Ghost vs Substack: fees, ownership and features

The short answer

Both let you publish on the web, send email newsletters and sell paid subscriptions through Stripe. They differ in how they charge you, how readers find you and how much of the site you control.

• Choose Substack if you're starting from zero and want its built-in reader network. It costs nothing up front and keeps 10% once readers pay.
• Choose Ghost if you want your own site and a plan fee instead of a revenue cut. Ghost(Pro) starts at $15/month billed yearly, and the software is free to self-host.

On Ghost, CommentCamp can add free comments and community spaces through code injection, with no ads and no tie to your member list.

Comparing more tools? See the best newsletter platforms.

Ghost vs Substack at a glance

Here's how they compare as of October 2026:

Fees: 0% vs 10%

Substack is free until you charge readers. Then it keeps 10% ("Writers keep 90%"), and Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per payment plus 0.7% for recurring billing. The lowest price you can set is $5/month or $30/year.

Ghost takes no revenue share. It says it charges 0% transaction fees and that the only fees are Stripe's own processing fees (2.9% + 30 cents). You pay for hosting instead:

• Starter: $15/month billed yearly ($180/year) or $18 monthly; up to 1,000 members and 1 staff user, with no paid subscriptions.
• Publisher: $29/month billed yearly ($348/year) or $35 monthly at 1,000 members; adds paid subscriptions, custom themes and 3 staff users.
• Business: $199/month billed yearly.

Ghost(Pro) has a 14-day free trial, and prices rise as your member count grows.

Break-even: Substack's 10% equals Publisher's $348/year at $3,480/year in paid revenue, or $290/month. At $10,000/year, Substack keeps $1,000 before Stripe fees, while Publisher costs $348 at the 1,000-member tier.

Note: Ghost(Pro) prices by registered members, and free signups are members too. A big free list moves you up Ghost's price tiers even if few readers pay.

Ownership, domains and exports

Every Ghost(Pro) plan supports a custom domain at no extra cost. Substack charges a one-time $50 to connect a domain you already own, and newsletters still send from a substack.com address.

Substack exports your posts, subscriber list and stats as a ZIP, and says: "Anything you publish on Substack is yours to own." Ghost exports content as JSON and members as CSV, plus post analytics, themes, redirects and media.

Ghost is free software under the MIT license, so you can move from Ghost(Pro) to your own server at any time. That's one reason it appears among the best blogging platforms.

Discovery: Substack's network vs Ghost's open web

Substack's biggest draw is its network. It says "More than half of new subscribers come from Substack's built-in network" and "30%+ of paid subscriptions come from within Substack's network," across 5 million paid subscriptions. In October 2026, Substack said its app drove nearly 800,000 paid subscriptions and more than 80 million free subscriptions over six months.

Ghost relies on the open web. Recommendations, launched in November 2023, show other publications to new members at signup. Ghost 6.0 (August 4, 2025) added native analytics and lets people "discover, follow, like and reply to your posts across Bluesky, Flipboard, Threads, Mastodon, WordPress, Ghost, and any other social web platform" through ActivityPub.

Comments and community

Substack lets you switch on comments, likes and restacks, plus Notes and subscriber Chat. Per post, you choose who can comment: everyone, free or paid subscribers, paid only, founding members or no one. Free subscribers can't comment on paid posts. Our newsletter community guide covers how to run those discussions.

Ghost added native comments in August 2022. "Commenting is limited to logged-in members," so readers must sign up for a free or paid membership, and you can restrict comments to paid members under Settings, Membership, Access.

Want comments that aren't tied to your Ghost member list? CommentCamp launches with a universal embed script you can add in Ghost's Settings, Advanced, Code injection, bringing free comments and community spaces: unlimited comments and threaded replies, automated spam filtering, optional Q&A with accepted answers, reactions, member levels and quests, and one reader account across every CommentCamp site. It's $0 for site owners, with no ads, and full data exports are on the roadmap. It's in private early access; join the waitlist to get an invite.

Disclosure: CommentCamp is our product.

Switching between Ghost and Substack

Ghost has a built-in Substack importer:

1. In Substack, go to Settings, then Exports, and download the ZIP with your posts, subscriber list and stats.
2. Upload it with Ghost's Substack importer.
3. Connect Stripe first. Ghost's docs say: "Make sure to use the same Stripe account that is connected to your Substack."
4. If you used a custom domain on Substack, point it to Ghost.

Note: Moving doesn't end Substack's cut on existing payers. Ghost's docs warn: "Substack will continue to take 10% fees on your existing paid subscriptions. If you would like help getting payment fees removed, contact concierge@ghost.org."

Going the other way? Substack imports posts from Ghost, as well as WordPress, Medium, Mailchimp, beehiiv and others.

WordPress vs Ghost, and other Ghost alternatives

WordPress is the usual pick if you want more than a publication. It's free to self-host, runs 39.5% of all websites according to W3Techs and has more than 73,000 plugins. Ghost bundles publishing, newsletters and paid memberships in one product.

If email growth matters most and you'd rather avoid Substack's 10%, beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers, with a 0% take rate on paid subscriptions from its Lite plan ($49/month billed yearly). Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers. Ghost(Pro) offers a trial rather than a free plan. For options beyond newsletters, see our Medium alternatives.