Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Medium VS OctoberCMS

Compare Medium VS OctoberCMS and see what are their differences

Medium logo Medium

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

OctoberCMS logo OctoberCMS

October CMS is a free and open source content management system (CMS) that is self hosted. Written in PHP and using the Laravel application framework, October CMS allows web developers to create dynamic web sites.
  • Medium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08
  • OctoberCMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-16

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.

OctoberCMS features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    OctoberCMS offers a clean and intuitive admin interface that makes it easy for users to manage content without a steep learning curve.
  • Extendable with Plugins
    The platform supports a wide range of plugins to add functionalities, making it highly extendable and customizable to meet diverse project needs.
  • Reliable Performance
    Built on top of the Laravel PHP framework, OctoberCMS inherits its robust performance and security features.
  • Flat-File System
    Instead of using a traditional database system, OctoberCMS utilizes a flat-file system that can be simpler for certain types of projects and environments.
  • Active Community
    OctoberCMS has a supportive community and well-documented resources, which can assist developers in solving issues and improving their skills.

Possible disadvantages of OctoberCMS

  • Learning Curve for Developers
    Despite its user-friendly interface, developers may face a learning curve due to unique conventions and the integration with Laravel.
  • Limited Marketplace
    While the plugin ecosystem is growing, it is not as extensive as some other CMS platforms, which might require custom development for certain features.
  • Frequent Updates
    Regular updates can be both a pro and con; they ensure security and performance improvements but may also cause compatibility issues with existing sites.
  • Relatively Small Community
    The community is growing but is still smaller compared to other major CMS platforms, which can limit third-party support and community-driven enhancements.
  • Commercial Licensing
    The platform has shifted towards a commercial model for certain features, which may introduce additional costs for developers or enterprises looking for full functionality.

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.

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)

OctoberCMS videos

OctoberCMS For Rapid Website Creation

More videos:

  • Review - OctoberCMS - Susana Santos

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Medium and OctoberCMS)
Blogging
98 98%
2% 2
CMS
93 93%
7% 7
Blogging Platform
98 98%
2% 2
Productivity
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 Medium and OctoberCMS

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...
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, youโ€™ll have a profile address like this: https://medium.com/@yourname. But you cannot use your own domain.

OctoberCMS Reviews

We have no reviews of OctoberCMS yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Medium seems to be a lot more popular than OctoberCMS. While we know about 3077 links to Medium, we've tracked only 8 mentions of OctoberCMS. 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 / 3 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 / 1 day 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 / 2 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 / 3 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 / 3 days ago
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OctoberCMS mentions (8)

  • Why is laravel so culty?
    It's not a WordPress clone but I've been wanting to check out October CMS for a while and just noticed this Twill project that looks like it would be along the same lines. Source: about 3 years ago
  • best php-based cms/tech choice
    Beside Symfony there is Laravel Framework , I will not go into deep difference between this frameworks as it really is just taste of what your team likes more (active record vs datamapper, facade/helpers vs dependency injection, blade vs twig, ...), as already mention above this kind of CMS make sense if Website is just one part of your application and you have to build more then just a simple digital business... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Look for direction, wanting to make websites for clients.
    How comfortable are you with learning PHP? WordPress is the obvious choice due to it's popularity (but with it moving towards a full-site editing experience it isn't as fun to work with anymore IMO but that's just me). You could also look into things like Statamic or October CMS which are supposed to be very nice to work with as I believe they're both Laravel based. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Building a blog website with some landing pages. Laravel instead of WordPress?
    As u/frontendben said, you can use Statamic CMS, it is a decent solution, and there are a number of others like October CMS, Asgard CMS (a bit old, but quite solid), LavaLite, Pyro etc. Craft CMS (based on Yii) could also be a possibility. Here is a list of someone's opinions on 5 popular Laravel-based CMSs. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Why WordPress is an utter load of crap to build a serious business website with
    I've used OctoberCMS[1] for a smaller project, and this looks similar on first glance. (Might just be the Lavarel underpinnings.) What I really like about October is the ability to quickly spin up small CRUD database functionality (index + detail pages and simple backend updates for "custom" objects like staff members, white papers, etc.) using their Builder plugin. Any idea if Statamic offers something similar... - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Medium and OctoberCMS, 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.

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.

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

Drupal - Drupal - the leading open-source CMS for ambitious digital experiences that reach your audience across multiple channels. Because we all have different needs, Drupal allows you to create a unique space in a world of cookie-cutter solutions.

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

Statamic - Build better, easier to manage websites. Enjoy radical efficiency. It's everything you never knew you always wanted in a CMS.