Substack vs Publii
Compare Substack and Publii 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 Publii. Click on any feature to read more details.
Feature | Substack | Publii |
---|---|---|
Basic Features | ||
Hosting Option | Cloud & Self-hosted | Cloud & Self-hosted |
Content Modeling | Limited | |
Blog on Subdomain | ||
Blog on Subdirectory | ||
Marketer Experience | ||
Mobile-first Experience | Unknown | |
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) | (2 kits) |
Read all reviews from developers → |
What Users Say
See what users who have used Substack and Publii have to say about their overall experience with the product.
Substack's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Substack.
Publii's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Publii.
Substack's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Substack.
Publii's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Publii.
What Marketers & Content Creators Say
Hear from the users who uses Substack and Publii daily about their experience with the editors.
Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Substack's editor.
Publii's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Publii's editor.
Substack's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.
Publii's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Publii'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.
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
Publii does not automatically link related blog content. Manual linking is required.
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
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 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
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
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.
Publii does not support multi-tenancy; each client must manage their own account separately.
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Substack and Publii about their experiences.
Substack's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Substack.
Publii's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Publii.
Substack's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Substack.
Publii's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Publii.
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
Publii supports basic custom fields but lacks full content modeling features. Config options allow some customization.
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
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
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.
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
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.)
Publii offers various themes and plugins for website creation.
(Expand section to see a list of Publii templates and starter kits.)
Pricing & Plans
Compare the prices of Substack and Publii.
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.