Medium Versus Hive — The Ultimate Guide With Similarities & Differences!

in OCD4 years ago (edited)

Dear Hivers,

Before we dive into this post, I wish to share a fascinating story. You see, I am always monitoring my username.

I want to know if there are any other “sidwrites.”

As it turns out, there are several of them online.

So I followed them all.

One of the sidwrites was on Twitter, the other on Medium.com, and the last one is yours truly — on Hive.

SidwritesClones.png

And so, I connected with the other Sidwrites who was on Medium. We started discussing about Medium, their business model, and talked about earnings.

And the discussion took a turn.

Within few hours, we moved away from Medium to Hive. Long story short, I started explaining all about Hive.

  • I wrote messages explaining Hive
  • Even made videos to show how it works
  • Then more follow-up videos…
  • Shared some newbie-friendly articles
  • And finally, onboarded the second Sidwrites on Hive.

I don’t even know how I feel — maybe like a sales guy promoting a worthy product. But it was all in good fun.

What came out of this discussion were compliments from the other Sidwrites (who, luckily, has used a different name here).

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And with this, I decided to write today’s article to explain countless of other writers and authors about Hive. I want them to know and see the differences between Medium from Hive.

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First, let us start with the similarities and then jump into the differences.

#1 Both are social platforms

Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams (Twitter Co-Founder) and launched in August 2012

Hive, on the other hand, was launched on March 20th 2020 after a hardfork.

On both Medium and Hive, you can connect with hundreds and thousands of people — read articles, and engage, and choose the topic of your interest.

They are truly a social platform.

#2 Both are perfect for sharing your thoughts

There is no strict rule or guidelines. You are free to write anything — and everything on both the platforms.

Medium has gained popularity among writers for it Partner Program. The programme allows anyone to quickly monetise their posts.

On Hive, you can start earning tokens for your articles and engagements (yes, even commentators can earn). More on this later.

#3: Both prefer solid content

Good content is always rewarded — and there is no exception on these platforms.

Way I see it, Medium is strictly long-term articles and there are no communities.

While Hive has communities — several of them — and even short-form content and pictures are visible across the platform.

#4: Both are rewarding you

With a small difference: You are paid in fiat on Medium whereas you get paid Hive tokens on Hive. Plus, you get paid after 7 days on Hive, as opposed to a month on Medium.

#5: Both are perfect for content creators

Both the platforms have built-in audience. So you will find people to read and digest your content. Medium, of course, is massive as it has paywall and millions of readers with thousands of curators.

Hive, on the other hand, is new and growing quickly with hundreds of accounts created everyday. Both are perfect for content creators though!


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Of course, this also means there are issues that are never revealed. And I want to share these issues. These are the differences between Hive and Medium.

Let’s dive into them:

#1: Medium is centralized

And Hive is not. Meaning, on Hive you are free to write anything and everything. Even adult content, if you wish to.

This doesn’t mean Hive promotes them. It simply means freedom of speech is applicable here moreso than other platforms.

#2: Medium doesn’t operate globally

This is a major turn-off. Medium doesn’t accept writers from all over the world. This is because of the rules and regulations they have to deal with. And also, their payment processor Stripe supports only 17 countries.

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This naturally makes Hive a good contender because it comes with no strings attached. Doesn’t matter your country, your culture, and there is no verification required.

#3: Medium doesn’t curate “uncensored” content

As I explored Medium, I have discovered the guidelines set by publications. They want you to write stories with the “right” images with no slangs.

These are rules, when broken, doesn’t lead to curation — and so your content may not be visible. That is because curators operate with a strict set of rules.

So most of the uncensored content is never visible. On Hive, because of the freedom of speech, any kind of content is curated as long as it is valuable.

#4: Medium pays you monthly

By the 8th of each month, Medium initiates the payments. The waiting period is longer if you start early.

On Hive, you get paid instantly — within 7 days and you have complete control of your money.

#5: Medium doesn’t reveal its payout algorithm

Of course, they don’t have to. The problem is, no publisher really knows how the payment mechanism works — or how much does the company take home. There is no transparency!

For example: Over 94.5% of the Medium publishers earn less than $100 a month.

Now why is this? No one knows.


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So there you have it…

A quick look into the similarities and differences between Medium and Hive.

Both are social platforms that are designed to publish content, connect with people, and help you thrive as an independent publisher.

On the other hand, Hive runs on blockchain rewarding not just the publisher but also commentators — with a unique mechanism of voting… along with:

  • Complete decentralisation (no one is a central authority)
  • Operates globally — and rewards anyone and everyone in the form of Hive tokens
  • Allowing uncensored content — complete freedom of speech.
  • Regular payouts — you get paid after 7 days of publishing the content, as opposed to a month.

Cheers,
Sid


Liked this article? Feel free to comment and upvote and reblog.

Sort:  

Still Don’t understand why they Don’t post on Hive...
@tipu curate

Blogger chose medium because of high reward. On hive, no matter how good your article is, it's never gonna cross 150$. Also keep in mind, hive splits rewards by half between author & curator.

Are you blogging there? did you ever get 150$ a post?

Ignore the second reply, I accidentally put my finger on reply button.

I am not a blogger, but I know some bloggers who even make 500$ or more from one single post one medium.

I never

and do you think anyone has a chance to get it? :-)

Haha! Thanks for the @tipu. Makes me smile!

Oh my. You leave me speechless. Always grateful for your support. (:

You DO need to edit the post thought (now that I have shared it liberally) and add your HIVE referral link clearly and prominently on the bottom somewhere.

https://hiveonboard.com/what-is-hive

I have it clearly on all my post templates now: Get your FREE Hive Account

Here's the Hive Marketing Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/a5Mf4d

LOL! there are only one sidwrites! GIVE ME A BREAK!

I personally know 5 sidwrites...

Five? what the heck?

yeah, @sidwrites has two alter egos....he is pretty wild on discord most of the times.

Gosh! You spotted me, didn't you? On that day — on Discord. And since then many have popped up...

But you and I <3

I love hive, because of three things.

Hive, hive power and Sidwrites.

Upvoted this lovely comment from a lovely man! 😃

Thanks for being such a terrific sport!

I write on both. I make considerably more on Hive. This is a great post.

Good point. I made 18 cents on Medium. Haha!

Thanks for the support!

Great post. I tweet, hive and blog. I don't earn more than 1 dollar - no matter what and where I write. :P :D😛😜

Haha! 😜

Let's fix this?

Going through your profile. Articles are perfect.

Next steps you can try:

  • Add a DP (people want to see something)
  • Follow 20 people every day (for 10 days)
  • Leave 20 comments every day (for 10 days)
  • Continue writing 1 post a day (or 1 in 2 days)

And let's see if we can get above a dollar? :D

Tip: Try following curators of the community. (You can find them on the right side on the community page)

Tip: Be active on Discord too, if you use it often. Make connections!

Thanks for your suggestions. Let's buckle up. I will complete the tasks as you recommended. Let's see if we can get above a dollar.😇

Good to see your new DP!

I told you, I will follow your suggestions. Changing DP and my profile section was the first task. Now to commenting and following.🙂

I was checking. Haha. I remember we had 7 followers yesterday. Did you follow more? I don't remember that part.

I did. You said 20 follows every day. Bit shy on that front but will power through that as well.

Congratulations @sidwrites! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You published more than 100 posts. Your next target is to reach 150 posts.

You can view your badges on your board And compare to others on the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!

I shared this post on Twitter - do RT / like! :)

That's where I saw it! RTd. x

Great story! Re-Hived!

I'll be linking to this story in my next post 👍

Found actually this post randomly via Twitter! Aces.

this was excellent! i found this via twitter. where we retweeted you.
Love knowing that Medium only pays people in 17 countries.....super bad to discriminate people based on their location! the world needs hive.

great article

re-hived, retweeted.....KEEP THESE COMING, Love these comparison posts.

Great stuff mate, and congrats on onboarding your Doppelgänger XD. I do repost some of my Hive content on Medium, and I must say, it's quite difficult to 'make it' on Medium, at least so far. Oddly, it looks like your post has a better chance of getting seen if you agree to put a paywall on it, rather than publishing it entirely for free (although there are link to share monetised articles complementarily).

Apparently, they only curate content that's being monetised, though I could be mistaken. If that post does get into the Daily Picks for Medium, I believe there's a huge payout just for that. In any case, I find Medium less of a social networking platform. The most common forms of recognition are Claps, and how many people read your posts. There are no ways to earn through curation, and as you say, the payout system is kept under tight lips.

More importantly, it appears that engagement is not as prominent on Medium. Unlike Hive, or more traditionally, Reddit there aren't many back and forth comments/discussions, even if it's just one or two-worded replies. From my experience, it doesn't have the jests, open-ness, and chatter that we have here on Hive. There's more seriousness there, which would certainly benefit the professionals.

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