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WordPress vs Substack vs Hashnode

Hashnode is a free Alternative to WordPress and Substack for Tech Enthusiasts!

Hashnode is the home for tech writers and readers. If you are looking to join a tech community or find one for your own articles you should consider a writing platform built by Tech People for Tech People.

With content ownership as our anthem and a growing community of millions of tech people, Hashnode is the go-to blogging platform for developers and the tech community. Here’s our breakdown of WordPress vs Substack vs Hashnode.

Create my blog

It's free and easy.
Join our community and start sharing today.

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Blog on your personal domain.

Setting up Hashnode on your own domain takes seconds. The Hashnode blogging platform is blazing fast and comes with free SSL certification, and your articles are still delivered to the Hashnode audience even if they are on a custom domain.

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Find a tech audience instantly.

Hashnode is more than a blogging platform. Hashnode also has a massive community of more than two million tech enthusiasts that are ready to read and react to your content.

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No annoying ads/pop-ups.

Different than Substack, content on Hashnode is made available to everyone without a paywall. Content should be made available to everyone and it’s our mission to fuel learning, communities, and the distribution of knowledge.

Hashnode is a free alternative to Wordpress and Substack for the tech community.

HashnodeSubstackWordpress
Paywall & Popups
No
No
Optional
Blog on your own Custom Domain
Yes
Yes
Yes
Markdown Editor
Yes
No
No
Access to a large Dev community
Yes
No
No
Blog appearance and customization using Custom CSS
Yes
No
No
Automatic GitHub Backup
Yes
No
No
Email newsletter
Yes
No
No
Dark mode on blogs
Yes
No
No
Built-in analytics
Yes (country, location, device, best performing content, more)
Yes (Views tracking and referral)
No
Embed Third-Party Widgets
Non-standard iframes inside articles. Eg: Mailchimp Newsletter Form
Yes
No
No
Group related posts in Series
Yes
No
No
Monetization
Yes (Hashnode Sponsors — 1:1 tipping platform)
Yes (Premium content blocked by a paywall)
No
Podcasting feature
No
Yes
No
Costs for blogger
Free
10% of all subscriptions
$15 for WordPress Pro
Costs for reader
Free
5$ for each blog with a paywal
Free

Instantly find a tech community for your articles.

If you are looking for a developer and tech-focused platform, Substack and WordPress might not be the right platform for you. Hashnode has the advantage of being an incredibly capable blogging platform combined with a growing community of over two million tech people.

Ok, I'm ready. How do I make the switch?

If you're already on WordPress, we've made it easy for you to switch.

All you need to do is create an account on Hashnode and import all your articles using our "RSS Importer" feature on your Hashnode Blog's dashboard.

And, if you're already on Substack, go to the dashboard and head over to Export section inside settings. Substack supports HTML export. Hence, use a tool to convert bulk HTML into Markdown.

Use Hashnode's Bulk Markdown Importer to migrate all your articles to Hashnode in minutes.

Create my blog

It's free and easy.
Join our community and start sharing today.

Don't take our word for it—listen to the community.