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. Mautic
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for teams that need marketing automation without a per-contact bill, and have someone able to run a PHP application.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Ghost | Mautic |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Free and open source if self-hosted; managed hosting from €247.50 / month The software carries no licence cost, but the server and the email sending provider are your own. Managed hosting through the official partner Dropsolid starts at €247.50 per month billed annually, or €275 per month billed quarterly. |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14-day trial of the hosted offering, no credit card required |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes, GPL v3 |
| API | Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use | Yes, a REST API plus an in-app marketplace of community plugins and themes |
| Hosting | Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence | Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or managed hosting through certified partners |
| Campaign types | Newsletters published to a website and sent by email in the same step, with free and paid membership tiers | Email campaigns and newsletters alongside SMS, push notifications and WhatsApp, plus landing pages and forms that embed in a site or open as a popup |
| 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, a drag-and-drop campaign builder for multi-step journeys from capture through to conversion |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers | Yes, contact segmentation driven by behaviour and engagement tracking, with customisable point-based lead scoring to prioritise contacts |
| 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 email builder with personalisation and A/B testing, plus a landing page builder and a form builder; community themes come through the marketplace |
| 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 | Sending runs through a provider you supply, not one bundled with the product. SMTP is the default transport, configured as a DSN, and since version 5 the Symfony Mailer transports add SendGrid, Amazon SES and others by Composer; a SparkPost plugin is available from the Mautic Marketplace. The documentation warns that the Symfony transports do not support batch sending or the bounce-management callbacks the dedicated plugins handle |
| 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 | Contacts, companies and lead scoring are native, and CRM, ecommerce and SMS systems connect through marketplace plugins or webhooks rather than shipping preconfigured |
| 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 REST API for contacts, campaigns and data transfer, webhooks, and an in-app marketplace of community plugins |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics, Zapier | SMTP, SendGrid, Amazon SES, SparkPost |
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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 Mautic Free and open source if self-hosted; managed hosting from €247.50 / month
- Deployment Ghost Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Mautic On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Company size Ghost Freelancers, Small and mid-sized Mautic Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Ghost Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence Mautic Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or managed hosting through certified partners
- API Ghost Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use Mautic Yes, a REST API plus an in-app marketplace of community plugins and themes
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
Mautic
Strengths
- No licence cost and no per-contact fee, so list growth does not change the bill
- Self-hosting keeps contact data in a jurisdiction you pick
- Campaign builder, email builder, landing pages, forms and lead scoring are all in the core product
- REST API, webhooks and an in-app marketplace for extending it
Limitations
- You supply and pay for the email sending provider separately
- Running and patching a PHP application is your responsibility unless you buy managed hosting
- Support is community forums and Slack; paid support comes only through partners
- Symfony Mailer transports do not batch-send or handle bounce callbacks
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.
Mautic
- Self-hosted €0 The open source application under the GPL v3 licence. No licence cost; the server and the email sending provider are your own.
- Mautic Essential €247.50 Per month billed annually, or €275 per month billed quarterly. Managed shared hosting through Dropsolid, up to 50,000 emails per month and 50,000 contacts.
- Mautic Professional €1,237 Per month. Dedicated hosting, up to 3 million contacts, with a dedicated support manager.
- Mautic Enterprise Custom Quoted by the vendor. Dedicated infrastructure, up to 6 million emails per month, enterprise-grade security.
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.
Mautic
- 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
Mautic https://www.mautic.org · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.