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Pricing checked 23 Oct 2026

Ghost review: your own site and no cut on memberships, with less email marketing

Ghost is a publishing platform first and a newsletter tool second. If you want to own a branded website and keep membership revenue, it's a serious option; if you want automations and segmentation, it isn't.

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By , Founder, UDG Development Ltd. Grew Anywhere Income to 12,000 subscribers. Updated · Pricing last checked 23 Oct 2026 · How we review
On this page
  1. What each plan includes
  2. What’s good
  3. What’s not so good
  4. Who should choose Ghost
  5. Who should skip it
  6. What an operator should check before paying
  7. Your first hour on Ghost
  8. Alternatives
  9. About this review
  10. Frequently asked questions
Hands-on status: not hands-on tested for this page. Pricing and features here come from Ghost's own pages, checked 23 Oct 2026. The advice about lists and growth is from my own newsletter experience, not a test of Ghost. How we review.
Free option
No free plan; free to self-host the open-source software (you pay for hosting and email sending)
Cheapest paid
Starter $18/mo billed yearly (1,000 members)
Priced on
Member count (price shown for 1,000 members)
Selling paid subs
Ghost states "no payment fees" (card processing fees from Stripe still apply)
Trial
Free trial offered on every paid plan

Checked 23 Oct 2026. Source: Ghost pricing page. Prices are USD list prices; they change.

What each plan includes

From Ghost’s pricing page on 23 Oct 2026 (prices for 1,000 members, billed yearly):

  • Starter ($18/mo): your own website, a custom domain, email newsletters and simple design settings. Paid subscriptions aren’t in its feature list.
  • Publisher ($29/mo): adds 3 staff users, custom themes, 8,000+ integrations, paid subscriptions and advanced analytics.
  • Business ($199/mo): 15 staff users, priority support and higher usage limits.

Ghost says there are no payment fees, and each paid plan offers a free trial.

What’s good

  • Website, newsletter and memberships in one place. You’re not stitching together a site and an email tool.
  • No platform cut on memberships, per Ghost’s pricing page. For paid newsletters this is the main financial argument.
  • Open source. You can self-host and you aren’t tied to Ghost’s hosting.
  • Your own domain and brand, rather than a publication living on someone else’s.

What’s not so good

  • No free hosted plan. You pay from the start.
  • Paid subscriptions need Publisher, not Starter.
  • Fewer marketing tools. Ghost isn’t a dedicated email marketing platform, so don’t expect advanced sequences and segmentation. If those matter, look at Kit or MailerLite.
  • No built-in discovery network of the kind Substack has.
  • Self-hosting is real work. You’d be running hosting and email delivery yourself, including the deliverability side.
  • Pricing follows member count. The prices shown are for 1,000 members; check yours.

Who should choose Ghost

  • Publishers and independent media who want an owned website and paid memberships.
  • Writers who value control, design and a custom domain.
  • Technical users comfortable self-hosting.

Who should skip it

What an operator should check before paying

  1. Hosted or self-hosted? If you self-host, price the hosting, the email sending service and your time.
  2. Do you need paid memberships? If so, price Publisher rather than Starter.
  3. List your email requirements (sequences, segments, automations) and test whether Ghost covers them in the trial.
  4. Plan the import. Export your list from the old platform and test with a small batch. See the migration checklist.
  5. Check deliverability after the move by sending to your own addresses first.

Your first hour on Ghost

  1. Start a trial on Publisher if you want paid memberships.
  2. Publish one post and send it as a newsletter to yourself.
  3. Look at the theme options and decide how much design control you actually need.
  4. Import a handful of test members and check the data arrives.

Alternatives

About this review

This is a research-based review, not a hands-on test. We’ve read Ghost’s pricing page (checked 23 Oct 2026, linked above and on the pricing tracker). We show no star ratings. Our Ghost link is currently a plain link, with no affiliate relationship at the time of writing. See the disclosure and how we review.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Ghost cost?

On its pricing page on 23 Oct 2026, for 1,000 members billed yearly: Starter $18 a month, Publisher $29 a month and Business $199 a month. Every paid plan offered a free trial.

Is Ghost free?

Ghost's hosted plans are paid. The software is open source, so you can self-host it for free, but you then pay for hosting and for sending email yourself.

Does Ghost take a cut of paid memberships?

Ghost states no payment fees. Stripe's card processing fees still apply. Paid subscriptions aren't in the Starter feature list; they come with Publisher.

Is Ghost better than Substack?

Ghost suits publishers who want a branded website and control; Substack suits those who want zero setup cost and a reader network. Our Ghost vs Substack page compares them in detail.

Can I import subscribers into Ghost?

Ghost supports importing members from other platforms; check its current documentation for the format. Always export and test with a small batch first.