The Most Popular Substacks (+ the Ones I Actually Pay For)

I write a Top 20 Business bestseller on Substack, and I pay for more newsletters than I’d like to admit to my accountant. So this list of the most popular Substacks isn’t scraped from a leaderboard — it’s part platform data, part what I actually open at 7am with my matcha.

The biggest Substack by paid readership is widely reported to be Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American. Below it sits a deep bench of business, culture, and craft newsletters — here are the top Substacks worth your inbox, including the ones I personally pay for.

For live rankings by category, Substack’s own leaderboards update constantly. This list is the human version. Let’s dive in.

The Biggest Substacks on the Platform

Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson

What it is: A historian’s nightly letter putting American politics in historical context, widely reported as the biggest paid newsletter on the platform.

Why read it: It’s the proof of concept for the entire paid-newsletter economy: one clear promise, delivered daily, for years.

Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky

What it is: The product, growth, and career newsletter for tech: interviews, frameworks, and benchmarks.

Why read it: It’s very business-smart. If you build products (or newsletters), Lenny’s archive is a free MBA.

The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz

What it is: The biggest technology Substack, with deep reporting on how software companies actually work.

Why read it: A masterclass in owning a niche so completely that the industry reports to you.

The Substacks I Actually Pay (or Paid) For

Link in Bio by Rachel Karten

What it is: Social media strategy from the strategist behind major brand accounts, with real campaign breakdowns.

Why read it: I was a paid subscriber for a long stretch (I’m doing less on social these days), but if social media is part of your job, Rachel is the sharpest voice there is.

After School by Casey Lewis

What it is: Gen Z consumer trends, decoded daily by trend reporter Casey Lewis.

Why read it: She’s great — brands pay serious money to know what she publishes every morning. Reading it feels like borrowing a crystal ball.

Feed Me by Emily Sundberg

What it is: A daily dispatch on business, media, and New York: part reporting, part group chat with the smartest person you know.

Why read it: I was a paid subscriber for a while and think she’s great. I’m reading less news lately, but Feed Me is the one people gossip about for a reason.

The Best Substacks for Writers and Creatives

Story Club by George Saunders

What it is: The Booker-shortlisted author teaching fiction craft through close readings, one story at a time.

Why read it: The best writing classroom on the internet, taught with almost alarming generosity.

The Isolation Journals by Suleika Jaouad

What it is: Essays and journaling prompts on creativity and living through hard things, from the author of Between Two Kingdoms.

Why read it: Proof that vulnerability, done with craft, builds one of the warmest communities on the platform.

Culture Study by Anne Helen Petersen

What it is: Long-form essays interrogating work, burnout, and the way we live now.

Why read it: A model for turning a journalist’s beat into an owned audience.

And Mine (Transparently)

I’m including my own publications in this list as well, because I’d be a strange guide to Substack if I hid them. Make Writing Your Job is my Top 20 Business bestseller — writing jobs and the business of writing, grown to 42,000+ subscribers over three years with no paid ads. Sutoscience is my personal Substack: growth experiments with real dashboards, essays, and serialized fiction.

What the Most Popular Substacks Have in Common

Every publication on this list makes one promise and keeps it relentlessly — a nightly letter, a daily trend report, one story dissected at a time. None of them grew by posting “whatever I’m thinking this week.” If you’re building your own, that’s the lesson to steal, and my guides on growing a Substack and getting paid subscribers break down the mechanics.

FAQ: Popular Substacks

What Is the Most Popular Substack?

By paid subscribers, Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson is widely reported as the largest. Category leaders rotate on Substack’s public leaderboards.

How Much Do Popular Substack Writers Make?

The top publications earn six and seven figures a year. My own newsletters gross $267,537 in annualized revenue — I break down exactly how in how to make money on Substack.

How Do You Find Substacks Worth Reading?

Start with the leaderboards, then follow the recommendation trail — every publication you like recommends its own favorites, which is also how readers will one day find yours.

Want to Build the Next One on This List?

Ambitious, sure. But every newsletter above started at zero subscribers, and the mechanics of growing one are learnable — teaching them is what my Substack consulting is for. Tell me about your publication below.

Now go subscribe to something that makes you a little jealous. That feeling is homework.