Medium vs. Squarespace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Medium
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Medium is a blogging and web publishing platform from the company of the same name in San Francisco, California.
$5
per month
Squarespace
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
$25
per month
Pricing
MediumSquarespace
Editions & Modules
Medium Member - monthly
$5
per month
Friend of Medium - monthly
$15
per month
Medium Member - annually
$60
per year
Friend of Medium - annually
$150
per year
Basic
$25
per month
Core
$36
per month
Plus
$56
per month
Advanced
$139
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MediumSquarespace
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details28% to 36% discount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MediumSquarespace
Features
MediumSquarespace
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Medium
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.5
Ratings
5% above category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Medium
-
Ratings
Squarespace
4.3
Ratings
55% below category average
API00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings3.50 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Medium
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.1
Ratings
8% below category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Medium
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.0
Ratings
5% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings5.70 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MediumSquarespace
Small Businesses
Duda
Duda
Score 8.6 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WordPress
WordPress
Score 8.6 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Quora Blogs
Quora Blogs
Score 8.7 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MediumSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MediumSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are vanity publishing and just want to see your stuff on the web, it is very, VERY easy to get involved with. Of course, your writing is not likely to stand out if you don't have a clear plan. The more I use it, the more I like it. The user interface is extremely well-done. I kinda wish my WordPress-based blogs had editors that were that easy to use.
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We've found Squarespace perfect for quick, well-designed websites that you can literally design and launch in a day. However, if you want to get more complex with your website, including custom backend integrations or code, Squarespace presents a bit more of a challenge when it comes to what they will allow you to modify on their platform (especially using third-party integration apps).
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Pros
  • User-friendly interface and editing features
  • Easy to categorize articles to ensure they are found
  • Change tracker helps review changes before article is published.
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  • Squarespace is very easy to use, this is a super helpful thing as small business owners we have to wear many hats and being a full blown website developer doesn't need to be one of them.
  • Squarespace has quick and simple plugins.
  • Squarespace allows you to easily expand as you need to.
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Cons
  • It can be harder to get your content seen as medium is a popular platform.
  • It is still early days for us to track back success (traffic, rank etc) from posting to medium regularly. I hear tracking success outside vanity metrics can be hard for others too.
  • I am yet to figure out how to create and add to magazines - these have the potential to be a good audience booster, but not too clear.
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  • Customizing the sites can be highly UN intuitive
  • Navigation for editing the sites can be difficult and frustrating
  • Squarespace has different versions and it's hard to know which version you're on. You can't switch after you start making a site with one version.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It's a great CMS tool. Easy to use and maintain. It looks great and the support is excellent.
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Usability
By comparison, most online editors are clunky. The Medium editor is amazingly powerful and still easy to use.
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It's dead simple to use. There are no over complicated controls or tons of menus to screw things up. People with bad taste couldn't make an ugly website. While it may be frustrating for the pro designer to get exactly what they want, it prevents the uninitiated from making something ugly
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Support Rating
We found the support desk of Medium to be really good. They are very focussed on customer service and are willing to go all out to help in every way they can. They are fast to respond and they are also very knowledgable at what they do. They know the importance of being customer-focused.
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Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
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Implementation Rating
Medium is dirt easy to use. The hard part is figuring out if it is worth the effort to include it as part of our content-marketing strategy.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Medium is easy to use. It is easy to add highlights and emphasis in paragraphs. It is easy to add images and videos anywhere in your articles. It makes article writing fun and easy to share. Other products were more cumbersome and awkward to use or were more expensive to operate.
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Squarespace if much less work than WordPress, plus hosting and security are not an issue. GoDaddy and Wix are okay, but nowhere near the flexibility or advanced feature set that you can get with Squarespace. Compared to the other products that I have used, Squarespace definitely offers more options, customization, advanced features and design options than others, for a great price.
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Return on Investment
  • Making enough money to pay back the monthly subscription fee takes a long time to reach that level.
  • I've gotten a lot more recognition for being an SME in many areas and have received more interest professionally.
  • Writing enough articles that are also high enough quality to attract followers takes a lot of time out of my weeks.
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  • I can see how squarespace can improve efficiency since it's so quick to build a site on there.
  • For those who don't want to hook up a bunch of different stuff to their website and make it work...they most likely have whatever plug in you need and you can add it. Worst case scenario, they have developers you can hire who can make what you need.
  • As your business grows you can add an online storefront to your site and make more money that way! Easy peasy!
  • They have an easy system for adding special SEO words/phrases so you don't have to learn SEO at all!
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ScreenShots