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Newsletters & publishing · verified 2026-07

Medium vs Substack

Write into a paying audience pool — no list-building required

Publish free, grow on the network, pay 10% when you earn

Two opposite bets on writing for money: Medium pays you from its members' pool starting on day one; Substack pays nothing until you build your own subscriber list — which you then own. Pool versus ownership is the whole fight.

Round-by-round scorecard

2 – 3 (1 even)

MediumSubstack
  1. Round 1 — Earning from zeroMedium takes it

    Medium's Partner Program pays from the existing member pool with no audience required; Substack pays $0 until people subscribe to you specifically.

  2. Round 2 — Audience ownershipSubstack takes it

    Substack gives you the email list, exportable and portable; Medium gives you followers you can't take anywhere.

  3. Round 3 — Earnings ceilingSubstack takes it

    Top Substack writers earn six figures from direct subscriptions; Medium's pool payouts rarely sustain full-time income and the algorithm rewrites regularly.

  4. Round 4 — PredictabilitySubstack takes it

    Substack's math is transparent (subscribers × price − 10%); Medium's payout formula is opaque and changed four times in 2025-26 alone.

  5. Round 5 — Effort to startMedium takes it

    Publish six stories and apply — no pricing decisions, no billing, no newsletter mechanics. Substack is simple but you're running a subscription business.

  6. Round 6 — Distributioneven

    Both have real networks: Medium's Boost and member feed vs Substack's recommendations and Notes. Neither replaces bringing your own readers at the top end.

Pricing, side by side

Per user/month in USD. Prices checked July 2026.

Medium

Free to publish and to join the Partner Program (application-based: 6+ stories, 3+ months active). Readers pay $5/mo for membership.

PlanAnnualMonthly
PublishingFreeFreeFree
Partner ProgramPaid from member reading time; $10 minimum payout via StripeFreeFree
Membership (readers)$50/yr; Friend tier $15/mo$4.17$5

Substack

Completely free to publish at any scale. Substack takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue (plus ~3% Stripe fees).

PlanAnnualMonthly
PublishingFree foreverFreeFree
When you monetize10% of gross paid-subscription revenue + Stripe fees——
Reader minimumMinimum price you can charge subscribers—$5

Where each one wins — and hurts

Medium

  • Built-in distribution to 1M+ paying members — you can earn from day one with zero audience
  • Free to join the Partner Program since 2025 (the membership requirement was dropped)
  • The platform is profitable and stable, with Boost curation and a paid editor economy
  • New in 2026: bonus earnings when your story converts a reader into a member
  • Opaque, frequently rewritten payout algorithm — writers have seen 70-90% earnings swings after changes
  • You don't own the audience: no email list export, full platform dependency
  • Earning requires putting stories behind Medium's paywall

Substack

  • Zero upfront cost and zero setup — monetization is a toggle, payments fully handled
  • Built-in discovery network (Notes, recommendations, app feed) that actually acquires subscribers for you
  • Full multimedia suite free: podcasts, live video, chat and a desktop recording studio (2026)
  • Financially solid platform: cash-flow positive, ~5M paid subscriptions across the network
  • The 10% cut scales painfully: at $5,000/month revenue you hand over ~$500/month, forever
  • Weak email tooling: no automation sequences, limited segmentation, no A/B testing
  • Platform lock-in: growth depends increasingly on Substack's algorithm, with limited design and SEO control

The decision

Choose Medium if…

You want to write now and see money without building infrastructure — or you're testing whether your writing earns at all. Medium is the lowest-friction on-ramp in publishing; treat its payouts as a bonus, not a salary.

Try Medium

Choose Substack if…

You're building a durable writing business. Substack's 10% cut buys you the only asset that matters long-term: a direct, portable relationship with people who pay you specifically.

Try Substack

How we make money: some outbound links on this page may be affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you sign up — at no cost to you. Commissions never decide a round or a verdict; our scoring method is documented in the methodology.

Frequently asked

›Can I earn on Medium without paying for membership?

Yes — since 2025 the Partner Program no longer requires a paid membership. It's application-based: at least 6 published stories, 3 months of activity, a complete profile, and residence in one of 119 eligible countries. Payouts go via Stripe with a $10 minimum.

›Which pays better?

Different curves: Medium pays small amounts early (member reading time on paywalled stories), while Substack pays nothing early and much more later if your list grows — a writer with 200 subscribers at $5/month grosses $1,000/month, keeping ~$870 after fees. Serious earners overwhelmingly sit on the Substack side.

›Can I publish on both?

Yes, and many writers do: Substack for the owned newsletter, Medium for republishing (it supports canonical links, protecting your SEO) to reach the member pool. Just don't paywall the identical piece both places.

›Does Medium still pay for referring members?

No — the old referred-membership commission (50% recurring) was deprecated in 2023 and final payouts ended in April 2025. Many older articles still cite it; today writers earn from reading time, Boost multipliers, and (since Feb 2026) one-time bonuses when a story converts a reader into a member.

Sources

Facts verified against both vendors' own pricing pages plus secondary sources. Spotted something stale? Tell us and we'll fix it.

Not convinced by either? Medium alternatives · Substack alternatives