Substack Categories - updated 2026!
Where do we fit ?- An impromptu chat thread...
Promoted by Sarah over at Brand Seasons and her note yesterday, I’ve opened this post up for more permanent discussion and support about Substack categories.
I thought we could chat about Substack Categories and have the thread as an archive for those of us who are a feeling little ‘stuck on this’ and want to see all of the info in one place and what others choose too…
You have the option of two categories when you set up your Substack publication. You can change these anytime.
It’s the one part of Substack (this and the code block) that has be a bit stumped…
Which categories are you using and which are you curious about… do you pop over to the explore page read any other Substacks in different categories?
That’s what I did before Notes but haven’t done any digging around for ages.
The Substack categories are (so we can all think about it) are…
Culture
Tech
Business
US Politics
Finance
Food and Drink
Sports
Art & Illustration
Health
News
Fashion and Beauty
Music
Faith and Spirituality
Climate and Environment
Literature
Science
Health and Wellness
Design
Travel
Parenting
Philosophy
Comics
International
Crypto
History
Humour
Education
NEW SUBSTACK CATEGORY - Added in 2026 - Home and Garden!!
Which two make the most sense for you and your publication? Or perhaps like me you feel you sit across more than two?
My strategy (and I don’t know if it’s strategic quite yet) is to swap my secondary category every few months… just because it’s all one big experiment isn’t it… It was easier for me to see which categories my publication definitely isn’t!
Let us all know in the comments which two you chose and what you write about?
Sending sparkles for your weekend ahead,
Claire
✨
If you want more support, community, exploratory posts, tutorials and class replays, do consider joining my Sparkle on Substack education membership.
It definitely had me stumped because none of them felt quite right.
I’d love to see options for Being Human, Living Mindfully and Getting Older 👵🏻
I think I went for art and health and wellness, but like many none really fit. I would like to see categories for personal development/growth and memoir. These in Substack writers hour, months ago and there were lots of similar requests, so maybe one day...