Publii vs Substack

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

Publii
Publii
Create a beautiful, safe, and privacy-friendly website quickly and easily with Publii, the most intuitive CMS for static sites designed for speed and security.
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 Publii and Substack have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Publii's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Publii.

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

Publii's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Publii.

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 Publii and Substack daily about their experience with the editors.

Publii's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Publii's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

Publii's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Publii'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.

Publii:
Unknown

No conclusive information about mobile-first content creation in Publii.

"The User Documentation pages contain a detailed description of the program's features and functions."
Source
"Start building your site today. 1 Download Publii; 2 Write your content; 3 Publish your site."
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.

Publii:
No Automatic Content Linking

Publii does not automatically link related blog content. Manual linking is required.

"linking content throughout your site."
Source
"Publii lacks automatic related content linking features, requiring manual management."
Source
"Manual linking is essential for related blog content in Publii."
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.

Publii:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Publii does not support automatic CTA linking features for content. Users need to manually add CTAs.

"Publii lacks advanced automated features like automatic CTA linking."
Source
"Publii does not offer functionalities for automatic call to action linking."
Source
"No mention of automatic CTA linking capabilities in the features list."
Source
"Publii focuses on simplicity and does not include automation features like CTAs."
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.

Publii:
Comments Supported

Publii supports comments through multiple plugins like Cusdis, Commento, and GraphComment, allowing easy integration of commenting features.

"The Cusdis Comments Plugin allows you to integrate Cusdis into your Publii site, allowing users to add comments to your posts and pages."
Source
"The Commento Plugin integrates Commento into your Publii site, allowing visitors to start posting comments."
Source
"The Hyvor Talk plugin allows you to easily add a comments section to your Publii posts and pages."
Source
"The GraphComment Plugin integrates GraphComment into your Publii website, providing users with the ability to add comments."
Source
"This plugin allows users to post comments to your Publii posts through their Facebook account."
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.

Publii:
No Multi-tenancy

Publii does not support multi-tenancy; each client must manage their own account separately.

"Publii is not suitable for teams who want to have a blog in the same subdirectory as their main site."
Source
"Publii has gained popularity as a desktop-based, open-source CMS designed for static websites. However, it does not support 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 Publii and Substack about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Publii:
Medium
Users find Publii moderately easy to integrate, with some learning curve and limitations in collaborative settings.
Ease of Integrating Substack:
Medium
Integration with Substack is feasible but lacks robust features and direct integrations, leading to some workarounds.

Publii's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Publii.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

Publii's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Publii.

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.

Publii:
Limited Customisation

Publii supports basic custom fields but lacks full content modeling features. Config options allow some customization.

"Post/Page config options allow us to add custom elements to our content."
Source
"Publii does not have custom post types of its own."
Source
"For now this project seems great but very simple. When we can have different page templates with custom fields then it can really go places."
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.

Publii:
No Custom React Components Supported

Publii does not support custom React components in the content editor, relying on standard HTML components instead.

"Publii allows you to create theme-related and post-related options but does not support custom React components."
Source
"Plugins in Publii extend functionalities but do not allow integration of custom developer-defined React components."
Source
"The latest updates do not mention support for custom React components in Publii."
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.

Publii:
Full Text Search Supported

Publii supports full text search across multiple fields via Static Search plugin and Google Custom Search.

"The Static Search plugin provides the smoothest, fastest and easiest search possible on your Publii site. Based on the FlexSearch search library, Static Search provides instant, dynamic results for any search terms."
Source
"With the Google Custom Search plugin, visitors can utilize the power of Google's search engine but limit the search only to your site content."
Source
"SEO options, including how your site is indexed and how search engines treat your pages, can be configured for better content visibility."
Source
"The search is not planned, but improvements in search function capabilities have been discussed by users."
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.

Publii:
Available

Publii offers various themes and plugins for website creation.

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

Publii's Pricing
Open Source
$0 / forever
- Self-hosted
- Pay for premium templates
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 Publii & Substack? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!