Blogging on Medium vs. WordPress: What platform should a blogger use? Well, I’ve used both for a little while. I’ve found great things and not-so-great things about both platforms. I’m gonna compare the two, so you can have an idea which blogging platform is right for you.

Medium and WordPress are both good blogging platforms, but I’m pitting Medium vs. WordPress so I can help you pick the best blogging platform for your needs. They both help you blog, but besides that, they are totally different platforms designed for very different bloggers.

What Are Medium and WordPress?

First, let’s talk a little more about what each blogging platform is exactly. This way, it’ll be clearer why they are so different.

WordPress is the platform that most professional bloggers rely on to create their own website. Medium is a website similar to Tumblr, Hubpages, and other collective blogging websites where bloggers post all of their articles on one site.

Medium is one website with thousands of writers all publishing posts. So it’s kind of like one giant blog with many bloggers. They all post on one platform under one URL (although publishers on Medium can create their own subdomain). Medium users, both writers and readers, must buy a paid subscription to use the service and to view more than a few articles per month.

Many of these bloggers submit their writing to the Medium Partner Program. If the Medium Partner Program’s editors like a post, they “curate” it and feature the post on Medium’s home screen, which is personalized for every reader. They also pay the blogger a small amount based on how much reading time their post gets.

Now, what about WordPress? There are two kinds of WordPress you’ll hear about. There is WordPress.com, where the developers of WordPress offer several blog packages. You can get a limited package for free or a better one for a monthly fee. But almost all bloggers prefer to use WordPress.org, which is an open-source platform. When I say WordPress in this post, I’m going to be referring to WordPress.org.

WordPress is basically a software that lets you build and edit your blog, but everything else is you. To blog on WordPress, you have to purchase your own domain and buy your own hosting from an internet hosting provider. You also have to attract your own readers and find a way to monetize your content yourself. WordPress only provides the website-building tools like themes, plugins, and editors that allow you to blog.

The Pros and Cons of Medium Vs. WordPress

So now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty about each platform. Medium vs. WordPress blogging—What do they both offer you? What are the downsides?

The Pros and Cons of Blogging with Medium

The big advantage of blogging with Medium is that it’s easy. All you have to do to start is sign up for an account. Name, email, profile, and boom—you’re ready to blog. Just start writing and uploading posts.

Medium also starts compensating you right away. If you write a high-quality Medium post and submit it to the Medium Partner Program, editors will curate the post and feature it to readers. Then, Medium will track how long Medium subscribers look at it and pay you for that time, based on a complex algorithm.

One more benefit: Medium has a really simple website. Their post editor is bare-bones (you can’t do anything fancy), but it’s also really easy for anyone to use. They have a built-in photo service with Unsplash, so you can instantly add free-to-use images to your posts. They have a pretty good app for reading and writing. They make it super easy for bloggers to ignore the technical stuff and get writing.

Another advantage of Medium is that it’s easy to get readers. Medium does its own work to grow, build the platform, and attract readers. They curate good articles so your posts will be featured to Medium’s audience. You don’t have to beg people on social media or nag your friends into reading your blog. Medium personalizes every reader’s home page, so they see posts on topics they like. Your posts are automatically delivered to interested readers. You don’t have to wait and pray for an audience on Medium—they’ll give you one.

Photo by Burst from Pexels

But don’t let these factors fool you, because there are still plenty of disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage: You don’t control anything on Medium. On your own blog, you can make the rules and say what goes. On Medium, the editors do.

Medium runs the ship, and that might be a problem for you. Sex bloggers on Tumblr suffered a devastating purge of all their material after Tumblr decided it no longer wanted to host adult material. In theory, Medium could make the same decision, especially if the management or owners of Medium ever change. Medium could become an unprofitable business and go offline, taking all your posts with it. Whenever you blog on somebody else’s platform, under their control, you face the risk that they will change the platform in a way that harms you.

Another disadvantage is internal competition. Medium has many in-house publications, such as Elemental, Forge, and OneZero. They staff these publications with editors and writers they hire. They also promote writing from these publications way more than they promote the average curated post. That means your posts need to compete against Medium’s own posts.

One more disadvantage to blogging on Medium? Curation is extremely arbitrary. It strongly depends on the whims of the editor who sees your piece. Many Medium bloggers have done experiments where they delete and resubmit the same post or submit the same post from two different accounts. They’ve found the exact same article could be curated and not curated.

Medium curation isn’t totally random, but it is very imperfect. Quality gives you a much better chance of curation, but it doesn’t guarantee it. I’ve written great articles that went un-curated, and I’ve seen posts full of formatting and grammar errors that have been. Even though I wrote a post on how to improve your chances of curation, I have to say that curation often comes down to how lucky you are. Ultimately, Medium curation is kind of a lottery.

Finally, the biggest problem with Medium is that their payouts to writers are terrible. Most of my articles have earned less than five dollars, even though I wrote hundreds of words and spent many hours on research and editing.

For comparison, when I write for content mills like Textbroker, I’m guaranteed to earn at least 2 cents per word and often more (without doing research). I can easily make seven or more dollars per hour writing on Textbroker, which beats my hourly Medium earnings. And that is considered a terrible, no-good pay rate among most internet writers.

Also, remember you have to pay for a Medium subscription if you want to get started, so that’s already a small dent in your profits.

Most writers think earning a few hundred per month via Medium is a good haul—and that’s after they put in a lot of time and effort. Every writer I’ve heard from would suggest you cannot rely on Medium as a job or a significant source of money. Medium pays too little to compensate you for your time and hard work.

So what’s the big picture? Here’s how Medium’s pros stack up:

• It’s super easy to start blogging on Medium.
• Their post editor is easy and convenient to use.
• Medium starts paying you for good writing right away.
• Medium markets itself and gets readers for you.

But before you get excited, here are the cons:

• You cannot control Medium or the material you put on it.
• Medium promotes its own content first and yours second.
• Getting curated is arbitrary and luck-based.
• Medium’s payouts are very low

The Pros and Cons of Blogging with WordPress

Now, let’s flip sides in the battle of Medium vs. WordPress. Let’s talk about the very platform I’m using to talk to you: WordPress. WordPress doesn’t give you an URL, a super simple post editor, or readers. WordPress just gives you the tools to create and manage your blog.

The biggest advantage of WordPress is this: Your blog is yours, and you can do anything with it. You own it. As long as you install updates and continue to get hosting, you will never go offline. Nor will anyone limit, censor, or edit your content, even if it is NSFW.

You can customize your blog to look and act exactly as you want it. You get to decide the fonts, the color scheme, the buttons, the formatting—everything. And if doing all that yourself sounds intimidating, you can hire a WordPress-knowledgeable web designer to enact your vision for you.

Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels

Another big advantage is that you control your income. You decide how you want to monetize your blog. You can add advertisements, subscriptions, affiliate links, an online shop of your products, or anything else. Medium doesn’t allow affiliate links or promoting your own products. You can decide how and, with a bit of luck, how much you’ll get paid for your blogging on WordPress. There are many bloggers out there earning triple-digit incomes, and you can try to join them.

And finally, WordPress is the tool of pros. Businesses and professional bloggers rely on WordPress for good reason. Being able to customize your own website, promote yourself and your personal brand, run a shop, and so much more—It opens up a whole world of possibilities. I’m not joking. Here’s a big ol’ list of things you can do on WordPress that you can’t on Medium:

• Create an online shop
• Take polls
• Promote your own products like ebooks or online services
• Make sponsored posts
• Monetize your site with ads
• Create a newsletter, an online course, or much more
• Embed videos (even promote your whole Youtube channel!)
• Take donations using services like Patreon, Ko-fi, or Paypal

And there’s even more, but I can’t even list everything. Professionals need all those tools and features, so they rely on WordPress. That’s why WordPress is so prolific and the industry standard for bloggers.

But WordPress isn’t without disadvantages. It’s actually a lot of hard work. Everything on WordPress you have do by yourself. You have to build your website or pay to have someone do it for you. You need to download plugins, install updates, fix bugs, etc.

You need to market your writing and get your posts in front of people. You need to find readers and build your following. You need to find or take good photos and format your posts attractively. You are responsible for every part of blogging.

Plus, buying hosting costs at least several dollars per month. A domain name costs. If you hire out web design or other blogging tasks—or account on the value of your own time for doing these things—it’s even more expensive.

And unlike Medium, there is no paycheck right away. In fact, if you don’t work hard and find ways to monetize your blog, you’ll get no paycheck. That’s where comparing Medium vs. WordPress gets tough. Do you want a certain but small paycheck or bigger, riskier, self-determined one? WordPress blogging makes you work hard to get good payouts. Expect to spend months before you see a dime blogging with WordPress.

What does that add up to? Here’s the final tally of WordPress pros:

• Your blog belongs to you.
• Your website is totally flexible and customizable.
• You get to control your income—and it can be a whole lot more than Medium provides.
• WordPress has plenty of pro-level features and tools.

But, here are the cons:

• You have to build the site and attract readers on your own.
• Maintaining your own blog is hard work.
• Hosting and labor on the site cost a bit.
• You only get paid once you find a way to successfully monetize your site.

Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels

Which Should I Choose? Medium or WordPress?

So here we get to the real issue of Medium vs. WordPress: Which platform should you choose? The convenience and ease of Medium or the potential power of WordPress?

If you haven’t already made your choice after seeing the pros and cons of both, here’s my advice. Medium is best for casual and hobby bloggers, while WordPress is best for those who really want to take blogging seriously.

Medium is so simple to use. It has no learning curve and handles all the hard work for you. It will provide you with a small audience and a small paycheck. It’s great for those who just want to get their words out there or people looking for a little side hustle.

WordPress is the backbone of blogging for good reason. It provides the flexibility, control, and customizability that businesses, professional bloggers, and those who want to become a pro need. It provides the platform you need to make your blog into a powerful online resource.

I’m on Team WordPress in the end because I intend to build my blog into a career. I find WordPress challenging, but I need many of the features only it provides.

So which side of Medium vs. WordPress are you leaning towards? Do you have any more questions about either platform? Do you want to share your experiences blogging? Tell me in the comments!

Mint Miller

Mint is a writer and digital marketing pro who lives in coastal Virginia with her family and one lovable pitbull. Her passions include helping people and businesses display their best side through the power of communication, buying her dog costumes he doesn’t want to wear, and talking all day about Batman.