Ghost review 2026: paid newsletters with 0% Ghost fees

What Ghost is and who it’s for

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform for blogs, email newsletters and paid memberships. Your website, your newsletter and your subscriber list all run from one place, and readers can sign up free or pay for a subscription.

There are two ways to run it. Ghost(Pro) is the official managed hosting: you pay for a plan and Ghost runs the servers. Or you can self-host the free open-source software and pay for your own server, domain and bulk email service.

One word you will see a lot is members. In Ghost, a member is anyone who signs up on your site, free or paid. Ghost(Pro) prices scale with how many members you have.

Our verdict: Ghost is one of the best choices for writers and publishers who want to run a paid newsletter without handing the platform a cut, because Ghost charges 0% transaction fees on memberships. It is a poor fit for online stores and for small business brochure sites that need drag-and-drop page design.

Plans and what they really cost

These are the yearly-billed prices from the Ghost(Pro) pricing page. The page also offers monthly billing, which costs more, but we could not confirm the monthly prices from the official page, so they are not listed here.

The big dividing line is paid subscriptions. Starter cannot charge members and cannot use custom themes. It gives you a website, an email newsletter, simple design settings and a free custom domain connection, which means you can connect a domain you own at no extra charge. Ghost(Pro) does not sell domains.

Publisher is the cheapest plan that takes payments. It adds custom themes, 8,000+ integrations, paid subscriptions and advanced analytics. Business adds priority support, higher usage limits and early access to features. Custom adds a dedicated IP and a “99.9% uptime SLA,” a written promise about how much of the time your site stays online (see uptime).

One open question: when we checked, the official page listed the Business plan’s member allowance as 10,000 in one view and 1,000 in another. Confirm it with Ghost before you buy that plan.

Every plan has a “Try for free” option, but the pricing page does not say how long the trial lasts.

Pricing grows with your audience

Ghost(Pro) is priced by audience size, not just features. Publisher starts at $29 a month billed yearly for 1,000 members, and the price rises as your member count grows. We have not listed the higher member tiers because we could not confirm them on the official page. Enter your expected member count on Ghost’s pricing page before you commit, and plan for the bill to grow as your list does.

Staff seats are capped too: 1 on Starter, 3 on Publisher and 15 on Business. A small team of writers and editors fits on Publisher.

0% Ghost fees on memberships

Ghost’s pricing page says you can “process payments for your premium subscriptions without any additional transaction fees from Ghost.” You connect your own Stripe account, and Stripe’s standard processing fees still apply. Payments cover subscriptions plus one-time payments such as tips and donations.

That is a real difference from some builders. Squarespace, for example, charges a fee on Digital Content and Memberships sales: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core and 1% on Plus, with 0% only on Advanced at $99 a month billed yearly. On Ghost, the platform keeps none of your subscription revenue. Our glossary explains transaction fees and how they differ from card processing fees.

A 3-year cost example

Here is a newsletter with up to 1,000 members on Ghost(Pro), billed yearly. It uses a .com from an outside domain registrar and one Google Workspace inbox for replying to readers. Ghost sends your newsletters, but it does not include regular email mailboxes.

The Publisher column assumes you stay at or under 1,000 members. If your list grows past that, the plan price rises. Stripe’s processing fees come out of each payment on top of these totals.

Self-hosting removes the plan cost, but you take on a server, a bulk email service (self-hosters connect Mailgun to send newsletters), software updates and backups. Server and Mailgun costs depend on your provider and were not part of our pricing research. Unless you or someone on your team is comfortable running a server, Ghost(Pro) is the simpler choice.

What you can build

Publishing

Ghost is built for writing first. The editor handles posts and pages, with tags and author profiles, and posts can go out to your subscribers as newsletters. Post analytics show how each piece performs, and Publisher adds advanced analytics.

Newsletters and memberships

Member signups are built in. You can offer free and paid tiers and run 1, 3 or 10 separate newsletters depending on the plan, for example a weekly roundup and a members-only edition. Paid tiers start on Publisher.

Design and themes

Ghost sites use themes, from Ghost’s official set and a theme marketplace. On Starter you are limited to simple design settings. Publisher and up can upload a custom theme built with Handlebars templates, and code injection lets you add scripts or styles. Self-hosting gives full code access. Our glossary explains the difference between a template and a theme.

If you want to drag sections around a page the way you would on Wix or Squarespace, Ghost will feel limited. It is designed around articles, not page layouts.

Online store

Ghost sells subscriptions, not products. There is no cart, catalog or inventory. If you sell physical goods, run your store on a commerce platform and link to it from Ghost.

SEO

Ghost is known for built-in SEO basics such as meta titles and descriptions, canonical tags, structured data and an automatic XML sitemap, plus a redirects file. We did not confirm these on an official Ghost page for this update, so check Ghost’s docs if a specific feature matters to you. Our SEO entry explains the terms.

Integrations and AI

Publisher and up list 8,000+ integrations, largely through Zapier, plus native Stripe. Developers get Content and Admin APIs for custom builds. Ghost’s pricing page does not list AI writing or design features, so if AI tools matter to you, look elsewhere or add your own.

What happens when you leave

Ghost has one of the best exit scores we track. Its export help page lists what you can take with you:

• Content: a JSON export with all settings, staff users, posts, pages and tags.
• Images and media: not in the JSON export, so save them separately. This is the one gap, and why content scores 1 out of 2.
• Members: a CSV file with each member’s email, name, note, newsletter status, complimentary plan, Stripe customer ID, signup date and labels.
• Payments: paid subscriptions sit in your own Stripe account, not Ghost’s.
• Theme: installed themes download as a .zip file from Settings, under Design & branding.
• Analytics: post analytics export as CSV.
• Domain: you register it elsewhere and only connect it to Ghost, so it stays yours.

The biggest advantage is that Ghost is open source. If you leave Ghost(Pro), you can run the same software on your own server, so your posts, theme and member list already have a home. Moving to a different platform such as WordPress takes more work, because a Ghost theme will not run there. Our Ghost vs WordPress comparison covers that move, and our guide to leaving your website builder has a full checklist.

Gotchas

• Starter cannot take payments. It also cannot use custom themes; Publisher ($29 a month billed yearly) is the minimum for paid memberships (pricing page).
• Price scales with members. Entry plans are capped at 1,000 members, and the bill rises as your list grows (pricing page).
• Staff seats are capped. 1 on Starter, 3 on Publisher, 15 on Business (pricing page).
• Images are not in the export. The JSON export leaves out images and media; download them separately (exports help page).
• Stripe fees still apply. Ghost takes 0%, but Stripe charges its processing fees (pricing page).
• No mailboxes. Ghost sends newsletters, but you need a separate service for a business inbox.
• Monthly prices not confirmed. Check the billing toggle on the pricing page if you want to pay month to month.

Who should pick Ghost, and who should not

Pick Ghost if:

• You are a writer or publisher running a newsletter, with or without paid subscriptions.
• You want to keep 100% of membership revenue after Stripe’s fees.
• You care about portability: JSON content, a members CSV and your own Stripe account.
• You or a developer on your team want the option to self-host later.

Look elsewhere if:

• You sell physical products and need a cart and catalog.
• You run a small business brochure site and want drag-and-drop page design.
• You expect a very large free audience on a tight budget, since Ghost(Pro) prices rise with member count.

Alternatives worth a look

• Ghost vs WordPress: the two most portable publishing platforms, side by side.
• WordPress (self-hosted): more flexible for mixed business sites, with a 10 out of 10 exit score. We build on WordPress every week.
• Squarespace: easier page design with a built-in store and memberships, but with a fee on membership sales below its Advanced plan.

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