If you're starting a blog in 2026, the first decision you'll face is which platform to use. Here's my honest breakdown after using all three.
Medium: Best for Quick Exposure
Medium has a built-in audience. Your articles can get discovered through their recommendation system without any SEO work. It's free and takes 2 minutes to start.
The downside? You don't own your audience. Medium controls what gets shown. And monetization is limited unless you're in their Partner Program.
Best for: Writers who want to test a niche fast.
dev.to: Best for Developer Content
dev.to is a developer-focused platform with strong community engagement. The SEO is excellent and readers are genuinely interested in technical content.
It has a clean reading experience and supports Markdown natively. Plus, you can cross-post from your own blog easily.
Best for: Tech and developer-focused content.
WordPress (Self-Hosted): Best for Long-Term Growth
A self-hosted WordPress site gives you full control. You own your content, your data, and your monetization. Google ranks self-hosted sites higher than Medium or dev.to articles.
You can run ads, affiliate marketing, sell products, build an email list - everything.
The trade-off: you need hosting and a domain. But it's cheaper than you think.
For hosting, I use Hostinger. Plans start around $3/month and include one-click WordPress installation. Their support has been solid.
Get started with Hostinger: https://www.hostinger.com?REFERRALCODE=PR5XIAOBADIM
My Recommendation
Use Medium or dev.to to test your niche and get initial readers. Once you have traction, set up a self-hosted WordPress site as your home base.
Cross-post your best content to Medium and dev.to for exposure, but always link back to your main site.
I wrote a complete beginner's guide to starting a blog here:
https://medium.com/@xiaobao200111/how-to-start-a-blog-in-2025-a-complete-beginners-guide-3abb36b456b7
This article contains affiliate links.
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