Preface
Steem blockchain is the best thing that ever happened to social media users and bloggers. Steemit main page says “your voice is worth something” and rightly so.
People used to consume countless hours everyday to make guides, helpful tutorials, articles, comparisons and analysis yet their efforts used to go mostly unnoticed and unrewarded until the arrival of steemit.
steemit.com is an excellent website to make full use of steem powered blogging experience. Yet there are third party app / platform creators who always bring something exciting towards the original platform with lots of improvements and worthy additions.
Third Party Steem Powered Platforms
1. eSteem App
Introduction
This platform tops my list of all other third party platforms. Why? This is an age of smartphones. And even though blogs on steemit are best created using desktops or laptops, yet the use of a smartphone to remain connected to your steemit related activities can never be ruled out.
It is understood that steemit.com is optimised to be used on smartphones and tablets yet the true experience of steemit can be somewhat limited using the standard browsers on such handheld devices.
So in comes, the brilliantly designed app (for both android and iOS devices) called, eSteem.
eSteem is not just a converted version of steemit.com as a smartphone app. It is way more than that. Truth be told, this is the one stop shop for anyone looking to get the advanced experience of steemit platform through their mobile devices.
eSteem app comes with a beautiful design and a friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) packed with tons of features that are not available on steemit.com. I will discuss some of these features in brief in following paragraph:-
Salient Features / Benefits
1. More than one account login feature enables you to maintain your other accounts on steemit from the same app.
2. Display of Voting Power Percentage ensures that you always get to keep an eye on your VP meter for better control over your voting habits.
3. Display of Reputation Score Upto 2 Decimal Points enlightens the users about their true reputation score. On the other hand, steemit.com mentions the reputation score as a whole number.
4. Activity Tab enables steemians to see their steemit stats like upvotes, mentions, comments, resteems, leaderboard, achievements etc. from few taps on their screens.
5. Drafts feature ensures that you never lose your work / blog that you have been creating for sometime since all of your work can be saved as drafts right on the app
6. Enhanced Security in eSteem App ensures that your steemit keys never leave the app and will always be stored locally on your devices. If you are unsure about what steemit keys are and how to use them, you are most welcome to follow my guide on subject here.
7. Free Upvote from @esteemapp : This is by far the greatest of incentives to use eSteem App. When you make post through this app, you will receive a nice free upvote from @esteemapp account. Of course the amount of votes per day is limited but this is a huge boost for minnows who are looking for some visibility on their blogs.
eSteem App is packed with a lot of great features and in the interest of keeping this post to adequate amount of words, i would request the readers to read a rather detailed guide on eSteem App created by @ilyastarar. This guide includes all the features that this amazing app has to offer.
How to Use
eSteem App is easy to use and easy to install. Just move over to App Store or Google Play Store (with respect to your device) and download eSteem App.
Like i have mentioned before, a fellow steemian @ilyastarar has written a detailed guide on how to use eSteem App in which he has discussed all the “how to” part along with all the features of the app duly supported by visual aids. You can check out his eSteem Guide here.
Credits
eSteem App is created & managed by a wonderful steemian @good-karma, who also happens to be a witness of steem blockchain.
Feel free to vote for him as a witness. He has done some tremendous work for the blockchain. If you don’t know what witnesses are or how to vote for them, follow my extensive guide on the subject here.
2. Busy.org
Introduction
busy.org is another useful platform that can be used in lieu of steemit.com. This platform provides a rather familiar interface for those who are migrating from facebook and other mainstream social media websites. busy.org is highly popular even amongst many whales and experienced steemians.
The main purpose of building busy.org was to provide a simplified version of steemit with more emphasis on interaction amongst users. It is amazing how a blogging website powered by steem blockchain can be dynamically modified to provide a different interface that users love and adore.
Salient Features / Benefits
Without further ado, here are some of the salient features of the busy.org platform:-
1. Friendly User Interface: This has to be the greatest feature of this platform. It is not an easy task to incorporate steemit model into something that looks a lot like a mainstream social media website. The platform intelligently uses standard social media buttons of “like”, “share” and “comment” instead of stock visuals of “upvote”, “resteem” and “comment” respectively. Here is an illustration of this feature:-
2. Great Busy Bot Upvote : Just like eSteem App, if you use busy.org to post on steemit, you will get a nice upvote from busy bot (1 vote per day). All you have to do is include a tag #busy as one of 5 tags on your post.
The busy bot vote is not a constant vote and heavily depends on the combined SP of your followers. The better the quality of followers in terms of SP, the bigger upvote you will get from busy.. Amazing...Right?
3. Activity Button on busy.org shows your steemit activity log much like any social media website. It contains all the actions that you perform on busy.org like voting, comment etc..
4. Voting Power Adjustment has been made super easy to operate with a beautiful interactive slider interface.
5. Tons of Other Features like clickable photos, exact date of joining the platform along with level of steemian in terms of plankton, dolphin, orca and whale are available in this platform.
How to Use
busy.org is as easy to use as steemit is. Just head over to https://busy.org and sign in through steemconnect by providing your username and relevant key.
Even though steemconnect protocol comes with standard set of security, it is always adviseable not to use your master password or active key to login.. instead, use posting key which is the safest option.
If you would like to read a detailed guide that highlights and explains relevant features in an adequate fashion, i would request you to read this utopian approved tutorial by @nairadaddy on how to use busy.org
I could have made a tutorial myself but i always prefer to acknowledge someone else’s work by giving it due credit instead of rewriting the entire post myself.
Credits
Busy.org is created by 2 awesome steemians @ekitcho and @fabien. Both have done a really great job to make the platform great.
Additionally, both @ekitcho and @fabien are steem blockchain witnesses and i would recommend you to vote on them as witnesses.
3. ChainBB.com
Introduction
chainBB is a forum themed platform that is designed to increase the level of engagement amongst fellow steemians.
This age of internet is the age of forums literally. There are countless forums on the internet now ranging from variety of topics like video games to even something like “coin collecting” and no, i am not talking about crypto coins. I am talking about the good ol’ physical coin collecting. Long story short, People these days actually like to engage themselves in forums.
The current steemit model is more blog-ish in its style and is dominated by posts having more $$$ on them, while the engagement amongst steemit users take the backseat.
ChainBB was purposefully designed to enhance the engagement level amongst steemians by putting content on top that is being most recently discussed. In steemit.com, content on trending or hot sections are based on payout, whereas on chainBB, the content that has been recently replied to is bumped to top.
Both steemit and chainBB are powered by same Steem Blockchain so anything you post on chainBB wil also show on steemit and vice versa. It is just the difference between how data / content is represented.
Salient Features / Benefits
1. More Engagement Amongst Steemit Community: This is indeed a major feature of the platform. Steemit is all about engagement and chainBB platform duly promotes this by bumping the article with recent replies on to the top for everyone to see, doesn’t matter if the payout on that post is just 1$.
Furthermore, the posts are usually lost in the dark alley of steem blockchain after few days only to never surface again until someone searches for them either manually or they show up on google searches.
However, ChainBB keeps the discussions alive by continuously bumping the posts on top that have been recently replied to, doesnt matter how old the topic is.
2. More Visibility for Minnows : As we often see, the “trending” and “hot” sections on steemit are dominated by whales since they receive the highest of payouts on their posts due to their massive following, whereas the minnows are a rather left out community. ChainBB, provides minnows this opportunity to get on top of the rankings solely based on the content and not the payout.
3. High Security Measures: chainBB never accepts your master password or active keys since it is a third party platform, which means there can be bugs in the system that can compromise your account security. With that prelude, chainBB accepts only posting key to sign in to the platform.
ChainBB is missing out on some of the basic features like signing up for steem account from chainBB and wallet functions but the improvements are on their way. The creator is highly focused on providing extreme level of security on platform and does not want to incorporate any feature without fully testing it.
How to Use
ChainBB is easy to use. Just hop over to https://chainbb.com and use your username and posting key to sign in to the platform.
Here, i would like to mention chainBB FAQ guide, which will answer all of your questions. The guide is written by the creator of chainBB himself.
There is another tutorial written by @nairadaddy and which was duly approved by utopian.io. This tutorial will explain the chainBB website navigation and details of its functions. You can check out that tutorial here.
Credits
The man who single handedly is serving the Steem Blockchain in a way that no one else can, the man who created chainBB is none other than our top steem witness @jesta. He is one of those developers who has a knack for evolving with technology and for him, the sky is the limit..
Please feel free to vote for him as a witness to further strengthen his position.
4. Utopian.io
Introduction
Before i go any further, i would like to clarify one thing here. utopian.io is not an alternative to steemit. But it is powered by steem blockchain and specifically deals in open source contributions. Any contributon posted via utopian.io will be shown on your steemit account but you cannot use utopian.io as a general purpose blogging site. So please, know the difference before you decide to proceed.
utopian.io is a first of its kind steem powered platform that rewards people by upvoting them who make contributions in open source programs / apps / platforms.
There are dozens of ways in which utopian accepts a contribution. It can be a suggestion, a change in documentation, bug hunting, translation and even a tutorial of an open source platform.
The complete list of type of contributions that utopian.io accepts is as follows:-
Salient Features / Benefits
1. Rewarding contributers has got the be the best feature of utopian.io. If you make a valid contribution, it will be accepted by a utopian moderator. Since your contribution posted at utopian.io will also be shown at steemit.com, hence you will be rewarded with a nice upvote from @utopian-io bot. The upvote percentage will vary with respect to the amount and complexity of work that you have done in your contribution.
2. Building Community Through Contribution: I have been a huge advocate of making contribution based posts on steemit and utopian.io is the practical way to achieve that. Utopian.io accepts and rewards your contributions irrespective of your number of followers or your stature in steemit community.
utopian.io is an entirely different kind of platform and i would urge the readers to go to the platform website to read all about it.
How to Use
Go to https://utopian.io, sign in via steemconnect v2 by giving in your steemit username and password and start making contributions.
It is absolutely necessary to read all the guidelines of this platform before you make a contribution.
Furthermore, i would like to invite you to have a look at this video tutorial about how to use utopian.io. This tutorial was submitted by none other than @aggroed. Trust me when i tell you, there is no better teacher on steemit than @aggroed so watch the tutorial rather carefully.
Credits
The credit of making utopian.io goes to @elear. He is the man behind the gun who has spent countless days and nights in order to make this platform a reality. Though @elear is not a witness on steem blockchain, however his community bot @utopian-io is a witness (a rather successful one).
So feel free to vote on @utopian-io for witness.
Conclusion
In this post, i have extensively discussed about 4 major platforms that can be used as alternative to steemit.com. These platforms are:-
- eSteem App
- Busy.org
- chainbb.com
- Utopian.io (conditonal with contribution based work only)
Each platform is packed with amazing features and each has elevated the steemit user experience to new heights in their own way.
Kindly consider to upvote, follow and resteem. If you have any questions or have anything to add, please feel free to comment below
images from pixabay and canva tool or are otherwise screenshots taken from my own device
Best Regards
JBN
Luckily caught the post before my smaller autovote would have hit it. Thanks to Ginabot for that!
You have wonderfully covered the platform so useful for variety of userbase on Steemit. Smartphone users, Medium style blogging lovers, forum posters and open source contributors of suggestions and guides can benefit a lot from this post.
Also, thanks a lot for mentioning my guide on eSteem! I hope it helps people use the app with more control. I have posted using Busy.org and it is amazingly user friendly! I must admit that its interface and UX are a lot better than those of Steemit website. I also have contributed via @utopian-io twice so far and it empowers a huge number of people.
This post is a great service in making Steemit ecosystem known, something that is my mission these days, so I am resteeming it!
Thank you bro for the awesome compliments.. i hope i can keep posting useful posts in future as well by following your path.
Blessings..
http://1ink.cc/f18cZ
great summary!
that was exactly what i was looking for.
thank you for sharing it.
Thank you very much.. ^_^
@jbn I was just reading this article on my smartphone through browser and didn't know there is an app. So gonna get that one. 💯💯💯
Big thanks tho to pointing out benefits/differences of those applications. As a
minnow gonna definitely try chainBB 👌
👊
I am glad to help you out.. let me know your experience with both of these platforms.. much regards
I am writing this comment using esteem right now, and I love it. True, Steemit's website is mobilecompatible but it just doesn't have that feel using it on a browser. Thank you for eSteem @good-karma. As far as other platforms are considered, I love the UI of of Utopian.io, even though it is more for techies, being a programmer I am planning to make some tutorials soon, but they take up a lot of time and I am not getting free time much nowadays, life is hectic. Busy.org has a better UI than steemit, in my opinion and all but I've just not been used to it yet, I'm looking forward to get more into it tho. I did not know anything about chaiibb before this, and being a minnow it sounds like a good choice for me, I guess.
Yes. Do give chainbb a try.. remember, chainbb is forum styled version of steemit.. best of luck and thank you for the comment
There is no doubt that steemit is doing a great job but along with it success, mobile app like esteem will encourage the mobile lover to use their extra time for some earning. On the top of that, busy.org, chainBB.com, and uTopian.io are great as far describe by you. I found esteem fabulous as I am its user but now by your post, which let me try others too.
I hope you will find other platforms extremely useful.. thank you for the comment.. blessings
Thanks, and can you write the article for steemit beginner, that will be lovely.
Have a great day.
I have used eSteem application since the first day my steemit account was activated. Sometimes you got only couple of seconds to check out something on the phone and the bookmark option is a great tool.
Couldn’t agree with you more.. ^_^
This is such a descriptive and informative post. Thank you!!!
Thank you very much.. hope it helped you in some way..
Thanks for the information. This is a very helpful post.
I didn't realise you could post blogs on chainBB I assumed in was like the forums of the past where you just chatted or posted links. I'll definitely be checking it out. I like that you can be seen because people are talking about your post and not just because you've got a high payout.
Well you can use chainbb to create blog posts but i think you won’t because there is a catch. Chainbb wasn’t designed for creating blogposts. It was designed to create short text forum based discussions. While steemit blog posts are generally rich in text and visual aids, chainbb is more like having a discussion and promoting engagement level amongst users.. so if i want to create a standard blog post, i would rather use eSteem App or busy.org and not chainbb.com
And yes, thats one of the advantages of chainbb. Payouts don’t matter there, only thing that matters is that how recently a topic has been discussed..
Hope it has cleared things up a bit.
Thanks @gillianpearce for the wonderful comment. Its always a pleasure seeing you on my blog.
Ah. I see. Thanks. So my original understanding was correct. Thanks for the clarification. It's more like chat than a blog which was what I thought. Must have got all excited at the prospect of being noticed because my content was being talked about, and read what I wanted to read! 😢
Yes but you might be missing the point that steemit and chainbb are both same things. Whatever you write on steemit, that will be visible on chainbb and vice versa. The only difference between two platforms is the way content is represented..
It is my humble suggestion that you must use chainbb to see if there is any practical use of the platform for you..
OK. I'm obviously not getting it. I've made a note to check it out tomorrow and see how it works. Thanks for taking the time to try to explain it and recommend I try it. I appreciate it! 😊
I think we are thinking on two different paths.. let me know if you need some clraficiations.. i would be more than happy to help a fellow steemian..
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Thank You! ⚜
I think esteem is great app. gives us steamians flexibility to use our smartphones i came to know about esteem app via @ilyastarar article. Sure will try other options you mentioned in this article.
You are most welcome to try out other platforms.. thank you ^_^
Thank you for sharing this post for minnow steemians like me. This post will be my first post on busy.org. I saw this post on @ilyastarar blog . I have been using steemit website for a while now, the user experience on steemit.com can be frustrating. Apps like esteem and busy.org has made my life easier. With all of these apps it will enable new users have an amazing user friendly experience on the steemit blockchain.
Thats very good to hear my friend.. hopefully you will find these platforms extremely useful as you grow on steemit
@jbn - wow, you put out some very informative content. I learned more from this one post than I have in any other post on Steemit! Kudos to you... keep up the outstanding work. Followed - upvoted - resteemed!
thank you for the kind remarks.. i hope my content was able to broaden your horizon as far as steemit goes
wow this is great sir! thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am using the second one (busy.org) whenever steemit.com is not available some times I can't post and my votes don't get in. I love to try the first one, but I think my phone is not smart enough though hahahah :-D God bless you & please continue to help and guide us through your articles, po. :-)
Hahaha then its time for you to upgrade your phone po.. thank you po for the nice comments..
yes sir you're right about that ..I can't even have my facebook, email and a lot more, one of my friends advised me to have it checked by a technician for a possible reformatting... :-(
Thanks for sharing about 04 alternatives for using steemit. Your posts always contain some worthy information. Thanks for sharing
Thank you bro..
Thanks for the information. i saw the apps. but i was confused of hacking my account. i will try the apps now.
Your account will not be hacked, however i would advise you to use posting key to sign in when using third party platforms / apps. That way, the worst thing that can happen to you is that someone can post on your behalf or give upvotes / flags on posts / comments.
You can always reset your master password (if you think your credentials have been compromised) that will change all the keys associated to your steemit account.
Thank you for the kind information.
Thanks for the websites! I am making a list of Steem-powered platforms and this helps me a lot! Keep it up!
Thank you for the kind words. I am happy that my post helped you with your list.
Thanks for showing us these plattforms.
I'm currently using the esteem APP and I have to say that it isn't working like it should. It seems to be really buggy atm, but at least there is a way to login and stay up to date on the mobile phone as well.
Never Heard of getting free upvotes from esteemapp, I posted some things on the App but never got them... Moreover notifications seem not to work quite well... could be a problem on ios devices dunno...
Hopefully they will work on the app. Thanks for the information anyway. Maybe you know something about my issues.
Well first of all, thank you for the comment..
Secondly, yes i have seen some users having issues with eSteem App, specially on iOS devices.
One thing that i have often seen that the reason for eSteem App to be buggy is because of an aging phone. I have an iPhone 6 and its really an uphill task to run eSteem smoothly on it. But i have seen some phones that have more advanced hardware with adequate RAM that run the app rather flawlessly.. if you could tell me the details about your device, i would be able to help you in a better way..
Third, eSteem App does upvote your post but that is one post per day. If you are posting a second one on same day, esteem app won’t upvote your post. So there is that.. i would urge you to uninstall and re-install the app after clearing your phone cache and RAM refresh. It should solve both of your problems with the app.
Lastly, if you still think that the app is not working as it should be, you can al ays contact @good-karma on discord or on steemit chat since he is the creator of the app and he would love to hear about your feedback.
Please Let me know if you have any further questions..
much regards
Thanks for the reply.
Im currently using the newest iPhone X. That shouldnt be the problem. I would love to see a iphone X optimized App too.
It may be possible that I got one then.
Well is there any android phone lying around ? If so, please test the app on that. In my community, peope who use steemit, i am the only one with an iOS device and the app seem to run smoothly on android devices.
iPhone X has different screen resolution so it is possible that the app is not optimized for iPhone X yet.
@jbn, this steemit alternatives article is very helpful and valuable. And just like @ilyastarar expository articles too, you nailed it nicely.
Many thanks for composing this. Pls keep it up.
Upvoted, Resteemed and followed.
Thank you very much.. i hope i can live upto your expectations..
I just discovered you via the Ginabot update post and i am sure glad I did! I have read tons of guides but yours are truly excellent. Your explanation of these platforms was far more clear for me than the other descriptions I have read, and I am definitely going to explore a bunch of stuff now thanks to you. Thank you for your contribution to users like me, I have been here since December and I am daily blown away by the talent that is in every corner of this platform. I think the best thing that you do is explain what type of user is attracted to the platforms and why. The only one I am still pretty lost on is Utopian. I have gone there to take a look and it feels like I probably need at least an hour of study to get through my learning curve there. Its like.. what exactly am I contributing, and to whom am I contributing the ideas to? I am sure it makes sense but I am just a little lost there. Not really a complaint or anything, but it might be something to consider expounding upon in a super duper basic way some time. Meanwhile I will just go over there soon and read more! And I will watch @aggroed's video too!
Utopian is a different sort of animal. I am sure you are familiar with open source programs / platfroms / apps. Right? For instance steemit.com is an open source platform and thus you can submit contribution on utopian related to steemit.com. Your contribution type can vary like you can add a suggestion or you can do bug hunting to let the devs know that you have caught a bug. This is just the crux of utopian.io platform. I would recommend that you should read in detail about this platform..
Thank you for the detailed comment and nice compliments.. let me know if i can extend my help in any way... best regards..
I would like to post some tutorials on the programs I develop. Would it be enough to tag my post with utopian-io while posting it on steemit.com or do I have to post it from within the utopian-io site? Secondly, can I just put my code on github or utopian-io has its own repository where I should put my code, to be listed as a contributor?
Well first off, you must always post on utopian when submitting a contribution. You cannot make a contribution on steemit and then just add a tag of utopian-io. Your contribution won’t be accepted. Because utopian has its own repository library and you must select relevant repo from it before submitting the contribution. Hope this answers both of your question.. ?
Thank you for the comment ^_^
Thank you so much for posting this! I had no idea about esteem, I am going to download that right now! There are so many different ways to use Steemit, I feel like I am learning something new every second!
Well, thats the beauty of blockchain.. there is always something happening and there is always something new. Hopefully, you will love eSteem App.
And on side note, we all are learning about the platform everyday. There is no true master of steemit and steem blockchain except the ones who created them. You will be surprised to know that there are steem witnesses who are oblivious to some of the facts related to blockchain..
^_^ cheers
Great post! There is one thing new users need to know about Steemconnect. Active key is usually needed to login. For more information see https://busy.org/steemconnect/@noisy/how-to-configure-steemconnect-v2-and-use-it-with-your-application-how-it-works-and-how-it-is-different-from-v1
Good article.. but from what i understand that you can use posting key as well to login via steemconnect on both v1 and v2. Correct me if i am wrong?
Since i discovered busy.org a few days ago, i can't understand why people still use steemit.com as their main platform. Don't want to sound disrespectful, but when i first logged into steemit, i just thought hmm, this site is not so great, it's a slow and ugly beast imo.
I really can recommend busy.org. Usability and functionality is superb. Sorry, but i'm a fan ;)
Haha no worries. I am a fan too.. busy.org runs a little sluggish on my device but that really is the problem of my device only.. its a great platform though..
Very informative post. I've already been using busy.org, and now I'm quite interested to try eSteem. Thanks a lot for the info!
You are welcome. And thank you for the comment. I would defo recommend eSteem app for you..
Mahalos for this article. I learned quite a bit.
Thank you very much for the kind words. Happy to be of help
Woooohoooo thanks for the sharingsssss will try them later
Thats awesome :)
Great post. it will help people to use steemit and blogging and othet activity will be easier.
Thank you ^_^
Thanks for sharing
Always happy to help
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This is great networking. Thank you. Joy
I am sorry i did not understand. What did you mean by “great networking”?
Well the other platforms will add to your view base. I need more steem to reach my goals. Without the third party platforms to use for networking I won't be as successful. (working on it)
Joy
May the force be with you :p
Thank you. I love this post. Keep em comin! Joy
Sir need your help
Steemit Community is Requested to Save The Life of Tahseen Dilbar Blood CancerTreatment
https://steemit.com/help/@zafaralise/steemit-community-is-requested-to-save-the-life-of-tahseen-dilbar-blood-cancertreatment
Oh, there are many offshoots:
Any heard from Earn.com?
I noticed it lately, but I didn't keep looking at it.
Earn.com is not powered from steem blockchain.. what are you talking about??
Just bumped into it while I was surfing. Steemit was new to me, too.
Also Earn works with payouts and rewards, so I thought I saw a connection.
The post specifically says about alternative platforms to steemit that are powered by steem blockchain..
Thanks for the correction.
I love to see and read your post, greetings share
Thanks for a new information that you have been shared sir. It will really help and beneficial for the newbie like me. It nice to know you and your blog. Expect the next info from you sir. Thank you.
I'm yet to try chainbb and utopian because i just get to know about them from this article. Im currently using esteemapp, busy, zappl app and mspsteem. Mspsteem.com is literally almost the same with steemit.com, the only difference is the VP it displays on top of your profile. Using esteem app hasn't been great for me so far because of my slow network, but i love the fact that it accepts more than one account.