Beehiiv vs Ghost
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Beehiiv is free tier available, Ghost is from $9/user/mo.
- How to start: Beehiiv is free tier available, Ghost is from $9/user/mo.
- Where they differ: only Ghost has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Beehiiv is
Beehiiv is the rising star of the newsletter world, built to help you 'grow and monetize' your audience. It features the industry's best 'Referral Program,' letting readers earn rewards for inviting others. Its built-in 'Ad Network' allows even small newsletters to get sponsored content from major brands easily. It offers much deeper data analytics than competitors like Substack or Mailchimp.
What Ghost is
Ghost is the world's cleanest and most focused blog platform for independent creators and professional publishers. Eschewing WordPress's complexity, it focuses on speed and the writing experience. Its greatest strength is the built-in 'Memberships' system, allowing you to monetize your content through paid subscriptions. It also doubles as a newsletter tool, automatically emailing your posts to your subscribers.
Side by side
What Beehiiv is built to do
- Recommendations
- Gain subscribers by cross-recommending with other newsletters.
- Referral Program
- Automatically reward readers who bring in new subscribers to your list.
- Ad Network
- Fill empty slots in your newsletter with ads from premium global brands.
- 3D Analytics
- Professionally monitor reader behavior and your growth trends.
What Ghost is built to do
- Memberships & Tiers
- Create free and multiple paid subscription levels for your readers.
- Email Newsletters
- Send your posts as stylish email newsletters to subscribers the moment they publish.
- Deep Integrations
- Works directly with Stripe, Zapier, and standard analytics tools.
- Rich Editor
- Easily craft rich content including images, videos, and code blocks.
Choose Beehiiv if
- Professional Newsletter Publishers and Content Entrepreneurs.
Choose Ghost if
- Independent Writers, Newsletter Publishers, and Modern Media Firms.
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Beehiiv: pros & cons
- Growth Oriented: Rapidly increases subscribers via referral and recommendation networks.
- Ad Network: Allows small newsletters to earn revenue from premium brand ads.
- Generous Free Plan: Supports up to 2,500 subscribers with almost all features for free.
- Transparent Analytics: Shows exactly who is clicking what in fine detail.
- Interface: The sheer number of features can make the panel feel a bit busy initially.
- Design: Website customization options are not as simple as they are on Substack.
- Newsletter Only: Not suitable for general-purpose e-mail marketing like e-commerce.
Ghost: pros & cons
- Flawless Writing: A minimalist editor that keeps your focus strictly on the content.
- Incredible Speed: Node.js-based, resulting in very low page load times.
- Native Subscriptions: Collect paid memberships and donations without harici plugins.
- SEO Ready: Automatically handles meta tags, XML sitemaps, and more.
- Hosting Cost: If not self-hosted, the monthly cost of Ghost(Pro) is high.
- Plugin Limits: Far fewer plugins than WordPress; customization is mostly via themes.
- Technical Setup: Self-hosting requires command-line knowledge.
Our verdict on Beehiiv
The current best platform for those looking to turn their newsletter into a business.
Our verdict on Ghost
The most elite publishing platform for those looking to earn from their writing.