How to Export Your Substack (And Import It Anywhere)

Name: How to Export Your Substack (And Import It Anywhere)
Description: Leaving Substack starts with one ZIP export — and most people never find out how simple the other side is. I drop that ZIP straight in: it previews eight posts and thirty-one subscribers (paid and founding included), then imports the lot in one go.

Leaving Substack starts with one ZIP export — and most people never find out how simple the other side is. I drop that ZIP straight in: it previews eight posts and thirty-one subscribers (paid and founding included), then imports the lot in one go. Start your 14-day free trial (card required) → https://velocms.org

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Whether you're leaving Substack or just want a real backup, you should know how to get your stuff out — because the day you need it is the wrong day to learn how. So here's the whole thing: how to export your Substack, what's inside, and how to import it anywhere.

Start on Substack. In your dashboard settings there's an Exports section — you click "Create a new export," wait a moment while it packages things up, and download a single ZIP. That one file holds your posts and your full subscriber list together. That's the whole export.

Quick look at what you actually get. Your posts come as HTML files, and your subscribers come as a list that keeps who's free, who's paid, and who's a founding member. It's your archive and your audience in one bundle — which is exactly why it's worth grabbing regularly.

Now the "import anywhere" half. In VeloCMS, Nathan goes to Import, picks Substack, and drops that exact ZIP in — no reformatting, no untangling files. It reads the same bundle Substack gave you and gets ready to bring it across.

The wizard previews it first — post count, total subscribers, how many are paid, how many are founding — then you apply. Your issues become posts and every subscriber lands in your member list, still tagged with their status. Here's the whole list, in Nathan's own dashboard.

One straight answer, because it matters. The list transfers, but no export — anywhere — can hand over someone's card. To keep paid members paying, you connect your own Stripe and invite them to continue. The upside: from then on, the fees and the relationship are yours.

Now you can export your Substack and take it anywhere. Try importing yours into VeloCMS, free for fourteen days, at velocms dot org.