Your Substack list moves. Their dates mostly do not
Substack’s export is essentially email addresses, which is a smaller starting point than Patreon’s. That is not a dealbreaker — it just means one of the four renewal choices is right for you and the others are not.
No setup fees · Free forever plan
In short
Can I move my subscribers from Substack to Tribearn?
Yes. Tribearn imports Substack’s subscriber export, after a dry run that shows every row before anything is written. That export is email-only, so tiers and paid-through dates mostly have to be set by you during the import, and payments cannot transfer. The Free plan is ₹0 a month and takes 10% of each sale; Starter (₹499 a month), Growth (₹1,499) and Scale (₹3,999) lower that to 5%, 3% and nothing.
| Plan | Price per month | Commission on sales |
|---|---|---|
| Free | ₹0 | 10% |
| Starter | ₹499 | 5% |
| Growth | ₹1,499 | 3% |
| Scale | ₹3,999 | None |
Free forever plan
Not a trial. Nothing switched off later.
Payouts to your bank
Real checkout, real settlements.
One link to share
Ready to post wherever you already are.
What you can sell
An email-only export, and what follows from it
Substack gives you subscribers as email addresses. No paid-through date means the option we normally recommend — letting people keep the time they already bought — has nothing to work from. Knowing that before you start is the difference between a planned migration and a surprise.
The list comes across
Every subscriber, as a member you can reach.
- Subscribers imported as members
- Emails validated on the way in
- Duplicates skipped, not stacked
- Free and paid handled separately
Pick the right renewal option
With no dates, two of the four make sense.
- A fixed window from today
- Or ask everyone to subscribe now
- Free-forever if you want to gift it
- Each with its cost written down
Dry run before anything moves
Especially worth it on a list this size.
- Every row validated server-side
- Bad emails surfaced first
- Nothing written until you commit
- Safe to re-run
Then charge in rupees
UPI AutoPay instead of an international card.
- UPI AutoPay, cards, eMandate/NACH
- Priced in rupees
- Settled to your bank account
- GST invoicing from Starter upwards
Publish as a real publication
Issues, not just posts in an inbox.
- Numbered issues and chapters
- Watermarked per reader
- Gated to subscribers
- Back issues keep selling
A publication and a member list you own
Your subscribers become members with tiers and pricing, and your writing becomes issues people subscribe to — on your page, at your prices, in your currency.
In detail
What an email-only export means
The consequence
No dates means choosing between two imperfect options
With a paid-through date you can let everyone keep exactly what they bought. Without one, you are choosing between giving people a window that may be slightly generous or slightly mean, and asking everyone to re-subscribe. Both are defensible; pretending there is a third is not.
- Honour what they already paid for
- Access stays active until the paid-through date from your old platform, then expires normally. Nothing is given away and nobody is cut off — recommended where your export has dates.
- Give everyone a fixed window
- Access runs a set number of days from today. Use it when your export has no renewal date, accepting that some members lose time they already paid for.
- Ask everyone to subscribe now
- Members arrive without access until they subscribe here. Cleanest billing, worst retention — only sensible once your old platform has stopped charging.
- Give them free access forever
- Access never expires and is never charged for. An honest gift, and a permanent loss of revenue from those members.
The dry run
Worth more the longer your list is
A two-thousand-row list is exactly where a bad import hurts, and exactly where nobody reads every row by hand. The dry run validates the file server-side and reports back before a single member is created.
- Validated, not previewed
- The real code path runs against your file without writing anything.
- Bad emails surfaced
- Rows that cannot become a member are flagged rather than silently dropped.
- Duplicates skipped
- Anyone already here is skipped, so a re-run does not stack access.
- Commit when you are ready
- Nothing is written until you decide; members are then created in batches.
Pricing
What it costs after Substack
Start on the free plan and move up only when the maths says you should. Every plan lowers the commission on what you sell, so the cheapest option changes as you grow.
Free
Testing the waters
₹0/mo
10% commission
Starter
Your first ₹1 lakh
₹499/mo
5% commission
Growth
Going full-time
₹1,499/mo
3% commission
Scale
Teams and agencies
₹3,999/mo
No commission
Why writers move off Substack
Getting started
How to move off Substack
- 1
Export from your old platform
Download the members or subscribers CSV they give you.
- 2
Upload and map
Columns are matched for you; fix anything that looks wrong.
- 3
Run the dry run
See exactly what would happen, row by row, before committing.
- 4
Commit when it looks right
Members and their access are created in batches.
Who it’s for
Also imports from
Before you start
Substack migration FAQs
What does Substack actually export?
Subscribers, essentially as email addresses. That is enough to bring your list across as members, but it does not carry a paid-through date, so you cannot honour time people already bought unless you have that information elsewhere.
So which renewal option should I pick?
Usually a fixed window from today, which keeps everyone reading while they decide, or asking people to subscribe now if Substack has already stopped charging them. The first is gentler on retention; the second is cleaner on billing. Both are honest — pick deliberately rather than by default.
Can I still send them a newsletter?
You can email your members, and you can publish issues they subscribe to. It is worth knowing the shape is different from Substack: issues here are numbered PDFs read on your page with a per-reader watermark, not the words arriving in an inbox. If the email body itself is the product for you, weigh that before moving.
Will my members’ payments carry over?
No — and nobody can do this, so be wary of anyone who says otherwise. A mandate (UPI AutoPay, a card, or eMandate/NACH) is a contract between your member’s bank and the platform that took it; there is no export format and no legal way to move it. Their access, tier and dates all come across intact, but the next charge has to be re-authorised by them. You choose how that is handled.
Can I see what will happen before it happens?
Yes, and you should. The dry run validates every row on the server and shows you exactly what would be created, what would be skipped and what looks wrong — without writing anything. Nothing is committed until you say so.
What does it cost to move?
Nothing to arrive. The Free plan is ₹0 a month for as long as you want it and takes 10% of what you sell. Paid plans start at ₹499 a month and cut that to 5%, 3%, or nothing at all.
What if I run the import twice by mistake?
A re-run is a no-op for rows that already came across — it does not duplicate members or stack their access. That behaviour was checked against the real database rather than assumed.
More for your business
Moving from somewhere else?
What each platform exports, and what that means for your members.
Ready to bring your list across?
Upload your subscribers export, run the dry run, and decide how renewals are handled.
No setup fees · Free forever plan