Ghost vs Medium

Anyone can view code of Ghost since it's under a libre/open source license.

It only does a few things and it does them well. Unlike WordPress, with which you can build a universe, a blog or anything in between, Ghost is simple.

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be human-readable and easily converted to HTML. Markdown allows HTML code for complete flexibility.

Setting up a custom domain is effortless - fill the in the form and change DNS entries. Done.

You can download the source code and set it up yourself (just make sure your hosting provider supports node.js). Alternatively, you can use their Ghost(Pro) service to let them host it for you. Paid plans start at $10/mo.

Very easy setup with an official image from Docker. Just needs a custom config.json and you are pretty much good to go.

A built-in way to get and set up themes.

You can see markdown on one side of the pane and the result on the other, while writing.

Themes may be uploaded, as can logos and covers.

You can host your Ghost blog for free on Github Pages if you are OK with it being turned into a static site. You can use Buster to generate a static site from Ghost that can then be hosted on Github Pages.

There are lots of affordable hosting plans available for Ghost blogs.

Medium has clean, minimalist pages with pictures and great typography.

There are no distractions and with a clean layout and great typography, reading Medium articles is a pleasure.

As soon as you sign-up for the service, you are ready to start writing.

Medium takes away all the clutter without taking away any necessary features for a better writing experience. And it doesn't require knowing Markdown to write, all tools are WYSIWYG.

Has a great network based on tags and search for "Suggest an article" as a similar read to others and for specific categories. Allows you a much bigger audience quicker than most platforms.

Allows for finding new, related content.

A WYSIWYG editor that does not get in the way at all. It is invisible most of the time and only appears when you select something.

Medium allows bookmarking articles and following collections as well as users.

As Medium encourages long-form writing they've re-imagined how comments should work accordingly. You can leave comments for every paragraph separately, so you don't have to reference a specific part in a comments section at the bottom. Technically, the feature is called "notes."

Intended for appreciating a post, allows easier discoverability of an article by other readers.

If you post photos as part of your blog, the interface on Medium is one of the best for both inline uploading as well as display in the post itself.

Medium shows how many people have opened your post and how many have read through it. And how many people have recommended your post.

You can send a draft out to other people and have them edit and leave notes on it.

They can enable this for you upon request.

With so many built-in features and flexibility to use, I would recommend Medium first amongst all.