9 best substack newsletters to subscribe to
The best substack newsletters, with Navid's picks first. See what each covers, who it's for, how often it arrives and what it costs.
Find newsletters worth your inbox by topic, platform, how often they arrive and what they cost. Navid's picks come first, and each one opens its own page.
This is a list of the best substack newsletters.
In fact, it has 9 of them, with Navid's picks first.
So if you want substack newsletters worth your inbox, you'll love this list.
Here's what's inside:
- Navid Insider by Navid Moazzez
- Austin Kleon's Newsletter by Austin Kleon
- Behind the Craft by Peter Yang
- Digital Contrarian by Ryan Levesque
- Exponential View by Azeem Azhar
- Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky
- No Mercy / No Malice by Scott Galloway
- Sophia Amoruso's Newsletter by Sophia Amoruso
- Write with AI by Nicolas Cole
Each one comes with what it covers, who it's for, how often it arrives and where to subscribe.
What are the best substack newsletters?
Here's the list at a glance, with what each one focuses on and what it costs.
Navid Insider- Writer
- Navid Moazzez
- Price
- Free
Austin Kleon's Newsletter- Writer
- Austin Kleon
- Price
- Free
Behind the Craft- Writer
- Peter Yang
- Price
- Free, with a paid tier
Digital Contrarian- Writer
- Ryan Levesque
- Price
- Free
- Writer
- Azeem Azhar
- Price
- Free, with a paid tier
- Writer
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Price
- Free, with a paid tier
- Writer
- Scott Galloway
- Price
- Free
Sophia Amoruso's Newsletter- Writer
- Sophia Amoruso
- Price
- Free
Write with AI- Writer
- Nicolas Cole
- Price
- Free, with a paid tier
Top 9 substack newsletters
1. Navid Insider by Navid Moazzez
Navid Insider is the personal one. It covers the AI operating system I run my own work on, plus the parts most business newsletters leave out: discipline, health, and the decisions underneath the tactics.
The filter is what is actually working, not what is trending. That means fewer tool announcements and more on the systems that survive contact with a real week.
If you want the tactical creator and AI material instead, AI Creator Insider is the other one.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free
Platform: Substack
2. Austin Kleon's Newsletter by Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon's newsletter is a weekly list of what caught his attention, mixed with notes on creative practice.
The underlying argument is that creativity is a habit of showing up rather than a matter of inspiration, and the newsletter models that by simply arriving every week.
Best for writers, artists and anyone whose work depends on producing something original on a schedule.
Who it's for: Writers, artists, and creators looking for inspiration, practical advice, and fresh ideas to fuel their creativity.
Why subscribe: It’s a thoughtful, no-nonsense newsletter that helps you stay creative, overcome creative blocks, and develop a long-term creative practice.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free
Platform: Substack
Subscribe to Austin Kleon's Newsletter · More about Austin Kleon's Newsletter
3. Behind the Craft by Peter Yang
Behind the Craft is practical AI writing rather than AI news. Tutorials you can follow, and interviews with people actually building the tools.
Peter Yang led products at Roblox, Reddit, Amazon and Meta for over a decade before leaving Roblox in June 2026 to do this full time, so the product judgement behind the AI material is real rather than borrowed.
It was called Creator Economy by Peter Yang until 2025 and kept the same domain through the rename, so older links still work. There is a paid membership at behindthecraft.com, which is a separate property from the newsletter.
Who it's for: Product managers, creators, and professionals who want to integrate AI into their work to save time, improve productivity, and create better products.
Why subscribe: AI is changing how products are built and how creators grow. This newsletter breaks down practical AI strategies, must-know tools, and real-world case studies so you can stay ahead. Free subscribers get a curated AI tool list.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free and paid options
Platform: Substack
Key lessons:
- Get strategies for leveraging AI in product management and content creation.
- Learn how AI can automate workflows and boost creativity.
- Find AI tools that save time and improve product development.
Subscribe to Behind the Craft · More about Behind the Craft
4. Digital Contrarian by Ryan Levesque
The Digital Contrarian is aimed at entrepreneurs who want to understand why something works before adopting it. Levesque has built and sold multiple companies and made the Inc. 5000 repeatedly, and the writing is analytical to match.
Topics range across strategy, market positioning, and shifts in how digital businesses acquire customers.
Better for people already running something than for those getting started — it assumes context.
Who it's for: Entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners who want a unique perspective on digital marketing and AI-driven strategies.
Why subscribe: It delivers in-depth marketing insights that challenge common industry assumptions and help businesses stay ahead of trends.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free
Platform: Substack
Key lessons:
- How AI and automation are shaping the future of digital marketing.
- Contrarian digital marketing strategies for increasing funnel conversions.
- Why following marketing trends blindly can hurt your business.
Subscribe to Digital Contrarian · More about Digital Contrarian
5. Exponential View by Azeem Azhar
Exponential View operates at a higher altitude than most tech newsletters. Azhar's subject is how AI, renewable energy, and synthetic biology interact with economics and policy.
The writing connects technology to institutions — labour markets, regulation, geopolitics — which is where most tech coverage stops short.
Demanding but rewarding. Best if you want the long-range view rather than this quarter's developments.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free, with a paid tier
Platform: Substack
Subscribe to Exponential View · More about Exponential View
6. Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky
Lenny's Newsletter has become the standard reference for product people. Each piece goes deep on a question — pricing, growth loops, hiring, career progression — usually built on interviews with people who have solved it at scale.
Rachitsky was a product lead at Airbnb, and the network that gives him access to is a large part of why the research is as good as it is.
One of the few newsletters where the paid tier is straightforwardly worth it if product is your job.
Who it's for: Product managers, startup founders, and marketers interested in scaling products and businesses.
Why subscribe: It provides exclusive insights from industry leaders on product-led growth, retention, and business strategy, backed by real-world case studies.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free + paid subscription.
Platform: Substack
Key lessons:
- Lessons from top founders and product leaders.
- How successful startups scale their products.
- The best strategies for improving retention and user engagement.
Subscribe to Lenny's Newsletter · More about Lenny's Newsletter
7. No Mercy / No Malice by Scott Galloway
No Mercy / No Malice is an essay, not a roundup. Each week Galloway takes one subject — a company, a market shift, a piece of the culture — and argues a position on it, usually with charts.
The appeal is the willingness to commit to a view. He is frequently sharp about companies most commentators handle carefully, and he is transparent when a past call went wrong.
Read it for the argument and the framing. It is opinion writing backed by data, and it does not pretend otherwise.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free
Platform: Substack
Subscribe to No Mercy / No Malice · More about No Mercy / No Malice
8. Sophia Amoruso's Newsletter by Sophia Amoruso
Sophia Amoruso writes for people who work for themselves or want to. The material covers brand-building and business mechanics, but the distinguishing feature is candour about the parts that went badly.
She has built companies to significant scale and watched one fail publicly, and she does not write around that. The result is less polished and more useful than most founder content.
Read it if you want the realities of self-employment rather than the highlight reel.
Price: Free
Platform: Substack
Subscribe to Sophia Amoruso's Newsletter · More about Sophia Amoruso's Newsletter
9. Write with AI by Nicolas Cole
Write with AI is narrower than most AI newsletters, and better for it. The whole focus is writing: drafting, editing, structuring, and the prompt patterns that get a model to produce something you would actually publish.
Cole writes for a living and has taught writing at scale, so the advice is grounded in craft rather than novelty. He is also honest about the limits — where AI drafts fall flat and what still needs a human.
There is free and paid content. The free tier alone is worth the subscription if writing is part of your job.
Who it's for: Writers, content creators, and entrepreneurs who want to improve their writing, build an audience, and launch digital products using AI.
Why subscribe: This newsletter isn’t just about writing. It’s about using AI to streamline content creation and scale digital writing across multiple platforms. Each issue shares practical AI prompts, frameworks, and strategies from two of the most experienced online writers.
How often: Weekly
Price: Free version available, with a paid option for premium content and in-depth guides.
Platform: Substack
Key lessons:
- Learn AI-powered writing techniques that improve speed and quality.
- Use frameworks to create engaging content that attracts and converts readers.
- Apply AI to build an audience and scale writing across different platforms.
FAQs about substack newsletters
The questions people ask most about substack newsletters.
Substack is a publishing platform that combines a newsletter, a website and paid subscriptions in one place. Its distinguishing feature is the network: readers discover new writers through the app and through recommendations from other Substacks.
Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi founded it in 2017. Best had previously co founded the messaging app Kik.
Free to publish, with no monthly fee. Substack instead takes 10 percent of revenue from paid subscriptions, plus payment processing. If you never charge, you never pay.
It is strongest with writers doing essays and analysis. On this list that includes Lenny's Newsletter, No Mercy / No Malice, Exponential View and Write with AI.
10 percent of paid subscription revenue, on top of Stripe processing fees of roughly 3 percent. There is no charge on a free list of any size.
It is the best of the major platforms at it, because of recommendations and the app. Other writers can recommend you at signup, which sends real subscribers rather than impressions.
Less control. Design options are limited, the 10 percent cut grows with you, and your growth is partly tied to a network you do not own. Large publishers often leave once the cut exceeds what a flat platform fee would cost.
Yes, and your list comes with you. Substack lets you export subscribers including paid ones, and it does not lock the email addresses. Paid subscriptions have to be migrated to your own Stripe account.
Substack if you are writing essays and want discovery to do some of the work. Beehiiv if you are building a media property and want control over design, growth mechanics and ad revenue.
Yes. Publications can host audio and video alongside written posts, and paid subscribers can get a private feed.
Posts are on the public web and get indexed, which is more than a pure email tool gives you. Control is limited though, since you cannot tune much of the technical setup on a hosted domain.
Final thoughts on substack newsletters
The best substack newsletter is the one you open every time it arrives. Pick 2 or 3 from this list, read them for a month, and keep the ones you look forward to.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
Navid.me is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
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