Medium gives you distribution. Pagecord gives you a home.
Medium can help strangers find your writing, and that can matter. But the reader experience belongs to Medium: paywalls, popups, app prompts, recommendation widgets, and a domain that is not yours.
Pagecord is for writers who would rather have a small home of their own. Your readers can visit without creating an account, hitting a paywall, or being pulled into someone else's feed.
Own your domain. Export your site. Publish from the web or by email. Classic is free forever. Premium is $25/year.
Who this is for
People who care more about a direct relationship with readers than appearing inside a platform feed.
Essayists, diarists, technologists, artists, and small publishers who want posts, pages, RSS, email updates, and a domain that can travel with them.
Why people switch
On Medium, you're a tenant. The writing is yours, but the page, the URL, the popups, and the business model belong to someone else.
Pagecord puts the site itself in your hands — your domain, your archive, your readers.
What is different
No reader paywall. No popups. Every blog gets RSS, a public archive, themes, pages, custom domains, email subscriptions, and export.
Readers can bookmark you, subscribe, link to you, and come back — without anyone asking them to sign up first.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Pagecord | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Rich text editor | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email newsletters | ✅ Weekly digest or per-post delivery |
✅ |
| Tags and topics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Social links | ✅ | ✅ |
| No paywall for readers | ✅ | ❌ (3 free articles/month) |
| No popups | ✅ | ❌ |
| Own your domain | ✅ | ❌ |
| Create blog posts by sending an email | ✅ | ❌ |
| Colour themes and fonts | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom CSS | ✅ | ❌ |
| Standalone pages (About, Now, Contact, etc.) | ✅ | ❌ |
| Custom home pages | ✅ | ❌ |
| Full site HTML export | ✅ | ❌ |
| Built-in analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Reply by email | ✅ | ❌ |
| Embeddable contact form | ✅ | ❌ |
| Open source | ✅ | ❌ |
| API | ✅ | ❌ |
| Free version | ✅ | ❌ |
| Premium version | $25/year | $60/year (as reader) |
Real Pagecord sites
What people say
“Of all the platforms I've explored, Pagecord is my favourite. The developer is very responsive while maintaining the core simplicity of using it.”
“It's simple, it's niche, it's elegant. The most important thing is the words and it takes away all the excuses.”
Migration notes
What you can bring
- Your posts and images, copied or exported from Medium
- Canonical links from old Medium URLs, so search keeps working
- Your own domain, pointed at Pagecord
What does not carry over
- Medium followers, claps, highlights, and comments
- Partner Program earnings and the paywall
- Medium publication memberships
Imports are not self-serve yet. If you have an existing site, email support and we will look at what is possible.