Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Jekyll VS Medium

Compare Jekyll VS Medium and see what are their differences

Jekyll logo Jekyll

Jekyll is a simple, blog aware, static site generator.

Medium logo Medium

Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.
  • Jekyll Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17
  • Medium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08

Jekyll features and specs

  • Speed and Performance
    Jekyll generates static websites, which means they load faster compared to dynamic websites. No database queries are required, reducing server overhead and improving performance.
  • Security
    Static sites have a smaller attack surface compared to dynamic sites because they don't rely on databases or server-side code. This means fewer vectors for potential compromises.
  • Simplicity
    Jekyll setups are relatively straightforward, especially if you are comfortable writing in Markdown and HTML. This can make it easier to manage and maintain your website.
  • Integration with GitHub Pages
    Jekyll is designed to work seamlessly with GitHub Pages, allowing you to host your website for free with automatic deployment directly from your GitHub repository.
  • Customizability
    Jekyll allows for extensive customization through its support for plugins, themes, and templates. This can be helpful to create a unique look and functionality for your website.

Possible disadvantages of Jekyll

  • Learning Curve
    While Jekyll is simpler than some other static site generators, it does require some familiarity with the command line, version control (Git), and YAML configuration.
  • Build Time
    For large websites, the build times can become lengthy, which can slow down the development process, especially if you are making frequent updates.
  • Lack of Real-time Content Updates
    Since Jekyll generates static sites, real-time content updates (e.g., comments, dynamic forms) aren't natively supported and require third-party services or additional tooling.
  • Dependence on Ruby
    Jekyll is built with Ruby, so you will need to have Ruby installed and occasionally deal with Ruby-specific issues. This might be a drawback for developers who are not familiar with the Ruby ecosystem.
  • Limited Built-in Functionality
    While Jekyll is very flexible, it doesn’t have built-in support for many features out of the box, which might require you to manually implement or rely on plugins.

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.

Jekyll videos

Getting Started With Jekyll, The Static Site Generator

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 Jekyll and Medium)
CMS
44 44%
56% 56
Blogging
22 22%
78% 78
Blogging Platform
14 14%
86% 86
Static Site Generators
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Jekyll Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Jekyll is a static site generator often used to create blogs and websites, similar to Gitbook in its ability to generate documentation from markdown files. Jekyll is built in Ruby and is known for its flexibility and ease of use. It also has a large community and a wide variety of plugins and themes available. Jekyll's main advantage is that it is highly customizable,...
Source: www.archbee.com
11 Popular Free And Open Source WordPress CMS alternatives in 2021
Unlike some listed alternatives, Jekyll is also a static site generator so it lays in the same category. It uses Ruby and we would say it's simpler, free, and open-source CMS software.
Source: medevel.com
10 static site generators to watch in 2021
Perhaps most conveniently described as Jekyll implemented with JavaScript rather than Ruby, Eleventy has now moved beyond that while retaining a clear and simple on-ramp, and only shipping to the browser what you tell it too. As with Jekyll and Hugo, no JavaScript frameworks are auto-baked in.
Source: www.netlify.com
Hugo vs Jekyll: an Epic Battle of Static Site Generator Themes
Jekyll isn’t strict with its content location. It expects pages in the root of your site, and will build whatever’s there. Here’s how you might organize these pages in your Jekyll site root:
9 Reasons I Think Craft is the Best CMS on the Market Today
Craft CMS is simple, minimalistic, agile and has every capability a modern CMS framework needs. Over the past ten years we have worked with every CMS you could think of (Wordpress, Drupal, Rails+ActiveAdmin, Ghost, Weebly, DjangoCMS, Jekyll, Joomla, Tumblr, Squarespace, Expression Engine, Statamic, Blogger)… here are the reasons why we’ve landed firmly with Craft as our №1...
Source: hackernoon.com

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 Jekyll. While we know about 2556 links to Medium, we've tracked only 194 mentions of Jekyll. 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.

Jekyll mentions (194)

  • How to create a blog with Quartz, GitHub, and Cloudflare
    If you don't want to use Jekyll as your static site generator for GitHub Pages and you want to have a custom domain for your GitHub Pages. This post is for you! - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Blogging with Obsidian and Jekyll
    Jekyll is a static site generator that transforms Markdown files into a fully functional website. Everything is generated into plain HTML, which makes it simple to deploy on platforms like GitHub Pages. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Create a Blogging Platform With No Backend (Zero Hosting Fee)
    Obviously, there are a dozen choices for generating static websites (efficiently and quickly), from the classic Jekyll to the new Next.js. And you are good to go with any of them as long as your confident with it. I choose 11ty because:. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • It's easy to dev blog
    In your repository settings you need to turn on GitHub Pages to make it pull Jekyll content (that's the magic✨ default GitHub Pages build tool) from your GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • How to build a blog with NodeJS
    If you're looking to start a blog (or if you're thinking of redesigning yours although you haven't posted in 2 years), you'll stumble upon a lot of options and it can be incredibly daunting; and if you stumble with the newest Josh's post about his stack it is easy to feel overwhelmed with the shown stack. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
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Medium mentions (2556)

  • Apple Shortcuts is falling into "the automation gap"
    The most useful Shortcut I've written on macOS is a simple 'toggle dark mode'. It's very simple and works as a good 'first task' if you've never used the app before. I wrote up the process here: https://medium.com/@bobbyjack/how-to-toggle-macos-dark-mode-with-a-shortcut-ef804dc6925f?sk=3fe30ee1ed98bfdf715c473bc9225a4d Overall, Shortcuts feels like a nice polished app, but it's definitely severely lacking compared... - Source: Hacker News / about 9 hours ago
  • Unlocking Opportunities: How to Become a Sponsored Developer
    Case 1: Open Source Project Funding A developer launches an open source tool and documents the journey on platforms like GitHub. Once the project garners traction, they create detailed project documentation and publish blog posts on Medium to attract sponsorship. They also integrate GitHub Sponsors to secure recurring financial support. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Making a Video Game with AI by Just Typing English
    It's tiresome to keep reading, "I built an app/game in an hour" when this is simply not true. This person built a demo of a single level. That's very cool to show your friends, but it's not a game and it can't ship, be updated, go in an app store, be monetized, etc. I love agentic coding probably more than the next guy and write about it extensively[0], but it's an insult to those of humans doing this real work... - Source: Hacker News / 1 day ago
  • Spain-Portugal blackouts: what happened
    In a system of micro-inverters, they need something to synchronize with. There needs to be a "truth" reference, so they can push their power onto the grid by slightly leading the phase of that. If some critical mass of PV micro-inverters exceeds the traditional generators, they'll push so hard that the grid itself will change phase, and blackouts are the result. One possible solution might be to use a better... - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
  • Crushing the Command Line with Amazon Q: Building a Medium to DEV.to Converter
    I am submitting an idea for this challenge. Crushing the Command Line Build an automation with Amazon Q Developer CLI that makes your work easier, faster, or better. My idea is to create a tool to convert medium posts to dev.to markdown posts preserving the title heading, formatting and inline images the same way. Please give exact steps and prompts by referring to collection from promptz tool if you find... - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Jekyll and Medium, you can also consider the following products

Hugo - Hugo is a general-purpose website framework for generating static web pages.

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.

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.

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

GatsbyJS - Blazing-fast static site generator for React

Blogger - Publish your passions, your way. Create a unique and beautiful blog. It’s easy and free.