How to Set Up Ghost Memberships

Memberships in One Platform

Ghost’s membership system lets you offer free and paid subscriptions to your readers, gate content by tier, and collect payment directly through Stripe — all without third-party plugins or add-ons.

The platform takes 0% of your subscription revenue. Only Stripe’s processing fee (~2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) applies. Compare that to Substack’s 10% or Patreon’s 5-12%.

This guide walks through setting up memberships from scratch on Ghost(Pro) Publisher or self-hosted Ghost.

Requirement: Paid memberships require Ghost(Pro) Publisher ($29/month) or higher. The Starter plan ($15/month) supports free members only — paid subscriptions were removed from Starter in the July 2025 update.

Step 1: Connect Stripe

Ghost uses Stripe for all payment processing. You need a Stripe account (free to create).

Go to Settings → Membership in Ghost Admin
Click Connect to Stripe
You will be redirected to Stripe to authorize the connection
Grant Ghost permission to create products, subscriptions, and manage customers on your behalf
Return to Ghost — Stripe is now connected

Ghost creates Stripe Products for each membership tier automatically. All subscriber management, billing, and invoicing happens through Stripe. You can see every transaction in your Stripe Dashboard.

Test Mode

Before going live, use Stripe’s test mode to verify everything works:

In Ghost Admin, toggle to Stripe test mode
Create a test subscription using Stripe’s test card numbers (4242 4242 4242 4242)
Verify the signup flow, email confirmation, and content access
Switch to live mode when ready

Step 2: Create Membership Tiers

Ghost supports free and paid tiers. Go to Settings → Membership → Tiers to configure.

Free Tier

The free tier is always available. Free members get:

Access to content marked as “free members”
Newsletter subscriptions
An account on your site (login, manage preferences)

Configure what free members see in Settings → Membership → Access:

Public — all content visible without signup
Members only — all content requires free signup
Paid-members only — only paid subscribers see content (free tier gets limited access)

Paid Tiers

Create up to 3 paid tiers on Publisher (10 on Business). For each tier:

Name: e.g., “Supporter”, “Premium”, “Founding Member”
Monthly price: e.g., $5/month
Yearly price: e.g., $50/year (offer a discount for annual billing)
Description: What the tier includes
Benefits: Listed on the pricing page (e.g., “Access to all premium articles”, “Monthly Q&A sessions”)
Welcome page: Custom URL shown after subscription (e.g., a thank-you page or getting-started guide)
Free trial: Optional trial period in days

Pricing Strategy

Common approaches for Ghost memberships:

Single paid tier: Simplest setup. Free newsletter + one paid tier (e.g., $7/month). Most publications start here.

Two tiers: Free newsletter + paid tier ($5-10/month) + premium tier ($15-25/month). The premium tier includes extras like early access, exclusive content, or community access.

Annual discount: Offer 15-20% off for annual subscriptions. Ghost handles both monthly and yearly billing per tier. Annual subscribers churn at much lower rates.

Step 3: Gate Your Content

Ghost’s content gating is per-post. When writing or editing a post, choose the visibility:

Public: Visible to everyone, no signup required
Members only: Requires free or paid membership
Paid members only: Only paid subscribers can read
Specific tier: Only members on a particular tier

Content Preview

For paid-gated posts, you can show a preview before the paywall. In the editor, place your cursor where you want the gate to appear and insert a paywall card (type /paywall). Everything above the card is visible to everyone. Everything below requires the specified access level.

This lets you hook readers with the opening paragraphs and convert them at the natural point of interest.

Server-Side Gating

Ghost’s content gating is server-side, not client-side JavaScript. Paywalled content is not included in the page source unless the reader is authenticated. This means:

Content cannot be accessed by viewing the page source
Direct links to paywalled content require authentication
RSS feeds respect access levels
Search engines only index the preview portion

This is a meaningful security difference compared to platforms like Squarespace, where gated content can be accessed through direct links or browser tools.

Step 4: Configure Portal

Ghost Portal is the member-facing signup and account interface. Configure it in Settings → Membership → Portal.

Portal controls:

Signup options: Which tiers are shown during signup
Free signup: Whether free membership is offered alongside paid tiers
Colors: Match your site’s accent color
Welcome message: Text shown after signup
Account page: Where members manage their subscription (upgrade, cancel, update payment)

Portal appears as a floating button on your site. When clicked, it opens a modal with signup or account management options. Your theme can also include custom membership pages that link into Portal flows.

Step 5: Set Up Email Receipts and Notifications

When someone subscribes, Ghost and Stripe handle notifications automatically:

Ghost: Sends a welcome email (configurable in Settings → Newsletters)
Stripe: Sends payment receipts and invoices
Subscription changes: Stripe notifies members about upcoming renewals, failed payments, and plan changes

You can customize the Ghost welcome email to include your personal message, links to your best content, and any onboarding instructions.

Step 6: Monitor Revenue

Ghost’s revenue dashboard shows real-time membership metrics:

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue): Total predictable monthly income
Total members: Free and paid counts
Net new members: Growth over time
Churn rate: Members canceling per period
Top converting posts: Which articles drive the most paid signups

These metrics are available in Ghost Admin under the Dashboard tab.

For per-subscriber details, check your Stripe Dashboard. Stripe shows individual customer history, payment methods, and subscription status.

Common Questions

Can members switch between tiers?

Yes. Members can upgrade or downgrade through their Portal account page. Stripe handles prorating automatically — if a member upgrades mid-billing cycle, they pay the difference. Downgrades take effect at the next billing cycle.

Can I offer one-time payments?

Ghost 6.0 introduced one-time payments and tips alongside subscriptions. Members can make a single payment without committing to a recurring subscription.

Can I import existing subscribers?

Yes. Ghost supports CSV member import. Upload a CSV with email addresses, names, and optional labels. For paid members migrating from another platform, they will need to re-subscribe through Ghost’s Stripe connection — existing billing relationships cannot be transferred.

What happens if a payment fails?

Stripe handles payment retries automatically. After multiple failed attempts, the subscription is marked as past due. You can configure Stripe’s retry behavior in your Stripe Dashboard.

Design Your Membership Experience

Your theme’s membership pages are the first thing potential subscribers see. Custom sign-in, sign-up, and pricing pages convert better than Ghost’s default Portal modal.

Luno Ghost theme sign-up page with membership tiers