Medium vs. Ghost
Written by Casey Botticello
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When I first started writing on Medium, there were no affordable resources available for writers. Growing my monthly Medium earnings to over $1,000 per month was hard and took me over a year! That's why I created my own Medium Course.
CASEY BOTTICELLO
Founder, Blogging Guide
If you are looking to start a blog, chances are that two of the blogging platforms that you are considering Medium and Ghost. While you can create a similar final product (in terms of content) using either of these platforms, they vary significantly in terms of pricing, models of monetization, strategies needed to succeed, and the type of writer that is using them. This article offers a comparison of Medium vs. Ghost, to help bloggers figure out the difference between these two platforms, and which one is right for them.
Differences Between Medium and Ghost for Bloggers
Medium is one of the most popular blogging sites on the web, and for good reason. The publishing platform is an incredibly diverse repository of viewpoints, welcoming anyone who has an idea or something to say. And they are serious, anyone is welcome to contribute, and according to the site, many do – journalists, authors, experts, and thought-leaders.
The bulk of the content, though, is from independent writers. The subjects covered are vast – from current events to historical analysis, self-improvement to saving the environment, social issues to social clubs. If there’s a topic worthy of discussion, or at least a few random thoughts from a writer, you’ll probably find it on Medium.
Self-described as a new model for publishing, it’s effectively a social publishing platform, with a reported readership of well over 100 million people.
Medium is both free and easy to use, and the platform allows you to monetize your content – to a point.
Publishing content on Medium doesn’t necessarily increase or improve your readership or views to your own website. When you publish on Medium, you’re boosting their web presence, not your own.
While less flashy – the name is a giveaway – Ghost is most notable as a self-hosted open source content management system (CMS). Free to download and install, you will require a custom domain and web hosting. There is a massive learning curve to the self-hosted version, as the setup is fairly complicated for those with limited knowledge. That said, it is an impressive platform.
Ghost does offer a paid full-service, hosted option – GhostPro.
Though pricey, the hosted version has gained immense popularity over the past several years thanks to the platform’s clean, minimalist interface. If you like the idea of a CMS, but without having to sort out all the technical details on your own, the paid GhostPro is worthy of your attention.
Both versions of the Ghost platform are not widely known to new bloggers, but their popularity is growing. More experienced content creators understand its place as a viable alternative to several different blogging platforms, thanks to simplicity.
Medium vs. Ghost: Primary Features
Medium is unique among blogging platforms, as it removes much of the control you have over your content, including design and monetization. But it, along with Ghost, offers a viable outlet for creators searching for an audience or wanting to build one. These next sections will explore the features, differences, and pros and cons when comparing Medium vs. Ghost.
Medium Overview
The best way to describe Medium is a hybrid platform that combines elements of social media and blogging. A distinctive community-based aspect surrounds Medium, defined by the platform itself as “a place to write, read, and connect.” Not surprising considering Medium is the brainchild of a Twitter co-founder.
Established in 2012, Medium posits to give anyone who has something to say a place to say it. Indeed, the sight is a mix of basic blog posts, short random thoughts of the day, in-depth, long-form deep dives, and anything that falls in between. The majority of posts target specific communities of readers. You can use the site as a personal blog, but it’s a personal blog that doesn’t belong to you.
Medium is a hosted platform with almost no customization, though you can add a custom domain, and publishing is completely free. Monetizing your content is simple.
Additional features include:
- The site features a simple, straightforward editor that is one of the best of all blogging platforms.
- Helpful but limited SEO tools allow you to take advantage of Medium’s vast readership and its placement within Google.
- Easy to keep tabs on your prior edits or any changes made your content.
- Allows you to import content from prior or existing blog.
- Have the ability to create publications or even newsletters.
- You can connect a custom domain (Medium recently added this option after removing it for several years).
- Well-established audience.
Medium Pros
More so than any other platform, Medium is effortless to use. After creating an account and logging in, you can start writing a new post in just a few minutes.
Completely free to write and publish on.
The site doesn’t require any technical know-how beyond how to set up an account.
Large, built-in readership of more than 100 million monthly visitors.
You can piggyback off Medium’s website authority for your own gain.
Monetization of your content is available through Medium’s Partner Program and based on how long readers engage with your content:
Medium Cons
The content you write is not wholly your own. You’re unable to alter the design of your content, and should something happen to Medium, and it goes offline, so does your content.
As a blog-based social media platform, your content serves to expand Medium’s brand and presence in the marketplace, not necessarily your own.
Your ability to make money from your Medium posts is limited to the Partner Program. You can’t advertise or promote third-party products services or indicate sponsorship. You can promote your own business and use affiliate links if you disclose you’re doing so.
Medium is highly competitive. It does have a large reader audience, but it also has a large number of writers – all of them competing for both broad and niche audiences.
Ghost Overview
Ghost came out a year later in 2013, via Kickstarter, with the intent of streamlining what had been up to that point the cumbersome process of publishing content. The platform offers two solutions – their original self-hosted option available via free download and a hosted version.
In addition to the flexibility of the open-source software, Ghost’s hosted option is popular. It carries over the best features from the self-hosted version and maintains the minimalist approach to blogging.
Ghost offers great customization, particularly with the open-source software, but neither version provides more than its original intent. Should your needs involve a conventional website or an ecommerce component, you will need to look elsewhere.
But if you want a strictly blog-centric platform that keeps you focused on your main goals of producing and publishing content, Ghost fully serves those needs.
Additional Ghost capabilities include:
- You can create, distribute, manage newsletters, and utilize tools for memberships and subscriptions.
- Connect a custom domain.
- The platform offers custom themes for complete top-down site branding. You can choose from pre-made themes created by Ghost or employ designs made by you through a third-party developer.
- Ghost integrates with over 1,000 third-party apps and plugins which further expands the platform’s overall functionality, the most popular include Google Analytics, Patreon, PayPal, Slack, Stripe, Ulysses, YouTube, and Zapier.
- Robust SEO tools and support.
- Ghost’s open-source platform features community-based support through its forums. Hosted support includes a resource and help center and email submission requests.
- Ghost’s hosted option requires a monthly fee but doesn’t charge fees on your paid user subscriptions.
Ghost Pros
Built using Node.js server-side Javascript, the platform is extremely fast to load.
Ghost was created with blogging as its sole focus and includes excellent SEO tools. There are no extra or unnecessary add-ons that deviate from this purpose.
Simple and straightforward to use. Their editor is one of the easiest in the industry to use.
You have the option of self-hosted and hosted platforms depending on your specific needs.
You own and control how your content is used and monetized.
Ghost Cons
The self-hosted version can be challenging to set up for those with limited experience working with open-source software. Once the setup is complete, the user experience improves dramatically.
The hosted version is expensive (see below) and may not prove a viable option for individual users or smaller, cost-conscious firms.
The platform’s simplicity and limited customization may annoy some users, especially those with greater website or ecommerce based needs or who want greater control over their blogging platform.
Medium vs Ghost: Ease of Use
As far as usability is concerned, both Medium and Ghost offer bloggers two of the most accessible and straightforward platforms for content creation.
With Medium, it’s as simple as creating an account, popping in a title, and writing your post. The editor is simple to use and understand and appeals to both novice writers and professional journalists as it keeps the focus on the content you’re producing.
The Ghost writing experience is primarily the same, though will vary based on which of the platform’s two options you decide to use.
The self-hosted version does present a steep hurdle in setup, but once cleared, the reward is a clean, distraction-free writing UI. The dashboard and publishing features are also uncomplicated.
Ghost’s hosted option provides a much faster path to producing content, with the editor and publishing feature just as user-friendly as the open-source option. The hosted version does have a super helpful setup wizard.
When comparing the two platforms, the editors for Medium and Ghost are nearly identical. Both are designed to keep you focused on producing content and not adjusting settings or preferences. Ghost comes with more functionality but also the need to set it up.
Medium vs. Ghost Pricing
Blogging and publishing on Medium are 100% free – arguably one of the most significant advantages for anyone using the site for publishing. For subscribers of Medium – the readership you’re aiming to capture – there is a subscription cost of $5 per month.
Non-subscribers have access to a select number of free articles per month. If you hope to capture and grow an audience on the site, it will come from those paying to access Medium, not necessarily paying to access what you’re posting on Medium.
Ghost pricing introduces several different options based on the platform you choose. The open-source platform is a free download. You have to cover the hosting and domain name costs, which are nominal.
For its hosted option, GhostPro, Ghost charges a flat monthly rate. Four tiers are available with pricing and features based on the number of internal users, members (those who have signed into your site), and individual file upload needs (every plan offers an unlimited number of uploads). Tiers automatically scale upon reaching certain thresholds:
-
- Starts at $9 per month
- Single publisher/staff user
- Includes 500 members
- Official Ghost themes
- Built-in integrations
- 5mb file uploads
- Starts at $25 per month
- Two publishers/staff users
- Includes 1,000 members
- Custom themes
- Custom integrations
- 10mb file uploads
- Starts at $50 per month
- Five publishers/staff users
- Includes 1,000 members
- Priority support
- Handle high volume traffic
- 25mb file uploads
- Starts at $199 per month
- Unlimited publishers/staff users
- Includes 10,000 members
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- 50mb file uploads
Ghost’s hosted option offers a 14-day free trial.
Conclusion
For straightforward blogging, Medium and Ghost offer highly attractive options. Both feature easy to use editors that keep your focus squarely on creating excellent content. If you’re looking to expand beyond basic blogging and hope to develop a broader website or introduce an ecommerce component, neither provide a viable solution.
Medium is ultimately a social media platform for bloggers. There’s limited monetization opportunity, but if you believe in the cream always rising to the top, excellent content is rewarded thanks to the platform’s large subscriber base. The drawback is you lose a lot of control over that content and face a lot of competition gaining an audience.
Though, if you’re on a budget, few things beat publishing for free.
On the other hand, Ghost is fast becoming a go-to alternative for bloggers. In essence, it’s best described as a faster, more stripped-down version of WordPress – for those who want a blog and nothing but a blog, that’s high praise. It’s a good option for those with an existing website who want to add a blog to a subdomain.
Most critical, though, is whatever you produce using Ghost is yours to do with as you please and monetize as you see fit.
Of course, given that one is an entirely free option, you could do what many bloggers are doing, use the free Medium to hone your writing skills, and build a name for yourself while developing a full-fledged community via Ghost.
