Ghost vs Substack
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Ghost and Substack, verified . Ghost is primarily content marketing; Substack is primarily email marketing.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Ghost
- Starter
Personal publishing on Ghost(Pro), billed yearly
$18/mo - Publisher
Paid subscriptions, custom themes, integrations
$29/mo - Business
Higher limits, priority support, early access
$199/mo - Custom
Enterprise: unlimited members, dedicated IP, SLA
Custom
Substack
- Standard
Free to publish; 10% of paid subscription revenue
Free
When Ghost wins
- Independent publishers who want to own their stack and keep migration optionality
- Paid-newsletter operators trying to avoid Substack's 10% revenue share at scale
- Publications that need staff seats, custom themes, and a real CMS rather than just an email tool
Where Ghost is the wrong fit
- Hobbyists who refuse to pay anything ever; Substack or Buttondown's free tiers fit better
- Podcast-first creators; Ghost is text and email native, not an audio platform
- Teams that need deep CRM, lead scoring, or marketing automation; this is a publishing tool, not a marketing-automation suite
When Substack wins
- New writers with no list yet who want platform-driven discovery
- Writers who would rather give 10% of revenue than pay a flat $20-100/month with no readers
Where Substack is the wrong fit
- Established creators with a paid list above ~5,000 subscribers; the 10% share exceeds what Kit, Ghost, or beehiiv would charge in flat fees at that scale
- Operators who want full control over deliverability, subscriber data, and migration optionality
- Brands needing automations, segmentation, or marketing tooling
Migrating between these tools 1 guide
Long-form migration guide for this exact pair. Each covers the cost math, what you lose, what you gain, and the pair-specific gotchas that bite during cutover.
Common questions
- Is Ghost cheaper than Substack?
- At the entry tier, Substack starts at Free versus Ghost at $18/mo. Substack is cheaper at the entry. Pricing scales differently above that, so check the full plan grid.
- Does Ghost or Substack have a free plan?
- Only Substack has a permanent free plan. Ghost only offers a free trial.
- Are Ghost and Substack in the same category?
- No. Ghost is primarily a content marketing tool; Substack is primarily a email marketing tool. They overlap on use case but sit in different primary categories, so the comparison is between adjacent tools rather than direct competitors.
- Which has more plans, Ghost or Substack?
- Ghost ships 4 plans; Substack ships 1. Ghost's longer ladder gives more granular upgrade steps, which can mean smoother price escalation as your team scales.
- Where can I see alternatives to Ghost or Substack?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/ghost for Ghost and /alternatives/substack for Substack. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Ghost: https://ghost.org/pricing/ · Substack: https://substack.com/going-paid
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.