Substack alternative
A Substack alternative for one-off paid live events
Most people searching for a Substack alternative are not trying to abandon their newsletter. They are hitting a different need: a single live event they want to charge for, without folding it into a subscription or committing to publish forever. Substack is shaped around the recurring publication - you can only sell monthly or annual subscriptions, and its live video is a free, subscriber-gated feature, not a per-event ticket. There is no way on Substack to sell a seat to one specific session.
Q&A With Me is shaped around exactly that one-off. You set a ticket price, people buy a seat to one specific session, you go live and put their questions on screen, and the platform pays out your share about a week after the session ends. There is no subscription to maintain and no recurring promise to your audience - just the event.
This is a complement, not a replacement. If a recurring paid newsletter, an owned email list, and a discovery network are the core of your business, keep that on Substack - Q&A With Me does not do those things and is not trying to. Reach for it when the thing you want to sell is a single live moment.
Substack vs Q&A With Me at a glance
| Capability | Q&A With Me | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Core revenue model | One-off paid live events (sell a ticket to a session) | Recurring monthly or annual paid subscription |
| Recurring paid subscription | Not the model - built for one-off events | Core strength - the whole product is the subscription |
| Sell a ticket to a single live event | Native, the core product - ticket at checkout | No per-event tickets; access is by subscription tier only |
| Own your email list + discovery | No subscriber list to own and no discovery network | Exportable email list + recommendation network |
| Audience questions as the format | Text + video questions appear on screen live | Live video with chat, gated by who is subscribed |
| Bring a viewer on stage | Tap any viewer to invite them up | Invite other publishers as guests (up to three) |
| Auto clips for short-form | Each answered question becomes a vertical clip | Social clips of the full broadcast after it ends |
| Pricing | Free to host paid events (no monthly fee); platform earns a flat 10% + $0.50 buyer service fee per ticket, payout ~7 days after the session ends. Free workshops have an optional subscription for higher attendee caps. | Free to start, no monthly fee; Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30 per charge and a 0.7% recurring-billing fee), for roughly 13-16% effective. Only recurring monthly/annual subscriptions - no one-time or per-event sales. |
Pricing and features accurate as of June 2026.
Is Q&A With Me the right swap for you?
Reach for Q&A With Me when
- The thing you want to sell is one live session - a ticket to a specific event or workshop, not a monthly subscription.
- The audience questions are the show: viewers submit text or video questions and you put them on screen live.
- You want to be paid out for the event - native tickets and a payout about a week after the session ends.
- You want it to work from your phone in ten minutes, or from a desktop studio when you want slides and guests.
- You want to bring a viewer on stage, and each answered question to come back as a vertical clip for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.
Reach for Substack when
- Your business is a recurring relationship: readers pay monthly or annually for an ongoing stream of posts, a podcast, and your writing over time.
- You want to build and own an email list you can export and take anywhere, with both free and paid subscribers in one place.
- You want a built-in discovery and recommendation network - Notes, cross-publication recommendations, and curated lists that bring you new readers.
- You want a free engagement live video feature for your subscribers, with auto-saved recordings that publish back to your publication.
Where Substack genuinely wins
- Recurring revenue - a paid newsletter that bills every month or year is the entire point of Substack, and Q&A With Me does not do it.
- Owning your audience: an email list of free and paid subscribers that you can export and take with you.
- Discovery - Substack has an established recommendation network (Notes, cross-recommendations, curated lists) that brings creators new readers; Q&A With Me has no discovery engine.
- A free, subscriber-gated live video feature with chat that publishes the recording straight back to your publication.
Switching from Substack: common questions
Should I use Substack or Q&A With Me?
It depends on what you are selling. If you want a recurring relationship - readers paying every month or year for ongoing posts, a podcast, and an audience you build over time - that is Substack, and Q&A With Me does not replace it. If you want to charge for one specific live session and answer the audience on screen, that is Q&A With Me. They are not competing for the same job, which is why a lot of creators run both.
Can I run both Substack and Q&A With Me?
Yes, and that is the common setup. Keep your paid newsletter on Substack as the recurring base, then use Q&A With Me for one-off ticketed live events - a launch AMA, a teaching workshop, a guest interview. You can run the paid live Q&A for your subscribers as a perk, or open it to the public to reach people who are not on your list yet. The publication is the steady stream; the paid live Q&A is the spike.
Does Substack let me sell a ticket to a single live event?
Not really. Substack only sells recurring monthly or annual subscriptions, and Substack Live is a free engagement feature where you pick who can watch - everyone, all subscribers, or paid subscribers only. There is no per-event ticket and no one-time purchase, so you cannot charge a one-off price for a specific session. Q&A With Me is built around exactly that: you set a price, sell the ticket at checkout, and get paid out about a week after the session ends.
How much does Substack cost, and how is that different here?
Substack is free to start and has no monthly fee - it takes 10% of your paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe processing (around 2.9% + $0.30 per charge and a 0.7% recurring-billing fee), which works out to roughly 13-16% effective. The catch is that it only sells recurring subscriptions, so there is no way to charge for a one-off event. Q&A With Me also has no monthly fee to host a paid event - the platform earns a flat 10% plus a $0.50 buyer service fee per ticket, and pays your share out about a week after the session ends. Free workshops have an optional subscription if you need higher attendee caps.
Is Q&A With Me a Substack replacement?
No, and it is not trying to be. A recurring paid newsletter, an owned and exportable email list, a discovery network that brings you new readers, a podcast - those are what Substack is built for, and we will not pretend otherwise. Q&A With Me does one thing Substack is not shaped around: a one-off ticketed live where the audience questions are the show. If your business is the recurring subscription, keep it on Substack.
What does the live experience actually look like here?
Viewers submit text or video questions before and during the session. A smart queue surfaces the most relevant ones, and the question you pick goes on screen for everyone - their question and your answer, together. You can tap any viewer to bring them on stage for a real back-and-forth. Substack Live is more of a broadcast-with-chat format gated by who is subscribed; Q&A With Me makes the questions the format itself and lets you charge a ticket for the specific session.
What happens to the recording after the event?
Every session records automatically and becomes a replay you control (24 hours to 30 days of access). Viewers who could not attend can still submit questions, and if you answer one they catch it in the replay. Each answered question is also cut into a standalone vertical clip for short-form. On Substack, a live video is auto-saved as a draft post and published back to your publication for your subscribers - part of the recurring stream rather than a standalone ticketed replay.
Make the switch from Substack
Free to host paid events. We earn when you earn - a flat 10% plus a $0.50 buyer fee per ticket, paid out about a week after your session ends.
Prefer a full head-to-head? See Q&A With Me vs Substack.