There is a Fediverse alternative to Substack called Ghost. It allows you to host blogs and newsletters in a very similar way to Substack, but it has much less problematic management and you can host your own Ghost-powered site if you want to.
Lots more info about Ghost in the guide at:
➡️ fedi.tips/ghost-blogs-and-news…
Would also highly recommend the article by @molly0xfff which outlines the advantages of Ghost over Substack:
➡️ citationneeded.news/substack-t…
#FediTips #Ghost #Substack #Alternatives
Migrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the details
I migrated Citation Needed from Substack to self-hosted Ghost. Here is exactly how I did that.Molly White (Citation Needed)
reshared this
Mark Wyner Won’t Comply
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •The most important advantage being that you’re not supporting literal nazis. 😉
@molly0xfff
shac ron ₪
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to shac ron ₪ • • •@shac
You don't need to be techy to have your own Ghost instance, there are managed hosting providers offering Ghost which will do the technical stuff. I've linked to a couple of these in the guide.
Gator 🐊
in reply to shac ron ₪ • • •@shac Managed Hosting is available, including by the company itself if you don't want to bother looking for cheaper alternatives.
@FediTips
Lou Reynolds
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Strypey
in reply to Lou Reynolds • • •@lou
> substack is more of a video service that just a blog / newsletter
Ghost already supports podcasts, if video isn't an option I'm guessing it's on the roadmap. If not, you can definitely host your videos on a PeerTube channel, and throw links into posts in Ghost, creating embeds that are just as good from a web reader POV.
Not sure how video could be sent by email, so sounds like SS is abandoning being a newsletter host, and following the standard VC pivot path.
@FediTips @molly0xfff
Lou Reynolds
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to Lou Reynolds • • •@lou
> They are now allowing creators to do livestreams and then afterwards also host the recorded steams for later viewing. I don’t believe we have anything like this currently in the OSS world
You may have missed my mention of @peertube, which does both of these things;
joinpeertube.org/
Also there's @owncast for livestreaming;
owncast.online/
Not sure if #GreatApe is still going to be a thing, but I IIRR that was intended to be a federated Twitch (@atomicpoet?)
@FediTips
What is PeerTube? | JoinPeerTube
JoinPeerTubeLou Reynolds
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to Lou Reynolds • • •(1/?)
@lou
> just because components exist does not make them packaged in a way that non technical creators can or will attempt to use them
Sure, this is true in the abstract. Have you tried PT or OC yourself as a publisher? What did you think? I've only tried PT as a publisher, but I'm pretty fussy about UX, and I found it pretty good.
@FediTips
Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(2/?)
@lou
> Saying ghost is a SS replacement is unfortunately not true at this point
Doesn't that depend on what someone uses SS for? If they use it for a text+image newsletter as designed, then it is. Same if they use it for posting podcasts with newsletters as transcripts or shownotes, although @Castopod might be better (haven't tried it). If they use it to publish video then you're right, there are other tools for that.
Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(3/3)
DataFarming platforms are designed as swiss-army knives at least partly to make them complicated and expensive to build or find replacements for. It's part of how lock-in works. If people want to avoid publishing for fascistern media;
berjon.com/fascintern-media/
... then they need to sit down with their community, evaluate their collective needs and what replacements can serve them, and move together;
disintermedia.net.nz/into-the-…
@lou
Into the Woods We Go
Bridge Seat Cooperative (Disintermedia)Lou Reynolds
in reply to Strypey • • •Chris Trottier
in reply to Strypey • • •Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Lou Reynolds • • •@lou There's another alternative: mastodon.online/@NatureMC/1163…
But it's not "Fediverse".
@FediTips @molly0xfff
Petra van Cronenburg
2026-03-27 10:03:15
hexaheximal
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Strypey
in reply to hexaheximal • • •@hexaheximal
> Ghost is now slopware
Why do you say that? After shifting the Disintermedia blog to community-hosted Ghost I have a few grizzles, but overall I'm finding it a great improvement on the bloat of SS.
My grizzles with Ghost;
* hardcoded dependence on;
1) commercial email sender
2) one payments processor
* AP module has to be set up separately (how about a single Docker image that deploys both as an option?)
* no footnotes
#newsletters #Ghost
@johnonolan
@FediTips
hexaheximal
in reply to Strypey • • •Ghost/AGENTS.md at main · TryGhost/Ghost
GitHubStrypey
in reply to hexaheximal • • •@hexaheximal
> [Ghost now] Actively built with LLMs
Jesus wept.
Added to the fediverse.party watchlist of apps doing that;
codeberg.org/fediverse/fedipar…
Please let us know if you learn of any others. For now there's a moratorium on listing any app on the site if the developers merge auto-generated code.
We hadn't got around to listing Ghost, for a few reasons (backlog, and the headscratcher of AP support being a tack-on module), so we won't for now.
#MOLE #AI #VideCoding
@johnonolan @FediTips
watchlist - fediverse apps created using auto-generated code
Codeberg.orgxrvs
in reply to Strypey • • •gutenberg/AGENTS.md at trunk · WordPress/gutenberg
GitHubStrypey
in reply to xrvs • • •@xarvos
> would you count wordpress as fediverse software?
Kind of? We do list their AP plug-in on the dev tools page.
> it has agents.md, has copilot PRs
Jesus wept, another one? Do you know if the AP plugin is itself vibe coded? I guess @pfefferle would be the person to ask about this : D
@hexaheximal @FediTips
Matthias Pfefferle
in reply to Strypey • • •only because there is a CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md does not mean a project is vibe coded.
The ActivityPub plugin has also several agents/skills that ensure code quality, run phpcs or phpunit before code is commited and help with security audits!
hexaheximal
in reply to Matthias Pfefferle • • •@pfefferle @strypey @xarvos I can't even begin to state how stupid this is.
If there are LLM agent files, you sure as hell can't trust the project to not commit LLM code. It may not be entirely made with LLMs, but that doesn't change the fact that they took the stance of riding the hype train and therefore cannot be trusted to get off it.
hexaheximal
in reply to hexaheximal • • •@pfefferle @strypey @xarvos And also, even if we ignore everything else: Doing so is still enabling the large-scale exploitation being done by AI companies.
As I've said before: it is outright hypocritical to let the AI companies take your code (especially if it's copyleft!) and then happily use their models without thinking about the implications.
Strypey
in reply to hexaheximal • • •> If there are LLM agent files, you sure as hell can't trust the project to not commit LLM code
It's a bit like noticing that a restaurant kitchen has a note on the wall, with instructions for how to add raw sewage to soup. It's not smoking gun evidence that any given soup served in that restaurant contains raw sewage. But you probably wouldn't order the soup all the same ; }
@pfefferle @xarvos @FediTips
Matthias Pfefferle
in reply to Strypey • • •Strypey
in reply to Matthias Pfefferle • • •@pfefferle
> don't you think a project with more than 10 years of experience and thousands of lines of code know what they are doing!?
If only takes one drop of shit in soup to make it shit soup. How experienced the chefs are at making soup and how much great soup they've made is neither here nor there. If shit is an ingredient used in a restaurant kitchen, however thoughtfully, people who know that aren't going to want to eat there. Sorry 🤷♂️
@hexaheximal @xarvos @FediTips
Plan-A
in reply to Strypey • — (0.0.0.0) •@Strypey @Fedi.Tips @hexaheximal @John O'Nolan no need 4 a Docker here
Ghost's integration with the Fediverse via ActivityPub is a significant and innovative step, repositioning it as a "distributed social publisher." However, the platform does have limitations that can feel restrictive, validating your "grizzles."
But you can if you wish so. Dockerize it although I would not know why.
Strypey
in reply to Plan-A • • •(1/2)
@zer0unplanned
> Ghost's integration with the Fediverse via ActivityPub
... is somewhat exaggerated, as you'll find if you install it yourself, as I have. If you want to federate a Ghost newsletter over AP, then after installing Ghost itself, you need to install a separate AP federation module, and point your Ghost instance at it. You can instead use an existing one run by Ghost.org or someone else. There are pros and cons to each.
Plan-A likes this.
Strypey
in reply to Strypey • • •(2/2)
@zer0unplanned
> you can if you wish so Dockerize it although I would not know why
You can, if you wish, install and manage the various microservices that make up a single Ghost instance, plus the one for AP federation, without using Docker. I don't know why anyone would want to make their lives complicated by doing so, when Ghost offers a single Docker image that makes most of those headaches go away. But you do you.
Plan-A doesn't like this.
Plan-A
in reply to Strypey • — (0.0.0.0) •and poster asked about using docker to perform his own codes> there derives my answer you misunderstood.
In fact if you read well, you will see the same thing as you said.
Look 1st at who I reply then come with your arguments that say in fact the same as I...
Strypey
in reply to Plan-A • • •@zer0unplanned
> there derives my answer you misunderstood.
In fact if you read well, you will see the same thing as you said
If like Master Yoda you speak, regularly misunderstood you will be : P
Plan-A
in reply to Strypey • — (0.0.0.0) •Be excellent to each other in your profile ... you come from Diaspora or what?
Read well what I posted. which he deletes the post he initially placed and I hate that as there comes the confusion from!
Dr. Christopher Kunz
in reply to Strypey • • •Having to rely on Stripe for monetization is a minor issue for me, because that's not my main focus. But why do I have to use Mailgun for transactional e-mail on a blog that will probably have like 20 subscribers? I've run my own mail server for 25 years.
Still, better than WP or SS.
Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •For less technical people there's also a #EuropeanAlternative with seat in Germany and compliant to EU laws steady.page I use it for years for my newsletter/blog/instead of Patreon. Meanwhile you can also include audio files. It's simple: you only design your page and write. For creators earning money, you pay a certain % on your wins only. If you don't take money, it's free.
Looks like this: steady.page/en/naturematchcuts…
@molly0xfff
Steady – You create. We take care of the rest.
SteadyTed Lemon
in reply to Petra van Cronenburg • • •@NatureMC
Unfortunately, steady.page has a GDPR cookie banner (FWIW, ghost.io does not).
Unfortunately, ghost.io is not a turnkey replacement for substack: it requires quite a bit more expertise to use.
Also, if you think substack platforms nazis, would you also say that HarperCollins platforms nazis?
Fedi.Tips
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •Ghost can be set up through managed hosting services which do all the technical stuff for you. I have tried this myself, it was very easy 🙂
Ted Lemon
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •@NatureMC
I have a ghost site. The design is unpleasant. I don't want to spend time learning how to fix it—I'd rather have a default design that isn't like staring into a fluorescent light. There's no federation—I'm on my own. Great if your famous, useless if you're not.
Molly's advice on how to switch over is really daunting. Molly was honest about that, and gave some reasons to switch, one of which was not "they platform nazis." They were good solid business reasons.
Ted Lemon
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •(Feel free to just ignore this—my goal here isn't to give you a hard time, but to give you feedback that may not be useful. Welcome to my brain.)
I went to the site you link from your profile. It isn't obviously a ghost site. If it is a ghost site, it's obvious you've put a lot of work into it, and it looks great. But how much time did you spend on that? How much technical knowledge did you need? Fonts, etc.
Fedi.Tips
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •Ah, sorry, I didn't phrase things well. My website is WordPress, but I tried doing a test Ghost blog through a managed hosting provider so that I could do a guide about it at fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-fediv…
My Ghost test blog isn't public because I just did it to get an idea of how to do it.
Molly White's advice is definitely aimed more at techy users, yes. Managed hosting is a lot easier than that, someone else sets it up and you basically just log in and adjust the settings.
How to use the Fediverse on your Ghost-powered site | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
FediTips (Fedi.Tips - An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse)Ted Lemon
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •The main thing that didn't work for me was that it just didn't come with any design. They have a dozen or so free designs, and they are all eyeball-searing stark white. There's no landing page—if I follow a dozen blogs on ghost, that's a dozen web sites, and I can't discover other blogs on ghost.
I think ghost is a really great product—I just don't think it's a substack competitor. The european competitor that @NatureMC recommended feels more like ghost than substack.
Molly White
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •Ghost Themes - The Marketplace
Ghost - The Professional Publishing PlatformTed Lemon
in reply to Molly White • • •They're all glare white. I chose ghost over substack last year because of the "platforming nazis" thing, and wound up not using it, because it was too much design work. I just want to write, not design.
I'm honestly feeling pretty gaslit by the nazi thing. Your criticisms connected for me, but they weren't that. They were about the business end of things.
My reason for persisting on this is that I want to avoid the enshittification, but the effect is I'm not writing.
Molly White
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Ted Lemon • • •@abhayakara EU regulations require GDPR and EU companies comply with these regulations.
You are completely free to use what you want.
@FediTips @molly0xfff
axolotl solidario
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •kolektiva.social/@hydroponictr…
HydroponicTrash (@hydroponictrash@kolektiva.social)
HydroponicTrash (kolektiva.social)