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Why Ghost Is the Best Substack Alternative
Tired of Substack fees and limited design? Ghost offers 0% revenue share, full branding control, and built-in newsletters. Compare the two platforms.
Substack’s Hidden Costs Are Adding Up
Substack made it easy to start a newsletter. Create an account, pick a name, start writing. Millions of writers did exactly that — over 5 million paid subscriptions exist on the platform as of early 2026.
But for writers who’ve built a real audience, the math stops working. Substack takes 10% of every paid subscription, plus Stripe’s ~2.9% processing fee, plus $0.30 per transaction. That’s roughly 13% of your gross revenue before you see a dollar.
For a writer earning $100,000 per year in subscriptions, that’s $13,000 gone. Not to hosting. Not to features. Just to the platform for the privilege of using it.
And it got worse in September 2025 when Substack adopted Apple’s in-app purchase requirement for iOS subscriptions. Apple takes 30% in year one (15% after that), on top of Substack’s 10%. For readers who subscribe through the iOS app — which is the primary way many people discover and pay for newsletters — the combined platform take can hit 40%.
The real sting: subscribers who pay through Apple’s IAP don’t appear in your Stripe account. If you ever leave Substack, those paying readers can’t come with you.
This is no longer a theoretical concern. It’s the actual reason writers like Alison Roman (345,000+ subscribers), Brad Hargreaves, and A.R. Moxon have already moved to Ghost.
What Makes Ghost Different
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform built specifically for independent writers and publishers. It handles everything Substack does — newsletters, paid memberships, website publishing — but with a fundamentally different business model.
Ghost is run by a non-profit foundation. It charges a flat hosting fee. It takes 0% of your revenue. Your subscribers connect directly to your own Stripe account.
That $100,000/year writer? On Ghost(Pro), they’d pay $29/month ($348/year) for the Publisher plan and keep everything else. On Substack, they’d lose roughly $13,000/year. The difference is $12,652 annually — real money that compounds every year your audience grows.
The Core Advantage: You Own Everything
On Substack, you’re building inside someone else’s house. Your URL is yourname.substack.com (unless you pay $50 for a custom domain — and lose access to Substack’s discovery features). Your design looks like every other Substack. Your data lives on their servers.
On Ghost, you get:
- Your own domain included free with every plan
- Full design control through a professional theme system
- Direct Stripe connection — every subscriber is yours, always
- Open-source code you can self-host for $5-20/month if you prefer
- Complete data portability — export everything, anytime
When I set up a test newsletter on our Nio theme demo, the signup form rendered perfectly on mobile without any custom CSS — something you simply can’t control on Substack. The entire reader experience, from homepage to inbox, reflects your brand instead of Substack’s.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Ghost | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue share | 0% | 10% + Stripe fees |
| Custom domain | Included free | $50 one-time fee (loses discovery) |
| Design control | Full theme system, custom CSS | Logo, accent color, basic fonts |
| Newsletter | Built-in, unlimited sends | Built-in, unlimited sends |
| Paid memberships | Multiple tiers, 0% cut | Single tier, 10% cut |
| SEO tools | Custom meta, canonical URLs, structured data | Minimal, no custom meta |
| Custom code | Full HTML/CSS/JS injection | None |
| API access | Full REST API (Content + Admin) | Limited |
| Self-hosting | Yes (open-source, MIT license) | No |
| Social features | ActivityPub federation (Ghost 6.0) | Substack Notes |
| Apple IAP risk | None (direct Stripe) | 30% Apple cut on iOS subs |
Where Substack Still Wins
Let’s be honest about what Substack does well.
Discovery and network effects. Substack Notes, the recommendation engine, and the “Discover” tab create a real growth loop. New writers can get their first 100 subscribers faster on Substack than almost anywhere else. If you’re starting from zero with no existing audience, this matters.
Zero setup friction. Sign up, write, publish. No theme to install, no domain to configure, no hosting to manage. For someone who just wants to write and not think about the platform, Substack removes every obstacle.
Social layer. Substack Notes gives writers a Twitter-like feed to share short-form content. Ghost added ActivityPub support in version 6.0, which connects to Mastodon and the federated social web — but it doesn’t have the built-in, Substack-specific network that drives cross-pollination between publications.
These advantages are real, especially for writers just starting out. But they come with strings attached — strings that tighten as your audience grows.
Pricing Breakdown
Ghost(Pro) Plans (as of February 2026)
| Plan | Monthly (billed annually) | Members | Staff | Paid Memberships |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $18/mo | 1,000 | 1 | No |
| Publisher | $29/mo | 1,000 | 3 | Yes |
| Business | $199/mo | 10,000 | 15 | Yes |
| Custom | Custom pricing | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
All Ghost(Pro) plans include free SSL, worldwide CDN, automated backups, unlimited email sends, and a free custom domain.
Important: The Starter plan ($18/mo) does not include paid subscriptions. If you want to monetize, you need the Publisher plan at $29/mo — still less than what most Substack writers lose in fees after their first 50-60 paid subscribers at $5/month.
Self-Hosted Ghost
Ghost is open-source (MIT license). You can run it on a $5/month DigitalOcean droplet and pay zero platform fees. The tradeoff is managing your own server — updates, backups, SSL certificates. For technical writers or teams with dev resources, this is the most cost-effective option.
The Break-Even Math
At what point does Ghost cost less than Substack?
Substack is “free” until you charge readers. The moment you have paying subscribers, Substack costs 10% of gross revenue + Stripe fees.
- 10 paid subscribers at $5/month = $50/month revenue, $5/month to Substack → Ghost Publisher ($29/mo) costs more
- 60 paid subscribers at $5/month = $300/month revenue, $30/month to Substack → Break-even point
- 200 paid subscribers at $5/month = $1,000/month revenue, $100/month to Substack → Ghost saves $71/month
- 1,000 paid subscribers at $5/month = $5,000/month revenue, $500/month to Substack → Ghost saves $471/month
The break-even is roughly 60 paid subscribers at $5/month. Beyond that, every new subscriber adds to the savings.
The Design Gap Is Massive
This is where the Substack experience breaks down for anyone who cares about their brand.
Every Substack looks like every other Substack. Same layout. Same header. Same fonts (with minor variations). You can change your accent color and upload a logo. That’s it.
Ghost’s theme system is entirely different. You can install a professionally designed theme that transforms your publication into something that looks nothing like a default blog platform. Custom typography, unique homepage layouts, dark mode, reading progress bars, table of contents, photo galleries — all controlled through your theme.
Our Luno theme, for example, offers 6 different hero layouts, a table of contents for long-form posts, custom membership pages, and light/dark mode — all configurable without touching code.
For writers whose brand identity matters (and if you’re building a business around your writing, it should), the design flexibility alone justifies the switch.
SEO: The Invisible Advantage
Most Substack writers don’t realize what they’re giving up in search visibility.
On Substack, you can’t customize page meta titles or descriptions. You can’t set canonical URLs. You can’t add structured data. You can’t submit your own sitemap. You can’t even create 301 redirects. Your publication lives on Substack’s domain (or a custom domain with zero inherited authority), and you have no tools to optimize individual posts for search engines.
Ghost gives you full SEO control on every post and page: custom meta titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, Open Graph tags, Twitter Cards, and JSON-LD structured data. Every Ghost theme generates a clean XML sitemap automatically. 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.
For writers producing evergreen content — guides, tutorials, comparison articles — this difference compounds over months. A well-optimized Ghost post can rank and drive traffic indefinitely. A Substack post mostly relies on email distribution and the Substack network.
Who Should Stay on Substack
Substack is the right choice if:
- You’re just starting out and need the discovery features to find your first readers
- You don’t plan to charge for subscriptions (Substack is free for free newsletters)
- You don’t care about design customization — you want the simplest possible setup
- You value the Substack social network (Notes, recommendations) more than ownership and control
Who Should Switch to Ghost
Ghost is the better platform if:
- You have (or plan to have) paying subscribers and want to keep 100% of your revenue
- Your brand identity matters and you want a publication that doesn’t look like a template
- You write SEO-driven content that should rank in Google
- You want to build beyond newsletters — courses, membership tiers, premium content libraries
- You want full data ownership and the ability to self-host
- The Apple IAP situation concerns you (it should)
How to Make the Switch
Ghost has a built-in Substack importer. The migration process:
- Export your Substack subscribers (CSV export is available in Substack settings)
- Export your Substack posts (also available in settings)
- Import both into Ghost via the Admin panel
- Set up your custom domain
- Install a theme that matches your brand
- Connect your Stripe account for paid memberships
For a detailed walkthrough of the migration process, see our Substack to Ghost migration guide.
The technical migration takes an afternoon. The harder part is notifying your readers about the move — but most writers who’ve done it report that subscriber retention is above 90%, especially when the new site looks better than the old one.
Making Your Ghost Site Stand Out
Once you’ve moved to Ghost, the next step is making your publication look professional. This is where Ghost’s theme system shines.
A premium Ghost theme gives you what Substack can’t: a publication that looks like yours. Custom layouts, dark mode support, membership pages that match your brand, and features like reading progress bars and tables of contents that improve the reader experience.
Our themes are built specifically for Ghost publishers who take their brand seriously. Prices range from $69 to $149, with every theme including 46 language translations, RTL support, dark mode, and multiple post layouts.
For a detailed comparison of what you get with free vs premium Ghost themes, check out our free vs premium Ghost themes guide.
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