Ghost
CMSA publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships, which you can self-host or use as the managed Ghost(Pro) service.
Open-source alternative to:
What the free edition leaves out
We have not been able to confirm enough from official sources to give a verdict. “Not confirmed” means the official pages we read did not say, so we do not guess.
| Feature | Free edition | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSO / SAML | Not confirmed | The pricing page lists SSO (SAML, OAuth) only on the Custom Ghost(Pro) plan. Self-hosted availability is not stated. | Source ↗ |
| Role-based access control | Free | The staff docs describe five roles (Contributor, Author, Editor, Administrator, Owner) and mention no paid restriction. | Source ↗ |
| Audit logs | Not confirmed | Not mentioned on the pages read. | Source ↗ |
| Multi-user / teams | Not confirmed | Ghost(Pro) limits staff users by plan (Starter 1, Publisher 3, Business 15, Custom unlimited). Self-hosted limits were not stated. | Source ↗ |
| Backups and restore | Not confirmed | Ghost(Pro) includes automated backups on all plans. For self-hosting, backups are your responsibility and no built-in tool was confirmed. | Source ↗ |
| API access | Not confirmed | Ghost(Pro) includes the Content API on all plans; the Admin API and webhooks are not on Starter. Self-hosted availability was not read. | Source ↗ |
| Support SLA | Paid | On Ghost(Pro), email support is on Starter and Publisher, priority support on Business, and a 99.9% uptime SLA only on Custom. Self-hosted users use the community forum. | Source ↗ |
Best for
Writers, publishers and small media teams who want a blog with newsletters and paid memberships and who own their site and subscriber list.
Why choose it over Substack
The code is MIT licensed, so you can run it yourself and keep your content and members. Ghost says it takes 0% of earnings and charges a flat monthly fee for Ghost(Pro), and says Substack takes a 10% cut. These are Ghost's own claims. The managed Ghost(Pro) option saves you from running a server.
Where it falls short
Self-hosting is only officially supported on an Ubuntu, Node.js 22, MySQL 8 and NGINX stack, and the docs say you also handle email delivery, analytics and CDN yourself. Ghost(Pro) is paid, with no uptime SLA below the Custom plan, and the Admin API and webhooks are not on its Starter plan.
Open-source alternative to
- Substack — Ghost's own comparison page calls Ghost an independent alternative to Substack, with a flat monthly fee instead of a percentage of earnings.
Category
CMSTopics
Tech stack
TypeScript
JavaScript
DockerLanguages as reported by GitHub for the repository.
