Substack Integrations: Native, Zapier, and API
Substack has the smallest integration surface of any platform on this site, by design: no app marketplace, no partner directory, no webhooks, no official Zapier app. What exists is roughly 12 first-party connections. Stripe, podcast distribution, importers, CSV export, RSS, a short embed allow-list, plus 1 official read-only MCP server shipped July 6, 2026 and 1 approval-gated Developer API scoped to public profile data. Zapier apps: 0.
Substack takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue, so it earns when your list converts, not when data moves. Almost everything below brings readers and posts in; almost nothing lets an external system write to your publication. If your stack assumes a subscriber webhook, a CRM sync or a send endpoint, none exists: the workaround is CSV plus a second provider. If you want the From line on your own domain, read beehiiv, Kit or Flodesk instead.
At a glance
Integrations directory
25 entries, grouped by the job they do, sourced from the help centre, the Developer API Terms of Use and the July 2026 release note. NATIVE is in-product; OFFICIAL is Substack-run but outside the editor; API is yours to wire; ZAPIER is the RSS workaround, the only Zapier path there is.
Native (18)
API (5)
Official (1)
Zapier (1)
Payments and domains (2)
Stripe is the only processor available, and the custom domain is a web-hosting change that leaves the sending address on substack.com.
Sole processor for paid subscriptions, 10% to Substack on top of Stripe’s fees.
One-time $50: CNAME, or an A record to 3.231.35.217. Web only.
Migration and imports (5)
The best-documented corner of the product; Medium is a named source too. Imports have no size cap, but very large lists trigger a human verification review.
Moving a Mailchimp audience and archived campaigns across.
Named origin for the subscriber list and the post archive.
Supported source. The trip back to beehiiv runs through CSV.
Post archive from an export file. Subscribers still cross as CSV.
Umbrella guide for any platform, large-list review included.
Data portability and syndication (2)
Two read surfaces carry nearly all real Substack automation: the export is the escape hatch, the feed the only interface buildable without a session cookie.
All or filtered subscribers with engagement columns. Addresses only.
A feed at /feed on every publication: the usual automation hook.
Podcast distribution (3)
Audio absorbs most of Substack’s outbound integration effort, and is the one place it accepts outside infrastructure.
Submit the generated feed to Podcasts Connect; other apps scrape Apple.
Add the feed or sync from settings, with a path for paid-only shows.
Outside-host feeds, ads and tracking prefixes intact. July 2026.
Embeds (4)
The editor blocks custom HTML, CSS and raw iframes, so the allow-list is the in-post integration list: YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud, X/Twitter, Instagram and GIFs, pasted as bare URLs. Booking widgets, survey tools and tracking pixels are impossible.
The one outbound embed: codes for any site you control.
Paste a video URL for an inline player. No configuration exposed.
Tracks and playlists by URL, separate from podcast distribution.
Paste a post URL to embed it inline.
Lifecycle and sending (2)
The entire automation surface, in two features: no drip builder, no branching, no behavioural triggers, no scheduling API. Sequences and transactional mail belong on Kit or MailerLite instead.
Four built-in emails: free, paid, imported, founding. Nothing else.
Filter the list, send one email to that subset. No API or scheduling.
Automation and AI agents (3)
Substack gave AI assistants a first-party authenticated channel before it gave developers a usable REST API. The official server is read-only and gated to Bestseller admins, a tier described officially only as hundreds of paid subscribers. Community servers fill the write gap with a copied session token.
Read-only at mcp.substack.com/api/v1/mcp: metrics and settings.
No official app. Point the generic RSS trigger at a feed; nothing writes.
Community server, 27 tools, driven by a session token its docs call a password.
Developer API and community SDKs (4)
One official API, scoped to public creator profile data, granted by manual approval, rate limits at Substack’s discretion. Everything else wraps undocumented internal endpoints. Note that github.com/substack is Node.js developer James Halliday’s account, not the company.
Approval-gated, read-only: names, URLs, subscriber counts. No writes.
Unofficial Python wrapper over internal endpoints for posts.
Unofficial TypeScript client for publications and posts.
CRAN package pulling Substack data into R, same endpoints.
Frequently asked questions
Does Substack integrate with Zapier?
Not with an official app. No Zapier connector authenticates against your publication, so there is no new-subscriber trigger and no action that writes back. What works is Zapier’s generic RSS trigger pointed at your public feed: new posts fire an event you can fan out to Slack, Notion or a CRM. Anything sold as a fuller connector is a scraper or a session-token bridge.
How do I connect Substack to Mailchimp or Kit?
There is no live sync in either direction, because Substack exposes no subscriber API and no webhooks. The supported path is a file transfer: export subscribers to CSV, import that file into the other platform, and repeat by hand. The export carries addresses and engagement columns but not names, so first-name merge tags stay empty until you rebuild that data.
Can I export my Substack subscriber list?
Yes, and it is genuine portability. From the dashboard you export all subscribers or a filtered subset, engagement columns included. The documented limit is that Substack cannot export a file with subscriber names, so you leave with addresses and behaviour data only. That export is what makes pairing or leaving possible.
How do I embed my Substack feed on my website?
Two routes. Substack publishes official embed codes for individual posts or Notes. For a rolling list, consume the feed at yourpublication.substack.com/feed, or your own domain’s /feed path on a custom domain. Note the asymmetry: you can embed Substack anywhere, but you cannot embed third-party widgets inside a post, because the editor blocks raw iframe, HTML and CSS.
Does Substack have webhooks for new subscribers?
No. Substack ships no webhook system of any kind: no subscriber events, no post events, no payment events beyond what Stripe itself emits on your connected account. That Stripe account is the one real-time hook available, so react to paid signups and cancellations through Stripe’s own webhooks. Free subscribers produce no event stream at all.
How do I migrate from Substack to beehiiv without losing subscribers?
Export subscribers to CSV, then import that file on the beehiiv side, which names Substack as a supported origin. Names do not survive the export, so personalisation tokens need rebuilding. Paid subscribers are tied to your Stripe account rather than to Substack, so confirm how the destination connects to that account before you cancel anything. The upside: beehiiv includes a custom domain on every plan including the free tier and lets it be the actual sending domain, where Substack charges $50 for the address bar.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
