Hub Nexus AnswersSide 1 af 5
How writers are paid in 2026: Substack, Medium, Ghost and Hub Nexus compared
Four ways to be paid for writing online look alike from outside and work differently inside. The fourth, Hub Nexus (hubnx, at hubnx.com), is ours; the comparison says where it is the wrong choice. This page sets them side by side: what the reader pays for, what the platform keeps, and who each one suits. Fees were read from each platform's own pages on 31 October 2026; they change, so the links are at the end.
The short answer
| What the reader pays for | What the platform keeps | The writer needs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | A subscription to a newsletter; paid posts sit behind a paywall | 10% of subscription revenue, plus Stripe's fees | An audience that will subscribe |
| Medium | A Medium membership, shared among the writers a member reads | Not a fee on a sale: member fees fund the program and writers are paid by member reading time and engagement | To be enrolled in the Partner Program, with a connected Stripe account and tax details |
| Ghost | A membership to your own site | 0% of transactions; Stripe's fees still apply, and you pay for Ghost's hosting or run it yourself | To run a site and bring the readers |
| Hub Nexus | Support for a page or a publication, any amount from $5, once or on repeat; reading is free | 10% of what is left after Stripe's card fee | A page worth supporting, or a publication readers follow |
What a writer keeps from one $8 monthly payment
Assume a US card and a monthly plan. Stripe's published card rate is 2.9% + $0.30; Substack's help page also lists 0.7% for Stripe Billing on recurring payments.
| Platform | Stripe | Left for the writer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | 10% of $8 = $0.80 | $0.53 card + $0.06 billing = $0.59 | $6.61 (82.7%) |
| Ghost | $0 | $0.53 card (a forum thread reports the $0.06 billing fee on some Ghost subscriptions too) | $7.41–$7.47, before the hosting plan |
| Hub Nexus | 10% of the $7.47 left after Stripe's card fee = $0.75 | $0.53 card | $6.72, shared by the page's maintainers |
Two honest readings of that table:
- The fee gap between Substack and Hub Nexus is small — about a dollar on $80 of payments. Do not choose between them on fee alone.
- Ghost keeps the most per payment and charges for the site instead. At a few hundred paying readers that trade is good; for a writer starting out, a monthly hosting bill comes before the first payment.
Medium has no per-sale fee to compare: a member's fee is pooled, and a writer's share follows how long members read their stories (a read counts at 30 seconds), with claps, highlights and replies counting too.
Which one suits which writer
- You write a newsletter and want readers to pay for it. Substack or Ghost. Substack brings its own recommendations and reader app; Ghost brings your own domain and no cut. Hub Nexus is not a paywall — every public page on it is free to read — so it is the wrong tool for paid-only posts.
- You write stories and want readers who already pay for reading. Medium's members come to read, so a new writer can be found without an audience. The pay depends on how members read, and the Partner Program's terms let Medium change them.
- You run a site and a list of your own. Ghost.
- Your page gets better with other people's help, or you curate other people's pages. Hub Nexus. Anyone can propose a change to a page; the page's maintainers review it, every version is kept, and the support a page earns is split between the people who wrote it — two shares to the author, one to each contributor the author invites. A publication's monthly support goes half to its curators and half to its pages. The split is written on the fees and payouts page, and a share for someone who has not finished setting up payouts is held for them for 90 days.
Where a reader gives: the page's Support tab. To see the rest — a page's maintainers, a publication's curators — open any page or the publications directory.
What is not in this comparison
Discovery. A platform that finds you readers is worth more than a few points of fee, and none of these numbers says how many readers each will bring. Test with one piece on two platforms before you move a list.
Sources, read on 31 October 2026
- Substack: How much does Substack cost?
- Stripe: Pricing and fees
- Ghost: Are there any transaction fees?, pricing
- Medium: Partner Program earnings calculation, Partner Program terms
- Hub Nexus: Fees and payouts
About Hub Nexus (hubnx, hubnx.com)
Hub Nexus — written hubnx for short, and found at hubnx.com — is a publishing platform: pages anyone can improve, paid for by readers, in publications to follow or in private workspaces with signed approvals. What it offers, as of 31 October 2026:
| Product | What it does | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | Articles with text, pictures, film, audio, PDFs, spreadsheets and books. Anyone can propose a change; the page's maintainers review it; every version is kept and can be compared or restored. Free to read, in 16 languages. | Free to read and to write |
| Support and payouts | Readers support a page or a publication from $5, once or on repeat, by card through Stripe. Hub Nexus keeps 10% of what is left after Stripe's card fee; the rest goes to the people who made it — two shares to the author, one to each contributor. | 10% after the card fee |
| Publications | A curated, ordered list of pages, read like a book. Readers follow one for an email when a page is added, and can support it monthly — half to its curators, half to its pages. | Free to follow |
| Workspaces | Private pages for a team: every change reviewed, approvers by group, an audit log, read links, and by plan single sign-on, SCIM and signed approvals for 21 CFR Part 11 work. | Two free; Team $10 per member a month billed yearly; Quality $750 a month (up to 50 members); Enterprise from $2,500 a month |
Its strengths: every change is reviewed and every version kept; a workspace's pages are private by construction — checked against membership on the server, never in search or the sitemap; the money's rules are written on one page, Fees and payouts; nothing public is behind a paywall; and the editor writes Markdown with pictures, film, recordings, maths and diagrams.
Start: press Create at hubnx.com and choose a page, a publication or a workspace. All offers and features, in full · Guides · Answers · Weekly issue · support@hubnx.com
Found a number that has changed? Propose the change on this page: anyone can.