Substack Is About the Writer, Medium Is About the Article
I didn’t realize that early on
My Medium friends can read this story over there as well.
Substack and Medium are competitors. They seem to do the same.
Same bucket. Same “writing platform” label. Similar user base.
But they’re not the same thing. Not even close. The difference is simple:
Substack is about who is writing.
Medium is about what is written.
That distinction rewires how we think about incentives, behavior, quality, and the kind of writing that survives on each platform.
And once we see it, we can’t unsee it. I can’t.
On Substack, People Subscribe
On Substack, readers care who is writing. Usually.
They often don’t just stumble into a piece. They opt in. They subscribe. They say, “Yes, I want more of this person’s brain showing up in my inbox.”
That’s a commitment. An email subscription is a tiny relationship.
When someone subscribes, they’re not saying, “this article looks interesting.” They’re saying, “I like what you wrote.”
So they might read most of what we publish. Even the weird stuff. Especially the weird stuff.
The product is usually not the article, it is the author.
On Medium, People Consume Content
Medium works the other way around. Again, usually.
Readers often don’t go to Medium thinking, “I wonder what this specific writer published today.”
They open Medium and scroll. Or they land there from Google. Or from a push notification. Happens to me all the time.
On Medium, they see a wall of headlines and thumbnails and related articles, and topics, and publications. They click whatever pokes their curiosity the hardest.
Often, they don’t even notice who wrote it.
I’ve got to be honest. I’ve done it. I finished an article and couldn’t name the author if my life depended on it.
On Medium, the article is the product. The writer is… metadata. Small text under the headline.
And that changes how people write. For the worse, mostly.
Incentives Shape Behavior
Platforms don’t make rules. They make incentives.
On Substack, the incentive is retention.
On Medium, the incentive is the click.
These are very different scenarios. One works great long-term but takes time. The other goes viral quick but lacks long-term support.
I am not saying either is good or bad. In fact, because they’re different, both are extremely useful together.
Why Medium Seems Flooded With Garbarge
Medium seems to more garbage because the system rewards it. Clickbait, viral hits, trends.
When attention is scarce and anonymous, writing drifts toward the lowest common denominator. Broad promises. Universal advice. Overconfident conclusions. Zero accountability.
“The One Habit That Changed My Life”
“I Made $10,000 With This Simple Trick”
“Everyone Is Doing This Wrong”
We know the formula. We’ve all clicked it. Sometimes we’ve written it. No judgment. Rent is due. Also, many of those pieces are freaking well-written.
Medium doesn’t punish shallow writing. It just measures engagement. And shallow writing often engages very well.
If an article disappoints us, there’s no cost to the writer. We probably weren’t following them anyway. We just move on to the next headline.
On Substack, disappointment can be expensive. It can cost subscribers. And future open rates.
So writers behave differently.
Now, I obviously paint the picture pretty black and white here. I know many readers on Medium who are super loyal and follow (or subscribe to) their favorite writers. Just like on Substack.
And reversely, I see many readers on Substack who just read articles and don’t care much about the authors. They don’t follow or subscribe.
And again, neither are good or bad. Different systems, different goals, different possibilities for us! We should take advantage of everything.
Accountability Changes the Writing
When readers follow us, not just our words, we feel a bit more accountable, don’t we?
We don’t disappear after a viral hit. We can’t contradict ourselves every week without being noticed. We can’t pretend expertise we don’t have, at least not for long.
So, the archive matters. The long-term arc matters. The person behind the writing matters.
Different environments. Different outcomes.
There Are Great Writers on Medium
Of course there are. Excellent ones.
But even great writers on Medium feel pressure to play the game of virality. To optimize headlines. To write what performs. To chase distribution.
Some of them eventually leave.
They build an audience on Medium and then move it elsewhere. Often to Substack. Or to a personal site. Or to a newsletter they control.
Creators follow incentives too.
Algorithms Love Articles. Humans Love Authors.
Algorithms don’t care who wrote something. For now. They care how it performs.
Humans often do the opposite.
We return for people we like and trust. Even it they write the exact same thing as other people.
Substack leans more into that human tendency. Medium used to lean more into the algorithmic one. Though, I think, this might be changing right now. With Medium’s doubling-down on subscribers.
Whatever you choose or like, neither platform is “evil.”
It’s just that one produces more lasting work. The other produces more disposable content. For now. Nothing’s set in stone.
And again, I would always take advantage of both systems. I wrote a guide about that.
Choose the Platform That Matches What We’re Trying to Build
If we want reach today, Medium can work great. If we want a relationship (long-term), Substack works well.
If we enjoy writing standalone articles optimized for discovery, Medium makes a lot of sense.
If we want to build a body of work, a voice, a following that cares about us as writers, Substack is a great choice.
The mistake is treating them as interchangeable. They’re not.
One platform asks, “Is this article interesting?” The other asks, “Do I care about this author?”
Those are fundamentally different questions.
The Bottom Line
Substack is about writers. Medium is about articles.
Both are valid.
That difference reshapes incentives, behavior, and quality. It explains why Medium rewards clickbait and Substack rewards consistency. It explains why Medium sometimes feels noisy and why Substack often feels personal.
Both are a little cliche-y. But both have truth to them.
