# Build Your Own Medium Alternative - Tool: Build Your Own SaaS Alternative - Last updated: May 2026 ## TL;DR Medium is a $5/mo or $50/yr publishing platform with ~$132M in total funding founded by Evan Williams in 2012. Writers earn from a shared payout pool dependent on an opaque Boost algorithm — earnings dropped sharply in January 2025. Ghost self-hosted gives writers 100% of subscription revenue for ~$20/mo total. A custom Medium-style platform costs $30K–$60K and takes 12–16 weeks. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does it cost to build a Medium alternative? A custom Medium-style platform costs $30K–$60K with an agency team of 3–4 developers. This covers a rich text editor, paywall, Stripe membership billing, writer payouts via Stripe Connect, social features, and Meilisearch. A minimal blog + paywall MVP can be built for $15K–$25K if you use Ghost as the base instead of building from scratch. ### How long does it take to build a Medium clone? Plan for 12–16 weeks with a team of 3–4 experienced developers. The editor and paywall take 3–4 weeks. Membership billing and email delivery add 3–4 weeks. Social features (follows, claps, comments) add 3–4 weeks. The payout system with fraud detection adds another 3–4 weeks. Solo builders should expect 6–12 months. ### Are there open-source Medium alternatives? Ghost (53.5k GitHub stars, MIT) is the best open-source alternative — it offers native memberships, newsletter delivery, 0% platform fee, and email list ownership. WriteFreely (7k stars, AGPL-3.0) is a minimalist ActivityPub-native option without monetization. There is no OSS equivalent of Medium's discovery network and shared payout pool. ### Can RapidDev build a custom Medium alternative? Yes. RapidDev has built 600+ apps including publishing platforms, paywall systems, and Stripe Connect payout flows. We can build a custom Medium-style platform with transparent writer payouts, publication tools, and SEO-optimized content delivery. Book a free consultation at rapidevelopers.com/contact. ### Why do writers leave Medium for Ghost or Substack? The primary reason is earnings predictability and list ownership. Medium's payout pool has been rewritten multiple times with no advance notice — the January 2025 earnings drop is the most-cited example. Ghost and Substack let writers charge a fixed subscription fee and keep the revenue. Ghost also provides full subscriber email export; Medium does not. ### Does building a Medium alternative require WebSocket or real-time infrastructure? Only for the collaborative editing feature (if you want real-time co-authoring). Basic Medium functionality — publishing, comments, claps, follows, and feed — can be built with standard HTTP APIs and Supabase Realtime for notifications. WebSocket infrastructure is optional and adds significant complexity. ### How does Medium's Boost algorithm work? Medium has not published the Boost criteria publicly. Based on writer reports and Medium's own Partner Program updates, Boost selection involves editorial review of story quality, topic fit, and engagement signals. Boosted stories are distributed to readers who don't follow the writer, earning significantly more per-read than non-Boosted stories. As of January 2026, non-Boosted stories earn somewhat more than before, but Boosted stories earn proportionally less. ### Is Ghost better than building a custom Medium alternative? For individual writers and small publications, Ghost self-hosted is almost always the right answer — it costs $10–20/mo on a VPS and gives you 100% of subscription revenue minus Stripe fees. A custom build is justified when you need features Ghost doesn't offer: multi-author revenue splits, a custom discovery algorithm, brand-specific UI, or integration with proprietary content systems. --- Source: https://www.rapidevelopers.com/clone/medium © RapidDev — https://www.rapidevelopers.com/clone/medium