Ghost vs Webflow: Full Comparison

Visual Design Tool vs Publishing Platform

Webflow builds visually complex websites. Ghost publishes content. This is not a minor distinction — it determines everything about each platform’s strengths and limitations.

Webflow is a visual web design tool that gives designers pixel-perfect control over layout, animation, and interaction without writing code. It excels at portfolios, agency websites, product landing pages, and marketing sites where visual design is the primary deliverable.

Ghost is a publishing platform designed for writers, bloggers, and newsletter publishers. It excels at email newsletters, paid memberships, SEO-optimized content, and audience building. The design is handled through professional themes, not a visual builder.

If you are building a design-forward website that also has a blog, Webflow is built for that. If publishing content and building an audience is your business, Ghost is built for that.

Newsletters

Ghost

Ghost’s newsletter system is native and included on every plan:

• Write a post and send it to subscribers’ inboxes in one action
• Multiple newsletters per site with independent subscriptions
• Segmentation by membership tier, label, or newsletter subscription
• Email-only content (send without publishing to the web)
• Custom email design: fonts, colors, buttons, headers
• Per-post analytics: open rates, click rates, per-link performance
• Unlimited sends on all plans at no additional cost

Webflow

Webflow has no built-in newsletter functionality. To email content to subscribers, you need a third-party tool:

• Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Beehiiv, or another email service
• Manual content duplication between Webflow CMS and your email tool
• Separate subscriber management across two platforms
• Additional monthly cost for the email service
• No integrated publish-and-send workflow

The integration gap is significant for content-focused businesses. Every newsletter requires recreating content in a separate tool, managing subscribers in two places, and paying for an additional service.

Memberships and Monetization

Ghost

Ghost has native paid memberships with 0% platform fee:

• Multiple custom tiers with your own pricing
• Per-post content access rules (free, paid, specific tier)
• Server-side content gating — member-only content is not accessible without authentication
• Direct Stripe connection — you own the billing relationship
• One-time payments and tips (Ghost 6.0)
• Revenue dashboard: MRR, churn, customer LTV

Webflow

Webflow launched Memberships as a paid add-on:

• Available on CMS and Business hosting plans
• Requires Webflow Memberships add-on ($25/month for up to 100 members)
• Scales to $70/month for 1,000 members, custom pricing above
• Stripe integration for payment processing
• Gated content pages and sections
• No tiered access based on subscription level in the same way Ghost handles it

The cost difference is meaningful. Ghost includes memberships on the Publisher plan ($29/month) with 0% platform fee and up to 1,000 members. Webflow charges $25-70+/month on top of the hosting plan just for the membership add-on.

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 URLs (auto-set, overridable)
• Open Graph and Twitter Card tags
• Redirect management and noindex controls
• Clean, semantic HTML with fast load times

Webflow

Webflow has solid SEO capabilities for a visual builder:

• Auto-generated XML sitemaps
• Editable meta titles and descriptions
• 301 redirect management
• Alt text for images
• Clean URL structures
• Open Graph settings

However, Webflow’s SEO has limitations related to its visual builder approach:

• Generated HTML can be heavier than purpose-built CMS output
• Complex interactions and animations can slow page load
• CMS items have fewer SEO controls than dedicated publishing platforms
• Schema.org structured data requires manual implementation via custom code

For content-heavy sites where SEO drives traffic, Ghost’s purpose-built markup produces cleaner, faster-loading pages with less effort.

Design

Webflow

Design is Webflow’s defining strength:

• Visual drag-and-drop builder with pixel-perfect control
• Custom animations, interactions, and scroll effects without code
• Flexbox and CSS Grid visual controls
• Component-based design system
• Design to live site — what you see is what you get
• 1,500+ templates and a marketplace for custom designs

For designers and agencies, Webflow is one of the most powerful visual builders available. You can create layouts that would require a front-end developer on any other platform.

Ghost

Ghost uses a professional theme system:

• Themes available through the Ghost Marketplace and third-party providers
• Complete visual control through HTML, CSS, and Handlebars templating
• Custom themes on Publisher plan+ (Starter limited to official themes)
• Purpose-built for publishing: hero sections, post layouts, membership pages

Our Homa theme shows what a purpose-built publishing theme looks like: dropdown navigation, featured post sections, photo galleries, and dark mode.

See Homa live demo →

Ghost’s design flexibility is theme-level, not pixel-level. You choose or customize a theme rather than building layouts visually. For publishers, this is faster — install a theme and start writing. For designers who want full visual control, Webflow offers more.

Content Editor

Webflow

Webflow’s CMS is designed for structured content in a visual context. Content editing happens within the designer or the Editor view. Writers interact with CMS fields (title, body, images, metadata) that map to visual components.

This works well for structured content (product listings, team pages, case studies) but can feel heavy for pure writing. The editor is more like filling in a database form than writing in a focused environment.

Ghost

Ghost’s Koenig editor is built for writers:

• Clean, distraction-free writing interface
• Dynamic content cards: images, video, audio, bookmarks, embeds, code blocks, callouts
• Built-in Unsplash image search
• Markdown shortcuts for fast formatting
• Scheduling to specific date and time
• Multiple author support

For content-first workflows, Ghost’s editor is significantly more writing-friendly.

Pricing

Webflow (as of February 2026)

Plan	Monthly Price	CMS Items	Notes
Basic	$18/mo	—	No CMS
CMS	$29/mo	2,000	Blog/CMS enabled
Business	$49/mo	10,000	Advanced features
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom limits

Add Webflow Memberships: +$25-70/month (based on member count) Add email service (Mailchimp, Kit, etc.): +$9-60+/month

For a Webflow site with blog, memberships, and email: CMS plan ($29) + Memberships add-on ($25+) + email service ($13+) = $67+/month minimum.

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, 0% membership fees.

Ghost Publisher at $29/month includes everything Webflow charges $67+/month for across multiple services.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Ghost	Webflow
Newsletter	Built-in, unlimited sends	Requires third-party tool
Paid memberships	0% fee (Publisher plan)	Add-on ($25-70+/mo)
Visual builder	No	Yes (pixel-perfect)
Writing editor	Purpose-built for writers	CMS field-based
SEO	Full toolkit, auto-structured data	Good, some manual setup
Animations/interactions	Theme-level only	Full visual control
E-commerce	No	Yes (add-on)
Custom code	All plans (themes + code injection)	All plans
Self-hosting	Yes (MIT license)	No
Starting price	$15/mo	$18/mo

Who Should Choose Webflow

• Visual design is the primary deliverable (agency, portfolio, product site)
• You need custom animations, scroll effects, and complex interactions
• Your blog is secondary to the overall website design
• You want pixel-perfect control without writing code
• You are a designer comfortable with Webflow’s learning curve
• E-commerce alongside content is part of your business

Who Should Choose Ghost

• Publishing content is your primary business
• You want newsletters and memberships without third-party add-ons
• A clean, focused writing experience matters more than visual design tools
• SEO-driven organic traffic is part of your strategy
• You want one platform for everything at a lower total cost
• Platform independence and open-source ownership matter

Your Publishing Foundation

Ghost themes are built specifically for publishing. Instead of assembling a content workflow from a visual builder plus email service plus membership tool, Ghost gives you everything in one platform with a professional theme on top.

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

Browse Ghost themes →