SUBSTACK
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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.
The math at different revenue levels
At $2,000/mo revenue
Substack
$200/mo
Forme
$19/mo
You keep extra
$2,172/yr
At $5,000/mo revenue
Substack
$500/mo
Forme
$19/mo
You keep extra
$5,772/yr
At $10,000/mo revenue
Substack
$1,000/mo
Forme
$19/mo
You keep extra
$11,772/yr
February 2026
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.
forme stores 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.
Breach impact
Records exposed697,000
Months undetected4–5
Data types leakedEmail · Phone · Stripe ID
Forme breaches0
Forme payment data storedNone
Everything side by side.
| Forme | Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly platform cost | $19 flat | $0 |
| Revenue cut | 0% — always | 10% of everything |
| On $2,000/month revenue | $19/month | $200/month |
| On $5,000/month revenue | $19/month | $500/month |
| On $10,000/month revenue | $19/month | $1,000/month |
| Draft encryption | ✓ Zero-knowledge | ✗ Plaintext on their servers |
| Subscriber data breach history | No breaches | 697K records, Feb 2026 |
| Custom design | ✓ Full control | ✗ 5 font choices |
| Anonymous tip intake | ✓ Built in | ✗ Not available |
| No ad injection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full data export anytime | ✓ | ✓ (with caveats) |
| Platform lock-in | None by design | 86% of new subs from Substack network |
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.
Moving from Substack takes about 20 minutes.
Upload your export ZIP. Your posts and subscribers arrive intact.