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Ghost vs Substack
Ghost: Independent publishers combining site, newsletter, and memberships. Substack: Writers making money doing the work they believe in. Same fact set for both, straight from each vendor's docs.
Ghost
- Free tier
- No free Ghost(Pro) plan; 14-day free trial; open-source self-hosting is free
- Paid from
- $18/mo (Starter, billed yearly; member-count based) · pricing page
- Public API
- Yes docs
- MCP server
- No · Community MCP servers only; first-party server proposed on official forum
- Best for
- Independent publishers combining site, newsletter, and memberships
- Website
- https://ghost.org
Substack
- Free tier
- Free to publish, no subscriber cap
- Paid from
- No monthly fee; 10% of paid subscription revenue plus Stripe fees · pricing page
- Public API
- Yes docs
- MCP server
- Community · Community servers on GitHub only
- Best for
- Writers making money doing the work they believe in
- Website
- https://substack.com
Which one?
Ghost suits independent publishers combining site, newsletter, and memberships. Substack suits writers making money doing the work they believe in. Pricing changes; the fact tables above link both vendors' live pricing pages. For the rest of the field, see Ghost alternatives, Substack alternatives, or the full table.