Substack vs Medium - My Reality and Advice After 2 Years (and 200 articles)…

The truth about Medium and Substack (good, bad, and ugly)

I’m going to cut through the BS and tell you the reality of writing on both Medium and Substack.

Medium vs Substack. Andrew Best

Settle in with a coffee☕ because this is going to be a good one.

I started writing on Medium almost 8 months before getting a Substack account. This was way back in 2023 (which is a long time in internet years).

After a few months, I already had over 2k “followers” on Medium. A few of my articles had over 50k views each.

I thought it was awesome, considering I started with zero audience.

Things grew from there, and after about 8 months of being on the platform, I had over 6k followers.

I was getting about 50 new email signups per day to my AI newsletter.

I was earning some decent money through the Medium partner program, and even more money from my affiliate links.

But then all of a sudden things stalled.

Now, over 1 year later, I only have 7200 followers. Most of my recent articles get under 300 views each.

I was accidentally banned twice by Medium’s AI system. They reversed the ban both times and admitted their error. I also had my earnings per view temporarily go down by over 90%.

It is worth noting that these things happened to a lot of popular writers around the same time.

Even though things are “back to normal”, my views never recovered.

This brings me to my first lesson learned about Medium vs Substack.

1. Followers on Medium mean almost nothing

It doesn’t matter how many followers you have on Medium.

Some articles go viral, but most do not. Most of your new articles won’t even be seen by your “followers”.

This is why it is so important to build an email list outside of Medium.

The smartest thing I ever did on Medium was use Beehiiv for my email newsletter.

I got thousands of my readers to subscribe to my newsletter. Now I can reach out to them whenever I want.

Even though people can “subscribe by email” on Medium, most don’t, and you still don’t get their email addresses.

This is where SubStack starts to shine.

2. One Substack subscriber is worth 50x more than a Medium Follower

My SubStack got off to a slow start because I had no subscribers.

With Medium, a new article will still show up somewhere because you can add it to category pages.

It's much harder to gain the initial traction with Substack.

But once you have a few subscribers on Substack, those people will be emailed your article, and they will see it.

I have only 750 subscribers on my Substack, but each new article gets 5x more views than a typical new article on Medium (even though I have almost 10x as many Medium followers)

If you want to get new subscribers on Substack, you should post “notes” on Substack and try to form partnerships with fellow authors in your niche. You can message other writers and recommend each other’s Substack pages. This has worked pretty well for me.

Also, it IS possible to have an article go viral on Substack.

I wrote an article outside my main niche about the Canada/USA trade war.

Andrew Best SubStack Stats

As you can see, I got over 11k views, but it only went out to 413 email subs.

The article had over 1200 likes and over 100 comments. Substack will push an article to a new audience if people interact with it a lot. (It’s just not easy for this to happen.)

I think this article did well because it hit an emotional nerve with a lot of people.

3. The Incentives are Messed Up with Medium

This is a huge problem.

Since every article I write goes out to all of my Substack subscribers, I have a huge incentive to make each article a good one.

If one of my readers doesn’t like an article, they will either unsubscribe or be less likely to read my next article.

This is not true with Medium.

If one Medium article stinks, I can just write another one.

This is why I’ve seen many writers who post between 5 and 10 articles PER DAY on Medium.

Most of your followers won’t see your articles anyway, so there is not a lot of downside risk for releasing a stinker on Medium.

But if you do get lucky with one of your articles, then you’ll enjoy the results from having a viral article.

But this is what is ruining Medium.

This incentive problem is why there is so much absolute junk and AI spam on Medium.

Medium claims they fight AI spam, and I’m sure they try to, but they are overwhelmed with it.

I even read an article that was promoted on the Medium blog — and I am 99.9% sure that most of it was AI-written.

4. Medium is WAY better for SEO

Medium articles show up in Google search far better than Substack articles.

This is a huge advantage to writing on Medium. Even if you don’t have any followers and most of the people on Medium hate your articles, you may still benefit from Google.

I’ve written some boring articles on Medium that have earned me over $2000 in affiliate income. They show up in Google search and I earn money that way.

Andrew Best Beehiiv Review Google Search

Beehiiv Review — My First 100 Days (Shocking Results…)😱💲🚀
I will share my first-hand (true) experience with Beehiivmedium.com

Ironically, the fact that Medium is good for SEO contributes to the incentive problem that Medium has.

Each article has a chance to show up on Google, and one bad article doesn’t ruin the chance for your next article to show up in Google search.

Again, one bad article on Substack DOES harm the success of your next article because your subscribers will either unsubscribe or stop reading your Substack.

5. Substack is about the author; Medium is about the article

Substack readers care WHO is writing an article. They follow authors they like and they read most of their work.

Medium readers go to Medium and scroll through a bunch of articles and click on whatever piques their interest.

It is quite possible to read an article on Medium and not even pay attention to who wrote it.

Once again, this messes up the incentives. Medium makes clickbait and catchy headlines more important than the substance of the article.

This is why there is so much more garbage on Medium.

6. Both Medium and Substack will ban you if they want to.

Bans are a big problem.

I’ve been publishing content on the internet for over 25 years. I’ve had my fair share of experience with bans.

They are something every writer should take seriously. Both Medium and Substack can remove your entire account for almost any reason they want.

They can change the rules in their terms of service at any moment too.

I just read about someone who got their Substack completely banned and they lost the appeal.

These bans are not just for obviously bad things like publishing extreme profanity or nudity.

Here is a direct quote from Substack’s terms:

“Marketing and Promotion

Substack is intended for high quality editorial content, not conventional email marketing. We don’t permit publications whose primary purpose is to advertise external products or services, drive traffic to third party sites, distribute offers and promotions, enhance search engine optimization, or similar activities.”

Look at all the wiggle room they have.

Who decides if a publication’s “primary purpose” is to drive traffic to third party sites?

They do!

Medium has something similar.

For example, I recently started two websites:

One is to showcase the best AI tools.

Another site is about AI fitness Calculators

I’m allowed to link out to these sites, but it can’t be my “primary purpose”.

The other problem with the bans are they sneak up on you and you get an insanely bad punishment.

It would be like if you drove 1 mile per hour over the speed limit, you lost your driver’s license forever.

Again, this is why you should be creating your own email list with a service like Beehiiv.

There is no chance they would have a clause about not being able to market aggressively.

7. Substack has a better brand than Medium.

Ouch…

Sorry Medium.

This is somewhat subjective, but I think it is clear that asking someone to check out “My SubStack” is a bigger deal than asking someone to read your work on Medium.

It brings me back to point number 5. Substack is about the author and Medium is not.

Medium is more of a collection of articles.

8. The Substack community of writers is better.

The notes section and the way Substack works with email cross promotion makes SubStack much better at forming partnerships with other writers.

9. Substack has other media options like podcasts

Substack has branched out into podcasts and video.

With Medium, it is about writing only.

My Conclusion:

Both Medium and Substack have pros and cons.

I’m loyal to neither. Neither are loyal to me either.

I think this is the right way to think about the relationship.

You should write on both and see what works for you. I write on both and will continue to do so.

I’ll also continue to work on my own websites and continue growing my email newsletter on Beehiiv for maximum results.

Connect with me:

📬 Subscribe to my AI Growth Guys Newsletter
I share the smartest ways to use AI to grow your business and income.

🌐 Visit my sites:
AI Growth Guys — AI tools, tactics, and training
Cartario — Generate pro product photos & personal brand images with AI
Best AI Tools Stack — My ranked AI tools directory (with reviews & affiliate links)
AI Fitness Calculators — Smart training tools for athletes and lifters

💼 Connect with me on LinkedIn

Note: This article may contain affiliate links where I would earn a small commission if you purchase something through a link. It is at no extra cost to you. I also only recommend products I personally use and love.