The Showdown
Mediumvsstories
Why pay monthly fees for Medium when you can self-host stories for free? Let's look at the facts.
VS
Medium
The Expensive Option
- Closed Source (Black box)
- Expensive monthly fees per user
- Data stored on their servers
WINNER
stories
The Freedom Choice
- 100% Open Source Code
- Free forever (Self-hosted)
- You own your data completely
Interactive Calculator
Calculate Your "SaaS Tax"
SaaS pricing is designed to scale with your success.
See how much wealth transfers from your bank account to Medium's shareholders.
10 people
150100200+
$
*Estimated standard pricing for Medium. Adjust if needed.
Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.
Detailed Breakdown
0
Medium Partner Program
User-defined (Ads/Donations)
1
Platform-standardized SEO
Full metadata control
2
Managed Cloud
Self-hosted (VPS/Heroku)