You can usually start a publication on these platforms without paying, but that does not decide who can read what you publish. Each platform adds a different kind of gate to individual posts: a paywall, a sign-in requirement for free subscribers, or a privacy setting that hides the whole blog. Those three gates behave differently, and a reader hits each one in a different way.
The headline refers to six services. This article covers five of them, Medium, Substack, WordPress.com, Ghost and Blogger, because their current official help pages describe reader access clearly enough to compare. If your sixth platform is not in this list, the checklist at the end works for it, but this article does not assume how that service’s controls behave.
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Free to publish and free to read are separate questions
Publishing for free means you can create a site, blog or publication without paying the platform. Reading for free means a visitor can open a given post without paying and, in some cases, without creating an account. A platform can answer yes to the first question and still restrict the second one on a post-by-post basis.
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Four kinds of gate readers encounter
| Gate | What it does | What the reader sees |
|---|---|---|
| Public post | Anyone who visits the site can open it | Full post, no sign-in |
| Free-subscriber gate | Only signed-in free members or subscribers can open it | A sign-in or subscribe prompt, no payment step |
| Paid gate | Only paying members or subscribers can open the full post | A paywall, sometimes with a preview |
| Privacy setting | The blog is hidden from the public and visible only to authors or invited readers | Access denied to everyone else, not a payment prompt |
How each platform handles the gate
Medium
Medium’s paywall help page says that non-members can read the stories authors chose to publish outside the paywall, and that some stories sit behind it. In Medium’s words: “Non-members can read all the stories that authors have chosen to publish outside the paywall.” The paywall is part of Medium’s subscription model, so a reader who is not a paying member may hit it on some stories and not others. The same page does not set out writer pricing, so nothing here should be read as a statement about what it costs to publish on Medium.
Source: Medium Help Center, “About the paywall”.
Substack
Substack lets a publisher place a paywall within a paid post. For paid-only or founding-member posts, the publisher can turn on a free preview for free subscribers. Substack’s support article says free readers can see that preview in email, in the Substack app, or on the web version of the post. Changing a post’s audience to “Everyone” or “Free subscribers only” removes the paywall for that post.
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Substack’s publishing guide also describes profile visibility and a private mode for a publication. Those are separate from paid-post access. A private publication setting does not, by itself, tell you whether a paid post has a preview.
Sources: Substack Support, “How do I publish a free preview of a paid post on Substack?” and Substack publishing guide.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com’s free plan has no time limit and includes a hosted website, a WordPress.com subdomain and publishing tools. Custom domains, more storage and some monetization features can require an upgrade, so a free site is not the same as a site with every feature included.
For newsletter-style posts, WordPress.com uses access levels. The support page describes a post set to “Anyone subscribed” as visible to subscribers only, which includes free subscribers. A separate option restricts a post to paid subscribers. A reader who is not subscribed is prompted to subscribe, and reading paid content requires payment details. The page was last reviewed October 7, 2026.
Sources: WordPress.com Free and WordPress.com Support, newsletter subscription help.
Ghost
Ghost describes three membership approaches: a free-only setup, a paid-only setup, or a mix of free and paid members. Its access levels for posts are public, members-only, paid-members-only and selected paid tiers. A public post is visible to anyone who visits the site. A members-only post can be read by logged-in free or paid members. A paid-members-only post requires an active subscription.
Ghost’s own wording for the first level is: “The public access level allows you to publish content that is visible to anyone who visits your website.” These are descriptions of Ghost’s access system, not a statement that every Ghost-powered site or hosting arrangement is free.
Source: Ghost Help, “How to create protected content”.
Blogger
Blogger blogs are public by default. The owner can change reader access so that only authors can see the blog, or so that only custom readers the owner invites can see it. Blogger’s wording is: “By default, your blog is public and can be read by anyone on the web.” These are privacy controls. Blogger’s access documentation does not describe a paywall or a paid-subscriber tier.
Blogger also warns that someone who already has an image’s web address may still be able to view that image after the blog is made private. If you rely on a private blog to keep photos or files hidden, that warning matters.
Sources: Blogger Help, settings and Blogger Help, access controls.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Side-by-side comparison
| Platform | Free starting option (per cited page) | Public posts | Free sign-in needed for restricted posts | Paid-only access | Free preview | Where the control applies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium | Not stated on the paywall page | Yes, stories published outside the paywall | Not stated | Yes, some stories are paywalled | Not stated | Per story |
| Substack | Not stated in the cited pages | Yes, when audience is set to “Everyone” | Yes, when audience is “Free subscribers only” | Yes, paid-only and founding-member posts | Yes, shown in email, app and web | Per post |
| WordPress.com | Yes, free plan with no time limit | Yes, when access is not restricted | Yes, “Anyone subscribed” includes free subscribers | Yes, paid-subscriber-only option | Not stated | Per post access level |
| Ghost | Not stated in the cited page | Yes, public level |
Yes, members-only level | Yes, paid-members-only and selected paid tiers | Not stated | Per post access level |
| Blogger | Not stated in the cited pages | Yes, default setting | Not applicable; readers must be invited | Not applicable; no paywall described | Not applicable | Whole blog |
Checks to run before you publish a mixed-access post
- Set the access level on the post itself, not only on the publication or blog, and confirm the saved setting after publishing.
- Open the post in a private or signed-out browser window and confirm what a visitor sees.
- If the post has a free preview, check the preview in the channel your readers use most, such as email on Substack.
- On Blogger, check that the image addresses inside a private blog are not already public elsewhere.
- On WordPress.com and Ghost, test once as a free member and once as a non-member, because the two experiences differ.
Applying the same test to a sixth service
If your platform is not one of the five above, compare it on these six points before you assume it works like any of them:
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- Whether it offers a free starting option, and what that option excludes.
- Whether a post can be fully public.
- Whether restricted posts require a free account or subscription.
- Whether paid-only access exists.
- Whether a free preview remains visible when a post is paywalled.
- Whether privacy is set per post, per member tier or across the whole publication.
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