The application is. Ghost is open source under the MIT licence and can be self-hosted at no licence cost, though you supply the server and email delivery yourself. Ghost(Pro), the managed hosting run by the Ghost Foundation, is the paid option and starts at $18 per month billed yearly.

Does Ghost take a cut of paid subscriptions?

No. Transaction fees are 0% on the Publisher, Business and Custom plans. Payment processor fees still apply, since subscriptions are collected through Stripe. The Starter plan does not offer paid subscriptions at all.

How does Ghost pricing scale?

By member count rather than by emails sent, and email sends are unlimited on every tier. Starter at $18 per month and Publisher at $29 per month both cover up to 1,000 members, Business at $199 per month covers 10,000, and the Custom plan covers unlimited members. All published rates are billed yearly.

Ghost

Open source publishing platform where the website, the newsletter and paid subscriptions are one product.

Starting price: Free version if self-hosted; Ghost(Pro) from $18 / month
API: Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use
Hosting: Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence

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Overview

Ghost is an open source publishing platform, released under the MIT licence, that treats a website and an email newsletter as the same act: a post is published to the site and delivered to subscribers at once. Around that sit memberships, with readers signing up free or buying a paid subscription through Stripe, signup forms, promotional offers and audience segmentation. REST APIs read and write content for headless use. It runs self-hosted from the source at no licence cost, or on Ghost(Pro), the managed service priced by member count.

Our take

Ghost suits a publication that intends to own its audience outright, and the licence is the reason rather than the feature list: the escape hatch is real, because the same application that runs the managed service can be moved onto your own server without asking anyone. The revenue model reinforces it, since the platform is not taking a cut of what readers pay and the incentive to lock you in is correspondingly weak. What you give up is the machinery a marketing team expects, so treat it as a publishing tool that mails rather than a campaign platform that publishes, and price it by members rather than sends, because that is the number every tier is drawn around. The Starter plan is the one to watch: without paid subscriptions it does not do the job most people come to Ghost for.

Key Facts

Category	Email Marketing
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.
API	Yes, REST APIs for reading and writing content, documented for headless use
Hosting	Cloud (Ghost Pro) or self-hosted; open source under the MIT licence

Features

Campaign types: Newsletters published to a website and sent by email in the same step, with free and paid membership tiers
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
Segmentation and personalisation: Yes, audience segmentation so different newsletters go to different groups of readers
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
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
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
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

Integrations

Stripe
Slack
Google Analytics
Zapier

Deployment and Support

Deployment: Cloud (SaaS)
Browser-based
On-premise
Support: Community forum
Onboarding: Documentation and knowledge base
Company size: Freelancers
Small and mid-sized

Pros and Cons

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

Pricing

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.

What It Costs Your Team

Enter your team size. The figures are worked out from the list prices above.

Users

Billing

Plan	Per user / month	Per year

EstimatedList prices in USD, last verified 2026-09-07. Excludes tax, discounts, add-ons and setup fees. The vendor's own quote is binding. How we calculate

Alternatives and Comparisons

FAQ

Is Ghost free?: The application is. Ghost is open source under the MIT licence and can be self-hosted at no licence cost, though you supply the server and email delivery yourself. Ghost(Pro), the managed hosting run by the Ghost Foundation, is the paid option and starts at $18 per month billed yearly.
Does Ghost take a cut of paid subscriptions?: No. Transaction fees are 0% on the Publisher, Business and Custom plans. Payment processor fees still apply, since subscriptions are collected through Stripe. The Starter plan does not offer paid subscriptions at all.
How does Ghost pricing scale?: By member count rather than by emails sent, and email sends are unlimited on every tier. Starter at $18 per month and Publisher at $29 per month both cover up to 1,000 members, Business at $199 per month covers 10,000, and the Custom plan covers unlimited members. All published rates are billed yearly.

Last verified: 2026-09-07

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