SendPortal vs Notifuse 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.

SendPortalmettle/sendportal

NotifuseNotifuse/notifuse

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

2,178

2,254

55,578Top

—

Gain this week

Unknown

—

Signal

Building history

—

Commits / 4 wk

934Top

—

Latest release

v4.0.0 · 2026-10-12

v41.0 · 2026-09-17

v6.72.0 · 2026-10-20Top

—

Commits / 12 wk

2,115

—

People committing / 12 mo

92+

—

Issues opened / closed, 30 days

0 / 0

20 / 8

14 / 17

—

Facts, with sources on each project page

Runs on my machine?Differs

Self-hosted Laravel application

Self-hosted with Docker or Docker Compose, or Notifuse Cloud

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

Hosted by the vendor

Code licenceDiffers

MIT

Business Source License 1.1 from v40 (converts to AGPL-3.0-or-later after four years); v39 and earlier AGPL-3.0

MIT

—

Model weights licence

No separate model weights

—

Commercial useDiffers

Yes, MIT

Production use and hosting for others allowed; six licensed features need a paid key

Yes, MIT

—

Paid services needed?Differs

App is free; needs an email service such as Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, Postal or SMTP

Needs an email provider or SMTP server; licence key only for >3 workspaces, granular permissions, SES tenants, SSO, multilingual templates and audit log

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

Subscription

HardwareDiffers

No hardware figures; needs PHP 8.3+ and MySQL 5.7+ or PostgreSQL 10+

No hardware figures; needs PostgreSQL 17 or newer

Server with at least 1 GB memory for production

—

Operating systemsDiffers

Any server with PHP 8.3+, Composer, a web server and MySQL or PostgreSQL; host OS not listed

Docker host with PostgreSQL; host OS not listed

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

—

Setup effortDiffers

Medium; git clone, composer install, configure a web server and database

Medium; Docker Compose or standalone Docker, then a setup wizard for admin, API endpoint and SMTP

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.

SendPortal
Notifuse
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.

SendPortal vs Notifuse vs Ghost (as alternatives to beehiiv)
Figures from RepoQuarry, 21 Oct 2026. Sources: https://repoquarry.dev/compare?ids=sendportal,notifuse,ghost&product=beehiiv

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

- SendPortal: 2,178 GitHub stars, 2 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT
- Notifuse: 2,254 GitHub stars, 59 commits in 12 weeks, licence Business Source License 1.1 from v40 (converts to AGPL-3.0-or-later after four years); v39 and earlier AGPL-3.0
- Ghost: 55,578 GitHub stars, 2,115 commits in 12 weeks, licence MIT

Where they differ:
- Runs on my machine?: SendPortal Self-hosted Laravel application; Notifuse Self-hosted with Docker or Docker Compose, or Notifuse Cloud; Ghost Self-hosted with Ghost-CLI (local dev or Ubuntu production), or hosted Ghost(Pro)
- Code licence: SendPortal MIT; Notifuse Business Source License 1.1 from v40 (converts to AGPL-3.0-or-later after four years); v39 and earlier AGPL-3.0; Ghost MIT
- Commercial use: SendPortal Yes, MIT; Notifuse Production use and hosting for others allowed; six licensed features need a paid key; Ghost Yes, MIT
- Paid services needed?: SendPortal App is free; needs an email service such as Amazon SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, Postal or SMTP; Notifuse Needs an email provider or SMTP server; licence key only for >3 workspaces, granular permissions, SES tenants, SSO, multilingual templates and audit log; Ghost Newsletter delivery requires Mailgun (SMTP not supported for bulk mail); Stripe needed for paid memberships
- Hardware: SendPortal No hardware figures; needs PHP 8.3+ and MySQL 5.7+ or PostgreSQL 10+; Notifuse No hardware figures; needs PostgreSQL 17 or newer; Ghost Server with at least 1 GB memory for production
- Operating systems: SendPortal Any server with PHP 8.3+, Composer, a web server and MySQL or PostgreSQL; host OS not listed; Notifuse Docker host with PostgreSQL; host OS not listed; Ghost Production on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04; local development install on macOS, Windows or Linux
- Setup effort: SendPortal Medium; git clone, composer install, configure a web server and database; Notifuse Medium; Docker Compose or standalone Docker, then a setup wizard for admin, API endpoint and SMTP; 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. mettle/sendportal ↗Notifuse/notifuse ↗TryGhost/Ghost ↗

SendPortal vs Notifuse vs Ghost

Stars over time

Notes for a video or post

Cookie preferences

Report a problem