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Free Plugin by WordPress.org v1.2.0

Substack Importer

The Substack Importer allows you to import content from a Substack newsletter into your WordPress site.

Substack Importer

The facts

Rating
2.8★ from 4
Active installs
1k+
Price
Free
Last updated
22 Apr 2026
Added
Dec 2020
Requires WP
5.2
Tested up to
WP 6.9.7
Requires PHP
7.4
Downloads
14,943

Our analysis

AI-assisted

The Substack Importer is a WordPress plugin designed to import content from Substack newsletters using an export file. It supports the import of posts, images, podcasts, comments from publicly accessible posts, and author information.

This plugin is suitable for users who wish to migrate their Substack content to a WordPress site. It includes features for filtering and processing the imported data, with plans for future enhancements to support mailing lists and improve performance with larger export files.

Best for: This plugin is best for individuals or organisations looking to transfer their Substack newsletter content to a WordPress site.

What it does well

  • Imports posts, images, and podcasts from Substack
  • Includes comments for publicly accessible posts
  • Provides filters and actions for content conversion

Where it falls short

  • Limited information on future features
  • No details on performance with large files

Verdict

The Substack Importer offers essential functionality for importing content but has limitations in terms of performance and future feature details.

From the developer

WordPress.org's own description of Substack Importer, lightly tidied.

The Substack Importer will import content from an export file downloaded from your Substack newsletter.

The following content will be imported:

  • Posts and images.
  • Podcasts.
  • Comments (only for publicly accessible posts).
  • Author information.

In the future, we plan to improve the importer by:

  • Mailing lists.
  • Enhancing the performance of processing export files with many posts and media.

Development

For running unit tests and contributing to the plugin, see the README on GitHub.

Tests can be run with wp-env or with any local WordPress setup paired with a Docker MySQL container. Run composer install first, then vendor/bin/phpunit.

Hooks

The Substack Importer provides filters and actions at key stages of the content conversion pipeline.

Post-level Filters

substack_importer_post_meta

Filter the post metadata loaded from the Substack API before it is used for author, comments, and other post data.

Parameters:
* $post_meta (array|null) – The post metadata from the Substack API response.
* $post (array) – The raw Substack post data from the CSV.
* $id (int) – The Substack post ID.

substack_importer_raw_content

Filter the raw HTML content before Gutenberg conversion. Runs after the subtitle has been prepended (if present). Useful for cleaning up Substack-specific HTML, adding custom elements, or stripping unwanted markup.

Read the full description on the official page →

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