Concrete CMS vs Substack

Compare Concrete CMS and Substack for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

Concrete CMS
Concrete CMS
Concrete CMS is a free and open source content management system designed for teams. It features powerful WYSIWYG editing, robust security, and extensive customization options.
Substack
Substack
Substack is a user-friendly publishing platform for writers, enabling them to create newsletters and build a subscriber base while retaining full ownership of their content and mailing lists.

What Users Say

See what users who have used Concrete CMS and Substack have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Concrete CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Concrete CMS.

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

Concrete CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Concrete CMS.

Substack's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Substack.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses Concrete CMS and Substack daily about their experience with the editors.

Concrete CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Concrete CMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

Concrete CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Concrete CMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

Concrete CMS:
Limited Mobile Experience

Concrete CMS offers mobile editing capabilities but lacks comprehensive mobile-first experience features.

"In today's mobile-first world, ensuring your website looks great on all devices is essential."
Source
"Our Editor makes it easy to customize your site exactly the way you want it. ... Mobile Optimized & Responsive."
Source
"Composer on Mobile Device. None. A better editing experience on mobile."
Source
"... editing experience is easy; just click on what you want to change. ... Mobile Responsive: Engage your audience across all devices with a seamless, mobile."
Source
"Test the Form: Preview your form to ensure it works as expected on both desktop and mobile devices."
Source
Substack:
Mobile-First Experience

Substack has launched a mobile editor for creating posts directly on iOS and Android devices, offering essential functionalities.

"Today we’re launching a new mobile editor, which allows you to write and publish posts directly from the Substack app for iOS."
Source
"Publishing a new post is available on the Substack iOS and Android apps."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

Concrete CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Concrete CMS does not provide an automatic related blog feature; links must be managed manually.

"Concrete CMS provides a powerful and easy-to-use blogging platform that helps you create, manage, and optimize your blog for search engines and readers alike."
Source
"Concrete CMS does not include an automated system for linking related blog posts."
Source
"Concrete CMS doesn’t provide an easy way to manage automatic linking of content; manual order is required."
Source
Substack:
No Automatic Content Linking

Substack does not support automatic related blog linking features; manual linking is required.

"If you'd like to share certain parts of a post or allow readers to jump to a specific section of a long post, try adding anchor links."
Source
"Recommendations are a Substack super ... However, I couldn't find evidence of automatic related content linking."
Source
"I was wondering if it is a good idea to create a substack and post my content on there as well and even link the substack post back to my main blog."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

Concrete CMS:
Manual CTA Linking

Concrete CMS doesn't expressly mention automatic CTA linking; AI features exist but are not aimed specifically at dynamic CTA linking.

"Landing pages play an indispensable role in the customer lifecycle journey; it serves as the instrument that converts regular site visitors into business leads."
Source
"Create stunning, professional navigation menus in Concrete CMS without touching a line of code. Mega Menu combines powerful features with an intuitive interface."
Source
"AI in content management has several major strengths... The automation aspect makes it fantastic for taking on mundane, repetitive tasks."
Source
"Concrete CMS offers a native Autonav block that provides a straightforward way to create navigation menus, including the option to configure it as a mega menu."
Source
"Concrete CMS offers unmatched customization, making your website powerful and extendable."
Source
Substack:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Substack lacks built-in automatic CTA linking; users rely on external tools for automation features.

"Substack provides no automation tools at all; the author notes this is a primary reason users leave for competitors."
Source
"Substack lacks several critical features needed for effective email marketing, including automated email sequences."
Source
"Users discuss the absence of integrated automation features in Substack, noting their reliance on external tools."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

Concrete CMS:
Comments Supported

Concrete CMS has built-in commenting with features like moderation, sorting, and spam protection.

"Comment Management and Spam Protection. Encourage engagement by allowing readers to leave comments on your blog posts. Built-in spam protection tools help you keep conversations clean and relevant."
Source
"Our completely integrated commenting system supports threaded comments, and all comments have individual like counts. Comment moderation, commenter authentication, and spam identification features."
Source
Substack:
Comments Supported

Substack supports commenting on posts from both subscribers and non-subscribers, with moderation options available.

"Navigate to your publication's Settings and click on Community. Slide the toggle to enable comments."
Source
"You can now enable comments on your posts for anyone on your mailing list, even if they’re not a paid subscriber."
Source
"Writers can choose whether to allow comments from everyone or only paid subscribers."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

Concrete CMS:
Limited Multi-tenancy

Concrete CMS offers multi-site management but lacks full multi-tenancy features for external client management.

"Concrete CMS allows organizations to manage multiple sites from a single installation, which indicates limited support for multi-tenancy."
Source
Substack:
No Multi-tenancy

Substack does not support multi-tenancy, focusing primarily on individual writers and content monetization.

"Substack is designed for independent writers and does not offer multi-tenancy features."
Source
"Substack emphasizes individual monetization and audience ownership, lacking multi-tenant capabilities."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Concrete CMS and Substack about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Concrete CMS:
Medium
Integration is moderate, with some features easily implemented, while others may require customization.
Ease of Integrating Substack:
Medium
Integration with Substack is feasible but lacks robust features and direct integrations, leading to some workarounds.

Concrete CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Concrete CMS.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

Concrete CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Concrete CMS.

Substack's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Substack.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

Concrete CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Concrete CMS supports content modeling through customizable page types and blocks, allowing users to create various content types with flexible fields.

"The real power is in the way you can customize your Concrete CMS website."
Source
"Concrete provides an easy-to-use editing interface for non-technical users. Edits can be made in literally seconds."
Source
Substack:
No Customisable Content Types

Substack does not offer built-in content modelling features or custom content types.

"Substack offers limited customization, focusing more on content rather than design."
Source
"Directus allows you to create custom schemas, manage data, define roles & permissions for your organization."
Source
"Substack doesn’t allow customization for its newsletter formats, thus limiting content modelling."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

Concrete CMS:
No Custom React Components Supported

Concrete CMS does not explicitly support custom React components in its content editor.

"Concrete Content Management System (CMS) lets content creators, designers, and developers build, author, and publish content."
Source
"Concrete has the beginnings of a REST API built into the core, but it does not facilitate custom React components."
Source
"Creating Field Types for Block Designer is simple, but there is no mention of supporting custom React components."
Source
Substack:
No Custom React Components Supported

Substack does not support custom React components directly in the content editor.

"Over the years, I’ve written and reviewed hundreds of React components for a $1.7B GenAI startup."
Source
"I wanted to display my Substack posts on my website instead of a subscribe link, so I created my own Substack feed component!"
Source
"A customizable React component renders the login page based on the user's UI settings."
Source
"The new components are both fully customizable AND robust."
Source
"I have used substackapi to achieve this Custom Embed Substack Signup Form."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

Concrete CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Concrete CMS supports full-text search across multiple fields and contents, enhancing search functionality.

"To perform a more advanced search on the name, description and text content fields using MySQL's FULLTEXT search indexing."
Source
"To perform a more advanced search on the name, description and text content fields using MySQL's FULLTEXT search indexing."
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"This includes full-text search, metadata search, and filtering options."
Source
"The Search block uses a simple substring search in name, description, and any blocks that have searchable content."
Source
Substack:
No Full Text Search

Substack's search functionality is weak, lacking full text search across all content and authors.

"From the Substack web inbox, readers can search keywords to find posts, publications, and people."
Source
"Substack search can’t find posts even when I know the exact title or URL. Search often can’t find people."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

Concrete CMS:
Available

Concrete CMS offers various templates and themes for users.

(Expand section to see a list of Concrete CMS templates and starter kits.)

Substack:
Available

Substack offers various starter kits and templates for creators.

(Expand section to see a list of Substack templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Concrete CMS and Substack.

Concrete CMS's Pricing
Starter
$4.99 / month
- 1 Site Editor
- Unlimited support questions
- NO ACCESS to source code
- Free SSL
- Upgrades managed for you
- Configuration support
- Nightly backup
- 10,000 page views per month
- 2GB of storage space
Business
$19 / month
- 5 Site Editors
- Unlimited support questions
- NO ACCESS to source code
- Upgrades managed for you
- Configuration support
- Nightly backup
- Content Delivery Network
- Free SSL
- DDoS Protection and Mitigation
- 50,000 page views per month
- 20GB of storage space
Custom SLA
$0 / Call Us
- Unlimited support questions
- Continuous backup & restoration
- 1 staging, 1 production server
- Custom development as needed
- Co-managed upgrades & development
- Custom staging & CI/CD
- Hybrid development teams
- High availability
- Large data stores
Substack's Pricing
Monthly Subscription
$5 / month
- Includes all posts for paid subscribers only
- Recurring payments processed via Stripe
- 10% platform fee
- 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fees on Stripe
Annual Subscription
$50 / year
- Includes all posts for paid subscribers only
- Recurring payments processed via Stripe
- 10% platform fee
- 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fees on Stripe
Founding Member Plan
$20 / month
- Optional tier for additional support
- All posts for paid subscribers

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to Concrete CMS & Substack? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!