@JeffPerry Makes sense. Another option (which you probably don't even want to hear) is to self-host Ghost. I've got one on a $5.00/month DigitalOcean droplet. It's not exactly a one-click install but close. That said, I went with substack for the newsletter anyway :)
@jack I have tried self-hosted before but I have 2 issues with it.
1.) It is hard for me to get it set up, even with their walkthrough 2.) If I somehow get a huge wave of people visiting me (say, someone big links to my website) the cost of hosting could be a lot.
I just want a newsletter that also archives previous posts for new readers to find and read. Substack checks those boxes.
@JeffPerry Like @jack, I also use a Digital Ocean droplet for one of my websites which I run with Ghost. I'm not the most well versed at managing it (but have slowly been learning to use the terminal properly, which is challenging but also i), but found some decent tutorials to walk me through it online.
If you wanted to keep using Ghost, you could also look at some of the other managed hosting options, such as Midnight, Firepress, or Gloat. They seem to offer decent options for small sites and handle the heavy lifting for you, and there's quite a few more which seem to be popping up these days. I briefly considered Digital Press until reading their terms of service, which they basically just copied from Wordpress.com, which grants them license to use your writing, photos, etc for whatever they want. I'm definitely not on board with that.
@philly Thanks for the Ghost hosting options. I recently moved my remaining Ghost blog back to WordPress. I prefer Ghost's speed and simplicity but tired of having to integrate (and pay for) comments and analytics separately. But now you've got me thinking of finding a Ghost hosting service that includes built-in comments and analytics (but not Disqus or Google). Now you've done it! :)
@jack Haha I think we’re kindred spirits with blog tinkering. I’ve got micro.blog for personal, a Blot site for one business, and Ghost for the other business. Ghost is great because it’s so fast and clear, and as easy to navigate in the dashboard as it is on the site itself. I’d kinda like to keep this micro micro and go with Ghost more for personal too. But I do want to set up external image hosting which would make exports and all that a lot easier and more platform agnostic.
I’d jumped to Ghost from a Squarespace site and the writing experience is hands down so much better on Ghost.
@JeffPerry It is always interesting to read these stories by fellow bloggers. I find it fascinating to see how one service cannot have it all: easy setup, great manageability, clean design, flexibility, etc. There always something missing which becomes a deal breaker one way or another.