Plunk vs Mautic vs Ghost

Side by side, as alternatives to beehiiv. Rows that differ are highlighted; the strongest value in a row is marked. Unknown means no source yet.

Plunkuseplunk/plunk

Mauticmautic/mautic

GhostTryGhost/Ghost

beehiivpaid product

Cost and coverage

Price

$0 software; you run it

See pricing page source ↗

Subscriber lists and segments

Partly

Yes

Campaign editor and templates

Partly

Yes

Automations and drip sequences

Partly

Yes

Signup forms and landing pages

Partly

Yes

Open and click analytics

Partly

Yes

Paid subscriptions and newsletter website

Partly

Yes

Jobs covered

3 of 6 jobs

4 of 6 jobs

5 of 6 jobs

All 6

Popularity and activity (from GitHub)

Stars

5,535

10,815

55,578Top

—

Gain this week

Unknown

—

Signal

Building history

—

Commits / 4 wk

152

934Top

—

Latest release

v0.16.0 · 2026-10-08

7.2.1 · 2026-09-23

v6.72.0 · 2026-10-20Top

—

Commits / 12 wk

139

967

2,115

—

People committing / 12 mo

74+

92+

—

Issues opened / closed, 30 days

5 / 4

98 / 28

14 / 17

—

Facts, with sources on each project page

Runs on my machine?Differs

Self-hosted with Docker Compose, or hosted Plunk

Self-hosted on a VPS or dedicated server; paid hosting also offered

Self-hosted with Ghost-CLI (local dev or Ubuntu production), or hosted Ghost(Pro)

Hosted by the vendor

Code licenceDiffers

AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)

GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft)

MIT

—

Model weights licence

No separate model weights

—

Commercial useDiffers

Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms

Yes under GPL-3.0 copyleft terms; no feature-gated edition

Yes, MIT

—

Paid services needed?Differs

Self-hosting requires an AWS SES account for sending

Software is free; you need an email transport such as SMTP, Amazon SES or SendGrid to send

Newsletter delivery requires Mailgun (SMTP not supported for bulk mail); Stripe needed for paid memberships

Subscription

HardwareDiffers

Not documented

VPS or dedicated server; PHP 8.2+ (Mautic 7), MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+; no RAM figure given

Server with at least 1 GB memory for production

—

Operating systemsDiffers

Any host with Docker and Docker Compose; host OS not listed

Server with Apache, Nginx or IIS, PHP and MySQL/MariaDB; host OS not specified

Production on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04; local development install on macOS, Windows or Linux

—

Setup effortDiffers

Medium; Docker Compose plus AWS SES setup and DNS for app, api and other subdomains

Medium; install with Composer or the release zip and a web installer, plus a web server and database

Medium; npm install ghost-cli then ghost install, with NGINX, MySQL 8 and a domain for production

—

Stars over time

Switch to Growth % to compare projects of different sizes fairly.

Plunk
Mautic
Ghost

Focus a point, use arrow keys, or tap for its value.

Tracked daily since 16 Oct 2026. Dashed history: estimated from public records of when people starred the repo. Lines connect observations only; gaps contain no measured points.

Growth % starts at each project's first observed point in the shown range. Zero-star starts are unavailable.

Notes for a video or post

A plain summary with today's date and a link to the sources. Check each project page before you publish.

Plunk vs Mautic vs Ghost (as alternatives to beehiiv)
Figures from RepoQuarry, 21 Oct 2026. Sources: https://repoquarry.dev/compare?ids=plunk,mautic,ghost&product=beehiiv

beehiiv: See pricing page
Plunk: free software; does 3 of 6 beehiiv jobs
Mautic: free software; does 4 of 6 beehiiv jobs
Ghost: free software; does 5 of 6 beehiiv jobs

- Plunk: 5,535 GitHub stars, 139 commits in 12 weeks, licence AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)
- Mautic: 10,815 GitHub stars, 967 commits in 12 weeks, licence GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft)
- Ghost: 55,578 GitHub stars, 2,115 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT

Where they differ:
- Runs on my machine?: Plunk Self-hosted with Docker Compose, or hosted Plunk; Mautic Self-hosted on a VPS or dedicated server; paid hosting also offered; Ghost Self-hosted with Ghost-CLI (local dev or Ubuntu production), or hosted Ghost(Pro)
- Code licence: Plunk AGPL-3.0 (copyleft); Mautic GPL-3.0-or-later (copyleft); Ghost MIT
- Commercial use: Plunk Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms; Mautic Yes under GPL-3.0 copyleft terms; no feature-gated edition; Ghost Yes, MIT
- Paid services needed?: Plunk Self-hosting requires an AWS SES account for sending; Mautic Software is free; you need an email transport such as SMTP, Amazon SES or SendGrid to send; Ghost Newsletter delivery requires Mailgun (SMTP not supported for bulk mail); Stripe needed for paid memberships
- Hardware: Plunk Not documented; Mautic VPS or dedicated server; PHP 8.2+ (Mautic 7), MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+; no RAM figure given; Ghost Server with at least 1 GB memory for production
- Operating systems: Plunk Any host with Docker and Docker Compose; host OS not listed; Mautic Server with Apache, Nginx or IIS, PHP and MySQL/MariaDB; host OS not specified; Ghost Production on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04; local development install on macOS, Windows or Linux
- Setup effort: Plunk Medium; Docker Compose plus AWS SES setup and DNS for app, api and other subdomains; Mautic Medium; install with Composer or the release zip and a web installer, plus a web server and database; Ghost Medium; npm install ghost-cli then ghost install, with NGINX, MySQL 8 and a domain for production

Stars show popularity, not quality. Check each project page before publishing.

Want share images and a ready video description? Open a project's creator kit.

Numbers: GitHub, fetched nightly. Facts: read from each project's own documentation, with the source on its page. How we check. useplunk/plunk ↗mautic/mautic ↗TryGhost/Ghost ↗

Plunk vs Mautic vs Ghost

Stars over time

Notes for a video or post

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