Ghost vs. Substack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ghost
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Ghost is a CMS for new-media creators to publish, share, and grow a business around their content. Available open source and free (e.g. for blogging), it can also come with tools for business' content marketing.
$0
Substack
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Substack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform.N/A
Pricing
GhostSubstack
Editions & Modules
Ghost (community)
$0
Starter
$11
per month 1 staff user, 500 members
Creator
$31
per month 2 staff users, 1000 members
Team
$63
per month 5 staff users, 1000 members
Business
$249
per month unlimited staff users, 10,000 members
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GhostSubstack
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GhostSubstack
Best Alternatives
GhostSubstack
Small Businesses
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.1 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 8.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GhostSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.7
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
GhostSubstack
Likelihood to Recommend
Ghost Foundation
It is well suited for distributed writing and publishing with a subscription component
Read full review
Substack Inc.
I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
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Pros
Ghost Foundation
  • Creating a newsletter for web and email simultaneously
  • Allowing for paid subscriptions
  • Allowing content to be segmented by subscription type
Read full review
Substack Inc.
  • Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable.
  • Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post.
  • Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers.
Read full review
Cons
Ghost Foundation
  • They wysiwig editor is missing critical functions like superscript and subscript
  • The markdown complement has those features but it doesn’t integrate well with the wysiwig editor
  • Footnoting is hard to do
Read full review
Substack Inc.
  • editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options
  • integrate with google analytics
  • percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Ghost Foundation
It is simpler, headless, faster than WordPress. The core functionality is focused on subscription membership which is a bloated add on for WordPress.
The simplicity has a cost as WordPress, while complicated, offers more expansion opportunities.
Read full review
Substack Inc.
Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
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Return on Investment
Ghost Foundation
  • Our business is totally built around this product
  • It has allowed us to easily and quickly scale our free and (soon) our paywalled content
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Substack Inc.
  • I haven’t made any money from it
  • Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience
Read full review
ScreenShots

Ghost Screenshots

Screenshot of the Ghost dashboardScreenshot of Ghost postsScreenshot of Ghost member managementScreenshot of Ghost member profile