Medium vs. Substack: Find the Best Platform for Your Content

Share your unique perspective and voice! We want to hear from you. Do you want to blog but don’t know where to publish? Let’s compare two popular platforms where writers can get paid.

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Content creators have the choice of numerous places to publish their work. In recent years, platforms like Medium and Substack emerged as prominent players. They each cater to different needs and offer unique benefits. I have blogged on Medium for over 6 years now, and I created a Substack newsletter about a month ago.

Why Medium vs. Substack? Sure, there are numerous places to publish your writing on the internet. I publish websites with blogs from Wix, and there are others like Blogger, Ghost, Tumblr, and the longstanding WordPress. Medium and Substack are two of the most popular, have their respective built-in audiences, and both offer ways to monetize. 

Both platforms gained significant traction in the past few years, but they serve distinct purposes. Each targets different aspects of content creation and distribution. To make an informed choice, one needs to understand the history, features, and benefits of each. Let’s compare Medium and Substack, exploring their evolution, and what they bring to the table.

A Brief History

Medium was founded in 2012 by Evan Williams, a Twitter co-founder. He envisioned a platform for people to share their thoughts and ideas meaningfully and optimize reading time. Twitter was micro-blogging like Tumblr, and Blogger existed for long-form posts. Medium is meant to fill the happy area between short and long content. It boasted a monthly user base of 100 million people in 2023.

Medium aims to address the shortcomings of traditional blogging by providing a sleek, user-friendly interface and a focus on high-quality content. It quickly grew in popularity, attracting writers and readers who appreciated its minimalist design and the potential for broader audience reach through Medium’s recommendation algorithms and curated collections.

Substack, on the other hand, was founded in 2017 by Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, and Jairaj Sethi. This platform emerged from the desire to simplify email newsletters. It makes it easier for writers to build contacts and monetize their subscription-based audiences. Substack averaged 36 million unique monthly users in 2023. 

Substack revolutionizes newsletters with its simplicity and focus on email. This feature allows creators to bypass the complexity of other platforms and connect directly with their subscribers. It has since become a popular choice for independent writers and journalists looking to retain more control over their content and revenue.

1. Platform Focus

Medium: Medium is a content publishing platform designed to reach a broad audience. Writers can publish articles and essays, which are then discovered through Medium’s network, recommendations, and tags. It’s a space where content is curated and surfaced to readers based on interest and engagement. Medium is ideal for those who want to leverage the platform’s built-in audience and discovery tools.

Substack: Substack centers on newsletter publishing, offering a platform for creators to send content directly to subscribers’ inboxes. This model is tailored for those seeking a direct and personal connection with their audience. Substack focuses on building and maintaining your email list, which helps creators engage more intimately with their readers.

2. Audience Reach and Discovery

Medium: Medium excels in audience discovery through its robust network. The platform’s recommendation algorithms and curation features help content reach a wider audience beyond the writer’s immediate followers. Medium’s tagging system and topic-based collections also aid in making content discoverable by readers with specific interests.

Substack: Substack emphasizes direct communication. It sends newsletters straight to subscribers’ inboxes, ensuring that content reaches those who have chosen to receive it. While this approach limits exposure to new readers compared to Medium, it creates a more engaged and loyal audience base.

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3. Monetization

Medium: Medium offers a Partner Program that allows writers to earn based on engagement and the number of paying Medium subscribers who read their work. This model can be unpredictable, and it gets influenced by Medium’s algorithms and overall platform performance.

Substack: Substack provides a clear monetization path with its subscription model. Creators can offer both free and paid content, allowing them to generate revenue directly from their subscribers. This approach offers more control over earnings and fosters a sustainable income stream from dedicated readers.

4. Control and Ownership

Medium: On Medium, the platform hosts your content, and creators do not own their audience data. You do own the rights to your work, though. Medium’s algorithms play a significant role in content visibility, which impacts a writer’s reach and engagement.

Substack: Substack offers greater control and ownership. Creators retain full ownership of their email list and content, providing a direct line to their audience without intermediary algorithms. This control is advantageous for building a long-term, loyal subscriber base.

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5. Customization and Branding

Medium: Medium offers fewer customization options, focusing on a clean, uniform design. While this ensures a streamlined reading experience, it restricts how much creators can personalize their content’s appearance.

Substack: Substack provides more opportunities for branding and customization. Creators can personalize their newsletters with custom logos, headers, and themes, allowing for a distinct brand identity and a visually appealing presentation.

6. Community and Interaction

Medium: Medium’s community features include claps, comments, and highlights, which facilitate engagement and discussion. Writers connect with other creators through publications and collaborative writing opportunities. 

Substack: Substack promotes direct interaction through comments, shares, and email replies, fostering a closer relationship between creators and their subscribers. This interaction enhances community building and provides valuable feedback. Writers can feature their favorite newsletters from their profiles. 

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7. Content Flexibility

Medium: Medium supports several content types, including articles, essays, and personal stories. Its flexibility makes it suitable for different writing styles and formats, catering to numerous topics.

Substack: Substack is specifically designed for newsletter content. This is changing as it incorporates voiceover and video features. Substack’s strength lies in delivering regular updates and insights directly to subscribers. You can also host your podcast here and easily syndicate to Apple, Spotify, and beyond. 

8. Analytics and Insights

Medium: Medium provides basic metrics, such as views and read time, which help writers understand how their content performs. Writers may use this data to identify which topics resonate with their audience.

Substack: Substack offers detailed analytics, including open rates, regional information, and engagement metrics. These insights are crucial for refining content strategies and understanding subscriber preferences.

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Conclusion

Choosing between Medium and Substack depends on your content goals and engagement strategies. By far, Medium has a much larger base with over 100 million monthly users. This compares to Substack’s 36 million users each month. Yet, the latter offers a higher engagement rate with its email newsletter concept. 

Medium offers broad exposure and community interaction through its network and discovery features. This makes Medium ideal for reaching new audiences. It offers variable monetization based on outside factors.

Substack focuses on direct email and monetization. This is quite useful if you already have contacts. Substack provides a more personalized approach and greater control over content and revenue.

Do you want to build a following somewhere with a large user base like Medium? Or do you prefer to start or import your existing contact list via direct-to-email with Substack? While both platforms offer overlapping benefits in some ways, they each excel in their respective arenas. 

Consider your priorities. Whether it’s leveraging a platform’s built-in audience, building a direct subscriber base, or maintaining control over your content. Pick the platform that most aligns with your objectives. Good luck, and happy writing!