Substack vs Crafter CMS

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

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.
Crafter CMS
Crafter CMS
CrafterCMS is a fully open-source, community-supported, Java-based headless CMS, designed for enterprises, allowing for high-performance, security, and scalability in digital content management.

At a Glance

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

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

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

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

Crafter CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Crafter CMS.

Substack's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Substack.

Crafter CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Crafter CMS.

What Marketers & Content Creators Say

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

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

Crafter CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Crafter CMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.

Crafter CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Crafter CMS's editor.

Mobile Editing

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

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
Crafter CMS:
Not Suitable for Mobile

Craft CMS does not support a dedicated mobile-first content creation experience; desktop usage is recommended.

"Craft does not mention a mobile-first experience, suggesting desktop use for optimal content creation."
Source
"Craft CMS Calendar plugin is responsive, but not focused on mobile-first authoring capabilities."
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.

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
Crafter CMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

Craft CMS does not support automatic linking of related blog content; manual relationships are required.

"Entries are flexible content containers... but do not support automatic linking of related content."
Source
"Feature request for better auto-saving behavior shows Craft's focus on manual linking options."
Source
"Craft CMS features highlight flexibility but lack mention of automatic related content linking."
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.

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
Crafter CMS:
Unknown

The status of Automatic CTA Linking in Craft CMS remains unclear; sources provide no definitive confirmation.

"The button CTA's link will be tied to the page ID and any changes in the page's URL will automatically update the button CTA's link."
Source
"Craft CMS focuses more on customization options but did not specify features like automatic linking for CTAs."
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.

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
Crafter CMS:
Comments Supported

Built-in commenting with features like moderation, email notifications, and anonymous commenting support.

"Allow your users to comment on elements. Threaded comments - users can comment on other comments. Comment moderation by admins - prevent comments from appearing on your site until approved."
Source
"Comment on any element – whether it be an entry, product or event. Threaded comments. Email Notifications for element authors when someone posts a comment."
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.

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
Crafter CMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

Craft CMS supports multi-tenancy, allowing multiple sites from a single installation.

"Craft offers multi-tenant functionality that allows you to run multiple sites from a single Craft install."
Source
"A single Craft installation can power any number of websites."
Source

What Developers Say

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

Ease of Integrating Substack:
Medium
Integration with Substack is feasible but lacks robust features and direct integrations, leading to some workarounds.
Ease of Integrating Crafter CMS:
Medium
Integration is feasible but can be complex due to the need for custom development.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

Crafter CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Crafter CMS.

Substack's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Substack.

Crafter CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Crafter CMS.

Content Modelling

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

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
Crafter CMS:
Customisable Content Types

Craft CMS supports content modeling with custom fields and types, offering flexibility and built-in options for various content structures.

"Craft provides a number of distinct building blocks, each appropriate for different kinds of content. We use the term elements to collectively describe the variety of content types Craft comes with."
Source
"Craft CMS gives you flexibility and control throughout the entire content modeling and editing process."
Source
"New CLI commands for taming your content model, a new Link field type, and more! We now have a total of 23 built-in custom field types."
Source
"Craft is unique in that it is both a simple and a complex CMS. You can create the structure, fields, and all the forms without ever touching any code."
Source

Custom React Components

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

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
Crafter CMS:
No Custom React Components Supported

Craft CMS does not support embedding custom React components directly in the content editor.

"Craft's entire API is at your finger tips but does not mention the support for custom React components."
Source
"Matrix fields allow you to manage nested entries but not specifically React components."
Source
"Craft can act as a headless CMS and use GraphQL, but does not support React directly in the content editor."
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
Crafter CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

Craft CMS supports full text search across multiple fields, including advanced syntax for querying.

"Craft includes a system-wide search index used for finding elements via keywords."
Source
"Craft CMS includes a system-wide search service used for finding elements via keyword search."
Source
"Craft's full-text search based on the underlying database is powerful and the very best choice for the vast majority of users."
Source

Starter Kits

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

Substack:
Available

Substack offers various starter kits and templates for creators.

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

Crafter CMS:
Available

Craft CMS offers several starter kits including starter projects and boilerplates.

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

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Substack and Crafter CMS.

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
Crafter CMS's Pricing
Solo
$0 / forever
- One user account
- Ultra-flexible content modeling
- Multi-site + localization
- Advanced previewing
- Twig + GraphQL
Team
$279 / project
- Everything in Solo
- Up to five user accounts
- One user group
- Developer support
Pro
$399 / project
- Everything in Team
- Unlimited user accounts
- Unlimited user groups
- Branded control panel
- Branded communication
Enterprise
$0 / custom
- Everything in Pro
- First-party SAML SSO
- Custom license agreement
- Procurement support
- Dedicated premium support
Craft Cloud Team
$130 / month
- Includes Craft CMS Team edition
- Two environments
- 10GB asset storage (upgradable to 250GB)
- Unlimited build minutes
- Unlimited database storage
Craft Cloud Pro
$260 / month
- Includes Craft CMS Pro edition
- Three environments
- 20GB asset storage (upgradable to 250GB)
- Unlimited build minutes
- Unlimited database storage

Compare with other technologies

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