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Medium VS Kickstarter

Compare Medium VS Kickstarter and see what are their differences

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A multilingual content platform supporting 200+ languages. Authors, readers, and translation investors create value together. featured
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Contents:
  1. ยป Base Details
  2. ยป Videos
  3. ยป Reviews
  4. ยป Alternatives

Medium logo Medium

Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

Kickstarter logo Kickstarter

Kickstarter is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects. A home for film, music, art, theater, games, comics, design, photography, and more.
  • Medium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08
  • Kickstarter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-05

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.

Kickstarter features and specs

  • Funding Opportunity
    Kickstarter provides a platform for entrepreneurs, artists, and creators to secure funding for their projects from a broad audience without giving away equity or taking on debt.
  • Market Validation
    Kickstarter allows creators to test the market demand for their product or concept before full-scale production, offering insights into potential success.
  • Community Engagement
    The platform fosters a community of backers who are interested and invested in the success of your project, often providing valuable feedback and promotional support.
  • Creative Freedom
    Creators retain full control over their projects and are not subjected to constraints imposed by traditional investors or funding sources.
  • Publicity
    Successful Kickstarter campaigns often attract media attention, which can further boost a project's visibility and attract more backers.

Possible disadvantages of Kickstarter

  • All-or-Nothing Funding Model
    If a campaign does not reach its funding goal within the set timeframe, no funds are collected, which can be a significant drawback for creators.
  • High Competition
    With numerous projects vying for attention on Kickstarter, it can be challenging to stand out and secure the necessary funding.
  • Platform Fees
    Kickstarter charges a 5% fee on successfully funded projects, in addition to payment processing fees, which can reduce the total amount of funds received.
  • Intensive Campaign Management
    Running a successful campaign requires significant time and effort, including marketing, communication with backers, and managing logistics.
  • Risk of Failure
    There is no guarantee that a project will be funded or that it will be completed successfully even if funded, which can harm the creatorโ€™s reputation.

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.

Analysis of Kickstarter

Overall verdict

  • Kickstarter is generally considered good for both creators seeking funding for their projects and backers looking to support creative endeavors. However, potential backers should be aware of the risks involved, as not all projects meet their goals or deliver on promises. Overall, its innovative approach to crowdfunding has had a significant positive impact on creative industries.

Why this product is good

  • Kickstarter is a popular crowdfunding platform that allows creators to launch projects in various categories such as art, technology, music, and more. It is well-regarded for its ease of use, community engagement, and the ability to connect creators directly with backers who are interested in supporting unique and innovative projects. The platform is especially appealing because it provides a space for niche projects that may not find funding through traditional means.

Recommended for

  • Creators with unique and innovative project ideas seeking funding.
  • Individuals interested in supporting creative and emerging projects.
  • Entrepreneurs looking to validate their product idea through community support.
  • Artists, musicians, and designers seeking an audience and financial backing for their work.

Medium videos

+ Add

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)

Kickstarter videos

+ Add

Testing 5 KICKSTARTER Products!

More videos:

  • Review - Best of Worst Crowdfunding - Drunk Tech Review - Indiegogo & Kickstarter
  • Review - WORST $1,000,000 camera: Yashica Y35 Review (Kickstarter fail)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Medium and Kickstarter)

Medium

Kickstarter

Blogging
100 100%
Blogging
0% 0
Crowdfunding
0 0%
Crowdfunding
100% 100
Blogging Platform
100 100%
Blogging Platform
0% 0
Fundraising And Donation Management
0 0%
Fundraising And Donation Management
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Medium and Kickstarter. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

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 thะต simplicity of Ghost to thะต vะตrsatility of Substack, thะตrะตโ€™s a homะต for ะตvะตryonะต seeking great Medium alternatives. Thะตsะต altะตrnativะตs offะตr a world of possibilitiะตs for rะตadะตrs and authors alikะต. Whะตthะตr youโ€™rะต in sะตarch of a uniquะต platform to sharะต your thoughts or want to read frะตsh contะตnt, thะตsะต platforms havะต somะตthing spะตcial to offะตr. All in all, we...
Source: www.geeksforgeeks.org
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...
Source: www.authorityhacker.com
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, youโ€™ll have a profile address like this: https://medium.com/@yourname. But you cannot use your own domain.
Source: www.wpbeginner.com

Kickstarter Reviews

8 Best Patreon Alternatives & Competitors For 2023 (Comparison)
Kickstarter is probably the most well-known crowdfunding platform in the world. Itโ€™s a good alternative to Patreon if youโ€™re trying to raise money for one-time creative endeavors, but it doesnโ€™t support memberships, so itโ€™s not suitable for collecting recurrent donations.
Source: bloggingwizard.com
11 Patreon Alternatives for Audience Monetization in 2023
This concept makes Kickstarter more suited for creators who want to fund a big project rather than foster a community or make content long term.
Source: www.uscreen.tv
12+ Brilliant Patreon Alternatives to Monetize Your Audience
Kickstarter helps breathe life into projects. Itโ€™s ideal for films, music, arts, theaters, games, comics, designs, photography, and so on.
Source: blog.appsumo.com
6 Patreon Alternatives for Your Startup in 2019
Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding site that started in 2009. Like Patreon, there are plenty of Kickstarter competitors on the market, but it still boasts over 16.3 million backers and $4 billion in pledges.
Source: sumup.com
10 Best Patreon Alternatives
Kickstarter is a more exclusive platform compared to Patreon, so small-time creators may want to carefully consider this before they join. However, it has had more than 186,000 projects successfully funded by the end of 2019 and more than $5.1 billion in pledges, making it a worthy alternative to Patreon.
Source: rigorousthemes.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Medium seems to be a lot more popular than Kickstarter. While we know about 3077 links to Medium, we've tracked only 23 mentions of Kickstarter. 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.

Medium mentions (3077)

  • Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2026)
    Io_uring, concurrency, TCP, mmap, systems programming Rรฉsumรฉ/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dQrgGxvun68WMty-m7A-wsR7KF3gxKdU/view?usp=sharing Email: ashishrathour1102@gmail.com GitHub: https://github.com/AasheeshLikePanner Backend and infrastructure engineer focused on systems programming in Go. I build low-level infrastructure from scratch and benchmark it honestly. Recent projects: vase โ€” a pub/sub broker... - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
  • GLM5.2 on AMD MI355X at 2626 tok/s/node at over 2x lower cost than Blackwell
    Not a new phenomena - performance per dollar has been fairly steadily exponentialling since 1900 or so 1900 - 2010 https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/exponential-growth-of-computing 1939 - 2023 https://medium.com/@timventura/kurzweils-law-for-the-ai-age-b00e82c84d5c. - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
  • The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing
    QB House and its many imitators would like a word. It's a genuine mystery to me why these "fast haircut" chains are ubiquitous in Asia but unknown in the West. https://medium.com/@justin.tan/qb-house-back-to-basics-business-model-innovation-in-the-mens-haircutting-industry-c23893095e13. - Source: Hacker News / 3 days ago
  • Fable 5 Is Back
    It has. We can see 3.5 started with text adventure games https://medium.com/@duncanariey/using-chatgpt-to-make-the-ittiest-bittiest-text-based-adventure-game-f642e8da4dad and with 4.0 it moved up to pong https://x.com/skirano/status/1635736107949195278 As the generations increase, so too has the complexity of the games it can one-shot. - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
  • Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2026)
    Location: San Diego, CA Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Maybe. Technologies: I'm a full-stack growth marketer with enough coding chops to prototype MVPs. Worked in the blockchain sector for the past 7 years and would like to transition into an AI-enabled consumer product. Some of my writing (before AI/LLMs) straight from the dome: https://medium.com/@dilanka Resume/Work: https://tinyurl.com/bdzez9cv Email:... - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
View more

Kickstarter mentions (23)

  • kickstarter.com
    Hello everyone! Could you just quick look on our project on kickstarter.com. We are trying to reach goal. Every view and like is necessary for us. We are committed to delivering exceptional, sustainably sourced dried meat snacks that satisfy our customers' cravings for wholesome, flavorful, and convenient options.Our customers are health-conscious consumers, outdoor enthusiasts, individuals seeking... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Local marketing tips? (KS feedback appreciated, too!)
    Hi, not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but your link redirects to kickstarter.com. How did you target your IG ads? Source: over 3 years ago
  • Accountquestion - backerkit.com and kickstarter.com
    But unfortunately I just realized that I don't have an kickstarter.com account. Is this normal? I think so, just checked my mails. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Do you feel ALONE in the entrepreneur journey?
    Crowdfunding website similar to kickstarter.com. A LOT OF WORK even with offshore contractors. Source: over 3 years ago
  • What do you do with a deck that just won't shuffle well?
    For inspiration, you'll be amazed how many great decks are availableโ€”at a fraction of Tarot prices. Check out rareplayingcards.com and ellusionist.com and even kickstarter.com for new campaigns. There's also a Reddit: r/playingcards worth seeing. And incredible range of themes & designs are available. Source: almost 4 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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.

Indiegogo - As the largest global site for fundraisers, Indiegogo helps individuals, groups and non-profits raise money online to make their ideas a reality through crowdfunding. It's easy to start fundraising today.

DEV.to - Where software engineers connect, build their resumes, and grow.

Patreon - Patreon enables fans to give ongoing support to their favorite creators.

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.

Charitable - A WordPress donation plugin that gives you full control over your fundraising experience.

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