Ghost
ghost.orgBuild Difficulty: 4/5
A few focused days to build a solid replacement
Turn your audience into a business
How to Replace GhostOverview
Features
66 features across 23 categories
APIs(2)
Full access to Ghost's Admin API for creating, editing, and managing content programmatically
Full access to Ghost's Content API for reading and displaying content in custom applications
Analytics(6)
Monitor site performance with detailed native analytics for traffic, engagement, and content insights
Track email performance with open rates, click rates, and engagement metrics
See who's signing up, who's paying, and what they're reading to understand your core audience
Detailed engagement analytics for audience to understand content performance and identify biggest fans
Track where new members come from with detailed attribution analytics to understand which content and channels drive signups
Track subscriber behavior with detailed engagement metrics to understand reading and clicking patterns
Audience Management(1)
Organize and segment members with tags applied automatically based on behavior or manually for targeted groups
Billing(1)
Invoice-based billing for enterprise customers
Branding(1)
Complete brand control with your logo and colors, not Ghost branding on website or newsletters
Community(1)
Enable commenting on posts with options to restrict to members only or paid members only
Content Creation(5)
Native integrations for Unsplash, Giphy, YouTube, and social embeds to enrich content
Upload unlimited files with size limits varying by plan: 5MB on Starter, 100MB on Publisher, 250MB on Business, 1GB on Custom
Edit images directly within Ghost with crop, resize, and filter capabilities
An editor built from the ground-up for professionals with calm design and advanced workflows
Support for image galleries, GIFs, video, audio, products, info boxes, accordion toggles, downloadable files, and bookmarks
Data Management(2)
Automatic backups of your site data
Easily import existing subscriber lists or export member data in CSV format for data migration
Design(1)
Choose from hundreds of professionally designed themes in the marketplace or build your own from scratch
Discovery(1)
Featured in Ghost Explore directory so new readers can discover your content
Distribution(2)
RSS feed support for content distribution
Connect publication to social web with ActivityPub integration for discovery across Ghost, WordPress, BlueSky, Threads, Flipboard, Mastodon
Email Marketing(7)
Beautiful responsive email templates that look great on any device with customizable colors, fonts, and layouts
Send emails from your own domain with DKIM and SPF authentication for better deliverability and branding
Update links in email newsletters even after they've been sent to fix broken links
Deliver posts by email newsletter to audiences with the ability to segment and send multiple newsletters
Professional email infrastructure with high deliverability rates, bounce management, and reputation monitoring
Create multiple newsletters each with their own subscriptions and design settings
Send unlimited emails to subscribers each month with no restrictions
Growth(2)
Native integration with First Promoter for seamless member referrals allowing subscribers to earn rewards
Recommend other publications to your audience and get recommended by others to grow readership
Infrastructure(3)
Run sites on subdirectories like example.com/blog with reverse proxy setup
Managed hosting with no need to handle infrastructure yourself
Global content delivery network for fast content distribution
Integrations(6)
Build custom integrations with third-party services using Ghost's flexible APIs and webhook system
Connect to n8n workflow automation platform for complex workflows with over a thousand services
Post new messages to Slack anytime new content is published
Integrate with external analytics platforms like Google Analytics, Plausible, and Fathom
Real-time event notifications sent to applications when things happen in Ghost for automations
Connect Ghost to 5,000+ apps through Zapier for workflow automation and data syncing
Localization(1)
Write content and present website in any language for international subscribers
Maintenance(1)
Automatic software updates every week without manual intervention
Monetization(8)
Process payments without additional transaction fees from Ghost (payment processor fees still apply)
Integration with advertising networks including BuySellAds and Google AdSense
Native signup forms to convert anonymous views into logged-in members with free and paid subscription tiers
Create discounts and special promotions like Black Friday sales to grow subscriber base
Accept payments from members using Stripe integration for subscriptions and one-time payments
Offer multiple membership products with unique prices, benefits, and content access levels
Create time-limited promotions and discounts to encourage member growth during key marketing periods
Collect one-time payments as tips to support work or donations with flexible payment amounts
SEO(1)
Built-in SEO features including meta tags, structured data, XML sitemaps, and canonical URLs
Security(7)
Support for custom SSL certificates with additional cost
Automatic device verification with email codes for logins from unknown devices
Integration with Fastly with 24/7 DDoS mitigation, Web Application Firewall, brute force protection, and rate limiting
Free SSL certificate for all sites
Enterprise-grade authentication with SSO support for SAML, OAuth, and other identity providers
24/7 monitoring and management of threats and server uptime
Email-based two-factor authentication (2FA) for staff accounts
Site Building(2)
Free custom domain with ghost.io subdomain by default and support for any custom domain via CNAME DNS record
Launch a custom website with complete control over branding and design settings
Support(4)
Dedicated account manager for enterprise customers
Expert guidance on email deliverability best practices and sender reputation management
Priority email support for faster response times
99.9% uptime SLA guarantee
Team Collaboration(1)
Multiple staff users can log in and publish posts with different roles including Author, Editor, Administrator, and Owner
Pricing
Starter
- ✓Your own website
- ✓Free custom domain
- ✓Email newsletter
- ✓Simple design settings
- ✓1 staff user
- ✓5MB file uploads
- ✓Whitelabel branding
- ✓Custom domain support
- ✓Internationalization
- ✓1,000 registered members
- ✓Community comments
- ✓Social web distribution
- ✓Ghost Explore network
- ✓Recommendations
- ✓Member referral program
- ✓Advanced SEO tools
- ✓RSS feeds
- ✓Unlimited email sends
- ✓Custom email templates
- ✓Managed deliverability
- ✓1 newsletter
- ✓Subscriber engagement analytics
- ✓Email analytics
- ✓Third-party analytics integration
- ✓Embedded media
- ✓Image editing
- ✓Slack integration
- ✓Content API
- ✓Fully managed service
- ✓Automatic weekly updates
- ✓Worldwide CDN
- ✓Enterprise-grade security
- ✓Threat & uptime management
- ✓Automated backups
- ✓Free SSL certificate
- ✓Device verification
- ✓Two-factor authentication
Publisher
- ✓3 staff users
- ✓Custom themes
- ✓8,000+ integrations
- ✓Paid subscriptions
- ✓Advanced analytics
- ✓1,000 members
- ✓100MB file uploads
- ✓Marketplace themes
- ✓Custom themes
- ✓Paid subscriptions
- ✓Premium tiers
- ✓3 premium tiers
- ✓Special offers
- ✓0% transaction fees
- ✓Ad networks
- ✓Zapier automation
- ✓n8n automation
- ✓Custom integrations
- ✓Admin API
- ✓Webhooks
- ✓Multiple newsletters
- ✓Custom sending domain
- ✓Advanced native analytics
- ✓Signup attribution
- ✓Tips/donations
- ✓Email support
- ✓All Starter features
Business
- ✓15 staff users
- ✓Priority support
- ✓Higher usage limits
- ✓Early access to features
- ✓1,000 members
- ✓250MB file uploads
- ✓10,000 registered members
- ✓3 premium tiers
- ✓15 special offers
- ✓10 newsletters
- ✓Advanced native analytics
- ✓All Publisher features
- ✓Higher limits overall
- ✓Early feature access
Custom
- ✓Unlimited staff users
- ✓Advanced configurations
- ✓Dedicated IP address
- ✓99.9% uptime SLA
- ✓Unlimited members
- ✓1GB file uploads
- ✓Unlimited premium tiers
- ✓Unlimited special offers
- ✓Unlimited newsletters
- ✓Custom SSL certificate
- ✓Custom subdirectory install
- ✓SSO (Single Sign-On)
- ✓Account manager
- ✓Invoice billing
- ✓Deliverability consultation
- ✓All Business features
Cost Calculator
Pricing data not available for Ghost. Check their website for current pricing.
Build vs Buy
Should you build a Ghost alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 66 features.
Buy Ghost
Better ValueBuild Your Own
Buying Ghost saves ~$92,400 over 3 years vs building.
Estimates based on 66 features and a BuildScore of 4/5. Actual costs vary.
Integrations
46 known integrations