Substack vs DatoCMS
Compare Substack and DatoCMS 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 DatoCMS. Click on any feature to read more details.
Feature | Substack | DatoCMS |
---|---|---|
Basic Features | ||
Hosting Option | Cloud & Self-hosted | Cloud Only |
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 | ||
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 DatoCMS have to say about their overall experience with the product.
Substack's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Substack.
DatoCMS's Key Strengths
Read what users love about DatoCMS.
Substack's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Substack.
DatoCMS's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with DatoCMS.
What Marketers & Content Creators Say
Hear from the users who uses Substack and DatoCMS daily about their experience with the editors.
Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Substack's editor.
DatoCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about DatoCMS's editor.
Substack's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.
DatoCMS's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about DatoCMS'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.
DatoCMS offers a functional mobile interface for content creation, but improvements are needed for a better mobile-first experience.
"DatoCMS is a headless CMS equipped with all the features presented above that a mobile CMS should have."Source
"Dato’s mobile interface is functional. Again, some tweaks could make the mobile experience more pleasant."Source
"DatoCMS provides content as a service. This means it delivers content through an API, which can be consumed by various front-end systems such as websites, mobile apps, or other internet-connected platforms."Source
"DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS designed to work with websites, mobile apps, and server-side applications of any kind."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 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.
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
DatoCMS does not support automatic CTA linking; however, it allows modular content creation.
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
DatoCMS does not support external commenting features for site visitors. Comments are limited to internal collaborators via plugins.
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.
DatoCMS supports multi-tenancy, enabling agencies to manage multiple client accounts with unique content.
"DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS that provides all the benefits and features you have just seen and much more. It was designed to work with static websites, mobile apps, and server-side applications."Source
"They needed a platform that could manage completely separate brands, with their own segmented markets, price lists, inventories, promotions, and customers."Source
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Substack and DatoCMS about their experiences.
Substack's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Substack.
DatoCMS's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with DatoCMS.
Substack's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Substack.
DatoCMS's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with DatoCMS.
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
DatoCMS has extensive content modelling features, including a variety of field types like text, media, modular content, and blocks.
"Models are composed of several field types - where each field serves a specific purpose for accepting data (such as the title, slug, featured image, etc.)."Source
"The Modular Content field is used to define a dynamic area for richer page layouts, allowing writers to choose among various blocks."Source
"Blocks allow you to define complex and repeatable structures that can be embedded inside records, providing significant expressive freedom."Source
"DatoCMS has advanced content modelling capability using the unique Modular Content field."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
DatoCMS allows custom React components through its Plugin SDK and functionalities.
"DatoCMS plugins can be built using React, allowing for extensive customizations."Source
"A set of components and utilities to work faster with DatoCMS in React environments."Source
"You can also use our <StructuredText> component to render it."Source
"You can implement custom components to render in modals."Source
"The react-datocms Image component is used for responsive images in React."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.
DatoCMS supports full-text search across multiple fields using its Site Search API.
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.)
DatoCMS offers several starter kits and templates for quick project setup.
(Expand section to see a list of DatoCMS templates and starter kits.)
Pricing & Plans
Compare the prices of Substack and DatoCMS.
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.