Alternative to Substack: Hyax
Substack takes 10% of your paid subscription revenue. Hyax takes 0%. Get the same publishing power plus AI writing, courses, community, and help desk, and keep all your revenue.
Pricing at a glance
Substack is free to use but takes 10% of all paid subscription revenue (plus Stripe fees). The slider models estimated Substack fees assuming 5% of subscribers are paid at $5/mo. Actual costs depend on your paid conversion rate and pricing.
Hyax email cost (optional)
Assumes ~40,000 sends/mo (4 sends to your full list per month). Pick one, /pricing for Resend vs plan caps.
Substack: Estimated 10% Substack fee assuming 5% paid conversion at $5/mo average. Your actual cost depends on revenue. Excludes Stripe processing fees.
Hyax:Starter plan ($29/mo). Monthly billing, flat pricing, unlimited contacts, 0% platform fees. Does not include raw Resend charges when you use your own API key for unlimited sending. See pricing for email limits and plan caps.
Showing the Starter subscription only ($29/mo). About 40,000 sends/mo is above Starter's included platform sending, so this comparison does not include the email cost of that workload.
Substack vs Hyax: Feature comparison
| Feature | Hyax | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Content & Publishing | ||
| Blog / Website | Included | Included |
| AI Writing Assistant | Included | Not included |
| Brand-trained AI | Included | Not included |
| Custom Domain | Included | Included |
| SEO Optimization | Included | Partial |
| Lighthouse 85+ Score | Included | Not included |
| Custom Design / Themes | Included | Partial |
| Email Marketing | ||
| Email Newsletters | Included | Included |
| Email Automations | Included | Not included |
| Behavioral Segmentation | Included | Not included |
| A/B Testing | Included | Partial |
| Email Sequences | Included | Not included |
| Unlimited Sends | Included | Included |
| Monetization | ||
| Paid Subscriptions | Included | 10% fee |
| Digital Products | Included | Not included |
| Courses | Included | Not included |
| 0% Platform Fees | Included | Not included |
| Community / Memberships | Included | Chat (Notes) |
| Platform & Tools | ||
| Analytics Dashboard | Included | Partial |
| API Access | Included | Partial |
| Link in Bio | Included | Not included |
| Help Desk / Knowledge Base | Included | Not included |
| Visual Workflow Builder | Included | Not included |
| Live Chat Widget | Included | Not included |
| Pricing Model | ||
| Flat Pricing | Included | 10% of revenue |
| Unlimited Subscribers | Included | Included |
| No Transaction Fees | Included | Not included |
Why switch from Substack to Hyax
Platform fees on revenue
Substack takes 10% of every paid subscription dollar. At $10k/mo in revenue, that\u2019s $1,000/mo to Substack. Hyax takes 0%, only standard Stripe fees.
Your audience, your platform
Substack controls the recommendation algorithm and your subscriber relationship. Hyax gives you a custom domain, full SEO, and direct audience ownership.
Brand-trained AI writing
Substack has no AI writing features. Hyax writes in your brand voice, optimizes for SEO, and gives you a full editorial workflow.
Ready to switch from Substack?
Import your content and subscribers. Start building on Hyax today.