Ghost TryGhost/Ghost

Open-source publishing platform with a website, email newsletters, member signups and paid subscriptions via Stripe; self-host or Ghost(Pro).

Creator kit + Compare GitHub ↗ Install guide (official) ↗

Ghost at a glance

Checked 16 Oct 2026

Ghost (55.5k stars, v6.71.0 Oct 2026) is a Node.js publishing platform: you write posts, publish them on your own site and send them as email newsletters, with native signup forms, multiple newsletters, segments and free or paid member tiers through Stripe. MIT licensed. Production self-hosting is documented on Ubuntu with NGINX, MySQL 8 and 1 GB RAM. Newsletter delivery only works through Mailgun (plain SMTP is not supported for bulk mail). It is a publisher tool, not a marketing-automation suite.

Cite this pageRepoQuarry. “Ghost.” Checked 16 Oct 2026. https://repoquarry.dev/projects/ghost

How much of beehiiv does it replace?

5 of 6 jobs. Closest match for a newsletter website with paid tiers; needs Mailgun for sending and Stripe for payments.

Subscriber lists and segments Partial replacement

Campaign editor and templates Partial replacement

Automations and drip sequences Not covered

Signup forms and landing pages Partial replacement

Open and click analytics Partial replacement

Paid subscriptions and newsletter website Partial replacement

For automations and drip sequences, see other beehiiv alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

How much of Mailchimp does it replace?

3 of 5 jobs. Newsletters to members only; not a general email-marketing or automation tool.

Subscriber lists and segments Partial replacement

Campaign editor and templates Partial replacement

Automations and drip sequences Not covered

Signup forms and landing pages Partial replacement

Open and click analytics Not covered

For automations and drip sequences, see other Mailchimp alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

How much of Kit Creator and Pro does it replace?

2 of 6 jobs. Newsletter publishing and paid memberships cover a creator publication; Kit's general marketing automation is not replaced; self-hosted bulk newsletters need delivery configuration and paid memberships need a payment provider.

Subscriber lists and segments Not covered

Write and send email campaigns Partial replacement

Automated email sequences Not covered

Signup forms and landing pages Not covered

Campaign analytics Not covered

Paid newsletter subscriptions Partial replacement

For automated email sequences, see other Kit Creator and Pro alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

Facts, with sources

Every answer links to where we found it. We read the documentation; we did not install it.

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QuestionAnswerSourceChecked

Runs on my machine? Self-hosted with Ghost-CLI (local dev or Ubuntu production), or hosted Ghost(Pro) If you want to run your own instance of Ghost, in most cases the best way is to use our CLI tool github.com · Ghost#quickstart-install ↗ today

Code licence MIT Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person github.com · LICENSE ↗ today

Model weights licence No separate model weights github.com · Ghost#readme ↗ today

Commercial use Yes, MIT Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person github.com · LICENSE ↗ today

Paid services needed? Newsletter delivery requires Mailgun (SMTP not supported for bulk mail); Stripe needed for paid memberships A bulk-mail provider is required to use this feature and SMTP cannot be used. docs.ghost.org · mailgun-newsletters ↗ today

Hardware Server with at least 1 GB memory for production A server with at least 1GB memory docs.ghost.org · ubuntu ↗ today

Operating systems Production on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04; local development install on macOS, Windows or Linux A computer running MacOS, Windows or Linux docs.ghost.org · local ↗ today

Setup effort Medium; npm install ghost-cli then ghost install, with NGINX, MySQL 8 and a domain for production Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04 or Ubuntu 26.04 NGINX (minimum of 1.9.5 for SSL) A supported version of Node.js MySQL 8.0 or 8.4 Systemd docs.ghost.org · ubuntu ↗ today