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
Email Marketing Comparison
Ghost vs. Mailjet
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for teams and developers that want one platform for both marketing campaigns and transactional email, priced by send volume.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Ghost | Mailjet |
|---|---|---|
| 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 $9 / month Starter plan; priced by monthly email volume. A free plan is available. |
| Free trial | Not stated | Free plan with 6,000 emails per month (200 per day) |
| API | Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use | Yes, a Send API and SMTP relay on all paid plans |
| 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, marketing campaigns and newsletters plus transactional email, with landing pages on Premium |
| 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, automations on the Premium plan |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers | Yes, segmentation from the Essential plan, with dynamic content 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, an advanced drag-and-drop editor on every plan |
| 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 on Premium, with a dedicated IP available on higher-volume 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 | Through connectors rather than a built-in store sync: Mailjet ships its own plugins for WordPress with WooCommerce and for PrestaShop, while the other ecommerce and CRM entries in its integrations directory, among them Shopify, HubSpot and Salesforce, are connected through Zapier or another iPaaS partner |
| 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 Send API and SMTP relay on all paid plans |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| MCP-ready | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Community forum | more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Guided onboarding |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics, Zapier | more entries WordPress, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Drupal, Joomla, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify, BigCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Segment, Zapier, Make, n8n, Slack, Zendesk, Intercom, Google Sheets, Airtable, Typeform, Sinch Engage |
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Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
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 Mailjet From $9 / month
- Deployment Ghost Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Mailjet Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Company size Ghost Freelancers, Small and mid-sized Mailjet Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Ghost Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence Mailjet Cloud (SaaS)
- Support Ghost Community forum Mailjet Email helpdesk, Phone, Chat
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
Mailjet
Strengths
- Priced by email volume, with unlimited contacts on the Essential and Premium plans
- Advanced drag-and-drop editor on every plan, including the free tier
- Send API and SMTP relay for transactional email on all paid plans
- Free plan with 6,000 emails per month
Limitations
- Automations, A/B testing and dynamic content are reserved for the Premium plan
- The Free and Starter plans cap contacts at 1,000 and 2,000
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.
Mailjet
- Free $0 / month 6,000 emails per month (200 per day), up to 1,000 contacts, with the advanced drag-and-drop editor.
- Starter From $9 / month 8,000 emails per month, up to 2,000 contacts, with online support.
- Essential From $17 / month 15,000 emails per month, unlimited contacts, segmentation and no daily send limit.
- Premium From $27 / month Adds automations, A/B testing, dynamic content, landing pages and up to 20 subaccounts, plus priority support, with phone and chat support from 50,000 emails a month.
- Custom Not stated Custom enterprise plans for high-volume senders, with a dedicated technical account manager, unlimited subaccounts, phone and chat support and guided onboarding, training and consulting.
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.
Mailjet
- 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
Where this comes from
Ghost https://ghost.org · checked against the official source on 2026-09-07
Mailjet https://www.mailjet.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-21
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.