Ghost users start looking elsewhere for three reasons: the newsletter is one part of a publishing site they may not want to run, the entry plans cap paid subscriptions and integrations, or sending needs a separate account when self-hosted. The usual moves are to a newsletter-only tool, a creator suite with automations, or a platform that takes a revenue share instead of a flat fee.
Short answer: Looking for a replacement for Ghost? Buttondown, Listmonk and Curated come first in our newsletter platform ranking. Our rule for order: vendors outside the big brands go first, and the largest names are not placed in the top three. Start with Buttondown if you want a small independent vendor and a plain Markdown writing flow without a website to run. Below are 11 alternatives, each taken from the Best Newsletter Platforms in 2026 ranking, with its main difference from Ghost.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Pricing: Hosted tiers priced by member count, published; code is open source
Established in: Singapore
Built for: A publication with paid subscriptions
Not for: A company website with services, cases and forms
01
Why buyers look past Ghost
01
Paid features start on the second plan
Ghost(Pro) Starter is listed at 18 dollars a month billed yearly for 1,000 members and one staff user. Paid subscriptions and tips, custom themes, a custom sending domain, advanced analytics and Zapier, n8n or API access are all marked as absent on Starter. A publication that wants to charge readers has to begin on Publisher at 29 dollars.
02
Self-hosted sending depends on Mailgun
The docs say Mailgun is the only bulk mail API Ghost supports and that plain SMTP is not for newsletters. Mailgun is described as free up to 600 emails a month. Anyone running Ghost on their own server therefore keeps a second supplier account and carries the deliverability work alongside the upgrades.
03
Email automation is not described
The newsletter documentation covers scheduling, segments of free or paid members and several newsletters. It does not mention drip campaigns or sequences. Teams that want welcome series or behaviour-based mail often look at tools where those are part of a plan, or connect Ghost to another service through Zapier.
your list already sits there or the wider team needs suite-style campaign tools beyond a publication
#12
03
What each one does differently
1
Buttondown
United States · Published
Buttondown says it has been profitable, self-funded and fully remote since 2017. Billing counts active subscribers only, and the first 100 cost nothing. Tagging and segmentation, paid subscriptions, analytics and automations are each a priced monthly add-on, and the published prices assume no more than one email a day to the whole list.
Switch from Ghost if you want a small independent vendor and a plain Markdown writing flow without a website to run.
Listmonk is a single binary that keeps its data in PostgreSQL and is released under AGPLv3. You run it on your own server and connect your own SMTP provider. The vendor site names no hosted service of its own, so upgrades and deliverability fall to you, and nothing in it handles paid memberships.
Switch from Ghost if you already host Ghost yourself, want a mailing list manager with no per-subscriber bill and accept the upkeep.
Curated is made for the link digest: save articles through a bookmarklet or an email address, add a comment and send. Every feature is included at every size, the free level runs to 1,500 subscribers, and team members cost nothing extra. Long essays and paid tiers are outside what it is built to do.
Switch from Ghost if your newsletter is mostly curated links with short commentary rather than original long posts.
MailerLite is a Lithuanian-founded product whose free plan allows 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month and two seats. Landing pages, a website builder and paid newsletter subscriptions sit in the same account. Power removes the email cap and the seat cap. Sending through its API needs a paid plan.
Switch from Ghost if you want email, a simple site and paid subscriptions from one lower-priced supplier.
Kit's free plan carries up to 10,000 subscribers with forms, landing pages, broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, and it sells digital products and subscriptions. The Creator plan adds visual automations and sequences, branding removal and SMS, with a 14-day trial and free migrations. Plans are priced per 1,000 subscribers.
Switch from Ghost if you need automated sequences and tagging, which Ghost's own newsletter docs do not describe.
SendFox, part of the AppSumo group, gives a free tier of 1,000 contacts and 3,000 sends a month. Its lifetime option is one payment for 5,000 contacts and 300,000 sends in total, and each recipient of each issue uses one send. Paid newsletters through Stripe come only on the monthly Pro plan.
Switch from Ghost if you send rarely to a modest list and prefer a single payment to a monthly fee.
Flodesk puts email design first and has no per-send charge; the price follows subscriber count across Free, Lite, Pro and Everything. Lite stops at 25,000 subscribers and one seat. Workflows and analytics arrive on Pro, while checkout, sales pages and subscriptions need Everything with three seats. CSV export is listed for each plan.
Switch from Ghost if good-looking designed emails and a sale or two matter more to you than a full publication site.
Paragraph sells a flow in which a launch becomes an article, a newsletter and social posts, none published until you approve. Plans are sized by campaigns and by emails, 2,500 a month free, 25,000 on Launch and 100,000 on Team. A custom domain and your own website begin at Launch.
Switch from Ghost if you want drafting help and a launch-driven rhythm more than a blog archive.
Beehiiv bundles a newsletter, a website, a podcast, a community and digital products into every plan. Free covers 2,500 subscribers, one seat and 30 days of analytics history; Lite lists a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions, automations and A/B testing. Removing its branding is limited to Pro and Enterprise.
Switch from Ghost if you want growth tools and a hosted site without installing or maintaining anything.
Substack asks nothing up front and keeps a tenth of paid subscription revenue, since writers keep 90% after card fees. Its going-paid page says you own your content and subscriber list. The contract is with Substack Inc. and the terms name California law, so the reader network comes with a US jurisdiction.
Switch from Ghost if you would rather give up a revenue share than pay a flat fee, and want an existing reader network.
Mailchimp belongs to Intuit and sells a marketing suite in Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium plans priced by contacts. Standard sends up to 6,000 emails a month and Premium up to 150,000. A 14-day trial is offered, and phone and priority support appear only under Premium.
Switch from Ghost if your list already sits there or the wider team needs suite-style campaign tools beyond a publication.
You want to keep the same writing and members setup but stop running it yourself
Beehiiv: Every plan includes a newsletter and website, and the Lite plan lists a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions.
02
You send link digests and do not need a full publication site
Curated: Free up to 1,500 subscribers with every feature included, and no per-seat charge.
03
You need automations that Ghost's newsletter docs do not describe
Kit: The Creator plan adds visual automations and sequences, with a 14-day trial and free migrations.
04
You already self-host and want only the mailing list side under your control
Listmonk: One binary on PostgreSQL under AGPLv3, with your own SMTP provider, so there is no per-subscriber fee.
05
You want a small independent vendor with usage-based pricing
Buttondown: Billing counts active subscribers only and the first 100 cost nothing, with segmentation sold as an add-on.
04
When Ghost is still the right choice
Ghost remains the right choice when the website and the newsletter are one product. It is published under the MIT licence by a non-profit foundation, so you can leave with the code, and Ghost charges 0% on payments from Publisher upward, with only processor fees on top. Members can be imported and exported, and several newsletters with free or paid segments run from one install. If your audience reads on your site and pays you directly, most of the tools below would add a second system without removing a cost.
05
What moving off Ghost involves
01
Members and paid subscribers need care
Export the member list from Ghost (the pricing page lists member import and export), then check how the destination treats paid members. Ask the new vendor whether it can take over existing paid subscriptions before you switch off the old site.
02
The public archive and its links
Ghost serves your posts as a website. Most newsletter-only tools offer a simpler archive, so list the URLs that rank or are shared and set up redirects, or keep Ghost as the site and move only the sending.
06
Questions about replacing Ghost
6 answers
How much does Ghost cost?
Ghost(Pro) lists Starter at 18 dollars a month, Publisher at 29 and Business at 199, all billed yearly, with Custom on request. Self-hosting the code is possible, and the pricing page notes that self-hosters handle their own uptime and security.
Can I keep Ghost and change only the email sending?
Ghost says sites that do not email posts do not need Mailgun and can sync members to another provider, for instance through Zapier. That makes a split between the site and the sender a supported route.
Is there a cheaper path for a small list?
Several tools in the list start free: Kit to 10,000 subscribers, Beehiiv to 2,500, Curated to 1,500 and MailerLite to 250. Their limits on seats, branding and features differ, so read the entry above before you compare.
Which option charges nothing per subscriber?
Listmonk is free to download and run under AGPLv3, with the work of hosting and SMTP left to you. Substack charges no fee up front and keeps a share of paid revenue instead.
Who runs Ghost?
Ghost describes itself as a non-profit foundation founded in 2013. Its terms name Ghost Foundation Ltd and English law, while our category record gives Singapore, so check the contracting entity if jurisdiction matters.
Does Ghost support automations?
The newsletter docs we read describe scheduling and segments but no sequences. Kit's Creator plan and Beehiiv's Lite plan both list automations.
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Sources
Checked 4 November 2026
Ghost pricing: Starter 18 dollars, Publisher 29, Business 199 a month billed yearly; 1,000 members on Starter and Publisher; paid subscriptions and 0% Ghost fee from Publisher; 1, 3, 15 staff users; Zapier, n8n and API from Publisher.
Ghost newsletter docs: Self-hosted sending via Mailgun only; free up to 600 emails a month; segments of free or paid members; no automation described.
Ghost Mailgun FAQ: Mailgun is the only supported bulk mail API; SMTP not supported for bulk; no Mailgun partnership.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Sebastiaan Smits wrote and checked this page, most recently on 4 November 2026. See how we review.
