Software Alternatives & Reviews

Substack VS Ghost

Compare Substack VS Ghost and see what are their differences

Substack logo Substack

Substack makes it simple for a writer to start an email newsletter that makes money from subscriptions.

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.
  • Substack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-26
  • Ghost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-10

Ghost

Website
ghost.org
$ Details
paid Free Trial $36.0 / Monthly (100k views/month, 2 users)

Substack videos

Monetizing Podcasts and Newsletters - Chris Best of Substack and Jonathan Gill of Backtracks

More videos:

  • Review - E1016 Substack CEO Chris Best empowers writers via email newsletter platform, raised $15M from a16z

Ghost videos

Why I Moved My Blog From WordPress to Ghost

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Substack and Ghost)
Blogging
10 10%
90% 90
Email Newsletters
100 100%
0% 0
CMS
0 0%
100% 100
Paid Newsletters
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Substack Reviews

25+ Medium Alternative Platforms for Publishing Articles
Substack offers writers of all experience levels the ability to write an email newsletter that’s profitable through subscriptions. Substack provides purpose-built web and newsletter publishing tools to enable writers to monetize their newsletters. It is a service often favoured by readers because it’s a convenient all-in-one solution for writing a successful podcast that...
Source: forgefusion.io
10 Best Medium Alternatives for Reading and Publishing
What sеts Substack apart is its sеamlеss intеgration of contеnt crеation and subscription-basеd monеtization. Substack’s usеr-friеndly intеrfacе, distribution tools, and support for various contеnt formats make it a popular choice for indеpеndеnt crеators looking to connеct dirеctly with thеir audiеncе and turn thеir passion into a sustainablе incomе strеam.
9 Best Medium Alternatives for Making Money With Your Writing in 2023
Substack and Medium differ primarily in their monetization methods. Medium pays creators based on reader engagement, while Substack enables writers to monetize directly through paid subscriptions to their newsletters. This business model allows Substack users to build a direct relationship with their readers via their email inboxes, whereas Medium interactions primarily...
11 Patreon Alternatives for Audience Monetization in 2023
Like a few of the other platforms we’ve looked at, Substack takes a cut of your earnings rather than charging a 10% platform fee.
Source: www.uscreen.tv
Any good Mailchimp alternatives?
My question for you is, what is keeping you from making $31 per month from your list? Are you using any feature that Substack (free until you get paid) can't handle?

Ghost Reviews

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
10 Best Medium Alternatives for Reading and Publishing
With Ghost, you’ll discover a dynamic space where you can even share newsletters and earn revenues. Plus, Ghost’s opеn-sourcе naturе providеs flеxibility and control ovеr your contеnt, making it a top choice for thosе looking to makе a mark in thе digital publishing world.
9 Best Medium Alternatives for Making Money With Your Writing in 2023
In this case, you’ll need to buy and set up a custom domain, purchase web hosting, remember to update the Ghost software, manage the content curation, and so on. You don’t need to know this right out of the gate, but you do need to be comfortable with learning.
13 Best Website Builders for Creators and Social Entrepreneurs(2023)
Ghost is a powerful app for new-media creators to publish, share, and grow a business around their content. It comes with modern tools to build a website, publish content, send newsletters & offer paid subscriptions to members.
Source: causeartist.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghost should be more popular than Substack. It has been mentiond 173 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.

Substack mentions (88)

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Ghost mentions (173)

  • Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces
    Diversifying a lot. Next acquisition will be Ghost(https://ghost.org/) I bet. Similar DNA, fits in the portfolio (If they are trying to match the feature set of Google) and have no VC backing. - Source: Hacker News / 18 days ago
  • Why I Care Deeply About Web Accessibility And You Should Too
    For example, if you are in a country where you can accept Stripe and are publishing a newsletter through, Substack or using the Ghost platform, enabling the ability to accept payments is a few clicks away. For those who cannot accept payment with Stripe, well, you are up the creek without a paddle. I do not know about you, but I see that as a barrier to access. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Faster Blogging: A Developer's Dream Setup
    Glee our dev friendly blogging setup has been undergoing a huge transformation for the last few weeks. For those who don't know, glee is a simple open source CLI tool that converts markdown posts into ghost blog posts. Check out the glee demo video when you have a moment! Glee: Dev-friendly Blogging Setup. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Deploy Ghost with MySQL DB replication using helm chart
    Ghost is used by creators to run their own website to publish private content. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Japan's Comfort Food: The Onigiri
    Not the OP but it looks to be https://ghost.org/ I use it as well for a small development blog and it's been an enjoyable experience. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

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.

TinyLetter - Start writing your own newsletter instantly.

Drupal - Drupal - the leading open-source CMS for ambitious digital experiences that reach your audience across multiple channels. Because we all have different needs, Drupal allows you to create a unique space in a world of cookie-cutter solutions.

Tumblr - A feature rich and free blog hosting platform offering professional and fully customizable templates, bookmarklets, photos, mobile apps, and social network integration.