Ghost
Open-source publishing platform focused on professional blogging with membership and newsletter features.
Overview
Ghost is a open-source publishing platform focused on professional blogging with membership and newsletter features. It handles publishing, memberships, newsletters, and seo, and it's best suited for bloggers and publishers who want a clean cms. It has been around since 2013, giving it a 13-year head start in building out integrations and refining the product.
The core product is entirely free. Paid plans start at $9/mo, which unlocks the full feature set. It's aimed at individual users, so it's fast to set up but may lack team-management features if you scale.
Strengths
- Open source and transparent
- Includes Publishing as a core feature, purpose-built for website builder workflows
- Fully open-source — you can self-host, audit the code, and avoid vendor lock-in
- The core product is free with no paywalled essentials
Weaknesses
- May lack some advanced features
- Self-hosting is free but requires server maintenance and DevOps knowledge
- Fewer built-in features means you may need additional tools to cover gaps
- Performance and SEO control is limited compared to custom-coded sites
Pricing estimate
Quick info
- Category
- Website Builder
- Starting price
- $9/mo
- Free tier
- Fully free
- Open source
- Yes
- Best for
- Individuals
- Founded
- 2013
Last updated 2026-04-12
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Ghost comparisons
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