Newsletters were very common in ancient Rome. In the middle ages, people used to exchange news and letters among families and friends. This gave birth to newsletters that contain the news of the activities going around, whether business, trade, etc. From the newsletters, only newspapers evolved. Newsletters can be printed, or they can be in an electronic form. It is usually concerned with one topic at a time to interest the readers or recipients. Substack and Revue are two such newsletters.
Substack vs Revue
The main difference between Substack and Revue is that Revue doesn’t charge any fees for a custom domain for the publication of newsletters. In contrast, Substack charges one-time fees to enable a custom domain. Substack allows support on the comments which are addressing issues by taking it a step ahead, which makes it easier to use. In comparison, only the comment feature is available on Revue.
Substack was founded by Chris Best, Jayraj Sethi, and Hamish McKenzie in the year 2017. It is an online platform that provides payment, analytics, publishing, and design infrastructure. It also supports the subscriptions of newsletters as well. Its users range from experts to journalists to media sites. It is strictly restricted to using newsletters only. It is a free provider, but its pricing is a little bit higher. Substack has also introduced a podcast feature in the year 2019.
Revue is a Dutch company started in the Netherlands. It has been acquired by Twitter in the year 2021. It is an email newsletter service. Its main focus is to help the writers and publishers to publish content. It also has the power to deliver the content over email. Earlier, when the company was launched, it was a paid service, but it has become a free service with the acquisition. It offers users a custom domain for free, unlike Substack. It is very versatile and supports Zapier.
Comparison Table Between Substack and Revue
| Parameters of Comparison | Substack | Revue |
| Custom Domain | It charges one-time fees. | It is free of cost. |
| Podcast | It supports podcasts. | It doesn’t have. |
| Pricing | It charges 10% fees per month. | It charges 5% fees per month. |
| Employees | It has 20-25 employees. | It has 3 employees. |
| Headquarters | It is situated in San Francisco. | It is situated in Utrecht, The Netherlands. |
What is Substack?
Substack is an online platform that supports subscription letters. It was started in the year 2017 by Chris Best, who is also the co-founder of Kik messenger in San Francisco. Substack is a friendly newsletter and like home to journalists. Authors who publish newsletters can choose whether to provide them for free or paid. They can also make choices to post specific posts available for non-subscribers as well.
Substack is used by many high-profile writers, from experts to culture critics to food writers, etc. Besides charging fees for paid newsletters, Substack also charges 10% additional fees for subscription payments. In the year 2019, it launched podcasts allowing creators to monetize them. From 11,000 subscribers, Substack has reached almost more than 1 lakh subscribers who pay for at least one newsletter. When it was started, it reached out to a small group of writers as their first creators.
Bill Bishop was the first person on Substack to publish his newsletter Sinocism, and now it has become the top paid newsletter in the service. In May 2021, Substack acquired People & Company, which was a Brooklyn-based startup. In March 2021, Substack launched its pro version named Substack Pro, in which it pays writers in advance for creating a publication for the platforms. Ghost, Lede, TinyLetters are tough competitors of Substack.
What is Revue?
Revue is an editorial newsletter platform and is a Dutch startup. Revue is now focussing on monetising the newsletter. It allows, encourages publishers to run their newsletters for both paid and free. Subscribers also get an option either to pay for it or to remain at the free version. Martijn de Kuijper is trhe CEO and co-founder of Revue. It was launched in the year 2015 as a one-stop solution for newsletters.
Its main goal is to focus on monetization and content orf writers and publishers. It provides a controlled blogging environment, and it also has the power to deliver content on mails as well. However, it lacks certain features like custom themes and email marketing tools campaign. Revue can be considered as one of the best choices to start a premium newsletter. It also has an integration with Stripe, which helps writers to charge from their subscribers.
It is a free service but charges a 5% cut from the users. Adding a custom domain is absolutely free on Revue. It gives the luxury of choice to users to pick between their name or publication name as their respective domains. It supports multiple integrations like Medium, Zapier, Twitter, LinkedIn, HTML, Iframe etc. You can even customize your signup form on Revue. It has a playful interface for editors to create texts, links, media, headings etc.
Main Differences Between Substack and Revue
- Substack charges one-time fees for a custom domain, and its custom email ids are also very complicated. Revue offers a custom domain for free, and its custom email ids are very easy and crucial.
- Substack supports podcasts for the monetisation of writers and publishers. Revue doesn’t have such an option available.
- Substack charges 10% fees cut per month and it is expensive. Revue charges a 5% fees cut per month, and it is cheaper.
- Substack has 20-25 employees in the company. Revue has three employees in the company.
- Substack is situated in San Francisco and was founded in 2017. Revue is situated in Utrecht, The Netherlands and was founded in 2015.
Conclusion
Both Substack and Revue are competitors and provides different tools for newsletter writers. Both have almost similar features. Both support custom domains and also provide specific/custom email ids. Substack has only integration, i.e. Iframe for its signup form, whereas Revue has multiple integrations. With Zapier support, Revue becomes extremely convenient and versatile to use. Both allow comments, processing fees and editor mode. We can say that Revue is a better option than Substack, but Substack also has its advantages.
References
- https://search.proquest.com/openview/c9e3af8114a5d2d10d337cb126c0985c/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=4980129
- http://www.numdam.org/item/AIF_2013__63_6_2349_0/