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Smashingmagazine VS Substack

Compare Smashingmagazine VS Substack and see what are their differences

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Contents:
  1. ยป Base Details
  2. ยป Videos
  3. ยป Reviews
  4. ยป Alternatives

Smashingmagazine logo Smashingmagazine

Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. Their aim is to inform about the latest trends and techniques in Web development.

Substack logo Substack

With Substack, anyone can start a publication that combines a personal website, blog, and email newsletter or podcast. It's quick and simple.
  • Smashingmagazine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-22
  • Substack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-26

Smashingmagazine features and specs

  • High-Quality Content
    Smashing Magazine provides well-researched and in-depth articles on web design, development, and UX, making it a valuable resource for professionals in the industry.
  • Wide Range of Topics
    The website covers a broad spectrum of topics including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, mobile development, and UX design, catering to a diverse audience with varying interests.
  • Expert Contributors
    Articles and resources are often contributed by industry experts, providing authoritative and reliable insights.
  • Community Engagement
    Smashing Magazine fosters a vibrant community with its events, conferences, and forums, encouraging interaction and knowledge sharing among professionals.
  • Practical Resources
    Offers practical resources such as free eBooks, coding tutorials, and design assets which can be highly beneficial for practitioners.

Possible disadvantages of Smashingmagazine

  • Subscription Cost
    While there is free content available, full access requires a paid membership, which might not be feasible for all users, especially beginners or freelancers with limited budgets.
  • Content Overload
    The vast amount of content can be overwhelming for new visitors, making it difficult to find specific information without proper guidance or understanding of navigation.
  • Advanced Content
    Some articles assume a level of expertise that might not be accessible to beginners, limiting the audience to more experienced professionals.
  • Frequency of Updates
    While content is high-quality, the frequency of updates may not always meet the expectations of users who are accustomed to daily or consistent updates from similar platforms.

Substack features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Substack offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for writers to publish and monetize their newsletters.
  • Built-in Monetization
    Writers can easily charge readers for subscriptions, allowing for straightforward monetization.
  • Direct Audience Connection
    Substack allows writers to build a direct relationship with their audience via email, which can lead to a more engaged readership.
  • Discovery and Community
    Features like staff picks and recommendations help writers get discovered by new readers.
  • No Upfront Costs
    Substack does not charge upfront fees; instead, it takes a percentage of subscription revenues, making it easier to start.
  • Content Ownership
    Writers retain full ownership of their content, giving them more control over their work.

Possible disadvantages of Substack

  • Revenue Share
    Substack takes a 10% cut of subscription revenues, which can add up for writers with a large subscriber base.
  • Limited Customization
    The platform has limited customization options compared to building a custom website or using more flexible CMS options.
  • Dependency on Platform
    Relying on Substack means depending on its policies and infrastructure, which could pose risks if the platform changes its terms or features.
  • Competition
    As more writers join Substack, it can become challenging to stand out amidst the growing competition.
  • Email Deliverability
    Writers may face issues with email deliverability, as some newsletters may end up in spam folders.
  • Payment Processing Fees
    Besides Substack's fee, payment processors like Stripe also take a percentage, further reducing net earnings for writers.

Analysis of Substack

Overall verdict

  • Substack is a good choice for writers seeking autonomy and a straightforward way to monetize their content. However, it may not be the best fit for those who prefer working within the framework of a larger publication or those unfamiliar with the challenges of building and maintaining a subscriber base.

Why this product is good

  • Substack is a platform that allows writers, journalists, and content creators to publish and monetize their newsletters. It is praised for its ease of use, built-in subscription system, and direct-to-consumer model which enables writers to retain control over their audience and content. The platform has attracted both independent writers and established journalists seeking the freedom to monetize their work without traditional media constraints.

Recommended for

  • Independent writers and journalists
  • Content creators looking to monetize their work
  • Individuals seeking a direct relationship with their audience
  • Those who appreciate simplicity in publishing

Smashingmagazine videos

+ Add

BetterUI - What's Wrong With SmashingMagazine.com's Checkout Page

Substack videos

+ Add

Monetizing Podcasts and Newsletters - Chris Best of Substack and Jonathan Gill of Backtracks

More videos:

  • Review - E1016 Substack CEO Chris Best empowers writers via email newsletter platform, raised $15M from a16z
  • Review - Why EVERYONE should be on Substack | What it is, How it Works, $$$
  • Review - Beehiiv vs Substack (2024) - Which is Better?
  • Review - My Experience with SUBSTACK: An Honest Review of Substack

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Smashingmagazine and Substack)

Smashingmagazine

Substack

Online Learning
100 100%
Online Learning
0% 0
Blogging
0 0%
Blogging
100% 100
CSS
100 100%
CSS
0% 0
CMS
0 0%
CMS
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Smashingmagazine and Substack. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Smashingmagazine and Substack

Smashingmagazine Reviews

We have no reviews of Smashingmagazine yet.
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Substack Reviews

25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Substack offers writers of all experience levels the ability to write an email newsletter thatโ€™s profitable through subscriptions. Substack provides purpose-built web and newsletter publishing tools to enable writers to monetize their newsletters. It is a service often favoured by readers because itโ€™s a convenient all-in-one solution for writing a successful podcast that...
Source: forgefusion.io
10 Best Medium Alternatives for Reading and Publishing
What sะตts Substack apart is its sะตamlะตss intะตgration of contะตnt crะตation and subscription-basะตd monะตtization. Substackโ€™s usะตr-friะตndly intะตrfacะต, distribution tools, and support for various contะตnt formats make it a popular choice for indะตpะตndะตnt crะตators looking to connะตct dirะตctly with thะตir audiะตncะต and turn thะตir passion into a sustainablะต incomะต strะตam.
Source: www.geeksforgeeks.org
9 Best Medium Alternatives for Making Money With Your Writing in 2023
Substack and Medium differ primarily in their monetization methods. Medium pays creators based on reader engagement, while Substack enables writers to monetize directly through paid subscriptions to their newsletters. This business model allows Substack users to build a direct relationship with their readers via their email inboxes, whereas Medium interactions primarily...
Source: www.authorityhacker.com
11 Patreon Alternatives for Audience Monetization in 2023
Like a few of the other platforms weโ€™ve looked at, Substack takes a cut of your earnings rather than charging a 10% platform fee.
Source: www.uscreen.tv
Any good Mailchimp alternatives?
My question for you is, what is keeping you from making $31 per month from your list? Are you using any feature that Substack (free until you get paid) can't handle?
Source: www.indiehackers.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Substack seems to be a lot more popular than Smashingmagazine. While we know about 98 links to Substack, we've tracked only 7 mentions of Smashingmagazine. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Smashingmagazine mentions (7)

  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    Smashing Magazine Smashingmagazine.com Articles on UX, design, and front-end development. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Design transferred from Figma to Wordpress is overly zoomed in - anyone know why?
    Provide the same design in 375. Confused about this width? Nothing fits, right? That's responsive design! that's why mobile sites use hamburger menus. See where I'm going with this? Take a look at smashingmagazine.com and resize your browser window. See how the layout behaves? It does not scale really. It's not that because you are making the window narrower, the things become simply smaller, right? Your job as a... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Figma/Webflow Responsive web design questions
    My favourite example is smashingmagazine.com. Every element appears or behaves differently depending on the available space. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Is my shopping bag project enough to impress a hiring manager?
    Smashingmagazine.com layout does that as poetry. It looks awesome no matter where. It's a humbling moment when you resize your viewport on their page and watch every detail. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Responsive terminology question
    Take a good look at smashingmagazine.com start big, and slowly downsize the width of your browser window. Observe carefully. See that? Take your time! It's an ode to responsive design. Freaking poetry, mate! Every design element reacts and adjusts to create a perfect layout no matter the width. There are no tablet or desktop layouts. Only a graceful adjustment of design elements appearing, disappearing, and... Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Substack mentions (98)

  • SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B
    The thing is, even the center of the road academics who refrain from such comparisons are noting the similarity. The MAGA movement meets the traditional defining characteristics of fascio. We can be rigid and say that only Mussoliniโ€˜s political movement can be properly be called fascist. But if we call Hitler and the Nazis fascists as well, then we open the door to any movement that meets the criteria. And Trump... - Source: Hacker News / 23 days ago
  • AMA: I'm Eric Ries (The Lean Startup) & Author of New Bestseller Incorruptible
    Yes, it's much different in other countries. See https://substack.com/@doks/p-198191751. - Source: Hacker News / 28 days ago
  • Show HN: Playing with genomics foundation model tutorial/explainer article
    Hi folks, I got curious about how genomics foundation models work and wrote an article explaining how they are trained + can be used. Feel free to use the following as learning resources if you wish to jump into ML for comp bio stuff, it may help: - Code: https://github.com/dillondesilva/nt-promoter-region-classification - Article/Tutorial:... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • CBP Directive 3340-049B: Border Search of Electronic Devices
    The vast majority of people from the developed world have no problems going through any border in the developed world. Your experience is probably representative, but that's not what we're talking about. My understanding is that de facto you have no rights at all in China. The Americans take this sort of thing very seriously, which is why it's in the news and talked about. Some guy gets imprisoned for 37... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • GitHub โ€“ DOS 1.0: Transcription of Tim Paterson's DOS Printouts
    There was never a serious claim DOS copied CP/M code. The controversy was mostly about legality of reimplementation of the API, plus some pretty vague claims about copying the design: https://substack.com/@nemanjatrifunovic/note/p-178321556. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Smashingmagazine and Substack, you can also consider the following products

A List Apart - A List Apart is a fantastic blog that recently released version 5.0 which brought a great new design. A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

Medium - Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

Awwwards - Awwards focuses on web design and has an awards system that highlights exceptional design.

Ghost - Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

HackDesign - Newsletter that teaches you design via 50 curated courses

MailChimp - MailChimp is the best way to design, send, and share email newsletters.

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