Ghost review: what you get for owning the stack
Ghost is the right choice for a writer who wants to own the publication and keep all of the subscription revenue, and the wrong one for a creator who wants marketing automation. Our 1 October 2026 check records Starter at $18 a month and Publisher at $29 on annual billing, with no cut taken from paid memberships.
The short answer
Buy Ghost if you are building a publication with paid subscriptions and you want to keep the revenue and the platform. Starter is $18 a month and Publisher $29 on annual billing, verified against ghost.org/pricing on 1 October 2026, and Ghost takes 0% of member revenue beyond Stripe's own processing fee.
Skip it if you need branching automation and tagging around the list. Ghost is a publishing tool before it is a marketing one, and Kit at $33 a month is built for the funnel work Ghost leaves you to do elsewhere.
Where Ghost fits
Ghost fits the writer whose newsletter is a publication. You get a website and an email list from the same tool, so the archive is a site that can be found rather than a folder of sent mail, and the paid tier is a membership rather than a product. That is the specific job it does better than a pure email platform.
The revenue share is the strongest single argument. Our 1 October 2026 check records that Ghost takes no cut of paid membership revenue on any plan: you keep everything minus Stripe's processing fee. Set that against Substack, which charges no monthly fee and takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, verified 11 June 2026.
That makes the choice between the two a straightforward piece of arithmetic rather than a matter of taste. Ghost Starter at $18 a month costs $216 across a year. Substack's 10% reaches $18 a month at $180 a month in reader revenue, so above roughly that figure Ghost is the cheaper platform and below it Substack is. Run it on your own numbers before switching either way.
The published rates are annual-billing rates, which is the detail most reviews miss. Our 1 October 2026 check records Starter at $18 a month, Publisher at $29 and Business at $199, all billed annually. Monthly billing costs more, and our check does not record the monthly figures, so this page does not state them.
Self-hosting is a real option and not a theoretical one. Ghost is open-source software that is free to run on your own infrastructure, with hosting and email delivery as the only costs. That suits a technically confident publisher and nobody else: the managed plans exist because most writers do not want to own a server and a mail reputation.
The fit narrows once the list has a product attached to it. Selling a course, tagging buyers and running a multi-step launch are jobs for a marketing platform, and the newsletter platforms category covers the tools built for them. Ghost will take a subscription payment well and run a campaign poorly.
A 14-day trial is recorded on every managed plan with no card required on our 1 October 2026 check. Spend it on the theme and the member signup flow rather than on writing, because the publishing part is not in doubt and the presentation is what you are buying.
Ghost pricing
Ghost publishes three managed tiers plus a custom plan, and the software itself is free to self-host. The figures below were verified against ghost.org/pricing on 1 October 2026, and the Ghost pricing breakdown carries the longer version.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $18/mo | Billed annually, $216 a year. Managed hosting, one site, a member cap our check does not record |
| Publisher | $29/mo | Billed annually, $348 a year. Raises the member cap and adds a second staff user |
| Business | $199/mo | Billed annually, $2,388 a year. For publications above roughly 10,000 members, with higher limits |
| Custom | Custom | Quoted. Our check records no published figure |
| Self-hosted | $0 software | Open source and free to run; you pay your own hosting and email delivery |
The managed rates move on two things and the self-hosted route on a third. Four drivers decide what Ghost costs you:
- Member count, which is what separates the tiers. Starter carries a member cap and Publisher raises it. Our 1 October 2026 snapshot does not record the specific caps, so read them off ghost.org/pricing and match them to the list you expect in a year.
- Billing period. Every rate on this page is the annual-billing rate. Monthly billing is more expensive, and because our check does not record by how much, this page states no monthly figure rather than estimating one.
- Whether you self-host. The software is free, so the cost becomes a server and an email sending service. That is cheaper than any managed plan and it makes you responsible for updates, backups and deliverability.
- Nothing to do with revenue. Ghost takes 0% of paid membership income on every plan, so unlike a revenue-share platform your platform cost does not rise when the publication succeeds.
Ghost pricing against the newsletter platforms
On fixed cost Ghost sits in the middle and on revenue share it wins outright. Beehiiv is $43 a month on Scale and Kit is $33 on Creator at its entry subscriber tier, both verified 1 October 2026, against Ghost Starter at $18 on annual billing. MailerLite undercuts all of them at $12 a month on Comfort, verified the same day, and does not give you a website or a membership paywall. The comparison that matters most is Substack: $0 a month and 10% of paid revenue, verified 11 June 2026, which is free until it is costly.
Ghost billing terms worth knowing
Two things about Ghost's pricing are regularly misreported: the rates are annual, and the revenue cut is genuinely zero.
- Free plan
- None on managed hosting. The self-hosted software is free, with your own infrastructure costs.
- Free trial
- 14 days on all managed plans, no credit card required on our 1 October 2026 check.
- Starter
- $18 per month billed annually, which is $216 across a year.
- Publisher
- $29 per month billed annually, which is $348 across a year.
- Business
- $199 per month billed annually, which is $2,388 across a year.
- Monthly billing
- Available and more expensive. Our check does not record the monthly rates.
- Cut of member revenue
- 0% on every plan. You keep all of it apart from Stripe's processing fee.
If a Ghost charge is higher than these figures, the likely explanations are monthly rather than annual billing, or a member count that has pushed the site onto the next tier. Our 1 October 2026 check records neither the monthly rates nor the member caps, so this page states only the annual figures it can source. Our creator tool cost calculators will set a year of Ghost against a year of revenue share once you have your own reader income.
What Ghost gives up
Marketing automation is the trade. Ghost sends newsletters and takes payments, and it does not run the tagged, branching sequence that a product launch wants. If your plan involves a lead magnet feeding a five-email funnel that splits on behaviour, Kit is the tool and Ghost is a workaround.
There is no permanent free plan on managed hosting, which puts Ghost behind most of the category for anyone starting out. The free route is self-hosting, and that is a different kind of cost: a server to maintain and a sending reputation to build rather than $0 and a signup form.
Self-hosting is cheaper on paper and rarely cheaper in practice for a non-technical writer. Updates, backups, uptime and email deliverability all become your job, and the first time a send fails silently you will understand what the managed plan was for. Choose it because you want control, not because you want to save $216 a year.
Growth tooling is minimal. Ghost gives you a site, a list and a paywall, and it does not give you the recommendation network or referral mechanics that Beehiiv built into its product. Finding readers stays entirely your problem, and the platform has no opinion about it.
The member caps are the part of the pricing you cannot plan around from this page. Our 1 October 2026 check records that Starter has a cap and Publisher raises it without recording either number, so a growing list can meet a tier boundary you did not know was there. Read the caps off ghost.org/pricing before budgeting a year.
Theme work is where the time goes. Ghost's presentation is a genuine strength and it assumes you will shape it, so a publisher who wants a finished look out of the box will spend longer here than on a platform with fewer choices. Budget that as setup cost rather than discovering it on launch day.
Ghost is a poor fit if the written word is not the centre of what you sell. It is built for publications, so video courses, memberships built on chat and product catalogues all sit awkwardly on it. The course and membership platforms category covers the tools shaped for those instead.
How Ghost compares
The four platforms below are the ones a writer weighs against Ghost, and the axis that matters is who takes a cut and who owns the site. Prices are the vendors' published rates with the date each was checked against its own pricing page. The wider field sits in the newsletter platforms category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost | Publications wanting a site, a paywall and 0% revenue share | $18/mo Starter, annual billing | No free managed plan, little automation, member caps unstated |
| Substack | Writers who want zero fixed cost and no setup at all | $0/mo, 10% of paid revenue | The 10% cut passes Ghost Starter above about $180/mo in reader revenue |
| Beehiiv | Newsletters treating growth and ad revenue as the product | Free, $43/mo Scale | More than twice Ghost Starter, and less of a website |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Lists that drive a product launch and need tagging | Free, $33/mo Creator | Email platform first, so the publication side is thin |
| MailerLite | Publishing a newsletter at the lowest paid price | Free, $12/mo Comfort | No website, no membership paywall |
What to test in a Ghost trial
The trial is 14 days on any managed plan with no card required on our 1 October 2026 check. Spend it on the two things that are hard to reverse later: the member signup flow and the theme.
- Set up paid memberships with Stripe in test mode and take a payment through it. The 0% revenue share is the main reason to choose Ghost, so confirm the mechanism works before anything else.
- Read your own member cap off ghost.org/pricing and compare it with the list you expect in twelve months. Our check does not record the caps, so this is the step this page cannot do for you.
- Work out your break-even against revenue share. Ghost Starter at $18 a month equals Substack's 10% at $180 a month in reader revenue, so put your own figure beside it.
- Pick a theme and change it properly rather than previewing it. Presentation is what Ghost is for, and the time it takes is the real setup cost.
- Send a newsletter to a handful of real addresses and check where it landed. Deliverability on managed hosting is Ghost's responsibility and worth confirming while you can still walk away.
- If you are considering self-hosting, install it on a cheap server during the trial and see how the maintenance feels. Deciding that after you have moved a list across is the expensive order to do it in.
- Decide whether you need automation that Ghost will not do. If the answer is yes, price Kit at $33 a month alongside it and read our best newsletter platforms guide before committing, and the free resources library has a migration checklist.
Ghost questions buyers ask
How much does Ghost cost per month?
Ghost Pro managed hosting costs $18/month (Starter), $29/month (Publisher), or $199/month (Business) on annual billing, with a Custom tier for large publications. Monthly billing costs more per month than those figures. Ghost is also free to self-host if you have your own server. You'll pay for hosting ($5-$20/month) and email delivery separately. All plans charge 0% platform fees on membership revenue.
Does Ghost have a free plan or free trial?
Ghost Pro offers a 14-day free trial on all plans: no credit card required to start. There's no permanent free plan for Ghost Pro. However, Ghost's software is fully open source, so you can self-host it for free indefinitely. Self-hosting requires your own server and some technical knowledge, but the software itself costs nothing.
Who is Ghost best for?
Ghost is built for writers, journalists, and publishers who want a professional publication with full ownership. It's strongest for people who want a real website alongside their newsletter (with SEO, custom pages, and paid memberships), and who don't want to give up a percentage of their revenue. It's not the best fit for creators who need advanced email automation or built-in ad monetization.
Ghost vs Substack: which is better for writers?
Substack is easier to start: zero cost, zero setup, and a built-in recommendation network. Ghost offers more control: your own domain, custom design, SEO tools, and 0% platform fees against Substack's 10% cut of paid subscription revenue, which we verified on 11 June 2026, a few months before our 1 October 2026 Ghost check. Choose Substack if you're just starting out and want the simplest path to publishing. Choose Ghost once your newsletter earns enough that the 10% revenue share costs more than Ghost Pro's flat monthly fee, or when you want a standalone website.
Can I use Ghost for free?
Yes, by self-hosting. Ghost is open-source software released under the MIT license. You can install it on your own server at no cost. You'll need a VPS ($5-$20/month), a domain name, and an email delivery service like Mailgun. If you're comfortable with server administration, self-hosting Ghost is one of the most affordable ways to run a professional publication.
What integrations does Ghost support?
Ghost integrates natively with Stripe (payments), Zapier (connects to 8,000+ apps), Slack, Unsplash, and various analytics tools. The Publisher plan and above unlock the full integration ecosystem. Ghost also has a reliable API for custom integrations. For email delivery, Ghost Pro handles it built-in; self-hosted instances need Mailgun, Amazon SES, or a similar service configured separately.
Is Ghost good for SEO?
Ghost is one of the strongest newsletter platforms for SEO. It generates clean, fast-loading pages with proper meta tags, structured data, canonical URLs, and XML sitemaps out of the box. You can customize meta titles, descriptions, and social sharing images for every post and page. Compared to Substack (which gives you limited SEO control on a subdomain), Ghost publications regularly rank well in search results.
Can I run paid memberships on Ghost?
Yes: paid memberships are a core Ghost feature. Connect your Stripe account, set monthly and yearly pricing, and Ghost handles the signup flow, content gating, and member management. You keep 100% of the revenue minus Stripe's processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction). Note: paid memberships require the Publisher plan ($29/month annual) or above. The Starter plan only supports free members.
Is Ghost worth it compared to free platforms like Substack?
It depends on your revenue. Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, verified 11 June 2026, a few months before our 1 October 2026 Ghost check. That 10% matches Ghost Pro's Publisher plan at $29/month on annual billing at roughly $290/month of membership revenue. Below that, Substack is cheaper. Above it, Ghost saves you money every month and the savings compound. Beyond pricing, Ghost gives you a full website, SEO control, custom design, and data portability that Substack doesn't. For a free-only newsletter with no plans to monetise, Substack or Buttondown may be more practical.
Can I migrate from Substack to Ghost?
Yes. Ghost has a dedicated Substack import tool that transfers your posts, subscriber list, and metadata. Free subscribers migrate cleanly. Paid subscriber migration requires more work. You'll need to set up Stripe on Ghost and invite paid subscribers to reconnect their payments. Ghost's documentation walks through the process step by step. Most creators complete the migration in an afternoon.