DecapCMS vs Substack

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

DecapCMS
DecapCMS
Decap CMS is an open-source content management system for your Git workflow that enables you to provide editors with a friendly UI and intuitive workflows. Use it with any static site generator for more flexible web projects.
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.

At a Glance

Quick overview of key features differences between DecapCMS and Substack. Click on any feature to read more details.

FeatureDecapCMSSubstack
Basic Features
Hosting Option
Cloud & Self-hosted
Cloud & Self-hosted
Content Modeling
Blog on Subdomain
Blog on Subdirectory
Marketer Experience
Mobile-first Experience
Limited
Automatic Content Linking
Automatic CTA Linking
Engage with Comments
Multi-tenancy
Limited
Read all reviews from marketers
Developer Experience
Ease of Integration
Medium
Medium
Custom React Components
Full Text Search
Starter Kits
(5 kits)
(5 kits)
Read all reviews from developers
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What Users Say

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

DecapCMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about DecapCMS.

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

DecapCMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with DecapCMS.

Substack's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Substack.

What Marketers & Content Creators Say

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

DecapCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about DecapCMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

DecapCMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about DecapCMS'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.

DecapCMS:
Limited Mobile Experience

Decap CMS provides a web-based UI allowing content editing on mobile, but experience can be cumbersome.

"Fast, web-based UI: With rich-text editing, real-time preview, and drag-and-drop media uploads."
Source
"Decap CMS provides a clean and modern web-based interface for content editors."
Source
"Decap CMS integrates seamlessly with popular SSGs, providing a user-friendly interface for editors."
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.

DecapCMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

DecapCMS doesn't support automated related blog linking without manual input.

"Relation widget allows linking but requires manual configuration."
Source
"Configurations do not include automated related content linking."
Source
"Decap CMS is focused on manual linking and lacks AI for automation."
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.

DecapCMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Decap CMS does not support automatic CTA linking features.

"At its core, Decap CMS is an open-source React app that acts as a wrapper for the Git workflow, using the GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket API."
Source
"Developers are needed to implement several tasks, indicating a lack of automated features."
Source
"Not suitable for complex and big projects, suggesting limitations in features."
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.

DecapCMS:
No Comments Supported

DecapCMS does not include built-in commenting features for site visitors. Custom types can be created but lacks out-of-the-box support.

"In order to track unpublished entries statuses the Bitbucket implementation uses pull requests comments."
Source
"Decap CMS does not provide built-in commenting features for users' site visitors."
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.

DecapCMS:
Limited Multi-tenancy

Decap CMS offers basic multi-tenancy features tailored for static site generators but lacks advanced management capabilities.

"Decap CMS is an open-source Git-based headless CMS that lets you manage content using Git workflows."
Source
"... a unique multi-tenancy feature..."
Source
"Decap CMS offers an open source Git-based headless content management designed for static websites with limited multi-tenancy features."
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 DecapCMS and Substack about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating DecapCMS:
Medium
Decap CMS integration is moderately easy, requiring some Git knowledge but is generally user-friendly for developers.
Ease of Integrating Substack:
Medium
Integration with Substack is feasible but lacks robust features and direct integrations, leading to some workarounds.

DecapCMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with DecapCMS.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

DecapCMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with DecapCMS.

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.

DecapCMS:
Customisable Content Types

Decap CMS supports customizable content models and fields, allowing for extensive content modeling capabilities.

"Decap CMS allows you to define custom content types and fields, allowing you to model your content in a way that fits your needs."
Source
"Decap CMS allows you to define custom content models using YAML configuration files."
Source
"Flexible content types: Specify an unlimited number of content types with custom fields."
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.

DecapCMS:
Custom React Components Supported

Decap CMS supports custom React components through its widget system, allowing flexibility in content editing.

"The `registerWidget` requires you to provide a React component."
Source
"React Components inline interaction. Decap CMS is a collection of React components."
Source
"Decaps CMS interface is constructed with React, allowing the creation of custom-styled previews, user-interface widgets, and editor plugins."
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
DecapCMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Decap CMS supports full-text search across multiple fields, allowing content search across the site.

"The search functionality requires loading all collection(s) entries, which can exhaust rate limits on large repositories. It can be disabled by setting the top level 'search' property to 'false'."
Source
"Full-text search refers to techniques for searching a single document or a collection in a full-text database."
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.

DecapCMS:
Available

Multiple starter kits and templates for Decap CMS are available.

(Expand section to see a list of DecapCMS 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 DecapCMS and Substack.

DecapCMS's Pricing
Decap CMS
$0 / lifetime
- Free and fully open-source
- Unlimited content types
- Rich-text editor
- Real-time preview
- Community support
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 DecapCMS & Substack? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!