Substack is for publications. Pagecord is for personal sites.
Substack is a great fit if you want to run a publication and monetise your blog. Many people want something different: a small home on the web that can also send posts by email.
Pagecord gives you a blog first: posts, pages, RSS, themes, a custom domain, and export. Email subscribers are there when you want them, with per-post delivery or a weekly digest, but the site is still yours even if you never become a newsletter operator.
No revenue share. No $50 custom domain fee. Open source. Classic is free forever. Premium is $39/year.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Pagecord | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Free version | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email newsletters | ✅ Weekly digest or per-post delivery |
✅ |
| Social links | ✅ | ✅ |
| Privacy-respecting analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Reply by email | ✅ | ✅ |
| RSS feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search your posts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom domains | ✅ | ✅ ($50 charge) |
| Multiple blogs from one account (Premium includes 2) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Create blog posts by sending an email | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom home pages | ✅ | ❌ |
| Micro-blog posts without titles | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multi-language support | ✅ | ❌ |
| Full site HTML export | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom CSS | ✅ | ❌ |
| Embeddable contact form | ✅ | ❌ |
| Open source | ✅ | ❌ |
| API | ✅ | ❌ |
| Independent and profitable | ✅ | ❌ (VC backed, never made a profit) |