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. MailPoet
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for WordPress site owners and WooCommerce stores that want newsletters and store emails without leaving the dashboard.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Ghost | MailPoet |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Free; Business from $10 / month Business for 500 subscribers with monthly billing. The price rises with the number of subscribers, and yearly billing saves up to 15%. |
| Free trial | Not stated | Free Starter plan for up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month |
| Users | Not stated | More than 500,000 active installations on WordPress.org |
| API | Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use | Yes, a PHP API for managing subscribers and lists from other plugins, documented on GitHub |
| Hosting | Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence | WordPress plugin, self-hosted; sending through the MailPoet Sending Service, the web host or a third-party SMTP service |
| Campaign types | Newsletters published to a website and sent by email in the same step, with free and paid membership tiers | Yes, newsletters with scheduling and archives, welcome emails, automatic new post notifications and WooCommerce emails for abandoned carts, first purchases, specific products or categories, order status changes and reviews |
| 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, basic automation on Starter; paid plans add custom triggers and actions, if/else branches and automated subscriber management |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers | Yes, lists and tags on every plan; paid plans add engagement scores, multi-condition segmentation and segments by purchase behaviour, country, order count, spend and active WooCommerce subscriptions or memberships |
| 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, a drag-and-drop editor with more than 70 mobile-friendly templates that can insert WordPress posts, pages and WooCommerce products |
| 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, the MailPoet Sending Service with sender authentication, automatic handling of undeliverable addresses and complaints, and an inactive-subscriber cleanup; sending through the web host or third-party SMTP is also possible |
| 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, built into WooCommerce: an automatically updated customer list, subscription at checkout, purchase-triggered emails, a customiser for WooCommerce transactional emails and detailed purchase statistics on paid plans |
| 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 PHP API for subscribers and lists, documented on GitHub, plus Zapier and a Google Analytics integration on paid plans |
| Deployment | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | On-premise |
| Support | Community forum | more entries Email helpdesk, Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics, Zapier | more entries WordPress, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, WooCommerce Memberships, Google Analytics, Zapier, Mailchimp (subscriber import) |
Add a tool
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 MailPoet Free; Business from $10 / month
- Deployment Ghost Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise MailPoet On-premise
- Hosting Ghost Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence MailPoet WordPress plugin, self-hosted; sending through the MailPoet Sending Service, the web host or a third-party SMTP service
- Support Ghost Community forum MailPoet Email helpdesk, Community forum
- API Ghost Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use MailPoet Yes, a PHP API for managing subscribers and lists from other plugins, documented on GitHub
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
MailPoet
Strengths
- Runs inside the WordPress dashboard, with subscribers stored there
- Deep WooCommerce integration, including abandoned cart and purchase-triggered emails
- Free Starter plan for up to 500 subscribers
- Unlimited seats on every plan, and a Creator plan for sending through your own service
Limitations
- Only works on WordPress sites
- Advanced segmentation, custom automation, detailed statistics and branding removal need a paid plan
- The API is a PHP class inside the plugin rather than a hosted REST API
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.
MailPoet
- Starter $0 Up to 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month through the MailPoet Sending Service. Subscription forms, basic automation and summarised statistics.
- Business From $10 / month For 500 subscribers with monthly billing, or $108 a year. Unlimited emails, no MailPoet branding, priority support, segmentation, targeted automation and detailed statistics.
- Agency From $30 / month For 500 subscribers per site with monthly billing, or $312 a year. Everything in Business on up to 50 websites.
- Creator From $8 / month For 500 subscribers with monthly billing, or $84 a year. The features of Business without the MailPoet Sending Service, for sending through your own service.
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. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
MailPoet
- 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. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Ghost https://ghost.org · checked against the official source on 2026-09-07
MailPoet https://www.mailpoet.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-25
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.