FORMEKeep what you earn.
Substack takes 10% of your subscription revenue. On $5,000/month, that's $500, every month, forever. forme costs $19/month flat. The math is not complicated.
Yes, Substack brings you readers. Here's what that costs.
Substack's recommendation engine is real. New readers genuinely discover publications through the platform. That's worth acknowledging.
Here's what the discovery comes with: 10% of every dollar those readers pay you, forever. 86% of new subscribers coming through Substack's own network — which means 86% of your growth is controlled by a platform, not you.
The moment Substack changes its algorithm, your growth changes with it. Forme doesn't have a discovery network. What it has is the full revenue from every subscriber you bring in — and tools to help you bring them in on your terms.
of new subscriber growth comes through Substack's own recommendation network — not your own channels.
Your content, your social presence, your referrals. We give you the subscribe forms and analytics. The audience relationship is entirely yours.
Your readers receive your newsletter in their inbox. Not our app.
Substack's reader app is a genuine advantage for discovery. It's also where your readers increasingly consume newsletters — which means they're in Substack's environment, not yours. Substack controls the reading experience, the recommendations on the side, and what gets surfaced next.
Forme delivers to your readers' email inboxes. They read in Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook — wherever they already are. No app to install. No algorithm deciding what they see next. No discovery engine that also benefits competing publications.
Your newsletter arrives directly. That's a different kind of relationship.
Substack's 10% cut vs Forme's flat $228/year — by subscriber count.
Math: Substack's 10% revenue cut minus Forme's flat $228/year subscription. Does not include Stripe fees (publishers keep Stripe account in both cases).
See exactly what you'd keep.
Enter your monthly subscriber revenue. The math does the rest.
Substack confirmed 697,000 subscriber records were exposed.
Email addresses, phone numbers, and Stripe Customer IDs. The breach occurred in October 2025 and wasn't detected for four to five months.
formestores subscriber email and subscription status. Payment relationships run directly through your own Stripe account, not ours. We don't hold what we can't expose.
This is everything forme stores per subscriber.
Email. Status. Join date. Nothing financial. Nothing behavioral. Nothing you didn't put there.
Everything side by side.
Substack's 10% cut means a publisher earning $5,000/month pays more in platform fees than a forme team subscription. That's not a comparison, it's a different business model.
Side by side
See the difference
Substack publisher dashboard — familiar layout, 10% cut on every dollar
formeBuilt for writers,
not developers.
forme — publishing built for the reader era
Upload your export ZIP. Your posts and subscribers arrive intact.