Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Substack VS Plausible.io

Compare Substack VS Plausible.io and see what are their differences

Substack logo Substack

Substack makes it simple for a writer to start an email newsletter that makes money from subscriptions.

Plausible.io logo Plausible.io

Plausible Analytics is a simple, open-source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned cloud infrastructure 🇪🇺
  • Substack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-26
  • Plausible.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-07-07

Plausible Analytics is not designed to be a clone of Google Analytics. It is meant as a simple-to-use replacement and a privacy-friendly alternative that can help many site owners.

  • It's quick, simple to use and understand with all the metrics displayed on one page. Doesn't track hundreds of metrics like Google Analytics does

  • Lightweight script of less than 1 KB so sites load fast. The script is 45 times smaller script than the Google Analytics one

  • Doesn't use cookies so there's no need to worry about cookie banners

  • Doesn't track personal data so it's compliant with GDPR out of the box and you don't need to worry about asking for data consent

  • It's open source with the code available on GitHub so you can even self host exactly the same product free as in beer

  • Unlike Google Analytics, the cloud product is not free as in beer because the business model is subscriptions rather than selling the data of your visitors. Plausible Analytics is bootstrapped without any external funding so the subscription fees help cover the costs and time spent on development.

Substack

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Plausible.io

$ Details
paid Free Trial $9.0 / Monthly (10,000 pageviews)
Platforms
Web Browser Google Chrome Firefox Safari Wordpress
Release Date
2019 April

Substack videos

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

Plausible.io videos

Cardano Blackboard Series #5: What is plausible deniability?

More videos:

  • Review - How Plausible is the Balkanized America from Crimson Skies? (A Map Analysis)
  • Review - Movie Review - How Plausible is The Martian?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Substack and Plausible.io)
Blogging
100 100%
0% 0
Analytics
0 0%
100% 100
Email Newsletters
100 100%
0% 0
Web Analytics
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Substack and Plausible.io. 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 Substack and Plausible.io

Substack Reviews

25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Substack offers writers of all experience levels the ability to write an email newsletter that’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 it’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 sеts Substack apart is its sеamlеss intеgration of contеnt crеation and subscription-basеd monеtization. Substack’s usеr-friеndly intеrfacе, distribution tools, and support for various contеnt formats make it a popular choice for indеpеndеnt crеators looking to connеct dirеctly with thеir audiеncе and turn thеir passion into a sustainablе incomе strеam.
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...
11 Patreon Alternatives for Audience Monetization in 2023
Like a few of the other platforms we’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?

Plausible.io Reviews

  1. Happy Paying User :)

    I've been using plausible since Sep 2019 and never had any doubts about it. It provides me with everything I need related to visitor stats while keeping privacy in first place.

    It doesn't slow down my website loading speed (it's amazing, it's less than 1KB in size!), is not blocked by adblockers since it's not really a tracker tracker, and owners are super cool and they actually respond to every inquiry you could possibly have.

    If you're looking for de-googling your stuff, you can start with Plausible :)

    🏁 Competitors: Google Analytics, Matomo, Woopra
    👍 Pros:    Loading speed|Clean ui|Privacy concisous|Custom domain|Affordable prices|Easy integration|Super simple
  2. Plausibly simple analytics!

    I tried several analytics tools prior to Plausible, namely Google Analytics and later on Matomo. I found both to be fairly complicated for my usage which is a personal blog. Complicated in the way I had to install and use them. Plausible's simple to set up approach combined with a very clean and inviting user interface was a breath of fresh air. It's simple and clean enough that it actually makes me want to check and analyse my traffic which is a feeling I never thought I'd have having tried alternatives.

  3. Excellent alternative to google analytics

    It offers clear information about what I really need, without distractions, without advertising and does not slow my site.

    🏁 Competitors: Google Analytics

Top 5 open source alternatives to Google Analytics
Plausible is a newer kid on the open source analytics tools block. It’s lean, it’s fast, and only collects a small amount of information — that includes numbers of unique visitors and the top pages they visited, the number of page views, the bounce rate, and referrers. Plausible is simple and very focused.
Source: opensource.com
Privacy-oriented alternatives to Google Analytics
I learned about Plausible just recently, but they deserve to be on top of this list for me. Their platform is completely Open Source on GitHub under the MIT license. I personally also like that it’s written in Elixir.
Lightweight alternatives to Google Analytics
Plausible is another relatively new analytics tool that was launched in early 2019. Soon after launching, it switched to open source, with the code licensed under the permissive MIT license. The company's business model is to charge for the hosting, with pricing aimed at small businesses. In addition to making its source code available, Plausible is one of an increasing...
Source: lwn.net

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Plausible.io should be more popular than Substack. It has been mentiond 189 times since March 2021. 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.

Substack mentions (88)

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Plausible.io mentions (189)

  • Time Series Analysis of Plausible Data
    # Function to get Plausible Analytics timeseries data Def get_plausible_timeseries_data(): # Calculate the date range for the last 90 days date_to = datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d') date_from = (datetime.today() - timedelta(days=90)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d') # Setting the metrics we want to look at metrics='visitors,pageviews' # Actually pulling the data we want url =... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Any Google Analytics Alternatives?
    I think a single Google Analytics alternative is pretty hard to pick considering that GA can be used to very much varying extents. For simple and "detailed enough" insights, I enjoyed using Plausible (https://plausible.io/) in the past. For more in depth analytics that give you a detailed view into your own product, PostHog.com seems to be by far the best and most popular option out there. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • We need to Speak about Google Code Quality
    I could do the same exercise with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, but luckily I don't need to, since Plausible already did. A piece of advice, rip out Google Analytics and use Plausible instead. It first of all doesn't destroy your website, and secondly it doesn't violate the GDPR - So you can embed it on your site without having to warn your visitors about that they're being spied on by Google. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Open-Source Ad-Free File Upload Service
    Also, currently we are using https://plausible.io/ for analytics. No other bugs. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Plausible as an alternative to Google Analytics
    I just swapped out Google Analytics with Plausible for AINIRO.IO. It’s only been a week, but so far I am super jazzed about it. First of all, Plausible doesn’t use cookies, so I can completely drop all cookie disclaimers and popups I had because of GDPR. Second of all, the site scores significantly better on load time. This results in a 10x better user experience for my website visitors, while making sure the... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Substack and Plausible.io, you can also consider the following products

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.

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

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

Matomo - Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform

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

Fathom Analytics - Simple, trustworthy website analytics (finally)