Publica Now vs Substack
Substack is great for pure newsletters. Publica Now is great for multi-format creators. We tell you which one fits, with no spin.
TL;DR — in 3 lines
Table built with data verified May 13, 2026. Sources are in each quote below.
| Supported formats | Publica Now | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 15% | 10% |
| Flat per-transaction fee | USD 0.50 | No |
| Effective total cost | ~15% | ~13.5% |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-format | Yes | No |
| Subscriptions | Yes | Yes |
| Email to your list | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app for readers | No | Yes |
| Discount codes | Yes | No |
| AI training opt-out | Explicit opt-out | Ambiguous |
| Content ownership | 100% creator-owned | Creator-owned |
Substack takes 10% of income plus Stripe fees (2.9% + USD 0.30 per transaction), which works out to about 13-15% effective. Publica Now charges 15% + USD 0.50 flat per paid transaction, all-inclusive. Substack leaves slightly more in each sale, but the gap narrows once you factor in that Publica Now uses Stripe Adaptive Pricing and that LATAM creators on Substack hit payment limitations.
Substack is text + embedded audio. That's it. If you sell an album, a course, or a photo set, you have to shoehorn it into a "paid post" without a dedicated landing page, presentation, or bundling with other products. Publica Now supports books, music, photography, video, courses, zines, poetry, and design in a single profile with your own URL.
Both platforms let you export your email list as CSV. The difference: if Substack decides to suspend your account (PickThatEmail documents 88% of Trustpilot reviews are 1-star, with export-on-suspension as a top complaint), your export gets disabled. Publica Now retains 100% of rights for you: if you leave, you take your catalog, list, and history without penalty.
Substack wins here clearly: mature iOS and Android apps, and many readers already consume content there. Publica Now is web mobile-responsive without a native app. If your audience mostly consumes via mobile reader apps, that's a point for Substack.
This is one of the critical 2026 questions. Substack's policy is ambiguous and has changed multiple times. Publica Now publishes an explicit opt-out in its terms: creator work is not used to train AI models. Not a marketing claim — it's in the product's ToS.
When Substack is the better choice
When Publica Now is the better choice
You sell a USD 50 course to 40 people/month (USD 2,000 gross).
| Publica Now | Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 15% × 2,000 = USD 300 | 10% × 2,000 = USD 200 |
| Stripe fee | Included in 15% | 2.9% + USD 0.30 × 40 = USD 70 |
| Transaction fee | USD 0.50 × 40 = USD 20 | — |
| Total fees | USD 320 (16%) | USD 270 (13.5%) |
| You keep | USD 1,680 | USD 1,730 |
Substack leaves you USD 50 more in this scenario. But on Substack, that course is a "paid post" inside your newsletter — no dedicated landing, no discount code, no bundling, no discoverability outside your list. On Publica Now it lives in your profile alongside everything else.
Migration
What DOES transfer
What DOESN'T transfer
Complexity
Low to medium — export is straightforward; the real loss is paid subscriptions, which is PCI standard across all platforms.
Estimated time
60-90 minutes to move catalog and list. Paid-subscriber reactivation can take 2-4 weeks with 30-50% conversion.
What creators say
Verbatim quotes from public reviews and creator communities in 2025-2026. Sources are linked.
Trustpilot: 1.3 out of 5 stars, with 88% of reviews being 1-star.
Only 10% of callers reach an actual human in support, with a resolution rate of just 1%.
When Substack suspends an account, email list export is disabled — years of work lost with no appeal process.
The support AI sometimes fabricates email addresses or provides incorrect information, leaving users without resolution for weeks.
Creating your account is free. Upload your first work today, or let's talk first if you have specific questions.