Sam Sycamore Hashnode gives you more freedom as a blogger, you can customize your blog as you want. You really feel that you own a blog and it's yours. On the other hand, Medium doesn't give you all the customization and features that Hashnode offers. Also, you don't really own your blog 100%, your account can be banned at any time if you break their rules. The good thing about Medium is that they have a partner program, they pay their writers every month depending on how many reads and engagement they get. There are writers that make thousands of dollars every month, but those are maybe less than 5% of the writers.