Platform

Compare

Publishing comparison slice.

Reader surface

Publishing comparison slice.

Factor	AngryPages Baseline	WordPress.com	Medium	Substack	Patreon	Ghost	beehiiv	Kit
Insights	Any famous people use them? We publish fast!	This is a best bet for you It's a pain to set up a site No enterprise-grade security	It's good, but hard to find great content Very little imagery, pretty dull	They have limited freedoms. You can write hard content here. We help with customer relations.	Bank pressure Great monetization scope	We'd avoid. The rules are strict. Lots of fake, scammy content. It's too polished, we prefer real. Nice template, loads fast	Never heard of them Sounds expensive	Never heard of them Sounds a bit expensive
Pricing	We're Free to publish with ads	Free plan Paid plans shown at $4 $8 $25/mo billed yearly	Member is $5/mo $50/yr Publishing is free, monetization uses member-pool economics	Free to publish 10% platform fee + Stripe fees on paid subscriptions At $10k revenue About $1,000 before Stripe fees	Free to start Standard plan is 10% of creator income plus processing fees At $10k revenue About $1,000 before processing fees	Ghost(Pro) starts at $18/mo Starter $29/mo Publisher billed yearly 0% extra transaction fee At $10k revenue $0 platform fee before Stripe and hosting	Launch $0 Scale $43/mo Max $96/mo billed yearly	Newsletter plan is free up to 10,000 subscribers Paid plans start at $39/mo
Deal	We offer 80% of sales, and 50/50% of ads
Primary job	Score: 9/10 Archive home with day pages, years, names, proof, and layered access	Score: 6/10 Hosted website/blog publishing	Score: 6/10 Open writing distribution inside Medium's network	Score: 6/10 Issue delivery, posts, and subscriptions	Score: 6/10 Memberships, patronage, and gated posts	Score: 6/10 Independent publication stack with posts and memberships	Score: 6/10 Newsletter growth and issue delivery	Score: 6/10 Creator-first email publishing with newsletters, automations, and paid subscriptions
Archive depth	Score: 9/10 Built to hold a living record over years	Score: 5/10 Partial Possible, but generic by default	Score: 3/10 Weak to partial Great for articles, not a layered private Story system	Score: 5/10 Partial Old posts exist, but delivery stays the center	Score: 5/10 Partial Posts and tiers exist, but archive depth is not the core product	Score: 7/10 Partial to strong if built carefully, but flatter by default	Score: 5/10 Partial Newsletter-first, archive second	Score: 5/10 Partial Strong creator-email system, but not a layered archive home by default
Search and browse	Score: 9/10 Search, names, year routes, quotes, and proof entry points	Score: 5/10 Depends on site setup and theme structure	Score: 3/10 Network discovery and tag browsing, weak owned archive depth	Score: 5/10 Basic archive browsing	Score: 5/10 Basic feed and membership browsing	Score: 5/10 Basic publication search and tag browsing	Score: 5/10 Basic newsletter archive browsing	Score: 5/10 Basic creator-site and archive browsing around email-first products

Access and proof

Publishing comparison slice.

Factor	AngryPages Baseline	WordPress.com	Medium	Substack	Patreon	Ghost	beehiiv	Kit
Paid access	Score: 9/10 Paid and public layers stay inside the same archive product	Score: 4/10 Possible, but usually needs added tooling or plugins	Score: 6/10 Membership exists, but the creator does not own the full access model	Score: 8/10 Strong subscriptions, narrower archive logic	Score: 3/10 Strong memberships, weaker archive structure	Score: 8/10 Strong memberships if configured well	Score: 8/10 Strong newsletter subscriptions, archive logic is thinner	Score: 8/10 Strong paid newsletter/subscriber support, thinner archive logic than AngryPages
Proof and receipts	Score: 9/10 Press, letters, names, and archive artifacts can live beside the work	Score: 6/10 Possible if built, not native by default	Score: 6/10 Possible inside articles, not as a native archive-proof layer	Score: 4/10 Possible, but usually flatter and post-bound	Score: 4/10 Possible, but usually attached to posts and updates rather than a full Story system	Score: 4/10 Possible, but usually custom and less integrated	Score: 6/10 Possible, but not the native shape of the product	Score: 6/10 Possible inside posts and creator pages, but not as a native proof-and-receipts archive layer
Recurring names	Score: 9/10 Names are a native browse surface	Score: 6/10 Possible with custom work, not native by default	Score: 5/10 Names live in articles, not in a names system	Score: 5/10 Names live in posts, not in a names system	Score: 5/10 Names live in posts, not in a names system	Score: 5/10 Names live in posts and tags, not as a dedicated archive surface	Score: 5/10 Names live in posts, not in a names system	Score: 5/10 Names live in emails and posts, not in a dedicated names system

Writer business

Publishing comparison slice.

Factor	AngryPages Baseline	WordPress.com	Medium	Substack	Patreon	Ghost	beehiiv	Kit
Rights and ownership	Score: 9/10 Archive home, rights posture, and reader business stay attached	Score: 4/10 Decent ownership, but generic hosted-blog constraints remain	Score: 3/10 Weak ownership posture compared with an owned archive	Score: 7/10 Cleaner than social, but still centered on Substack's product surface	Score: 7/10 Cleaner than social, but the audience still lives inside Patreon first	Score: 8/10 Strong ownership posture for a publication stack	Score: 8/10 Strong newsletter ownership posture	Score: 8/10 Strong creator ownership posture for email and subscriptions
Best role beside AngryPages	Score: 9/10 Archive home first	Score: 5/10 Generic site lane	Score: 5/10 Open-distribution lane	Score: 5/10 Issue delivery lane	Score: 5/10 Membership lane	Score: 5/10 Publication lane for narrower editorial products	Score: 5/10 Growth and newsletter lane	Score: 5/10 Email and subscriber-management lane
Example if revenue is $10,000	Score: 9/10 Direct publishing keeps most of the gross inside the same product before payment processing, tax, staffing, and operations	Score: 5/10 The hosting plan is still $0 to $25/mo take-home depends on whatever payment stack you bolt on	Score: 7/10 No clean fixed payout example: creator earnings come from Medium's member pool, not a simple posted split	Score: 5/10 About $1,000 goes to Substack first, before Stripe fees	Score: 5/10 About $1,000 goes to Patreon first, before processing fees and taxes on fees	Score: 4/10 Ghost's platform fee is still $0 the economics are mostly Stripe plus the monthly plan	Score: 5/10 Flat plan cost matters more than a revenue share here the listed plan is still $0, $43, or $96 per month depending tier	Score: 5/10 Flat plan cost matters more than a revenue share here the listed plan is free to 10,000 subscribers, then from $39/mo

Sources / References Public references and access dates for the pricing row. Rates can vary by market, plan, and offer.

AngryPages: AngryPages baseline pricing reviewed April 19, 2026.
WordPress.com: Official pricing page checked April 19, 2026.
Medium: Official membership pricing checked April 19, 2026.
Substack: Official fee schedule checked April 19, 2026.
Patreon: Official fee schedule checked April 19, 2026.
Ghost: Official managed-hosting pricing checked April 19, 2026.
beehiiv: Official pricing page checked April 19, 2026.
Kit: Official help-center pricing checked April 19, 2026.