A Substack alternative
Substack is a writer-focused platform with built-in paid subscriptions and a social network — notes, recommendations, and a discovery feed. tinysend is infrastructure: your domain, your subscriber list, an API, and no platform lock-in.
If you want a built-in audience and payments, Substack has them. If you want to own the channel and automate it, read on.
| capability | substack | tinysend |
|---|---|---|
| send newsletters | yes | yes |
| write from your email client | no | yes |
| hosted inbox for replies | no | yes |
| subscriber management | yes | yes |
| custom domains | yes ($50 one-time) | yes |
| open tracking | yes | yes |
| public REST API | no | yes |
| agent self-signup (auth.md) | no | yes |
Pick Substack if you want a built-in audience, a social discovery feed, and native paid subscriptions in one place.
Pick tinysend if you want to own your domain and data, write from your inbox, and have an API that you or an agent can build on.
Export your Substack subscribers as CSV and import them into tinysend, then point your own domain at your list. See managing subscribers and custom domains.