Ghost vs Substack
Self-hostable open source versus closed distribution network.
What matters for early-stage startups
At an early stage the deciding factors are what the free tier actually covers, what the first paid invoice looks like, and how much of a founding engineer's week the setup costs. Feature depth that only matters at a million sends a month is noise until it is not.
| Priority | Ghost | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Self-hosted is free (your infra cost) | Free, 10% of paid subscriptions |
| Best published rate per 1,000 | Tiers not published in comparable form | Tiers not published in comparable form |
| Starts at | Ghost Pro from $9/mo | 10% revenue cut |
| DX score | 7/10 | 2/10 |
| Deliverability | Depends on the SMTP provider configured (often Mailgun for Pro). | Reasonable for content-driven newsletters. |
| Operating since | 2013 | 2017 |
| Scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| SDKs | node | None |
| Webhooks | Yes | No |
For a pre-revenue or early-revenue team running a waitlist, a launch announcement, onboarding email, and the first transactional sends, Ghost takes every priority that separates them here (developer experience, operating track record, SDK breadth, and webhook coverage), while Substack matches it on the rest. On free tier, Ghost offers Self-hosted is free (your infra cost) against Free, 10% of paid subscriptions from Substack. That ordering reflects this audience. Weigh the same table differently and the answer changes.
Side by side
| Feature | Ghost | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Self-hosted is free (your infra cost) | Free, 10% of paid subscriptions |
| Starts at | Ghost Pro from $9/mo | 10% revenue cut |
| DX score | 7/10 | 2/10 |
| Deliverability | Depends on the SMTP provider configured (often Mailgun for Pro). | Reasonable for content-driven newsletters. |
| SDKs | node | None |
| Webhooks | Yes | No |
| Tagline | Open-source publishing with built-in memberships and email. | Hosted newsletter platform with social network features. |
| Pricing model | self-hosted | subscriber-based |
| API | Yes | No |
| SMTP | Yes | No |
| Templates | rich | basic |
| React Email | No | No |
| Inbound | No | No |
| Multi-tenant | No | No |
| Idempotency | No | No |
| Dedicated IP | No | No |
| Best for | Independent publishers who want to own their content and stack. | Writers who prioritize distribution over flexibility. |
Ghost
- ›Full ownership in self-hosted mode
- ›Memberships and Stripe integration
- ›Beautiful default themes
- ›Requires another SMTP provider for sending at volume
- ›Heavier than Buttondown for plain newsletters
Substack
- ›Distribution via the Substack network
- ›No platform fees beyond revenue cut
- ›No API, no automation, no custom domain on free
- ›Lock-in to platform