Hashnode with DEV.to?
TL;DR... it's probably worth it to post to both hashnode and dev.to. Use this link to create a hashnode account: https://hashnode.com/@martzcodes/joinme
Over the last year I've written around 10 blog posts. I started out on medium and got tired of being paywalled and not owning my content. I switched to dev.to and started blogging a bit more... but I started seeing more and more about this site called Hashnode and decided to look into it.
Hashnode features (from the homepage)
- Automatic GitHub Backup [1]
- Write in Markdown
- AMP Support
- Edge Caching with SSL
- Own Your Data
- HTTPS By Default [2]
- Add Your Personality [3]
- Free In-Built Newsletter Service
- Access to Discord Server
Let's look closer at some of these...
[1] Automatic GitHub Backup
Every time you publish an article on your blog, a markdown version of the post is pushed to your private GitHub repo as a backup.
This definitely piqued my interest. A few months ago I wrote a post one evening on dev.to and in a comedy of errors when I published it the next morning I accidentally used an older version of it (I had multiple tabs open) and lost around half the article. At first look it seems like automatic GitHub backup may have saved me...
Turns out... the automatic backup doesn't save drafts and wouldn't have helped me in that particular scenario...
So... it is nice to have a backup but I don't know that it's critical since it only backs-up on publish. Maybe they'll improve that in the future. Dev.to doesn't have this.
[2] HTTPS By Default
It doesn't matter if you are using our free subdomain or a custom one. We provide SSL certificates for free for all the blogs.
The bigger part of this is actually the use of your own domain, with SSL certs, for FREE. The ability to grow my personal brand (martzcodes) is pretty big. Dev.to doesn't have anything like that.
[3] Add Your Personality
Showcase your personality and give your blog a unique look to capture your audience’s attention. You can create a personalized theme from an infinite range of HEX colors, change your logo, and customize your blog even more if you want.
This one pretty limited. There are 2 layout options (and you can unlock a third if you become a hashnode ambassador). When comparing with dev.to I'd say this one is a wash... they both let you customize some very limited things that generally don't overlap.
This one is a wash with dev.to
Hashnode vs(?) dev.to
If you search "hashnode vs dev.to" you'll find a few articles comparing the two and it ends up being a wash. The co-founder even says:
We are not in competition with dev.to -- we just think that everyone should publish their content on their own domain first before republishing elsewhere.
I think that's fair... there's no harm in posting to both and it only increases your presence / views... nothing wrong with that. Let's look at some numbers though!
I've published 3 articles in the last week... first published them to hashnode and "syndicated" them to dev.to. The social media posting I've done has pointed to hashnode, NOT dev.to... so what kind of views am I getting?
Hashnode:
As you can see... the traffic is mixed. The first post has 143 views on hashnode, with 41 views on dev.to... second post had 27 views on hashnode but 100 views on dev.to, and the third had 74 views on hashnode with less than 25 on dev.to.
The 1st and 3rd articles were technical ones (which had more views on hashnode) while the 2nd was less technical and more informational.
Between the two sites I still got 400 views over the last week... so really only good things can come from posting to both(?!)
So, if you'd like to start blogging on hashnode and want to help me unlock being a hashnode ambassador...
Use this link to create your hashnode account: https://hashnode.com/@martzcodes/joinme