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!


At a Glance
Quick overview of key features differences between Substack and Crafter CMS. Click on any feature to read more details.
Feature | Substack | Crafter 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 → |
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 has launched a mobile editor for creating posts directly on iOS and Android devices, offering essential functionalities.
Craft CMS does not support a dedicated mobile-first content creation experience; desktop usage is recommended.
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 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
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 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
The status of Automatic CTA Linking in Craft CMS remains unclear; sources provide no definitive confirmation.
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
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 does not support multi-tenancy, focusing primarily on individual writers and content monetization.
Craft CMS supports multi-tenancy, allowing multiple sites from a single installation.
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Substack and Crafter CMS about their experiences.
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 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
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 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
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
Full Text Search
Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.
Substack's search functionality is weak, lacking full text search across all content and authors.
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 offers various starter kits and templates for creators.
(Expand section to see a list of Substack templates and starter kits.)
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.
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.