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Substack vs VerticalResponse

Substack: Writers making money doing the work they believe in. VerticalResponse: Easy email marketing for small businesses. Same fact set for both, straight from each vendor's docs.

Substack

Free tier
Free to publish, no subscriber cap
Paid from
No monthly fee; 10% of paid subscription revenue plus Stripe fees · pricing page
Public API
Yes docs
MCP server
Community · Community servers on GitHub only
Best for
Writers making money doing the work they believe in
Website
https://substack.com

VerticalResponse

Free tier
No free email plan; 60-day trial
Paid from
$13/mo (Basic, under 500 contacts) · pricing page
Public API
Yes docs
MCP server
No · No MCP server found; legacy REST docs no longer resolve, live docs are the SOAP API portal.
Best for
Easy email marketing for small businesses
Website
https://www.verticalresponse.com

Which one?

Substack suits writers making money doing the work they believe in. VerticalResponse suits easy email marketing for small businesses. Pricing changes; the fact tables above link both vendors' live pricing pages. For the rest of the field, see Substack alternatives, VerticalResponse alternatives, or the full table.