The Best Open Source Alternatives to Substack
Looking for a self-hosted, open-source alternative to Substack? Here are 2 apps you can run on your own infrastructure: WriteFreely and Ghost.
WriteFreely as a Substack alternative
WriteFreely is a minimal open-source alternative to Substack for writers who just want a clean, Markdown-based place to publish, with federation to the wider Fediverse built in.
Ghost as a Substack alternative
Ghost is a fuller open-source alternative to Substack, with paid memberships, newsletters and subscriber management built in as a direct replacement for Substack's core features.
LicenseMITOrganisation typeFoundationCountry of origin🇬🇧 United KingdomHeadquartersUnknownIncorporated inUnknown
| Substack | WriteFreely | Ghost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blogging & publishing | |||
| ActivityPub | |||
| RSS Feeds | |||
| Custom Domain | |||
| Email Newsletter | |||
| Static Pages | |||
| Multiple Blogs & Pen Names | |||
| Paid Memberships | |||
| Authentication | |||
| SAML SSO | |||
| OIDC SSO | |||
| Social Login | |||
| LDAP / AD | |||
| MFA | |||
| API Keys | |||
| Password Auth | |||
| Access Control | |||
| RBAC | |||
| Teams | |||
| Data | |||
| Data Export | |||
| Audit Log | |||
| Integrations | |||
| Webhooks | |||
| REST API | |||
| GraphQL API | |||
| MCP Server | |||
| UI | |||
| Custom Branding | |||
| Android | |||
| iOS | |||
| Mac | |||
| Windows | |||
| Other Features | |||
| Unlimited Users | — | ||