Medium
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if you read tech writing almost daily or want Medium's built-in audience as a writer.
New check
Comparison
Medium vs Hashnode
Medium lands on Depends, and Hashnode lands on Worth it.
Hashnode
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a developer or small startup that wants a free dev blog on your own domain with minimal setup.
| Compare | Medium | Hashnode |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Worth it |
| Best for | Developers tracking engineering trends | Developers starting a personal blog |
| Who it's not for | Teams needing docs on their own domain | Non-technical writers wanting plug-and-play publishing |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.14 | Published security page; one open-redirect vulnerability reported on via Open Bug Bounty. |
| Support quality | Complaint pages; no strong support signals | No evidence in sources reviewed |
| Public sentiment | Users are split: many praise Medium as a daily learning resource, while others question the subscription's worth and the platform's direction.³ | Users praise the free, developer-friendly start, but a visible minority has left citing control and migration pain. |
| Biggest gotcha | Lock-in: leaving means rebuilding your audience from scratch elsewhere11 | Leaving is the hard part: JSON export doesn't cleanly carry images to a new platform |
Pick Medium when
- Developers tracking engineering trends
- Frequent readers of tech essays
- Writers wanting a built-in audience
- Casual learners who read daily
When Medium is not a fit
- Teams needing docs on their own domain
- Anyone building an owned email list
- Writers needing design control or custom domains
- Occasional readers who won't recoup $50-60/year
Pick Hashnode when
- Developers starting a personal blog
- Startup engineering blogs
- Own-domain SEO from day one
- Technical writers wanting community distribution
When Hashnode is not a fit
- Non-technical writers wanting plug-and-play publishing
- Content businesses needing full design and content control
- Anyone who may want to migrate platforms later
- Marketing teams needing a multi-author enterprise CMS
Sources
- An Honest Review of the Medium Publishing Platformwritersdigest.comreview
- Medium review 2025 (TechRadar)techradar.comreview
- Trustpilot reviews of medium.comtrustpilot.comreview
- Why Most Readers Should Cancel and Save $50-60/yrlowermysubs.comreview
- Blunt Talk About The New Friends Of Medium Tierlindac.substack.comreview
- 6 Years On Medium . Honest Reviewmedium.comreview
- Become a Medium Member (Help Center)help.medium.comofficial
- Medium Membership pagemedium.comofficial
- Medium raises $50M Series C (TechCrunch)techcrunch.comnews
- Medium valued at $400M (TNW)thenextweb.comnews
- Self-Hosted Medium Alternativesalternativeto.netreview
- Medium customer service complaints (PissedConsumer)medium.pissedconsumer.comreview
- Is Medium Still Worth It? (Reddit)reddit.comreview
- Product security page (faun.pub)faun.pubsecurity
- Hashnode homepagehashnode.comofficial
- Why I use and recommend Hashnodeadiati.comreview