Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

Ghost VS ConvertKit

Compare Ghost VS ConvertKit and see what are their differences

Alterable
Real-time, open-time content for email: countdown timers, dynamic images, live product picks, geo-targeted maps, one-click surveys, and scratch-card rewards. No code, no ESP integration, rendered fresh every time someone opens. sponsored
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Ghost logo Ghost

Ghost is a fully open source, adaptable platform for building and running a modern online publication. We power blogs, magazines and journalists from Zappos to Sky News.

ConvertKit logo ConvertKit

Email marketing software for online creators. We help you earn a living online through an intuitive email marketing automation tool.
  • Ghost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-10
  • ConvertKit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05

Ghost

Website
ghost.org
Pricing URL
Official Ghost Pricing
$ Details
paid Free Trial $36 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users)
Startup details
Country
United Kingdom
Edit details

ConvertKit

Website
kit.com
Pricing URL
Official ConvertKit Pricing
$ Details
-
Startup details
Country
United States
Edit details

Ghost features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Ghost offers a clean and intuitive interface that makes content management straightforward, even for those without technical expertise.
  • Speed and Performance
    Ghost is built on modern technology like Node.js which makes it faster and more efficient compared to some traditional CMS platforms.
  • SEO Optimized
    Ghost comes built-in with SEO features like clean URLs, meta tags, and sitemaps which help in improving search engine rankings.
  • Customizable Themes
    Ghost supports a variety of themes that can be easily customized to fit the branding and functionality needs of a website.
  • Markdown Support
    Content creation in Ghost is made easy with Markdown support, allowing writers to focus on text rather than formatting.

Possible disadvantages of Ghost

  • Limited Plugin Ecosystem
    Compared to WordPress, Ghost has a more limited selection of plugins, which might restrict some functionalities users are looking for.
  • Higher Hosting Costs
    Ghost's official hosting is relatively expensive, making it less suitable for users on a tight budget.
  • Technical Knowledge Requirement
    While Ghost is user-friendly, setting it up on a custom server can require a higher level of technical knowledge compared to some other platforms.
  • Less Community Support
    The user community for Ghost is smaller compared to more established platforms like WordPress, which can make it harder to find support and resources.
  • Limited Ecommerce Capabilities
    Ghost is primarily a publishing platform and lacks the more advanced eCommerce functionalities that other CMS platforms might offer out of the box.

ConvertKit features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ConvertKit offers a user-friendly interface that is straightforward to navigate, making it easy for beginners to set up and use.
  • Automation
    The platform provides robust automation features, allowing users to set up complex email funnels and sequences efficiently.
  • Landing Pages
    ConvertKit includes built-in landing page templates that allow users to quickly create high-converting landing pages.
  • Segmentation
    Users can easily segment their audience based on various factors to send more targeted and personalized emails.
  • Integrations
    ConvertKit integrates with numerous third-party applications and services, facilitating seamless workflow and data synchronization.
  • Support
    Offers excellent customer support, including live chat and email support, as well as a rich knowledge base and community.
  • Affiliate Program
    Provides a lucrative affiliate program that allows users to earn commissions by promoting ConvertKit.

Possible disadvantages of ConvertKit

  • Pricing
    ConvertKit is relatively more expensive compared to some other email marketing platforms, which may be a deterrent for small businesses and startups.
  • Limited Design Flexibility
    Although the templates are clean and functional, ConvertKit lacks the advanced design customization options available in some other platforms.
  • Basic Email Templates
    The email templates are relatively basic and limited in variety, which may not suit users looking for elaborate design options.
  • No Free Plan
    ConvertKit does not offer a free plan beyond the initial trial period, which can be a limitation for users not ready to commit financially.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic functionalities are easy to use, there may be a learning curve for some of the more advanced features and automations.

Analysis of Ghost

Overall verdict

  • Ghost is a highly regarded platform for serious bloggers and publishers who want a minimalistic yet powerful content management system. It is especially beneficial for those who prefer a distraction-free writing environment with the capability to scale and customize as their needs grow.

Why this product is good

  • Ghost is a popular open-source platform designed for professional bloggers and publishers. It is known for its clean design, speed, and ease of use. Ghost offers robust features for content creation, management, and distribution while focusing on providing an optimal writing experience. Additionally, Ghost is built on modern technology stacks and offers flexibility through themes and integrations. It also supports membership and subscription models, making it ideal for those looking to monetize their content.

Recommended for

  • Professional bloggers
  • Content creators looking for a minimalist interface
  • Publishers seeking to monetize their content
  • Developers looking for an open-source platform
  • Organizations that require a fast and reliable CMS
  • Writers who value a focused writing experience

Analysis of ConvertKit

Overall verdict

  • ConvertKit is a good choice for those who prioritize ease of use and effective email marketing automation, particularly if they are content creators or entrepreneurs seeking a straightforward yet powerful platform.

Why this product is good

  • ConvertKit is generally well-regarded because of its user-friendly interface, powerful automation features, and robust email marketing capabilities tailored specifically for content creators. It offers seamless integration with various platforms and has a supportive community. It lacks the overwhelming complexity of some larger competitors, making it accessible for smaller teams and individuals.

Recommended for

  • Bloggers
  • Podcasters
  • YouTubers
  • Small business owners
  • Online course creators
  • Freelancers and consultants

Ghost videos

+ Add

Why I Moved My Blog From WordPress to Ghost

More videos:

  • Review - Ghost review - CMS for creators to build a membership

ConvertKit videos

+ Add

ConvertKit Review - Don't Buy Until You See This! (Top 5 Reasons NOT to use ConvertKit)

More videos:

  • Review - Convertkit Review - Why It's the Best Email Marketing Platform for Bloggers!
  • Review - Convertkit Review- Email Marketing Autoresponder Overview

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ghost and ConvertKit)

Ghost

ConvertKit

Blogging
100 100%
Blogging
0% 0
Email Marketing
0 0%
Email Marketing
100% 100
CMS
100 100%
CMS
0% 0
Email Marketing Platforms
0 0%
Email Marketing Platforms
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Ghost and ConvertKit. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Ghost and ConvertKit

Ghost Reviews

Comparing 9 WordPress alternatives & competitors in 2024
Ghost specializes in creating a monetized blogging platform. Based on their subscription status, readers can create user profiles, sign up for newsletters, and browse your entire blogging calendar. The platform’s singular focus on blogging makes it great for individuals and small teams, but it lacks features like real-time collaboration that are necessary for larger companies.
Source: webflow.com
19 Best WordPress Alternatives in 2025
Ghost is known for its simplicity and focus on content creation. It's a great option for writers and creators who want a clean and distraction-free environment to publish their work.
Source: www.pixpa.com
7 Best Buy Me a Coffee Alternatives
If you don’t already have a website, Ghost may be an appealing option as a Patreon alternative. However, customizations are limited, and you’ll need to choose a pre-built design from the theme library. There are a few themes available, but most are priced from around $80 to $150. The Ghost API also gives you a way to publish content you create on the platform to another...
Source: wpforms.com
Top 10 Web Content Management Systems
Ghost is here as one of the first entries that can be classified as a pure headless CMS. Ghost is not only one of the best headless CMS options, but it also does so while being focused primarily on the blogger community. So if you have or are thinking about starting a large blogging operation featuring many different presentation layers, then Ghost is definitely for you....
Source: cloudzy.com
25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Ghost open-source blogging and the indirect medium alternative platform. Its interface makes blogging easy for users, but also offers SEO tools and other plugins that are built into the platform. This makes it simple for users to publish high-quality content without technical difficulties.
Source: forgefusion.io

ConvertKit Reviews

10 Best Campaign Monitor Alternatives You Can Find
If you are a content creator or active in such activities, then ConvertKit can be an effective Campaign Monitor alternative for you. You can also review some of the finest ConvertKit alternatives.
Source: mailbluster.com
Comparing 16 Campaign Monitor Alternatives: In-depth Analysis
Migrating from other ESPs to ConvertKit is free. Over 500K creators use ConvertKit. It is loved particularly for its intuitive interface and excellent list management feature.
Source: www.engagebay.com
The 6 Best Campaign Monitor Alternatives for 2024
CategoryConvertKitCampaign MonitorBest FeatureAdvanced email template customizationUser-friendly interfacePros1. Flexible design and customization2. Intuitive drag-and-drop editor3. Seamless integration with other tools1. Easy-to-use email editor2. Beautiful customizable templates3. In-depth reporting and analyticsCons1. Limited advanced automation capabilities2. Higher...
Source: www.activecampaign.com
The 10 best landing page builders + the top features you should always look for!
ConvertKit landing pages were designed by world-class pros to be fully customizable and give you the quick data to improve your conversion rates and grow your business.
Source: convertkit.com
12 Top Campaign Monitor Alternatives & Competitors
Summary: ConvertKit is unique in that it is built very intentionally with bloggers and other online storytellers in mind, featuring easy to build visual automations and smart segementations. It’s a bit pricey for what it offers, but if you are an author, blogger, newsletter creator or brand marketer, it fits like a glove.
Source: thedigitalmerchant.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghost should be more popular than ConvertKit. It has been mentiond 196 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Ghost mentions (196)

  • Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home
    Digital production has lowered the cost, and the Ghost platform in particular is a great value for small publishers, bundling together the blog, newsletter and subscriptions in one package, even now including ActivityPub federation. And Ghost themselves a non-profit org that doesn't mark up the Stripe transaction fees! One local news outlet recently switched to that, saving about %5 on Patreon fees and a second is... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an Almost All-EU Stack (and Saved 500€/Year)
    Https://ghost.org — Open-source run by a non-profit headquartered in Singapore. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Looking for Headless CMS Recommendation
    If you're hell-bent on headless, I can personally recommend 11ty (https://www.11ty.dev/) and hugo (https://gohugo.io/). That said, for non-technical admins, you probably want a user interface. For that, Ghost (https://ghost.org/) and Grav (https://getgrav.org/). Or Wordpress! - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Typepad Is Shutting Down
    They should provide an option to move to https://ghost.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Build an analytics agent to analyze your Ghost blog traffic with the Vercel AI SDK and Tinybird
    In this post, I'll show you how to build an agent with sufficient contextual understanding of underlying analytics data - and the tools to query it - so that you can have a chat with your data (any data!). Specifically, I'll build a simple analytics agent for a blog - hosted on the open-source publishing platform Ghost. The agent will tell us which content is performing the best, and why. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

ConvertKit mentions (22)

  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2025)
    Https://SaasCustomDomains.com, it started as a side project while I was working on https://sparkloop.app. https://kit.com acquired SparkLoop and I decided to go full-time on SaaS Custom Domains. It's basically a reverse-proxy-as-a-service. I handle TLS termination and cert management, offer routing rules, rate limiting, WAF + DDOS protection, proxy + web analytics, redirects etc. All accessible via very simple... - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Adding Multiple Authors to my Astro Writing Blog: A Technical Walkthrough
    At the end of last year, my brothers and I wrote our first novel together (The Battle for Christmas: Reign of the Nutcrackers). That experience inspired us to continue writing together, starting with a monthly newsletter with short stories. At this point, we decided we wanted a website. We had been using Kit to send emails, and we liked that functionality, but as our writing resumes grow, we also wanted to have a... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Low/no code signup/demo page for startup?
    I’ve used https://convertkit.com/ for this in the past. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Minimalist email subscription/newsletter for website?
    ConvertKit is my go to and still is for now. Source: about 3 years ago
  • From Pizza Hut to YouTube - Embracing Life's Adventures
    One lazy Saturday afternoon, a sudden epiphany struck me like lightning. I decided to seize every moment and pursue my bucket list dreams while capturing them on YouTube. My aim is to inspire others to cherish their time and embrace life's adventures with a newfound zeal. I want you to do the things on your bucket list. When I was sick and thought I was dying. The one thing that ruminated in my head was "I just... Source: about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Ghost and ConvertKit, you can also consider the following products

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

MailChimp - MailChimp is the best way to design, send, and share email newsletters.

Medium - Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

Brevo - Innovative online Email Marketing solution to manage your contacts, create & send your newsletters and track your results. More than 80 000 clients. Best prices and attractive features.

Blogger - Publish your passions, your way. Create a unique and beautiful blog. It’s easy and free.

ActiveCampaign - Integrated email marketing, marketing automation, and small business CRM. Send beautiful newsletters, setup behavioral based automations, and benefit from sales automation.

Loading...