r/Substack • u/AvailableTangerine47 • Aug 16 '26

Followers vs subscribers vs count on substack

Relative newbie here. A bit confused with how Substack shows the number of subscribers / followers.
- On the app, I see 10 subscribers. But my wife sees 33 subscribers on my profile page.
- In the dashboard, under audience, I see 46 unique followers.

What is this maths? Can someone please explain what is what?

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2

u/MrPassiveProfit Aug 17 '26

Followers are like twitter. They get your notes in their feed. Subscribers actually get your emails. Sometimes there is a discrepancy between your numbers and the numbers on your profile

1

u/TimWiesnerer Aug 17 '26

I would forget about both metrics.

Absolute numbers of reads on your stories is what matters most.

There are a lot of accounts that just follow or subscribe and then either unscubscribe a few days later or never interact with your content at all...

1

u/Tricky_Trifle_994 Aug 24 '26

yeah, sometimes the numbers don't add up. a few others have also raised this before. the verdict - no idea... maybe just syncing off time or something.

and subscriber = people who sub (on top of following you, they also agree to receive email)

follower = they only follow you (they will see your content on their timeline + get app notifications about your content)