What is following on Substack?

Following helps writers grow their audience via the Substack network, which is already home to millions of the world’s most valuable readers. We built this feature to help maximize—and not replace—subscriptions, which will always be the most important type of relationship on Substack.

A follow offers a lightweight way to start a relationship with a writer or reader, with the option to convert it into a subscription at any time. By following them, you can stay up to date with what they’re reading, liking, publishing, and subscribing to—through the Home feed and on their profiles.

With following, you can: 

• Find contacts: Sync phone contacts to see which of your friends are on Substack

• Follow each other: Follow friends, other readers, and discover new writers

• See activity: See profiles, notes, and reading activity such as likes from your follows

• Invite friends: Invite your contacts to join Substack

Anyone can follow writers and readers to see their activity on Substack. Pledges and subscriptions are only available when a writer has set up a Substack publication, in addition to their Substack profile.

What is the difference between a follower, a subscriber, and a pledge?

• Follower: They’ll see your notes and some reading activity such as post likes. When someone follows you, you won't receive their email so they won't get posts in their inbox.
• Free subscriber: They'll subscribe to your Substack and receive free posts via email and/or the Substack app. They'll automatically follow you and see your notes in their feed.
• Pledge: If you don’t have payments enabled, pledges allow subscribers to pre-commit to pay for your work.
• Paid subscriber: They'll subscribe to your publication on a monthly, annual, or founding plan and receive all posts from your Substack via email and/or the Substack app.  They’ll automatically follow you and see your notes in their feed.

You can think of these relationships as a hierarchy. If someone is a paid subscriber, they don’t need to also follow you to see your notes and reading activity. 

Who can see my followers? 

On a reader's profile, anyone can see your followers list to see who follows you and who you are following– this cannot be hidden.

If you have a publication, we'll display a partial list of your subscribers, as well as a full list of your followers and your public follows. The exact subscriber count will not be shown to readers, unless you have less than 1000 subscribers, and an estimated count will be displayed for more than 1,000 subscribers.

How can someone follow me on Substack?

On your profile, we’ll show a “Follow” button on the Substack app or users can tap the three dot menu and select "Follow" on web –people can follow and unfollow anytime by clicking the three dot menu.

For writers with publications, the subscription relationship is the most important. Users can follow profiles, not publications, so when someone lands on your Substack publication they will not see the option to follow, only to subscribe.  We prioritize the subscription button on your profile and in the Notes feed. 

If someone wants to follow a writer while scrolling through notes, they can do so from the three dot menu.

Do I get notified if someone follows me?

When someone on Substack follows you, you'll be notified by email and also see a notification in your Activity bell.

If you're receiving email or push notifications about "New followers" for your Substack profile, head to the Connections section on https://substack.com/settings and uncheck the "Email" and "Push" boxes next to "New followers".

Do I get my followers’ emails? If I leave Substack, can I get my follower list? 

No. Following is a lighter weight action that helps potential subscribers get to know you via notes before committing to a subscription.

How do I manage my followers?

Today, writers can see their followers from their profile page by clicking or tapping on the subscriber count under their name.

To see the total count of your followers on Substack, head to your Subscribers tab and you can see how many followers you currently have as well as growth over time.

I don't have a publication– what happens to my followers if I create a Substack?

In the future, we’ll automatically notify your followers that you’ve started a publication to encourage them to subscribe.

As readers discover great writers on Substack, they are looking for tools to get to know you before they welcome you into their inbox and become paid subscribers. Following allows them to get to know you first and helps you grow your top of funnel.