Medium vs WordPress.com

Compare Medium and WordPress.com for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

Medium
Medium
Medium is a popular online platform for reading and writing, offering an engaging space for creators. It allows writers to share their ideas with a broad audience while providing tools for monetization and community engagement.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com
Build your site with the ease of WordPress, trusted by millions. Create blogs, eCommerce sites, and more. Get started today!

At a Glance

Quick overview of key features differences between Medium and WordPress.com. Click on any feature to read more details.

FeatureMediumWordPress.com
Basic Features
Hosting Option
Cloud & Self-hosted
Cloud & Self-hosted
Content Modeling
Blog on Subdomain
Blog on Subdirectory
Marketer Experience
Mobile-first Experience
Automatic Content Linking
Automatic CTA Linking
Limited
Limited
Engage with Comments
Multi-tenancy
Read all reviews from marketers
Developer Experience
Ease of Integration
Medium
Medium
Custom React Components
Full Text Search
Starter Kits
(2 kits)
(3 kits)
Read all reviews from developers
Looking for a better alternative to Medium & WordPress.com? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!

What Users Say

See what users who have used Medium and WordPress.com have to say about their overall experience with the product.

Medium's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Medium.

WordPress.com's Key Strengths

Read what users love about WordPress.com.

Medium's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Medium.

WordPress.com's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with WordPress.com.

What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses Medium and WordPress.com daily about their experience with the editors.

Medium's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Medium's editor.

WordPress.com's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about WordPress.com's editor.

Medium's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Medium's editor.

WordPress.com's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about WordPress.com's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

Medium:
Not Suitable for Mobile

Medium does not support mobile editing; editing features were removed to enhance reading experience on mobile.

"Writing is not supported on mobile browsers. To write on the go, you'll need to download the Medium app for iOS or Android."
Source
"With our focus on an exceptional reading experience, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove story editing features from our native apps."
Source
"Editing had been disabled on the mobile app."
Source
"On the publishing tools front, we added mobile editing, but this feature is not currently active."
Source
"We’re bringing back the mobile editor, indicating the intention but no active support at the moment."
Source
WordPress.com:
Not Suitable for Mobile

The WordPress mobile app does not support effective content creation for mobile users, leading to frustration.

"The WordPress mobile experience (especially in the block editor) leaves a lot to be desired, given that some settings and sections disappear entirely in portrait mode on mobile."
Source
"WordPress offers responsive themes and plugins, but lacks a dedicated mobile editing experience that truly supports mobile-first content creation."
Source
"WordPress does not have a dedicated mobile editor, limiting the ability to create and edit content effectively on mobile devices."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

Medium:
No Automatic Content Linking

Medium does not support automatic internal linking for related blog posts, focusing instead on manual links.

"Medium lacks features for automatic internal linking between similar content, relying instead on manual linking."
Source
"Medium does not have an AI feature to automate the linking of related blog content."
Source
"Medium emphasizes simplicity and content creation without the complexity of automating internal links."
Source
WordPress.com:
AI-Powered Related Content

WordPress supports automatic linking of related posts based on content, tags, and categories.

"Related Posts uses your post content, tags, and categories to automatically generate a list of relevant posts on your site."
Source
"I have created a tool that automatically create blog titles, outlines and complete blog articles directly to your WordPress site."
Source
"It has a nice feature that auto updating internal links when post slugs changes."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

Medium:
Manual CTA Linking

Some CMSs have limited capabilities for automatic CTA linking, mainly through advanced custom settings.

"Use the calls-to-action (CTA) tool to create button CTAs, banners, or pop-ups to add to your HubSpot pages. You can also add CTAs to external pages."
Source
"The automation enrollment criteria is "has click [campaign] CTA" and "has completed [campaign] CTA Pop-up form.""
Source
WordPress.com:
Manual CTA Linking

Limited support for automatic CTA linking exists through specific plugins like MailOptin and Icegram.

"MailOptin CTA implementation comes in two forms. Options to customize the button to match content."
Source
"Use the calls-to-action (CTA) tool to create button CTAs, banners, or pop-ups to add to your HubSpot pages."
Source
"Icegram Engage allows users to create effective CTAs easily and offers multiple CTA button options."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

Medium:
No Comments Supported

Medium does not provide an external commenting feature for site visitors. It limits user interaction via internal feedback.

"Medium does not support commenting from site visitors."
Source
"The rules on Medium do not mention comments or discussions from visitors."
Source
"Medium lacks built-in commenting features for external users."
Source
WordPress.com:
Comments Supported

WordPress has built-in commenting features with approval, notification, and spam control options.

"Comments allow your website's visitors to have a discussion with you and each other. You can turn comments on or off by following the steps in this guide."
Source
"Log in to your WordPress Dashboard. Go to Settings > Discussion. Check or Uncheck Allow People to Post Comments on New Articles."
Source
"WordPress comments are an integral part of any blog powered by WordPress. They allow you to engage with your audience."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

Medium:
No Multi-tenancy

Medium does not support multi-tenancy; each user operates independently.

"Multi-tenancy is just the same, only worse. Instead of threads competing for shared memory, you've got tenants competing for shared infrastructure."
Source
"Multi-tenancy is an architecture where a single instance of a software application serves multiple customers, with each customer being referred to as a tenant."
Source
WordPress.com:
Multi-tenancy Supported

WordPress supports multi-tenancy via multisite with isolated site resources and databases.

"WordPress multisite, creating a SaaS out of a plugin, running an agency more efficiently... Will multi-tenancy be the solution of the future?"
Source
"For WordPress, multitenancy means multiple WordPress sites running off a single WordPress codebase."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on Medium and WordPress.com about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating Medium:
Medium
Integration into existing setups can be challenging due to the need for custom configurations.
Ease of Integrating WordPress.com:
Medium
Integration requires knowledge of plugins and configurations, but manageable with guidance.

Medium's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Medium.

WordPress.com's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with WordPress.com.

Medium's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Medium.

WordPress.com's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with WordPress.com.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

Medium:
Customisable Content Types

Medium supports content modeling with custom content types and fields including text, media, and references.

"A content model is a collection of content types and their interrelationships."
Source
"A solid content model is the foundation of every great digital project. Your model is the bones of your project."
Source
"Kontent.ai is a content management tool (CMS) that allows managing core content types with flexible models."
Source
"Contentful has a lot of features and flexibility in content modeling."
Source
WordPress.com:
Customisable Content Types

WordPress supports content modelling through custom post types and fields via plugins or native features.

"Create Content Model brings powerful content management capabilities directly into WordPress Core."
Source
"Custom post types in WordPress allow you to create and manage content that goes beyond standard posts."
Source
"WordPress gives you a simple way to extend the standard data types into an array for custom needs."
Source
"WordPress custom post types are powerful features that elevate it from a blogging tool to a content management system."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

Medium:
No Custom React Components Supported

Medium does not explicitly support custom React components or a component API for dynamic content.

"Web Components can help you decouple the implementation of your component from the framework/library."
Source
"Design systems are doing much better in sharing an API across design and dev, due in part to rapid advances in design tools."
Source
"Medium frowns on stories containing marketing tactics like affiliate links or aggressive call to actions."
Source
WordPress.com:
No Custom React Components Supported

Custom React component integration is not natively supported; requires workarounds with blocks or scripts.

"Your “components” sound like custom blocks to me. You wouldn't be using the editor per se, you're creating blocks for end user use within the block editor."
Source
"There are three major ways we can add them... we can add them as the output of a custom block."
Source
Medium:
Full Text Search Supported

Full Text Search is supported across multiple fields including content and metadata.

"Full-Text Search is a powerful feature in MySQL that allows you to search for text within large sets of unstructured data efficiently."
Source
"Full-Text Search employs a series of steps to effectively search through complex text-based data."
Source
"Using a database with built-in search such as MySQL or MongoDB for full text search."
Source
"We now launched a full-text search feature that lets you search across your Firestore collections."
Source
"WordPress's core search gets used when you say https://example.com/?s=searchterm."
Source
WordPress.com:
Full Text Search Supported

WP Fast Total Search allows full text search across posts, meta-fields, and attach file contents.

"WPFTS extends standard search capabilities by creating a word-based index, allowing full text search across multiple fields."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

Medium:
Available

Medium has various templates that help writers format their articles effectively.

(Expand section to see a list of Medium templates and starter kits.)

WordPress.com:
Available

Multiple starter sites and kits available for WordPress themes.

(Expand section to see a list of WordPress.com templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of Medium and WordPress.com.

Medium's Pricing
Medium Member
$5 / month
- Read member-only stories
- Support writers you read most
- Earn money for your writing
- Listen to audio narrations
- Read offline with the Medium app
- Access our Mastodon community
- Connect your custom domain
- Create your own publications
Friend of Medium
$15 / month
- All Medium member benefits
- Give 4x more to the writers you read
- Share member-only stories with anyone and drive more earnings for writers
- Customize app icon
Medium Member
$60 / year
- Read member-only stories
- Support writers you read most
- Earn money for your writing
- Listen to audio narrations
- Read offline with the Medium app
- Access our Mastodon community
- Connect your custom domain
- Create your own publications
Friend of Medium
$150 / year
- All Medium member benefits
- Give 4x more to the writers you read
- Share member-only stories with anyone and drive more earnings for writers
- Customize app icon
WordPress.com's Pricing
Free
$0 / month
- No expiration date
- Basic features
Personal
$12 / month
- Custom domain for the first year
- 6 GB storage
- Ad-free browsing
- Premium themes
- Fast support
Premium
$25 / month
- Custom domain for the first year
- 13 GB storage
- Ad-free browsing
- All premium themes
- Upload videos
- Premium stats
Business
$54 / month
- Free domain for one year
- 50 GB storage
- Priority support
- Install plugins
- Connect analytics
Commerce
$97 / month
- Free domain for one year
- 50 GB storage
- Prioritized support
- Install plugins
- Unlimited products
Enterprise
$25000 / year
- Scalability
- Security features
- Premium support

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to Medium & WordPress.com? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!