Piano DMP vs Substack
Piano DMP
piano.ioSubstack
substack.comSide by side
| Figure | Piano DMP | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 4 |
| Spec score · Publishing and Subscriptions Software | 7.4 (#13) | 8.7 (#5) |
| Integrations | Documented direct connections include Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Google Ad Manager, Xandr, Equativ, Adform, Platform161, and Nativo. | Official integrations include RSS, podcast distribution to Apple and Spotify, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, X and Facebook pixels, Google site verification, YouTube and LinkedIn account connections. |
| Purpose | Piano Audience ingests and enriches visitor data for segmentation, analytics, targeting, and machine learning. | Substack is a publishing platform for writers, creators, and subscribers. |
| Segmentation | Its segment builder supports traffic, lookalike, DMP, and conversion segments. | Yes |
| Support | The Composer integration must be configured by Piano Client Service or Support, and the documentation directs customers to [email protected] for help with Analytics account mapping. | Substack directs users to its Help Center for FAQs and walkthroughs and handles subscriber support questions on behalf of writers. |
Plans
Substack
- Free publishingFree
- Free to startFree
- Custom domain$50, paid once
- Paid subscriptionsPrice not published
In their own words
Piano DMP
Piano DMP, also called Piano Audience, ingests and enhances visitor data for segmentation, analytics, targeting, and machine learning. It can combine anonymous profiles identified by browser or app ID with known profiles identified by email or another unique identifier. Segment Builder creates audiences from either group for targeting, analytics, and export, including look-alike segments. The content crawler uses NLP and LLM processing to support segmentation by entities, sentiment, and subject without manual tagging. Audience collects web and app activity, first-party system and campaign data, and second- and third-party sources through tags, server connections, or APIs; its APIs can ingest online and offline customer data. Segments can be used in Piano Activation and Composer, and selected attributes can be shared with Composer or exported to Piano Analytics. Integration Designer can transform and schedule exports to endpoints, files, Amazon S3, SFTP, or Google Cloud Storage. Piano says it does not track users across the Web, though it supports first-party behavior across an organization's domains. Pricing is available on request.
Substack
Substack is a publishing platform for writers, creators, and subscribers, bringing posts, newsletters, podcasts, video, live streams, and pages into one publishing flow. Its editor supports scheduling, autosaved drafts, version history, templates, SEO metadata, and headline A/B testing. Creators can offer free or paid posts, subscriptions, trials, gifts, and group plans. Discovery tools include recommendations, Notes, leaderboards, referrals, and search; audience segmentation and email automation are also available. Podcast episodes can be distributed automatically to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, while video can go automatically to YouTube and LinkedIn. Publishing is free. When creators enable paid subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue, and Stripe charges payment processing fees. Creators own their intellectual property and mailing list and can export their data. Substack serves writers, journalists, podcasters, video creators, experts, educators, and media companies. It is available on the web, Android, and iOS. Substack directs users to its Help Center and handles subscriber support questions on behalf of writers.