Ghost vs. Mailchimp

At a glance

Best for

Best for independent publishers and creators who want a website, newsletter and paid subscriptions in one platform they can host themselves.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized

Mailchimp

Best for

Best for teams that want an email marketing platform with designed templates, automation and AI writing tools, and a Marketing API to connect their own data.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	Ghost	Mailchimp
Starting price	Free version if self-hosted; Ghost(Pro) from $18 / month Ghost(Pro) Starter is $18 per month billed yearly for up to 1,000 members. Self-hosting the open source application carries no licence cost, but the server and email delivery are your own.	lower value From $13 / month Essentials plan; the price scales with the number of contacts.
Free trial	Not stated	Free plan available for up to 500 contacts
API	Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use	Yes, a Marketing API for audiences, automations and data sync, plus more than 300 integrations
Hosting	Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence	Cloud (SaaS)
Campaign types	Newsletters published to a website and sent by email in the same step, with free and paid membership tiers	Yes, email newsletters and campaigns, with A/B testing and scheduling on paid plans
Automation and journeys	Yes, in public beta since June 2026. An Automations tab opens a drag-and-drop canvas with two flows ready to go, one for new free members and one for new paid ones, built from two actions: send an email and wait a set amount of time. Existing welcome emails move into it automatically, and more triggers and actions are announced as coming	Yes, automation flows, up to 3 steps on Essentials and up to 200 flows on Standard and Premium
Segmentation and personalisation	Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers	Yes, segmentation and dynamic content, with predictive segmentation on Premium
Templates and editor	Yes, an editor built for long-form work with galleries, video, audio and dynamic content cards; custom themes from the Publisher plan	Yes, professionally designed templates and an editor, with custom-coded templates on Premium
Deliverability and testing	Preview shows the post as it will look on the web, on mobile, in an email and on social, and a test email can be sent to your own inbox with a custom subject line before publishing. On Ghost(Pro) email delivery is included and configured for you; a self-hosted install has to supply Mailgun API keys, which is the only supported bulk email provider	Yes, A/B testing and scheduling on paid plans
Ecommerce and CRM data	Yes, native paid subscriptions through Stripe on monthly and yearly tiers, with signup forms and promotional offers. Ghost takes 0% of subscription revenue on Publisher and above, though payment processor fees still apply	Yes, audience data with tags and more than 300 integrations
Integrations and API	Yes, REST APIs for content in and out, plus more than 8,000 integrations through Zapier and similar from the Publisher plan	Yes, a Marketing API for audiences, automations and data sync
AI features	No	stated Yes
Deployment	more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	Community forum	more entries Email helpdesk, Chat, Phone
Onboarding	Documentation and knowledge base	Not stated
Company size	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized	more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics, Zapier	Not stated

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price Ghost Free version if self-hosted; Ghost(Pro) from $18 / month Mailchimp From $13 / month
Deployment Ghost Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Mailchimp Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Company size Ghost Freelancers, Small and mid-sized Mailchimp Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Hosting Ghost Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence Mailchimp Cloud (SaaS)
Support Ghost Community forum Mailchimp Email helpdesk, Chat, Phone

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Ghost

Strengths

Open source under the MIT licence and self-hostable, so the whole platform can run on your own infrastructure
Ghost takes 0% of paid subscription revenue on Publisher and above; only payment processor fees apply
Website, newsletter and paid memberships in one product, with no separate email tool to wire up
Run by a non-profit foundation funded by its users, with no outside investors
Unlimited email sends on every Ghost(Pro) tier

Limitations

The Starter plan has no paid subscriptions, no custom themes and only limited integrations
Member count drives the price: Starter and Publisher both stop at 1,000 members, Business at 10,000
Self-hosting means providing and maintaining your own server and email delivery
Built for publishing rather than campaign marketing, so there is no multi-channel journey builder

Mailchimp

Strengths

Generative AI writing and design tools on the Standard and Premium plans
Marketing API with webhooks and OAuth 2 for audiences and automations
More than 300 integrations
Free plan for up to 500 contacts

Limitations

Prices scale with the number of contacts
Predictive segmentation and custom-coded templates are reserved for the top plans

Plans

Pricing

Ghost

Self-hosted $0 The open source Ghost application under the MIT licence. No licence cost; you provide the server and email delivery.
Starter $18 Per month, billed yearly. Up to 1,000 members, one staff user, website, newsletter, free custom domain and unlimited email sends. No paid subscriptions or custom themes.
Publisher $29 Per month, billed yearly. Up to 1,000 members, three staff users, custom themes, paid subscriptions, advanced analytics and more than 8,000 integrations.
Business $199 Per month, billed yearly. Up to 10,000 members, 15 staff users, priority support, higher usage limits and early access to new features.
Custom Not stated Unlimited members and staff users, advanced configuration, dedicated IP and a 99.9% uptime SLA.

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Mailchimp

Free $0 / month Up to 500 monthly sends and 250 contacts, with a limited set of templates.
Essentials From $13 / month Designed templates, A/B testing, scheduling and up to 3 automation flow steps. Scales with contacts.
Standard From $20 / month Adds AI writing and design tools and up to 200 automation flows. Scales with contacts.
Premium From $350 / month Adds unlimited contacts and seats, predictive segmentation, phone and priority support and custom-coded templates.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Ghost

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Mailchimp

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Where this comes from

Ghost https://ghost.org · checked against the official source on 2026-09-07

Mailchimp https://mailchimp.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-19

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.