The Top 10 Catholic Substacks Ranked by Number of Subscribers
And Why Keywords Matter More Than You Think
I searched Substack.com using the word “Catholic” and summarized the data for the first 100 substacks that appeared in the results.
Why is this important? I felt that this was worth analyzing because readers who are searching for a particular subject can use this search feature from Substack. By entering a relevant word, one can quickly see a list of newsletters that write about a given theme.
As I proceeded with my search, I then gathered information from the list of the first 100 substacks that appeared on the list. One crucial data I got was the number of subscribers from the respective substacks.
Based on the above, here are the top 10 substacks (searched using the “Catholic keyword”) with the most number of subscribers:
1. Bailiwick News – over 39,000
2. Catholic Nutshell News – over 25,000
3. The Catholic Traveler – over 15,000
4. Letters from a Catholic Feminist – over 14,000
5. Biblical Catholic Living – over 8,000
6. Catholic Link Newsletter – over 5,000
Catholic Share Faithful Wisdom – over 5,000
Missio Dei – over 5,000
7. Mere Tradition with Kennedy Hall – over 4,000
8. Roundtable – over 3,000
9. Catholic Cravings – over 2,000
Catholic Family Business – over 2,000
100 Movies Every Catholic Should See – over 2,000
The Diary of a Single Catholic Writer – over 2,000
10. Roman Catholic Truth – over 1,000
Building Catholic Men – over 1,000
The Catholic Convert – over 1,000
Catholic Song – over 1,000
As you can see, there are substacks that placed in the same position due to a similar number of subscribers indicated. This includes my own substack “The Diary of a Single Catholic Writer” occupying the 9th place with over 2,000 subscribers.
It should be noted that although Substack generated a list of substacks with relevant information such as the number of subscribers, not all substacks displayed a corresponding number of their subscriptions.
There are two possible reasons I could think of for the non-appearance of the number of subscriptions for some substacks. The first is that some substacks with no subscriber count may have less than 1,000 subscribers. The second one is that some of them may have simply chosen to hide it for privacy. This may include some top substacks such as “The Pillar”, which did not display any subscription count.
(Hence, the above ranking pertains only to those with visible number of subscribers.)
The Surprising Observation About The Search
One important thing I noted was that, even if my substack placed 9th when it comes to the number of indicated subscribers, it did not appear among the first substacks generated after my search. This is also the case for most of the substacks that garnered the top number of subscribers. As an example, Bailwick News, which has 39,000 subscribers only appeared as the 80th substack on the list from the search. My substack even appeared above it as 64th on the list.
The conclusion here is that the result for this search is not based on the number of subscriptions but on something else.
My personal opinion is that the search results are affected by other data such as the keywords that can be seen in the substack name, description, tags or posts. This can only show the importance of placing targeted keywords on the important details of your substack newsletter.
It is also possible that some other factor such as posting frequency or engagement (likes and comments) can also be affecting the search results.
I will write a new post in case I continue this analysis later on. But I hope that this somehow gives you an idea of the power search and keywords when it comes to your substack’s exposure.
Ranking first for the initial results of the seach gives you an advantage when it comes to more viewers for your substack!
Bonus Info
I you want to take a look at the first 100 substacks given by Substack.com, I have also written the list below. You may want to see whether your substack newsletter is included and in what position it appears.
Following is the actual list of 100 substacks I gathered based on searching Substack.com using the keyword “Catholic”:
1. Letters from a Catholic Feminist – over 14,000
2. Catholic manhood
3. Roman Catholic Truth – over 1,000
4. Catholic Nutshell News – over 25,000
5. The Catholic Traveler – over 15,000
6. Building Catholic Men – over 1,000
7. Catholic Link Newsletter – over 5,000
8. Catholic Founders
9. Catholic Frequency
10. Why Catholic?
11. The Catholic Corner
12. The Catholic Adventurer
13. Catholic Treehouse
14. How To Be Catholic
15. Biblical Catholic Living – over 8,000
16. Catholic Share Faithful Wisdom – over 5,000
17. Uncanny Catholic
18. Grub Street Catholic
19. Catholic Politics
20. Chronically Catholic
21. Catholic Stories for Children
22. Catholic Cravings – over 2,000
23. Maria Angela Catholic Devotional
24. Intentional Catholic
25. Catholic Family Business – over 2,000
26. The Pillar
27. The Catholic Observer
28. Catholic Business Buddy
29. (A)musing Catholic
30. Weird Catholic
31. The Bold Catholic
32. The Catholic Family
33. Catholic Hub
34. The Catholic Convert – over 1,000
35. Missio Dei – over 5,000
36. Catholic Apologetics International
37. Catholic Seasons
38. The Catholic/Crypto Network
39. Catholic Song – over 1,000
40. Homeless Catholic Community
41. Mission Driven Catholic
42. Catholic Tradition
43. Catholic Captions
44. Catholic Knighthood
45. Catholic Wildflower
46. The Catholic Behavior Analyst
47. Recovering Catholic
48. The Catholic Pilgrim
49. Things Catholic
50. Catholic State
51. The Catholic Compass
52. 100 Movies Every Catholic Should See – over 2,000
53. Asian Catholic Woman Substack
54. Simple Catholic Philosophy
55. The Catholic Farmer
56. My Catholic Femininity
57. The Catholic Leadership Puzzle
58. Incola ego sum in terra
59. Catholic Climate Covenant’s Substack
60. The Merry Catholic
61. CatholicSat’s Substack
62. The Uncensored Catholic
63. The Catholic Librarian
64. The Diary of a Single Catholic Writer – over 2,000
65. The Catholic Mell
66. Catholic Gemz Newsletter
67. Cuse Catholic
68. Catholic Audio Media Newsletter from Anthony Allston, MA
69. Reformed Catholicity
70. One Catholic Economist
71. The Catholic Reformation
72. Calling All Catholics
73. A New Catholic Reformation
74. Mere Tradition with Kennedy Hall – over 4,000
75. The Commonplace Catholic
76. Recusant Catholic’s Substack
77. Today’s American Catholic
78. Modern Catholic
79. The Catholic Christian
80. Bailiwick News – over 39,000
81. The Case for Catholicism
82. Analog Catholic
83. Catholic Permaculture
84. Raised Stones: Catholic, Reformed, and Baptist
85. Garden State Catholic
86. The Catholic Woman
87. Lapsed Catholic
88. Catholic Gardening
89. The Credo Catholic
90. A Fallible Catholic Family
91. catholic460
92. Catholic joe
93. CatholicaGermanica
94. This Roman Catholic Life
95. One Soul at a Time
96. Roundtable – over 3,000
97. Catholics in Ordinary Time
98. Catholic on the Edge
99. Matthew Handley – The Purple Catholic
100. cafeteria catholic