For a company blog whose job is to bring in customers, publish on your own website, whether that is WordPress or another CMS, so every post builds your domain and can link to your service pages. Substack is a good choice when the main product is an email newsletter, especially a paid one. Medium suits reaching Medium's own readers, and works best as a second home for posts you have already published on your own site. Many businesses use their own site as the source and Substack or Medium for distribution.
Key takeaways
- A company blog is a sales and search asset: it should live on your domain, next to the pages it supports.
- WordPress gives full control over design, SEO settings, forms and integrations, and you are responsible for updates and security (or you pay a host such as WordPress.com to handle them).
- Substack is free for free newsletters; on paid subscriptions it keeps 10 percent plus card fees, and a custom domain costs a one-time US$50 (as of October 2026).
- Medium's custom domain feature requires an active paid Medium membership; its import tool adds a canonical link back to your original post.
- Whatever you choose, check you can export posts and subscribers before you start.
What does a company blog need to do?
A company blog is not a personal writing space. It usually has four jobs: answer the questions buyers search for, show expertise with real examples, move readers to a service page or an enquiry, and keep in touch with people who are not ready to buy. That list decides the platform:
| Job | What the platform needs |
|---|---|
| Be found in search | Your own domain, control of titles, descriptions, canonicals, structured data and sitemaps |
| Show expertise | Author pages, good formatting for tables and code, images you control |
| Convert | Links and calls to action to your service pages, forms, analytics events |
| Keep in touch | An email list you own and can export |
How do the three compare?
Prices and plans below are as of October 2026; check the linked vendor pages before you decide.
| WordPress (self-hosted or WordPress.com) | Medium | Substack | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain | Your own | medium.com, or a custom domain with an active Medium membership | substack.com subdomain, or a custom domain for a one-time US$50 |
| Design | Any theme or custom design | Limited publication styling | Limited publication styling |
| SEO control | Full (titles, canonicals, schema, sitemaps) | Limited | Limited |
| Built-in audience | None; you bring it | Medium's readers and recommendations | Substack's network and app |
| Email newsletter | Through a plugin or email service | Not the core feature | Core feature |
| Paid subscriptions | Through plugins or a membership service | Medium Partner Program (requires a Medium membership) | Built in; Substack keeps 10 percent plus card fees |
| Forms, chat, booking, CRM | Any integration | No | No |
| Export | Full (content, media, database) | Limited; check Medium's help centre | Subscriber list (CSV) and posts |
| Cost | Hosting, or WordPress.com plans from US$0 (free) to US$4, 8, 25 or 45 a month billed yearly | Free to publish | Free for free newsletters |
On WordPress.com, the free plan does not include a custom domain or plugin installation; plugins are available on every paid plan as of October 2026.
When is WordPress (or your own site) the right choice?
When the blog exists to bring work to the business. Posts on your domain sit beside your service pages, link to them, carry your calls to action and forms, and add to your site's own search footprint rather than someone else's. You also control everything search engines read: titles, descriptions, canonical tags, structured data and sitemaps.
The real costs are maintenance and discipline. Self-hosted WordPress needs updates, backups and security care; our WordPress development team covers that work, and the WordPress security guide lists the habits that matter. A managed host or WordPress.com removes some of that work in exchange for a monthly fee and some limits.
WordPress is not the only "own site" option. We moved our own site, blog included, from WordPress to Astro on AWS in October 2026; what we learned from that migration explains the trade-offs, and Headless, static or WordPress compares the routes.
When is Substack the right choice?
When the newsletter is the product. Substack is built around email: readers subscribe, every post can go to their inbox, and paid tiers are built in. It works well for a founder's or expert's regular commentary, an industry newsletter, or a paid research product. Its fee applies only to paid subscriptions (10 percent plus card processing), and the subscriber list can be exported as a CSV file from the dashboard.
The limits for a company: design and SEO control are basic, there are no forms or integrations for leads, and posts live on Substack's domain unless you pay for a custom domain. A common pattern is to keep the company blog on your site and use Substack (or another email tool) to send highlights.
When is Medium the right choice?
When you want to reach readers who already spend time on Medium, for example developers or product people, and you are willing to write for that audience. The original version of this post made points that still hold: you do not control Medium's design or business model, other writers' stories appear next to yours, and your content sits on a platform whose rules can change.
Two facts matter for a business. A custom domain requires an active paid Medium membership. And Medium's import tool brings in a post from your site and automatically adds a canonical link to the original source, which makes Medium workable as a second home for posts you publish on your own site first.
Can you publish in more than one place?
Yes, with care. Publish on your own site first, wait until the post is indexed, then import or adapt it for Medium or send it through Substack. Keep in mind that Google decides which copy to show: its canonicalization troubleshooting guide lists syndicated content as a common cause of Google choosing a different page and advises asking syndication partners to block indexing, which you cannot do on Medium or Substack. Adapting the post (a shorter version that links to the full article) is safer than an exact copy. Our guide to content strategy covers how to plan posts that earn that effort.
How do you choose?
- If the blog is for leads and search, use your own site, with the CMS that suits your team.
- If the newsletter is the product, use Substack or a dedicated email service, and link back to your site.
- If you want Medium's readers, keep your site as the original and use Medium's import tool.
- Before committing, test the export: posts, images and subscribers.
FAQ
Is Medium good for SEO?
Medium pages can rank, but the authority they build belongs to Medium's domain unless you pay for a custom domain, and you have limited control over technical SEO. For a business, posts on your own domain do more for your site.
Does Substack own my content or subscriber list?
You can export your subscriber list as a CSV file and export your posts, which is what matters in practice. Read Substack's current terms for the legal position; this is general information, not legal advice.
How much does Substack cost?
As of October 2026, free newsletters cost nothing; on paid subscriptions Substack keeps 10 percent plus card fees, and a custom domain is a one-time US$50 per publication.
Can I move from Medium or Substack to WordPress later?
Yes, but plan redirects. Exports carry the text and subscriber emails; likes, responses and platform followers usually do not move, and old URLs on the platform domain cannot always be redirected to your site.
Is WordPress.com the same as WordPress?
WordPress.com is a hosted service built on the open-source WordPress software, which is released under the GPLv2 (or later) licence. Self-hosted WordPress (from WordPress.org) runs on your own hosting and gives full control; WordPress.com handles hosting and updates in exchange for a plan fee.
Sources (9 links)
- WordPress.com pricing (as of October 2026): https://wordpress.com/pricing/
- Substack, "Going paid" (writers keep 90 percent minus card fees): https://substack.com/going-paid
- Substack, "How to add a custom domain to your Substack publication" (one-time US$50): https://on.substack.com/p/new-add-a-custom-domain-to-your-substack
- Substack, "A guide to your subscriber dashboard" (CSV export): https://on.substack.com/p/subscriber-dashboard-guide
- Medium Help Center, "Custom domain FAQ": https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003053487-Custom-Domain-FAQ
- Medium Help Center, "Importing a post to Medium": https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/214550207-Import-post
- Medium Help Center, "Medium Partner Program eligibility": https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/39121627791639-Medium-Partner-Program-eligibility
- Google Search Central, "Fix canonicalization issues": https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization-troubleshooting
- WordPress, "License": https://wordpress.org/about/license/
