Are you working on establishing your own blog right now? You aren’t sure if WordPress or Medium would be better for you to utilise as your blogging platform. This material will be broken down into manageable chunks for you.
When you are getting started with blogging for the first time, it may be challenging to decide which platform your blog should be hosted on. You have probably been familiar with well-known blog platforms such as Wix, WordPress, Medium, and a great many more. These many websites have a lot of characteristics but also have a great deal in common with one another.
In this piece, we will be discussing WordPress and Medium, two of the most well-known websites that are dedicated to blogging. These two different platforms are excellent options for exchanging material in the digital space. On the other hand, they are quite unlike to one another.
In this article, we will contrast and compare WordPress and Medium in order to assist you in selecting one platform over the other. Let’s begin!
A) WordPress and Medium -Introduction
Blogs are one of the most common forms of websites now in use. Whether you want to write about your hobby or market your business and its goods, having a blog is the ideal approach to accomplish either of these goals.
You may use either WordPress or Medium to build a blog for your website. Let’s begin our comparison of them by providing some background information first.
What is WordPress? – Overview
WordPress is a popular open-source programme that may be used to create your own website or blog. It is also beneficial. This platform gives users access to a wide range of services and features, including sophisticated blogging tools, so they may construct attractive blogs.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that was first developed for blogging, but it is now now used for creating websites, blogs, online shops, and more. You are able to establish and manage your blogs without having any experience of coding at all. Because of its simple user interface, even those with little prior experience will have no trouble picking up and using WordPress.
It is important to clarify that there are two different versions of WordPress before we get started with this tutorial. WordPress.org, which users host on their own servers, and WordPress.com, which uses a third-party hosting service.
The.org website gives you access to software, which you are expected to host on your own server; in contrast, the.com website gives you access to a comprehensive site-building platform that also includes hosting services. Check out our detailed essay comparing WordPress.com vs WordPress.org to learn more about the subject.
This article examines the similarities and differences between Medium and the self-hosted version of WordPress, sometimes known as WordPress.org.
What is Medium? Overview
People are able to simply write, publish, and share their thoughts and ideas on Medium, which is a platform for social publishing and blogging that is straightforward and easy to use. Anyone may join up for an account and immediately begin creating articles, blog posts, tales, and other types of content.
Utilizing this platform, you will be able to reach a sizable number of viewers with your material. In addition, by connecting your Medium account with your other social media accounts, you can bring the audience that you have built up on those other platforms to your Medium account.
B) Creating a Blog on WordPress vs Medium
There isn’t much of a learning curve involved in getting a blog up and running on either WordPress or Medium. Let’s find out which of these platforms is the most effective at doing it.
How to Start a Blog with WordPress?
WordPress is the content management system (CMS) platform that is easiest for users to learn and use to develop blogs and other websites. It is not necessary to have in-depth expertise or to employ a developer in order to set up a blog using WordPress.
In order to get started with WordPress for the first time, you will need the following things:
- Hosting for WordPress.com.
- Locate and get a name for your website domain.
- Set up a WordPress site.
- Sign in to your WordPress account, and start writing your blog.
To begin, there are a few additional steps that need to be completed, such as purchasing a hosting account and a domain name. A service known as web hosting is one that makes your website accessible through the internet by providing the connection and functionality necessary to do so. Alternatively, a domain name may be thought of as the address of your website. One example of a domain name is “www.sitesaga.com,” which is the address of our website.
You are free to make use of any web hosting provider that you like, including DreamHost, Bluehost, SiteGround, and so on.
These businesses are also responsible for providing the domain name. However, the cost of renewing a domain may be increased. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you register your name with a domain provider such as Namecheap.
Installing WordPress and getting your site fully set up is the next step after purchasing hosting and a domain name for your website. When you get WordPress hosting from reputable providers such as Bluehost, DreamHost, or SiteGround, among others, you have the option of having WordPress already installed on your website. You also have the option of installing WordPress with a single click. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too hard.
After you have finished installing WordPress on your hosting account, you will be able to log in to the administrative part of your WordPress site, which is also referred to as the WordPress dashboard. You’re going to see something quite similar to this.
From the WordPress dashboard, choose Posts > Add New to produce a brand-new article for your site. After that, you’ll have the option to create and update your article. Once everything is finished, you may publish your material by going to the top-right corner of the page.
How to Start a Blog with Medium?
The process of getting started with Medium is even less complicated than getting started with WordPress. Your Medium account will be available for use in just a few seconds, at which point you will be able to create and publish your material.
To begin, you will need to sign up for a user account on Medium. Visit the website Medium.com, select the box labelled “Get Started,” and join up using whatever account you have, such as Gmail, a social network account such as Facebook, or an email address.
It is in your best interest to link your social media accounts to your Medium account when you establish or sign up for an account on Medium. This ensures that your friends from the various social networking sites will instantly become followers of your Medium account.
After you have finished signing up, you will get a screen similar to this one.
When you click on your photograph in the upper right-hand corner, you will see an option that says “New Story.” After that, you will be sent to a page that has a text box in which you are free to write and share whatever you choose. When you are satisfied with your material, choose the Publish button located in the upper right corner of the screen. Your material is now accessible to the whole audience.
Winner
The usage of Medium does not call for any specific technological expertise and is really easy to do. In comparison to WordPress’s installation procedure, this one is more simpler and more expedient.
C) Cost Comparison Between WordPress vs Medium
When it comes to selecting a platform for blogging, cost should be one of the most important considerations. Let’s examine the costs associated with blogging on WordPress and Medium to see which platform is the most cost-effective option.
Cost of Building a Blog on WordPress
Installing and using the WordPress software does not cost anything for anybody. You may get the most recent version by going to WordPress.org and downloading it from there. In addition to that, it provides more than 8000 free themes and 58,000 free plugins that may be used without charge on an infinite number of websites.
However, the most significant expenses involved with using WordPress include web hosting, purchasing a domain name, purchasing premium themes and premium plugins, and doing various types of upkeep. Before you can begin using WordPress, you will need a web hosting provider and a domain name in order to make your website available to users from all over the globe.
If you want a basic or inexpensive hosting service, you can get it for as little as $2.59 a month, but if you want to pick a premium host, it can cost as much as $100 per month. In a similar vein, the cost of a domain name might start at $12 per year.
Not to mention the fact that some of the best web hosting providers, such as Bluehost and DreamHost, include a free domain name with the purchase of their services. Therefore, if you are seeking for web hosting plans that are both economical and low-cost, the deals that are shown below are your best option.
For instance, you can have a website up and running with DreamHost for as little as $2.59 per month, and this price already includes the cost of the domain name. If you utilise a free WordPress theme and plugins, then the total cost will be zero dollars.
However, if you want to make use of premium plugins and themes, then the price may increase. If you want additional customization possibilities on your site, you may need to invest in certain premium items. Premium plugins may be purchased for around $49 per year, and premium themes can be purchased for approximately $60 per year.
Cost of Building a Blog on Medium
There is no charge associated with establishing a Medium account or joining up for one. In addition, you are under no need to pay anything in order to generate or produce your own material before making it available to the general public. You are not required to pay anything in order to view the articles or tales produced by various other authors and writers.
You will, however, need to sign up for a membership with Medium in order to read the greatest articles published by Medium’s top authors and other users. After becoming a member of Medium, you will have unrestricted access to all of Medium’s articles and posts, as well as full access to Medium’s monthly magazine and many other benefits.
The membership plan costs either $5 per month or $50 per year, depending on the duration. You have the ability to choose the package that best suits your requirements.
Aside from that, Medium does not need any kind of payment or subscription in order to use it.
Which is cost-effective?
Medium is the best option for you to go with if you are seeking for a platform that is free of charge to use. However, if you want a unique website with your own domain name, WordPress is also an extremely cost-effective platform that you may use.
D) WordPress vs Medium – SEO Comparison
Search Engine Optimization, sometimes known as SEO, is a well-known marketing strategy that is used to increase the ranking of a website on search engines such as Google. A higher position on search engines drives more visitors to a website or blog, which in turn may lead to an increase in the number of purchases made and the amount of money brought in.
Both WordPress and Medium provide a variety of search engine optimization (SEO) tools, configuration options, plugins, and other sophisticated capabilities that may be used to improve SEO. Discover which of these options is best for you!
SEO for Your WordPress Blog
By default, WordPress comes equipped with several very good search engine optimization (SEO) tools. It has proven to be one of the most SEO-friendly content management systems.
WordPress has alternatives for publishing material that are search engine optimised by default, such as posts, pages, and more. They feature title tags that are wrapped in the H1 tag in addition to additional heading tags that may be used by you to add subtitles to your content.
In addition to that, you have the ability to build permalinks for your webpages and blog posts that are not only basic but also brief and appealing. Those URLs are user- and search engine-friendly, making them ideal for optimising for search engines like Google.
You may also tweak your photos for improved search engine optimization with this tool. You have the ability to give each picture a title, caption, description, and alternative text. They contribute to making your photographs more search engine optimised.
In addition, WordPress comes with a plethora of SEO plugins that may assist you in increasing the ranking of your website in search engines. To optimise a WordPress site, for instance, you may make use of plugins such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, and other similar programmes.
The SEO plugins provide ideas that may be used to identify or choose keywords, add links, create text or content, optimise meta descriptions, and other similar tasks.
SEO for Your Medium Blog Posts
In contrast to WordPress, Medium is a hosted platform that enables users to publish blog entries without the user actually owning the associated site. The website address for publishing your articles is medium.com, and all you have to do is go there. This means that Medium.com is in charge of all aspects of SEO management.
Medium provides options that are incredibly helpful for SEO. Similar to WordPress, you have the ability to add a title, subtitle, or subheading title—all of which are vital for search engine optimization. You will have no trouble adding photographs, embedding movies, or adding any other kind of material.
After you have added photographs, you will have the option to add Alt text for images in addition to image descriptions in order to ensure that your images are complete.
When you publish your article, you will have the opportunity to modify its SEO title, meta-description, and URL.
A better SEO ranking may be achieved by including all of these qualities into a website.
In addition to this, Medium already has a sizable and active user base, so minor optimization for search engines may also be effective.
WordPress or Medium is Better for SEO?
WordPress and Medium both feature more extensive tools, plugins, and configuration choices for search engine optimization (SEO). On the other hand, they each have quite distinct owners of the blog.
You are the only owner of your WordPress site, and as such, you are responsible for all aspects of SEO. In the case of Medium, you do not truly own the blog, and the platform is responsible for the majority of the configuration settings. Your posts will be published on their site without any more work from you.
WordPress is the finest platform to use if you want to conduct an SEO strategy for your business that is meant to be long-term. Medium is an excellent platform to use if, on the other hand, writing is more of a pastime for you than a full-time occupation and you just want to write sometimes.
E) WordPress or Medium for Making Money (Monetization)
Do you want to generate money by working online? If you create a blog on WordPress or Medium, you’ll have a wide variety of opportunities to make money. Here, let’s evaluate the monetization possibilities offered by WordPress and Medium and see which one is superior.
Monetization Options on WordPress Blog
These days, a great number of individuals establish WordPress blogs with the purpose of generating money from their writing. Making money off of a WordPress blog is easy because to the many monetization possibilities provided by WordPress.
In point of fact, there is no set quantity of money that one may earn via the use of WordPress. Your articles and blog will bring in a greater income in direct proportion to the amount of effort you put into them. A large volume of visitors is one of the ways that you can make money off of WordPress, and producing material of high quality is the key to doing so.
You may be asking how precisely you can generate money from the blog at this point. The solution may be found here! You may monetize your WordPress site in a variety of ways, such by showing advertisements, selling items, accepting sponsored articles, etc.
Affiliate marketing is the most effective method for bloggers to monetize their sites and generate money online. The practise of marketing other people’s goods and services on your WordPress website in order to earn a commission on sales made by your site’s visitors when those goods and services are purchased.
Using your blog, you are able to advertise any product in any market segment. If you’re writing about WordPress, for instance, you could need WordPress hosting, themes, and plugins, among other things. You will earn a commission if a member of your audience makes a purchase of one of those goods by utilising one of your affiliate links.
In a word, the possibilities for making money with a blog that is powered by WordPress are almost endless. Develop high-quality material that is of service to your audience, and then monetise that content by including affiliate links, advertisements, and so on. You have unlimited potential for financial gain!
Monetization Options on Medium Blog
Through participation in the Partner programme, you will be able to generate revenue from your Medium blog.
Participation in the Partner programme doesn’t cost anything. You won’t start earning money until users of Medium see what you’ve written and published, but as soon as you do those things, you’ll be paid. The amount of time that Medium users spend reading your article is another factor that affects its monetization worth.
In addition to this, you have the opportunity to make money with Medium through affiliate marketing, online promotion, and the significant amount of traffic that is brought to your material.
Medium or WordPress Better for Monetization?
When it comes to generating revenue, WordPress is the clear winner here. If you want to make money off of it, WordPress has a variety of different choices for you to choose from.
F) Blog Design Options on WordPress vs Medium
The presentation and layout of a blog are very important factors in drawing in visitors and encouraging them to continue browsing the site. WordPress and Medium provide various blog design choices. Which platform is more effective in doing it? Let’s check it out!
Blog Design Options on WordPress
The WordPress software itself is a sizable platform that offers a variety of choices for the design and personalization of blogs. To begin, by using a WordPress theme, you are able to alter the general appearance of your site and personalise it in accordance with your preferences.
It offers a vast selection of themes, both free and premium, to choose from. You may use any of the more than 8000 free themes that are now accessible on WordPress.org, and there is no charge for either the download or the usage of these themes. You’ll find the link to access them in the “Appearance” menu of your dashboard, under “Themes” and “Add New.”
Choose a theme that is uncomplicated, compatible with the title of your blog, responsive, simple to alter, optimised for search engines, and safe. Check out our post on how to choose a WordPress theme for additional information and specifics.
Other elements that may be added to a WordPress blog include featured photos and videos, image alternative text, featured images, and connections to videos and images. When designing landing pages with WordPress, you also have the option of using a basic page builder that works via a drag-and-drop interface.
Moreover, by using plugins, you may augment the strength of your website’s features and operations even further. In the next “section G,” we will describe the plugins.
Blog Design Options on Medium
As was said earlier, Medium is a ready-to-use blogging platform, and the general design of your blog articles and profile appears the same as those of other users on this platform.
Precisely, it has a lovely, uncluttered, and spotless design interface, but you are limited in the amount of customization you can do on it. You have the ability to make some simple adjustments to your profile, including the fonts, colours, and header.
WordPress is the undisputed victor in this case. WordPress blogs are simple to change and personalise due to the availability of a wide variety of themes and layouts.
WordPress or Medium Has Better Design Options?
WordPress is the undisputed victor in this case. WordPress blogs are simple to change and personalise due to the availability of a wide variety of themes and layouts.
G) Medium vs WordPress – Features, and Extendability
Both Medium and WordPress are packed with a variety of features and functionalities that are unique to each platform. Let’s take a look at everything and figure out which platform best suits your requirements.
Features and Extendibility of Your WordPress Blog
As was noted earlier, WordPress is a vast platform that comes with a broad variety of features and functions that can be used to develop anything from a simple blog to an intricate website.
Plugins are organised in a manner similar to themes, and there are many to choose from. Plugins are extension tools that assist add more features and functions to your website. WordPress is a content management system (CMS).
You may use and download any of the more than 58,000 free plugins that are currently available without incurring any further costs. In the same way that you can install free themes on your blog, you can add any of these plugins to your site directly from the dashboard (under Plugins > Add New).
Almost any kind of functionality may be added by using plugins. Using a contact form plugin on your blog, such as Contact Form 7 or WPForms, for instance, you might construct a contact form for your readers to use.
By the same token, you can also add email popups, live chat, sweepstakes, and other similar features by employing WordPress plugins for lead generation. Make your blog bilingual utilising multilingual plugins. Using SEO plugins, your blog may be made more search engine optimised.
You may expand the capabilities of your blog and personalise it according to your preferences using either free or commercial plugins that are available for download. Check out our ranked list of the top WordPress plugins for blogs and the most popular WordPress plugins for further information and specifics.
Features and Extendibility of Your Medium Blog
Medium is a basic blogging platform that has an interface that is tidy and has a light design. It doesn’t take much effort to create stylish blogs and publications or to write in a fashionable manner. It is possible to create tales, series, publications, and a great deal more in a short amount of time with this tool.
This platform also gives you the ability to republish the material that you have written for other websites. It provides the possibility of importing your stuff from any location on the internet.
The best part is that Medium will immediately add a canonical link to the post and will backdate the narrative to the date it was first published. Because search engines consider imported material to be the same as original content when you have a canonical tag, you won’t be penalised for having imported content.
Integration with social media, as well as possibilities for social sharing and social login, are among the additional features.
Additionally, it offers several other features, such as being mobile responsive, having built-in audiences, and having a user interface that is basic. In addition to this, there is a significant possibility that major publishing houses may come across your work if it is authentic and of great quality.
WordPress or Medium Which is More Feature-rich & Extendible?
When it comes to features and functionality, no other platform can compete with WordPress. The medium quality is likewise fantastic, but it comes with less features and functions. So it’s very obvious that WordPress is the best option here.
