When comparing Substance vs Tumblr, the Slant community recommends Tumblr for most people. In the question“What are the best solutions for a personal blog?” Tumblr is ranked 8th while Substance is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose Tumblr is:
It costs nothing to create a Tumblr account.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free for one site
One site is free, for other option see pricing.
Pro Easy importing of Jekyll posts
An easy to use interface for migrating from Jekyll is available.
Pro Clean and simple layouts
Substance doesn't clutter your blog, it gets out of the way so people can focus on reading.
Pro Free
It costs nothing to create a Tumblr account.
Pro Community-driven
It is built around sharing and discovering new, short-form content.
Pro Good customization options
Tumblr allow users to customize their website with many built-in themes. In addition to theme selection, user can also further customize their website either through a customization editor wizard or through a HTML and CSS editor for advanced users.
Pro Supports responsive design & mobile-friendly websites
Tumblr supports responsive design for the website as it will be fitted with the same theme based on which device the user is using to view the website. It can also vary by theme with responsive design availability.
Pro Great mobile apps
Easy to use Windows Phone, iOS and Android are available.
Pro Custom domain support
If you want to use your own domain instead of *.tumblr.com, you can.