Tool profile
Publishing platform for newsletters, blogs, memberships, and editorial websites with clean tooling.
Newsletters and indie publishers owning domain and data
Ghost is an open-source publishing stack for newsletters, memberships, and clean editorial sites, with optional Ghost(Pro) managed hosting.
ghost.org/pricing (March 2026) shows Starter at about $18 USD/month billed yearly for a solo publication with site, email newsletter, simple design settings, and 1,000 registered members on the comparison table. Publisher is about $29/month yearly with 3 staff users, custom themes, paid subscriptions, advanced analytics, integrations, and 1,000 members on the same row. Business is about $199/month yearly with 15 staff, priority support, higher usage limits, early access features, and 10,000 members on the published grid. Custom enterprise adds unlimited staff, dedicated IP, and 99.9% uptime SLA on marketing copy.
Transaction rows on the same matrix cite 0% Ghost platform fees on paid subscriptions for self-serve tiers—Stripe processing still applies. Self-hosting the core remains $0 license plus your own infra, email deliverability, and backups.
Quick fit
Editorial take
Ghost is two products economically: open-source Ghost at $0 to self-host, and Ghost(Pro) as the managed service. The catalog should keep those separate instead of implying the managed plans are the only way to use Ghost.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Pricing snapshot
Ghost's pricing page shows Ghost(Pro) Starter at $18 per month billed yearly, Publisher at $29 per month billed yearly, and Business at $199 per month billed yearly, with Custom for larger publications. Ghost's help docs also say new Ghost(Pro) accounts start with a 14-day free trial. Separately, Ghost's open-source core remains free to self-host, with your own infrastructure and email costs.
Directus
Free planInternal tools needing a polished admin on Postgres or MySQL
Open source data platform that adds APIs and a visual admin layer on top of SQL databases.
Versus Strapi Cloud: different hosting and extension models—pilot both.
