Products · Product
Substack
Raised as a usability problem by 106 people on Hacker News over 9 years (2018–2026), in 88 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Repeated full-page subscribe pop-ups block reading until readers give upUnreviewed
20182026- Repeated full-page subscribe pop-ups block reading, making the reader give up on the article2026-08-04
- Annoying subscribe popup interrupts reading on Substack sites2026-03-16
- Subscribe popup appears over articles, forcing the reader to close it or leave2025-11-14
Dark UI patterns make dismissing the pop-up hardUnreviewed
20182026- Popup darkens the page and obscures text to push signup2024-04-25
- Dark UI patterns make dismissing the pop-up annoying and hard2023-02-10
- Pop-up interstitial page is a dark pattern that the commenter finds grating2022-12-26
Full-screen modal keeps pushing users to enable notificationsUnreviewed
20182026- Full-screen modal keeps pushing user to enable notifications2026-01-14
- Keeps popping up a modal asking to enable notifications after user opted out2024-05-14
- Full-screen welcome popup cannot be disabled, only its message changed2024-04-11
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Free full-text posts often demand a sign-in before they can be read2026-08-14
- Repeated full-page subscribe pop-ups block reading, making the reader give up on the article2026-08-04
- Substack's banners and generic design make reading pages unpleasant2026-07-29
- Website is slow, comments section won't fully render, and subscribe forms nag readers2026-07-29
- Popups and banners cover most of the screen on mobile articles2026-07-28
- Commenter finds the website's user interface terrible to use2026-07-24
- No search, and can't filter a large chat down to specific people2026-06-08
- Annoying subscribe popup interrupts reading on Substack sites2026-03-16
- Full-screen modal keeps pushing user to enable notifications2026-01-14
- Subscribe popup appears over articles, forcing the reader to close it or leave2025-11-14
- Subscribe prompt appears before article is finished and obscures the content2025-11-06
- Keeps signing the user out and the sign-in experience is poor2025-10-07
- First-time visitors don't know how the site works, making the experience bad2025-09-08
- A big subscribe overlay keeps appearing as you scroll, so people stop reading2025-09-07
- Newsletters are annoying to sign up for and to receive2025-08-02
- Cancelling requires chat or phone calls with retention salesmen pushing discounts2025-08-01
- Substack makes it hard to download nicely formatted PDF or readable versions2025-06-16
- Reject button on the cookie banner doesn't work2025-05-13
- Cookie dialog loops endlessly after choosing only necessary cookies2025-05-13
- Subscribe popup and cookie prompts must be dismissed repeatedly in a specific order2025-05-11
- Edits silently fail with a vague network error, with no clue why2025-04-25
- Uploading a file containing 'SELECT *' shows a misleading 'network error' message2025-04-25
- Cannot turn off email notifications; only a prefer-push option exists2025-04-21
- Forces readers to receive post emails they didn't choose, needing filters to avoid2025-04-21
- Hard to see only the people the user is subscribed to2025-01-05
- Header hides when scrolling down and reappears on scroll up, covering text and distracting while skimming2025-01-05
- Giant app install link blocks reading and finding info on mobile2024-12-04
- Dozen advertisements around the Free Trial button make the site cluttered and hard to navigate2024-09-29
- Cannot zoom the page, and clicking images only enlarges them slightly, so images are unreadable2024-08-21
- Full-page subscribe ads block reading content, pushing users toward subscribing2024-05-17
- Keeps popping up a modal asking to enable notifications after user opted out2024-05-14
- Teaser shows content, then paywall blocks it after wasting reader's time2024-05-10
- Settings page is too complicated for the user to navigate2024-04-25
- Popup darkens the page and obscures text to push signup2024-04-25
- Text-and-image page is so laggy it makes the phone crawl2024-04-21
- Page becomes very slow and crashes the tab when scrolling or selecting text on long comment threads2024-04-21
- Full-screen welcome popup cannot be disabled, only its message changed2024-04-11
- Lags so badly on phone that scrolled text takes seconds to display2024-02-23
- Subscribe pop-up appears after a few hundred words, blocking reading before the reader knows the author2024-01-10
- Popups get in the way of reading articles on Substack sites2023-12-04
- Pushes app install so strongly that reading articles in the browser is blocked2023-12-04
- Pop-ups, recommendations and dark UI patterns clutter the newsletter reading experience2023-10-27
- Desktop-focused writing app uses a mobile-style interface that makes desktop use harder2023-10-26
- Modal pops up mid-article asking for email, forcing dismissal while reading2023-10-13
- Subscribe pop-over fades in repeatedly on every page, with poor contrast and ugly fonts2023-10-13
- Interrupting modal forces user to hunt for continue reading button2023-09-15
- Intrusive in-your-face modal pushes subscribing and covers the content2023-09-09
- New readers mistake the popup for a signup demand and close it2023-08-30
- Intrusive pop-ups and hidden text push readers toward subscribing2023-08-25
- A modal that scrolls into view after a couple of paragraphs interrupts reading2023-08-04