Medium vs Substack: Which Platform to Write On

I was looking to write more consistently and wanted to put in the reps and publish writing more frequently. Before restarting my writing journey in mid-2020, I wrote frequently in 2013-14 and then stopped completely until sometime in 2019. Even then, I was not able to establish a publishing cadence, always second-guessing myself and my writing.

So when I decided to get serious about writing again, I had to make a choice: Medium or Substack?

The Case for Consistency

Substack's newsletter concept makes consistency really important. If you are constantly putting out high-value content on a regular basis, people will read and subscribe. This cadence can be daily, weekly, every 2 weeks, or monthly.

Substack allows for writing to evolve over time and does not require perfection. When you are an amateur, you should focus on putting in the reps, ship your writing to the world, get feedback, and improve. This mindset of progress over perfection resonated with me.

Discovery on Medium

One of Medium's biggest pros is their discovery push. But when I looked at my numbers, Medium was only providing me 11% of views by way of discovery -- I was drawing the rest of the audience independently.

There is one benefit to Medium though: their SEO is still really good. There are high chances that a Medium article might appear on the first page of a Google search for relevant keywords. So if search traffic matters to you, that is a point in Medium's favor.

The Subscriber Dynamic

Substack was different from Medium in a crucial way: if a reader was on your newsletter, they would not get links to other publications. Your subscribers were yours. Medium, on the other hand, was actively linking to other publications and pulling readers away from your content.

Medium has since reversed course and tried to become more creator friendly. There was a strong call to action to subscribe to emails on Substack, and Medium was against this earlier but once again corrected course.

Still, Substack's model of directly owning your subscriber relationship felt more sustainable as a writer.

The Momentum Shift

Another reason that came into play when making this decision was that Substack was in the ascendance and Medium was going down. High-value content was moving away from Medium to Substack. Writers I admired were making the switch, and the overall energy in the Substack ecosystem was palpable.

My Decision

I chose Substack. So far, the decision has paid off, with 960+ subscribers. It is only the beginning of the journey.

Summary

The right choice depends on your goals. If you want built-in discovery and SEO, Medium still has its strengths. If you want to build a direct relationship with your readers and are committed to writing consistently, Substack is the better bet.

For me, the choice was clear -- and I have not looked back.