About Ghost
Ghost is an open source platform for publishing websites, email newsletters and member subscriptions. It is built for writers and publishers who want to earn income from their audience.
What it does
Ghost lets you write and publish articles on a website and send the same posts to subscribers by email. Readers can sign up for free or buy a paid subscription, and you can see who is signing up and paying. The editor is designed for long-form writing, and you can add rich media such as galleries, video, audio and downloadable files to a post. Themes change the design of the site.
Key features
- Long-form editor for articles
- Email newsletters sent from posts
- Free and paid member sign-ups
- Built-in analytics for readers
- Themes for changing the design
Who it's for
Independent writers, newsletter authors and small publications are the typical users. It suits people who want to own their audience and content rather than rely only on social media. Developers may also be interested in the open source code base.
Pricing and good to know
The Ghost software is open source under the MIT licence, so you can self-host it at no software cost. Ghost also offers a managed hosted service, which is paid, and the site advertises a free trial. Self-hosting means you handle servers, updates and email delivery yourself.
Highlights
- Write and publish articles on your own site
- Send posts to subscribers by email
- Offer free and paid memberships
- See sign-ups, payments and reader activity
- Customise the look with themes
