Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Google Play Books VS Medium

Compare Google Play Books VS Medium and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Google Play Books logo Google Play Books

Google Play Books lets you search, preview, and buy millions of books using Google Book Search.

Medium logo Medium

Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.
  • Google Play Books Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-10-10
  • Medium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08

Google Play Books features and specs

  • Extensive Library
    Google Play Books offers a vast collection of books, including bestsellers, new releases, classics, and niche genres.
  • Cross-Platform Accessibility
    Books purchased can be accessed on multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, and computers, ensuring a seamless reading experience.
  • Offline Reading
    Users can download books for offline reading, which is convenient for travel or areas with poor internet connectivity.
  • Integration with Google Services
    Google Play Books integrates well with other Google services, allowing easy syncing and access via a Google account.
  • Customizable Reading Experience
    Offers various reading modes and customizable settings including font size, type, and background color to enhance user comfort.

Possible disadvantages of Google Play Books

  • Limited International Availability
    Some books and features may not be available in all countries, restricting access for international users.
  • Potential DRM Limitations
    Digital Rights Management (DRM) can limit the ability to share or transfer books between different platforms and devices.
  • Higher Cost
    No subscription model is available; books must be purchased individually, which can be more expensive compared to subscription-based services.
  • User Interface Complexity
    Some users may find the interface less intuitive compared to more straightforward e-reader applications.
  • Dependence on Google Ecosystem
    The service works best within the Google ecosystem, which may not be ideal for users heavily invested in other platforms.

Medium features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Medium offers an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple for anyone to start writing and publishing content without any technical knowledge.
  • Built-in Audience
    The platform has a large and active user base, so new content has the potential to reach a wide audience quickly.
  • Publishing Tools
    Medium provides versatile publishing tools that support text, images, and various media formats, which helps in creating rich and engaging content.
  • SEO Benefits
    Articles posted on Medium tend to rank well in search engine results, thanks to the platform's high domain authority.
  • Community and Interaction
    Medium encourages reader engagement through comments, claps, and highlights, fostering a sense of community among writers and readers.

Possible disadvantages of Medium

  • Monetization
    While Medium has a Partner Program, it may not be as lucrative as other methods of monetization available on independent blogging platforms.
  • Control and Customization
    Medium offers limited customization options compared to dedicated blog platforms like WordPress, restricting how you can brand and personalize your blog.
  • Content Ownership
    By publishing on Medium, you agree to their terms and conditions, which may include giving up some control over how your content is used and distributed.
  • Paywall Issues
    Some articles are placed behind a paywall, which might limit the reach of your content if you want it to be freely accessible to everyone.
  • Dependency on Platform
    Relying solely on Medium means that any changes to the platform's policies or algorithms can directly impact your reach and engagement.

Analysis of Google Play Books

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Google Play Books is a good option for people looking for a flexible and extensive digital library with easy access and user-friendly features.

Why this product is good

  • Google Play Books is considered a good platform because it offers a vast collection of ebooks and audiobooks, allowing users to access a wide variety of genres and authors. It has a user-friendly interface that syncs across devices, enabling seamless switching between reading on different platforms. Google Play Books also provides features like note-taking, text highlighting, and adjustable reading modes, enhancing the reading experience.

Recommended for

    Google Play Books is recommended for avid readers who enjoy digital formats and want access to a broad selection of books across different genres. It's also suitable for people who prefer reading across multiple devices and those who appreciate customizable reading settings.

Analysis of Medium

Overall verdict

  • Medium can be considered a good platform for those who enjoy a wide array of content and appreciate quality writing on diverse subjects. However, the value of Medium depends on individual preferences and whether the topics and writing styles align with what the reader is looking for.

Why this product is good

  • Medium offers a diverse range of articles from both professional and amateur writers, providing readers with numerous perspectives on various topics. Its clean user interface and ease of use make it an appealing platform for both writers and readers. The platform also supports monetization for writers, allowing them to earn from their content.

Recommended for

    Medium is recommended for avid readers seeking a variety of topics ranging from personal development to technology. It's also ideal for writers looking to publish their work to a broad audience and potentially earn revenue through the platform's Partner Program.

Google Play Books videos

Google Play Books Review | Is Publishing on Google Play Worth It?

More videos:

  • Review - Google Play Books for Android Review
  • Review - Pros and Cons of Google Play Books

Medium videos

Medium Review - with Tom Vasel

More videos:

  • Review - Starting a blog on Medium.com? Watch this FIRST.
  • Review - The Medium Review
  • Review - The Medium - Before You Buy
  • Review - I recommend: The Medium (Review)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google Play Books and Medium)
eBook Reader
100 100%
0% 0
Blogging
0 0%
100% 100
Ebooks
100 100%
0% 0
Blogging Platform
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google Play Books and Medium

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Medium Reviews

19 Best WordPress Alternatives in 2025
Medium focuses on thoughtful content and community engagement. It offers a user-friendly interface, a large readership base, and various features for writers and readers.
Source: www.pixpa.com
25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Medium is an online platform that was created in 2012 by Evan Williams. It is a place for people to share their thoughts and ideas on various topics. Medium has about 100 million monthly visitors, which makes it one of the most popular platforms for publishing articles.
Source: forgefusion.io
10 Best Medium Alternatives for Reading and Publishing
From thе simplicity of Ghost to thе vеrsatility of Substack, thеrе’s a homе for еvеryonе seeking great Medium alternatives. Thеsе altеrnativеs offеr a world of possibilitiеs for rеadеrs and authors alikе. Whеthеr you’rе in sеarch of a uniquе platform to sharе your thoughts or want to read frеsh contеnt, thеsе platforms havе somеthing spеcial to offеr. All in all, we...
9 Best Medium Alternatives for Making Money With Your Writing in 2023
Substack and Medium differ primarily in their monetization methods. Medium pays creators based on reader engagement, while Substack enables writers to monetize directly through paid subscriptions to their newsletters. This business model allows Substack users to build a direct relationship with their readers via their email inboxes, whereas Medium interactions primarily...
How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform in 2021 (Compared)
Medium works much like a social networking site where you can create an account and start publishing your articles. After you sign up, you’ll have a profile address like this: https://medium.com/@yourname. But you cannot use your own domain.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Medium seems to be a lot more popular than Google Play Books. While we know about 2595 links to Medium, we've tracked only 108 mentions of Google Play Books. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google Play Books mentions (108)

  • How a Cable Changed Finance
    You also will find a ton of contemporary (and copyright free) books on https://books.google.com/ in many languages, which I find way more amazing to read today than books looking back on that time with today's mindset and all... A favorite of mine is "Lebenserinnerungen", by Werner von Siemens, 1892: https://www.google.ch/books/edition/Lebenserinnerungen/SkIOAAAAYAAJ It's a lovely topic to dive into and adjust... - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search
    > The fact is that I think that there is not much written word, to actually train a sensible model on. A lot of books don't have OCRed scans, or a digital version. https://books.google.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Tell HN: Correct Result for "Google Books" in Bing but Not in Google
    Searching for "google books" in google leads to https://books.google.com/ which no longer allows you to read any of your books. https://play.google.com/books is the site to read your purchased books now. Google search does not show https://play.google.com/books in its results at all. Thought it was some weird personalization quirk, but seems others have had the same issue:... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Engineer Bob Novak talks about UFO propulsion and anti-gravity in a 1963 recording
    Please use google https://google.com , https://groups.google.com , news.google.com/newspapers, books.google.com, scholar.google.com , https://archive.org https://yandex.com (the only image reverse search which actually works, google's got broken). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Google Only Giving Book Results After Update
    I have no idea why, but ever since this new update, Chrome has become completely unusable. Every single search I make only retrieves books.google.com links. Nothing near relevant to what I want. I am not sure how to fix this issue. All help is greatly appreciated! Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Medium mentions (2595)

  • Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2025)
    Location: Spain Remote: Yes, only remote Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Angular, Rust, PHP, TypeScript, RxJS, NgRx Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/newmanoz/ , https://jamm.dev/resume.pdf Email: normandiggs@gmail.com , oz@jamm.dev I have over a decade of experience with Angular, and I teach other developers how to use every new feature, providing clear explanations to the Angular community through my... - Source: Hacker News / about 16 hours ago
  • Why DeepSeek is cheap at scale but expensive to run locally
    This is really not true my friend. I would love to help you if I had some more time, but let me look for a tutorial. Because the FineWeb Dataset is already super good. You can train 7B or 32B Param models at home (if you have $1-2M). The >600B Param model isn't really using all the data effectively, but with a MacMini Farm you can also train that one at home. Here's the easy way:... - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
  • Show HN: Synchronize AI coding–agent knowledge files across your project
    Article: https://medium.com/@yujiisobe/introducing-knowhub-share-ai-assistant-rules-across-repos-17fb6b09c114. - Source: Hacker News / 1 day ago
  • Show HN: MCP server that compresses and serves MySQL schema data
    I built an MCP server that compresses and serves MySQL schema information. When you ask an AI to write MySQL queries, you must give it the project’s schema. In very large projects a single database can have hundreds of tables. If you feed the whole schema dump to the AI, the context becomes too long and the request often fails. To fix this, I thought an MCP server could return a neatly compressed schema so SQL... - Source: Hacker News / 3 days ago
  • HTAP Databases Are Dead
    I have compiled the following table to compare OLTP and OLAP https://medium.com/@orefalo_66733/oltp-vs-olap-fb0441f57259. - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google Play Books and Medium, you can also consider the following products

Amazon Kindle - Amazon Kindle software lets you read ebooks on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, and...

Ghost - Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

calibre - Ebook manager, viewer & converter

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

FBReader - FBReader is an e-book reader for various platforms. Features:

Tumblr - A feature rich and free blog hosting platform offering professional and fully customizable templates, bookmarklets, photos, mobile apps, and social network integration.