

Ghost is a publishing and newsletter platform built for creators, with paid subscriptions built in. Self-hosted, it's the alternative to Medium and Substack with no cut taken from your subscribers.

Blogging Platforms MIT

Listmonk

★ 22,009

High performance, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager with a modern dashboard.

Communication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters AGPL-3.0

Mautic

★ 10,087

Marketing automation software (email, social and more).

Communication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters GPL-3.0

WriteFreely

★ 5,197

Writing software for starting a minimalist, federated blog — or an entire community.

Blogging Platforms AGPL-3.0

Dittofeed

★ 2,856

Omni-channel customer engagement and messaging automation platform (alternative to Braze, Customer.io, Iterable).

AutomationCommunication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters MIT

Keila

★ 2,154

Reliable and easy-to-use newsletter tool (alternative to Mailchimp and Sendinblue).

Communication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters AGPL-3.0

Ech0

★ 2,018

Lightweight federated publishing platform focused on personal idea sharing (documentation in Chinese).

Blogging PlatformsContent Management Systems (CMS) AGPL-3.0

HTMLy

★ 1,346

Databaseless PHP blogging platform. A flat-file CMS that allows you to create a fast, secure, and powerful website or blog in seconds.

Blogging PlatformsContent Management Systems (CMS) GPL-2.0

Known

★ 1,120

Collaborative social publishing platform.

Blogging Platforms Apache-2.0

phpList

★ 858

Newsletter and email marketing with advanced management of subscribers, bounces, and plugins.

Communication - Email - Mailing Lists and Newsletters AGPL-3.0

Haven

★ 795

Private blogging system with markdown editing and built in RSS reader.

Blogging Platforms MIT

Chyrp Lite

★ 488

Extra-awesome, extra-lightweight blog engine.

Blogging Platforms BSD-3-Clause

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free self-hosted alternative to Substack?

Yes. We've gathered 12 self-hosted, open source alternatives to Substack — including Ghost, Listmonk, Mautic. You run all of them on your own server.

What is the best open source alternative to Substack?

Ghost is one of the most popular (54,361 GitHub stars). The "best" depends on your case — compare the options below.

Do I need a server to replace Substack?

Yes. You can use a home server (homelab) or a cheap VPS (from ~€4/mo). See the hosting suggestions on this page.