Medium alternatives

On Medium, writers earn through the Partner Program, which needs a $5 a month membership. Persumi, Substack, WordPress.com and Patreon are alternatives that differ on cost and features.

Medium membership costs $5 a month or $50 a year. Writers earn from member engagement through the Partner Program, which needs an active membership, and their stories that earn sit behind the paywall.

People look for an alternative when they want to earn without a membership, keep their stories free to read, or use a custom domain without a membership. The services below differ from Medium on at least one of these facts.

Sources: Become a Medium Member · Enroll in the Medium Partner Program · Medium Partner Program overview

4 alternatives to Medium

1.
Persumi
Our app

Writers who want to publish as several personas, with communities and AI features.

Price

Free plan with ads; Pro plan $14.99 a month.

Earning from readers

Not yet: paid subscribers and ad revenue share are planned.

Custom domain

Not yet: planned for the Business plan.

RSS feed

RSS and Atom feeds for your posts.

Listen to posts

AI audio of long-form posts, with a podcast RSS feed, on the Pro plan.

Separate identities

Unlimited public personas, and one unlisted persona on the Free plan.

Persumi vs Medium
2.
Substack

Writers and podcasters who want to earn from paid subscriptions.

Price

Free to publish, with any number of subscribers. source

Earning from readers

Paid subscriptions; Substack keeps 10%, plus Stripe fees. source

Custom domain

A one-time $50. source

RSS feed

Each publication has an RSS feed. source

Listen to posts

Text-to-speech in the Substack app, on selected publications in English. source

Separate identities

More than one publication under one account. source

Visit Substack
3.
WordPress.com

Writers who want a full website with a blog.

Price

Free plan, with WordPress.com ads shown to visitors; paid plans remove them. source

Earning from readers

Paid newsletters; the fee is 10% on the Free plan, down to 0% on Commerce, plus Stripe fees. source

Custom domain

Free for one year with an annual or longer paid plan. source

RSS feed

Every public site has an RSS feed built in. source

Visit WordPress.com
4.
Patreon

Creators who want paid memberships for their fans.

Price

Free to start; you pay only when you earn. source

Earning from readers

Memberships and one-time payments; Patreon keeps 10%, plus payment fees. source

RSS feed

Podcast episodes are distributed through RSS. source

Visit Patreon

Persumi is our app, so it comes first. The facts about the other services are from their own pages, checked on 15 November 2026; prices are in US dollars. Each "source" link opens the page that states the fact. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].