Comparison

Medium vs Reddit

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Medium

Access a vast collection of human stories, expert advice, and inspiring insights. Discover new topics, follow your interests, and connect with a global community of readers and writers. Publish your own work and reach a wide audience.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free reading
  • Curated content on tech, culture, news
  • Unlimited story access with membership
  • Personalized reading library
  • Community engagement (claps, comments)
  • Publishing platform for writers
  • Audio versions of stories (Member feature)
Read full description

Welcome to Medium, your home for human stories, useful advice, and inspiring insights. Immerse yourself in a world of wisdom with writing from renowned figures, passionate experts, and fresh voices. Make reading and writing a daily ritual by following your fascinations, discovering new rabbit holes, and reaching readers of your own. Medium is simple social publishing for everyone. + Find your focus with distraction-free reading about everything from taking better pictures to what it’s like to scale a startup. + Stay current with stories about emerging technology, culture, and firsthand accounts of front-page news. + Become a member for unlimited access to millions of stories from our global community of the curious. + Assemble your own personal library by highlighting passages, bookmarking stories, and following writers who share your passions. + Join a community of readers, writers, and thinkers who clap for what they love, respond with insightful comments on thought-provoking stories, and collaborate to create popular publications. + Reach a wider audience by publishing your stories on a platform that serves more than 100M idea-loving people. + Establish a professional presence on a trusted platform, alongside academics, leaders, and experts. + Join the Medium Partner Program to earn money from your writing. + Enjoy a continuous reading experience across your iPhone, iPad, and desktop. + Listen to audio versions of any story on Medium (Member feature). __ Medium Terms of Service: https://policy.medium.com/medium-terms-of-service-9db0094a1e0f Privacy Policy: https://policy.medium.com/medium-privacy-policy-f03bf92035c9 Support: https://help.medium.com

About

Reddit

Discover trending topics, engage in diverse discussions, and join communities for any interest. Share content, ask questions, and connect with others through a unique voting system that highlights popular posts.

Highlights
  • Thousands of community groups
  • Breaking news and trends
  • Humorous content and videos
  • Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions
  • In-depth discussion threads
  • Q&A forums
  • Upvote/downvote system
Features
Read full description

Reddit is where millions of real people gather to talk, ask and debate across 100,000+ communities, from breaking news and sports to gaming, finance, and every hobby in between. Trending topics, deep-dive discussions and comment threads where real people go deeper than you'd expect on the stuff they love. Whatever you're into, there's a community that gets it. What can you do on Reddit? Reddit is built around communities, or subreddits, which are forums where real people post, comment, ask questions, and reply. You'll find gaming communities, meme-makers, travel enthusiasts, support groups, AI forums, news followers, artists, sports fans, exciting AMAs , and creators of every kind. Everything on Reddit happens inside subreddits — What are Subreddits? Communities built around a specific topic, from r/worldnews to r/TodayILearned, where real people post, comment, and discuss. There are more than 100,000 subreddits, so whatever you're into, there are real people already talking about it. - r/AskReddit, where 50M people are ready to answer anything on your mind — real people who've been there too. - r/sports, the ultimate front-row seat for game-winning plays, daily sports talk, and major league updates - r/funny, full of humor, memes, and content made to make you laugh - r/science, for real scientific discussion and news - r/gaming, join 46M gamers to swap tips and share what you're playing What do people use Reddit for? People come to Reddit to: - Find communities for everything. Breaking news, sports highlights, TV fan theories, open AI discussions, and personalized content. There really is a community for everyone. - Get loads of laughs. Memes, oddly satisfying clips, and funny videos to help you happily lose track of time. - Join AMAs, or ""Ask Me Anything"". Celebrities, series creators, and experts answer real questions from real people in live sessions. - Follow honest discussions on any topic. Pop culture, sports, entertainment, finance. People jump in with humor and insight on just about anything. - Get answers to your questions. Ask communities about relationships, mental health, parenting, careers, fitness, and more. - Find your people. Jump into threads, connect over any topic, and chat with redditors who share your interests. Got questions? We've got you Is Reddit free? Yes. Reddit is free to download and use. Reddit Premium is an optional paid upgrade. How do upvotes and karma work? Instead of likes and hearts, Reddit runs on upvotes and downvotes. Voting raises or lowers a post's visibility, so relevant, high-quality posts rise to the top while low-effort ones fade out. Voting also affects karma, a running score tied to your posts and comments. Karma doesn't limit what you can do, but more of it can help your posts get noticed, and some communities ask for a little karma before you post or comment to help keep out spam. Reddit Premium: Purchase Reddit Premium to enjoy an ads-free experience and access to premium avatar gear, r/lounge, custom app icons, and more. Payment will be charged on a recurring monthly or annual basis to your Apple account. Your monthly or annual Premium subscription will automatically renew unless you cancel at least 24 hours before your subscription ends. Cancel anytime in your device's Account Settings. No partial refunds. Privacy Policy: https://www.redditinc.com/policies/privacy-policy User Agreement: https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement Reddit Rules: https://redditinc.com/policies/reddit-rules If you have any problems with the app, get support at RedditHelp.com

Screenshots

Medium4 screens
Reddit4 screens

Verdict

The call

Medium and Reddit both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 62% of Medium's written reviews are positive against 25% of Reddit's. Medium also leads on ads (none vs shown). Reddit's advantage is ratings volume (3.5M vs 157K) and chart position (#3 vs #18). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Medium sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Reddit sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Medium against 4.8 for Reddit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Reddit has 3.5M ratings behind it against 157K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 62% of Medium's written reviews are positive against 25% of Reddit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Medium ships an update weekly, Reddit every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 1, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Medium versus Reddit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMediumReddit
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (157K ratings)4.8 (3.5M ratings)
Positive reviews62.5% of reviews — better25.4% of reviews
Number of ratings157K3.5M — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#18#3 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size241 MB426 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperA Medium CorporationREDDIT, INC.

Customer experience

Medium

All ratings157,156 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral1.8%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews826 reviews
Positive62.5%
Neutral10.4%
Negative27.1%

Reddit

All ratings3,502,947 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral1.4%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews9,550 reviews
Positive25.4%
Neutral4.9%
Negative69.7%

User reviews

Medium

From 157K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 📚 Excellent content and writing quality
  • 🌐 Wide variety of topics and perspectives
  • 🧠 Thought-provoking and informative articles
  • 🤓 Useful for learning and personal growth
  • 🎨 Clean and minimalist design

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Paywall limits access to content
  • 📥 Difficulty finding and accessing past articles
  • 🔍 Lack of effective search and filtering options
  • 🤖 Concerns about AI-generated content
  • 🖥️ Suboptimal experience on larger screens

Reddit

From 3.5M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic news aggregator
  • 👍 Diverse communities
  • 🔍 Helpful for finding information
  • 💡 Customizable feeds
  • 🎨 Unique avatar customization

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy video player
  • 🤖 Aggressive recommendation algorithms
  • 💬 Toxic community moderation
  • 🔍 Difficult to find specific content
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns

Bugs and requests

Medium

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent app crashes and freezes
  • Login and authentication issues
  • Syncing and data loss problems
  • Compatibility problems with newer OS versions
  • Unreliable push notifications

Requested features

5 requests
  • Offline reading mode
  • Better organization and navigation of content
  • Improved personalization and recommendation system
  • Integration with other platforms and services
  • Enhanced writing and publishing tools

Reddit

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Unreliable content loading
  • Inconsistent UI behavior
  • Notification issues
  • Subreddit search function not working

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved video player controls
  • Better content filtering options
  • Streamlined community management tools
  • Customizable notification settings
  • Integrated browser for seamless browsing

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Medium

Subscriptions5
  • Medium Membership1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Medium Membership$4.991 Month
  • Friend Membership$14.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Medium Membership1 Year trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Friend Membership$149.991 Year
9 purchases

Reddit

Subscriptions2
  • Reddit Premium$6.991 Month
  • Reddit Annual Premium$59.991 Year
One-time7
  • Reddit Gold$1.99
  • Reddit Gold$3.99
  • Collectible Avatar - Tier 4992 variants$4.99
Show 4 more
  • Reddit Gold$5.99
  • Reddit Gold$9.99
  • Collectible Avatar - Tier 9993 variants$9.99
  • Collectible Avatar - Tier 24992 variants$24.99

Questions

Is Medium free?
Medium is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reddit free?
Reddit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Medium or Reddit?
Medium and Reddit are both rated 4.8 out of 5 on the App Store, from 157K and 3.5M ratings respectively.
Do Medium or Reddit have ads?
Reddit shows ads; Medium does not.
Which is updated more often, Medium or Reddit?
Medium ships an update weekly, and Reddit every 6 days. Most recently, Medium was updated on October 1, 2026 and Reddit on October 1, 2026.
Which is more popular, Medium or Reddit?
Medium currently peaks at #18 in the App Store charts, and Reddit at #3. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

Other comparisons