There has been a lot of talk about the new Croissant app lately. @Manton started an interesting conversation about this on Micro.blog.

Croissant is getting some great press. Just a few I’ve noticed: Six Colors, MacStories, TechCrunch. I don’t need it because Micro.blog cross-posts to everything from my blog, but would be cool if the app could post to blogs in the future too.

When discussing the desirable support for Micro.blog in Croissant, my dear @Pratik noted a couple of things with which I cordially disagree, drawing a clear separation between the blogging and social aspects of Micro.blog.

[@manton](https://micro.blog/manton) Thought as much. I sent a request as soon as they announced 😊 Maybe if Micro.blog positioned itself as a social timeline service powered by your microblog, it would be considered by default for such apps?

[@manton](https://micro.blog/manton) tbh, the blogging platform aspect is dominant. The social aspects come next. But probably people don't want to start a "blog" (perception of having to do too much) even when their social media account is technically a blog (place where they write)

I concur with @Manton on this. I see no benefit in Croissant since I can cross-post to the very same places from Micro.blog. And I don’t agree with @Pratik’s point of view because, to me, both aspects of Micro.blog (blogging and social) are inseparable and are actually what make this platform’s proposition so appealing to me.

My blog is my home, the place I cherish and where I welcome my friends. I can customize it and make it my own. In my home, I can say whatever I think of, collect the nice things I find out there, and build things to share with the world. I find it wonderful that I (a 50-year-old guy with very little technical skill) can easily connect my blog and my timeline with other people in many other places.

Micro.blog has given me this place of my own and this public square to share, and I am forever thankful for that. Blogging and microblogging in a socially connected environment is what I’ve been looking for.

One more thing: Micro.blog’s value proposition is second to none. I read the following comment and wanted to add something to it.

[@manton](https://micro.blog/manton) Croissant’s pricing makes micro.blog seem like really good value. You get everything Croissant can do and more and a blog for only a couple of bucks more a month.

This comment reminded me of Pika, the blogging platform made by Good Enough. Believe me, I love these guys. I use their Letterbird contact form on one of my blogs, and I seriously like everything they do. I’m sure I’d love to build an easy blog on Pika.

But they can’t compete with Micro.blog. Pika charges a very fair $60 a year. Micro.blog is $50, and for that, it gives you a blog and a social network, a supportive community, a great help forum, tons of plug-ins, more themes than you need, a completely customizable Hugo framework, an ActivityPub user, cross-posting to multiple platforms, and even podcast hosting!

I have a Premium subscription ($100/year) and, on top of all that, I can make up to five blogs (I currently have three), unlimited standalone static pages, a bookmark system that lets me collect and highlight web pages and start a blog post from these highlights, a phone app for notes, AI features to describe pictures, and transcribe audio.

If anything, Croissant’s $20 and Pika’s $60 have made even more palpable how insanely valuable Micro.blog’s feature set is for me.

I really hope Croissant and Pika find their audience since they are both great products made by very fine people. Croissant has a clear goal to grow its features, and Pika looks like it’s purposefully simple by design. I’ll certainly keep watching, but I’m sticking to Micro.blog for the long run, that’s for sure.