Luxe Themes
Ghost Pricing Guide: Every Plan Explained
Ghost(Pro) starts at $15/mo. Self-hosting starts at $4/mo. Compare every plan, feature gate, and hidden cost so you pick the right option.
What Ghost Actually Costs
Ghost pricing is straightforward once you understand two things: there is a managed hosting service (Ghost(Pro)) and a free open-source option (self-hosted). The software itself is free. You are paying for hosting, email delivery, and convenience.
This guide breaks down every plan, every feature gate, and the real costs of self-hosting so you can make an informed decision.
Ghost(Pro) Plans
Ghost(Pro) is Ghost’s managed hosting service. They handle servers, updates, SSL certificates, CDN, backups, and email delivery. All plans include 0% platform fee on subscription revenue — only Stripe’s ~2.9% processing fee applies.
Starter — $15/month (annual) / $18/month (monthly)
The entry point for Ghost. Designed for solo publishers starting a free newsletter.
Included:
- Website with free custom domain
- 1 newsletter with unlimited email sends
- Up to 1,000 members
- 1 staff account
- SSL and CDN
- Automatic backups
- Content API (read-only, for headless use cases)
- Basic design settings (limited to official free themes)
Not included:
- Paid memberships and subscriptions (removed from Starter in July 2025)
- Custom or premium themes (locked to Ghost’s official free themes)
- Custom sending domain (emails sent from a generic ghost.io address)
- Admin API, Zapier, or webhooks
- Advanced analytics
- Multiple newsletters
The July 2025 pricing update raised Starter from ~$9/month to $15/month while removing paid subscriptions from the plan. This is the most significant recent change — if you want to monetize, you need Publisher.
Publisher — $29/month (annual) / $35/month (monthly)
The plan most serious publishers need. This is where Ghost becomes a full business platform.
Everything in Starter, plus:
- Paid subscriptions and memberships (up to 3 premium tiers)
- Custom and premium themes (required for marketplace or third-party themes)
- Custom sending domain (e.g., newsletter@yourdomain.com)
- Advanced analytics
- Up to 3 newsletters
- 3 staff accounts
- Admin API, Zapier, and webhooks (8,000+ integrations)
- 100MB file upload limit
This is the minimum plan for using custom Ghost themes and monetizing with paid memberships.
Publisher pricing scales with member count:
| Members | Annual Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $29/mo | $35/mo |
| 5,000 | $63/mo | $76/mo |
| 10,000 | $88/mo | $106/mo |
| 25,000 | $141/mo | $169/mo |
| 50,000 | $208/mo | $250/mo |
| 100,000 | $274/mo | $329/mo |
The base Publisher plan at 1,000 members is where most new publications start. Pricing scales gradually as your audience grows — there are no sudden jumps.
Business — $199/month (annual) / $239/month (monthly)
For established publications with larger teams and audiences.
Everything in Publisher, plus:
- Priority support
- Up to 10 premium membership tiers
- Up to 10 newsletters
- 15 staff accounts
- 250MB file upload limit
- Early feature access
- Custom SSL ($50/month add-on)
- Custom subdirectory install ($50/month add-on)
Business pricing also scales with member count, following the same model as Publisher but with higher base limits.
Enterprise — Custom Pricing
For organizations above 100,000 members or with specific infrastructure requirements:
- Unlimited staff accounts
- 1GB file upload limit
- Dedicated IP address
- SSO integration
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- Invoice billing
- Account manager
- Deliverability consultation
- Unlimited tiers, newsletters, and offers
Self-Hosted Ghost: The Real Costs
Ghost is open-source under the MIT license. The software is free to install and run on your own server. But “free software” is not the same as “free to operate.”
Server Costs
You need a Linux VPS (Virtual Private Server). Ghost-CLI handles installation on Ubuntu.
| Provider | Basic VPS | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | $4-6/mo | 1-Click Ghost installer available |
| Vultr | $5-6/mo | Ghost-compatible Ubuntu images |
| Hetzner | $4-5/mo | European data centers |
A basic $4-6/month VPS handles most small-to-medium Ghost publications. Higher traffic may require $20-50/month for more CPU, RAM, or dedicated database hosting.
Email Delivery — Mailgun
Ghost’s newsletter feature requires Mailgun for email delivery on self-hosted installations. This is not optional — Ghost only supports Mailgun as its bulk email provider.
Mailgun pricing changed in December 2025 when the legacy Flex (pay-as-you-go) plan was discontinued:
| Mailgun Plan | Price | Emails Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 emails/day (testing only) |
| Basic | $15/mo | 10,000/month |
| Foundation | $35/mo | 50,000/month |
| Scale | $90/mo | 100,000/month |
For active newsletters with more than a few hundred subscribers, the Foundation plan at $35/month is the practical minimum. The December 2025 price increase made Mailgun significantly more expensive for self-hosted operators.
Additional Costs
- Domain: $10-15/year
- SSL: Free via Let’s Encrypt (Ghost-CLI handles this)
- Backups: Managed by you (or automated with a cron job)
- Updates: Manual via Ghost-CLI (
ghost update) - Monitoring: Optional but recommended — services like UptimeRobot (free) or Better Uptime ($20/month)
Total Self-Hosted Cost
| Scenario | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Small list (sub-500, infrequent sends) | $4-15/mo (VPS + Mailgun Basic or Free) |
| Active newsletter (1,000-5,000 subscribers) | $39-55/mo (VPS + Mailgun Foundation) |
| Growing publication (10,000+ subscribers) | $95+/mo (VPS + Mailgun Scale) |
Self-hosting also costs your time. Server maintenance, security updates, debugging email delivery issues, and managing backups are ongoing responsibilities.
Ghost(Pro) vs Self-Hosted: When Each Makes Sense
Choose Ghost(Pro) When
- You want zero infrastructure management
- Your time is more valuable than the cost difference
- You need predictable, all-in monthly pricing
- You want email delivery included (no separate Mailgun bill)
- You need priority support (Business plan)
- You are not comfortable with Linux server administration
Choose Self-Hosted When
- You have DevOps experience and are comfortable with VPS management
- You have a large email list where Ghost(Pro) subscriber scaling exceeds self-hosted costs
- You need full server-level control (custom integrations, server-side modifications)
- Budget is the primary constraint and you can absorb operational time costs
- You want to run multiple Ghost instances on a single server
The Break-Even Point
At 1,000 members, the comparison is close:
- Ghost(Pro) Publisher: $29/month (everything included)
- Self-hosted: ~$40-55/month (VPS + Mailgun Foundation)
Ghost(Pro) is actually cheaper at small scale because email delivery is bundled.
At 25,000 members:
- Ghost(Pro) Publisher: $141/month
- Self-hosted: ~$95-130/month (VPS + Mailgun Scale)
Self-hosting becomes cheaper at larger scale — but only if you can handle the operational overhead.
Ghost vs Competitors: Pricing in Context
vs Substack
Substack is free to start but takes 10% of all paid subscription revenue plus Stripe fees.
| Monthly Revenue | Substack Takes | Ghost(Pro) Publisher Cost |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $100 | $29 |
| $5,000 | $500 | $29-$63 |
| $10,000 | $1,000 | $88-$141 |
Ghost’s flat pricing becomes dramatically cheaper as revenue grows. At $5,000/month in revenue, Substack costs 8-17x more than Ghost.
vs Beehiiv
Beehiiv has a free tier (2,500 subscribers) but paid subscriptions require the Scale plan at $43/month. Pricing scales with subscriber count, similar to Ghost.
At equivalent feature sets (website + newsletter + paid memberships), Ghost Publisher at $29/month undercuts Beehiiv Scale at $43/month by $14/month.
vs WordPress + Plugins
A WordPress stack with newsletter and membership functionality (hosting + email service + membership plugin) typically runs $50-150+/month depending on list size and chosen tools. WordPress offers more flexibility for complex sites but requires assembling functionality from separate plugins.
Ghost includes newsletter, membership, and CMS natively for $29/month. No plugin management, no compatibility testing, no separate email service account.
vs Buttondown
Buttondown starts at $9/month for 1,000 subscribers, but most features (analytics, segmentation, paid subscriptions, automations) are paid add-ons. A comparable feature set costs $36-65+/month — for email only, with no website.
Ghost Publisher at $29/month includes everything Buttondown charges extra for, plus a full CMS and website.
The Feature Gate Summary
Understanding which features require which plan prevents surprise limitations:
| Feature | Starter ($15) | Publisher ($29) | Business ($199) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website + blog | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free newsletter | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paid memberships | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom/premium themes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom sending domain | No | Yes | Yes |
| Admin API + integrations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced analytics | No | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple newsletters | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Staff accounts | 1 | 3 | 15 |
| Priority support | No | No | Yes |
The Starter-to-Publisher jump is the critical upgrade. If you plan to monetize or use a premium theme, start with Publisher from day one.
Theme Costs
Ghost themes are separate from your Ghost(Pro) subscription. They are one-time purchases, not recurring fees.
| Theme Type | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Official free themes | $0 | Included with all plans (19+ themes) |
| Premium themes | $49-149 | One-time purchase, lifetime updates (varies by provider) |
| Theme bundles | $199-499 | Access to all themes from a provider |
| Custom development | $2,000-10,000 | Bespoke design from scratch |
Our themes start at $69 and include dark mode, 46 language translations, multiple post layouts, and membership pages. A premium theme at $69-149 is a one-time investment that defines your publication’s visual identity.
Recommendation by Stage
Just Starting Out (0-100 subscribers)
Ghost(Pro) Starter at $15/month. Test whether Ghost is right for your workflow before committing to Publisher. If you know you want paid memberships, skip straight to Publisher.
Growing (100-1,000 subscribers)
Ghost(Pro) Publisher at $29/month. This unlocks custom themes, paid memberships, and the integrations you will need as your audience grows. The $14/month upgrade from Starter pays for itself with the first paying subscriber.
Established (1,000-10,000 subscribers)
Ghost(Pro) Publisher (pricing scales to $88/month at 10,000 members). At this stage, evaluate whether self-hosting makes financial sense for your situation.
Large Publication (10,000+ subscribers)
Ghost(Pro) Business at $199/month for teams that want priority support and multiple staff accounts. Or self-hosted if you have the technical team to manage infrastructure.
Your Publishing Investment
Ghost’s pricing model is designed for publishers: flat platform fees, 0% revenue share, and everything included in one subscription.
When you are ready for a premium theme, our themes are designed for Ghost publishers, starting at $69. Every theme includes dark mode, 46 language translations, and multiple post layouts.
Recommended Themes
These themes excel at the features discussed in this article.
