Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Medium VS ReadTheDocs

Compare Medium VS ReadTheDocs 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.

Medium logo Medium

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

ReadTheDocs logo ReadTheDocs

Spend your time on writing high quality documentation, not on the tools to make your documentation work.
  • Medium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08
  • ReadTheDocs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09

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.

ReadTheDocs features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ReadTheDocs simplifies the process of generating and hosting documentation. It integrates easily with various version control systems like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, making it straightforward to deploy and update documentation.
  • Automatic Builds
    Documentation is automatically built and updated each time changes are pushed to the repository. This ensures that the docs are always in sync with the codebase.
  • Search Functionality
    Search functionality is built-in, providing users with the ability to quickly find information within the documentation.
  • Custom Themability
    ReadTheDocs supports theming and custom CSS, allowing users to personalize the look and feel of their documentation.
  • Multi-Version Support
    It supports multiple versions of documentation, making it easy to maintain and access different versions of your project’s documentation.
  • Multi-Language Support
    ReadTheDocs provides support for multiple languages, enabling users to create and manage documentation in various languages.
  • Integration with Sphinx
    As ReadTheDocs relies on Sphinx, it offers powerful extensions and integrations, enhancing the documentation capabilities with code syntax highlighting, inline citations, and API documentation generation.

Possible disadvantages of ReadTheDocs

  • Limited Customization
    While ReadTheDocs offers theming capabilities, it is still relatively limited compared to custom-built documentation sites. Customizing beyond basic theming can be challenging.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large projects, the build times can be longer, and occasional performance issues might arise, especially with extensive documentation.
  • Learning Curve
    Although it is designed to be user-friendly, integrating with Sphinx and setting up the initial configuration for complex projects can have a learning curve.
  • Dependency on Sphinx
    As ReadTheDocs relies heavily on Sphinx, any limitations or bugs within Sphinx can directly affect the documentation site's functionality.
  • Limited Control Over Hosting
    Because it's a hosted service, users have limited control over the hosting environment, which could be a limitation for some companies requiring specific deployment configurations.
  • Potential Downtime
    Since it’s a cloud service, ReadTheDocs may experience downtime or outages, which could temporarily affect the availability of the documentation.
  • Inconsistent Build Environments
    Differences between local development and the ReadTheDocs build environment can sometimes lead to inconsistencies and unexpected issues in the rendered documentation.

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)

ReadTheDocs videos

No ReadTheDocs videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Medium and ReadTheDocs)
Blogging
100 100%
0% 0
Documentation
0 0%
100% 100
Blogging Platform
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Medium and ReadTheDocs. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

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.

ReadTheDocs Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
ReadTheDocs is a web-based platform for building, hosting, and versioning documentation. It supports multiple languages and has built-in versioning, so you can easily switch between different versions of your documentation. It also integrates with various version control systems, including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Additionally, ReadTheDocs provides a hosting service...
Source: www.archbee.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Medium seems to be a lot more popular than ReadTheDocs. While we know about 2598 links to Medium, we've tracked only 2 mentions of ReadTheDocs. 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 (2598)

  • Show HN: Andi – AI language tutor with a 3D talking teacher (Realtime API)
    I can comment on the product side of things. I've been working in language learning tech for over 15 years and I'm also a qualified language teacher. I watched the demo video. Obviously you're going to need to write language lessons for the avatar to deliver. I'm not sure what your background is but do you know how you'll do that? Many apps hand that job over to AI and that might work fine for a beginner lesson 1... - Source: Hacker News / about 19 hours ago
  • Ask HN: Where do you go for cutting-edge dev news and info?
    [1] https://medium.com/@mimixco/list/ai-library-e2fcb2e18159. - Source: Hacker News / about 22 hours ago
  • Show HN: I made a 3D SVG Renderer that projects textures without rasterization
    Very nice-looking for being SVG! One possibly uncalled-for piece of feedback: is that USB-C connection finished, and is it complying with the various detection resistor requirements for the CCx pins? It seemed very bare and empty, I was expecting some Rd network to make the upstream host able to identify the device. Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, I'm not an electronics engineer. See [1] for instance. [1]:... - Source: Hacker News / 1 day ago
  • 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 / 4 days 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 / 5 days ago
View more

ReadTheDocs mentions (2)

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Medium and ReadTheDocs, 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.

GitBook - Modern Publishing, Simply taking your books from ideas to finished, polished books.

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.

Documize - Enterprise-grade wiki and knowledge management platform

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

HackMD - Fast and flexible, real-time collaborative markdown, inspired by Hackpad.