Welcome to the Showdown: Why Every Writer in 2025 Needs to Look at Substack
If you crave creative freedom, meaningful connections, and real money from your words, you’ve probably wrestled with this classic question: Should I build on Medium, or go all-in with Substack? Here’s the bombshell: In 2025, Substack isn’t just the better alternative—it’s reinventing how creators write, share, and earn—ahead of every other platform out there, including Medium.
This article unpacks, with energy and honesty, exactly why Substack is now dominating the indie writer economy. We’ll compare how both platforms treat you (the creator), break down every key feature, and showcase the wild potential of Substack’s social media–like sharing capabilities that every smart blogger, journalist, and creative needs to maximize today.
Whether you’re searching for better monetization, reader loyalty, richer social engagement, or simply crave an interface that makes writing fun again, this epic showdown pulls back the curtain—all in a tone that’s upbeat, ingenious, and persuasion-packed, just like the best blog posts should be.
The State of the Platforms in 2025: A New Era for Creators
Substack: From Email List to Full-Fledged Social Ecosystem
Substack started as a newsletter tool—but today, it’s a publishing juggernaut. With over 35 million active subscriptions and more than 3 million paid subscriptions, Substack has evolved into a writer-centric ecosystem where creators own their audience and see money hit their bank from Day One. Stats don’t lie: the top ten newsletters are collectively pulling more than $25 million per year. That’s not just passive income—it’s creator empowerment on steroids.
But don’t be fooled by the “newsletter” label. Substack now offers community chat, podcast/audio support, advanced analytics, and—here’s the secret sauce—built-in social sharing and discovery features rivaling mainstream social media for engagement. The headline for 2025: subscribers don’t just read, they interact, share, and evangelize your work everywhere.
Medium: Still Popular, But Facing Headwinds
Medium, meanwhile, is a content heavyweight with a decade-long head start and 100+ million monthly readers. Its minimal design and algorithmic feed still make it easy to post and get read. Writers love its frictionless experience, and, for beginners, it’s often the fastest path to instant audience and positive feedback. However, Medium is showing serious cracks: algorithmic changes, reduced monetization for “meta” content, and growing dissatisfaction with engagement and payment models are making even long-time writers eye alternatives in 2025.
Bottom Line: Both platforms offer a chance to be heard, but only one puts the creator fully in the driver’s seat today—and, spoiler, it’s not Medium.
Substack vs Medium: Head-to-Head Comparison Table (2025)
Let’s slice to the chase. Here’s how the two stack up on the features that matter for every writer and creator—especially around social sharing, monetization, audience engagement, and discoverability.
| Feature | Substack (2025) | Medium (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Monetization Model | Paid subscriptions (you set price), tips, sponsorships, affiliate income; 10% platform fee + Stripe fees; instant payouts | Partner Program (members read, you earn a share), affiliate links, bonuses; must pay $5/month to join; algorithm controls payouts |
| Pricing to Monetize | Free to start; 10% only on paid income, + Stripe fees | $5/month Medium Membership required to join Partner Program |
| Audience Engagement | Comments, threaded discussions, direct messaging, Subscriber Chat, paid communities | Claps, highlights, replies, comments |
| Social Sharing | Notes (mini-Twitter/Kiwi), restacking, internal cross-promotion, social media embeds, public profile sharing, external link distribution | Share buttons for Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, “claps,” built-in curation; authors rely on tags and visibility in topic feeds |
| User Experience (UX) | Clean, distraction-free, simple setup, mobile app, fast onboarding | Super-minimal, easy editor, visually polished, low learning curve |
| Creator Branding | Custom domains, logo, rich profile page, email list data is yours | Limited customization, no custom domains for individuals |
| Content Format | Email, web, mobile app, podcasts, audio, video embeds, rich media | Web articles, some podcast/audio support, limited embeds |
| Discoverability/SEO | Some Google indexing, but lower than Medium; relies on network and external promotion | High domain authority, strong SEO ranking, more organic traffic |
| Analytics | Open rate, click rates, subscriber growth, revenue, sources, Notes stats | Views, reads, read ratio, earnings breakdown |
| Success Case Studies | Many earning $10k–$1M+/year; major journalists, creators scaling solo | Most earn <$100/month; top 1% earn $5k–$30k/month |
| Ownership | You own your email list and content; export at any point | You own content, but not audience email; locked into platform |
| Getting Started | Easy, but relies on off-platform audience for fast growth | Fastest for zero-audience writers; instant Medium community reach |
| Community Tools | Chat (paid & free), member-only spaces, built-in referrals, recommendations | Community via tags, publications, and comments, but limited customization |
| Notable Social Features | Notes feed, restacking/shared posts, private AMA, boosted posts, shareable links, embedded 3rd-party social content | Claps, highlights, recommendations, internal “Share” feature |
Here’s what these differences really mean for you as a creator:
- Substack’s monetization is direct, flexible, and fiercely in your control. You keep up to 90%+ of what you charge. Monetize early, or never, or run blend of free and paid—however you want. Medium’s model is tied to their algorithm, paywall, and membership system, which in 2025 is less predictable and increasingly restrictive for some topics.
- Substack’s social tools are the true game-changer. You get a built-in microblog (Notes), deep internal sharing (restacks), external social embeds, and community tools to spark and sustain conversations—features that Medium simply does not match.
- You own your audience—literally. Substack lets you export your email list and leave whenever (critical if you’re building for the long haul). Medium offers zero direct ownership of audience emails, keeping you tethered to their ecosystem.
- Discoverability is where Medium still shines, but if you want to own your readers and future-proof your business, Substack wins with control and direct relationships that outlast platform trends.
Substack’s Secret Weapon: Next-Level Social Sharing and Community Lightspeed
If you loved early Twitter—or miss when Facebook actually fostered real conversation—Substack’s new “social features” deliver ALL the vibes creators crave in 2025. And that’s what makes it the best Medium alternative right now.
A. Substack Notes: Bringing Social Microblogging Inside Your Writing Platform
- Think of Notes as a private X/Twitter feed just for Substack—a real-time, short-form stream for updates, thoughts, links, questions, media, or mini-polls.
- Readers and writers can comment, reply, and “restack” (reshare with their audience), transforming every Note into a potential visibility engine.
- Creators can instantly boost post engagement or test ideas with low stakes—no need to wait for the perfect essay.
- Unlike Medium, which limits “social” to claps, highlights, and replies within long-form posts, Substack’s Notes spreads your words wide, conversationally, and virally within the Substack network.
B. Restack, Embed, and Share—Everywhere
- Restack lets other users promote your Notes or posts, expanding reach with one click. It rewards creators for collaboration and network-building—essentially organic cross-promotion at scale.
- Integrate external social media (X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) right into posts for multi-platform virality. Substack supports rich media embeds and seamless social formatting.
- The result? Readers discover, engage, and share far more naturally than on traditional blogs or even Medium, whose sharing is stuck in basic share buttons and internal recommendations.
C. Subscriber-Only Chat and Private Communities
- Directly interact with your tribe. Host private AMAs, set up paid Slack/Discord groups, group discussions, and more using Substack’s Chat and integrations.
- Nurture superfans, turn casual followers into paying members, and hold loyalty tight—Medium offers comments, but not a true community toolset.
D. Recommendations: Growth Loops Unlocked
- Substack’s Recommendations feature allows writers to actively promote each other, sparking powerful cross-promotion. You recommend your favorite newsletters; they recommend you back. Everyone’s list grows.
- This loop has revolutionized organic growth on the platform—an engine Medium’s publication model doesn’t replicate.
E. Shareable and Embeddable Links with Tracking
- EVERY Substack post is shareable via a simple link (for email, social, websites)—plus publishers see advanced stats for where readers come from and which shares convert best.
- Granular analytics set Substack miles ahead for those who care about tracking ROI and performance marketing.
In short: Substack makes your content more shareable, more discoverable, and infinitely more likely to snowball into new fans, subscribers, and sales, keeping you (not a silence algorithm) at the center of the action.
How Audience Discovery and Engagement Stack Up
Medium: Classic Feed Discovery, But With Drawbacks
Medium is structured like a giant curated magazine. When you post, your article can appear in topic feeds and on the homepage, recommended via algorithm. Popular posts can infamously “go viral” overnight.
- Quick Exposure: For beginners with zero audience, Medium does a great job of distributing new content, largely thanks to its 100 million+ monthly readers and topics system.
- Effective Topic Curation: You can leverage large publications (e.g., Better Humans, Mind Café, Towards Data Science), which often have tens of thousands of followers and can dramatically elevate visibility.
But there are caveats:
- Algorithmic Black Box: Medium’s algorithm controls who sees your work and on what terms, and changes to pay, curation, and visibility rules are frequent and sometimes abrupt.
- No Audience Ownership: Unlike Substack, you never get direct access to your readers’ emails or the freedom to migrate your community elsewhere.
- Short Shelf-Life: Articles can experience “feast or famine” in views, with sudden bursts of traffic drying up as algorithms evolve.
Substack: You ARE Your Algorithm
On Substack, you build a list of email subscribers (and followers in the app), which you own. Every post goes directly to inboxes, with push notifications for Notes and new issues. Discovery is accelerated by:
- Internal Recommendations/Boosts: Cross-promotion grows your base peer-to-peer, rather than being dependent on a faceless algorithm.
- Notes and Restacking: Viral sharing within the platform means one recommendation or discussion can ignite a wave of new subscribers.
- Exportable Audience: You own your list, which means you can take your community wherever you go, a fundamental advantage for career creators.
For discoverability in search, Medium still has an edge—its domain authority and prevalence on Google mean articles get found more casually. But Substack’s intensely loyal audience, higher engagement through direct delivery, and viral network effects are closing that gap fast.
Monetization in 2025: Substack’s Grown-Up Playbook
If you want to make real money—without complex fees or mysterious algorithms—Substack’s monetization shines in 2025, hands-down. Let’s break it down:
Substack Monetization Model
- Paid Subscriptions: Creators choose their rates (most charge $5–$20/month; averages now around $10/month, $96/year).
- Multiple Revenue Streams: Layer in tips, sponsorships, affiliate links, digital products, consulting, and more—Substack is built for real business.
- One-Click Paid Upgrades: Free users can be upgraded easily to paid content, and special “Pledge Campaigns” let you gauge interest for premium tiers before launching.
- Founding Member Perks: Offer exclusive content, shoutouts, or 1:1 access for premium-tier supporters—perfect for superfans.
Example:
Creators with just 200 paying subscribers at $10/month make $2,000 monthly ($24,000/year, minus ~13% total platform/Stripe fees). With premium communities or digital products, top newsletters consistently report $5K–$30K/month—sometimes much more.
Medium Monetization Model
- Partner Program: Only Medium members can enroll ($5/month outlay before you earn). Earnings are tied to “engagement” (reading time, highlights, claps, new followers).
- Curated Traffic = Money: Payments come from member subscription pool, then distributed by a shifting algorithm. Top 1% can make $5K–$30K/month; 94% of writers earn less than $100/month.
- Bonuses & Referrals: There are ad-hoc boosts and sign-up bounties, but these are not predictable.
- Affiliate Links/Products: Allowed, but effectiveness depends on audience-building, and Medium discourages overt product marketing.
Example:
A typical post that goes “Medium-viral” in a niche can net $200–$1,000 over weeks. For most, Medium is supplemental income unless you consistently rank among the platform’s top performers.
Critical Comparison
- Substack lets you “own” your business and maximize LTV (lifetime value) per subscriber. Medium, by contrast, is at its core a social content site—an excellent traffic engine, but with volatile, sometimes frustrating payouts tied to their platform priorities (and changing frequently).
- Your income potential on Substack scales with your list size and engagement, not algorithm whims.
User Experience in 2025: Frictionless, Fun, and Flexible
Substack UX
Log in, start writing, publish—Substack intentionally keeps things ultra-simple:
- Instant Onboarding: Create a publication and get your first post live in minutes.
- Minimalist Editor: Distraction-free interface for prose, images, code, audio, and video.
- Mobile App & Web: Readers (and writers) interact across email, web, and app—the experience is seamless.
- Customization: Add a logo, adjust colors, set a custom domain, upload audio—own your brand’s look and feel.
Medium UX
Elite for beginners or anyone who hates fiddling with tech:
- Sleek Writing Editor: Auto-saves, quick formatting, preview, and visually polished stories.
- Frictionless Sharing: “Share” buttons, easy Twitter and Facebook integration, guaranteed distribution in topic feeds.
- Algorithmic Audience: As soon as you post, potential readers are queued up via recommendation feeds.
- Custom Experience: Limited beyond profile picture and cover images (unless using publications), but design is reliably pretty.
Notable Differences
- Substack privileges direct communication with your audience.
- Medium offers more faucet-like discovery but less depth of reader-creator connection.
- For branding, Substack’s custom domain and newsletter-forward model is a big leap for professional standards.
Analytics and Reporting
Substack:
- See detailed subscriber growth, open and click rates, revenue, churn, top referrers.
- Each Note, post, share, and restack comes with granular analytics (track which channels and shares convert).
- Real-time stats on what works mean you can optimize your content and business model.
Medium:
- You access stats for views, reads, read ratios, claps, highlights, and engagement per story.
- “Curated” stories and bonuses highlighted, but less financial detail than Substack reports.
Bottom line: Substack’s reporting is built for entrepreneurs and creators who care about owning their metrics, not just eyeballs.
Customization, Branding, and Content Ownership
Substack lets you connect your own domain ($50 one-time fee), build your email list, set your logo, and create a true brand. You can export your full list and content—no chains, no lock-in.
- Medium, while sleek, is more like a luxury short-term rental. You’re always a guest in their ecosystem. Branding: limited. Customization: limited. Audience: only through Medium.
If future-proofing your brand and control matter, Substack takes the prize.
Success Stories: How Creators Win Big With Substack
Still skeptical? Here’s the proof Substack’s playbook works:
- Contrarian Thinking: $3M+/year sharing financial freedom insights to 100k+ subscribers.
- Alpha Letter: $420k+/year with paid investing tips, off the back of a Twitter following.
- Cup of Coffee: $221k/year bringing daily baseball/culture news (10,000+ subscribers, 3,300+ paid).
- Solo writers are reporting $2k–$4k/month on just a few hundred paid subscribers by niching down and maximizing paid/bonus content.
Medium’s top writers can and do earn five figures monthly, but the road is long, and the top 5% take nearly all the pie, with earnings heavily dependent on volatile trends and curation luck.
SEO, Discoverability, and Platform Growth: The Final Battle
For raw SEO (Google search), Medium is still king. Its huge domain authority means your content is more likely to rank and be found naturally. If viral, fast exposure is your #1 goal, Medium fits.
Substack, meanwhile, is working to improve SEO and indexing, and adding features like custom domains, but currently relies more on internal network effects, external promotion, recommendations, and email-forwarding shares.
Pro Strategy for 2025: Many creators syndicate, using Medium for discovery, then funneling serious fans to their Substack for the community and monetization. Hybrid publishing is in, but if you can only choose one, Substack wins for loyalty, control, and long-term upside.
Best Practices: Writing With Substack for Maximum Impact
A. Make the Most of Social Features
- Actively use Notes: Short posts, links, questions, and updates keep your feed buzzing between long newsletters.
- Restack and recommend: Build goodwill with other creators and amplify your voice.
- Embed external media: Make your content lively and encourage cross-platform traffic.
B. Grow With Collaboration
- Partner up via recommendations: Swap audience and build simultaneously.
- Host live chats and AMAs: Deepen your audience connection; Substack Chat is a hidden gem.
C. Diversify Monetization
- Paid newsletters, community memberships, affiliate deals, and digital products bring multiple revenue streams.
- Use analytics to see which strategies (topics, post types, share styles) drive growth and conversions.
D. Always Build Your List
- Remind readers to subscribe (and upgrade) with clear CTAs.
- Export and back up your list regularly—it’s YOUR business value.
Hyperlinks and Markdown Blog Best Practices (for Substack and Beyond)
- Use clear, descriptive anchor text for all links.
- Open important external links in a new tab for better reader retention.
- Highlight features or sections with bold and (purposeful) italics—but don’t overdo.
- Integrate social sharing links prominently (top, bottom, and within natural post flow).
- Use Substack hyperlinks for all direct platform references.
SEO Keywords for Dominating Substack Searches in 2025
To help readers (and Google) find you, integrate these high-intent SEO keywords throughout your content:
- Substack vs Medium
- Best Medium alternatives 2025
- Monetize writing online
- How to grow on Substack
- Substack social media features
- Substack vs Medium monetization
- Substack Notes explained
- Substack recommendations
- Email newsletter platform comparison
- Building an engaged writing community
Conclusion: Substack Is 2025’s Best Platform for Writers Ready to Build, Earn, and Engage
Let’s keep it real: If you want total control, richer social features, direct audience connection, and powerful monetization as a digital creator or indie writer in 2025, Substack is where the momentum, money, and community are moving. Medium is still invaluable for beginners and SEO-driven virality, but its engagement model, payout algorithms, and lack of audience ownership mean you’re always one rumor away from disappearing juice.
Substack is truly the “social media” of writing platforms now—interactive, share-loving, monetization-first, and designed for long-term brand growth. Whether you’re a veteran blogger looking to finally own your list (and your livelihood), or a side-hustling storyteller eager to build connections beyond a fleeting “clap,” the answer is clear: bet on Substack.
Ready to take the leap? Sign up for Substack and start transforming your words into wealth and your audience into a vibrant social community—before everyone else catches on!
Further Reading and Power Tools:
- Substack platform intro
- Substack social features guide
- Advanced monetization strategies on Substack
- Comparing Substack and Medium (2025)
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