Within digital publishing, Medium represents a well-established blogging platform for writers and readers alike. It provides ease of use within one interface, inclusive of distribution, for articles, stories, and essays. However, despite this popularity, scores of creators have turned to alternatives with varied features, business models, and communities. For either the writer who wants to create a brand or the reader with a thirst for new points of view, several good Medium alternatives stand out.
Here’s a look at the 9 best Medium alternatives for both readers and publishers, with an inside scoop into how each platform aligns with your goals.
- Quora
Best for: Readers, Learners, and Industry Experts
Unique Selling Point: The biggest knowledge-sharing platform that encourages learning through Q&A.
Quora is essentially known as a question-and-answer site where anybody can question something or answer one. It has become a great platform for writers who wish to accomplish thought leaders or industry experts. For readers, it’s a bottomless well of information on nearly everything one could imagine.
- Readers’ benefits: The crowd-sourced knowledge covers everything from niche topics to broader trends.
- Pros for Publishers: This can give the author personal interaction with inquisitive readers, thus providing them with great visibility and credence within their fields of expertise.
- Cons: It is more instructive rather than creative, so this may not be the best avenue for narrative material or a personal story.
- LinkedIn
Best for: Professional Readers and Writers
Unique Selling Point: A platform that combines content with professional networking.
If you are a writer, LinkedIn is a great platform to build your credibility among other professionals. Here, articles get shared on LinkedIn to reach out to people in industries such as marketing, technology, finance, and many more. On LinkedIn, you can also find a hub of readers interested in business trends, leadership, and career development subjects.
Reader Benefits: Rich industry-related knowledge with value thought leadership.
Pros for Publishers: Through LinkedIn’s professional network, writers can establish a wider level of credibility in order to attract career prospects.
Cons: Material is pretty professional here, so if you’re looking for some creative or even informal writing communities, there’s not much to see here.
- DEV Community
Best for: Tech Enthusiasts, Developers, and Coders
Unique Selling Point: A tech-focused community with content creation and collaboration.
DEV Community is for developers and tech enthusiasts. That’s just the type of community where coders might want to share tutorials, write articles of a technical nature, and discuss news in the industry.
Readers: Pros-Great exposure to high-quality tutorials, discussions, and technology insights.
Publishers: Easy to build an audience at DEV Community if you’re a technologist/developer.
Disadvantages: It is entirely technological topic-based, and hence, non-technological writers or audiences cannot make effective use of this hub. 4. HubPages Best for: Writers of Niche Topics and Evergreen Content USP: A site designed entirely for long-form content aimed at niche audiences.
HubPages is ideal for writers whose works constitute evergreen contents. The platform avails writers the opportunity to specialize in areas of interest and build their reputation as experts. In fact, this platform even has a monetizing system whereby quality writings, if garnering good traffic and engagement, pay off.
- Pros for Readers: Variety in the articles on specific niche topics.
Pros for Publishers: ideal for passive income from affiliate marketing and ad revenue.
Cons: some aspects may be limited by the editorial process, and readership could take time.
- Vocal Media
Best for: Dichters, Poets, and Lovers of Fiction
USP: A creative storytelling platform where a community is built.
Vocal Media did target storytellers at a pace by giving a platform for writers to publish articles, short stories, poetry, and more. Vocal boasts an incredibly powerful community of creatives, where monetization, even, is available through tips, challenges, and subscription-based access to premium content.
- Pros for Readers: Diverse pool of creative content from fiction, poetry, and personal essays.
Pros for Publishers: The authors on Medium can earn through tipping, contests, and its system of Creator Rewards. Cons: Medium has more restrictive capabilities for monetizing compared to alternatives like Substack or WordPress.
- Substack
Best for: Writers Who Want to Build a Subscriber Base .Unique Selling Point: A newsletter-based platform that allows direct monetization through subscriptions.
Substack is going to be a favorite of writers who want to have total ownership of their audience. It’s a newsletter-first platform allowing writers to publish articles and distribute them directly to subscribers. What makes Substack great is the deep focus on paid subscriptions, providing writers with a guaranteed way to make income off their work.
- Pros for Readers: You are able to subscribe to individual writers and follow their work without ads or distractions.
Pros for Publishers: Authors have full ownership of their audience and can monetize easily using subscriptions.
Cons: The audience has to be built from scratch and takes time.
- Write.as
Best for: minimalists and writers seeking privacy
Unique Selling Point: A minimalist platform focusing on privacy and simplicity.
Write.as gets rid of all the distractions and enables one to solely focus on writing. It is also pretty great for writers who want their content in a simple, clean space devoid of algorithms, advertisements, or other bells and whistles. In addition, it offers some good options for privacy-focused publishing, whereby users can publish anonymously.
Reader’s Benefits: Minimalistic design allows reading distraction-free.
- Pros for Publishers: You retain full control over your writing, can publish anonymously, and build a brand with no noise.
- Cons: Doesn’t have native audience and social features like its other counterparts.
- Ghost
Best for: Authors Seeking Full Control Over Their Content
Unique Value Proposition: An open-source platform allowing authors to own their content and monetize independently.
Ghost is an open-source platform that gives authors full ownership of their websites. It’s not just a writing platform, like Medium or Substack might be; it’s a full content management system where you can build your blog, manage your SEO, and sell subscription-based content.
Pros for Readers: Pieces published are often part of a professional, high-quality blog or website.
- Pros for Publishers: You have full control over the content, and you may monetize it through membership, subscription, or ads.
- Cons: More technical expertise is needed to set this up than in other publishing platforms such as Substack and Medium.
- WordPress
Best for: Bloggers, Professional Writers, and Businesses
Unique Selling Point: Offers maximum flexibility with regard to blogging or website maintenance.
WordPress is the forefather of content platforms, allowing writers to create everything from simple personal blogs to full-fledged websites. The platform provides unparalleled flexibility in design, functionality, and personalization. Be it a casual blogger or a business looking to build a content empire, WordPress has all the tools.
- Pros for Readers: High-quality blogs, articles, and professional websites of different genres.
Pros for Publishers: You have full control over branding, SEO, and monetizing options through ads, affiliate marketing, or membership. Cons: It’s a bit more difficult to learn and there is also maintenance in terms of hosting and premium features costs. Conclusion
These platforms are some of the finest alternatives to Medium, both for readers and for writers. Depending on whether it is a personal brand, earning money via writings, or simply connecting with an audience, each has its merits. - Quora, LinkedIn, DEV Community, HubPages, and Vocal Media will be ideal if you are more into communities, learning, and storytelling.
Substack, Write.as, Ghost, and WordPress give more freedom and ways to build one’s brand and monetize it, hence perfect for professional writers and businesses aiming to grow an online presence.
Which is the most suitable platform, of course, is a matter of your goals as both a reader and a writer. Whether it be to establish your authority in an industry, create a passive stream of income, or just for the pure sharing of creative stories within a community, there is a platform out there for you.
