Ghost
Independent publishing platform with memberships and newsletters
The Lens
Ghost is a publishing platform for serious writers and publishers who want more control than Substack gives them. Blogging, newsletters, paid memberships, and a full CMS in one self-hostable package. Node.js stack, MIT-licensed, runs on a single server.
Setup takes about 30 minutes on a clean Linux server. The official CLI handles installation, SSL, and configuration. You need 1GB+ RAM and a Postgres database. Updates via Ghost-CLI are clean. Managed hosting through Ghost.org removes the ops overhead and starts around 11 USD/month.
Solo creators and small publications can run Ghost free indefinitely. The self-hosted version has zero feature restrictions. Ghost.org managed hosting makes sense if you do not want to handle server upkeep and the cost is justified by your audience size.
The catch: the theme ecosystem is smaller than WordPress and the plugin architecture is intentionally limited. Deep integrations or niche customizations mean building it yourself.
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Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
free self hosted paid cloud### What's Free (Self-Hosted) Everything. All features. Memberships, newsletters, custom integrations, unlimited subscribers. MIT license means zero restrictions.
### Self-Hosting Cost - **Minimum**: $5-10/mo VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner). 1GB RAM works for small sites. - **Production**: $20-40/mo VPS with 2GB+ RAM, MySQL, and a transactional email service (Mailgun at $0.80/1,000 emails). - **Email costs scale**: 10,000 subscribers getting weekly newsletters = ~40,000 emails/mo = ~$32/mo on Mailgun.
### Ghost Pro (Managed) - **Starter**: $9/mo -- 500 members, custom domain, managed hosting. - **Creator**: $25/mo -- 1,000 members, custom themes, integrations. - **Team**: $50/mo -- 1,000 members, multiple staff users, advanced analytics. - **Business**: $199/mo -- 10,000 members, priority support, uptime SLA.
### The Math Self-hosting with 5,000 subscribers: ~$20/mo server + ~$16/mo email = $36/mo. Ghost Pro with 5,000 subscribers: you'd need the Business tier at $199/mo. The self-hosting savings are dramatic at scale but cost you 4-6 hours/month in ops.
### When to Pay Ghost Pro makes sense if you're a writer who doesn't want to manage servers. Self-host if you're technical and plan to grow past 1,000 subscribers -- the cost curve favors it significantly.
Self-host for free (plus ~$20-40/mo hosting). Ghost Pro starts at $9/mo but scales to $199/mo at 10K subscribers. Self-hosting wins on cost at any serious scale.
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