Websites · Alternative
A Substack alternative: a paid newsletter site you own
Substack lets writers publish free and paid posts and keep 90% of revenue minus card fees, with subscribers found through its app and network. OneCraft writes your own publication website with paid subscriptions through your own Stripe account, though its newsletter sending is capped at 500 recipients per send.
Updated , competitor details checked . Substack is a trademark of its owner. OneCraft is an unrelated product and claims no affiliation with or endorsement by it.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
2 min read · Published
The short verdict
Substack is the better pick for a writer whose readers live in email, who wants to start free, send to any size list, and be discovered through the Substack app and network for 10% of paid revenue. OneCraft suits a small publication with a modest list that wants its posts and paid tiers on its own website, with subscribers paying into its own Stripe account.
| Feature | Substack | OneCraft |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | Writers keep 90% of their revenue minus credit card fees checked 2026-10-21 | Stripe Checkout as a direct charge on your own connected Stripe account; platform fee Starter 2%, Pro 1%, Pro+ 0.5%, Stripe fees on top; the free plan cannot take payments |
| Monthly price | Getting started is easy; set up paid subscriptions in a few minutes checked 2026-10-21 | Free $0 with 100 credits a month (about 3 AI projects), Starter $8 with 500, Pro $25 with 1,500, Pro+ $125 with 7,500 |
| Free and paid posts | Choose which posts you publish as free or only for paid subscribers checked 2026-10-21 | 65 capability guides the agent builds from scratch into the site's own database, nothing pre-made |
| Owning the list | Own all of your content and your subscriber list checked 2026-10-21 | The agent enables a Supabase backend: a schema of its own in OneCraft's pool or a project on your own Supabase account, with row level security on every table |
| Sending email | Paid newsletter with subscribers paying monthly checked 2026-10-21 | An admin can send a newsletter to confirmed subscribers, at most 500 per send and 5 sends an hour, from OneCraft's address with the site's name |
| Discovery | Discover featured Substacks; the Substack App checked 2026-10-21 | A free <slug>.onecraft.live address; a renamed site keeps the old address as a redirect for 30 days |
| Formats | For live video, video, podcasts and bloggers checked 2026-10-21 | A website or a phone app, chosen once at creation, every one written as code |
| Subscriptions | Get paid directly by your subscribers checked 2026-10-21 | One-off orders, subscriptions from a plans table and the Stripe billing portal, with prices read from the site's own database |
Where Substack is better
Sending at any size
Substack sends every post to the whole list. OneCraft's newsletter sends at most 500 recipients per send and 5 sends an hour, which rules it out for a large list.
A network of readers
Substack's app and featured listings bring new readers. A OneCraft site has no network.
Video, podcasts and live
Substack supports live video, video and podcasts. OneCraft does not list video hosting or live streaming.
Where OneCraft is different
A smaller cut
OneCraft keeps 2%, 1% or 0.5% of payments by plan, plus Stripe's fees, against Substack's 10%.
A website first
Posts, topic archives, a tip line form and the about page live on your site at your own domain, written by the agent around how your publication works.
Paid access by database rule
Paid posts are protected by row level security in the site's own database, checked by the agent as a visitor and as a signed in subscriber.
Email first or website first
Substack is built around email: each post goes to every subscriber's inbox and the website is the archive. OneCraft is built around the website: posts live on your site, and the mail broker sends an admin newsletter to confirmed subscribers, at most 500 per send. A publication with 300 local readers can work on either; one with 5,000 needs Substack or a dedicated email service.
What 10% costs
With 150 paying readers at $7 a month, Substack keeps about $105 a month before card fees. OneCraft Pro costs $25 a month plus a 1% platform fee, about $10.50, with Stripe's card fees on top. The saving grows with revenue, but only if the sending cap fits your list.
Building the publication
From a brief, the agent writes the post pages, a plans table and Stripe subscriptions for paid readers, members-only rules on paid posts, a sign up form for the free list and an admin area to publish posts. Readers sign in with email or Google, and change their card or cancel in the Stripe billing portal.
Keeping a free list
Most newsletters keep a free tier as the way in. On OneCraft the free list is a sign up form that writes to the site's database, with confirmed subscribers receiving the admin newsletter and an unsubscribe link in each send. Paid readers sign in to read paid posts on the site, which keeps the website, not the inbox, at the centre of the publication.
Who should stay with Substack
Stay with Substack if your list is larger than a few hundred readers, you want every post emailed, or you grow through Substack's network. Move if your publication is local or niche, readers come to your website, and you want subscriptions paid into your own Stripe account for a smaller fee.
Questions people ask
Can I import my Substack subscribers?
Substack says you own your subscriber list, so you can export it and invite readers to your site. Paid subscriptions do not move automatically; each paying reader signs up again through your site's Stripe checkout. Substack's going paid page also describes its revenue calculator and paid tiers.
Why the 500 recipient limit?
OneCraft's mail broker sends from OneCraft's own address with the site's name, and caps an admin newsletter at 500 confirmed subscribers per send and 5 sends an hour, with an unsubscribe link in each. Larger lists need a dedicated email service.
Can readers comment on posts?
Comments are among the capability guides, so the agent can add a comment area for signed in readers. Ask for moderation rules in the brief, and the admin area can list comments for review. Comments are rows in the site's database, so they stay with the site.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes, on a paid plan: Starter allows 1 custom domain and Pro 5. You add a TXT record at _onecraft and a CNAME, press Verify and a managed certificate is issued. The first domain becomes primary, and other live hosts redirect to it.
Will search engines find my posts?
The agent writes a title and description on every route, a canonical address, and with the seo guide Open Graph tags, Article structured data and robots.txt. A sitemap is written by hand only when the domain is known. Visits and referrers then show in Settings once the site is published.
Try the website side of OneCraft
The button opens the generator with a starting prompt already filled in. Change the wording to match your own work before you run it.
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What the module actually does, feature by feature: the AI website builder page, and the websites maker page.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .