GhostWebsite Builders
Oleh KemGhost Pricing and Plans in August 2026: Starter, Publisher, Business and Custom Costs
Ghost costs $18 a month on Starter, $35 on Publisher and $239 on Business at a thousand members, or $15, $29 and $199 with a year up front, as of . Custom is quote-only past 100,000 members, where Publisher's last printed rate is $274.
Two numbers govern every Ghost bill, and neither is the advertised rate. The first is staff logins: one on Starter, three on Publisher, fifteen on Business, and a fourth writer forces a tier whatever the audience is doing. The second is the member count, which moves the rate inside a tier without anyone touching the account. Ghost publishes six stops between a thousand and a hundred thousand members, and the invoice steps up as the list crosses them.
What Ghost does not charge matters as much. There is no cut of member revenue: a publication earning from subscriptions keeps all of it, minus Stripe's own processing fee, which is a separate bill from a separate company. Every figure here was read off the vendor's slider at each published stop in .
This page prices Ghost(Pro), the hosted publishing service run by the Ghost Foundation. The Ghost software itself is open source: self-hosting it costs a server and your time instead of a subscription, and no figure on this page applies to it.
filled dot = rate the vendor publishes · hollow dot = quote only
filled dot = rate the vendor publishes · hollow dot = quote only
The rate is the easy part. What moves it is the member count, and it moves without anyone touching the plan.
Month to month, cancel any time. Free does not move with the cycle.
The three plans, the caps that end each one, and what the annual cycle saves.
Ghost pricing plans: $18 a month to start, or $15 with the year paid up front
Features
Features
Features
Features
Annual billing is charged for the year. Monthly costs about 17 percent more, and the rate shown is read at a thousand members.
Vendor pricing pageGhost tier steps: $17 a month buys two more logins, $204 buys twelve more
Each step buys logins first and headroom second. The member count moves the price on its own, so a step here is not the whole change to the invoice.
Read at a thousand members. At larger sizes the two paid tiers converge, and past seventy-five thousand the gap is $125 a month for twelve staff accounts.
What a Ghost subscription costs: your member count against the published stops
What your line costs on the published rates
You entered Starter at 1 member members. The vendor slider puts that at $18 a month on annual billing.
Five dated reads stand behind that rate, taken at the vendor's own slider since June 2026.
Where the bill sits above the advertised rate
The gap runs the other way. You are on a tier with fewer staff accounts than the work needs, and the saving disappears the first time someone shares a login.
What is in your bill that the advertised rate does not price
One staff account on Starter, three on Publisher, fifteen on Business. A guest editor and a contributor both count. This is the limit publications hit first, usually a year before the member count matters.
Publisher costs $29 a month at a thousand members and $274 at a hundred thousand. Nothing in the account changes between those two numbers except how many people subscribed.
Where your rate sits against the category
At $18 a month you sit against a $19 middle across the 21 builders we price. The comparison is thinner than it looks: they charge for a site and Ghost charges for an audience.
The entry rate lands mid-table while the top of the member scale passes every builder on the list. One product, both ends of the category.
The configuration we would sign off
Publisher at your member count. It is the cheapest tier that carries the logins you listed, and the audience decides the rest.
The tier you named is below it. Members are not the problem; the staff count is, and that limit does not bend.
Starter, annual billing, at 1 member members. One subscription, no metering, and a rate that moves when the list does.
Open ghost.org pricingWhich Ghost plan you need: staff accounts decide before members do
| Your case | Plan | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| One writer, publishing under their own namea weekly newsletter, a personal blog, an audience under a thousand | Starter $18/mo, or $15 on a year | The one tier whose rate ignores the audience: $15 flat on yearly billing at any size it is sold at. The catch is the ceiling. Starter is withdrawn above a thousand members, so it is priced for the stage before growth, not through it. One staff login means the first hire ends this plan even if the list never moves. |
| A newsletter that found its readerstwo to ten thousand members, an editor alongside the writer, paid subscriptions live | Publisher $35/mo at 1,000 members, $63 at 5,000 on yearly billing | Three staff logins and the tier built to carry growth. The rate follows the slider: $29, then $63 past five thousand, $88 past ten thousand on yearly billing. Nothing else changes between those stops. The bill is a running measurement of the audience, which is honest, and worth budgeting two stops ahead. |
| A publication with a real deska masthead, freelancers who log in, ten to fifty thousand members | Business $239/mo, or $199 on a year | Fifteen staff logins, and a rate that holds flat from one thousand to ten thousand members on yearly billing. Below ten thousand you are paying $136 a month over Publisher almost entirely for twelve extra seats. Above it the flat stretch ends and Business climbs too: $366 at seventy-five thousand, $399 at the last published stop. |
| A big list choosing between the two paid tiersseventy-five thousand members, deciding where to sit | Publisher $241/mo at 75,000, yearly billing | At seventy-five thousand members the two tiers nearly meet: Publisher $241, Business $366. The gap is $125 a month for twelve staff logins, about $10 a seat. Count the people who actually publish. If it is three or fewer, the premium buys nothing this product measures. |
| Past the end of the slidera hundred thousand members and climbing | Custom quote only | Both paid tiers stop publishing at a hundred thousand members: Publisher's last printed rate is $274, Business's is $399. Past that stop Ghost prices by conversation. Those two figures are the anchor to bring to it, because they are the last numbers the vendor put in writing. |
Ghost cost by audience size: the same Publisher plan runs $29 to $274 a month
Subscription only, at the annual rate for the member count shown. Ghost publishes no setup or migration charge, and Stripe's processing fee sits outside this.
Ghost Custom pricing: past 100,000 members the last published rates are $274 and $399
Both paid tiers stop at a hundred thousand members. Publisher last published rate is $274 and Business is $399, and past that stop Ghost sells by conversation.
- Unlimited staff accounts, which is the one published difference between Custom and the fifteen on Business
- A member count past the top stop of the slider, where neither paid tier is sold self-serve
- Whatever migration help is negotiated, since nothing about it is priced in public
- Any rate above a hundred thousand members. The slider stops there and the Custom tier carries no published price.
- What the Custom tier includes beyond unlimited staff accounts. Ghost does not list it.
- The renewal behaviour of a plan whose member count fell back below a threshold. Nothing on the pricing page states it.
Your list size and the last published rate at it. $399 on Business at a hundred thousand members is the figure any quote has to argue against.
Ask Ghost for a quoteGhost hidden costs: five charges and limits that sit outside the advertised rate
Price check history
Each read of the published rates is on the record with its date. Across 5 of them the three plans held.
We watched from spring 2026 onward and claim nothing about the years before that. five reads, no movement.
Where this rate sits in the category
21 website builders tools priced by one method. Entry rates run $4.50 to $97 a month, and the middle sits at $19.
Every calibration point was read the same way and on the same pass, August 2026.
Five charges that sit outside the advertised rate
Sorted by how much each one adds once the site is live.The bill rises while nobody touches the account
Ghost prices Publisher and Business by member count, in published steps. Cross five thousand members and Publisher moves from $29 to $63 on yearly billing; cross ten thousand and it is $88. No upgrade is clicked and no email announces a plan change, because the plan did not change. The audience did. A publication growing a thousand members a month should read the slider once and put the next two stops in the budget now.
Staff accounts are the wall you hit first
One staff account on Starter, three on Publisher, fifteen on Business, and a contributor with posting rights counts the same as an editor. The fourth person forces Business at $239 a month even if the audience would fit Publisher five times over. For a small desk that is a $204 monthly step bought for one extra writer, which is why the hiring plan matters more here than the growth curve.
Starter is withdrawn above a thousand members
The flat $15 rate is real but it has a trapdoor: Ghost stops selling Starter once the list passes a thousand members. We verified this on the vendor's own slider on August 4, 2026. The cheap tier is priced for the stage before growth, and a newsletter that succeeds outgrows it by definition, landing on a tier that tracks the audience.
Monthly billing adds about 20 percent
Starter is $18 monthly against $15 on a year up front, Publisher $35 against $29, Business $239 against $199. The advertised rates across Ghost's site are the yearly ones. Paying month to month is the same product at a fifth more, and unlike the member steps this one is a choice.
Self-serve pricing ends at a hundred thousand members
The slider's last stop prints $274 for Publisher and $399 for Business. Past it, both tiers become a sales conversation with no published floor. A list compounding toward six figures should treat those two rates as the last knowable numbers in its budget and plan the call before the stop arrives, not after.
What Ghost keeps off its pricing page
Three absences worth as much as the rates. Each one is a number a growing publication will eventually need and cannot look up.
- 01Any rate above a hundred thousand members. The slider stops there and the Custom tier carries no published price.
- 02What the Custom tier includes beyond unlimited staff accounts. Ghost does not list it.
- 03The renewal behaviour of a plan whose member count fell back below a threshold. Nothing on the pricing page states it.
Ghost billing and commitment terms
| Member | A subscriber on your list, free or paid. The unit Publisher and Business are priced by. |
| Staff login | An account that can publish: 1 on Starter, 3 on Publisher, 15 on Business. Contributors count. |
| Member slider | The control on Ghost's pricing page. Six published stops from 1,000 to 100,000 members set the quoted rate. |
| Yearly billing | The basis of every advertised rate. Month-to-month is sold at roughly 20 percent more. |
| Starter withdrawal | Above 1,000 members the flat $15 tier is no longer sold. Verified on the slider, August 4, 2026. |
| Custom | Where both paid tiers go past 100,000 members. No published price; anchors are $274 and $399. |
Ghost pricing vs WordPress.com, Squarespace and Strikingly: $18 against $9 to $20 entries
Three builders that charge for a site, measured against a platform that charges for an audience. At the entry rate they look comparable. They stop being comparable the moment the list grows.
| The job | Ghost | The rival | Our verdict on this job |
|---|---|---|---|
| A personal blog on your own domainA personal blog with no list to speak of, one writer, no paid subscriptions. | Starter $15/mo= $15 a month for youflat at any size it is sold at | WordPress.com $7.5/site/mo= $7.50 a month for youfirst year, renews higher | WordPress.com on rateWordPress.com enters at $4 and Ghost at $15. For a site that is a site, the cheaper one wins and the argument ends there. |
| A newsletter at five thousand membersA newsletter at five thousand members, one editor, subscriptions running through Stripe. | Publisher $29/mo= $29 a month for yourate read at five thousand members | Squarespace $12/mo= $12 a month for youflat, no member concept | Squarespace on rate, Ghost on revenue keptSquarespace charges $12 whatever the list does. Ghost charges $63 at this size and takes nothing from member revenue, which is where the difference goes back. |
| A publication with three writersA small publication with three writers and a list past ten thousand. | Publisher $29/mo= $29 a month for youthree staff accounts included | Strikingly $16/mo= $16 a month for youprices the site, not the desk | Ghost on fitStrikingly prices the site and stops there. Ghost is $88 on Publisher with three logins included, and this is where the two products stop answering the same question. |
Switching to Ghost: what moves from WordPress.com, Squarespace or Strikingly, and what cannot
Three builders that bill for a website, against a platform that bills for an audience. The move is cheap to make and the arithmetic changes shape afterwards, so the figures below compare the first year rather than the sticker.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com runs $7.50 a month against $15 for Ghost Starter.WordPress.com bills for a site and Ghost bills for the list, so a large audience on a cheap WordPress plan gets more expensive on arrival, not less.
- Export the subscriber list first. WordPress.com bills for a site and Ghost bills for that list.
- Count the writers who need a login before picking a tier, not after.
- Check whether the domain renewal sits with the old host or moves with you.
Squarespace
Squarespace holds $12 a month at any size, against $29 for Ghost Publisher at a thousand members.Squarespace holds one flat rate at any audience size. Moving to Ghost trades that flatness for a bill that follows growth in both directions.
- Price the move at your current member count, not at the entry stop.
- Squarespace commerce features have no Ghost equivalent. Decide whether the store moves at all.
- Keep the flat-rate plan running until the list is verified on the new side.
Strikingly
Strikingly is $16 a month against $29 on Ghost Publisher.Strikingly has no member concept to export. What moves is content, and the subscriber list has to come from wherever it actually lives.
- Find where the subscriber list actually lives. Strikingly has no member record to hand over.
- Rebuild the pages that earn traffic first, and leave the rest.
- Start on the tier your staff count needs, then let the member rate settle.
Is Ghost worth it: in at $15 under the $19 middle, honest that growth costs more
Updated
4.2 of 5
On yearly billing Ghost enters at $15 a month, four dollars under the $19 median of the twenty-one builders we price it against. The gap is real and almost meaningless, because everything else on that list charges for a website and Ghost charges for an audience. Two publishers who both pay $29 today can be two hundred dollars apart within a year, decided entirely by whose list grew. That is not a defect. It is the product being honest about what it meters, in published steps you can read in advance, which is more than the flat-rate builders can say about their renewal letters.
The number that actually decides Ghost is the zero. Ghost takes no share of member revenue, and against platforms that keep ten percent, the arithmetic turns quickly: a publication clearing $2,000 a month from five thousand subscribers would hand a ten-percent platform $200 every month, while Ghost's Publisher rate at that size is $63 on yearly billing. The subscription costs more than a builder; the business costs less. Below meaningful revenue that logic inverts, and a hobby list with three hundred free subscribers is paying audience-tracked rates for tracking it does not need. Buy Ghost when the list is the business. Until then the flat-rate builders next door are cheaper for a reason.
- You need a second writer on a small listStarter holds a single staff account, and the fix is a $17-a-month tier step, not a seat.
- Your list grows faster than its revenuethe bill tracks subscribers whether or not any of them pay you.
- You want a website with pages, a store, or a portfolioGhost meters none of that because it is not built for it.
- You are approaching a hundred thousand members without a quote in handpast the last stop, nothing about your next bill is published.
Ghost pricing FAQ: twelve answers, from the $18 entry to the 100,000-member stop
11.1How much does Ghost cost per month?
11.2Why did my Ghost bill go up when I did not change anything?
11.3Is Ghost free?
11.4What is the difference between Starter and Publisher?
11.5When is Business worth $239 a month?
11.6Does Ghost take a percentage of my subscription revenue?
11.7What happens when my list passes 100,000 members?
11.8Is the yearly discount worth it?
11.9How many people can write on a Ghost site?
11.10Does Ghost charge for page views, storage or emails?
11.11What exactly counts as a member?
11.12Is Ghost expensive compared to other website builders?
Where these Ghost prices come from: the vendor slider, read stop by stop
Three documents, and what each one was read for.
- ghost.org/pricingAll three plans, both billing cycles, the page and block caps
- ComparEdge open pricing dataEntry rates for the rest of this category
- our dated price recordEvery dated check recorded against this product
Last verified August 7, 2026. Rates change without notice, so confirm at ghost.org/pricing before you commit.
ComparEdge is an independent platform and is not affiliated with Ghost. We take no payment for placement and no payment from the vendors we check. Rates change without notice, which is exactly why we date every read and keep the ones that came before.
More on Ghost: the review, four rivals and the rest of the file
Looking for what each plan actually includes? The Ghost review goes through the tiers feature by feature. Want every rival in this category priced the same way? The Website Builders rankings price them all by one method. Still weighing another option? The alternatives page puts Ghost next to each of them.