Blogger vs Medium: Which Is Better for Blogging?

As a new blogger, one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make is to choose a platform to host your blog. While there may be many options, Blogger and Medium are two popular platforms many people opt for. But which one is better for you? Below, we’ll compare Blogger vs Medium to help you decide.

Before we get started, let’s briefly chat about each platform:

In a nutshell, Blogger is a platform owned by Google. It launched in 1999 and is specifically designed for blogging. The platform makes it very easy to start a blog by removing one of the main intimidation roadblocks for writers – technical website stuff. Writers who choose to blog on Blogger never have to deal with code, website security, or other “techie things”. They simply get to follow their passion for writing.

Medium is also a blog-publishing platform. It’s a little younger than Blogger, as it launched in 2012. Medium stands out from other platforms by offering writers and readers a unique community. Bloggers can follow each other and stay updated on each other’s latest posts. They can also comment on other blogger’s articles. In this way, Medium facilitates an atmosphere where thoughtful conversations can naturally develop among fellow writers.

So, which one is better for blogging?

We hope to help you answer this important question in this blog post. Below, we’ll look at both platforms, what they offer, and their pros and cons. By the end of this post, we hope you’ll be informed enough to decide which one is best for you and your needs.

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Blogger vs Medium: Pros and Cons

The battle between Blogger vs Medium starts with understanding the pros and cons of each platform. So, let’s start with Blogger:

Blogger

There are currently over 1.2 million blogs on Blogger ^[1]. This platform is a great place for anyone looking to create a free blog and earn money from it. Like every platform on the market, Blogger comes with its pros and cons. So, let’s take a closer look at them.

Pros of Blogger 👍

There are a few standout advantages to choosing Blogger. Some of the most noteworthy are:

• Ease of use. If you’re looking for a user-friendly platform for creating your blog, Blogger will not disappoint. Its intuitive design makes launching and running a blog straightforward.
• Free. If you want to start a blog but your budget is tight right now, the great thing about Blogger is that it’s free to use. When creating your blog, you get a free Blogspot subdomain and hosting.
• Security. One of the best parts of using Blogger is that it’s developed by Google, a very secure platform.
• Monetization. You can earn money from your blog through affiliate marketing and running ads.

Cons of Blogger 👎

While Blogger has many incredible advantages, there are some disadvantages to choosing this platform. A few of them are:

• Lack of ownership and control of the content. Blogger is a great platform to share your ideas, thoughts, photos, and anything else you want. But it’s important to remember that while it is your blog, technically, the content you publish belongs to Google, not you.
• Limited customization and design options. There are currently more than 600 million blogs online ^[2]. This makes being able to stand out incredibly important. One way to stand out is by giving your blog a unique design. Unfortunately, Blogger has limited templates, most of which are very basic in design.
• You will get a default Blogspot subdomain. Subdomains make it a little more challenging for Google to crawl your content ^[3]. This can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

Now that we know a bit more about Blogger, let’s dive deeper into the next platform as we continue our quest of finding which blogging platform is better in our Blogger vs Medium showdown.

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Medium

With between 85 and 100 million active monthly users, Medium is the more popular option between the two. Since its 2012 launch, the content platform has quickly established itself as one of the leaders in the industry ^[4].

Pros of Medium 👍

As one of the most popular blogging platforms, here’s a closer look at some of its advantages:

• Exposure and community. Medium is an amazing platform for bloggers, and one of its biggest drawing cards is its vibrant and engaged community. Connecting with like-minded people that have similar interests and experiences is incredibly easy. Plus, you can join Creator Workshops, where other writers give feedback and critique your work, thus helping you hone your craft.
• Built-in audience. One of the most challenging parts of starting a blog is finding an audience to read your content. With Medium, you don’t have to worry about that. The platform already has a vast audience you can engage with. Of course, you’ll still need to create quality content that attracts the right audience to your blog.
• No need for design skills. Medium is a fantastic platform for writers who want to avoid the hassle of learning design software or other technical skills such as theme setups. As soon as you sign up, you can start writing and publishing your blogs immediately.
• Monetization. With Medium, you can use affiliate marketing and sponsored posts to earn money. You can also earn money by accepting tips from readers and referring new members to the platform. In addition, when you join the Medium Partner Program, you can also make money based on how well readers engage with your content. The Partner Program is a unique monetization feature of Medium that you won’t find on other popular blogging platforms.

Cons of Medium 👎

Some notable disadvantages of choosing Medium are:

• Limited customization. When it comes to customizing individual posts or pages, the options are very limited. Many of us enjoy personalizing our blogs to reflect our unique style and creative expression. With Medium, you’ll have to settle for the basic formatting tools available.
• You don’t own your audience. Unfortunately, the readers who may engage with your content on the platform are Medium’s readers, not yours. So, if Medium suddenly decides to close shop, you will lose all the readers or followers you’ve gained. This means that while you might create a good following on the platform, you don’t really own your audience.
• Very competitive. Since Medium started becoming popular, many brands and bloggers have joined the platform. As a result, it has become increasingly challenging to stand out, especially for new bloggers.
• Sponsored posts limitations. Writing sponsored posts can be a great way to earn money. However, according to the distribution rules, sponsored posts get disqualified from monetization through the Partner Program. They also don’t get distributed throughout Medium’s network. So, the only people who’ll see your sponsored posts are your followers or anyone who lands on your page. If you build a large enough audience then it won’t affect you as much, but when you first start, it can be frustrating to have this limitation.

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Blogger vs Medium Comparison

As our battle between Blogger vs Medium draws to an end, let’s recap the important points you should consider:

Blogger	Medium
Established in 1999.	Established in 2012.
Google hosts the blogs.	Medium hosts the blogs.
Blogging platform.	Blogging platform with support for larger, multi-author online publications.
You can monetize through affiliate marketing and ads.	You can monetize through affiliate marketing, ads, accepting tips, and referring members. You also have the option of making money through the Medium Partner Program.
Easy to set up.	Easy to set up.
More customizable than Medium.	Less customizable overall, but if you choose to run a publication (rather than a personal blog), you’ll be able to customize your layout to some degree.
No built-in community.	Has a built-in community. The platform has a lot of incredible writers and this can encourage you to improve your content.

Determining which blogging platform is best for you can be challenging. It really depends on what you need your blog to do.

On the one hand, Blogger has been around longer and gives you more control over customization. But, Medium offers more tools to promote your work and get more exposure overall.

Medium also allows you to promote your work in an appealing format and get paid for articles if you join their Partner Program. However, one of the biggest challenges with Medium is that you don’t own your audience. As an online writer, this isn’t ideal. You definitely want a way to build relationships and stay connected with your audience as you build your brand.

With all the factors we just reviewed, let’s wrap things up by finally answering the million dollar question…

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Blogger vs Medium: Which option is better? 🤔

In the end, when we compare Blogger vs Medium, they both offer their own advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, it all boils down to what you want from your blog and what your priorities are.

You’ll need to consider features available, layout options, the interface of both platforms, and how deeply you wish to customize or monetize your blog.

For example, if customization is your priority, then Blogger may be the right choice. It gives you more control over the design, layout, and functionality of your blog. Customization on Medium is limited and the layout of your blog will look almost the same as all other blogs on the platform, with the exception of publications.

In contrast, if starting a blog with a built-in large audience is a bigger priority for you than layout customization, then Medium is the better option. As highlighted above, Medium has a large and engaged audience, which can potentially give your blog posts greater visibility. Plus, if you really want to customize your layouts, you can pay $5 per month and start your own publication to get some more flexibility in this regard.

At the end of the day, regardless of which platform you choose, you’ll need to create blog posts that attract readers to your blog. As the saying goes: “Content is king.”. Here’s our guide on how to write a blog post that turns heads to help get you started.