Luxe Themes
Ghost vs Kit (ConvertKit): Full Comparison
Kit is email-only at $39/mo. Ghost gives you email, a website, memberships, and SEO for $29/mo. Compare features, pricing, and ownership.
Email Tool vs Publishing Platform
Kit (formerly ConvertKit, rebranded October 2024) is an email marketing tool. Ghost is a publishing platform with email built in.
Kit sends emails. It has a creator profile page that works as a link-in-bio, but no real website, no blog, no SEO tools, and no content management system. To publish articles alongside your newsletter, Kit users need a separate platform.
Ghost publishes content to a website and sends it to subscribers’ inboxes in one action. Your posts rank in search engines, live on your own domain, and drive organic traffic for years — not just the 48 hours after hitting send.
This distinction shapes every comparison point below.
Newsletter and Email
Kit
Kit’s core product is email, and it does it well:
- Visual automation builder with branching logic based on subscriber behavior
- Advanced tagging: tag based on link clicks, form completions, purchases, or manual rules
- SparkLoop-powered referral program (built-in on Creator Pro)
- Subscriber scoring for engagement targeting (Creator Pro)
- Facebook Custom Audiences sync (Creator Pro)
- 10,000-subscriber free plan with unlimited emails
Kit’s automation builder is more sophisticated than Ghost’s. For creators whose business relies on complex email sequences — welcome series, onboarding funnels, behavior-triggered campaigns — Kit has a clear advantage.
Ghost
Ghost’s email is integrated with its publishing platform:
- Multiple newsletters per site with independent subscriptions
- Segmentation by membership tier, label, or newsletter subscription
- Three modes: publish and email, publish only, email only
- Custom email design (fonts, colors, buttons, header images)
- Post-send link editing
- Custom sending domain on Publisher plan+
- Per-post analytics: opens, clicks, per-link performance
Ghost’s email is less powerful for automation but more powerful for integrated publishing. Write once, publish to the web and inbox simultaneously.
Website and SEO
Kit
Kit has no website or blog. Creator profiles are described as “more like a Link-in-bio tool than a true blogging option.” Posts sent via Kit are technically web-accessible but have:
- No XML sitemaps
- No canonical tag control
- No customizable meta titles or descriptions
- No structured data
- No ability to rank meaningfully in search
For creators wanting search traffic, Kit requires a completely separate website (WordPress, Squarespace, or similar) with all the associated setup and maintenance.
Ghost
Every Ghost post is a permanent, SEO-optimized web page with:
- Auto-generated XML sitemap
- Schema.org structured data
- Custom meta titles and descriptions
- Canonical URLs (auto-set, overridable)
- Open Graph and Twitter Card tags
- Clean semantic HTML
When I checked the source of our demo sites, each post has proper Article schema markup — the kind of structured data that helps Google understand and rank content. This is a structural advantage that compounds over time.
Design
Kit
Kit’s templates can’t be restructured. There’s no HTML editing, no custom layouts, and no drag-and-drop design builder. You can change images and text within existing templates, but the structure is fixed. Custom CSS is available but not custom HTML.
Ghost
Ghost’s theme system provides complete design control. Custom layouts, typography, color schemes, dark mode, membership pages — all through professional themes.
Our Homa theme shows what’s possible: dropdown navigation, featured post sections, photo galleries, and a cohesive brand experience from homepage to email.
Monetization
Kit
Kit Commerce lets creators sell digital products (ebooks, courses, subscriptions) with a 0.6% platform fee plus Stripe’s processing. This is product-sales oriented — good for one-time purchases and digital downloads.
Kit doesn’t have per-post content gating or the concept of “members-only” articles. Its monetization is about selling things, not paywalling content.
Ghost
Ghost’s monetization is subscription-based with 0% platform fee:
- Multiple membership tiers with custom pricing
- Per-post content access rules (free, paid, specific tier, email-only)
- One-time payments and tips (Ghost 6.0)
- Revenue dashboard with MRR, churn, and LTV tracking
- Direct Stripe connection — you own the billing relationship
At $5,000/month in revenue: Kit Commerce takes $30 (0.6%); Ghost takes $0.
Pricing
Kit (as of February 2026)
| Plan | 1,000 subs | 3,000 subs | 5,000 subs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter (Free) | $0 | $0 | $0 (up to 10K) |
| Creator | $39/mo | $59/mo | $89/mo |
| Creator Pro | $79/mo | — | — |
September 2025 price increase raised Creator from $29 to $39/month (35% increase). Annual billing gets 16% discount.
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.
The Math
Kit Creator (1,000 subscribers): $39/month for email only — no website, no SEO, no memberships.
Ghost Publisher: $29/month for email + website + memberships + SEO + custom themes.
Ghost is $10/month cheaper and includes significantly more. The gap widens as Kit’s pricing scales with subscriber count while Ghost’s stays fixed within plan limits.
Kit’s free plan (up to 10,000 subscribers) is genuinely generous for getting started. But once you need paid features, Ghost’s pricing is more predictable and includes more.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Ghost | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Email newsletters | Built-in, unlimited | Core product |
| Visual automation | Basic | Advanced (branching logic) |
| Website/blog | Full CMS | Creator profile only |
| SEO tools | Full toolkit | None |
| Paid memberships | 0% platform fee | 0.6% Kit Commerce fee |
| Content paywalls | Per-post access rules | Not available |
| Design control | Full themes | Limited (no HTML editing) |
| Referral program | Via third-party | Built-in (SparkLoop) |
| Free plan | No ($15/mo min) | Up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Self-hosting | Yes (MIT license) | No |
| Analytics retention | Unlimited | 90 days (standard plans) |
| Business structure | Nonprofit | Private company |
Who Should Choose Kit
- Complex email automation sequences are central to your business
- You already have a website and just need an email tool
- The 10,000-subscriber free plan matters for getting started
- The SparkLoop referral program is important for growth
- You sell digital products via one-time purchases
Who Should Choose Ghost
- You want a website and newsletter in one platform
- Your content should rank in search engines
- Paid memberships with 0% fee are part of your revenue model
- Full design control matters for your brand
- You want an open-source platform you can self-host
- Predictable pricing matters (no per-subscriber scaling)
The Design Advantage
Moving to Ghost means your publication gets its own identity instead of Kit’s fixed templates.
Our themes are built for Ghost publishers, starting at $69. Every theme includes dark mode, 46 language translations, and multiple post layouts.
For the full case for switching from Kit, see our ConvertKit alternative guide.
Recommended Themes
These themes excel at the features discussed in this article.
