Substack vs HubSpot CMS

Compare Substack and HubSpot 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.
HubSpot CMS
HubSpot CMS
Build a website for your business with HubSpot’s free CMS software to drive traffic, generate leads, and grow revenue.

At a Glance

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

FeatureSubstackHubSpot CMS
Basic Features
Hosting Option
Cloud & Self-hosted
Cloud Only
Content Modeling
Limited
Blog on Subdomain
Blog on Subdirectory
Marketer Experience
Mobile-first Experience
Automatic Content Linking
Limited
Automatic CTA Linking
Limited
Engage with Comments
Limited
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
Looking for a better alternative to Substack & HubSpot CMS? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!

What Users Say

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

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

HubSpot CMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about HubSpot CMS.

Substack's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Substack.

HubSpot CMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with HubSpot CMS.

What Marketers & Content Creators Say

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

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

HubSpot CMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about HubSpot CMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.

HubSpot CMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about HubSpot 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
HubSpot CMS:
Not Suitable for Mobile

HubSpot CMS lacks mobile-first content creation capabilities and requires desktop editing for modules.

"Is there any way I can make modules disappear in mobile view? ... Hubspot CMS is really lacking in mobile-friendlyness."
Source
"But mobile optimization is about more than just a responsive website design."
Source
"HubSpot does not offer a mobile-first experience in content creation."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Manual Content Linking

HubSpot CMS offers automatic related posts based on blog tags, but not for broader content types or complex algorithms.

"We are running 2 related post based on tags on bureuvet.nl/blog."
Source
"Auto-populated posts will be determined by topic (or if on WordPress it would be determined by Category/Tag/Custom Field)."
Source
"Internal link-building tools help find opportunities for internal linking but require manual setup for related content."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Manual CTA Linking

HubSpot supports CTAs but does not automatically link them to content AI-wise.

"Use the calls-to-action (CTA) tool to create button CTAs, banners, or pop-ups to add to your HubSpot pages."
Source
"After creating your call-to-action (CTA), you can add the CTA to both HubSpot and external pages."
Source
"HubSpot CTAs are trackable and customizable, but cannot be made unique to each recipient."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Not Supported Out of the Box

CMS Hub supports internal comments via collaboration tools but lacks an external commenting feature for website visitors.

"Add comments to your HubSpot assets to collaborate with your team and ask for feedback."
Source
"HubSpot provides commenting capabilities primarily for internal collaboration rather than for external user comments."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Limited Multi-tenancy

HubSpot CMS supports limited multi-tenancy allowing users to manage multiple accounts but with restrictions.

"Multi-tenant SaaS is a business structure where many organizations share the same software to save and store data."
Source
"If you are a user in multiple HubSpot accounts, ensure the actions you're taking are done in the correct HubSpot account."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Substack and HubSpot 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 HubSpot CMS:
Medium
Users report that integration with HubSpot CMS can be moderately complex, requiring some custom development.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

HubSpot CMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with HubSpot CMS.

Substack's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Substack.

HubSpot CMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with HubSpot 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
HubSpot CMS:
Limited Customisation

HubSpot CMS offers custom content types but lacks extensive content modeling features.

"HubSpot CMS allows the creation of custom modules and supports basic content modeling."
Source
"HubDB allows storing structured data that enhances content modeling capabilities in HubSpot."
Source
"Personalization tokens based on custom properties are supported, adding to content customization."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Custom React Components Supported

HubSpot CMS supports custom React components through modules for advanced interactivity and personalization.

"HubSpot's modules allow developers to add custom components to the CMS."
Source
"JS Modules are created with React components to be rendered, allowing advanced functionality."
Source
"Integrating React into HubSpot CMS enables interactive functionalities and personalized user experiences."
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
HubSpot CMS:
Full Text Search Supported

HubSpot CMS supports full-text search allowing searches across various content fields.

"The HubSpot CMS has built-in site search functionality to allow your users to search through website content, including full-text search."
Source
"Is your website hosted in HubSpot? If so, we have a built-in search functionality. A search module that you can add to your pages to enable search."
Source
"The CRM Search API supports full-text search capabilities, enabling users to query various text fields of CRM records."
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.)

HubSpot CMS:
Available

HubSpot offers multiple themes and templates within its CMS Hub starter kits.

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

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Substack and HubSpot 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
HubSpot CMS's Pricing
Marketing Hub Professional
$1120 / month
- Email marketing
- Forms
- Simple marketing automation
- Campaign reporting
- Social media
- Live chat
- Custom user permissions
- Conversational bots
- Social Login
- Team email
- User management
- List segmentation
- Email reply tracking
- Email health reporting
- Email automation
- Mobile optimization
- Ad retargeting
- Shared inbox
- Website traffic analytics
- Product library
- Subdomain and country code top-level domain availability
- Custom properties
- HubSpot mobile app
- CRM Exports
- Reporting dashboard
- CRM Import
- Form automation
- SEO recommendations & optimizations
- Marketing events object
- Facebook Messenger integration
- All free tools
- Breeze Copilot (Beta)
- Cookie Management Tools
- Stripe payment processing
- Simple ad automation
- Full record timeline access
- 1:1 technical support
- Multiple currencies
- Messaging Insights (Beta)
- Personalization tokens
- Permission sets
- CTAs
- Email and in-app chat support
- Required fields
- HubSpot payments
- Teams
- Contact create attribution
- ABM tools and automation
- Salesforce integration
- Collaboration tools
- Google Search Console integration
- Breeze social agent (Beta)
- Video hosting & management
- Association labels
- Marketing SMS (add-on)
- Draggable chat widget
- Presets
- Ad conversion events
- SEO analytics
- Calculated properties
- Smart content for marketing email
- Logged-in visitor identification
- Programmable email [Beta]
- Target accounts home
- Standard contact scoring
- Duplicate management
- Dynamic personalization
- Campaign management
- Lead Scoring App
- Filtered analytics view
- A/B testing
- WhatsApp integration
- Custom reporting
- Standard CRM interface configuration
- Omni-channel marketing automation
- Multi-language content
- Custom views in shared inbox
- Deal and company scoring
- Marketing asset comparison reporting
- URL mappings

Compare with other technologies

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