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. Sendy
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for technically comfortable publishers and agencies who want to send large newsletters through Amazon SES without a monthly per-subscriber fee.
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Ghost | Sendy |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | lower value 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. | $69 one-time Licence for one installation domain. Sending through Amazon SES costs $1.6 per 10,000 emails, billed by Amazon. Optional AI Assistant $39 and installation service $79, both one-time. Updates are free up to the next major version. |
| Free trial | Not stated | No free trial or demo; the vendor states it will refund you if it doesn't work out |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes, a paid commercial licence |
| API | Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use | Yes, an API for subscribing, unsubscribing, deleting subscribers, checking subscription status and counts, listing lists and brands, and creating and sending campaigns |
| Hosting | Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence | Self-hosted on your own web hosting (PHP and MySQL or MariaDB), sending through Amazon SES |
| Campaign types | Newsletters published to a website and sent by email in the same step, with free and paid membership tiers | Yes, one-off campaigns, scheduled campaigns and autoresponders sent as drip sequences at set intervals or on a specific date, including annual sends |
| 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, drip autoresponders, plus rules and webhooks that trigger actions on events |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers | Yes, segments built on conditions you define, included in or excluded from a campaign, plus custom fields |
| 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 switching between drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG and HTML editing |
| 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 | Bounces and complaints are processed automatically in real time, with custom domains for unsubscribe, web version and tracked links; sending runs through your own Amazon SES account |
| 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 third-party plugins for WooCommerce, Magento 2, Shopify, PrestaShop and Easy Digital Downloads |
| 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 documented API, Zapier, Make and n8n integrations, and plugins for WordPress, Drupal, Magento and other systems |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | On-premise |
| Support | Community forum | Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | Not stated |
| Integrations | Stripe, Slack, Google Analytics, Zapier | more entries Amazon SES, Zapier, Make, n8n, WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Drupal, PrestaShop, WHMCS |
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 Sendy $69 one-time
- Deployment Ghost Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Sendy On-premise
- Hosting Ghost Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence Sendy Self-hosted on your own web hosting (PHP and MySQL or MariaDB), sending through Amazon SES
- Support Ghost Community forum Sendy Email helpdesk
- AI features Ghost No Sendy Yes
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
Sendy
Strengths
- One-time licence of $69 instead of a monthly subscription
- Sending billed by Amazon SES at $1.6 per 10,000 emails
- White-label brands with client access, permissions, pricing and sending limits
- Drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG and HTML editors in one app
Limitations
- Needs your own web hosting and an Amazon SES account, with a sending limit requested from Amazon
- No free trial or demo
- One licence covers one installation domain, and updates are free only until the next major version
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.
Sendy
- Sendy licence $69 One-time, for one installation domain. Updates free up to the next major version.
- AI Assistant $39 One-time add-on that generates newsletters and subject lines and analyses reports.
- Installation service $79 One-time.
- Amazon SES sending $1.6 per 10,000 emails Billed by Amazon, not by Sendy.
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.
Sendy
- 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
Sendy https://sendy.co · checked against the official source on 2026-10-28
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.