Ghost vs Beehiiv: A Detailed Comparison for 2026

Two Approaches to Newsletter Publishing

Ghost and Beehiiv are both modern newsletter platforms that take 0% of your subscription revenue. That’s where the similarity ends.

Ghost is a 12-year-old open-source publishing platform run by a nonprofit foundation. Beehiiv is a 4-year-old VC-backed startup ($49.7 million raised, $225 million valuation) built by ex-Morning Brew employees. These different origins produce fundamentally different products.

Ghost prioritizes ownership: your code, your data, your design, your domain, forever. Beehiiv prioritizes growth: built-in ads, a subscriber marketplace, referral programs, and cross-promotion tools.

This comparison lays out what each platform does best — and where each falls short.

Newsletter Features

Ghost Newsletters

Ghost’s newsletter system is native to the platform — write a post and send it to your subscribers in one action.

• Multiple newsletters per site with independent subscription lists
• Segmentation by membership tier, label, or newsletter subscription
• Three publishing modes: publish and email, publish only, or email only
• Custom email design: fonts, colors, buttons, header images, footer content
• Post-send link editing (update links in already-delivered emails)
• Custom sending domain on Publisher plan+ (e.g., newsletter@yourdomain.com)
• Per-post analytics: open rate, click rate, individual link clicks

Beehiiv Newsletters

Beehiiv is built newsletter-first. Every issue automatically becomes a web post.

• Built-in ad network connecting to brand advertisers (Netflix, Notion, HubSpot)
• Boosts marketplace: pay to acquire subscribers from other newsletters, or earn by promoting others
• Built-in referral program with customizable rewards
• Recommendation network for cross-newsletter promotion at signup
• Segmentation by tags, subscriber behavior, and engagement
• A/B testing for subject lines and content

The Difference

Ghost gives you more control over email design and delivery. Beehiiv gives you more tools for growing your list. If your primary challenge is getting subscribers, Beehiiv’s growth toolkit is stronger. If your primary goal is owning the complete publishing experience, Ghost’s unified platform is more capable.

Website and Design

This is where the gap is most visible.

Ghost

Ghost has a professional theme system with full design control. Install a theme, customize every visual element, or build something entirely custom. Your publication can look like nothing else on the internet.

Our Shiro theme demonstrates the range: 7 color schemes, 9 post layouts, custom search, and membership pages — a publication that looks distinctly yours.

See Shiro live demo →

Beehiiv

Beehiiv has a basic website customizer. You can adjust colors, fonts, and some layout options, but you can’t install custom themes or fundamentally change the page structure. Every Beehiiv site shares the same underlying layout.

Beehiiv branding (“Powered by Beehiiv”) is only removable on the Max plan ($96/month and up). Ghost never forces branding on any paid plan.

SEO

Ghost

Full SEO toolkit built in:

• Auto-generated XML sitemap (linked from robots.txt)
• Schema.org structured data on every page
• Custom meta titles and descriptions per post
• Canonical URL control (auto-set, overridable)
• Open Graph and Twitter Card tags
• Redirect management and noindex controls

Beehiiv

Basic SEO is present, but with notable gaps:

• No redirect management (broken links when posts are moved or deleted)
• No per-post canonical tag control
• No noindex controls for specific posts
• Basic meta descriptions available

For newsletters distributed primarily via email, SEO matters less. For publications building a searchable content archive that drives organic traffic over time, Ghost’s SEO tools are significantly more complete.

Membership and Monetization

Both platforms take 0% of subscription revenue (Stripe fees apply on both).

Ghost

• Multiple custom tiers with your own pricing
• Per-post content access rules (free, paid, specific tier)
• One-time payments and tips (Ghost 6.0)
• Stripe Tax for automatic VAT/GST handling
• Revenue dashboard: MRR, churn, customer LTV
• Per-post conversion analytics (which posts drive upgrades)

Beehiiv

• Paid subscriptions on Scale plan ($43/month) and above
• Built-in ad network: earn CPM or CPC revenue from brand advertisers
• Boosts: earn money by recommending other newsletters to your audience
• Referral program with automated reward distribution

Ghost’s monetization is subscription-focused. Beehiiv offers more diverse revenue streams (subscriptions + ads + Boosts), but the ad network and Boosts are only available on paid plans.

Pricing

Ghost(Pro) (as of February 2026)

Plan	Monthly (annual billing)	Members	Staff
Starter	$15/mo	1,000	1
Publisher	$29/mo	1,000	3
Business	$199/mo	10,000	15

All plans: unlimited email sends, SSL, CDN, backups, free custom domain, no platform branding.

Beehiiv (as of February 2026)

Plan	Starting Price	Subscribers	Key Feature Gate
Launch (Free)	$0	2,500	No monetization
Scale	$43/mo	Up to 100K	Ads, subs, Boosts
Max	$96/mo	Up to 100K	Remove branding
Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited	Dedicated support

Prices within Scale and Max tiers increase with subscriber count.

Cost Analysis

For a newsletter wanting paid subscriptions without advertising:

• Ghost Publisher: $29/month — includes full CMS, newsletters, memberships, SEO, custom themes
• Beehiiv Scale: $43/month — includes ads, Boosts, referrals, paid subs

Ghost is $14/month cheaper for subscription-only newsletters. Beehiiv’s higher price includes growth tools that Ghost doesn’t have.

For free newsletters just starting out:

• Ghost Starter: $15/month
• Beehiiv Launch: $0

Beehiiv wins for getting started at zero cost.

Ownership and Business Structure

Ghost

• Open source under MIT license — code is publicly available
• Nonprofit foundation — legally cannot be acquired or sold
• Self-hostable on your own server ($6-12/month VPS)
• Full data portability — export everything, anytime
• 12 years of operation (founded 2013)

Beehiiv

• Proprietary — closed-source, no self-hosting option
• VC-backed — $49.7M raised from NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Data export available but no self-hosting fallback
• 4 years of operation (founded 2021)
• Earns 20% of Boosts GMV (subscriber marketplace revenue)

This isn’t theoretical. VC-backed companies must eventually return capital to investors. That might mean higher prices, new fees, an acquisition, or a pivot. Ghost’s nonprofit structure means the platform’s incentives are permanently aligned with publishers.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Ghost	Beehiiv
Revenue share	0%	0%
Ad network	No	Yes (Scale+)
Subscriber marketplace	No	Boosts (Scale+)
Referral program	Via third-party	Built-in
Website/CMS	Full CMS with themes	Basic customizer
Design control	Complete	Limited
SEO	Full toolkit	Basic (gaps in redirects, canonical)
Remove branding	All plans	Max plan only ($96+)
Social features	ActivityPub federation	Recommendation network
Self-hosting	Yes (MIT license)	No
Free plan	No ($15/mo min)	Yes (2,500 subs)
Business model	Nonprofit	VC-backed ($49.7M)

Who Should Choose Ghost

• Your revenue model is paid memberships, not advertising
• Design and brand identity matter — you want full control
• You write evergreen content that should rank in search
• Platform ownership matters — open source, self-hosting option
• You’re building a content archive, not just a newsletter
• Predictable, stable platform development matters to you

Who Should Choose Beehiiv

• Growing your subscriber count quickly is the top priority
• You plan to monetize through ads alongside or instead of subscriptions
• Boosts (paid subscriber acquisition) fits your growth strategy
• You’re starting from zero and the free plan matters
• You prefer a newsletter-first product without CMS complexity

Start with the Right Theme

If you choose Ghost, your theme defines your reader’s experience. A premium theme gives you what Beehiiv’s customizer can’t: a publication with its own visual identity.

Our themes include dark mode, 46 language translations, and multiple post layouts, starting at $69.

Browse Ghost themes →

For the full “alternative to Beehiiv” perspective, see our Beehiiv alternative guide.