Which Is Better in 2025, Medium or Substack?
Examples from WOW-worthy Medium-Substack writers who became bestsellers with humor or income inequality stories
Which is better, Medium or Substack?
If you’ve also been wondering that, I understand. But also, it’s the wrong question because it’s like comparing apples and oranges.
For me, it’s not an either-or, it is an and. I’m writing on Medium and Substack. Both can be in one ecosystem. The two platforms fit together very well. They complement each other.
As I always say:
They fit together like peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and cookies, whatever you prefer.
Derek Hughes sees this too. With 21,000 Medium followers, he was the co-host of this year’s Medium-Substack Flywheel Bootcamp (will soon be available as an on-demand course). He shares his daily blog posts on Medium and repurposes his stuff on Substack. In addition, he’s building a community on Substack via Chat and Substack Notes as vehicles.
But let’s come back to me.
Who am I to tell you anything about Medium and Substack?
I used focus on Medium and published my daily blog there. Became a top 1,000 writer on Medium and now have 12,400 followers posting every now and then.
I’m also a Substack bestseller with 11,000 subscribers, 330+ paid subscribers and a Top 25 #Education publication globally.
In our 1:1 sessions, (part-time) writers often tell me:
Kristina, I don’t have the time, attention, the bandwidth to write on both sides.
But is this true?
I write on both sides. I’m a part-time creator with two little ones in the house, spending only about two to three hours in the cracks of time Janet Ridsdale (after I put my kids to bed, during lunch break, in the morning) on my online writing business.
I think Janis Ozolins hits the nail on the head:
Of course, you build and feed another platform, but Medium and Substack go together perfectly like peanut butter and jelly.
Build a Medium-Substack Funnel, I said
Ever heard of a marketing “funnel”?
For marketing guru Neil Patel a “funnel” “refers to the process a customer goes through to become aware of, evaluate, and eventually purchase a product or service.”
So what you can do is you can use Medium at the top of the funnel where you gain followers, because, of course, Medium wants to help you gain more followers — at least if you’re writing about the topics the platform prefers and gets paid members for.
If you help them to get new paid members, they’ll support you.
From there, I have my YouTube tutorials and interviews and the new Substack podcast where I amplify my interviews with top voices.
Medium would be at the top of the funnel and Substack at the bottom. However, it could also be the other way around, with Substack at the top and Medium at the bottom, depending on what you want.
As a marketing and brand manager, I believe that your email list is your most valuable asset in your business. And that’s why it’s so important and should take center stage.
Build a Medium-Substack-Hourglass, I say
However, after the Medium-Substack Flywheel Bootcamp with Derek where we showed our bootcampers the exact steps to build a flywheel, “a system where every piece of content you create feeds into the growth and momentum of the next piece of content”, I started reading “The Queen of Subscriptions”, Robbie Kellman Baxter.
It’s an hourglass!
(…) there is opportunity to grow the relationship after the moment of transaction, so the funnel becomes more of an hourglass, expanding from the narrowest point.and realized, the “funnel” is just the beginning.
I love that!
Let’s say a casual reader of follower from Medium becomes your subscriber.
That’s the moment when the real work starts. This is the moment to build trust and a relationship with your subriber which might be followed by your subscriber becoming a paid member.
Medium is my blog + Substack is my newsletter community
Your Substack is a publication on the internet. It can also be your website and newsletter, whose posts I can republish on Medium if I wish.
Often people ask me:
Kristina, can I republish my writing on multiple platforms?
Of course, you can. You own your content on both Medium and Substack. It’s your original piece, so you can share it. You could tweak it and then put it on Medium or vice versa. Also, you can set a canonical link.
But keep in mind:
There’s no such thing as duplicate content on the web, so you don’t have to set a canonical link.
When it comes to Notes you can take sentences people highlight on Medium and share them on Substack’s internal social media platform.
You’re ill-advised if you put all your eggs in one basket
In my opinion, it’s crucial to be on multiple platforms because you never know what might happen — the algorithm or rules could change, or the platform could shut down.
In 2022, when I started my Substack, I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. So, despite being a top writer on Medium with badges of honor in multiple categories and earning about $800 to $1,000+, I didn’t want to rely solely on Medium.
My marketing and branding background taught me that an email list is the most valuable asset in any business, so I wanted to focus on building that.
On Medium, you can also gain subscribers, but the focus is less on that. For me, with 12,400 followers, I have about 550+ subscribers.
On Substack, my goal is to gain more subscribers than followers on Medium because I know the follower metric is somewhat dead. With 11,700 subscribers, I am well on the way to achieving this goal in the first quarter of 2025.
Oh and I have already more followers on Substack than on Medium 🤣 About 19,000.
I want to invest in Substack’s subscriber model, where you get paid to be yourself. If people vote with their wallets, the money goes directly to you.
On Medium, it’s different — you never know exactly how much you’ll earn. There’s also the option for boosts, where people can nominate your stories for a big boost, and you might earn $100 instead of $10.
That’s fine, but if you have a family to feed and work as a part-time writer, a regular income is always better and healthier for your mental well-being.
However, you can earn money on both.
You can also take your Substack stories and republish them on Medium!
WOW-worthy examples from Income Inequality to Humor
For our rockstar session inside the Medium-Substack Flywheel Bootcamp I invited two female writing rockstars who write on both platforms:
Michelle Teheux - Income Inequalitiy
Tribe member Untrickled by Michelle Teheux started writing about income inequalitiy, feminism, politics, poverty and being a woman on Medium. Then she started writing on Substack last year and a few weeks back became a Substack bestseller!
Michelle on Substack - Bestseller since February 2025
Michelle on Medium - 16,000 followers
That’s what she shared:
Robin Wilding - Humor Bestseller and Top #70 globally
Humor writer Robin took the plunge and started on Substack last summer! She joined the Substack Kickstarter Bootcamp and Notes Bootcamp, crossed 600 subscribers during the cohort, and now is a bestseller on Substack.
On Medium - 18,000 followers
On Substack - Bestseller and Top 70 in #Humor globally
💃🏻💃🏻CONGRATS, Michelle and Robin! 💃🏻💃🏻
There are many more examples from writers covering:
movies
politics
parenting
writing
solo business
finances
…which I’m gonna feature in an upcoming story.
I hope this post can inspire you to start writing on both platforms 😃and create a Medium-Substack Hourglass Flywheel.
Many thanks again to all bootcampers! I’ll cover some more stories from the Bootcamp within the next weeks.
⭐⭐Substack Notes Kickstarter Bootcamp 2025 - 4 spots left⭐⭐
Today I’d love to invite you to grab one of the last 4 spots for this year’s Notes Kickstarter Bootcamp where we’ll focus on Notes, Substack’s internal social media network,
to be seen,
nurture our list,
write posts that pay,
repurpose Medium stories,
win new subscribers by showing up on Notes
I interviewed Linda Lebrun from Substack and will share all insights with the bootcampers next week.
The most important thing:
Have FUN!
So we’re gonna have a WELCOME party 🥳💃🏻
Rockstar guests and lots of surprises 🎁
5 days LIVE sessions, 60 - 90 minutes (hmmm, I always overdeliver) from March 3 - 7 for only $97 (I made it suuuuuper affordable for you to attend)
You’re gonna…
make yourself notable using Substack Notes
network with 40+ other awesome bootcampers
learn how to use audio, video, images to express yourself
win followers and learn how to convert them into (paid) subscribers
share your unique self to connect with others from around the world
everything you need about restacks, search, the new $-notification
write Notes that pay
have fun, enjoy the moment and have a writing dance party on Notes
I’m not sure I could take your class because of my difficulties hearing you when I watch your videos. I have a hearing impairment and for some voices I have to guess a lot.
It’s unfortunate because I write on both platforms and I’m learning.
Just in case you have captions or printed material I wanted to check?
I'm mostly focusing on substack at the moment and copying over some of my articles to medium. Currently not earning or growing much on medium but that's ok.