Substack’s bet that writers want the platform to provide a community just as much as distribution appears to be paying off in 2025.
Five newsletter creators who moved their operations over to Substack from other platforms such as Patreon and Beehiiv in the past year told Digiday that their following — and revenue — had grown since they made the jump, directly crediting Substack community tools such as co-livestreaming and recommendations for the subscriber boost. Their experiences show that Substack’s ongoing efforts to win over creators by becoming more of a community platform and less of a newsletter delivery service are successfully winning over some newsletter writers who value being part of a vibrant creative community.
“It’s like all my friends just switched to Substack; I saw it happening in front of my eyes,” said Kendall Dickieson, who told Digiday that she had her newsletter No Filter — which covers social media and creator strategy and has over 3,000 subscribers — gained 300 subscribers since moving from Beehiiv to Substack in June, a noticeably higher retention rate compared to the 75 subscribers she said she would typically gain during two months on Beehiiv.
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