Ghost Review: Unlock Millions in Revenue for Your Publications With 0% Fees

Tired of clunky, inflexible publishing tools?

If you’re searching for a better way to run your content site or newsletter business, it’s probably because your current system makes it too hard to grow and monetize an audience.

But here’s the real headache: you’re constantly wasting hours fighting with tools that limit your options—so the content you want to share just doesn’t reach your readers (or your revenue goals).

Ghost approaches this differently, focusing on a publisher-first platform that combines intuitive writing, memberships, and newsletters—all backed by open-source freedom and real independence from investor pressure.

In this review, I’ll show you how Ghost lets you control your publishing business without the technical or business headaches that come from most CMS platforms.

We’ll cover every detail in this Ghost review, from features and workflow, to pricing, setup, and how it stacks up against major alternatives—so you can make a smart decision.

You’ll see the features you need to take control of your content and subscription revenue, all with my honest, research-backed analysis.

Let’s dive in.

Ghost Overview

Ghost is a unique non-profit foundation dedicated to professional publishing. Since its 2013 founding, the Singapore-based team has built powerful open-source tools for independent creators and journalists.

What I find compelling is their specific market focus. They target professional writers and media brands that need a sustainable subscription business model, not just another simple blog. This clear specialization is their greatest strength.

Their development isn’t about flashy acquisitions but the steady, impressive refinement of core creator tools. You can feel this dedication to the craft firsthand through this Ghost review.

Unlike platforms like Substack that control distribution and take a large revenue cut, Ghost is built for complete ownership of your brand and audience. Their commitment to 0% transaction fees is a genuine partnership.

They work with a wide range of modern publishers, from individual journalists building an audience from scratch to established content teams like those at Buffer, The Browser, and Unsplash.

From my perspective, their entire strategy centers on empowering the creator economy. The non-profit structure is a key detail, ensuring their priorities always align with your need for a profitable relationship with readers.

Now let’s examine their capabilities in detail.

Ghost Features

Struggling to build and monetize your content online?

Ghost features are built for modern content creators to publish, manage memberships, and send newsletters from one place. Here are the five main Ghost features that can transform your online publishing.

1. Content Editor (Koenig Editor)

Tired of clunky, distracting writing tools?

A busy interface often breaks your concentration and makes content creation a chore. This can actually slow down your publishing schedule.

Ghost’s Koenig Editor provides a beautifully clean, distraction-free environment, so you can focus purely on writing. From my testing, the intuitive Markdown support and “Cards” for rich media are incredibly efficient for crafting engaging posts. This feature allows you to seamlessly embed anything from Unsplash images to code snippets.

This means you can enjoy a smoother writing experience that helps you produce high-quality content faster.

2. Membership and Subscription Management

Want to monetize your content without complex setups?

Dealing with third-party tools for subscriptions can be a costly, frustrating mess. This often adds unnecessary complexity and fees to your business.

Ghost’s built-in membership feature lets you create and manage paid subscriptions directly, removing extra transaction fees. What I love about this approach is how easy it is to set up different tiers and offer exclusive content to paying subscribers. This feature is crucial for independent creators looking to build a sustainable revenue stream.

The result is you gain full control over your audience and income, enabling a direct and profitable relationship with your readers.

3. Native Email Newsletters

Sending newsletters feels like a separate, manual task?

Having to export lists and use external email services can waste time and lead to inconsistencies. This can easily disconnect your content from your audience.

Ghost seamlessly integrates email newsletter functionality, allowing you to send new posts directly to your subscribers. Here’s what I found: the ability to segment audiences and customize emails dynamically is a game-changer. This feature ensures your content reaches the right people at the right time, all within Ghost.

So you can streamline your communication strategy, eliminating the need for separate platforms and saving valuable time.

4. SEO Capabilities

Worried your amazing content won’t be found by search engines?

Poor search engine optimization can hide your content from potential readers, limiting your reach. This means your hard work might not get the visibility it deserves.

Ghost is designed with robust out-of-the-box SEO features, including clean URLs and automatic XML sitemaps. This is where Ghost shines: you can easily optimize meta descriptions and titles for both search engines and social media. This feature helps improve your discoverability and ensures your content ranks well organically.

This means your content gets the visibility it needs, helping you attract more readers and grow your audience naturally.

5. Customization and Open-Source Flexibility

Feel limited by rigid, closed-source publishing platforms?

Proprietary systems often restrict your design choices and prevent deep integration with other tools. This can hold back your brand’s unique identity.

As an open-source platform, Ghost offers impressive customizability, allowing you to tailor your site’s design and functionality. From my testing, the RESTful JSON API provides extensive integration possibilities with various third-party services. This feature empowers developers and creators to have complete control over their brand.

What you get instead is the freedom to build a truly unique online presence that aligns perfectly with your vision and extends functionality as needed.

You’ll actually appreciate how these Ghost features work together as a cohesive publishing platform rather than separate tools that you have to stick together, making your workflow incredibly efficient.

Ghost Pricing

Worried about unexpected software costs?

Ghost pricing is structured as tiered plans based on your audience size, offering transparent options for bloggers and publishers, with a unique no-transaction-fee policy.

Plan	Price & Features
Starter	Varies (for up to 500 members) • Ghost(Pro) managed hosting • Core publishing features • Email newsletter capabilities • Membership management
Creator	Varies (for up to 1,000 members) • All Starter features • Increased storage and staff users • Priority support • Advanced analytics
Team	Varies (for up to 10,000 members) • All Creator features • Higher member limits • More staff user accounts • Dedicated account manager
Business	Varies (for up to 100,000 members) • All Team features • Enterprise-grade scalability • Custom integrations • Premium support

1. Value Assessment

Great value for creators.

What impressed me about their pricing approach is how it scales with your usage, specifically your member count, rather than taking a percentage of your earnings. This means you keep 100% of your subscription revenue, minus standard payment processor fees, which significantly impacts your long-term profitability.

This directly aligns your Ghost pricing with your growth, ensuring your budget benefits as your audience expands.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Try before you buy.

Ghost offers a 14-day free trial for its Ghost(Pro) service, allowing you to thoroughly evaluate the platform’s publishing, newsletter, and membership features. This hands-on experience helps you understand the full scope of Ghost’s capabilities before committing any budget.

This helps you evaluate everything from content creation to monetization, ensuring it fits your publishing needs perfectly.

3. Plan Comparison

Choosing the right fit.

The tiered structure means you can start small with Starter and upgrade as your audience grows, ensuring your Ghost pricing always matches your current scale. What stands out is that larger plans accommodate substantial audience sizes, making it suitable for both individual creators and large publishing teams.

This tiered approach helps you match pricing to actual usage requirements rather than overpaying for unused capabilities.

My Take: Ghost’s pricing strategy is highly beneficial for content creators focused on monetization, as its no-transaction-fee model maximizes your direct earnings potential.

The overall Ghost pricing reflects excellent value for content creators monetizing subscriptions.

Ghost Reviews

What do real customers actually think?

To help you understand Ghost from a user perspective, I’ve analyzed numerous Ghost reviews, evaluating common feedback patterns, praise points, and frequent complaints to give you a balanced view.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Mostly positive, with specific nuances.

From my review analysis, Ghost generally garners strong satisfaction, especially among content creators prioritizing a clean writing experience and monetization. What I found in user feedback is how its simplicity often translates to high user happiness, particularly for bloggers and independent publishers seeking a focused platform.

This means you can expect a streamlined experience if content creation is your priority.

2. Common Praise Points

The clean editor consistently stands out.

Users repeatedly laud Ghost’s modern, minimal admin dashboard and “Koenig” editor for its focus on writing. From the reviews I analyzed, its performance and speed are also highly valued, contributing to better SEO and user engagement due to fast page load times.

This means your content will look great, load fast, and be easy to manage.

3. Frequent Complaints

Technical setup can be a hurdle.

While praised, self-hosting Ghost often requires more technical knowledge than fully hosted alternatives. What stands out in customer feedback is how limited theme and plugin options sometimes frustrate users accustomed to larger ecosystems like WordPress, though this is evolving.

These issues are generally minor for those seeking a focused publishing tool.

Overall, Ghost reviews reflect a highly focused and effective publishing platform, with minor friction points around customization and advanced integrations.

Best Ghost Alternatives

Choosing the best publishing platform can be hard.

The best Ghost alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations and content monetization priorities. I found specific scenarios where other platforms shine.

1. WordPress.com

Need a highly versatile website builder?

WordPress.com excels if your needs extend beyond content publishing to include complex website features, like e-commerce or forums. From my competitive analysis, WordPress.com offers extensive customization via plugins, though it can feel less streamlined for pure publishing than Ghost.

Choose WordPress.com if you require diverse functionalities and a massive plugin ecosystem over a focused content platform.

2. Substack

Primarily focused on paid newsletters?

Substack is ideal for writers prioritizing newsletter monetization with minimal setup, offering built-in discoverability through its platform. What I found comparing options is that Substack provides simple, integrated monetization for newsletters, but sacrifices the branding and ownership control Ghost offers.

Consider this alternative if you value simplicity and built-in audience discoverability over deep customization and ownership.

3. Squarespace

Want an all-in-one, visually stunning website?

Squarespace makes more sense if your priority is creating a visually appealing website with robust design templates and integrated e-commerce. Alternative-wise, Squarespace provides superior drag-and-drop design for websites, though it lacks Ghost’s pure publishing focus and zero transaction fees.

Choose Squarespace when visual design and an all-in-one website solution are more critical than Ghost’s publishing-first approach.

4. Medium

Just want to write and gain exposure?

Medium works well for beginner bloggers who want to focus solely on writing and gain exposure to a pre-existing large audience. What I found comparing options is that Medium offers built-in discoverability for new writers, but gives you minimal control over branding or monetization compared to Ghost.

Consider this alternative if audience reach is paramount and managing your own platform isn’t a priority.

The best Ghost alternatives depend on your specific business goals and content strategy rather than just features.

Ghost Setup

What does Ghost implementation really entail?

For your Ghost review, I’ve analyzed its deployment process to set realistic expectations. Here’s what you’re looking at regarding setup, technical needs, and getting your team on board.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Expect varied setup difficulty.

Ghost implementation varies significantly; Ghost(Pro) is straightforward, like a typical SaaS, while self-hosting requires more technical savvy. From my implementation analysis, the timeline hinges on your chosen hosting method, impacting how quickly you’re up and running.

You’ll need to decide upfront if you prefer simplicity with Ghost(Pro) or full control with self-hosting.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Consider your technical comfort level.

For Ghost(Pro), technical needs are minimal, handled entirely by Ghost. However, self-hosting requires Node.js, database, and server management knowledge. What I found about deployment is that self-hosting demands specific technical expertise for successful setup and ongoing maintenance.

Plan for adequate IT resources if you choose the self-hosted route to manage server environments and dependencies.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is generally smooth.

Ghost’s clean editor and admin panel mean a low learning curve for basic content creation and management. From my analysis, basic training needs are minimal thanks to the intuitive user interface, allowing quick team onboarding.

Invest in deeper training or developer assistance if you plan to leverage extensive customization options, especially with self-hosting.

4. Support & Success Factors

Community and documentation are key.

Ghost offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and an active community forum for support. While Ghost(Pro) users get direct help, community-driven support is vital for self-hosters. This open-source model fosters collaborative problem-solving for implementation challenges.

You should leverage the robust documentation and community resources to facilitate a smoother deployment and ongoing success.

Overall, your Ghost setup will largely depend on your hosting preference, with Ghost(Pro) offering a simpler path for quick deployment and adoption.

Bottom Line

Is Ghost the right choice for your content?

This Ghost review synthesizes a comprehensive analysis to guide your decision, offering a clear recommendation based on who benefits most from its unique strengths and where its limitations lie.

1. Who This Works Best For

Content creators and independent publishers.

Ghost is ideal for professional bloggers, independent journalists, and content creators aiming to build and monetize a loyal audience through subscriptions. What I found about target users is that creators prioritizing direct monetization via memberships find it particularly effective for building a sustainable publishing business.

You’ll succeed if you value clean design, speed, and ownership over your content and audience without relying on third-party ad networks.

2. Overall Strengths

Unmatched focus on content monetization.

The software excels with its integrated membership features, newsletter capabilities, and clean, fast publishing environment with zero transaction fees. From my comprehensive analysis, Ghost’s open-source nature provides full control over your content and data, a significant advantage for brand independence and privacy.

These strengths directly translate into a powerful platform for creators to build, engage, and monetize their audience efficiently and sustainably.

3. Key Limitations

Specialized focus limits general website features.

While powerful for publishing, Ghost isn’t a general-purpose website builder like WordPress, lacking extensive drag-and-drop design options or complex e-commerce integrations. Based on this review, self-hosting requires some technical proficiency beyond what many casual bloggers possess, although Ghost(Pro) simplifies this.

These limitations are manageable trade-offs for its core purpose, but they can be deal-breakers if your needs extend beyond content and membership.

4. Final Recommendation

Ghost earns a strong recommendation for specific users.

You should choose this software if you’re a content creator or publisher focused on building a direct audience and generating subscription revenue from written content. From my analysis, your success depends on aligning with Ghost’s core publishing mission and its emphasis on clean, fast, and owned media.

My confidence level is high for its target audience but drops for users seeking a broad, all-in-one website solution.

Through this Ghost review, I’ve outlined strong value for content-driven businesses while clarifying its specialized focus and technical considerations before you commit.