Pexels vs. Substack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pexels
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Pexels, headquartered in Berlin, offers stock photos and video under the Creative Commons Zero license, from a global network of creators.N/A
Substack
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Substack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform.N/A
Pricing
PexelsSubstack
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PexelsSubstack
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PexelsSubstack
Best Alternatives
PexelsSubstack
Small Businesses
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
Adobe Express
Adobe Express
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PexelsSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(35 ratings)
8.7
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PexelsSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
Pexels
1. Small businesses with small or non-existent budgets still need assets to create content 2. Individual content makers or freelancers who need stock assets 3. Corporate eLearning wants to modernize and replace all old-fashioned, outdated, brightly lit studio photos with more realistic and relevant imagery that will resonate with modern audiences and learners.
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Substack Inc.
I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
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Pros
Pexels
  • High-resolution images – Pexels is full of images that are high enough in resolution to look beautiful on their own, but also high quality enough to be combined with other images without distracting pixelization
  • Stock videos – other free stock sites are often limited to just images, but Pexels has a wide range of videos available as well, which we use to plus up decks
  • Good search functions – while not as robust as some paid sites, Pexels' search functions make it pretty easy to track down what you need
  • Licensing – it's very straightforward to know what you can and can't do with a Pexels photo, which protects my company and our clients
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Substack Inc.
  • Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable.
  • Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post.
  • Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers.
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Cons
Pexels
  • I do think that the library should grow. For example, I was looking for an image of a living room with a fireplace and there were only a few options
  • I get tricked sometimes because I see images I want to use but they are from some other company and they are paid
  • Improve search understanding for multi-word searches
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Substack Inc.
  • editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options
  • integrate with google analytics
  • percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling.
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Usability
Pexels
Pexels is extremely easy to use. Because it integrates with Canva, it makes our workflow smoother. This also saves us a significant amount of time running our business. The interface is also clean and easy to understand and follow, leading to an increase in productivity and much greater efficiency. Overall, this saves us time and money
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Substack Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Pexels
Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results load fast, with lazy loading, so there's no annoying pagination at the bottom. I often travel as I work, and at times my internet connection can be slow or unstable. This kind of feature may seem minor to some users, but when on a slower connection, it makes a big difference. If a search term is too broad, it can recommend related keywords to search for - this helps to find the right image faster.
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Substack Inc.
Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
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Return on Investment
Pexels
  • Social media campaigns created with photos from Pexels achieves 40% higher engagement vs others.
  • Thanks to faster and easier content sourcing provided by Pexels, our campaign generation period has dropped to an average of 4 hours, instead of 2 days.
  • Their stock images adorn our offices.... and it's a much lore cheerful space for that reason. Staff are happier, and stay in the office longer.
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Substack Inc.
  • I haven’t made any money from it
  • Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience
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ScreenShots