In the earlier part of this blog series, we discussed industry views on different writing platforms, mainly Substack, Medium and Blog. When we shared these insights with our community, we got varied and interesting user experiences for all 3 platforms. Here’s a sneak peek into our community’s thought process.

Tanvi Agarwal feels Medium is interactive and easy to use

Tanvi started using Medium in 2020, while learning data science, to strengthen her understanding by sharing what she learned. Medium felt interactive and easy to use, allowing her to focus more on writing rather than the platform itself. 

It also gave her access to a wider audience interested in technical content, making it a natural choice to begin her writing career. 

She continued writing on Medium because getting published in well-known publications such as Analytics Vidhya and The Startup helped her reach a larger audience and lend credibility to her work.

Managing all platforms becomes tedious for Ambica Gulati

She used to write on Medium and does have some stories there. Some low points made her inactive on Medium, as it's someone else's property and the partner programme wasn't available in India. Though it does have good articles on tech, self-help and writing but not much for travel and culture.

Medium is for global perspectives. She wants to know how people in other parts of the world react to the changes. In fact, the high point was that one of her posts on green communities was picked up by the editors for circulation in their newsletters.

She has a profile on Substack as well because all senior intellectuals are there; it's very interesting to know global views and she has subscribed to the newsletters and reads them often.

But again, it was becoming difficult for her to manage all platforms alone and feels that one's own website does give you the ability to create more.

The contentment with Blogger and WordPress

While the world is catching up with new and different platforms coming up in the writing industry, our community members, Padmajha and Pradeep, have been using Blogger and WordPress since 2008 and 2004, respectively. 

In the future, they may try to write on Medium or Substack.

Amrita Basu Misra assures Indian authors can earn via Medium

She used both Substack and Medium for a very long time but intermittently and not consistently.

Recently, she started using Medium again because it invited her to become a Medium-verified author, and she wanted to see what had changed. Interestingly, it now allows Indian authors to earn through their program. The Stripe platform they use for payment didn't have an easy setup for India previously which limited her writing there.

She did it intermittently but she couldn’t understand how to do it right.

Substack’s simplicity impresses Shinjini 

She experimented with both Medium and Substack, but has been on Substack the longest.  She chose it initially more as a newsletter platform, but stayed for the simplicity of publishing there. She continues writing on Substack because it’s easy. She doesn’t have to worry about hosting, formatting blog posts, adding video, etc. More importantly, she doesn’t really have to worry about SEO either. 

The only things she needs to focus on are the writing and a bit of promotion, which frees up a lot of her time. She also likes the fact that she has control over her subscribers; if she ever chooses to move, she can take them with her, unlike on the blog, where she doesn’t really know her readers. So if she ever changes the domain for any reason, she’ll be starting from scratch. 

Pragun explains more benefits for the same amount on Medium

She chose Medium, as it seemed superior for reaching a large, built-in audience; a social blogging platform with an extensive internal audience. Here, you can be found by accident from a search result on Google, because Medium is very well organised and SEO friendly. Every post, article, or photo is indexed and will be found over time. Paid members of Medium can read your articles, which you can't do on Substack.

You have to subscribe to each one separately on Substack, which means that if you want to read 10 authors per month, you have to pay 50 per month. 

On Medium, for the same amount, you get access for a whole year, for everything on the platform!

The claps on medium are encouraging and also the highlight feature helps with criticism.

Seethalakshmi finds WordPress website consistent and reliable

She has been using WordPress for about six years now and runs a self-hosted website, and it’s been her primary platform throughout. She has also tried Medium (and still does), even before it was monetised in India. She mostly uses Medium for reading long-form content and she really enjoys the prompts from various publications; that’s something she genuinely likes about the platform.

When Medium introduced monetisation in India, she joined the Partner Program and started earning. However, during a period when there was a surge of AI-generated content, stricter checks were implemented using bots, and, unfortunately, her account was revoked even though she hadn’t used AI in my writing. In fact, just before that, several of her articles had been published in multiple Medium publications after going through editorial review. That experience was something she couldn’t quite understand or come to terms with.

But she still uses Medium occasionally. She likes its clean interface and how easy it makes structuring content. It also helps with visibility. She has noticed her work reaching an international audience, and it also contributes to SEO. That said, given how frequently algorithms and rules change on such platforms, her most reliable and preferred space remains her WordPress website. It has been consistent and completely in her control.

She focuses mainly on SEO-optimised content, and since she’s not very active on social media, this approach has helped her attract clients organically.

So yes, WordPress is always her first preference, and other platforms like Medium are more of a bonus for her.

Jaideep Khanduja believes that your writing platform shapes your thoughts

As correctly said, he realised that platforms shape how you write but a personal blog allows you to discover how you truly think.

The right platform depends on your writing goals

The experiences shared by different writers make one thing clear that there is no one-size-fits-all platform for creators. Some content creators love reading long-form content and enjoy the prompts from various publications on Medium. 

While Substack is a hit among those who don’t have to worry about hosting, formatting blog posts, adding video, SEO etc. Likewise, Blogger and WordPress remain favourites for those who love full control over their content and enjoy their personal space.

Ultimately, the right platform depends on a writer’s goals, whether its reach, ease of use, income, or creative independence. Many creators find themselves experimenting across platforms before discovering what works best for them.

If you have any thoughts on how writing on different platforms shapes your personality as a content creator, tell us in the comments below.