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Summary: In this article, we'll discuss the features of an online publishing platform- Medium.com, the technology stack, the development cost, and how you can build such an app faster without compromising on the app quality.
Introduction
We are living in the information age, where whatever we want we can get it instantly in a few clicks. Websites such as Medium.com- An online publishing platform, provide an effective way to convey information from one person to another.
Medium enables users to share ideas, knowledge, stories, and perspective in the form of well-written articles. The website was first launched by blogger and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams in 2012, and by May 2017, Medium.com reached up to 60 million unique monthly readers.
Now it has become one of the most popular, private, and corporate blogging platforms with 100 million monthly active users, thanks to its clean design, ease of use, and rich features. Owning the best online publishing platform can be a great thing.
What is Medium?
Medium is not only limited to an online publishing platform that can be used by professionals or non-professionals for sharing their ideas, stories, and knowledge through articles but is also the best place to discover amazing projects, new voices, and content.
It can be used for free or with a premium membership that comes with excellent benefits such as access to the audio narration of popular stories and exclusive content, and an improved bookmark section.
Jay Baer, a New York Times bestselling author, defined Medium as, “ LinkedIn’s cool younger brother who wears concert T-shirts all the time, but also checks the Dow Jones industrial average on his iPhone.”
So, how can you build a web app like Medium.com?
Before building a web app like Medium.com you must finalize important and unique features to your app. Here is the list of features you must have in your online publishing web application.
1. User account setup
On Medium.com anyone can access content without having an account but to access some exclusive content and to publish an article on Medium users must require a Medium account.
Allowing users to access content without having an account helps to attract extraordinary traffic from search engines. A user can sign up with Google, Twitter, or Facebook accounts instantly.
Signing up with Facebook and Twitter allows your existing connections to automatically follow you on Medium after account creation.
2. Edit user profile
Editing your homepage action enables you to change your profile information such as name, profile photo, and bio. The Medium profile bio will be used as the author bio at the end of your stories on Medium.com.
3. Follow, tag, create personalize reading list and add comments
For building a web app like Medium.com you need to add a feature that enables readers to follow different publications and authors, search articles using tags or search bar, create a personalized reading list, and allow users to comment on the articles.
4. Write stories
Medium helps you to create great content, for that you just need to click on the write story button at the top of the home page. Medium provides you with an interface for writing stories so that you can focus on creating amazing stories.
5. Publish drafts
Once you are ready to publish your Draft, you can add tags to your story and edit its privacy and licensing. You can make your story publicly visible or unlisted(visible to users with a URL). With licensing, you can choose to copyright your content or you can either share it with creative commons licensing.
Further, Medium provides features to promote your content through shareable links and moving the story to the top of your profile.
6. Import a story
The import story option enables you to import articles written on your site to your Medium account. It is allowed only if you own the content as long as you didn’t give exclusive rights to other platforms or publishers.
7. Create publication
In addition to creating stories on Medium, you can also create a publication on Medium. The owner of the publication can edit and submit stories from writers, add new writers to the publication, and review the metrics of stories.
All the above features make Medium the best online publishing platform. However, Medium is more than a blogging platform, it is a place for business owners, innovators, and individuals to collaborate and share views and ideas.
To build the best online publishing platform like Medium you need to add similar features, you can add the other features according to the user requirements and further enhance the usability of the platform.
Medium.com technology stack
Though the Medium website looks so simple, it is a complex task to build such things. There are lots of technologies used, and making them work together to provide a cohesive user experience can be challenging. Following is a list of technologies used for Medium.com.
1. Node.js
Node.js is a server-side framework based on JavaScript. It helps us to create a web server, customize it, and deliver content at the coding level.
2. React.js
Reaact.js is a component-based JavaScript library built by Facebook. It is best for the web application that deals with frequent user interactions and dynamic data.
3. MongoDB
MongoDB is a data model that naturally supports JSON and its expressive query language. It is simple for developers to learn and use. It has features such as automatic failover, horizontal scaling, and the ability to assign data to a location.
Other than the above technologies Medium uses Express.js, Amazon CloudFront, Google or Azure for hosting, GraphQL, Google Analytics or Mixpanel, Docker, and Amazon S3.
The use of technologies and tools completely depends on your project requirement.
Cost of Building an online publishing platform like Medium
The cost of building an online publishing platform depends on various factors such as market research, technologies used, app designing, complexity level, number of features added, and most importantly your development team.
- Detailed market research can cost you up to $30, 000
- Designing a prototype will cost approximately $5,000
- Creating a user panel, admin panel, and, writer panel can approximately cost you up to $26,000
The total cost of app development can be in the range of $65000 to $75,000 excluding the maintenance cost.
Can we build an online publishing platform like a medium at low cost and time? Find out how DhiWise can help you here
If you are planning to build an app-like medium.com, DhiWise can help you to bring your idea into reality.
What is DhiWise?
It's a 100% developer-centric ProCode and LowCode platform for building amazing web and mobile apps in the most efficient way.
DhiWise accelerates app development by providing a visual programming platform that is encapsulated with rich features and advanced technologies. It has simplified code sharing and team collaboration with Git integration.
The technologies supported by the DhiWise,
- Node.js: For backend app development using MVC or Clean Code Architecture.
- React.js: For web app development and deployment.
- Laravel: It is for PHP developers, and helps to build Robust apps faster.
- Flutter: Best for cross-platform applications. Helps to create an adaptable, beautiful, and modern app faster.
- Swift: The platform helps you to build apps for the Apple ecosystem.
- Kotlin: For Android app developers.
With all the above technologies developers can use different databases such as MySQL, SQL, and MongoDB.
Moreover, DhiWise provides ready-to-use templates and a screen library so that you do not need to start all from scratch. For building an app like medium.com try this Blogging and Podcast template.
Overall, it accelerates SDLC and reduces the cost of development and platform training. If you want to build an app like Medium.com DhiWise is the best choice to quickly start app development without compromising on quality.
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