ClubExpress vs Substack
ClubExpress
clubexpress.com
Substack
substack.comSide by side
| Figure | ClubExpress | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.30/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 4 |
| Spec score · Membership Site Platforms | 9.1 (#7) | 9.4 (#2) |
| Company legal name | Crunchbase identifies the legal entity as Gembrook Systems, LLC and lists Dan Ehrmann as founder and CEO. | Crunchbase lists the legal name as Substack Inc. |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Integrations | The Zapier integration can send membership, donation, renewal, and event data to services such as HubSpot, Google Calendar, and Mailchimp; it is designed for incremental synchronization rather than historical migration. | Official integrations include RSS, podcast distribution to Apple and Spotify, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, X and Facebook pixels, Google site verification, YouTube and LinkedIn account connections. |
| Purpose | ClubExpress provides clubs and associations with a website, member login and database, renewals, discussion forums, and other organization management features. | Substack is a publishing platform for writers, creators, and subscribers. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 1.7 out of 5 from 12 ratings | 4.9 out of 5 from 540K ratings |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.2 out of 5 from 517 reviews | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.0 out of 5 from 247 reviews | 4.3 out of 5 from 17 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.2 out of 5 from 517 reviews | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on Google Play | 3.6 out of 5 from 13 reviews | 4.8 out of 5 from 319K reviews |
| Support | The vendor advertises U.S.-based phone and email Customer Success support plus context-sensitive online help, webinars and tutorials. | Substack directs users to its Help Center for FAQs and walkthroughs and handles subscriber support questions on behalf of writers. |
| What it does | ClubExpress is an all-in-one membership platform for clubs, associations, nonprofits and other member-based groups, combining websites, member records, events, communications and payments. | Substack is a publishing and subscription platform for writers, podcasters, video creators and media companies, combining content creation, email distribution, payments, community and analytics. |
Plans
ClubExpress
- 501–1000 members$0.30 a month
- 301–500 members$0.34 a month
- 201–300 members$0.38 a month
- Up to 200 members$0.42 a month
- 501-1000 Members$30 a month
- 301-500 Members$34 a month
- 201-300 Members$38 a month
- Up to 200 Members$42 a month
- Basic Setup$150, paid once
- Organizations larger than 1000 membersPriced on request
Substack
- Free publishingFree
- Free to startFree
- Custom domain$50, paid once
- Paid subscriptionsPrice not published
In their own words
ClubExpress
ClubExpress gives clubs and associations a website, member login and database, and tools for managing membership and organization activity. Members can sign up online, select configurable membership types, and handle renewals and expirations. The platform includes more than 22 purpose-built modules, such as committees, forums, documents, photo albums, surveys, blogs, event calendars, and volunteering. Its member-focused mobile app runs on Apple iOS and Google Android, alongside web and API support. A Zapier integration can send membership, donation, renewal, and event data to services such as HubSpot, Google Calendar, and Mailchimp; it is intended for incremental synchronization rather than historical migration. Optional QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop integrations export transactions, payments, credits, fees, and customer records. ClubExpress says its servers are hosted on AWS behind a firewall, and lists nightly offsite and real-time database backups, salted and hashed passwords, and HTTPS with a minimum of TLS 1.2. It states that it is a PCI Level 2 merchant. The paid service offers a 60-day trial, limited to 10 manually entered members; credit card processing and non-member database imports are disabled during the trial.
Substack
Substack is a publishing platform for writers, creators, and subscribers, bringing posts, newsletters, podcasts, video, live streams, and pages into one publishing flow. Its editor supports scheduling, autosaved drafts, version history, templates, SEO metadata, and headline A/B testing. Creators can offer free or paid posts, subscriptions, trials, gifts, and group plans. Discovery tools include recommendations, Notes, leaderboards, referrals, and search; audience segmentation and email automation are also available. Podcast episodes can be distributed automatically to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, while video can go automatically to YouTube and LinkedIn. Publishing is free. When creators enable paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue, and Stripe charges payment processing fees. Creators own their intellectual property and mailing list and can export their data. Substack serves writers, journalists, podcasters, video creators, experts, educators, and media companies. It is available on the web, Android, and iOS. Substack directs users to its Help Center and handles subscriber support questions on behalf of writers.