Medium has millions of readers.

Substack has millions of subscribers.

That difference sounds subtle — until you see what it means for a writer’s income.

For the last few months, I’ve been writing actively on Medium and recently started publishing on Substack. This article is not a final verdict — it is simply a summary of what I’ve seen so far. I’ll keep sharing my learnings as I spend more time on both platforms.

But some differences are already so clear, so structural, and so foundational to a writer’s long-term success that they need to be talked about honestly.

Let’s start with the big picture.

How the Two Platforms Are Fundamentally Designed

Medium: A Reader-First Discovery Engine

Medium was founded in 2012 by Evan Williams — the same person who co-founded Blogger (the earliest mainstream blogging platform) and Twitter.

Medium’s entire philosophy is simple:

“There are too many blogs. Let’s curate great writing into one beautiful reading experience.”

This means Medium optimizes for the reader.

The core customer is the reader, not the writer.

Medium controls distribution.

Medium decides what gets recommended.

Medium decides who gets seen.

Writers, in Medium’s world, are suppliers of content.

Great suppliers, yes. Respected suppliers, yes.

But still… suppliers.

Substack: A Writer-First Ecosystem

Substack was founded in 2017 by Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi.

Its philosophy is the exact opposite:

“Writers should own their audience.”

Substack started as an email newsletter tool — but has now become an ecosystem for writers:

• Newsletters

• Podcasts

• Video

• Chat

• Live sessions

• Notes

• In-post buttons

• Direct reader messaging

• Paid subscriptions

• Recommendations

• A mobile app built for writer discovery

The core customer is the writer.

The end user is the reader.

That’s a B2B2C model.

Which means Substack succeeds only when writers succeed.

This difference — Medium’s B2C vs Substack’s B2B2C — shapes everything else.

The First-Mover Fallacy

Medium was early. Substack was late.

But in tech, first movers rarely win the long-term battle.

• AltaVista existed before Google.

• MySpace existed before Facebook.

• BlackBerry existed before the iPhone.

• GM made electric cars before Tesla.

Speed and model trump timing.

Substack is the fast mover with the right model: direct relationships + direct monetization + writer ownership.

Medium is the first mover with the old model: algorithmic distribution + platform-owned audience.

And today, the momentum has shifted.

Users & Revenues — What the Numbers Actually Say

Writers love opinions, but numbers tell the real story.

Medium’s scale

• ~100M+ monthly readers across the website

• ~850,000–1,000,000 paid Medium members

• Estimated annual revenue: ~$50 million, almost entirely from memberships

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/12/medium-profitability-2024-interview/

Substack’s scale

• 20+ million monthly active subscribers

• 3+ million paid subscriptions

• $450 million in writer revenue processed last year

• Substack keeps 10%, meaning platform revenue: $45 million

Source: https://backlinko.com/substack-users

But here’s the key: 

Substack’s writers collectively earn roughly 10x more than Medium’s entire business.

That tells us one thing very clearly:

Substack is where the money is flowing — to the writers.

Technology: Substack Is Miles Ahead

This is the most under-discussed part of the comparison.

Substack today is not “just a newsletter tool.”

It is a full-stack creator platform built ground-up for writer growth.

A few examples:

A. Notes (Substack’s secret weapon)

Notes looks like Twitter, but it behaves like a writer-growth engine.

• If someone likes your note, they see a “Subscribe” button right there.

• Notes are optimized by Substack’s own AI to recommend posts from similar writers.

• The feed is designed to convert readers → subscribers.

Instagram optimizes for infinite scroll.

Twitter optimizes for engagement.

Substack optimizes for writer growth.

This is what B2B2C looks like in practice.

B. Multi-format publishing

Substack gives writers:

• Posts

• Audio podcasts (with hosting)

• Video posts

• Live streams

• Chat

• Voice notes

• Direct messaging

• Paywalled content

• Free content

• Subscription tiers

Medium is essentially one format: articles.

The gap is widening fast.

C. In-Post Buttons Anywhere You Want

Take a look at this screenshot:

As this screenshot shows, Substack lets you place:

• Subscribe buttons

• Share buttons

• Join chat buttons

• Custom CTAs

• Publication-wide CTAs

  
  

Inside the article.

Not just at the end.

Medium lets you add links or buttons inside an article, but its CTAs are nowhere near as flexible or growth-centric as Substack’s.

Substack allows you to place subscription buttons, referral buttons, share prompts, and custom CTAs anywhere in the post — all natively optimized for writer growth.

Medium supports only links, but it doesn’t give you growth tools designed to actively convert readers into subscribers inside the article.

If you’re building a writing business, this matters.

Transparency: Substack Wins by a Mile

Medium: Opaque, algorithmic revenue-sharing

Medium’s partner program is vague and inconsistent:

• Reading time matters

• Member engagement matters

• Boosts matter

• External traffic rarely matters

• Quality metrics matter

• But no one knows the formula

Writers only see the final number.

There is no transparency, no predictability, and no way to influence earnings deliberately.

The algorithm decides, not the writer.

Substack: Simple, transparent economics

Substack’s model is brutally simple:

Writer keeps 90%

Substack keeps 10%

Stripe takes ~3% from the writer’s share.

That’s it.

No algorithmic penalties.

No hidden metrics.

No platform interference.

Writers know exactly how much they’ll earn if someone subscribes.

The regressive Move: Medium Blocking Email Exports

For a long time, Medium allowed writers to export subscriber emails.

By April 2025, they restricted it.

Why?

Because many writers were moving their Medium subscribers to Substack.

From Medium’s point of view, this makes sense.

From a writer’s point of view, it’s disastrous.

And from a platform-strategy point of view, it’s even worse.

Any business that prioritizes turf protection over user growth eventually loses.

Medium is thinking short-term.

Substack is thinking ecosystem-first.

History has already shown us the consequence of such decisions.

The Opportunity: Medium vs Substack

Medium’s Opportunity: Virality and Reach

Medium is reader-centric.

The algorithm is powerful.

A great article can explode.

This happened to me.

My article “The Crash I See Coming: Why I’ve Liquidated My Portfolio” went viral on Medium.

It earned me about $3,500 and gave me my first big writing boost.

Medium gave me initial traction, visibility, and confidence.

But…

I couldn’t repeat it.

Not for lack of writing.

Not for lack of quality.

But because the algorithm is:

• unpredictable

• opaque

• out of my control

• dependent on reader browsing patterns I cannot influence

Medium helps you go viral — not grow steadily.

Substack’s Opportunity: Ownership and Stability

Substack doesn’t promise virality.

It promises ownership.

• You own your email list

• You can export it anytime

• You can contact readers directly

• You can sell digital products

• You can build podcasts, videos, chat channels

• You can create a stable recurring income

• You don’t depend on algorithmic luck

And this is important:

You don’t need millions of views on Substack.

You only need a few hundred paid subscribers to earn meaningful money.

That’s the foundational psychological difference.

Medium = spikes

Substack = compounding

Monetization on Substack: The Opportunity Beyond Subscriptions

One of the most underrated advantages of Substack is that it treats writers as independent businesses — not content suppliers. Substack doesn’t just help you publish. It helps you sell. And not just subscriptions.

Because writers own their email list, they can monetize their audience in multiple directions:

• Courses

• Digital products

• Books and mini-books

• Coaching and advisory

• Paid communities

• Workshops / webinars

• Sponsorships

• Affiliate partnerships

This is where Substack’s B2B2C philosophy becomes unmistakable.

Email → trust → relationship → monetization.

Writers don’t need to publish more; they need to build deeper connections with their audience.

Substack is architected exactly for that.

Below are three clear examples.

Justin Welsh — The $10M Solopreneur Powered by an Email-First Funnel

Justin Welsh is one of the most successful solopreneurs of the decade, with more than $10 million in lifetime earnings from:

• Digital courses

• Playbooks

• Templates

• Membership communities

• Personal branding products

Substack acts as the top of his funnel:

• His newsletter creates familiarity

• His writing builds authority

• His email list drives course and product sales

In other words:

Substack is not his major income source — it is his distribution engine.

The courses are the business.

Medium cannot support this model because it doesn’t give writers ownership of their audience.

Substack does.

Kyle Poyar — Going Full-Time Because Substack Made It Possible

Kyle Poyar ran his newsletter Growth Unhinged long before he left his role as a VC operator.

But when he finally decided to go full-time as an independent creator, he moved directly to Substack.

Why?

Because this is where his business could actually work.

He already had:

• An established reader base

• Deep credibility in SaaS and growth

• A strong content rhythm

But when he went independent, he needed:

• Email ownership

• Predictable reach

• Audience portability

• Payment infrastructure

• A community layer he could build on

Only Substack could give him that entire stack.

Medium wasn’t even in the reckoning — because virality doesn’t pay salaries, and platform-owned subscribers cannot be a foundation for independence.

Kyle’s move is a clean illustration: 

Substack is not just a writing platform.

It’s a career platform.

Ana Calin — $50K/Month, With Only 10–20% from Subscriptions

A particularly clear example is Ana Calin, the creator of How We Grow.

In her own newsletter emails, she shares that:

• She earns over $50,000 per month

• Only 10–20% of that comes from paid Substack subscriptions

• The majority comes from courses and digital products she sells to her audience

This is precisely why Substack is so powerful - Substack gives her:

• A direct line to readers

• The ability to nurture trust

• A platform to sell products repeatedly

• Zero dependence on an algorithm to reach her audience

Ana’s model simply cannot exist on Medium:

• You cannot export emails

• You cannot run a proper funnel

• You cannot nurture relationships in multiple formats

• You cannot move readers to a product ecosystem

• You cannot rely on predictable distribution

Medium gives reach.

Substack gives leverage.

The Bigger Insight: Substack Monetizes Relationships, Not Views

This is the part most new writers misunderstand.

Medium monetizes views.

Substack monetizes relationships.

Views spike and disappear.

Relationships compound.

That’s why Substack writers can:

• Sell $200–$500 digital products

• Launch $1,000/year masterminds

• Offer $50/month membership communities

• Host paid workshops

• Sell coaching or advisory

• Earn sponsorships

• Build high-margin course businesses

• Create multi-product ecosystems worth tens of thousands per month

It’s not about writing more.

It’s about owning the audience that trusts you.

Writers do not earn the most from subscriptions.

They earn the most from what they can sell because they own the relationship.

And this is the part most people miss:

In my view, the $450 million that Substack writers earned in 2024 is only the visible revenue — the subscription revenue processed by Substack itself.

Writers have likely earned far more than that by monetizing their email lists through courses, digital products, workshops, paid communities, coaching, sponsorships, and consulting.

Substack gives writers the one thing Medium doesn’t:

the ability to turn an audience into an actual business.

And that’s the one thing Medium simply cannot provide — by design.

Where Are Top Writers Going? Look Around.

You can always tell which platform is winning by following where the top creators gather.

Alex Hormozi → Substack

Morgan Housel → Substack

Packy McCormick → Substack

The most successful modern writers — the ones earning serious money — are not on Medium.

They’re on subscription-driven platforms.

They’re on email-first platforms.

They’re on Substack.

That tells us something important.

My Personal Take After Using Both

Medium is fantastic for early traction.

It helped me get discovered.

It helped me build confidence.

It even helped me earn money.

But after the initial high, I felt stuck.

Medium gives you visibility, not ownership.

And without ownership, you cannot build a writing business.

Substack, on the other hand, gives me:

• Freedom

• Ownership

• Direct access to readers

• Growth channels (Notes, recommendations)

• Multiple content formats

• Stable, predictable economics

A few hundred engaged subscribers on Substack outperform a million Medium views in long-term value.

So What Should Writers Do?

Conclusion #1 — It’s Not “Either/Or.” It’s “Both, But…”

Publish your article on both platforms?

Absolutely.

Medium can give you a spike.

A publication can give you early visibility.

The algorithm can give you virality.

But Substack should be your home base.

Create long-term value there.

Build your email list there.

Convert readers into subscribers there.

Conclusion #2 — Think Long-Term: Build Your Substack

If you care about:

• owning your audience

• building a writing career

• selling digital products

• starting a podcast

• launching a course

• building community

• creating recurring income

Then Medium, by design, cannot give you that.

Substack can.

The smartest strategy today is simple:

Use Medium for reach.

Use Substack for ownership.

Reach helps you go viral.

Ownership helps you build a career.

And as I continue publishing on both platforms, I’ll keep sharing my insights — openly, honestly, and from real experience.