LENDZ Social vs Medium
Which is better, LENDZ Social or Medium?
It depends. If you want to write without running a publication and reach Medium's own readership, Medium is the better pick. Its readers find stories through algorithmic recommendations and human curation, and members pay $5 a month. If you want your own publication inside a social publishing platform, with a price you set and followers who see your work newest first, LENDZ Social is the better pick.[1],[6]
What Medium does well
Medium made long-form reading beautiful. It is membership-supported, and members get unlimited, ad-free access to every story for $5 a month or $50 a year.[1]
Medium makes earning a choice, story by story. A Partner Program writer decides whether each story earns money, and earns from the activity of paying members on those stories.[5],[2]
Writers keep their rights. Medium's Terms of Service say you retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the service.[8]
Medium also gives readers audio. It offers text-to-speech listening on its website and mobile apps, and lets writers embed third-party podcast and video players.[1],[11]
How they differ
Medium is a publishing site that added a social layer. Readers follow writers and publications, and respond with claps, highlights and replies.[7],[2]
LENDZ Social is a social publishing platform, built as one from day one. Neither is wrong. They serve different needs.
Medium describes its distribution as algorithmic recommendations combined with human curation, and its For you feed is personalized. It also has a Following feed, which lists stories from the writers and publications you follow in reverse chronological order. On LENDZ, the Main Feed shows posts and reposts from the people you follow, newest first.[6],[7]
Medium pays Partner Program writers a share of membership revenue, based on member activity on eligible paywalled stories, rather than a price the writer sets. On LENDZ, a writer sets their own monthly or annual price.[4],[2]
Most of social media runs on algorithmic feeds built to keep people scrolling. LENDZ has no algorithmic feed. That is a choice about the whole network, and it says nothing about any one site.
Side by side
| Topic | Medium | LENDZ |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A membership-supported, ad-free reading site where writers can earn through the Partner Program.[1],[4] | LENDZ Social is an invite-only social publishing platform. |
| What readers pay | Membership: $5 a month or $50 a year, with a higher Friend of Medium tier at $15 a month or $150 a year.[1] | A free issue is open to read. Paid issues and subscriptions are at the price the writer sets. |
| How writers earn | A share of membership revenue, based on paid members' activity on eligible paywalled stories: reading and listening time, claps, highlights, replies and other factors. It is not a fixed rate per view.[2] | Paid subscriptions at the writer's price. LENDZ keeps a 10% house share of each paid invoice. |
| Who can earn | Partner Program writers are 18 or older, hold an active paid membership, and have a bank account and tax residence in an eligible country and a Stripe payout account.[3],[4] | Paid issues need creator enrollment, $10 once, and a connected Stripe account. |
| The paywall | The writer chooses, story by story.[5] | The writer chooses per issue. Everyone else reads up to the teaser break. |
| How readers find you | Algorithmic recommendations with human curation, a personalized For you feed, and a Following feed in reverse chronological order.[6],[7] | The people they follow. The Main Feed is newest first, with no algorithmic feed. |
| Subscribers by email | Readers can subscribe to a writer and receive stories by email. Medium does not share those readers' email addresses with the writer.[9],[10] | Subscribers get each issue in the inbox inside LENDZ Social. |
| Audio | Text-to-speech listening, and embeds for third-party podcast and video players.[1],[11] | Briefings are live audio rooms. With podcast hosting, a recorded room goes out on the host's own RSS feed. |
Choose Medium if
Choose LENDZ if
You want your own publication inside a social publishing platform, under one account.
You want to set your own monthly or annual price.
You want readers to find you through people they follow, in a feed ordered by time with no algorithmic feed.
You also want to go live with Briefings or post short Briefs to the same audience.
Questions
Q01Is LENDZ an alternative to Medium?
Only for some writers. LENDZ is a social publishing platform, so it suits a writer who wants a publication of their own inside one. Medium suits a writer who wants to write and reach its readership without running one.
Q02How do writers get paid on each?
Q03Does Medium have a chronological feed?
Q04Where do LENDZ issues arrive?
In the inbox inside LENDZ Social. An announcement with the headline and deck posts to the writer's feed at the same moment.
Sources, checked October 2026
- Medium Help, Become a Medium Member https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004545567-Become-a-Medium-Member
- Medium Help, Medium Partner Program earnings calculation https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036691193-Medium-Partner-Program-earnings-calculation
- Medium Help, Medium Partner Program eligibility https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/39121627791639-Medium-Partner-Program-eligibility
- Medium Help, Enroll in the Medium Partner Program https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011694187-Enroll-in-the-Medium-Partner-Program
- Medium Help, Make a story eligible to earn https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011928308-Make-a-story-eligible-to-earn
- Medium Blog, Reach your readers without having to master marketing https://medium.com/blog/reach-your-readers-without-having-to-master-marketing-44ed8a3d4823
- Medium Help, Your homepage https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012586467-Your-homepage
- Medium Terms of Service https://policy.medium.com/medium-terms-of-service-9db0094a1e0f
- Medium Help, Email notifications https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059837393-Email-notifications
- Medium Help, Audience stats https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405449973015-Audience-stats
- Medium Help, Using embeds https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/214981378-Using-embeds
