Ghost

What it is for

Ghost is a hosted Admin Dashboard desk: you publish a post, and Ghost(Pro) Starter is $18/month billed yearly (1 staff user, 1,000 members). Use it when the job is a members publication you start at a printed $, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is Ghost’s official Admin Dashboard (40,349 total members, paid / free mix, Posts overlay with How to get your first 100 email subscribers SCHEDULED) from the docs Admin still — not a theme poster. The tiles themselves are ops of Dashboard.

Key features

• Dashboard — members, paid mix, and growth charts (cover still; docs). One desk. Cover 40,349 / 17,010 paid sit here.
• Posts — drafts, scheduled, and published rows on the same still (docs). A post, not the member chart. Cover New post sits here.
• Members — free / paid subscribers you tag and export (pricing). A person, not a post.
• Newsletters — one or more email newsletters (Starter is 1) (pricing). A send, not the Dashboard sparkline.
• Offers / paid tiers — Stripe subscriptions and tips (Publisher+) (pricing). A product, not a member tag.

New post on the cover is a CTA (not a desk). Starter / Publisher / Business tiles are the meter. Self-host MIT is $0 for the software; you still pay the server.

Who it's for

Best fit: publishers who will stay on Ghost(Pro) Starter at $18/month billed yearly (1 staff, 1,000 members) while they open a first Dashboard, then Publisher at $29 when they need paid subscriptions and custom themes.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from ghost.org/pricing. Figures below are the printed yearly column we fetched ($18 / $29 / $199). Custom is quote-only.

• Self-host (MIT) — $0 for Ghost itself (TryGhost/Ghost). You pay hosting.
• Starter — $18/month billed yearly. 1 staff user. 1,000 members. 1 newsletter. 5 MB file uploads. No paid subscriptions. No custom themes.
• Publisher — $29/month billed yearly. 3 staff. Custom themes. Paid subscriptions. 0% Ghost transaction fee (Stripe still bills). 3 newsletters. 100 MB uploads.
• Business — $199/month billed yearly. 15 staff. 10,000 members. Priority support. Custom SSL / subdirectory install +$50/month.
• Custom — unlimited staff / members. Confirm the live quote.

Confirm checkout; taxes follow your location. Upgrade / downgrade / cancel anytime is printed.

Limitations / costs

• Starter cannot take paid subscriptions. Paid members are Publisher+.
• A Dashboard desk, not Webflow’s Designer. For that canvas see Webflow.
• Self-host is $0 software, not $0 ops. You still run Node, MySQL, and mail.

Alternatives

• Webflow — a Designer canvas when you want Webflow’s public $, not Ghost members.
• Framer AI — a site canvas when you want Framer’s public $, not Ghost(Pro) newsletters.
• Strapi — a headless CMS when you want Strapi’s public $, not Ghost Admin.

Official tutorial

Written path: ghost.org/docs plus ghost.org/pricing. We did not embed a Ghost YouTube — oEmbed author was not verified as official.

Website

https://ghost.org

Repository

https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is Ghost’s official Admin Dashboard still (members chart + Posts overlay). Dollars checked on ghost.org/pricing (Starter $18/mo yearly; Publisher $29; Business $199). Self-host MIT $0.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.