Alternatives to Ghost
Open source publishing with paid subscriptions
Ghost ranks #3 of 9 in Newsletter platforms, with an Alt Score of 85. It is licensed under MIT, open source with paid hosting from $18/month and available on Linux and Web. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Independent creators, bloggers, journalists, and publishers who want to own their audience and content rather than depend on a third-party platform; also used by businesses for content marketing and by developers who want an open-source, customizable publishing stack.
A professional writing editor with rich media cards for building posts, built-in email newsletter delivery to your audience, native membership and paid subscription tools with free/paid tiers, and built-in analytics for tracking engagement and subscriber growth.
You write and publish posts in Ghost's editor, which can go out simultaneously as a web page and an email newsletter; readers sign up as free or paid members through native signup forms, and you run the whole thing either self-hosted (open source, free) or on the managed Ghost Pro hosting service.
Where Ghost stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Ghost
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Newsletter platforms checklist (16 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Newsletter platforms checklist | Ghost | beehiiv | Kit | Buttondown | MailerLite | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Subscriber limit (free) | ||||||
| Automations & sequences | ||||||
| Segmentation | ||||||
| Paid subscriptions | ||||||
| Custom domain | ||||||
| Referral program | ||||||
| Landing pages | ||||||
| API access | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Deliverability tooling (DKIM, dedicated IP) | ||||||
| Import from competitors | ||||||
| Web archive of issues |
Every fact and feature listed for Ghost is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License MIT verified 2026-07-11
Software")"
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/main/LICENSE -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
🐛 Fixed link selection in automations email editor (#29176) - Troy Ciesco
https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/releases/tag/v6.52.1 -
Pricing model OSS + paid hosting verified 2026-07-11
So you’ll be supporting open source software *and* getting a great service!
https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost -
Starts at $18/month verified 2026-07-11
$18 USD / mo Billed yearly
https://ghost.org/pricing/ -
Platforms Linux, Web verified 2026-07-11
Ubuntu 22.04 or Ubuntu 24.04
https://docs.ghost.org/install/ubuntu/ -
Subscriber limit (free) Partial verified 2026-07-11
1,000 members
https://ghost.org/pricing/ -
Automations & sequences Partial verified 2026-07-11
Currently, Automations let you send a series of emails to new free or paid members automatically, spaced out over any timeframe you choose.
https://ghost.org/help/automations-beta/ -
Segmentation Yes verified 2026-07-11
Email newsletters in Ghost can be scheduled and delivered to free and paid members, or a segment of free *or* paid members.
https://docs.ghost.org/newsletters/ -
Paid subscriptions Yes verified 2026-07-11
a direct Stripe integration which allows publishers to connect their Ghost site to their own billing account using Stripe Connect
https://docs.ghost.org/members/ -
Custom domain Yes verified 2026-07-11
If you would like to make your site memorable and easy to find with a branded custom domain, then you can map any domain you own directly to your Ghost(Pro) publication.
https://ghost.org/help/using-custom-domains/ -
Referral program Partial verified 2026-07-11
With recommendations, publishers can share their favorite sites with their readers and, likewise, be recommended by other publications.
https://docs.ghost.org/recommendations/ -
Landing pages Yes verified 2026-07-11
Unlike posts, pages in Ghost can be used to serve static, independent content on your site.
https://ghost.org/help/pages/ -
API access Yes verified 2026-07-11
It's possible to create and manage your content using the Ghost Admin API.
https://docs.ghost.org/admin-api/ -
Self-hostable Yes verified 2026-07-11
If you want to run your own instance of Ghost, in most cases the best way is to use our **CLI tool**
https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost -
Deliverability tooling (DKIM, dedicated IP) Partial verified 2026-07-11
Irrespective of how you configure email addresses, maximize deliverability by ensuring DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records are configured for your sending domains.
https://docs.ghost.org/config -
Import from competitors Yes verified 2026-07-11
It's possible to import Members from any other platform. If you have a list of email addresses, this can be ported into Ghost via CSV, Zapier, or the API.
https://docs.ghost.org/members/ -
Web archive of issues Yes verified 2026-07-11
By default Ghost will return a reverse chronological feed of posts in the traditional format of a blog.
https://docs.ghost.org/publishing/
FAQ
Yes. beehiiv, Kit and Buttondown have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.