Substack vs Zoho Campaigns
Substack
substack.com
Zoho Campaigns
zoho.comSide by side
| Figure | Substack | Zoho Campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $4/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Email marketing tools | 9.2 (#8) | 9.5 (#1) |
| Spec score · Email Marketing Software | 8.6 (#41) | 8.6 (#42) |
| Company legal name | Crunchbase lists the legal name as Substack Inc. | Crunchbase lists the legal name as Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd. |
| Email automation | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | 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. | The pricing comparison lists integrations including Zoho CRM, Zoho Analytics, Salesforce, Shopify, SurveyMonkey, Zapier, HubSpot, WooCommerce and Google Analytics tracking URLs. |
| Purpose | Substack is a publishing platform for writers, creators, and subscribers. | Zoho Campaigns is an email marketing platform for reaching, engaging, and growing an audience. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.3 out of 5 from 17 reviews | 4.3 out of 5 from 1,043 reviews. |
| Rating on GetApp | 0 out of 5 from 0 reviews | 4.3 out of 5 from 317 reviews. |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 9.2 out of 10 from 13 reviews | 8.9 out of 10 from 177 reviews and ratings. |
| Audience segmentation | Yes | Standard provides basic segmentation and Professional adds advanced segmentation, tags and contact scoring. |
| Support | Substack directs users to its Help Center for FAQs and walkthroughs and handles subscriber support questions on behalf of writers. | The pricing page lists email, telephone, and in-product chat support, and says the Standard and Professional plans include priority support. |
| What it does | Substack is a publishing and subscription platform for writers, podcasters, video creators and media companies, combining content creation, email distribution, payments, community and analytics. | Zoho Campaigns is a multichannel marketing platform for creating, personalizing, automating and measuring email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns. |
Plans
Substack
- Free publishingFree
- Free to startFree
- Custom domain$50, paid once
- Paid subscriptionsPrice not published
Zoho Campaigns
- Forever FreeFree
- Forever FreeFree
- Standard$4 a month
- Professional$6 a month
In their own words
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.
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is an email marketing platform for reaching, engaging, and growing an audience. It supports email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns, with a drag-and-drop editor, templates, and AI-assisted campaign content creation. Contacts can be organized into lists, enriched with custom fields, and segmented through multiple conditions. Automated workflows can trigger messages based on recipient behavior, and live workflows can be edited without interrupting ongoing journeys. Ecommerce tools cover promotional messages, purchase follow-ups, feedback requests, and abandoned-cart triggers. A/B testing compares email variants, while reports track opens, clicks, unsubscribes, bounces, and delivery statistics. Integrations listed include Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Shopify, SurveyMonkey, HubSpot, and Zapier. The Forever Free plan costs nothing and includes up to 2,000 contacts, 6,000 emails per month, and five users; the listed subscriber limit is 500. A 14-day trial is available. Zoho says it does not show ads in its products or sell user information to third parties.